Dave Boyer

Fed announces quarter-point hike in key interest rate as it wrestles with inflation, bank failures

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced a modest quarter-point increase in its benchmark interest rate, an inflation-fighting hike that was scaled back as the Fed grapples with sudden turmoil in the banking industry.

March 22, 2023

White House game of playing media favorites backfires on Biden’s press secretary

White House press secretaries have always played favorites when deciding which journalists to call on for questions at the daily press briefings, a subtle power play that has blown up in the face of Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

March 21, 2023

Mystery unsolved: Yellen, admin still baffled by historic bank collapses

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told a roomful of bankers Tuesday that the U.S. banking system is "stabilizing," but she's still not sure why two banks failed and a third needed to be rescued by other large banks in the past two weeks.

March 21, 2023

Yellen says U.S. banks ‘stabilizing’ after emergency actions by Treasury, regulators

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the U.S. banking system is "stabilizing" after the failure of two banks and the rescue of a third institution led to concerns of a broader crisis in the industry.

March 21, 2023

Sen. Mark Warner defends campaign donations from failed bank, while stocks rebound

Sen. Mark Warner, Virginia Democrat and a member of the Senate banking committee, downplayed the campaign contributions he received from the failed Silicon Valley Bank by saying Monday that he was unswayed by them.

March 20, 2023

Nearly 200 banks teeter as Fed seeks inflation balance; rate hike risks more insolvency

Fears that another interest rate hike will hasten more bank failures will loom over the Federal Reserve's meeting this week after a study found that nearly 200 banks are at risk of the same sort of collapse as the one at Silicon Valley Bank.

March 19, 2023

House panel makes bipartisan move to hold series of hearings on bank failures

The Republican chairman and top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee announced Friday the panel will hold the first of "multiple" hearings on the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, failures that have roiled the banking industry and financial markets.

March 17, 2023

Parent of SVB files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a week after bank’s collapse

SVB Financial Group said Friday it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to seek buyers for its assets, one week after its former division Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by regulators.

March 17, 2023

Yellen says Chinese customers of failed Silicon Valley Bank will get money from U.S. fund

Uninsured Chinese depositors in the failed Silicon Valley Bank likely will be made whole through the special assessment on U.S. banks that is funding the rescue crafted by the Biden administration, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers Thursday.

March 16, 2023

Yellen tells Congress that U.S. banking system still ‘sound’ after collapse of Silicon Valley Bank

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers Thursday that the nation's banking system "remains sound" and that Americans shouldn't worry about their deposits, a week after the second-largest bank collapse in U.S. history.

March 16, 2023

Bankers put focus on woke causes; Clinton, Pelosi campaign donors filled Silicon Valley board seats

The woke philosophy of Silicon Valley Bank didn't directly cause the cash crunch that led to its rapid failure, but analysts say the bank's management paid more attention to its climate and social justice mission than its financial health.

March 15, 2023

Justice Department, SEC investigating failure of Silicon Valley Bank

The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating Silicon Valley Bank's collapse and its top executives selling stocks in the weeks before the California lender was taken over by regulators.

March 14, 2023

U.S. inflation remains high, complicating Fed’s next move on interest rates amid bank collapses

Inflation eased slightly in February but remained high, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday, complicating the next move for the Federal Reserve to lower prices while facing abrupt turmoil in the U.S. banking system.

March 14, 2023

Lawmakers grilled Fed chair about plan to raise bank capital rules just before SVB collapse

Days before the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell took heat from lawmakers in both parties worried about the central bank's possible plan to raise capital requirements for banks.

March 13, 2023

Biden to address bank closures Monday morning

President Biden said Sunday night that he will address the nation Monday morning "on how we will maintain a resilient banking system to protect our historic economic recovery."

March 12, 2023

Alexandria man stopped at Reagan National Airport checkpoint due to gun in carry-on bag

For the ninth time in 2023, a forgetful flyer at Reagan National Airport was stopped by security for attempting to bring a gun in his carry-on luggage.

March 10, 2023

Congressman demands Blinken answer for funding global ‘disinformation’ group linked to Soros

A House Republican is demanding that the State Department stop funding the Global Disinformation Index in Britain, saying it leads to censorship and particularly censorship of conservative news outlets.

March 9, 2023

Squad lawmaker accuses Fed chief Powell of ‘engineering a recession’ by raising interest rates

A House Democrat told Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell on Wednesday that he is "engineering a recession" by raising interest rates to lower inflation, and demanded that the central bank pull back from future rate hikes.

March 8, 2023

Biden’s embattled pick to lead FCC withdraws from nomination

President Biden's nominee to lead the Federal Communications Commission withdrew her name from consideration Tuesday, the White House confirmed.

March 7, 2023

Starbucks CEO agrees to testify before Senate panel on union tensions, sidesteps likely subpoena

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has agreed to testify this month before a Senate committee scrutinizing union strife at the coffee chain, a move that averts a threat by Chairman Bernard Sanders to issue a subpoena for the corporate chief.

March 7, 2023