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The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House

Kamala Harris on Friday unveiled parts of her economic programme, including new tax relief for families and homebuyers and a crackdown on price gouging, as she tries to persuade voters she can tackle a cost of living crisis that has dogged the Biden administration.

The Democratic presidential candidate laid out the plans in a speech in North Carolina, a battleground state where her Republican rival Donald Trump delivered his own speech on economic policy earlier this week.

Trump and Harris are battling for votes with just over 80 days to go before November’s US presidential election. The Republican candidate has railed against inflation while vowing to drive down fuel and housing costs and setting out his own protectionist economic agenda.

Harris said that if elected president, she would be “laser-focused on creating opportunities for the middle class that advance their economic security, stability and dignity”. The vice-president said she would lay out more economic plans in the weeks to come, but on Friday focused on her proposals to reduce the cost of living.

“Look, the bills add up. Food, rent, gas, back to school, clothes, prescription medication, after all that, for many families, there’s not much left at the end of the month,” she said. “I will take on the high costs that matter most to most Americans.”

The most significant of Harris’s proposals include a $6,000 tax credit for families with newborn children, an expansion of an existing credit for families with older children to $3,600 per year, and up to $25,000 in downpayment support for first-time homebuyers.

Harris, who replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate last month, has pulled ahead of Trump in some polls but is under pressure to come up with her own detailed economic plan. Biden struggled to convince Americans that he had a plan to quell inflation, which jumped to a multi-decade high in 2022 but has drifted lower since then.

Harris’s plan to make housing more affordable will also include a goal of building 3mn housing units in four years.

The vice-president will also try to ban so-called price gouging on food and groceries, designed to stop corporations from “unfairly” running up profits, and will propose giving the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys-general the power to penalise companies that do not comply.

Harris and Trump have traded barbs in recent days over who would be better positioned to shepherd the US economy. Trump, a former real estate executive, on Thursday held a press conference at his New Jersey country club, flanked by groceries as he accused Harris of being a “radical California liberal who broke the economy, broke the border and broke the world, frankly”. On Friday, the Trump campaign said “comrade Kamala” had gone “full communist” by proposing to fix prices for consumer goods.

Harris on Friday sought to draw a contrast between Trump’s proposals, including a vow to extend his 2017 tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals, and her own.

“Donald Trump fights for billionaires and large corporations,” she said. “I will fight to give money back to working and middle-class Americans.”

Trump has long enjoyed an advantage in the eyes of voters when it comes to economic issues. But the most recent FT-Michigan Ross poll found voters were slightly more likely to say they trusted Harris over Trump to handle the economy, with 42 per cent trusting Harris and 41 per cent backing Trump.

The University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment, which came out on Friday, showed sentiment among Democrats had improved by 6 per cent after Harris replaced Biden at the top of the presidential ticket, and rose 3 per cent among independents. Sentiment fell among Republicans by 5 per cent over the same period.

Additional reporting by Peter Wells and Eva Xiao in New York

Nearly half of former President Donald Trump’s financial assets returned no income—or income measured at less than $201—new financial filings show.

The documents were released by the Federal Election Commission and are the first public insight into the Republican presidential nominee’s earnings in the lead-up to the presidential election. The disclosure is more than 250 pages and lists all of Trump’s incomes, investments, debts and business interests. There is also a section dedicated to “Spouse’s Employment Assets & Income and Retirement Accounts” regarding Melania Trump’s income.

Under the section titled “Filer’s Employment Assets & Income and Retirement Accounts,” there are 452 listings, with income types including rent, royalties, interest, sales proceeds, management fees, license fees, business income and more. Of these listings, 205 returned no income or less than $201.

Inactive assets accounted for 67 of Trump’s listings that returned no income or less than $201. Thirty-three of the listings returning no income were dissolved in 2023. Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign by email for comment.

