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Tag: Economic policy

  • Banks and retailers run short on pennies as the US Mint stops making them

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    NEW YORK (AP) — The United States is running out of pennies.

    President Donald Trump’s decision to stop producing the penny earlier this year is starting to have real implications for the nation’s commerce. Merchants in multiple regions of the country have run out of pennies and are unable to produce exact change. Meanwhile, banks are unable to order fresh pennies and are rationing pennies for their customers.

    One convenience store chain, Sheetz, got so desperate for pennies that it briefly ran a promotion offering a free soda to customers who bring in 100 pennies. Another retailer says the lack of pennies will end up costing it millions this year, because of the need to round down to avoid lawsuits.

    “It’s a chunk of change,” said Dylan Jeon, senior director of government relations with the National Retail Federation.

    The penny problem started in late summer and is only getting worse as the country heads into the holiday shopping season.

    To be sure, not one retailer or bank has called for the penny to stick around. Pennies, especially in bulk, are heavy and are more often than not used exclusively to give customers change. But the abrupt decision to get rid of the penny has come with no guidance from the federal government. Many stores have been left pleading for Americans to pay in exact change.

    “We have been advocating abolition of the penny for 30 years. But this is not the way we wanted it to go,” said Jeff Lenard with the National Association of Convenience Stores.

    Trump announced on Feb. 9 that the U.S. would no longer mint pennies, citing the high costs. Both the penny and the nickel have been more expensive to produce than they are worth for several years, despite efforts by the U.S. Mint to reduce costs. The Mint spent 3.7 cents to make a penny in 2024, according to its most recent annual report, and it spends 13.8 cents to make a nickel.

    “Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

    The Treasury Department said in May that it was placing its last order of copper-zinc planchets — the blank metal disks that are minted into coins. In June, the last pennies were minted and by August, those pennies were distributed to banks and armored vehicle service companies.

    Troy Richards, president at Louisiana-based Guaranty Bank & Trust Co., said he’s had to scramble to have enough pennies on hand for his customers since August.

    “We got an email announcement from the Federal Reserve that penny shipments would be curtailed. Little did we know that those shipments were already over for us,” Richards said.

    Richards said the $1,800 in pennies the bank had were gone in two weeks. His branches are keeping small amounts of pennies for customers who need to cash checks, but that’s it.

    The U.S. Mint issued 3.23 billion pennies in 2024, the last full year of production, more than double that of the second-most minted coin in the country: the quarter. But the problem with pennies is they are issued, given as change, and rarely recirculated back into the economy. Americans store their pennies in jars or use them for decoration. This requires the Mint to produce significant sums of pennies each year.

    The government is expected to save $56 million by not minting pennies, according to the Treasury Department. Despite losing money on the penny, the Mint is profitable for the U.S. government through its production of other circulating coins as well as coin proof and commemorative sets that appeal to numismatic collectors.

    In 2024, the Mint made $182 million in seigniorage, which is its equivalent of profit.

    Besides American’s penny hoarding habit, a logistical issue is also preventing pennies from circulating.

    The distribution of coins is handled by the Federal Reserve system. Several companies, mostly armored carrier companies, operate coin terminals where banks can withdraw and deposit coins. Roughly a third of these 170 coin terminals are now closed to both penny deposits as well as penny withdrawals.

    Bank lobbyists say these terminals being closed to penny deposits is exacerbating the penny shortage, because parts of the country that may have some surplus pennies are unable to get those pennies to parts of country with shortages.

    “As a result of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s decision to end production of the penny, coin distribution locations accepting penny deposits and fulfilling orders will vary over time as (penny) inventory is depleted” a Federal Reserve spokeswoman said.

    The lack of pennies has also become a legal minefield for stores and retailers. In some states and cities, it is illegal to round up a transaction to the nearest nickel or dime because doing so would run afoul of laws that are supposed to place cash customers and debit and credit card customers on an equal playing field when it comes to item costs.

    So, to avoid lawsuits, retailers are rounding down. While two or three cents may not seem like much, that extra change can add up over tens of thousands of transactions. A spokesman for Kwik Trip, the Midwest convenience store chain, says it has been rounding down every cash transaction to the nearest nickel. That’s expected to cost the company roughly $3 million this year. Some retailers are asking customers to give their change to local or affiliated charities at the cash register, in an effort to avoid pennies as well.

    A bill currently pending in Congress, known as the Common Cents Act, calls for cash transactions to be rounded to the nearest nickel, up or down. While the proposal is palatable to businesses, rounding up could be costly for consumers.

    The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment on whether they had any guidance for retailers or banks regarding the penny shortage, or the issues regarding penny circulation.

    The United States is not the first country to transition away from small denomination coins or discontinue out-of-date coins. But in all of these cases, governments wound down the use of their out-of-date coins over a period of, often, years.

    For example, Canada announced it would eliminate its one-cent coin in 2012, transitioning away from one-cent cash transactions starting in 2013 and is still redeeming and recycling one-cent coins a decade later. The “decimalization” process of converting British coins from farthings and shillings to a 100-pence-to-a-pound system took much of the 1960s and early 1970s.

    The U.S. removed the penny from commerce abruptly, without any action by Congress or any regulatory guidance for banks, retailers or states. The retail and banking industries, rarely allies in Washington on policy matters related to point-of-sale, are demanding that Washington issue guidance or pass a law fixing the issues that are arising due to the shortage.

    “We don’t want the penny back. We just want some sort of clarity from the federal government on what to do, as this issue is only going to get worse,” the NACS’ Lenard said.

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  • China’s economy slows to 4.8% annual growth in July-September, hit by tariffs and slack demand

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    HONG KONG (AP) — China’s economy expanded at the slowest annual pace in a year in July-September, growing 4.8%, weighed down by trade tensions with the United States and slack domestic demand.

    The July-September data was the weakest pace of growth since the third quarter of 2024, and compares with a 5.2% pace of growth in the previous quarter, the government said in a report Monday.

    In January-September, the world’s second largest economy grew at a 5.2% annual pace. Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s higher tariffs on imports from China, its exports have remained relatively strong as companies expanded sales to other world markets.

    China’s exports to the United States fell 27% in September from the year before, even though growth in its global exports hit a six-month high, climbing 8.3%.

    Exports of electric vehicles doubled in September from a year earlier, while domestic passenger car sales climbed 11.2% year-on-year in last month, down from a 15% rise in August, according to data released last week.

    Tensions between Beijing and Washington remain elevated, and it’s unclear if Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will go ahead with a proposed meeting during a regional summit at the end of this month.

    Xi and other ruling Communist Party members are convening one of China’s most important political meetings for the year on Monday, where they will map out economic and social policy goals for the country for the next five years.

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    The economy slowed in the last quarter as the authorities moved to curb fierce price wars in sectors such as the auto industry due to excess capacity.

    China is also facing challenges including a prolonged property sector downturn which has been affecting consumption and demand.

    Data released Monday showed China’s residential property sales fell 7.6% by value in the January-September period from a year earlier. Industrial output rose 6.5% year-on-year last month, the fastest pace since June, but retail sales growth slowed to 3% from the year before.

    Ratings agency S&P estimates nationwide new home sales will fall by 8% in 2025 from the year before and by 6% to 7% in 2026.

    The World Bank expects China’s economy to grow at a 4.8% annual rate this year. The government’s official growth target is around 5%.

    Chinese shares rose Monday, with the Hang Seng in Hong Kong climbing 2.3% and the Shanghai Composite index up 0.5%.

    A National Bureau of Statistics spokesman said China has a “solid foundation” to achieve its full-year growth target, but cited external complications — including trade friction with the U.S. and other trading partners and protectionist policies in many countries — as reasons for the slowdown.

    China’s stronger economic growth in the first half of this year gives it “some buffer” to achieve the growth target, said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING Bank.

    However, spending during China’s eight-day Golden Week national holiday in October was “mildly disappointing,” reflecting sluggish consumer confidence and demand, Morningstar analysts said in a note this month.

    Investments in factories, equipment and other “fixed assets” fell 0.5% in the last quarter, underscoring weakness in domestic demand. It also was reflected in prices, which have continued to fall both at the consumer and the wholesale level.

    There’s room for the government to do more, Song said.

    “(We) are looking to see if there will be further measures to support consumption and the property market, as the impact from previous policies begins to weaken,” Song said.

    Economists are also expecting a rate cut by China’s central bank by the end of the year, which could encourage more spending and investment.

    China’s economy is also likely to further slow in 2026, said Jacqueline Rong, chief China economist at BNP Paribas, as property investment in the country “looks (to) continue falling” and the AI boom, which helped lift China’s economy and fueled a stock market rally, is expected to moderate.

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  • A Vermont cycling apparel company is trying to survive Trump’s tariffs. Will the Supreme Court help?

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    BURLINGTON, Vt. — From the moment President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on nearly every country, Nik Holm feared the company he leads might not survive.

