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The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged today — that was expected. Unexpected: Chair Jerome Powell said he would stay on as a Fed governor after his role as chair ends in a few weeks. It will be the first time since 1948 that a Fed chair has done so.

Powell’s continued presence will likely make it harder for President Donald Trump to get the lower interest rates he wants once Kevin Warsh, his nominee to succeed Powell, is confirmed. Warsh’s nomination moved a step closer to confirmation today. We’ve got more on that below, plus the latest earnings from Big Tech and the first bill from the Iran war.

But first, my colleague Carla Javier checks in on the farm bill, a super important piece of legislation that hasn’t been updated since Powell first took over the Fed. — Carrie Barber, newsletter editor
A green tractor with yellow wheels drives across a an open space, dust kicking up in its wake.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Who will land in the farm bill’s safety net?
The sweeping law that governs crop insurance, conservation programs, and nutrition assistance is up at one of the toughest moments for farmers in recent memory.
The farm bill sets the “rules of the road” for the food and farm economies, said Michael Happ, program associate for climate and rural communities at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. 
 
“It's got 12 sections or titles, things ranging from commodities and crop insurance to conservation and nutrition,” he said.
 
Nutrition programs, he said, help folks pay for food at grocery stores — part of farmers’ income — and policies in the farm bill set the payments and assistance some farmers receive.
 
During a drought last year, Scott Myers lost almost half his hay crop at Woodlyn Acres, his family’s organic farm in Ohio. But hay insurance, which is federally subsidized under the farm bill, made a big difference.
 
“It didn't make us money, but in the end, it did help bring us up to where we at least broke even for the year,” he said.
 
Not everyone is eligible for that type of support, though.
 
“I don't have access to any of that kind of a safety net in the farm bill,” said Hannah Bernhardt, who raises grass-fed beef and lamb, and pastured pork, at Medicine Creek Farm in Minnesota. “The only place I can get some help from is through those conservation programs.”
READ MORE


 
News you should know
Let’s do the numbers
  • Fat profits from Starbucks and other big companies helped keep Wall Street steady today . The S&P 500 edged down less than 0.1%, the Dow dropped 0.6%, and the Nasdaq inched up by less than 0.1%.

  • A barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, jumped to $110.44 today. A gallon of regular gas rose also, averaging about $4.23.

  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave lawmakers the first accounting of the cost of the Iran war today: $25 billion and counting since the end of February. 

  • Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Google all reported quarterly earnings after the bell, each clearing analyst expectations. Apple reports tomorrow. 
  • Black unemployment is rising; in March, it was 7.1%, nearly twice the rate of white workers. Trump administration policies are driving the jump, an economist told us, including DOGE federal workforce cuts.

The Federal Reserve
  • Jerome Powell plans to remain on the Fed board as a governor after his term as chair ends next month, he said today, citing concerns about the central bank’s independence. By staying on, Powell denies President Trump a chance to fill a seat with his own appointee. 

  • On today’s “Marketplace,” listen to a recap of Powell’s eight-year tenure in 90 seconds.

Corporate America
  • After three years of extra capacity that drove down pricing power, the trucking industry is turning around. It’s not because there’s more demand, but rather fewer drivers.

  • Companies are issuing record amounts of corporate debt this year, even though the Iran war pushed up yields. Analysts say that could continue, especially as tech companies finance AI projects.


QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The old joke is that they sleep like babies. They wake up every two hours, crying.”
— Joshua Brown, of Spektrum Labs, on his fellow chief information security officers
And now, it seems every two hours is not gonna cut it. Anthropic says its latest and greatest AI model, Mythos, is too dangerous to release to the public because it’s so good at uncovering security vulnerabilities. Cybersecurity is a cat-and-mouse game, and experts told us artificial intelligence could help both sides move faster to find and patch “zero-day” exploits.
HEAR MORE
Fredy Builes/Getty Images
Final note
No more Ticketmaster fees? Don’t hold your breath
A federal jury recently found the company and its owner Live Nation maintained an illegal monopoly on live events, overcharging concertgoers by … $1.72 a ticket.  Don’t expect concert tickets to get cheaper anytime soon, as my colleague Camila Trimberger-Ruiz explains in this video.
WATCH NOW
 
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