This text is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can enroll to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters here
Good morning and welcome back. Today we’re covering:
The rise of presidency spending despite Musk’s cuts
Russia’s rejection of the 30-day ceasefire proposal
Intel appointing a brand new CEO
Widening junk bond spreads
Elon Musk’s hyperactive efficiency drive failed to stop US federal spending rising to a record $603bn last month, recent Treasury data has revealed, highlighting the Trump administration’s difficulty in drastically cutting the scale of presidency.
Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency claims to have already made greater than $100bn of savings, but only a handful of departments registered any drops in spending in the primary full month of the brand new administration, the information reveals.
Overall spending rose by $40bn compared with the identical month last yr on a like-for-like basis, a 7 per cent increase.
The brand new data comes after Musk and his emissaries at Doge have infiltrated several government agencies, including the state and health departments, and various arms of the Treasury. Tens of 1000’s of employees have been suspended or dismissed and 1000’s of presidency grants and contracts have been cancelled.
The brand new figures illustrate the challenge of creating any meaningful impact on government spending by concentrating on cuts, with rises in the fee of healthcare spending, social security outlays and debt servicing dwarfing any savings in departmental budgets.
Brendan Duke, a former economic adviser to Joe Biden’s White House who now works for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said even though it was “early days” for the administration’s cost-cutting drive, the figures were “a useful corrective for the concept the savings might be so large that there might be a Doge dividend that can amount to 1000’s of dollars per family”.
Nonetheless, today marks the deadline for presidency agencies to submit plans for a second wave of lay-offs to slash their budgets. Agencies are required to put their proposals to the White House and the Office of Personnel Management, kicking off a process that would eliminate 1000’s more federal jobs. Read more on the Treasury report.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Economic data: The US Department of Labor is scheduled to release February’s producer price index, a day after the patron price index fell greater than expected.
Results: Dollar General is the most recent retailer to report earnings. It is predicted to have benefited from rising demand for its discounted groceries in addition to non-essential items.
G7: Canadian foreign minister Mélanie Joly hosts two days of talks against a backdrop of rising trade tensions and divisions over Ukraine.
Join FT experts on March 27 for a subscriber-only webinar, as they discuss Ukraine’s future with Russia’s full-scale invasion entering its fourth yr. Register without cost.
Five more top stories
1. A senior aide to Vladimir Putin has dismissed the proposed 30-day ceasefire within the Ukraine war as “nothing apart from a short lived breather for Ukrainian troops”. Yuri Ushakov, the Russian president’s foreign policy adviser, made the comments on state television as Steve Witkoff prepares to travel to Moscow to debate the proposal. This can be a developing story.
2. Intel has appointed Lip-Bu Tan as its chief executive, ending a months-long seek for a brand new leader after the US chipmaker’s board ousted Pat Gelsinger in December. Tan quit the board in August in an apparent disagreement over the corporate’s direction under Gelsinger. Here’s more on the industry veteran’s return to Intel.
3. Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman and Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon have said there are upsides to Trump’s policies, whilst the president’s tariffs have fuelled recession fears. Solomon said chief executives were excited by moves to chop red tape, while Schwarzman said there have been many possible scenarios and “it’s just way too early to play this out”.
4. The US communications regulator is making a national security council to counter Chinese cyber attacks and help it stay ahead of China in critical technologies, equivalent to artificial intelligence. The Federal Communications Commission’s move comes as its remit has broadened within the face of hostile acts by Beijing.
5. Donald Trump has tapped Federal Reserve governor Michelle Bowman to be vice-chair for supervision on the US central bank, a White House official said, elevating a champion of light-touch banking regulation to the post. The move was welcomed by Wall Street.
The Big Read
After three years of war, a possible respite is in sight with Ukraine agreeing a US-brokered 30-day ceasefire with Russia. But many Ukrainians suspect that even when a settlement is reached, Russia won’t honour it and war will resume — and plenty of are prepared to fight on, even without American support.
We’re also reading and watching . . .
Fake fiscal conservatives: Republicans are indulging in budgetary chicanery to preserve Trump’s tax cuts, writes Oren Cass.
Trump, emancipated: Public opinion, which kept him in check last time around, matters far less to a president who can’t run for a 3rd term, writes Janan Ganesh.
$50 a barrel oil: The Trump administration wants crude prices to fall, but while lower prices will profit consumers they may throttle the identical oil industry he desires to expand.
🎬 Nvidia’s rise: Our latest FT film explores the corporate on the centre of the AI boom, and the way it has weathered the fallout from China’s DeepSeek.
Chart of the day
The extra borrowing costs paid by junk-rated US corporations compared with US Treasuries has jumped to a six-month high as concerns grow concerning the risk of a US recession. Junk bond spreads, a crucial measure of perceived risks across US markets, have jumped by 0.56 percentage points since mid-February to a six-month high of three.22 percentage points.
Take a break from the news . . .
Heading to Lagos for a piece trip? Beyond packing plenty of sunscreen, you will even have to know the dos and don’ts of business. Our west Africa correspondent Aanu Adeoye has you covered in the most recent FT Globetrotter guide to business etiquette.