    Terry Precision Cycling has made it 40 years with a product line specifically for women, navigating a tough early market, thin profit margins and a pandemic-era boom and bust. But Holm, the company president, wasn’t sure how his operation could pay the tariffs first announced in April and stay in business.

    “We felt like our backs were up against the wall,” he said, explaining why he joined a lawsuit challenging the tariffs that the Supreme Court will hear next week.

    Terry Precision Cycling’s offices are tucked behind a Burlington, Vermont, coffee shop on a leafy street that bursts into color in the fall. Local accolades share wall space with bike saddles and a color wheel’s worth of fabric samples. Orders are shipped out from a warehouse a few miles away.

    It seems an unlikely epicenter for the furor over Trump’s tariffs playing out on the trading floors of global market exchanges and in the boardrooms of international corporations.

    But Terry Precision Cycling is one of a handful of small businesses that are challenging many of Trump’s tariffs Wednesday before the Supreme Court in a case with extraordinary implications for the boundaries of presidential power and for the global economy.

    The company is small, but it works with suppliers around the world. It sells cycling shorts manufactured in the U.S. using materials imported from France, Guatemala and Italy. Its distinctive, colorfully printed bike jerseys are made with high-tech material that can’t be found outside of China.

    Tariffs mean the company has to pay more for all those imports, and without the cash reserves of a big company, it has few choices to make up the shortfall besides raising prices for customers. The bewildering pace of changes in tariffs, especially on goods from China, has made setting prices more like rolling the dice. “If we don’t know the rules of the game, how are we supposed to play?” Holm asked.

    The company had to add $50 to one pair of shorts in the pipeline when China tariffs hit 145%, bringing the price to $199. “Name the cost and we can name the price, and then we can backtrack to see who can actually afford it,” Holm said.

    The other companies in the lawsuit he joined are also small businesses, including a plumbing supply company in Utah, a wine importer from New York and a fishing-tackle maker in Pennsylvania.

    Holm started working for the company more than a decade ago, taking up cycling in earnest alongside the job. He often rides his bike to work and props it outside his office, alongside the company’s designers and salespeople. A thin man with deep-set eyes and side-parted hair, Holm was named president about two years ago as the company started by women’s cycling pioneer Georgena Terry was wrestling with a downturn in the outdoor market after the coronavirus pandemic. His normally level demeanor gets animated when he talks about the design of their padded shorts or the level of SPF protection in the jerseys.

    “It’s all about fit and function, and feeling safe and comfortable,” he said. “That’s our foundation, getting people, getting women, riding. More butts on bikes and getting out there.”

    The businesses challenging Trump’s tariffs are represented by Liberty Justice Center, a libertarian-leaning legal group usually more aligned with conservative causes. But they say Trump is wrong on sweeping tariffs, which are projected to collect a total of some $3 trillion from businesses over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

    They argue the president is using an emergency powers law that doesn’t even mention tariffs to claim nearly unlimited powers to impose and change import duties at will, something no other president has done on such a scale.

    “It is practically what the American Revolution was fought over, the principle that taxation is not legitimate unless it is adopted by the representatives of the people,” said Jeffrey Schwab, an attorney with the Liberty Justice Center.

    The Trump administration said the law lets the president regulate importation, and that includes tariffs. The president has been vocal about the case, suggesting at one point he might go to the arguments himself — something no other sitting president is recorded to have done. “That’s one of the most important cases in the history of our country because if we don’t win that case, we will be a weakened, troubled financial mess for many, many years to come,” he said.

    The law Trump used for many of his tariffs, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, has been invoked dozens of times over the decades, often to impose sanctions on other countries.

    But no president had used it for tariffs until February, when Trump placed duties on China, Mexico and Canada. He said the countries had not been doing enough to stop illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

    In April, he unveiled “reciprocal” tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners with a baseline of 10% and higher increases for specific countries, though many of those have since been put on hold. Tariffs on China hit 145% at one point but have since come down and are headed to 20% overall under Trump’s latest deal with China.

    Multiple lawsuits have been filed over the emergency-powers tariffs. The Supreme Court also will hear two other cases on Wednesday, one from a group of Democratic-leaning states and another from an Illinois educational toy company.

    The plaintiffs have won two rounds in lower courts, though the government did convince four appellate judges that the law does allow the president broad power over tariffs.

    The high court will now be asked to rule on the scope of a president’s authority. The justices, three of whom were appointed by Trump, have so far been reluctant to check his extraordinary flex of executive power.

    But they have been skeptical of presidential claims of power before, as when Joe Biden tried to forgive $400 billion in student loans under a different law dealing with national emergencies. The court found that the law didn’t clearly give Biden the power to enact such a costly program.

    Trump’s tariffs, by contrast, are expected to total in the trillions. They’re also projected to increase people’s bills by about $2,000 per household this year, an analysis from the Yale Budget Lab found.

    Revenue from tariffs totaled $195 billion by September, more than double what it was the year before — though the government could have to pay back that money if the justices strike down the tariffs.

    Trump has acknowledged that Americans could feel some short-term pain from tariffs but maintained that they’ll bring about more favorable trade deals and help American manufacturing. His administration says the tariffs are different from the Biden student-loan case because they’re about foreign affairs, an area where it says the courts should not be second-guessing the president.

    For the people at Terry Precision Cycling, though, those big-picture political questions were far from their decision to join the lawsuit. Holm thought more about the company’s 20 or so employees, its legacy and the women who buy its products out of a love for cycling.

    “If it becomes so unaffordable for them to do it, less can enter into that joy, that freedom of being on a bike,” he said. “It was about surviving this uncertainty.”

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  • Federal Reserve cuts key rate yet Powell says future reductions are not locked in

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring, even as inflation stays elevated.

    But Fed Chair Jerome Powell also cautioned that further rate cuts weren’t guaranteed, citing the government shutdown’s interruption of economic reports and sharp divisions among 19 Fed officials who participate in the central bank’s interest-rate deliberations.

    Speaking to reporters after the Fed announced its rate decision, Powell said there were “strongly differing views about how to proceed in December” at its next meeting and a further reduction in the benchmark rate is not “a foregone conclusion — far from it.”

    The rate cut — a quarter of a point — brings the Fed’s key rate down to about 3.9%, from about 4.1%. The central bank had cranked its rate to roughly 5.3% in 2023 and 2024 to combat the biggest inflation spike in four decades before implementing three cuts last year. Lower rates could, over time, reduce borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards, as well as for business loans.

    The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without the economic signposts it typically relies on from the government, including monthly reports on jobs, inflation, and consumer spending, which have been suspended because of the government shutdown.

    Financial markets largely expected another rate reduction in December, and stock prices dropped after Powell’s comments, with the S&P 500 nearly unchanged and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing slightly lower.

    “Powell poured cold water on the idea that the Fed was on autopilot for a December cut,” said Gennadiy Goldberg, head of U.S. rates strategy at TD Securities. “Instead, they’ll have to wait for economic data to confirm that a rate cut is actually needed.”

    Powell was asked about the impact of the government shutdown, which began on Oct. 1 and has interrupted the distribution of economic data. Powell said the Fed does have access to some data that give it “a picture of what’s going on.” He added that, “If there were a significant or material change in the economy, one way or another, I think we’d pick that up through this.”

    But the Fed chair did acknowledge that the limited data could cause officials to proceed more cautiously heading into its next meeting in mid-December.

    “There’s a possibility that it would make sense to be more cautious about moving (on rates). I’m not committing to that, I’m just saying it’s certainly a possibility that you would say ‘we really can’t see, so let’s slow down.’”

    The Fed typically raises its short term rate to combat inflation, while it cuts rates to encourage borrowing and spending and shore up hiring. Right now it sees risks of both slowing hiring and rising inflation, so it is reducing borrowing costs to support the job market, while still keeping rates high enough to avoid stimulating the economy so much that it worsens inflation.

    Yet Powell suggested the Fed increasingly sees inflation as less of a threat. He noted that excluding the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, inflation is “not so far from our 2% goal.” Inflation has slowed in apartment rents and for many services, such as car insurance. A report released last week showed that inflation remains elevated but isn’t accelerating.

    The government recalled employees to produce the report, despite the shutdown, because it was used to calculate the cost of living adjustment for Social Security.

    At the same time, the economy could be rebounding from a sluggish first half, which could improve job growth in the coming months, Powell said. That would make rate cuts less necessary.

    “For some part of the committee, it’s time to maybe take a step back and see if whether there really are downside risks to the labor market,” Powell said. “Or see whether in fact that the stronger growth that we’re seeing is real.”

    Two of the 12 officials who vote on the Fed’s rate decisions dissented Wednesday, but in different directions. Jeffrey Schmid, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, voted against the move because he preferred no change to the Fed’s rate. Schmid has previously expressed concern that inflation remains too high.

