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The most insane news cycle of the Biden presidency took another bizarre twist this week after ABC’s Chief Political Correspondent and anchor of ‘Good Morning America’ and the Sunday political affairs program, ‘This Week,’ George Stephanopolous, decided to respond to a random person’s question filming him on a cell phone while taking a stroll in Manhattan. 

‘Do you think Biden should step down?’ the man asked. ‘You’ve talked to him more than anybody else has lately.’

But instead of ignoring the question or declining to comment, because this was a person he didn’t know pointing a camera at him, George actually responded. 

‘I don’t think he can serve four more years,’ the 63-year-old said in a clip that has since gone viral. 

He has since apologized for responding to the question, while ABC News was forced to put out a statement: 

‘George expressed his own point of view and not the position of ABC News,’ it reads.

So, instead of the titles of ‘anchor’ or ‘Chief Political Correspondent,’ perhaps Stephanopoulos could be billed as Captain Obvious instead. 

Nearly three-quarters of American voters stand with Captain Obvious on this one, with 74% saying they do not believe Biden should run again. And this was a Wall Street Journal survey taken months before the debate. Other polls taken post-debate have similar results. 

For example, a CBS survey post-debate shows just 27% of the public believes Biden has the cognitive ability to do the job.

So yeah, George, after what we saw on that debate stage on June 27 and the way he conducted himself in his interview with you, which was only 22 minutes because that’s what the president’s team insisted on, maybe Biden should trade in Air Force One for a golf cart. 

It wasn’t long ago that Stephanopolous was offended at the mere prospect of Biden’s mental state being questioned. In June 2023, then-presidential candidate Nikki Haley appeared on his program to make the argument that Kamala Harris was going to be the party nominee because Biden wasn’t going to finish his first term, drawing the anchor’s ire. 

‘A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris,’ Haley said at the time.

‘There’s no way Joe Biden is going to finish his term,’ she continued. ‘I think Kamala Harris is going to be the next president and that should send a chill up every American spine. But also think the fact that we have a primary…’

‘Excuse me, excuse me,’ Stephanopoulos interrupted, scowling. ‘How do you know Joe Biden’s not going to finish his term? What is that based on?’

‘Ask Americans,’ Haley replied. ‘We look at the decline he’s had over the last few years. You have to be honest with the American people, George: There’s no way that Joe Biden is going to finish out a next term. We can’t have an 81-year-old president.’

‘Again, you didn’t answer the question,’ an agitated Stephanopoulos shot back. ‘What evidence do you have that he’s not going to finish the term? What Americans feel has no basis on whether he’s going to finish his term or not?’

How does that defense look now, George? 

The dam cracked even more on Wednesday, with major fundraisers like celebrity heavyweight George Clooney writing in The New York Times that Biden needs to go, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi running to MSNBC to imply the same on Wednesday morning.

The news cycle has never been the worst for any Democratic president going back to Jimmy Carter and the failed attempt to rescue American hostages held in Iran in 1980. 

Since the debate, we’re talking about nearly two weeks of non-stop, blanket coverage talking about Biden’s mental acuity (or lack thereof), or if the president can survive his own party attempting to take him out, or if he has a neurological disorder like Parkinson’s.

Nothing is going right for Democrats as the panic heads to DEFCON-1. And while all of this is happening, a disciplined Donald Trump has mostly stayed above the fray, instead allowing Biden to sink in his own quicksand. 

As Napoleon once said, ‘Never interrupt your enemy when he is destroying himself.’

It’s funny to think about the media coverage of Biden pre-debate: The best was when we heard about how sharp the president is behind closed doors by party allies and fans in the media. 

‘Start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you the truth,’ Biden close friend and Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough said on MSNBC in March. ‘And F— you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second. And I have known him for years. The Brzezinskis have known him for 50 years. If it weren’t the truth I wouldn’t say it.’

Uh-huh.

