Good morning. Donald Trump files a $15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times. Lisa Cook and Stephen Miran are set to take part in today’s Fed meeting. And Disney is teaming up with Webtooon to bring you a new comics platform. Listen to the day’s top stories.
Jerome Powell speaks with Lisa Cook in Washington on June 25. Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Lisa Cook is set to take part in the Federal Reserve’s meeting today and tomorrow after an appeals court temporarily blocked Trump from firing her. Stephen Miran will also join the interest rates deliberations, after his appointment was confirmed last night in a 48-47 Senate vote. Meanwhile, Miran’s recent mention of the Fed’s so-called “third mandate” may have alarming implications for financial markets.
The US “decertified” Colombia as a partner in the war on drugs. The move may hit foreign investment, multilateral funding and tourism, as the country now finds itself in the same rogue category as Venezuela. Yesterday, Trump said the US struck a second vessel ferrying drugs from Venezuela, about two weeks after the US military said it killed 11 people in an attack on another boat.
Stanford held the top spot among full-time MBA programs at US schools, as it has for Bloomberg’s past six rankings. The key question is deciding whether to pursue an MBA is worth it. Find out here.
Bloomberg Green New York: Join us Sept. 25 for a solutions-focused look into a new era of climate action during Climate Week NYC. Following the 80th United Nations General Assembly, we’ll hear how top leaders in business, finance and government are approaching climate issues during times of geopolitical uncertainty. Learn more here
Deep Dive: The State of Consumer Spending
The Tiffany flagship store in New York. Photographer: David Dee Delgado/Bloomberg
Wealthy consumers account for a growing share of US spending, highlighting the lopsided strength of the economy.
Consumers in the top 10% income distribution accounted for 49.2% of total spending in the second quarter, up from 48.5% in the first, according to Moody’s. That’s the highest level in figures going back to 1989.
That helps explain how the economy has remained afloat and avoided recession amid a substantial decline in hiring, rising debt delinquencies and stubborn inflation.
Some of the most dramatic evidence of economic weakness came last week, when preliminary revisions to payroll data showed job growth in the year through March was roughly half as strong as previously reported.
Black unemployment is rising at the fastest clip since 2020. At 7.5%, it’s once again twice the rate for White Americans, erasing the progress made in narrowing the gap over the last three years.
The Big Take
The T. Rowe Price Group headquarters in Baltimore. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
It's crunch time for traditional investment firms that once dominated Wall Street. With their mutual funds falling out of vogue, executives atop an industry managing more than $35 trillion are under mounting pressure to try more drastic measures—from bigger deals to deeper cuts.
Shoppers in Toronto on July 3. Photographer: Chloe Ellingson/Bloomberg
Companies like McDonald’s and Levi Strauss have long tapped into America’s soft power to drive international sales, Beth Kowitt writes. So it follows that as the Trump administration has abandoned hearts-and-minds tactics, the rest of the world has become much less interested in what America is selling—whether that’s the brands or the values they’ve come to embody.