    Fed governor Stephen Miran dissented for the second straight meeting in favor of a half-point cut. Miran was appointed by President Donald Trump just before the central bank’s last meeting in September.

    Trump has repeatedly attacked Powell for not reducing borrowing costs more quickly. In South Korea early Wednesday he repeated his criticisms of the Fed chair.

    “He’s out of there in another couple of months,” Trump said. Powell’s term ends in May. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the administration is considering five people to replace Powell, and will decide by the end of this year.

    The Fed also said Wednesday that it would stop reducing the size of its massive securities holdings, which it accumulated during the pandemic and after the 2008-2009 Great Recession. The change, to take effect Dec. 1, could over time slightly reduce longer-term interest rates on things like mortgages but won’t have much overall impact on consumer borrowing costs.

    Without government data, the economy is harder to track, Powell said. September’s jobs report, scheduled to be released three weeks ago, is still postponed. This month’s hiring figures, to be released Nov. 7, will likely be delayed and may be less comprehensive when finally released. And the White House said last week that October’s inflation report may never be issued at all.

    Before the government shutdown cut off the flow of data, monthly hiring gains had weakened to an average of just 29,000 a month for the previous three months, according to the Labor Department’s data. The unemployment rate ticked up to a still-low 4.3% in August from 4.2% in July.

    More recently, several large corporations have announced sweeping layoffs, including UPS, Amazon, and Target, which threatens to boost the unemployment rate if it continues. Powell said the Fed is watching the layoff announcements “very carefully.”

    ___

    Associated Press Writer Alex Veiga in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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  • Deal between the US and China is undoing damage from a self-inflicted trade war

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    BUSAN, South Korea — Three-digit tariffs are off the table, but import duties on each other are higher than in January.

    Rare earth materials will flow more smoothly, but China has put in place an export permitting regime that it can tighten or loosen as needed.

    Port fees will go away, but only for one year.

    And Beijing is again buying U.S. soybeans after it had abruptly cut off American farmers.

    After months of posturing, arguing and threatening, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have essentially turned back the clock. While the meeting between the two leaders was hailed by Trump as a “roaring success,” the agreement that came out of it may only serve to undo some of the damages Trump inflicted with his trade war upon his return to the White House.

    “It is hard to see what major gains the U.S. has made in the bilateral relationship relative to where things stood before Trump took office,” said Eswar Prasad, an economist at Cornell University.

    On the Senate floor, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday denounced the deal out of South Korea as leaving the U.S. as “no better off.”

    “If anything, things are worse: Prices have gone up and China has agreed to nothing of substance that will improve trade between our nations,” the Democrat senator said, adding that Trump “started a trade war, created a giant mess for businesses, consumers, and soybean farmers, and then he celebrates for trying to clean up the very mess he created in the first place.”

    Nevertheless, the deal has injected a degree of stability, giving the world’s two largest economies — as well as the rest of the world — time and room to readjust.

    Washington and Beijing still need to finalize their agreements, a process that always has the potential for fresh disputes. But for now, Xi appears interested in moving past the latest tensions.

    In an official statement, Xi referred to “recent twists and turns” that “offered some lessons for both sides.” He said they should be “focusing on the benefits of cooperation rather than falling into a vicious cycle of mutual retaliation.”

    Trump fired the first shot in the trade war in February when he imposed an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods over the allegation that Beijing failed to stem the flow of chemicals used to make fentanyl. That soared to as much as 145% after China retaliated, but Trump walked it back following market meltdowns.

    The two sides in May slashed their massive tariffs to 10% on each other, while Washington retained the 20% fentanyl-related tariff, and China its retaliatory tariffs of 10% or 15% on U.S. farm goods.

    Now, Trump said he has removed one 10% fentanyl tariff in exchange for Beijing’s cooperation in fighting the illicit drug.

    U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said China would also withdraw the retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural products. A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said Beijing would “adjust accordingly” its countermeasures without giving details.

    In addition, China has agreed to buy 12 million metric tons of U.S. beans through January, and will buy at least 25 million metric tons annually for next three years, Rollins said on Thursday.

    That compares to China buying 17 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans in the first eight months of this year but importing zero in September. In 2024, China bought 22 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans, according to state media.

    Although China did not confirm the details of the latest soybean deal, the spokesperson for the Chinese commerce ministry said the two sides have reached “consensus” to expand agricultural trade.

    In April, China used its monopoly power in the processing of critical minerals to institute a permitting requirement for the export of several rare earth elements. On October 9, Beijing expanded the export rules, apparently in response to the U.S. decision to extend export controls to businesses affiliated with already-blacklisted foreign companies.

    Furious, Trump threatened to impose a new 100% tariff on China, but the two sides managed to cool down in time for Trump to meet Xi in South Korea.

    Beijing on Thursday said it would pause for a year the rare earth export rules from October to “conduct research to refine specific plans,” while the U.S. will suspend its affiliate rule for one year.

    The delay by Beijing “provides just enough time for the United States to accelerate investment in capabilities and innovation for rare earths and permanent magnets,” said Wade Senti, president of the U.S. permanent magnet company AML. “This needs to be on warp speed and at a scale never seen before since the COVID-19 response,” he said.

    Another fresh thorn was the U.S. introduction of port fees in October targeting China-linked vessels, as part of a plan to restore America’s shipbuilding capabilitie s. Beijing answered with countermeasures against the U.S.

    The port fees on each other are not removed but will be suspended for one year, the Chinese commerce ministry said.

    Whether Trump accepts a return to the status quo or pushes to address fundamental issues that have persisted for years between the U.S. and China remains unclear. Nothing about Thursday’s meeting — the first between Trump and Xi in six years — affects Chinese manufacturing dominance that Trump has blamed for the loss of American blue collar jobs.

    Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, called the latest developments “very encouraging” and added: “We hope that future negotiations will address long-standing market access barriers, help level the playing field for U.S. companies, and bring long-term predictability to the bilateral trade relationship.”

    There are more opportunities on the horizon to keep working on these challenges. Trump said he will go to China in April and Xi will visit the U.S. after that.

    If Trump isn’t successful, this period could be remembered for a lot of sound and fury but no change in the basic trajectory of China’s ascendant economy.

    “Generally, Trump grows impatient with anything beyond the immediate, and it is the Chinese that play for longer term advantage,” said Kurt Campbell, a former deputy secretary of state in the Biden administration and now chairman of The Asia Group.

    ___

    Tang and Wiseman reported from Washington. AP writer Josh Funk in Omaha, Neb., contributed to the report

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  • Amazon reports higher sales and earnings for 3Q, helped by strong customer spending

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    NEW YORK — Amazon posted higher fiscal third quarter profit and sales compared with a year ago, as the online giant kept attracting shoppers looking for good prices while inflation resurges.

    The results announced Thursday beat Wall Street expectations. The company’s prominent cloud computing arm also surpassed analysts’ expectations. But Amazon issued a cautious sales outlook for the fiscal fourth quarter, citing overall economic uncertainty and President Donald Trump’s tariffs. But shares soared close to 9% in after-hours trading.

    Amazon posted net income of $21.12 billion, or $1.95 per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30. That’s up from $15.33 billion, or $1.43 per share, a year ago.

    Analysts had expected $1.57 per share for the quarter, according to FactSet.

    Amazon’s sales rose to $180.2 billion, up from $158.88 billion in the year ago period.

    Analysts had expected $177.91 billion, according to FactSet.

    Amazon has announced it’s cutting about 14,000 corporate jobs as it ramps up spending on artificial intelligence and cuts costs elsewhere. Teams and individuals impacted by the job cuts were notified Tuesday. Amazon has about 350,000 corporate employees and a total workforce of about 1.56 million. The cuts announced Tuesday amount to about a 4% reduction in its corporate workforce.

    Analysts are dissecting Amazon’s results to get insight into consumer behavior for the holiday shopping season and how Trump’s tariffs are impacting prices.

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  • 4 Republicans back Senate resolution to undo Trump’s tariffs around the globe

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    WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a resolution Thursday that would undo many of President Donald Trump’s tariffs around the globe, the latest note of displeasure at his trade tactics in Washington that came just as the president celebrated his negotiations with China as a success.

    After a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, Trump said he would cut tariffs on the Asian economic giant and China would in turn purchase 25 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans annually for the next three years. The Republican president claimed his trade negotiation would secure “prosperity and security to millions of Americans.”

    But back in Washington, senators — several from Trump’s Republican Party — have demonstrated their dissent with Trump’s tariff tactics by passing a series of resolutions this week that would nullify the national emergencies that Trump has declared to justify the import taxes. Already this week, the Senate approved resolutions to end tariffs imposed on Brazil and Canada. While the legislative efforts are ultimately doomed, they exposed fault lines in the GOP.

    The latest resolution, which would effectively end most of Trump’s tariff policies, passed on a 51-47 vote, with four Republicans joining with all Democrats.

    Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who backed Democrats on the resolutions, credited Trump for decreasing the tariffs on China, but said the result is “still much higher than we’ve had.”

    “It still will lead to increased prices,” he said.

    The votes were orchestrated by Democrats using a decades-old law that allows Congress to nullify a presidential emergency. But House Republicans have instituted a new law that allows the leadership to prevent such resolutions from coming up for a vote. Plus, Trump would surely veto legislation that inhibits his power over trade policy, meaning the legislation won’t ultimately take effect.

    But Democrats have still been able to force the Senate to take up an uncomfortable topic for their Republican colleagues.

    “American families are being squeezed by prices going up and up and up,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, in a floor speech. He added that “in many ways, red states in rural areas are being hit the hardest,” and pointed to economic strain being put on farmers and manufacturers.

    Overall there has been little movement among Republicans to oppose Trump’s import taxes publicly. A nearly identical resolution failed in April on a tied vote after Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was absent. On Thursday, McConnell and Paul, as well as Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, voted along with all Democrats to pass the resolution.

    Those four Republicans helped advance similar resolutions this week to end the tariffs on Brazil and Canada. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, also voted in favor of the resolution applying to Brazil, but otherwise, GOP senators have held the line this week behind the president.

    “I agree with my colleagues that tariffs should be more targeted to avoid harm to Americans,” said Sen. Mike Crapo, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, in a floor speech. Yet he added that Trump’s negotiations “are bearing fruit” and praised his announcement that Beijing would allow the export of rare earth elements and start buying American soybeans again.

    Republicans representing farm states were especially enthused by the announcement that China would be purchasing 25 million metric tons of soybeans annually, starting with 10 million metric tons for the rest of this year.

    Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, said the deal with China “absolutely” justifies Trump’s use of tariff threats to negotiate trade policy with other nations. He called the announcement “huge news” for Kansas farmers, but also acknowledged that they would still probably need financial help as they deal with the strain of losing their biggest customer for soybeans and sorghum.

    “It’s not like you can snap your finger and send over $15 billion worth of sorghum and soybeans together overnight,” he said.

    China had been the largest purchaser of U.S. soybeans until this year. It purchased almost 27 million metric tons in 2024, so Trump’s negotiated deal only guarantees to return soybean exports to China to less than their previous level.

    Democrats said that Americans shouldn’t be fooled by Trump’s announcement.

    “Donald Trump has folded, leaving American families and farmers and small businesses to deal with the wreckage from his blunders, from his erratic on again off again tariff policies,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

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  • Average long-term US mortgage rate dips to 6.17%, its lowest level in more than a year

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    The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage fell for the fourth week in a row to its lowest level in more than a year.

    Lower mortgage rates boost homebuyers’ purchasing power. They also benefit homeowners eager to refinance their current home loan to a more attractive rate.

    The average long-term mortgage rate dropped to 6.17% from 6.19% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.72%.

    The last time the average rate was lower was on Oct. 3, 2024, when it was 6.12%.

    Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also eased this week. The average rate dropped to 5.41% from 5.44% last week. A year ago, it was 5.99%, Freddie Mac said.

    Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

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  • Tokyo auto show highlights technology but Trump’s tariffs loom large

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    TOKYO — The Tokyo Mobility Show is highlighting more than just cars or the types of fuel they use from electric to hydrogen, but also various kinds of futuristic transport.

    Think scuttling robotic chairs, like the Uni-One from Honda Motor Co. The Tokyo-based maker of the Accord sedan says it is all about personal mobility as a mode for quick transport by 2035. Just sit on the boxlike machine as it zips around quietly.

    Toyota Motor Corp. showed a helicopter-like aircraft with six propellers, which was still in development in cooperation with U.S. aviation company Joby.

    Such gadgetry, as well as more regular vehicles, are on display at the show, which runs through Nov. 9 at Tokyo Big Sight exhibition space. It was previewed to media Wednesday, ahead of its opening to the public Thursday.

    Looming in the backdrop of the fanfare is the threat of auto tariffs under U.S. President Donald Trump, raised to 15% from 2.5%, although an improvement from the 25% he slapped on initially.

    Trump’s tariffs are expected to erase more than 2 trillion yen ($13 billion) off automakers’ annual operating profits, according to calculations from recent earnings.

    Masahiro Moro, chief executive of Mazda Motor Corp., among the worst hit of the Japanese automakers, said his engineers were developing cars that understood drivers’ emotions, as well as those that contribute to sustainability by reducing carbon emissions the more you drove.

    “We believe the joy of driving has the power to shape the future,” he told reporters.

    Nissan Motor Corp. showed a prototype, or experimental model, of its Sakura electric car, fitted with a solar-system roof that slides out at the top, called “Ao-Solar Extender,” to generate power while the car is parked. The word “ao” means “blue” in Japanese.

    Nissan said the model’s message is about adding value to one’s life, as the generated power can be used for other gadgets around the house as well as work as power stations during disasters. The concept car targets environmentally conscious moms, according to Nissan.

    “Japan is at the center of what we do because we are a Japanese company,” Nissan Chief Ivan Espinosa said on the sidelines of the show.

    While in town earlier this week for talks with new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Trump also met with the heads of Japan’s businesses, including Espinosa. The exchange of ideas was constructive, according to Espinosa.

    Nissan, as well as Toyota, said they were considering importing their own models made in the U.S. back into Japan as a way to mitigate the trade imbalance.

    The Japanese government has promised to buy Fords and invest $550 billion in the U.S.

    Japanese automakers export more than a million autos to the U.S., while selling 4.4 million vehicles a year in Japan. Only about 16,000 American cars were sold in Japan, a tiny fraction of the Japanese auto market. Japanese cars make up about 40% of the American market, according to Cox Automotive, although much of the vehicles sold there are made at U.S. plants.

    Toyota Chief Executive Koji Sato said customers’ tastes differed by markets, and offerings must be tailored to meet various needs.

    “We want to be an important part of the American auto industry with a long-term perspective,” he told a small group of reporters.

    Toyota showed a still-developing tiny collapsible electric bicycle called Land Hopper that Japan’s top automaker suggests should get packed in the upcoming Land Cruiser FJ, the latest version of the hit recreational vehicle that had its beginnings in 1951 as the Toyota BJ.

    A flagship model, Land Cruiser sales have topped 12 million in 190 countries and regions. Targeting Japanese off-roaders, the new Land Cruiser FJ goes on sale in Japan next year — with a 2.7-liter (1-gallon) gasoline engine.

    Japanese exports to the U.S. have risen in recent months as automakers tried to beat the tariffs. The crunch is expected to hit next year.

    “Automakers will look to increase U.S. production where possible and diversify export destinations to other key markets, such as Australia and Canada,” said Darcey Bowling, auto analyst at BMI.

    “We expect that Japan’s vehicle market will face challenges due to the elevated U.S. tariffs.”

    ___

    Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama

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  • How major US stock indexes fared Wednesday, 10/29/2025

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    U.S. stocks bounced around their records after the Federal Reserve made moves to boost the job market but warned that more help isn’t guaranteed

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  • China pitches itself as alternative to US protectionism after signing expanded ASEAN free trade pact

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    KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — China signed an expanded version of a free trade agreement Tuesday with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, with Chinese Premier Li Qiang pitching expanded economic ties with his country as an alternative to the protectionist policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.

    Li Qiang told an ASEAN-China summit meeting after the signing that closer cooperation could help overcome global economic uncertainties. He said “pursuing confrontation instead of solidarity brings no benefit” in the face of economic coercion and bullying, in a swipe at the U.S.

    “Unity is strength,” he said, citing remarks by President Xi Jinping made during a Southeast Asia visit earlier this year.

    His remarks were met with skepticism by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose country has clashed with China over competing claims in the South China Sea, as have other ASEAN nations.

    Marcos welcomed the expanded trade pact, but stressed that “this cooperation cannot exist alongside coercion.”

    The signing of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area 3.0 came on the final day of the annual ASEAN summit and related meetings and was witnessed by Li Qiang and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is serving as ASEAN chair this year.

    It’s the third revision of the long-standing agreement, which was first signed in 2002 and came into force in 2010. The free trade area covers a combined market of more than 2 billion people and lowers tariffs on goods and boosting flows of services and investment.

    Two-way trade has surged from $235.5 billion in 2010 to nearly $1 trillion last year. ASEAN and China are each other’s top trading partners.

    Li stressed “mutual reliance” between China and ASEAN members Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, calling them “good neighbors and good brothers that are close in geography, culture and sentiment.”

    “Unilateralism and protectionism have seriously impacted the global economic and trade order, while external forces are increasing their interference in the region — many countries have been unreasonably subjected to high tariffs,” he said.

    “By relying on each other and coordinating our actions, we can safeguard our legitimate rights and interests.”