Yep. Close those doors and when the public can’t see him, Biden is actually doing quadratic equations. He’s explaining how the flux capacitor works. Basically, he’s Stephen Hawking. 

George Stephanopolous thinks Joe Biden should not serve a second term. Another George of the Clooney variety agrees. 

It’s hard to see how this bell unrings itself. And until there’s some kind of clear path forward for the Democratic ticket on the ballot in November, the insanity that is the Biden-led news cycle will continue to go unabated.

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As former President Donald Trump narrows the field of his prospective running mates, a senior official from his previous administration says he may only ask two questions of each candidate before he makes his decision.

Former national security adviser John Bolton told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday that he thinks the questions that are most important to the presumptive GOP nominee are, ‘No. 1, do you think the 2020 election was stolen? And number 2, ‘If I told you to do what I told Mike Pence to do on Jan. 6, would you do it?”

It has been widely reported that three names remain in play for the Republican VP spot: Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. Vance and Burgum are considered front-runners with Rubio more of a long shot.

The former cabinet member said the right answers may move any of those candidates up in Trump’s view, but said at a personal cost, ‘it would be a great loss of integrity for any of those people if they said ‘Yes’ to both those questions,’ Bolton said.

‘I think the highest priority is absolute personal loyalty to him,’ Bolton said of Trump, reminding viewers that although former Vice President Mike Pence was loyal to the former President, on January 6, 2021 when Trump supporters descended on the Capitol, Pence was the one person among senior members of the administration that stood up to Trump saying he did the ‘right thing even when the rest of them failed.’ 

He went on to say of the current VP hopefuls, ‘I don’t know whether these three are capable of doing that, honestly,’.

Trump has hinted that he will announce his choice for running mate at next week’s Republican National Convention. The former president even said he has a good idea who it will be.

Bolton thinks his former boss shouldn’t make the announcement at the RNC next week while Biden’s campaign is still dealing with the question of his mental fitness and ability to lead the country, let alone beat his predecessor in a general election.

‘There’s no news that is gonna come out of the Republican National Convention, other than the vice presidential nomination. Why waste it in a week when the Democrats may still be talking about whether Joe Biden is competent to be president,’ Bolton said.

While it’s widely believed that Vance or Burgum will be the former president’s choice, Bolton warned, ‘I think what we have to remember with Trump is, it’s never final ’til it’s final and then sometimes it’s still not final,’ 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump campaign.

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A former adviser to President Obama broke his silence concerning President Biden’s mental fitness on Wednesday, just hours after a damaging op-ed by actor George Clooney was published in The New York Times calling on the president to quit the 2024 race.

‘It was not surprising to any of us who were at the fundraiser. I was there. Clooney was exactly right, and every single person I talked to at the fundraiser thought the same thing, except for the people working for Joe Biden, or at least they didn’t say that,’ Jon Favreau, a member of the group often referred to as the ‘Obama bros’ during his tenure in the White House, said during an appearance on CNN.

Favreau was citing the same fundraiser as Clooney in his guest essay where the actor claimed the Biden that showed up there was ‘not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.’

Clooney wrote that Democratic Party leaders needed to stop trying to convince Americans they ‘didn’t see what we just saw,’ and accused them of ignoring ‘warning signs’ concerning Biden.

Favreau agreed, telling CNN, ‘I remember my wife, Emily, turned to me after the fundraiser and said, ‘What are we going to do?’ And I said, ‘Well, there is a debate in a week. Either he’ll do well in the debate, and we’ll think he was just tired because he flew all the way back from Europe, and that’ll be that, or he’ll be like this at the debate and then the whole country will be talking about it. So, here we are.’

Favreau’s blunt comments come just a day after he joined two of his fellow advisers and members of the ‘Obama bros’ in dedicating the majority of their latest ‘Pod Save America’ episode to ganging up on Biden following his poor performance in the first presidential debate and in a subsequent interview.

‘I thought it was bad, and, at times, very hard to watch,’ former Obama adviser Tommy Vietor said during the podcast, referencing Biden’s sit-down interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos last week that came as part of an effort by Biden to quell critics calling for him to exit the presidential race.

