 |
|
|
|||||
President Donald Trump’s initial policy proposals raised concern at the Federal Reserve about higher inflation, with firms telling the U.S. central bank they generally expected to raise prices to pass through the cost of import tariffs, policymakers said at a meeting held about a week after Trump’s January 20 inauguration. Participants at the U.S. central bank’s January 28-29 meeting “generally pointed to the upside risks to the inflation outlook,” rather than risks to job market, according to the minutes from the meeting, which were released on Wednesday. “In particular, participants cited the possible effects of potential changes in trade and immigration policy, the potential for geopolitical developments to disrupt supply chains, or stronger-than-expected household spending.” While still having faith that price pressures will continue to ease, “other factors were cited as having the potential to hinder the disinflation process,” the minutes said, including the fact that “business contacts in a number of (Fed) districts had indicated that firms would attempt to pass on to consumers higher input costs arising from potential tariffs.” Participants also noted that some measures of inflation expectations, a key concern for the Fed, “had increased recently.” Financial markets were little changed after the release of the minutes, with interest rate futures indicating the Fed’s likely first, and perhaps only, rate cut of 2025 would occur in July. Policymakers at last month’s meeting agreed they should hold interest rates steady until it was clear that inflation, largely stalled since the middle of 2024, would dependably fall to the central bank’s 2% target. Fed staff had already changed their outlook at the December 17-18 meeting to show expected slower growth and higher inflation based on “placeholder assumptions” about Trump’s likely actions when he began his second term in the White House. The president started providing details in his first days in office, including proposed 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and a lockdown of the U.S.-Mexico border. The Fed kept its benchmark interest rate in the current 4.25%-4.50% range at its meeting last month, and officials since then have said they are in no rush to cut rates again until they are more certain inflation will decline to the 2% target from current levels around half a percentage point above that level. Understanding the impact of Trump’s policies has become a central part of that debate. Debt ceiling, framework In another sign of how fiscal policy may impact central bank decision-making, the minutes said “various” policymakers noted it may be appropriate to consider slowing or pausing the Fed’s ongoing shrinking of its balance sheet in light of federal “debt ceiling dynamics.” Current federal funding runs out after March 14, and lawmakers will need to act by the summer to raise their self-imposed debt ceiling or risk a default. Fed officials used the January meeting to kick off what’s expected to be a months-long review of the central bank’s policy framework, including potential revisions to the statement’s focus on the risks to the economy when the benchmark interest rate is near the zero level. They also made it clear they would not change their commitment to a 2% inflation goal, or to achieving maximum employment. The review is expected to wrap up by late summer, the minutes said. Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
When he was a teenager, Collin McKenna’s interest in changing the food system led him to move from Colorado to Hawaii for high school. It was on that school’s regenerative farm that the now 30-year-old has entrepreneur discovered meadthe sweet, fermented honey beverage often referred to as “honey wine.” His first taste of alcohol was mead made by Hawaiian locals. With his 10-month-old brand LIXIRa sparkling ready-to-drink mead brand hes billing as hard honeyMcKenna wants to make the ancient beverage accessible while turning LIXIR into just the second Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) alcoholic beverage brand. So many different cultures made different variations of it. But we wanted to reimagine mead for a modern consumer, McKenna says. Making Mead Accessible One of McKennas first moves when starting Lixir was trademarking the term hard honey, papering over the knowledge gap around meadone of the worlds oldest alcoholic beverages, but whose popularity fell as beer and wine became easier to produce on industrial scale. But mead has been having a resurgence. Fortune Business Insights data reveals that the mead market was about $533.3 million in 2023, and is projected to nearly triple by 2032. There’s a lot of education behind trying to explain mead and where it comes from, McKenna says. As soon as we came up with the idea of hard honey, people were like, I get it. With a concept in mind, in 2021, McKenna approached Frank Golbeck, founder of Oceanside, Californias Golden Coast Mead, to begin developing the formula for his hard honey. Since 2010, Golbeck has been focused on modern mead with a regenerative approach. He saw McKennas ethos and vision, and although his small factory had limited space, was willing to begin a partnership. Golbeck says mead represents “the synthesis of ecology, creativity and history coming together. Honey is this expensive product that is hard to make. Then to turn it into an alcohol that is similarly hard to makeand to do it well, consistentlyhas escaped people for generations.” The pair ultimately created a proprietary process for formulating a 5% ABV modern mead thats less sweet and, unlike the traditional drink, slightly