    Southeast Asian political analyst Bridget Welsh said the upgraded pact would benefit both sides, especially in the areas of supply chains and sustainability.

    “It also speaks to a global reality that non-U.S. countries are coming together to strengthen trade relationships for their prosperity as a recoupling with the U.S. is ongoing,” she said,

    The prospect of a deepening trade conflict between China and the U.S. has risked weakening economic growth worldwide.

    Trump at the ASEAN summit on Sunday announced new economic details with Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, though all countries are still subject to new tariffs he has brought in.

    Anwar stressed at the ASEAN meeting with China that the bloc seeks friendly relations with all countries.

    “The day before we were with President Donald Trump of the United States of America, and today we are back with China,” he said. “And that reflects ASEAN centrality … This is what we consider steady engagement that fosters trust that enables us to work through challenges together.”

    There were signs that tensions between the U.S. and China were cooling ahead of a planned meeting between Trump and Xi, which is expected to take place in South Korea on Thursday. Top negotiators from each country said a trade deal was coming together, which could prevent a potentially damaging confrontation between the world’s two largest economies.

    Officials said the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area 3.0 is expected to broaden integration across the region by covering new areas such as digital trade, the green economy, sustainability and support for small and medium-sized enterprises, which make up the majority of ASEAN businesses. The agreement is designed to make trade benefits more accessible, improve market entry for smaller players, streamline non-tariff procedures and lower regulatory barriers.

    Marcos said the pact could help modernize trade practices and enable both sides to better respond to emerging economic challenges, but urged China to “commit to cooperation and meaningful engagement, especially in the South China Sea.”

    Marcos said it was “regrettable” that Philippine vessels and aircraft continue to face “dangerous actions and harassment” in the South China Sea. He reiterated Manila’s objections to Beijing’s plan to establish a “nature reserve” over a hotly disputed shoal in the area.

    “Actions like these cannot hide under the veneer of marine environmental protection because they have no legal basis or effect, blatantly disregard international law, and infringe on the Philippines’ sovereignty,” he said. Still, Marcos added that Manila would continue to engage constructively with China to manage differences.

    ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei — along with Taiwan — have overlapping claims with China, which asserts sovereignty over nearly the entire South China Sea. Chinese and Philippine vessels have repeatedly clashed in the vital sea trade route.

    Marcos has vowed to accelerate the conclusion of a Code of Conduct to govern behavior in the disputed waters when the Philippines assumes the ASEAN chairmanship next year.

    In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiaku on Monday accused the Philippines of “deliberate infringements and provocations at sea,” blaming Manila for escalating tensions.

    Welsh, the analyst, said regional officials treat the South China Sea dispute as a separate track from security ties and don’t expect it to impact economic ties with China.

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  • Trump says a Canadian ad misstated Ronald Reagan’s views on tariffs. Here are the facts and context

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pulled out of trade talks with Canada Thursday night, furious over what he called a “fake’’ television ad from Ontario’s provincial government that quoted former U.S. President Ronald Reagan from 38 years ago criticizing tariffs — Trump’s favorite economic tool.

    The ad features audio excerpts from an April 25, 1987 radio address in which Reagan said: “Over the long run such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer.’’

    Trump attacked the ad on Truth Social Friday posting: “CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!! They fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY.″

    The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute criticized the ad on X Thursday night posting that it “misrepresents the ‘Presidential Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade’ dated April 25, 1987.”

    While Trump called the ad fake, Reagan’s words were real. But context is missing.

    Here’s a look at the facts:

    Reagan, who held office during a period of growing fear over Japan’s rising economic might, made the address a week after he himself had imposed tariffs on Japanese semiconductors; he was attempting to explain the decision, which seemed at odds with his reputation as a free trader.

    Reagan did not, in fact, love tariffs. He often criticized government policies – including protectionist measures such as tariffs – that interfered with free commerce and he spent much of 1987 radio address spelling out the case against tariffs.

    “High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,’’ he said. “The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition. So, soon, because of the prices made artificially high by tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying. Then the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse; businesses and industries shut down; and millions of people lose their jobs.’’

    But Reagan’s policies were more complicated than his rhetoric.

    In addition to taxing Japanese semiconductors, Reagan slapped levies on heavy motorcycles from Japan to protect Harley-Davidson. He also strong-armed Japanese automakers into accepting “voluntary’’ limitations on their exports to the United States, ultimately encouraging them to set up factories in the American Midwest and South.

    And he pressured other countries to push down the value of the currencies to help make American exports more competitive in world markets.

    Robert Lighthizer, a Reagan trade official who served as Trump’s top trade negotiator from 2017 through 2021, wrote in his 2023 memoir that “President Reagan distinguished between free trade in theory and free trade in practice.’’

    In 1988, an analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute even declared Reagan “ the most protectionist president since Herbert Hoover, the heavyweight champion of protectionists.’’

    Reagan, though, was no trade warrior. Discussing his semiconductor tariffs in the April 1987 radio address, he said that he was forced to impose them because the Japanese were not living up to a trade agreement and that “such tariffs or trade barriers and restrictions of any kind are steps that I am loath to take.’’

    Trump, on the other hand, has no such reticence. He argues that tariffs can protect American industry, draw manufacturing back to the United States and raise money for the Treasury. Since returning to the White House in January, he has slapped double-digit tariffs on almost every country on earth and targeted specific products including autos, steel and pharmaceuticals.

    The average effective U.S. tariff rate has risen from around 2.5% at the start of the 2025 to 18%, highest since 1934, according to the Budget Lab at Yale University.

    Trump’s enthusiastic use of import taxes — he has proudly called himself “Tariff Man’’ — has drawn a challenge from businesses and states charging that he overstepped his authority. The Constitution gives Congress the power to levy taxes, including tariffs, though lawmakers have gradually ceded considerable authority over trade policy to the White House. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in the case early next month.

    Trump claimed Thursday that the Canadian ad was intended “to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts.’’

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  • 7 charged in 2024 Pennsylvania voter registration fraud that prosecutors say was motivated by money

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    HARRISBURG, Pa. — A yearlong investigation into suspected fraudulent voter registration forms submitted ahead of last year’s presidential election produced criminal charges Friday against six street canvassers and the man who led their work in Pennsylvania.

    The allegations of fraud appeared to be motivated by the defendants’ desire to make money and keep their jobs and was not an effort to influence the election results, said Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican.

    Guillermo Sainz, 33, described by prosecutors as the director of a company’s registration drives in Pennsylvania, was charged with three counts of solicitation of registration, a state law that prohibits offering money to reach registration quotas. A message seeking comment was left on a number associated with Sainz, who lives in Arizona. He did not have a lawyer listed in court records.

    The six canvassers are charged with unsworn falsification, tampering with public records, forgery and violations of Pennsylvania election law. The charges relate to activities in three Republican-leaning Pennsylvania counties: York, Lancaster and Berks.

    “We are confident that the motive behind these crimes was personal financial gain, and not a conspiracy or organized effort to tip any election for any one candidate or party,” Sunday said in a news release. Prosecutors said the forms included all party affiliations.

    In a court affidavit filed with the criminal charges on Friday, investigators said Sainz, an employee of Field+Media Corps, “instituted unlawful financial incentives and pressures in his push to meet company goals to maintain funding which in turn spurred some canvassers to create and submit fake forms to earn more money.”

    The chief executive of Field+Media Corps, based in Mesa, Arizona, said last year the company was proud of its work to expand voting but had no information about problematic registration forms. A message seeking comment was left Friday for the CEO, Francisco Heredia. The Field+Media Corps website did not appear to be operative.

    Field+Media was funded by Everybody Votes, an effort to improve voter registration rates in communities of color. The affidavit said Everybody Votes “fully cooperated” with the investigation and noted its contract with Field+Media prohibited payments on a per-registration basis.

    “The investigation confirmed that we hold our partners to the highest standards of quality control when collecting, handling and delivering voter registration applications,” Everybody Votes said in a statement e-mailed by a spokesperson.

    Sainz, who managed Pennsylvania operations from May to October 2024, is accused of paying canvassers based on how many signatures they collected. The police affidavit said Sainz told agents with the attorney general’s office earlier this month he was unaware of any canvassers paid extra hours if they reached a target number of forms.

    “Sainz had to be asked the question multiple times before he stated he was not aware of this and that ‘everyone was an hourly worker,’ ” investigators wrote.

    One canvasser said she created fake forms to boost her pay and believed others did, too, according to the police affidavit. Another told investigators that most of the registration forms he collected were “not real.” A third reported that when she realized she was not going to reach a daily quota, “she would make up names and information,” police wrote, “due to fear of losing her job.”

    The investigation began in late October 2024, when election workers in Lancaster flagged about 2,500 voter registration forms for potential fraud. Authorities said they appeared to contain false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses and other problematic details.