‘The debate was just a bad night. We all saw it,’ fellow former adviser Jon Lovett said. ‘The explanations are kind of vague… That doesn’t do enough to assuage our concerns about what we saw that night. Right? So, the explanations don’t offer anything.’

Biden has said he will not be leaving the 2024 race, and his campaign is continuing to go ‘full steam ahead,’ as one source put it to Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

Fox News’ Kristine Parks contributed to this report.

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Officials with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) have warned that Russia has launched a plan to interfere in the 2024 election to bolster the chances of former President Trump being re-elected. 

In a briefing with reporters on Tuesday, ODNI officials said that Russia is the ‘preeminent threat’ to the election and that while China doesn’t plan to influence the outcome of the presidential race, the communist nation is being carefully monitored to see if it mingles in down-ballot races. 

‘It’s all the tactics we’ve seen before, primarily through social media, efforts using influential U.S. voices to amplify their narratives and other tactics,’ an official said. ‘And as far as who they’re targeting, what we can say today is, Russia is sophisticated enough to know that, targeting swing state voters is, particularly valuable to them.’

Officials said that the intelligence community expects Russia will increase its underhanded activities as U.S. election day gets closer in order to manipulate public opinion, underscoring the threat to America’s political landscape.

Although former President Trump was not named specifically, ODNI officials said that the Russian interference is mimicking what it says were similar preferences for U.S. presidential candidates seen in previous election cycles.

Russia is ‘undertaking a whole-of-government approach to influence the election, including the presidential race, Congress and public opinion,’ the official said, noting that Russia has grown ‘more sophisticated’ over the years in election interference. 

The Kremlin, officials said, is seeking to influence specific voting groups in swing states, as well as looking to promote divisive narratives and denigrate specific politicians, although no specifics were provided. 

An official said that artificial intelligence (A.I.) is making it easier for Russia – and other actors – to interfere in the U.S. political syatem, since the technology allows Kremlin operatives to mimic American Southern or Midwestern accents.

The Trump campaign and the Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital requests for comment. 

‘Foreign adversaries continue to experiment with and have adopted at least some generative AI tools to more quickly and cheaply generate authentic looking content tailored primarily for social media platforms that can target specific audiences including in the U.S.,’ an ODNI official said during the briefing, noting a heavy focus on its use by Russia and China.

The official added, China would be interested in down-ballot races down to the state and potentially local level. But to be clear, this is something we’re watching at this time, rather than, actively seeing it as we did in the 2022 cycle. Right now, our assessment is focused that China doesn’t perceive a benefit in supporting either candidate, or either party.’

The official said that China is pulling data from TikTok and other social media platforms used in the U.S. in order to spread their influence narratives, as well as to collect publicly available data on users and public opinion. 

Meanwhile, the ODNI official said that Iran is seeking to stoke social divisions among the U.S. population and ‘undermine confidence in the US democratic institutions around the elections.’

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said Tuesday that Iran is attempting through social media to covertly stoke protests in the U.S. against the war in Gaza. 

‘We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters,’ Haines said, adding that Americans protesting in good faith may not know they are being influenced by the Iranian regime. 

‘We urge all Americans to remain vigilant as they engage online with accounts and actors they do not personally know.’

Tuesday’s briefing came on the same day that the Justice Department nabbed an alleged social media ‘bot farm’ run by the Russian government that was being used to spread disinformation in the U.S. and other countries. 

The Justice Department said it seized two domain names and identified 968 social media profiles used by Russian actors in the Netherlands to create AI-enhanced social media profiles to promote messages in support of Russian government objectives. 

One of the fake messages posted on X, formerly Twitter, in 2023 included a video of Russian President Vladimir Putin justifying the country’s actions in Ukraine, although the video only had a handful of views. 

Fox News’ Liz Friden contributed to this report. 

