Rick Newman

Why insuring all bank deposits might make sense

If you buy a home with a mortgage, you need insurance on the house. Not on part of the house, but on the whole thing. Yet you can put money in a bank and only have insurance on some of it—and if you’re wealthy, only a tiny portion of it. The Federal…

This week in Bidenomics: Hating on the Fed

President Biden promised to stay mum on the Federal Reserve, unlike his predecessor, Donald Trump, who routinely hectored the Fed when he disagreed with its policies. Biden has stayed true to his word. But Biden’s vow of silence doesn’t apply to Fed…

There’s still a case for 'transitory' inflation

It’s been two years since inflation started to rise above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2% or so. At first, many economists thought elevated inflation would be “transitory,” or short-lived, since it stemmed at least in part from COVID-related…

This week in Bidenomics: Busted banks to the rescue!

If you notice a sly grin on President Biden’s face, it might reflect hope that the solution for high inflation has finally arrived. Inflation has been Biden’s biggest domestic problem for more than a year, and the Federal Reserve hasn’t yet forced…

Bailouts get a bad rap

Fact one: Of course it’s a bailout! Fact two: Any president, of any party, would have done the same thing. You might be feeling miffed about the government rescue of the two lenders that blew up recently, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.…

Biden finally glimpses the importance of oil

Environmentalists are aghast. They shouldn’t be. President Biden’s decision to approve a big oil-drilling project in Alaska feels like betrayal to climate warriors, given Biden’s campaign promise to “end fossil fuel” and pivot to a green-energy…

This week in Bidenomics: Bank failures? WUT?

There’s more solid news from the labor market. But never mind that. Anybody familiar with the 2008 financial crash gets palpitations with they hear about a bank going down. And a bank is going down. It doesn’t mean another crash is coming. But it…

How Ron DeSantis causes chaos

As part of his war on “woke ideology,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has mounted a hostile takeover of New College, a Sarasota liberal-arts school known for inculcating free thinking and welcoming LGBTQ culture. DeSantis plans to instill conservative…

What Biden’s Medicare fight is really about

President Biden has a plan to “save” Medicare and Social Security. His Republican foes in Congress are opposed, since it requires $2 trillion in new taxes. This battle will build during the next several months and culminate in Congress’s decision to…

America is more energy independent than ever

A recent Citibank research note got my attention. “Total gross crude and other liquid exports hit a record of 11.128 million barrels per day, more than the total output of either Russia or Saudi Arabia,” Citi energy analysts wrote on March 1. “U.S.…

How Ron DeSantis misreads Corporate America

How Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ stance against Disney could be a roadmap for presidential run Culture warrior Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, is laying the groundwork for a 2024 presidential bid. That includes a new manifesto against…

This week in Bidenomics: Debt relief death watch

Joe Biden himself saw it coming. Shortly after winning the presidency in 2020, Biden expressed doubt about the ability to cancel student debt through executive order, calling it “questionable.” Better for Congress to do it by passing a law, he…

All the recessions that didn’t happen

There’s a recession-industrial complex in America—a whole field of natterers regularly predicting economic turmoil. Every now and then, they’re right, like the proverbial broken clock. Most of the time they’re wrong. People listen to them anyway.…

What Biden could still accomplish if he doesn’t run again

President Biden seems to think he’s done such a good job in office, so far, that the nation would benefit if he ran for reelection, and won. But Biden would also do America a service if he decided not to run for reelection. As a one-term president…

This week in Bidenomics: Somebody land this thing

RSM U.S. Economist Tuan Nguyen joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss core PCE data, Fed policy, rising rates, the U.S. consumer, and the outlook for the economy. A soft landing is vanishing, but a hard landing isn’t inevitable. So economists now think…

Putin’s energy war has flopped (so far)

When Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, President Vladimir Putin had a lot more in his war plan than tanks and missiles. Putin also planned an energy war in parallel with his military war on the ground in Ukraine. Putin’s military war has gone badly,…

Why Americans should care about a hostile Russia and China

It’s scary and easy to tune out. Russia is leaving a key nuclear weapons treaty and making apocalyptic threats. China may be planning to leave the sidelines and start backing Russia’s war in Ukraine. This comes as US-China relations are deteriorating…

This week in Bidenomics: Debt Doom

For the next few months, President Biden will be sparring with House Republicans over raising the federal borrowing limit. The Treasury Department has hit the maximum amount of borrowing allowed by Congress, $31.4 trillion, and can’t borrow more…

How Biden is wrong about the future of oil

Ten years. That’s how long President Biden gives the oil economy. He’s only wrong by a few decades. During his State of the Union speech earlier this month, Biden bashed oil companies for raking in huge profits while he also dramatically understated…

Not everything from China is a weapon

Amid the Chinese spy balloon saga, calls have grown louder in Washington, D.C., to ban TikTok, the huge social-media app owned by the Chinese firm ByteDance. It’s self-defeating opportunism that defies logic and showcases America’s own risk to…