Ben Winck
Reuters Top News
Washington, DC, United States
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Past articles by Ben:
Breakingviews: Student-loan ruling offers Econ 101 crash course
A return to pre-crisis debt servicing thanks to the Supreme Court will hurt consumers and the companies that depend on them, columnist Ben Winck writes. → Read More
Breakingviews: Biden gives little, gets less in debt ceiling deal
For President Joe Biden, a debt-ceiling victory comes with a bittersweet taste. The White House and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy reached a tentative deal for lifting the government’s borrowing limit on Saturday night. Each party championed the deal as a crucial step toward avoiding a sovereign default. But between broad spending caps and stricter rules for food stamps, Republicans… → Read More
Bank runs don’t change Fed’s focus on high prices
The past two weeks have been a roller-coaster ride for interest rate forecasts. At the start of the month, most investors expected the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise rates by another 25 basis points later in March, bringing them to a range of 4.75% to 5%. Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse turned that harmony into discord. Some economists now expect Fed chair Jerome Powell to pause hikes, or even cut… → Read More
Breakingviews: Powell leads markets on a needlessly wild ride
The market is quickly getting to grips with a new Jerome Powell. The chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled on Tuesday that not only are interest rate cuts not likely any time soon, but larger rate hikes could come later this month. That’s different from what investors expected from the Fed just two months ago. As investors’ perception of Powell takes a U-turn, upcoming economic data could… → Read More
Fed’s reluctance to go green will cost the Earth
Central banks don’t think they can do much about the environment. The European Central Bank has introduced some climate considerations into its bond portfolio, while cautioning that fighting global warming is for politicians, not monetary wonks. The U.S. Federal Reserve has done even less, arguing it should not tackle climate change without an explicit order from Congress. → Read More
American labor shortage is a rose with many thorns
The short supply of US workers is starting to look more permanent than temporary. In this Exchange podcast, former White House economist Jason Furman explains how near-record job openings could lift prices, and why unemployment probably needs to rise for inflation to cool off. → Read More
Politicians could do better with FTX donations
Shockwaves from FTX’s implosion have reached U.S. politicians’ pocketbooks. The bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange’s new Chief Executive John J. Ray III is urging lawmakers to return donations they got from its former executives so he can use the money to pay back creditors. But there's a snag: Many of them have already given away the funds. Efforts to recoup them will highlight major flaws in… → Read More
How investors can profit from Fed-ECB divergence
Breaking up is hard to do. Yet after matching each other step for step while tightening monetary policy over the last six months, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and his European counterpart Christine Lagarde are parting ways. The fragile state of the American economy and the euro zone’s surprise resilience could leave the European Central Bank as the lone hawk among major rate-setting… → Read More
Breakingviews: Bottling U.S. inflation could cost workers dearly
The Federal Reserve is being relentless in its quest to bring inflation down to 2%, from its latest reading of 5%. This comes at a human cost. Between here and there, nearly 1 million more Americans could go jobless, based on the Fed’s own estimates. Given the vagaries of inflation psychology, it’s not clear the Fed is justified in being so single-minded. → Read More
California floods underscore rising climate costs: podcast
Catastrophic storms have devastated the Golden State’s economy and left more than $1 bln in damages. In this Exchange podcast, climatologist Adam Smith explains how global warming has made weather events more expensive, and what governments can do to protect against them. → Read More
China’s TikTok wins while U.S. dillydallies
The United States has a new kind of Trojan horse. The Federal Bureau of Investigations and Central Intelligence Agency have warned that social media firm TikTok, owned by Chinese giant ByteDance, poses serious privacy concerns. Parts of the U.S. government are struggling to keep Americans from satisfying urges to download dance snippets. Meantime, one of China’s largest companies creeps into… → Read More
Missing jobs mystery puts Fed on back foot
There’s a conundrum in the United States’ labor market. A study published by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve last week said 10,500 new jobs were added in the second quarter of 2022. Yet the national statistics bureau had previously reported a total over the same period of more than 1 million. Those seemingly missing jobs put the Federal Reserve, which uses the job market as a signal in its… → Read More
Divided America will unite under economic duress
Gridlock plagues the U.S. government if one or both chambers of Congress are dominated by a party not represented by the president. That will happen when a new term begins in 2023, making it difficult for American legislators to accomplish goals. But one thing needs to happen: Congress must raise the debt ceiling so the U.S. government can continue to chug along. That will give lawmakers on both… → Read More
Market overhaul pits perfect against good-enough
Gary Gensler is going all-out to solve a crime with no obvious victim. The head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission set out plans on Wednesday to overhaul the stock market in favor of retail investors, giving them fairer and better-priced trades. Big market-makers like Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial won’t like it, and the majority of investors won’t know there was a problem in… → Read More
Sinema widens gap between Democrats and Wall St
Big finance has lost an ally in the U.S. Democratic Party. Senator Kyrsten Sinema is changing her party registration from Democrat to independent, capping a years-long ideological shift by the Arizona senator away from liberals and toward the political center. It may accelerate Wall Street’s own shift to the right. → Read More
U.S. housing faces longer descent to basement
The U.S. housing market is destined to keep sliding. The highest mortgage rates in 15 years have stifled demand, leading the pace of existing home sales to slow 31% since January. An influx of new supply should depress prices from pandemic-era highs, but affordability will be squeezed well into 2023. → Read More
Big Tech layoffs are dystopian job-market fiction
Layoffs at technology giants including Twitter, Amazon.com , and Meta Platforms mark the first large-scale job cuts since early 2020. After years of falling U.S. unemployment, it might seem like Silicon Valley is foreshadowing the beginning of a dystopian future for workers. Yet there’s a good chance that what happens in Silicon Valley won’t spill over into the rest of the economy. → Read More
It’s the wrong time for Trumponomics
Former U.S. President Donald Trump tried to juice U.S. economic growth by enacting massive tax cuts and championing lower interest rates. Repeating that program would extend the country’s painful fight against inflation. As he sets his sights again on the White House, the country is turning its back on Trumponomics. → Read More
Stubborn inflation puts Fed on deadline
Inflation is coming down in the United States, but is still too high for comfort. The longer price-friskiness persists, the greater the risk that consumers start to expect it, and adjust their behavior accordingly. That puts the Federal Reserve and its inflation-fighting committee on the clock. → Read More
The US economy is still running on a post-COVID sugar high that's about to run out and make 2023 feel miserable
$5 trillion in stimulus and record-low rates fueled a huge recovery. Now the the comedown is going to hurt. → Read More