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The youngest son of former President Donald Trump made his debut on the campaign trail.

Barron Trump appeared at his father’s rally in Doral, Florida, on Tuesday night, where he stood for a sustained applause amid praise from Donald.

‘That’s the first time he’s done it. That’s the first time, right?’ Trump said as Barron accepted applause. ‘You’re pretty popular, he might be more popular than Don and Eric, we gotta talk about this. Hey Don, we gotta talk about this.’

‘So Barron, it’s good to have you. Welcome to the scene, Barron,’ Trump continued. ‘He had such a nice, easy life. Now it’s a little bit changed.’

The former president clarified that Barron is set to go to college in the coming semester and has ‘made his choice’ on school, but did not clarify where he would be attending.

Trump has previously praised his 18-year-old son as a ‘smart one,’ adding that the former first son likes to give his dad political advice. 

‘He’s seen it, he doesn’t have to hear it,’ the 2024 presumptive Republican nominee previously told Philadelphia’s Talk Radio 1210 WPHT after the host asked if he had advised Barron on ‘how nasty’ politics can be.

‘He’s a smart one,’ Trump continued. ‘He doesn’t have to hear much, but he’s a great guy. He’s a little on the tall side. I will tell you, he’s a tall one. But he’s a good-looking guy, and he’s really been a great student and he does like politics.’

At one point, the teenager was set to take an active part in Republician Party politics as a delegate for his father.

Republican Party of Florida chairman Evan Power said in May that Barron would serve as one of 41 at-large delegates from Florida to the national gathering, where the GOP is set to officially nominate his father as its presidential candidate for the November general election.

However, this plan proved premature after Barron’s mother — Melania Trump — shut down such plans that same month.

‘While Barron is honored to have been chosen as a delegate by the Florida Republican Party, he regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments,’ Melania Trump’s office said in a statement following the announcement.

Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimon contributed to this report.

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More than a dozen House Democrats locked in tough re-election battles this year have traveled to the White House more than 130 times collectively throughout the past three and a half years for various events.

Though specific explanations for each visit are not provided, the lawmakers’ trips range in date from February 2021 to March 2024, according to White House visitor logs reviewed by Fox News Digital.

The 16 Democratic lawmakers made a combined 133 visits to the White House on different occasions, with President Biden, whose mental acuity and age have been largely called into question ahead of the 2024 election. He was present for roughly 75% of the meetings or gatherings during each visit.

The vulnerable Democrats who have traveled to the White House are Reps. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut (18 times), Susan Wild of Pennsylvania (18 times), Emilia Sykes of Ohio (11 times), Mary Peltola of Alaska (10 times), Eric Sorensen of Illinois (nine times), Vicente Gonzalez of Texas (nine times), Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico (eight times), Yadira Caraveo of Colorado (seven times), Andrea Salinas of Oregon (seven times), Marcy Kaptur of Ohio (seven times), Frank Mrvan of Indiana (seven times), Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania (six times), Angie Craig of Minnesota (five times), Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania (five times), Don Davis of North Carolina (four times), and Jared Golden of Maine (two times).

The 16 vulnerable lawmakers – many of whom have sought to put distance between the Biden administration’s agenda and their district-specific congressional bids – are all seeking re-election to seats that are currently ranked by the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election analyst, as either ‘Democrat Toss Up’ or ‘Lean Democrat.’

Though she has expressed opposition to parts of the Biden administration’s agenda in recent months, Peltola, for instance, has traveled to the White House roughly a dozen times since she joined Congress in September 2022 and previously claimed Biden’s ‘mental acuity is very, very on,’ describing him as one of the ‘smartest, sharpest’ people she met in D.C.

Asked recently whether she believes Biden is fit to serve as president, Peltola, who’s had a handful of small meetings with the president in recent years, told Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, ‘I don’t think there is any benefits to Alaskans weighing in on this issue.… My opinion is irrelevant.’

