The Fed folds

Some 16 years ago, the financial crisis nearly collapsed the global economy. Wall Street came in for much of the blame, and over the next decade or so governments searched for ways to avoid similar disasters. In the US, the Federal Reserve wanted banks to hold more capital, with the eight largest banks facing a 19% increase in a recent proposal. Such beefed-up requirements would have minimal impacts on borrowing, supporters of reform said. Meanwhile, Wall Street is on course to break its own annual profit record this year. Still, in the end, nothing doing: A few words from Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday seemed to indicate that Wall Street’s war on this capital reform framework has been won.

Powell signaled officials would scale back plans to make banks hold more capital, telling lawmakers the government’s blueprint was in for “broad and material changes” and that a complete do-over was possible. The heads of the biggest banks had been in attack mode when they testified before the Senate Banking Committee in December. One by one, they claimed their institutions were safe and that everyday Americans would be made to pay the price for any tougher rules aimed at protecting them. The about face by Powell caught most Fed watchers off guard. Kathryn Judge, a professor at Columbia Law School who advised the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Regulation during the Obama era, called Powell’s comments “disheartening.” She said “modifying a rule in light of feedback is quite different than abandoning it entirely.” —David E. Rovella

The US economy has expanded at a modest pace since earlier in the year, while consumers showed more sensitivity to rising prices, the Fed said in its survey of regional business contacts. Consumer spending, particularly on retail goods, inched down in recent weeks, the report said. Businesses found it harder to pass through higher costs to their customers, who became increasingly sensitive to price changes. If the economy evolves broadly as expected, the Fed is likely to begin dialing back policy interest rates at some point this year.

Boeing officials have failed to fully cooperate with US investigators looking into how a panel blew off a 737 Max 9 in January, according to testimony at a Senate hearing Wednesday. The National Transportation Safety Board hasn’t received all the documents and information it has sought from Boeing since the dramatic incident, agency Chair Jennifer Homendy told lawmakers.

Commercial real estate lender New York Community Bancorp received an equity investment of more than $1 billion, gaining a vote of confidence from investors including former Trump administration Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The capital injection was led by his Liberty Strategic Capital, Hudson Bay Capital and Reverence Capital Partners, NYCB said in a statement Wednesday. The shares of the troubled lender erased an earlier plunge after the announcement. The stock has lost more than three-quarters of its value this year after NYCB slashed its dividend and set aside more provisions than expected for loan losses. Last week, it announced it was replacing its chief executive and had identified “material weaknesses” in how it tracks loan risks.

Deutsche Bank cut the bonus pool at its investment banking division by more than 10% after a slump in deals and a slowdown in trading last year. Staff advising on mergers and acquisitions were said to see some of the deepest reductions. Overall, Deutsche Bank’s bonus pool was down by about 5%.

But for others in finance, there are worse things. Fidelity International is cutting around 1,000 employees globally this year. The firm will fire about 9% of its staff across all business lines and regions as it adjusts to a more challenging economic environment. The asset-management industry has been buffeted over the past two years, first by declines in stock and bond markets in 2022 and then by investors who grew skittish over higher interest rates. Other big money managers, including Blackrock, Wellington Management and T. Rowe Price Group have already terminated workers as well.

The Biden administration is weighing whether it can tap around $200 million in US Army funding to provide Ukraine immediate support as a larger aid package remains blocked by Republicans in Congress. In Europe, Ukraine’s allies there have lined up nearly all the funding required for a Czech-led initiative to purchase hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds. The commitments mean the shells could be delivered to Ukraine in a matter of weeks. Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Denmark, Canada and France back the Czech plan to buy non-European Union ammunition, while Poland has expressed interest, Bloomberg reported earlier. Kyiv faces a stepped-up Russian onslaught on land, but at sea, Ukraine’s forces destroyed another Russian ship and the UK is said to be considering loaning Ukraine frozen Russian assets.

Egypt delivered its biggest-ever interest-rate hike and allowed its currency to weaken more than 38% in a long-awaited devaluation that may pave the way for billions of dollars more in loans from the International Monetary Fund. The devaluation may stoke inflation and hurt Egyptians in the short term, but President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is banking on the reforms attracting foreign investors back to the country of 105 million people—whose stability is seen as crucial for the wider Middle East—and ending its worst economic crisis in decades.

When Uno Jang was growing up in South Korea, his go-to drink was the soju bomb—a shot glass of soju dropped into a large beer mug and then chugged. Now, as creative director at Jigger & Pony in Singapore (No. 14 on the World’s 50 Best Bars list), Jang has updated his old standby. The Korean Boilermaker is made by mixing hop-infused craft soju with carbonated mineral water, a splash of rye whiskey, pear eau de vie and passion fruit syrup. The cocktail is served with an L-shaped cocktail stir that raises and lowers a large, rectangular ice cube to produce the frothy head of a freshly drawn beer. It’s one of the most popular drinks on Jigger & Pony’s menu. Soju meanwhile is catching on everywhere.

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