Despite the low income for so many of Trump’s assets, the Republican presidential nominee received a financial boost from many others, including $56.9 million in resort-related revenue at Mar-a-Lago. Other resorts in which Trump is involved also were lucrative, including TIGL Ireland Enterprises in Doonbeg, Ireland, which brought in more than $16 million in resort-related revenue.

Trump also raked in millions from several other holdings, including nearly $5 million from THC Miami Restaurant Hospitality LLC and more than $8 million from THC Sales & Marketing LLC based in New York. The Trump Corporation management company in New York and Florida brought in more than $24 million.

Trump’s various golf clubs across the nation proved especially lucrative, with Trump National Charlotte in North Carolina bringing in more than $25 million. Trump National Jupiter in Florida, which DJT Holdings owns 99 percent of, brought in $33.5 million in “golf-related revenue.” Trump National Washington, D.C., in Virginia earned more than $28 million, with Trump National Westchester in New York bringing in more than $12.7 million.

The filings also revealed some of Trump’s financial woes, such as owing more than $100 million in liabilities regarding his legal troubles in New York. Judgments against Trump in the two civil lawsuits brought against him by E. Jean Carroll are listed in the disclosure. The document also listed more than $50 million in liabilities stemming from the New York civil fraud case brought against Trump by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

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Shares in German pills-to-weedkiller conglomerate Bayer jumped 11 per cent on Friday after the group scored a key win in a US appeals court over the labelling of its allegedly carcinogenic herbicide Roundup.

An appeals court in Philadelphia on Thursday ruled that Bayer did not violate US state law when it failed to add a cancer warning to its Roundup products, which uses glyphosate as its active ingredient.

Bayer has been ensnared in complex and costly legal battles over the weedkiller since 2018, fighting cases in multiple US states.

The Leverkusen-based firm, which became embroiled in the glyphosate litigation through its ill-fated $63bn takeover of US rival Monsanto in 2016, is facing damages claims from thousands of US citizens who blame Roundup for giving them cancer and accuse Bayer of failing to warn about the risk. The German conglomerate maintains that the product is safe and says scientific research supports that view.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled unanimously on Thursday that federal regulations superseded a Pennsylvania state law, meaning Bayer did not need to place a warning on the pesticide.

The verdict opens the door for Bayer to have the legal issue reviewed by the US Supreme Court, as it is at odds with previous ones by other federal appellate courts.

The court said federal law required health warnings on pesticides to confirm to those required by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act rather than state law.

The legal saga was caused by conflicting views of from different authorities on the potential carcinogenic effects of glyphosate. The US Environmental Protection Agency maintains its assessment that the chemical created “no risks of concern to human health when glyphosate is used in accordance with its current label.” But in 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer had labelled glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

In 2020, Bayer struck a $10.9bn settlement over a wave of Roundup lawsuits, and set aside another $4.5bn a year later. After losing several court cases, which dragged down the share price heavily, it embarked on a lobbying effort to persuade US states to pass legislation that would cut billions of dollars in liabilities and reduce the legal threat from the litigation saga.

Shares in Bayer were trading at €29.20 on Friday, having risen by 11 per cent in morning trading. The company’s stock is still down more than 40 per cent over the past 12 months, giving it a market valuation of €29bn.

Bayer said in a statement that it was “pleased” with the latest court ruling, adding that the decision created a “circuit split among the federal appellate courts and necessitates a review by the US Supreme Court to settle this important issue of law.”

If the Supreme Court were to share the view of the Philadelphia appeals court, Bayer would be off the hook over bulk of the glyphosate damage claims, according to a person familiar with the matter.

However, it may still decide not to review the case. Previous attempts by the company to get a supreme court ruling on the matter were unsuccessful.

Bayer on Friday said that it stands “fully behind its Roundup products”, arguing that “the weight of scientific evidence and the conclusions of expert regulators worldwide continue to support the safety of glyphosate-based herbicides and that they are not carcinogenic”.