carbonated. LIXIR comes in three varieties: Pear Lime, Cherry Grapefruit, and Mango Orange. There are so many different honey optionsflowers and places where they forageand they can make such different mead,” McKenna says. “We went through countless renditions of just trying to make the base. It was at least a yearlong process. Since April, Lixir has debuted at Total Wine & More in its SoCal region as well as Jimbos natural grocery stores in San Diego, among several other small retailers and upscale restaurants and hotels. This Spring, it will also begin rolling out in Mothers Market stores in Southern California regions. McKenna has raised more than $650,000 in funding, about half of its current goal amid a crowdfunding round. Jack Sinclair, CEO of Sprouts Farmers Market, is an advisor and investor in Lixir. [Photo: Courtesy of Lixir] Lixir’s regenerative approach Lixir’s branding helps make mead something a casual shopper might buy, but McKenna still has to solve for how to explain to buyers that their purchase is funding responsible farming. A survey out of Purdue Universitys Department of Agriculture found that more than 70% of U.S. consumers are slightly or not at all familiar with the term regenerative agriculture. McKenna and Golbeck knew that their regenerative goals would rely on sourcing, so they decided to make Lixir with honey sourced from a Brazilian farm in the Atlantic Rainforest that pulls double duty as a nature and bee preserve. McKenna says Lixir is already a regenerative organic product, but has yet to receive certification from the Regenerative Organic Alliancesomething no bee farm or honey brand has managed to achieve. McKenna and Golbeck say thats because the ROA requires a three-mile forage radius to certify farms, something the founders view as impractical because bees fly far and wide. They have been working with groups like the Regenerative Apiculture Working Group, which focuses on promoting a regenerative honey ecosystem, to make changes to the requirements. It’s so complicated, McKenna says adds. We’ve been chipping away for 10 years. Though the ROA has certified a handful of beverage brandsamong them Harmless Harvest coconut water and Guayaki yerba mateLIXIR would become just the second alcoholic beverage brand with ROC status (outdoor lifestyle brand Patagonias beer and wine operation has received the certification). McKenna is hopeful ROC status could come within the next five years. We want to educate people in the best way possible by creating a product that everybody can enjoy and have fun with, McKenna says. We want to be the brand behind the movement.”
Category:
E-Commerce
The John F. Kennedy (JFK) Presidential Library and Museum reopened Wednesday, with free admission, a day after the historic Boston institution was abruptly shut down after multiple employees were suddenly fired in the latest wave of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts to come to federal employees. Director Alan Price said admission to the museum will remain free in the coming days as senior employees fill in at the front desk and take over ticketing, although those employees still need to be cross-trained, reported the Boston Globe. “As the Foundation that supports the JFK Library, we [were] devastated by this news and will continue to support our colleagues and the Library,” the nonprofit John F. Kennedy (JFK) Library Foundation told Fast Company in a statement. In an effort to slash the size of the federal government, the Trump administration and DOGE have advised agencies to dismiss most of the 200,000 workers still in their probationary periods, working less than two years at their job. The National Archives and Records Administration, which manages many of the the nations presidential libraries, told Fast Company that “the Archives staff looks forward to welcoming guests, visitors, and researchers,” but had no further comment. Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s only grandson, who has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration, posted on Instagram that “DOGE and The White House” were behind the shutdown. Our country is under attack from our own government. They are using propaganda to steal the past away from the American people, wrote Schlossberg, whose mother, Caroline Kennedy, is honorary president of the Library Foundation. “In my opinion, it has nothing to do with government efficiency, the workers who were fired today actually bring in revenue for the government, it’s really about stealing the past . . . so that people don’t know what’s really happening.” (Schlossberg’s post had 67,366 likes at the time of this writing.) Elsewhere on social media, one Bluesky user posted, “Closing down museums and national parks isnt ‘weeding out corruption.’ But it is a sign of authoritarian rule.” Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren also took to Bluesky to say: “Trumps shutdown of the JFK Library wont lower egg prices or make housing more affordable, but its part of a retribution tour designed to distract from his agenda to enrich the wealthy and well-connected at the expense of everyone else.” As the New York Times pointed out, the JFK Library Foundation has previously honored Trump critics including Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney. Romney, a Republican former Utah senator and presidential nominee, was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial, while Cheney spoke out against the January 6 attack on the Capitol, making her a target of Trump’s wrath and costing her Wyoming seat in the House of Representatives.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||