    The suggestion of criminal activity related to the election came as the battleground state was considered pivotal to the presidential election, and then-candidate Donald Trump seized on the news. At a campaign event, he declared there was “cheating” involving “2,600” votes. The actual issue in Lancaster was about 2,500 suspected fraudulent voter registration forms, not ballots or votes.

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  • Ontario premier doesn’t back down against Trump

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    TORONTO — The leader of Canada’s most populous province posted remarks by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan on social media on Friday showing Reagan opposed tariffs, hours after President Donald Trump announced he’s ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada because of a television ad that Trump said misstates Reagan’s opposition to tariffs.

    Ontario Premier Doug Ford didn’t back down and said Canada and the U.S. are friends, neighbors and allies “and Reagan knew that both are stronger together.” Ford then provided a link to a Reagan speech where the late president voices opposition to tariffs.

    On Thursday Trump posted, “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.”

    Trump doubled down on his criticism of the Ontario ads again on Friday and accused Canada of trying to influence an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling on his global tariff regime.

    Trump’s call for an abrupt end to negotiations has further inflamed trade tensions between the neighbors and longtime allies.

    Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said this week he aims to double his country’s exports to countries outside the U.S. because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. Canadian officials remain ready to continue talks to reduce tariffs in certain sectors, he said.

    “We can’t control the trade policy of the United States. We recognize that that policy has fundamentally changed from the 1980s,” Carney said Friday morning before boarding a flight to Asia. “We have to focus on what we can control and realize what we can’t control.”

    Carney is trying to secure a trade deal with Trump, but tariffs are taking a toll, particularly in the aluminum, steel, auto and lumber sectors.

    The Ontario government paid about $75 million Canadian (US$54 million) for the ads to air across multiple American television stations using audio and video of former president Reagan speaking about tariffs in 1987.

    Earlier Thursday night, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute posted on X that an ad created by the government of Ontario “misrepresents the ‘Presidential Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade’ dated April 25, 1987.” It added that Ontario did not receive foundation permission “to use and edit the remarks.”

    The foundation said it is “reviewing legal options in this matter” and invited the public to watch the unedited video of Reagan’s address.

    Ford said earlier this week he had heard that Trump had seen the ad.

    “I’m sure he wasn’t too happy,” Ford said.

    Ford has said the aim is to “blast” the pro-trade message to Americans, particularly Republican districts.

    “It’s real, because it was coming from the best president the country’s ever seen, Ronald Reagan,” Ford said. “I feel the Reagan Republicans are going to be fighting with the MAGA group, and let’s hope, Reagan Republicans win.”

    Ford is a populist conservative who doesn’t belong to the same party as Carney, a Liberal.

    Trump has been threatening Canada’s economy and sovereignty with tariffs, most offensively by claiming Canada could be “the 51st state.”

    Jason Kenney, a former Conservative cabinet minister under ex-Prime Minister Stephen Harper, called Trump’s posts “just embarrassing.”

    “The Ontario ad does not misrepresent President Reagan’s anti-tariff radio address in any respect whatsoever. It is a direct replay of his radio address, formatted for a one minute ad,” Kenney posted on social media.

    “Everything that Reagan said in his pro-free trade April, 1987 radio message is consistent with the ad. In fact, everything he ever said about trade, before and after becoming President, is consistent with his principled opposition to tariffs.”

    Kenney also took aim at the Reagan foundation.

    “They know perfectly well that the Ontario ad captures precisely President Reagan’s opposition to tariffs, and support for free trade. But it is obvious that the Foundation now has gormless leadership which is easily intimidated by a call from the White House, yet another sign of the hugely corrosive influence of Trump on the American conservative movement,” he posted

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  • What to know about Argentina’s midterm vote, a pivotal test for Trump ally President Milei

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    BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Anyone who watched U.S. President Donald Trump vow to condition financial aid to cash-strapped Argentina on the outcome of a “very big” and “very important” vote in the South American country would be forgiven for thinking that his close ideological ally, Argentine President Javier Milei, was up for reelection.

    But no. The vote that Trump was talking about earlier this month is, in fact, a midterm election for less than half of the Argentine Congress.

    Now the explosive comments, combined with a dizzying series of scandals and setbacks for Milei, have cranked up the pressure on Argentina’s libertarian president and transformed Sunday’s limited vote into a major political test that could help determine the fate of Milei’s free-market experiment.

    “We’ve made it to the elections on our feet, and on Sunday Argentina will really change,” Milei said in a fiery final campaign speech late Thursday from the port city of Rosario.

    At the start of the year, pollsters and pundits were predicting a smashing success for Milei in the midterms.

    His huge cuts to state spending delivered Argentina’s first fiscal surplus in nearly 15 years and pulled down monthly inflation from 25.5% to 2%. Argentines celebrated relief from ever-rising prices and took comfort in a strong peso that made it cheaper for them to snap up imported goods and vacation abroad.

    With his approval ratings high, Milei took victory laps through Europe, Latin America and, most frequently, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, railing against the evils of socialism and the corruption of the political elite. He pushed key deregulation laws through an opposition-dominated Congress, allying with the right-wing PRO party of former President Mauricio Macri and striking deals with moderate governors.

    How quickly the mood turned.

    Milei’s aura of infallibility first began to crack in February, when he promoted a dodgy memecoin on his social media account that quickly collapsed, leading to $250 million in losses for investors. Then in August, Milei’s powerful sister was accused of taking bribes from a government medicine supplier. She denies wrongdoing.

    The latest blow came earlier this month, when Milei’s leading candidate in Buenos Aires province, José Luis Espert, dropped out of the midterm race after admitting he received $200,000 from a businessman indicted in the U.S. for drug trafficking. He says it was for consulting services.

    The controversies have hurt Milei’s reputation as a straight-talking outsider determined to tear down the corrupt establishment, experts say, particularly at this time of harsh austerity.

    “It was the first wake-up call when people started to ask, maybe (Milei and Karina) are asking us to make sacrifices that they’re not making themselves,” said Eugenia Mitchelstein, the chair of the social sciences department at Buenos Aires’ San Andrés University.

    Tactical errors compounded matters. Milei ran an aggressive campaign strategy in some two dozen provincial elections in recent months that pitted a slew of unknowns from his scrappy libertarian party against more established rivals.

    His decision to forgo any attempt at coalition-building alienated potential political allies, who punished Milei by passing spending measures in Congress and overturning his vetoes.

    The run-up to the midterms — in which half the seats in the lower house of Congress and a third of the Senate are up for grabs — has also been rough. Although veteran politician Diego Santilli is now at the top of the party’s Buenos Aires list after Espert stood down over the scandal, voters will still see Espert on the ballot Sunday after electoral authorities ruled it was too late to print new ones.

    The other Buenos Aires candidate, Karen Reichardt, is a former model and actress who has recently come under fire for old social media posts attacking national soccer hero Lionel Messi and insulting her political enemies with racially insensitive language. She did not respond to a request for comment.

    Milei’s first major electoral defeat — in which his party lost Buenos Aires province, home to 40% of the population, to the incumbent populist Peronists by a landslide — revealed waning public support as Argentines reeling from two years of cutbacks grow impatient with a contracting economy and falling wages.

    The loss tipped already jittery markets over the edge. Investors dumped Argentine bonds and sold off the peso, prompting the central bank to burn through its foreign currency reserves to prop up the currency.

    That’s when Trump and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stepped in to save their closest political ally in the region.

    The Treasury bought up pesos — the currency that even Argentines distrust — and confirmed a $20 billion swap line to Argentina’s central bank on what Bessent called a “bridge” to the midterms. Bessent said he was working on another $20 billion loan from private banks, and Trump said the U.S. would even boost beef imports from Argentina to bring down U.S. meat prices.

    But it seems that not even such dramatic moves from the world’s biggest economy could restore faith in the famously volatile peso. Argentine investors — who can more easily take money out of Argentina since Milei’s government scrapped capital controls this year — continued ditching pesos. The currency slid to a new record low of 1,476 per dollar Monday.

    “It’s the managerial class changing their pesos furiously into dollars who are sabotaging Milei,” said Christopher Ecclestone, a strategist with investment bank Hallgarten & Company.

    Washington’s multibillion-dollar rescue of Argentina has unleashed backlash across the political spectrum — and the Western Hemisphere.

    In the U.S., Democratic and Republican lawmakers, farmers, ranchers and Trump supporters have increasingly questioned the merits of showering money on a serial defaulter and rival agricultural exporter.

    In Argentina, Trump’s warning that U.S. assistance was contingent on Milei’s victory in the vote breathed new life into the opposition Peronist party, which urged Argentines long wary of U.S. interventionism to punish Milei on Sunday.

    “Compatriots, Argentina is a country too great and dignified to depend on the whims of a foreign leader,” said former Peronist President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in a video message Thursday from her Buenos Aires apartment, where she’s serving out a six-year sentence for corruption.

