White House enlists big business on debt limit crisis

From: POLITICO's Morning Money - Wednesday Oct 06,2021 12:03 pm

Oct 06, 2021

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Quick Fix

White House enlists big business on the debt limit — President Joe Biden and senior White House advisers convene a meeting of senior business leaders on Wednesday as the West Wing tries to amp on pressure up Republicans from the private sector to join a bipartisan solution that would raise the debt limit by the estimated “X-Date” of Oct. 18 to avoid default. Or to at least clear the way for Dems to act on their own if need be.

Thus far, nothing has seemed to move Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell off his position of obstructing Democrats’ efforts to boost the debt limit. But big donors starting to exert some pressure could actually make some difference. Midterm campaign checks matter.

Via a White House official : “Biden is going to welcome some of the country’s top business leaders to the White House – both in-person and virtually – to discuss the urgent need for Congress to take immediate bipartisan action to address the debt limit and avoid default on the U.S. government’s financial obligations and the economic catastrophe that would follow.

“These executives represent some of America’s best-known companies and industries, and they understand firsthand that a default would be economically devastating — risking millions of jobs and throwing our country into recession, and causing lasting harm to America’s economic strength”

Nuking filibuster a possibility — Via our Christopher Cadelago, Laura Barrón-López and Natasha Korecki : “Biden indicated … he was warming to a Democratic proposal to blow up the rules of the Senate to raise or suspend the debt ceiling, amid fears that a breach would send the U.S. government into default and the whole economy into a tailspin.

“The president told reporters that a filibuster carve out to solve the current stalemate with Republicans over the debt limit before the estimated Oct. 18 deadline was a ‘real possibility.’ It was a remark that sources inside the administration said reflected the growing belief that the party may need to take drastic steps to prevent default.”

GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING — Congrats to the Red Sox and Boston fans on a strong win over MM’s Yankees on Tuesday night. Can’t believe Nevin sent Judge on that Stanton Green Monster blast. Essentially decided the game. Email me on bwhite@politico.com and follow me on Twitter @morningmoneyben. Email Aubree Eliza Weaver on aweaver@politico.com and follow her on Twitter @AubreeEWeaver.

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Driving the day

GOP’S DEBT LIMIT DILEMMA — Our Burgess Everett and Caitlin Emma: “The Senate GOP’s budget point man, Lindsey Graham, wants to make Democrats work hard to lift the debt limit — but not so hard that it threatens a cataclysmic default.

“Graham is carefully calibrating how hard to press his party's opposition to raising the debt ceiling, and his ultimate goal is critical to understanding the Senate’s fiscal stalemate: He hopes to force Democrats ‘to pick a number’ for how high the borrowing limit should go. That would mean using the complex tool of budget reconciliation, rather than a stand-alone vote to suspend the debt cap through the midterms.

"A vote to set a specific dollar figure opens the door for Republicans to launch attacks on Democratic incumbents in next year’s midterms. Yet Graham said he doesn’t want to string the process out so long that it actually puts the nation’s credit at risk.”

TRUMP OFF THE FORBES 400 — Forbes’ Dan Alexander : “Donald Trump is worth an estimated $2.5 billion, leaving him $400 million short of the cutoff to make this year’s Forbes 400 list of America’s richest people.

“The real estate mogul is just as wealthy as he was a year ago, when he stood at No. 339 on the ranking, but he is down $600 million since the start of the pandemic. Technology stocks, cryptocurrencies and other assets have thrived in the Covid era. But big-city properties—which make up the bulk of Trump’s fortune—have languished, knocking the former president out of the nation’s most exclusive club.”

JUST IN: TOOMEY PRESSES OCC NOMINEE ON COLLEGE THESIS — Our Victoria Guida: Comptroller of the Currency nominee Saule Omarova is in for a rough confirmation battle, facing opposition from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the banking industry for her view that the Federal Reserve should provide bank accounts for the American public, rather than private institutions.

It’s about to get uglier: Sen. Pat Toomey, the top Republican on the Banking Committee, is out this morning with a letter to Omarova, calling on her to release her undergraduate thesis from her time at Moscow State University, which was titled, “Karl Marx’s Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in The Capital.” The senator says in the letter that neither she nor the OCC had agreed to provide it “in a timely fashion.”

THE MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE 2021 IS HERE: POLITICO is excited to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider” newsletter featuring exclusive coverage and insights from one of the largest and most influential gatherings of experts reinventing finance, health, technology, philanthropy, industry and media. Don’t miss a thing from the 24th annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, from Oct. 17 to 20. Can't make it? We've got you covered. Planning to attend? Enhance your #MIGlobal experience and subscribe today.

Markets

WALL STREET ENDS SHARPLY HIGHER — Reuters’ Noel Randewich and Shreyashi Sanyal: “Wall Street ended sharply higher on Tuesday, as Microsoft and Apple spearheaded a strong rebound in growth stocks and investors awaited monthly payrolls data later this week that could influence the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision on when to scale back monetary stimulus.

“Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet, Wall Street's most valuable companies, each rose following a selloff in growth stocks the day before. Facebook Inc rebounded a day after taking a beating when its app and its photo-sharing platform Instagram went offline for hours.”

POWELL FACES REAPPOINTMENT AMID TUMULT — NYT’s Jeanna Smialek and Jim Tankersley: “As Jerome H. Powell’s term as the chair of the Federal Reserve nears its expiration, President Biden’s decision over whether to keep him in the job has grown more complicated amid Senator Elizabeth Warren’s vocal opposition to his leadership and an ethics scandal that has engulfed his central bank.

“Mr. Powell, whose four-year term as chair expires early next year, continues to have a good chance of being reappointed because he has earned respect within the White House for his aggressive use of the Fed’s tools in the wake of the pandemic recession, people familiar with the administration’s internal discussions said. But the decision and the timing of an announcement remain subject to an unusually high level of uncertainty, even for a top economic appointment. The White House will most likely announce Mr. Biden’s choice in the coming weeks, but that, too, is tenuous.”

SEC CHIEF SAYS U.S. WON’T BAN CRYPTOCURRENCIES — Bloomberg’s Benjamin Bain: “Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has had multiple dust-ups with crypto firms but even he says the U.S. won’t follow China’s lead in banning digital tokens.

"Gensler said Tuesday that the government’s focus is on ensuring that the industry adheres to investor and consumer protection rules, anti-money laundering regulations and tax laws. He made the comments at a House hearing after a Republican lawmaker asked if a China-like prohibition was on the table in the U.S.”

Fly Around

WARREN SAYS FED SUFFERS FROM ‘CULTURE OF CORRUPTION’ — WSJ’s Michael S. Derby: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) ramped up her rhetorical attacks on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday, lamenting what she called a ‘culture of corruption’ at the central bank. Mr. Powell has ‘failed as a leader,’ Ms. Warren said, adding, ‘Our nation needs leaders who are willing to set and enforce strong ethics standards and who act swiftly when a problem arises,’ and in her view, Mr. Powell hasn’t done that.”

FED WATCHDOG TO INVESTIGATE OFFICIALS’ FINANCIAL TRADES — AP’s Christopher Rugaber: “An independent investigator will look into whether Federal Reserve officials broke the law with financial trades last year that have come under congressional scrutiny and sharp criticism from outside the central bank.

The Federal Reserve’s Office of the Inspector General will investigate “whether trading activity by certain senior officials was in compliance with both the relevant ethics rules and the law,” the Fed said Monday. The inspector general is an independent agency.”

YELLEN: URGENT ACTION NEEDED ON DEBT LIMIT, REJECTS $1T COIN — AP’s Martin Crutsinger: “U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday that Oct. 18 remains the date she is likely to run out of resources to stave off an unprecedented default on the nation’s debt without congressional action to raise the debt limit. She rejected the idea of minting a $1 trillion coin to avoid a default.”

IMF TRIMS 2021 GDP FORECAST — Reuters’ Andrea Shalal: “The International Monetary Fund expects global economic growth in 2021 to fall slightly below its July forecast of 6 percent, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Tuesday, citing risks associated with debt, inflation and divergent economic trends in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Georgieva said the global economy was bouncing back but the pandemic continued to limit the recovery, with the main obstacle posed by the ‘Great Vaccination Divide’ that has left too many countries with too little access to COVID-19 vaccines.”

ICYMI: GENSLER AIMS TO SAVE INVESTORS MONEY BY SQUEEZING WALL STREET — WSJ’s Paul Kiernan and Dave Michaels: “Wall Street’s new overseer has outlined an aggressive regulatory agenda that threatens to squeeze the financial industry’s profit margins.

CFOs FLY IN: The Business Roundtable , whose members include the chief executives of the country’s largest corporations, is dispatching member companies’ chief financial officers to meet virtually with lawmakers beginning Wednesday. The more than two dozen CFOs will make the case to lawmakers that tax increases would stifle U.S. competitiveness and innovation for their companies and harm American workers, building off the outreach that BRT’s member CEOs have been conducting.

— The Consumer Bankers Association has elected Michelle Lee as chair of its board of directors. Lee serves as regional banking executive for branch banking at Wells Fargo. John Durrant, Capital One ’s executive vice president of retail and small business banking, was named as chair-elect for the upcoming year.

HAPPENING THURSDAY – POLITICO’S FIRST EVER DEFENSE FORUM : President Joe Biden is making critical shifts in the Pentagon’s priorities, including fully withdrawing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, scaling back U.S. military presence across the Middle East and rethinking the positioning of military forces around the world to focus more on China. Join POLITICO on Oct. 7 for our inaugural defense forum to talk to the decision makers in the White House, Congress, military, and defense industry who are reshaping American power abroad and redefining military readiness for the future of warfare. REGISTER HERE.

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