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Treasury Secretary Bessent said the White House is focused on the ‘real economy’ and not concerned about ‘a little’ market volatility

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaking to CNBC on March 13th, 2025.

CNBC

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday the Trump administration is more focused on the long-term health of the economy and markets and not short-term gyrations.

“We’re focused on the real economy. Can we create an environment where there are long term gains in the market and long term gains for the American people?” Bessent said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “I’m not concerned about a little bit of volatility over three weeks.”

The comments come with markets in a state of turmoil largely centered on President Donald Trump’s near-daily moves on tariffs against major U.S. trading partners such as Canada, Mexico and China. Major averages have moved towards correction territory, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost more than 7% over the past month.

While Bessent said the administration is attentive to market moves, he predicted that both the real economy and markets would prosper over time.

“The reason stocks are a safe and great investment is because you’re looking over the long term. If you start looking at micro horizons, stocks become very risky. So we are focused over the medium-, long-term,” he said in the interview with CNBC’s Sara Eisen. “I can tell you that if we put proper policies in place, it’s going to lay the groundwork for a both real income gains and job gains and asset continued asset gains.”

Stocks again were volatile in morning trade, with the averages around even as Bessent spoke.

Earlier in the morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that wholesale inflation was flat in February, well below Wall Street expectations for a 0.3% increase. That followed a report Wednesday indicating that the consumer price rate had nudged lower as well, providing some welcome news amid concerns that the Trump tariffs would aggravate inflation.

“Maybe the inflation is getting under control and the market is going to have some confidence in that,” Bessent said.

Economics

American cities are criminalising homelessness. Will that help?

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DAVINA VALENZUELA watches as sanitation workers heave most of her belongings into a garbage truck. The 33-year-old has been homeless for more than a year, and was sleeping in a dusty alley in central Fresno, the biggest city in California’s Central Valley. The truck devours bags of clothes, a stroller, a pile of hypodermic needles and around $120—much of it in change. Police officers arrest her and a friend and sit them in the back of a truck. They are given tickets for camping in a public place, which became a misdemeanour crime in September in an attempt to shrink the city’s homeless encampments. “That’s all I have right there,” she says, once her handcuffs are taken off. “I don’t know how I ended up here.”

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Economics

Pete Hegseth is purging both weapons and generals

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THE PENTAGON has been mired in chaos in recent months. Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defence, stands accused of mishandling classified information. Many of his aides have been let go over alleged leaks (accusations they deny). Top generals have been fired for no discernible reason beyond their colour or sex. The department is in “a full-blown meltdown”, says John Ullyot, a Hegseth loyalist who served as chief spokesman until April. Yet Mr Hegseth is pressing ahead with sweeping reforms that will change the size, shape and purpose of America’s armed forces.

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Economics

Where the Trump administration has science on its side  

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BACK IN JANUARY Donald Trump signed executive order 14187, entitled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation”. He instructed federally run insurance programmes to exclude coverage of treatment related to gender transition for minors. The order aimed to stop institutions that receive federal grants from providing such treatments as well. Mr Trump also commissioned the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to publish, within 90 days, a review of literature on best practices regarding “identity-based confusion” among children. The ban on federal funding was later blocked by a judge, but the review was published on May 1st.

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