    Markets reeled as investors fretted that the U.S. aid might not come at all. Consultants tried to parse Trump’s cryptic demand that Milei clinch a congressional victory. Does it mean Milei increasing his party’s tiny congressional minority? Does it mean securing enough seats to defend his vetoes?

    With only some congressional seats up for renewal, a landslide win for Milei’s party wouldn’t give it a majority in Congress.

    Even Milei’s supporters took to social media to express unease, with many attacking then-Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein for mishandling the situation. Werthein tendered his resignation without explanation late Tuesday.

    Protesters rallied in front of the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, banging pots and setting American flags alight.

    ____

    Associated Press writers Almudena Calatrava and Débora Rey contributed to this report.

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  • Delayed inflation report expected to show US prices ticked up last month

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    WASHINGTON — Friday’s inflation report is likely to show that consumer prices worsened in September for the second straight month as President Donald Trump’s tariffs have lifted the cost of some groceries and other goods.

    The report on the consumer price index is being issued more than a week late because of the government shutdown, now in its fourth week. The Trump administration recalled some Labor Department employees to produce the figures because they are used to set the annual cost-of-living adjustment for roughly 70 million Social Security recipients.

    Friday’s inflation report will be the first comprehensive economic data to be released in more than three weeks and will attract intense interest from Wall Street and officials at the Federal Reserve. Fed officials are cutting their short-term interest rate to buoy the economy and hiring, but they are taking some risk doing so because inflation is still above their 2% target.

    The issues of affordability and the cost of necessities are gaining in political importance. Concerns over the costs of rent and groceries have played a key role in the mayoral race in New York City. And Trump, who has acknowledged that the spike in grocery prices under President Joe Biden helped him win the 2024 election, has been considering importing Argentine beef to reduce record-high U.S. beef prices, angering U.S. cattle ranchers.

    The cost of ground beef has jumped to $6.32 a pound, a record, in part because of tariffs on imports from countries such as Brazil, which faces a 50% duty. Years of drought that have reduced cattle herds have also raised prices.

    Friday’s report is forecast to show that inflation rose 3.1% in September from a year earlier, according to a survey of economists by data provider FactSet. That would be up from 2.9% in August and the highest in 18 months. On a monthly basis, inflation is projected to be 0.4% in September, the same as in August.

    Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation in September was likely 3.1% for the third straight month. On a monthly basis, core prices likely rose 0.3%, economists project, also for the third straight month.

    Such figures are unlikely to deter the Fed from cutting its key rate by another quarter-point when it meets next week, to about 3.9%. It would be the second cut this year and is driven by Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s concerns that hiring is weakening and poses a threat to the economy.

    Even as inflation has fallen sharply from its peak of 9.1% more than three years ago, it remains a major concern for consumers. About half of all Americans say the cost of groceries is a “major” source of stress, according to an August poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

    And the Conference Board, a business research group, finds that consumers are still referencing prices and inflation in responses to its monthly survey on consumer confidence.

    Still, inflation has not risen as much as many economists feared when Trump first announced a sweeping set of tariffs. Many importers built up inventories of goods before the duties took effect, while Trump reduced many import taxes, including as part of trade deals with China, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

    And many economists, as well as some Fed officials, expect that the tariffs will create a one-time lift to prices that will fade by early next year. At the same time, inflation excluding the tariffs is cooling, they argue: Rental price increases, for example, are declining on average nationwide.

    Yet Trump is imposing tariffs in an ongoing fashion that could raise prices in a more sustained fashion.

    For example, the Trump administration is investigating whether to slap 100% tariffs on imports from Nicaragua over alleged human rights violations. The prospect of such steep duties is a major headache for Dan Rattigan, the co-founder of premium chocolate maker French Broad, based in Asheville, N.C.

    “We’ve been shouldering some significant additional costs,” Rattigan said. The United States barely produces any cocoa, so his company imports it from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Uganda. The imports from Nicaragua were duty-free because the country had a trade agreement with the United States, but now faces an 18% import tax.

    Cocoa prices have more than doubled over the past two years because of poor weather and blights in West Africa, which produces more than 70% of the world’s cocoa. The tariffs are an additional hit on top of that. Rattigan is also paying more for almonds, hazelnuts, and chocolate-making equipment from Italy, which has also been hit with tariffs.

    French Broad raised its prices slightly earlier this year and doesn’t have any plans to do so again. But after the winter holidays, “all bets are off … in what is a very unpredictable business climate,” Rattigan said.

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  • In Japan and South Korea, Trump will promote big investments. But the details are still not clear

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    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is going to Japan and South Korea next week to promote an epic financial windfall — at least $900 billion in investments for U.S. factories, a natural gas pipeline and other projects.

    Japan and South Korea made those financial commitments in August to try to get Trump to ratchet down his planned tariff rates from 25% to 15%. But as the U.S. president is set to depart Friday night for Asia, the pledges are more of a loose end than money in the bank for American industry.

    Japan pledged $550 billion in investments, but it wants the money to benefit its own companies, making that a condition in a memorandum released in September. As of Monday, Japan has a new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, who has expressed respect for Trump but is operating in an untested coalition government.

    South Korea offered $350 billion — but wants a swap line for U.S. dollars to facilitate its investments and seeks to fund the transactions through loan guarantees. Otherwise, the commitment could sink its own economy.

    The investment arrangements are unusual for trade frameworks, and Trump maintains that he will personally direct how the money is spent, enabling him to pick winners and losers. Weeks of talks have yet to produce any breakthroughs on how the investments would go forward even though both nations want to preserve their relationship with America.

    Still, ahead of the trip, Trump was radiating optimism that his tariffs had forced investments to fuel what he believes will be an economic boom starting next year.

    “We’ve done well, as you know, with Japan, with South Korea,” Trump told Republican senators Tuesday. “Without the tariffs, you could have never made the deal. I’ll tell you what. Tariffs equal national security.”

    For Trump, the investments are also about demonstrating America’s strength before a planned meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping while he is in South Korea. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Monday described Trump’s strategy in part as “encouraging allied investment in America’s industrial future” to counter Chinese manufacturers.

    But Japan and South Korea are also competing against China — which is pivoting aggressively into electric vehicles, computer chips and other technologies. There is a risk that mandating investment in the U.S. could weaken allies that are closer geographically to China, said Christopher Smart, managing partner at the Arbroath Group, a geopolitical strategy firm.

    “They need to invest in their own countries,” said Smart, who was a senior economic aide in the Obama White House. He said Trump was “going to extract investment money” from the countries while also erecting “tariff walls” that could make it harder for them to sell goods in America, a rather lopsided view of how alliances work.

    Few experts believe Japan and South Korea would agree with the Trump administration’s framing that their U.S. investments are a way to compete against China.

    “It is really about lowering tariffs and avoiding Trump’s wrath,” said Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Asia Policy Studies.

    There is an expectation that Japan and South Korea both want to resolve any hurdles on the investments and will take steps to achieve “progress” in talks with Trump, said William Chou, a senior fellow focused on Japan at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.

    Chou pointed to Nippon Steel’s agreement to purchase U.S. Steel this year as an example of how Japan can work with the Trump administration. The president had initially opposed the merger, but later backed it with an agreement that gave the U.S. government some control over the acquired company.

    Similarly, the memorandum of understanding on Japan’s $550 million investment would also give the U.S. government input on how the money would be spent. It provides for a committee led by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to propose investments, giving Japan 45 days to respond, with the understanding that the deals would give preference to Japanese contractors and suppliers.

    “Japan came through with the paperwork,” Lutnick said in a September CNBC interview. “They gave us $550 billion to invest for the benefit of America, build the Alaska pipeline, build nuclear power plants, make your grid better, do generic antibiotics in America.”

    South Korea has yet to finalize a written agreement with the U.S. on the $350 billion investment, a problem as higher U.S. tariff rates still apply to its autos. South Korean officials have balked at U.S. demands for upfront payments, which they say would put the country at risk of a financial crisis. Instead, they have proposed delivering the investment through loans and loan guarantees.

    Returning to South Korea on Sunday after talks in Washington, Kim Yong-beom, presidential chief of staff for policy, told reporters there had been progress, although he declined to provide specifics.

    “We’re nearing an agreement that there should be mutually beneficial (deals) that the Republic of Korea can endure,” Kim said. “The U.S. fully recognizes and understands possible shocks on the foreign exchange market in the Republic of Korea.”

    The proposed South Korean investment represents more than 80% of its foreign currency reserves. South Korea has proposed a currency swap with the U.S. to ease potential financial instability caused by the investment, but no agreement has been reached yet.

    The Sept. 4 immigration raid by Trump’s government on a Hyundai auto plant in Georgia, causing the detention of more than 300 South Koreans, has also strained the relationship. It came less than two weeks after Trump met South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, and led to calls in South Korea to ensure that its workers operating in the U.S. have legal protections.

