MONDAY … Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks at 8:30 a.m. … Fed Gov. Lisa Cook speaks at the U.C. Berkeley Spring 2023 Economics Commencement at 5 p.m. … TUESDAY … Former Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker, Former Signature Bank Chair Scott Shay and former Signature Bank President Eric Howell testify at Senate Banking at 10 a.m. … Fed Vice Chair Michael Barr, FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg, NCUA Chair Todd Harper, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu testify at House Financial Services at 10 a.m. … Richmond Fed President Barkin speaks at 10:30 a.m. … New York Fed President John Williams speaks at 12:15 p.m. … Atlanta Fed President Bostic and Goolsbee appear on panel at 7 p.m. WEDNESDAY … Becker, Shay, New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Adrienne Harris and California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation Commissioner Clothilde “Cloey” Hewlett testify at House Financial Services at 10 a.m. … Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) chairs a hearing on Fed oversight at 2:30 p.m. … THURSDAY … House Financial Services holds a hearing on stablecoin legislation at 9 a.m. … Senate Banking holds an oversight hearing with Barr, Gruenberg, Harper, Hsu, Harris and Hewlet at 9:30 a.m. … FRIDAY … Williams speaks at 8:45 a.m. … Fed Gov. Michelle Bowman speaks at the Texas Bankers Association Annual Convention at 9 a.m. … Fed Chair Jerome Powell and former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak at the Thomas Laubach Research Conference at 11 a.m. Vacation canceled? — Our Caitlin Emma and Jennifer Scholtes: “If the U.S. government doesn’t run out of borrowing power by mid-June, the nation probably won’t risk breaching the debt limit until ‘at least the end of July,’ Congress’ nonpartisan budget office said Friday. That longer-range scenario could wreck Congress’ annual monthlong break in August, keeping lawmakers in Washington to settle on a plan for raising the debt limit and preventing the nation from defaulting on its $31.4 trillion in debt.” — The shot clock is winding down to the X-date, which could come as soon as June 1. U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley writes that “an agreement in principle likely needs to be reached between the administration and Congressional leaders by the end of [this] week in order to ensure [it’s] enacted by June 1.” How the Supreme Court might view the debt limit fight — Our Betsy Woodruff Swan: “The court’s current approach to most cases is overwhelmingly pro-market and business-friendly. The justices would be wary of stoking economic calamity.At the same time, the conservative majority has been highly skeptical of Biden’s attempts to harness executive power and bypass Congress. If he invoked the 14th Amendment to avoid a default — an option the White House is weighing — it would be just the sort of unprecedented power grab that the conservative justices have condemned in other areas of Biden’s economic platform.” DeSantis’s finreg play — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is spotlighting financial services policies designed to block “government control over people’s finances” in the run-up to a likely 2024 presidential campaign. The Republican on Friday signed legislation banning merchant codes for firearms stores — creating a major hurdle for credit card companies and banks amid a messy rollout for the new code. GOP leaders blistered the firearms store code after it was adopted by the Geneva, Switzerland-based International Organization for Standardization following a years-long lobbying effort from Democratic policymakers and gun control groups seeking to track sales. DeSantis also signed a bill that bars the use of a central bank digital currency that’s issued directly to consumers by the Fed. In March, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank would need congressional authorization to issue a CBDC for consumers. A win for Menendez — Our Victoria Guida: “President Joe Biden said Friday he will promote Federal Reserve board member Philip Jefferson to the central bank’s No. 2 position and nominate World Bank official Adriana Kugler to an open seat, as the Fed weighs its next moves in the fight against inflation … The nomination of Kugler, a Colombian-American economist, comes after Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) urged Biden to fill the vacancy left by Lael Brainard, now the president’s top economic policy adviser, with a Latino candidate.” First in MM: Brown, Senate Dems push Gensler on private funds — Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is urging SEC Chair Gary Gensler to finalize a new rule that would force private equity firms and hedge funds to give their investors regular updates about their fees, expenses and investment practices. The rule, which has been the subject of an intense lobbying effort on the part of the private funds industry, would “provide additional transparency and comes at a critical time given the continued growth in private funds,” Brown wrote in a letter co-signed by Democratic Sens. Jack Reed (R.I.), Tina Smith (Minn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Richard Durbin (Ill.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Tammy Baldwin (Wisc.). Turkish elections — The WSJ’s Jared Malsin: “Turkey’s r uling party and its opponents both claimed a lead in one of the most critical elections in the country’s history—a vote that could bring to an end the long rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and have far-reaching geopolitical consequences for the Middle East, Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.” Annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday — The WSJ’s Jathon Sapsford: “JPMorgan Chase has become the target of a campaign by Republican state officials seeking to expose what they see as religious discrimination in the bank’s business practices.” Battered — Bloomberg’s Alexandra Semenova, Breanna Bradham and Jess Menton: “The fear-driven selloff that’s cut the stock-market values of some banks in half may look like a perfect chance to buy the dips. If only they’d stop falling.”
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