Companies signal alarm over tariffs

Executives from U.S. companies flocked to Washington on Monday to warn the Trump administration that imposing tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese goods would cripple their businesses and raise prices on everything from bicycles to car seats to refrigerators.

Dozens of companies voiced concerns to trade officials during the first of six days of hearings on the administration’s plan to impose tariffs on a wide array of Chinese imports. The hearing by the U.S. trade representative, initially scheduled for just three days, was doubled to accommodate the leaders of nearly 400 companies and trade groups.

Trump unhappy about Fed hikes

President Donald Trump complained to wealthy donors at a fundraiser in the Hamptons last week that the man he chose as chairman of the Federal Reserve has disappointed him by raising interest rates, according to people who attended the event.

Trump said he had expected Jerome Powell to adhere to an easy-money monetary policy, by keeping interest rates low, when he nominated Powell in November to succeed Janet Yellen. Instead, Powell has continued Yellen’s pace of gradual return to historically normal rates, raising rates twice this year.

“I’m not thrilled,” Trump said in a later interview with Reuters.

The benchmark U.S. interest rate, which plays a large role in setting borrowing costs for mortgages, credit cards, small-business and auto loans, was set at a range of 0.5 to 0.75 percent when Trump was sworn in. The benchmark rate is now in a range of 1.75 to 2 percent, and the Fed has indicated it is likely to hike rates two more times before the end of the year.

No-poach policies ending in fast food

Eight more restaurant chains have agreed to end a policy that blocks workers from switching jobs within the individual brands, becoming the latest companies to curtail a once-prevalent hiring practice that critics say depressed wages for some of the United States’ lowest-paid employees.

As part of agreements with the Washington state attorney general’s office Monday, the companies agreed to remove a so-called no-poach clause from their contracts with franchisees. The companies are Applebee’s, Church’s Chicken, Five Guys, IHOP, Jamba Juice, Little Caesars, Panera Bread and Sonic.

The clauses prohibit a cashier at one Panera location, for example, from working at another Panera location. Such restrictions until recently were ubiquitous. That began to change last year, after two economists at Princeton focused on how no-poach clauses could lock workers into low-wage jobs.

— From wire reports