    Since that raid, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry has said the United States has now agreed to allow in South Korean workers on short-term visas or a visa waiver program to help build industrial sites in America.

    Lee has said South Korean companies will likely hesitate to make further investments in the U.S. unless it improves its visa system.

    “When you build a factory or install equipment at a factory, you need technicians, but the United States doesn’t have that workforce and yet they won’t issue visas to let our people stay and do the work,” Lee said last month.

    Trump has said his tariffs will spur new investments that ultimately will produce jobs for U.S. citizens.

    “Without tariffs, it’s a slog for this country, a big slog,” Trump said Wednesday.

    ___

    Kim reported from Seoul.

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  • Japan’s exports and imports grow in September despite Trump’s tariffs

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    Japan’s exports grew 4.2% in September, according to government data, on robust shipments to Asia that offset the decline to those destined for the U.S., which were impacted by President Donald Trump’s tariffs

    TOKYO — TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s exports grew 4.2% in September, according to government data Wednesday, on robust shipments to Asia that offset a decline in exports to the U.S., which were impacted by President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

    Japan’s exports to Asia jumped 9.2% last month compared to the same period a year earlier, according to Japanese Ministry of Finance data.

    Exports to the U.S. dropped 13.3%, marking the sixth straight month of on-year declines, while those to China surged 5.8% compared to last year.

    Auto shipments to the U.S. dropped 24.2% in September. Automakers like Toyota Motor Corp. are pillars of Japan’s economy.

    Japan’s imports edged up 3.3% in September overall, growing 6% in Asia, including a 9.8% rise in imports from China.

    The findings come a day after Sanae Takaichi was chosen in a parliamentary vote as the nation’s prime minister, becoming the first woman to lead Japan.

    She is known for nationalist-leaning conservative views but is also seen as a proponent of bigger public spending, which has sent share prices generally rising in Tokyo in recent sessions.

    Takaichi has also promised higher wages, as well as looser monetary policy, which would favor a weak Japanese yen. That would be a boon for the nation’s giant exporters by raising the value of overseas earnings when converted into yen.

    Takaichi faces an uphill battle in realizing her policies because the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, even with coalition partners, does not have a majority in either house of parliament. Her own party remains divided.

    Trump, who is expected to visit Japan later this month to meet with Takaichi, announced a trade framework with Japan in July that placed a 15% tax on Japanese goods.

    At that time, Japan promised to invest $550 billion into the U.S. and open its economy more to American automobiles and rice. The 15% tax on imported Japanese goods was a significant drop from the 25% rate that Trump had said earlier.

    ___

    Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama

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  • GM boosts full-year outlook as it foresees a smaller impact from tariffs and 3Q results top Street

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    General Motors anticipates a smaller impact from tariffs and is boosting its full-year adjusted earnings forecast as its third-quarter performance topped Wall Street’s expectations.

    Shares surged more than 9% before the market open on Tuesday.

    The automaker reduced its expectations for the full-year gross impact from tariffs to a range of $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion. Its previous guidance was $4 billion to $5 billion. GM anticipates its tariff mitigation actions will offset about 35% of the impact due to a lower tariff base.

    On Friday President Donald Trump gave domestic automakers additional relief from tariffs on auto parts, extending what was supposed to have been a short-term rebate until 2030. It’s part of a proclamation Trump signed Friday that also made official a 25% import tax on medium and heavy duty trucks, starting Nov. 1.

    The action reflected the administration’s efforts to use tariffs to promote American manufacturing while also trying to shield the auto sector from the higher costs that Trump’s import taxes have created for parts and raw materials.

    “The MSRP offset program will help make U.S.-produced vehicles more competitive over the next five years, and GM is very well positioned as we invest to increase our already significant domestic sourcing and manufacturing footprint,” GM CEO Mary Barra said in a letter to shareholders.

    For the three months ended Sept. 30, GM earned $1.33 billion, or $1.35 per share. A year earlier the automaker earned $3.06 billion, or $2.68 per share.

    Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $2.80 per share. That easily beat the $2.28 per share that analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research were calling for.

    Revenue totaled $48.59 billion, topping Wall Street’s estimate of $44.27 billion.

    GM now foresees full-year adjusted earnings between $9.75 and $10.50 per share. Its prior outlook was for $8.25 to $10 per share. Analysts polled by FactSet predict full-year earnings of $9.46 per share.

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  • Ultraconservative Sanae Takaichi on track to become Japan’s first female prime minister

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    TOKYO — TOKYO (AP) — Sanae Takaichi is on track to become Japan’s first female prime minister, after her governing party secured a crucial coalition partner.

    Takaichi, 64, is set to replace Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tuesday’s parliamentary vote. If she’s successful, it would end Japan’s three-month political vacuum and wrangling since the coalition’s loss in the July parliamentary election.

    The moderate centrist Komeito party had split from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party after a 26-year-long coalition. It came just days after Takaichi’s election as LDP leader, and forced her into a desperate search for a new coalition partner to secure votes so that she can become prime minister.

    The Buddhist-backed Komeito left after raising concerns about Takaichi’s ultraconservative politics and the LDP’s lax response to corruption scandals that led to the party’s consecutive election defeats and loss of majority in both houses.

    While the leaders of the country’s top three opposition parties failed to unite to seek a change of government, Takaichi went for a quick fix by teaming up with the most conservative of them: the Osaka-based Ishin no Kai, or Japan Innovation Party. The two parties on Monday signed a coalition agreement that includes joint policy goals on diplomacy, security and energy.

    The fragile new coalition, still a minority in the legislature, would need cooperation from other opposition groups to pass any legislation.

    Big diplomatic tests await the government within days — talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and regional summits. At home, Takaichi needs to quickly tackle rising prices and come up with economic stimulus measures to appease the frustrated public.

    An admirer of former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Takaichi’s breaking of the glass ceiling makes history in a country whose gender equality ranks poorly internationally.

    But many women aren’t celebrating, and some see her impending premiership as a setback.

    “The prospect of a first female prime minister doesn’t make me happy,” sociologist Chizuko Ueno posted on X. Ueno said that Takaichi’s leadership would elevate Japan’s gender equality ranking, but “that doesn’t mean Japanese politics becomes kinder to women.”

    Takaichi, an ultraconservative star of her male-dominated party, is among those who have stonewalled measures for women’s advancement. Takaichi supports the imperial family’s male-only succession, opposes same-sex marriage and a revision to the civil law allowing separate last names for married couples, so women don’t get pressured into abandoning theirs.

    “Ms. Takaichi’s policies are extremely hawkish and I doubt she would consider policies to recognize diversity,” said Chiyako Sato, a political commentator and senior writer for the Mainichi newspaper.

    If she’s successful in the parliamentary vote, Takaichi would immediately launch her Cabinet on Tuesday and make a policy speech later in the week.

    A protege of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Takaichi is expected to emulate his economic and security policies.

    She would have only a few days to prepare for diplomatic talks at regional summits, and with Trump in between. She is expected to keep ties with China and South Korea stable, despite concerns over her revisionist views on wartime history and past visits to the Yasukuni Shrine.

    The shrine honors Japan’s 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals. Victims of Japanese aggression, especially China and the Koreas, see visits to the shrine as a lack of remorse about Japan’s wartime past.

    Takaichi supports a stronger military, currently undergoing a five-year buildup with the annual defense budget doubled to 2% of gross domestic product by 2027. Trump is expected to demand that Japan increase its military spending to NATO targets of 5% of GDP, and purchase more U.S. weapons.

    Takaichi also needs to follow up on Japan’s pledge of investing $550 billion in the U.S. as part of a U.S. tariff deal.

    Her policy plans have focused on short-term measures such as battling rising prices and improving salaries and subsidies, as well as restrictions against a growing foreign population as Japan faces a rise in xenophobia. Takaichi hasn’t addressed bigger issues like demographic challenges.

    Takaichi’s mission is to regain conservative votes by pushing the party further to the right. The LDP’s coalition with the right-wing JIP may fit Takaichi’s view.

    On Friday, Takaichi sent a religious ornament instead of going to the Yasukuni Shrine, apparently to avoid a diplomatic dispute with Beijing and Seoul. She also reached out to smaller opposition groups, including the far-right Sanseito, apparently in a bid to bring her coalition closer to securing a majority in parliament.

    “There is no room for Takaichi to show her true colors. All she can do is cooperate per policy,” said Masato Kamikubo, a Ritsumeikan University political science professor. “It’s a pathetic situation.”

    Many observers expect a Takaichi government wouldn’t last long and an early election may follow this year.

    Experts also raised concerns about how Takaichi, a fiscal expansionist, can coordinate economic policies with Ishin’s fiscal conservative views.

    “The era of LDP domination is over and we are entering the era of multiparty politics. The question is how to form a coalition,” Sato said, noting a similar trend in Europe. “We need to find a Japanese way of forming a coalition and a stable government.”

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