Peltola, who has endorsed Biden’s re-election bid and is seeking re-election in a state that heavily supported former President Trump in the 2020 presidential election, has faced criticism from her GOP challengers for refusing to take a stand against the Biden administration’s agenda. Earlier this year, she voted ‘present’ on the Alaska’s Right to Produce Act to roll back some of the 63 executive orders Biden has made against the state’s oil and gas economy.

A spokesperson for Peltola’s office, told Fox News Digital, ‘Since Rep. Peltola was elected, she’s attended and brought Alaskans to public events at the White House to share unique Alaskan perspectives with decision-makers, but her biggest motivation for going was her successful push for the Willow Project.’

‘She secured a meeting so she and Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan could advocate for the Willow Project. Because of Rep. Peltola’s advocacy, a project that’s been in limbo for decades will open hundreds of new oil wells and create good-paying Alaskan jobs. The last private conversation she had with the president was when he phoned to offer condolences shortly after her husband passed away last year in September,’ the spokesperson added.

Craig has also made several trips to the White House in recent years, attending events and meetings where Biden was in attendance. But in a split from several members of her party, Craig called for Biden to ‘step aside for the next generation of leadership’ in the 2024 race for the White House.

Craig’s comments, which referenced Biden’s performance at the debate, come as she seeks re-election to represent Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District in the House.

Like Craig, Golden, who attended a White House event with the president last December, has also looked to put some distance between himself and Biden in recent weeks.

‘Biden’s poor performance in the debate was not a surprise,’ Golden said in a Bangor Daily News op-ed. ‘It also didn’t rattle me as it has others, because the outcome of this election has been clear to me for months: While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win. And I’m OK with that.’

Perhaps one of the most vulnerable Democrats seeking re-election, Golden represents Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which supported Trump by a seven-point margin in the 2020 election.

Wild has also sought to put some distance between herself and Biden as she seeks re-election to represent Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, a seat considered a top pick-up opportunity for Republicans in the 2024 election cycle.

Though she hadn’t previously expressed concern about Biden’s fitness for office, Wild said this week that she shares Americans’ concerns ‘about President Biden’s electability at the top of the ticket,’ noting the ‘importance of this election.’

Like many of her colleagues, Wild has attended several meetings and events at the White House since 2021. In March, she attended a 12-person meeting with Biden at the White House.

Davis, who has attended at least one small meeting with the president at the White House, has also raised concerns about Biden’s electability, saying in a statement this month that if Biden ‘is going to stay in, he needs to step up.’

Other Democrats who have traveled to the White House in recent years to attend meetings and events with Biden, including Hayes, have been silent about the concerns that have been raised by members of their own party.

Hayes, who has traveled to the White House nearly two dozen times in the last three and half years and met with the president in several small gatherings, has been tight-lipped about concerns over whether Biden is fit for office.

Taking aim at Hayes, who previously said she was ‘not concerned about [Biden’s] age,’ the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) accused the congresswoman of locking ‘herself in her bunker’ and ‘refusing to outright answer’ whether Biden is fit for office.

‘Jahana Hayes thinks she can run and hide from Joe Biden but the truth is, she helped enable this massive cover up of Biden’s cognitive decline,’ NRCC spokesperson Savannah Viar said in a statement. ‘The question is simple: ‘Does Jahana Hayes think Joe Biden is fit to serve as President?”

Following his disastrous debate performance against Trump, Biden has repeatedly faced calls from members of his own party and the media to step aside from or withdraw from the 2024 presidential election.

The situation has plunged the party into crisis and continues to drive a wedge between Biden loyalists and elected officials in swing districts ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Biden’s top campaign aides have been working damage control with major donors, while the White House – and Biden himself – remain adamant he is the right man to lead the party against Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

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The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at record highs on Monday as investors await key inflation data to provide further clues about whether this year’s market rally is sustainable. Earnings from some major financial giants and consumer companies are also on the docket.

The broad market index ended the day up 0.1% at 5,572.85, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.28% to 18,403.74. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 31 points lower, or 0.08%, at 39,344.79.

