Business & Economy

On the Money — Student borrowers stare down rising prices

Happy Friday and welcome to On The Money, your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. Subscribe here: digital-stage.thehill.com/newsletter-signup

Today’s Big Deal: Millions of Americans will be on the hook for their student loans in May as prices continue to rise. We’ll also look at President Biden’s new Federal Reserve nominees and the impact of the expiration of the expanded child tax credit. 

But first, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has some complaints about “Succession.” 

For The Hill, we’re Sylvan Lane, Aris Folley and Karl Evers-Hillstrom. Reach us at slane@digital-stage.thehill.com or @SylvanLane, afolley@digital-stage.thehill.com or @ArisFolley and kevers@digital-stage.thehill.com or @KarlMEvers

Let’s get to it. 

 

Rising inflation adds pain to student loan debt 

Student loan borrowers will face a serious squeeze this spring when a federal moratorium on their debt payments expires amid surging inflation.

Tens of millions of Americans are bracing to resume paying their student loans for the first time since March 2020, after the fastest annual rise in consumer prices since 1982. The costs of food, housing and other essential goods are rising while millions of Americans feel the crushing weight of student debt.

A White House official, when asked about rising inflation and the impact on borrowers, pointed to Biden’s plan to reduce prices by going after meat processors and directing the biggest oil reserve release in history. 

“The President knows the kind of squeeze that can put on working families, which is why he’s using every tool at his disposal to bring those prices down,” the official told The Hill. 

Even so, those efforts could take months — if not years — to yield lower prices and only in certain sectors of the economy.

Read more here

Headed to the Fed? 

President Biden on Friday announced the nominations of three top Federal Reserve officials, lining up a full slate for the Fed Board of Governors.

Biden formally announced the nominations of former Treasury Department Deputy Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin to serve as Fed vice chair of supervision and of Michigan State University professor Lisa Cook and Davidson College professor Philip Jefferson to serve as Fed board members.  

If confirmed by the Senate, all three would join the Board of Governors to oversee its operations, help set U.S. monetary policy and control the Fed’s supervision and regulation of major banks.

Sylvan has more here.

 

FAMILIES LOSE MONTHLY CHECKS

Millions of families to lose child tax credit checks starting this weekend 

Millions of families this weekend will stop receiving monthly child tax payments for the first time in months after Congress failed to pass an extension of the expanded credit. 

As lawmakers struggle to revive talks to renew the expansion, more than 30 million families that have been receiving the monthly payments since July will not see another round on Saturday.

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, said he is hopeful the expanded child tax credit will be able to remain in a revamped version of the plan that could win Manchin’s support. But he acknowledged that Manchin, who has criticized the benefit’s structure, is “not big on that one.” 

Aris has more here

 

WHITE HOUSE WEIGHS IN

Top Biden economic adviser gets behind ban on congressional stock trades 

White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said Friday that barring members of Congress from trading stocks is a “sensible” idea that could help restore trust in government. 

His comments, which came during an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” add momentum to a growing bipartisan push to bar lawmakers and their immediate family members from owning or trading securities.   

“There’s a lot of distrust and mistrust around how politics works, around the political process,” Deese said. “One of the things that we need to do across the board is restore faith in our institutions, whether that be Congress and the legislative branch, whether that be the Fed and otherwise and so anything we can do to try to restore that faith, I think makes a lot of sense.” 

Lawmakers of both parties have repeatedly introduced bills to end congressional stock trading that failed to receive a vote. They’ll need to convince Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.), who said last month that members of Congress should be able to participate in the “free-market economy.”  

Karl has more here

Good to Know 

Retail sales dropped by 1.9 percent from November to December amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, defying economists’ predictions that sales would remain flat. Still, fourth-quarter retail sales increased 17.1 percent year-over-year.

Here’s what else have our eye on: 

 

ON TAP NEXT WEEK

Wednesday

Thursday

 

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Finance page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you Monday.