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Economics

Checks and Balance newsletter: Joe Biden’s state-of-the-union speech

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This is the introduction to Checks and Balance, a weekly, subscriber-only newsletter bringing exclusive insight from our correspondents in America.

Joe Biden delivered a party-convention (state-of-the-union) speech, writes James Bennet, our Lexington columnist

No one got whacked over the head with a cane, but in other respects Joe Biden’s state-of-the-union speech proved to be one of those moments in which I found myself wondering if American politics is returning to its 19th-century mores—thanks in part to social media and other 21st-century technology. The Progressive era introduced institutions that restrained some of the excesses of partisanship, such as the civil service. It also inculcated ideals of bipartisanship and decorum that are now fading away. They may have been debts vice was paying to virtue—even at its most seemingly decorous, politics is always a rough business—but I think we will miss them if they truly disappear. 

It is a bit melancholy that Mr Biden, with his veneration for the rites of Washington, would find himself compelled to deliver a state-of-the-union address that was in many respects more like a party-convention speech. But this has been coming for years, since even before a Republican congressman shouted “You lie” at President Barack Obama in 2009 during an address to a joint session of Congress. The next year, in a state-of-the-union speech, Mr Obama took the extraordinary step of chiding the Supreme Court, for a decision related to campaign finance—precedent for the shot Mr Biden took Thursday night at the justices for overturning Roe v Wade. In 2020 Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the House, theatrically tore apart her copy of President Donald Trump’s speech after he finished delivering it.

Mr Trump, with his contempt for what he sees as the pretences of a cynical, transactional business, accelerated the trend towards open partisanship in all aspects of governing. The clownish displays by his minions in the House chamber on Thursday night, with their heckling and their MAGA hats or t-shirts, undermined the subsequent pious outrage of Republicans over Mr Biden’s politicking. 

It is an axiom of American politics that presidential elections are a referendum on the incumbent. But in this campaign Americans have a choice between two presidents, neither of whom they much like. For each man the path to a second term lies through negative partisanship, ie, persuading voters that the other guy is worse. It will be a brutal campaign. 

And that made the more humane moments in the House chamber on Thursday night seem all the more precious, even if they were flashes of old-style senatorial clubbiness. “I know you don’t want to hear any more, Lindsey, but I gotta say a few more things,” Mr Biden said towards the end of his speech, singling out Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina. Mr Graham has remade himself as an acolyte of Mr Trump, but, clearly delighted by the presidential attention, he roared with laughter. 

And Mr Biden drew his most powerful contrast with Mr Trump by closing on a high note. It is another axiom of American politics that presidential campaigns are about the future, and Mr Biden is out to paint Mr Trump as obsessed with grievances from his past. Mr Biden’s refrain at the end of the speech became “I see a future,” as he envisioned more freedom, fairer taxation, less gun violence. “I see a future for all Americans,” he said, and—the partisanship of his speech notwithstanding—he added, “I will always be a president for all Americans.”

Economics

Andrew Bailey on why UK-U.S. trade deal won’t end uncertainty

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Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey attends the central bank’s Monetary Policy Report press conference at the Bank of England, in the City of London, on May 8, 2025.

Carlos Jasso | Afp | Getty Images

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey told CNBC on Thursday that the U.K. was heading for more economic uncertainty, despite the country being the first to strike a trade agreement with the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s controversial tariff regime.

“The tariff and trade situation has injected more uncertainty into the situation… There’s more uncertainty now than there was in the past,” Bailey told CNBC in an interview.

“A U.K.-U.S. trade agreement is very welcome in that sense, very welcome. But the U.K. is a very open economy,” he continued.

That means that the impact from tariffs on the U.K. economy comes not just from its own trade relationship with Washington, but also from those of the U.S. and the rest of the world, he said.

“I hope that what we’re seeing on the U.K.-U.S. trade side will be the first of many, and it will be repeated by a whole series of trade agreements, but we have to see that happen of course, and where it actually ends up.”

“Because, of course, we are looking at tariff levels that are probably higher than they were beforehand.”

Trump unveils United Kingdom trade deal, first since ‘reciprocal’ tariff pause

In Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Report released Thursday, the word “uncertainty” was used 41 times across its 97 pages, up from 36 times in February, according to a CNBC tally.

The U.K. central bank cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point on Thursday, taking its key rate to 4.25%. The decision was highly divided among the seven members of its Monetary Policy Committee, with five voting for the 25 basis point cut, two voting to hold rates and two voting to reduce by a larger 50 basis points.

Bailey said that while some analysts had perceived the rate decision as more hawkish than expected — in other words, leaning toward holding rates elevated than slashing them rapidly — he was not surprised by the close vote.

“What it reflects is that there are two sides, there are risks on both sides here,” he told CNBC.

“We could get a much more severe weakness of demand than we were expecting, that could then pass through to a weaker outlook for inflation than we were expecting.”

“There’s a risk on the other side that we could get some combination of more persistence in the inflation effects that are gradually working their way through the system,” such as in wages and energy, while “supply capacity in the economy is weaker,” he said.

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Economics

Trump knocks down a controversial pillar of civil-rights law

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IN THE DELUGE of 145 executive orders issued by President Donald Trump (on subjects as disparate as “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness” and “Maintaining Acceptable Water Pressure in Showerheads”) it can be difficult to discern which are truly consequential. But one of them, signed on April 23rd under the bland headline “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy”, aims to remake civil-rights law. Those primed to distrust Mr Trump on such matters may be surprised to learn that the president’s target is not just important but also well-chosen.

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Economics

Harvard has more problems than Donald Trump

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A Programme at Harvard Divinity School aspired to “deZionize Jewish consciousness”. During “privilege trainings”, working-class Harvard students were instructed that, by being Jewish, they were oppressing wealthier, better prepared classmates. A course in Harvard’s graduate school of public health, “The Settler Colonial Determinants of Health”, sought to “interrogate the relationships between settler colonialism, Zionism, antisemitism, and other forms of racism”: Will these findings by Harvard’s task-force on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias, released on April 29th, shock anyone? Maybe not. Americans may be numb by now to bulletins about the excesses, not to say inanities, of some leftist academics.

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