The S&P 500 is coming off its fourth positive week in the last five amid ongoing optimism that easing inflation — and any pockets of weakness in the economy — could lead to a Federal Reserve interest rate cut.

The June consumer price index, which will be released Thursday, could bolster those hopes if the headline number shows a slight improvement. Producer price index data will be released Friday.

Last week, labor data reflected a slightly cooling jobs market, spurring expectations of a rate cut. Although the U.S. economy added more jobs in June than anticipated, there was also an unexpected rise in the unemployment rate, to 4.1% from 4%. Traders are currently expecting two interest rate cuts in 2024, with the first in September, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

“We believe the fundamental backdrop remains supportive for equities, driven by solid economic and earnings growth, interest rate cuts, and rising investment in AI,” UBS strategist Vincent Heaney wrote in a Monday note.

PepsiCo and Delta Air Lines are set to post results on Thursday. Then, a slew of major banks, including Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, will kick off second-quarter earnings season on Friday.

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The U.S. Federal Reserve may start cutting interest rates before year’s end. That could make future trips abroad more expensive for the nation’s travelers.

That’s due to how interest-rate policy affects the strength of the U.S. dollar.

Here’s the basic idea: An environment of rising U.S. interest rates relative to those in other nations is generally “dollar positive,” said Jonathan Petersen, senior markets economist and foreign exchange specialist at Capital Economics.

In other words, rising rates underpin a stronger U.S. dollar versus foreign currencies. Americans can buy more stuff with their money overseas.

The opposite dynamic — falling interest rates — tends to be “dollar negative,” Petersen said. A weaker dollar means Americans can buy less abroad.

Fed officials in June signaled they expect to cut rates once in 2024 and four additional times in 2025.

“Our expectation for now is the dollar will come under more pressure next year,” Petersen said.

However, that’s not necessarily a foregone conclusion. Some financial experts think the dollar’s strength may have staying power.

“There have been quite a few headlines calling for the U.S. dollar’s demise,” Richard Madigan, chief investment officer at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, wrote in a recent note. “I continue to believe the dollar remains the one-eyed man in the land of the blind.”

Why the U.S. dollar gives a ‘discount’ overseas

The Fed started raising interest rates aggressively in March 2022 to tame high pandemic-era inflation. By July 2023, the central bank had raised rates to their highest level in 23 years.

The dollar’s strength surged against that backdrop.

The Nominal Broad U.S. Dollar Index is higher than at any pre-pandemic point dating to at least 2006, when the central bank started tracking such data. The index gauges the dollar’s appreciation relative to currencies of the nation’s main trading partners such as the euro, the Canadian dollar and the Japanese yen.

For example, in July 2022, the U.S. dollar reached parity with the euro for the first time in 20 years, meaning they had a 1:1 exchange rate. (The euro has since rebounded a bit.)

In early July, the U.S. dollar hit its strongest level against the yen in 38 years.

A strong U.S. dollar gives “a discount on everything you’re purchasing while you’re abroad,” Petersen said.

“In a sense, it’s never been cheaper to go to Japan,” he added.

A record number of Americans visited Japan in April, according to the Asian nation’s tourism board. Benjamin Atwater, a communications specialist at InsideAsia Tours, a travel agency, attributes that partly to the financial incentive bestowed by a strong dollar.

In fact, he personally recently extended a work trip to Japan by a week and a half — instead of opting to travel elsewhere in Asia — largely because of the favorable exchange rate.

Everything from meals, hotels, souvenirs and the rental car were a “great value,” said Atwater, who lives in Denver and has long wanted to travel to Japan.

“It was always portrayed as one of the most expensive places you can go, [but] I was getting some of best steaks I’ve ever had for like $12,” he said.

In reality, the dynamics driving dollar fluctuations are more complex than whether the Fed raises or lowers interest rates.

The differential in U.S. rates versus other nations is what’s significant, economists said. Fed policy doesn’t exist in a vacuum: Other central banks are also simultaneously making interest-rate choices.

The European Central Bank cut interest rates in June, for example. Meanwhile, the Fed has kept rates higher for longer than many forecasters anticipated — meaning the rate differential between the U.S. and Europe has widened, helping support the dollar.

“The Fed’s on hold, other central banks are getting ready to ease and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) seems stuck in a moment,” J.P. Morgan’s Madigan wrote.

“If Japan wants the yen to stabilize, policy rates need to move higher,” he added. “That doesn’t appear to be happening anytime soon. With the ECB expected to cut ahead of the Fed, I expect current euro weakness to also prevail.”

This is happening against the backdrop of a relatively strong U.S. economy, which also generally supports a strong dollar, Petersen said. At a high level, a strong economy means there will generally be higher economic growth and/or inflation, which means a greater likelihood the Fed will keep interest rates relatively high, he said.

A strong economy also typically incentivizes foreigners to park more money in the U.S., he said.

For example, investors generally get a better return on cash when interest rates are high. If an investor in Europe or Asia were getting perhaps 1% or 2% on bank account holdings while such holdings in the U.S. were yielding 5%, that investor might shift some money to the U.S., Petersen said.

Or, an investor might want more to hold more of their portfolio in U.S. rather than European stocks if the economic growth outlook wasn’t good in Europe, he said.

In such cases, foreigners buy dollar-denominated financial assets. They’d sell their local currency and buy the dollar, a process that ultimately bids up the dollar’s strength, Petersen said.

Exchange rates “all come down to capital flows,” he said.

While these dynamics also hold true in emerging markets, currency fluctuations can be more volatile than in developed nations due to factors like political shocks and risks to commodity prices like those of oil, he added.

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You’ll soon have to pay more if you want to shop at Costco.

The membership-based warehouse club said Wednesday that it will increase its membership fee by $5 in the U.S. and Canada as of Sept. 1. That’s an increase to $65 from $60 for annual memberships. Its higher-tier plan, called “Executive Membership,” will increase to $130 a year from $120.

Costco said the fee increases would affect around 52 million memberships, a little over half of which are executive memberships.

Shares rose about 2% in extended trading Wednesday.

It marks Costco’s first membership rate increase since June 2017. On average, the company has raised rates roughly every five and a half years — which would have put Costco on track to raise the fee in late 2022 or early 2023.

However, Costco held off on raising fees prior to now. In interviews with CNBC, CEO Craig Jelinek previously said it wasn’t the right time as consumers dealt with high inflation. The company’s CFO Richard Galanti made similar comments on prior earnings calls.

Costco relies on membership fees to drive most of its revenue and help keep merchandise prices low. Its rival, Walmart-owned Sam’s Club, hiked its own membership fee in 2022 for the first time in nine years. Yet even after the fee bump, a Sam’s Club membership was cheaper — at $50 for club members and $110 for members of its higher-tier level, “Plus,” on an annual basis. At BJ’s Wholesale, annual membership fees are $55 and $110, for club members and its own higher tier, respectively.

Costco said it stepped up enforcement last year to make sure shoppers weren’t using other members’ cards. It added an extra check for memberships in self-checkout aisles. The moves were reminiscent of Netflix, which has also cracked down on people who use its service without paying.

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The U.S. Federal Reserve may start cutting interest rates before year’s end. That could make future trips abroad more expensive for the nation’s travelers.

That’s due to how interest-rate policy affects the strength of the U.S. dollar.

Here’s the basic idea: An environment of rising U.S. interest rates relative to those in other nations is generally “dollar positive,” said Jonathan Petersen, senior markets economist and foreign exchange specialist at Capital Economics.

In other words, rising rates underpin a stronger U.S. dollar versus foreign currencies. Americans can buy more stuff with their money overseas.

The opposite dynamic — falling interest rates — tends to be “dollar negative,” Petersen said. A weaker dollar means Americans can buy less abroad.

Fed officials in June signaled they expect to cut rates once in 2024 and four additional times in 2025.

“Our expectation for now is the dollar will come under more pressure next year,” Petersen said.

However, that’s not necessarily a foregone conclusion. Some financial experts think the dollar’s strength may have staying power.

“There have been quite a few headlines calling for the U.S. dollar’s demise,” Richard Madigan, chief investment officer at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, wrote in a recent note. “I continue to believe the dollar remains the one-eyed man in the land of the blind.”

The Fed started raising interest rates aggressively in March 2022 to tame high pandemic-era inflation. By July 2023, the central bank had raised rates to their highest level in 23 years.

The dollar’s strength surged against that backdrop.

The Nominal Broad U.S. Dollar Index is higher than at any pre-pandemic point dating to at least 2006, when the central bank started tracking such data. The index gauges the dollar’s appreciation relative to currencies of the nation’s main trading partners such as the euro, the Canadian dollar and the Japanese yen.

For example, in July 2022, the U.S. dollar reached parity with the euro for the first time in 20 years, meaning they had a 1:1 exchange rate. (The euro has since rebounded a bit.)

In early July, the U.S. dollar hit its strongest level against the yen in 38 years.

A strong U.S. dollar gives “a discount on everything you’re purchasing while you’re abroad,” Petersen said.

“In a sense, it’s never been cheaper to go to Japan,” he added.

A record number of Americans visited Japan in April, according to the Asian nation’s tourism board. Benjamin Atwater, a communications specialist at InsideAsia Tours, a travel agency, attributes that partly to the financial incentive bestowed by a strong dollar.

In fact, he personally recently extended a work trip to Japan by a week and a half — instead of opting to travel elsewhere in Asia — largely because of the favorable exchange rate.

Everything from meals, hotels, souvenirs and the rental car were a “great value,” said Atwater, who lives in Denver and has long wanted to travel to Japan.

“It was always portrayed as one of the most expensive places you can go, [but] I was getting some of best steaks I’ve ever had for like $12,” he said.

In reality, the dynamics driving dollar fluctuations are more complex than whether the Fed raises or lowers interest rates.

The differential in U.S. rates versus other nations is what’s significant, economists said. Fed policy doesn’t exist in a vacuum: Other central banks are also simultaneously making interest-rate choices.

The European Central Bank cut interest rates in June, for example. Meanwhile, the Fed has kept rates higher for longer than many forecasters anticipated — meaning the rate differential between the U.S. and Europe has widened, helping support the dollar.

“The Fed’s on hold, other central banks are getting ready to ease and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) seems stuck in a moment,” J.P. Morgan’s Madigan wrote.

“If Japan wants the yen to stabilize, policy rates need to move higher,” he added. “That doesn’t appear to be happening anytime soon. With the ECB expected to cut ahead of the Fed, I expect current euro weakness to also prevail.”

This is happening against the backdrop of a relatively strong U.S. economy, which also generally supports a strong dollar, Petersen said. At a high level, a strong economy means there will generally be higher economic growth and/or inflation, which means a greater likelihood the Fed will keep interest rates relatively high, he said.

A strong economy also typically incentivizes foreigners to park more money in the U.S., he said.

For example, investors generally get a better return on cash when interest rates are high. If an investor in Europe or Asia were getting perhaps 1% or 2% on bank account holdings while such holdings in the U.S. were yielding 5%, that investor might shift some money to the U.S., Petersen said.

Or, an investor might want more to hold more of their portfolio in U.S. rather than European stocks if the economic growth outlook wasn’t good in Europe, he said.

In such cases, foreigners buy dollar-denominated financial assets. They’d sell their local currency and buy the dollar, a process that ultimately bids up the dollar’s strength, Petersen said.

Exchange rates “all come down to capital flows,” he said.

While these dynamics also hold true in emerging markets, currency fluctuations can be more volatile than in developed nations due to factors like political shocks and risks to commodity prices like those of oil, he added.

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