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The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserves board of governors. The Republican administration turned to the high court after an appeals court refused to go along with ousting Cook, part of President Donald Trump’s effort to reshape the Feds seven-member governing board and strike a blow at its independence. The White House campaign to unseat Cook marks an unprecedented bid to reshape the Fed board, which was designed to be largely independent from day-to-day politics. No president has fired a sitting Fed governor in the agencys 112-year history. Cook, who was appointed to the Feds board by President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has said she wont leave her post and wont be bullied by Trump. One of her lawyers, Abbe Lowell, has said she will continue to carry out her sworn duties as a Senate-confirmed Board Governor. Separately, Senate Republicans on Monday confirmed Stephen Miran, Trumps nominee to an open spot on the Feds board. Both Cook and Miran took part in Wednesday’s vote in which the Fed cut its key interest rate by a quarter-point. Trump sought to fire Cook on August 25, but a federal judge ruled last week that the removal probably was illegal and reinstated her to the Feds board. Trump has accused Cook of mortgage fraud because she appeared to claim two properties, in Michigan and Georgia, as primary residences in June and July 2021, before she joined the board. Such claims can lead to a lower mortgage rate and smaller down payment than if one of them was declared as a rental property or second home. Put simply, the President may reasonably determine that interest rates paid by the American people should not be set by a Governor who appears to have lied about facts material to the interest rates she secured for herselfand refuses to explain the apparent misrepresentations, Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in his Supreme Court filing. But Cook has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime. According to documents obtained by The Associated Press, Cook did specify that her Atlanta condo would be a vacation home, according to a loan estimate she obtained in May 2021. And in a form seeking a security clearance, she described it as a 2nd home. Both documents appear to undercut the Trump administrations claims of fraud. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ruled that the administration had not satisfied a legal requirement that Fed governors can only be fired for cause, which she said was limited to misconduct while in office. Cook did not join the Feds board until 2022. Cobb also held that Trumps firing would have deprived Cook of her due process, or legal right, to contest the firing. By a 2-1 vote, a panel of the federal appeals court in Washington rejected the administrations request to let Cooks firing proceed. Trumps lawyers have argued that even if the conduct occurred before her time as governor, her alleged action indisputably calls into question Cooks trustworthiness and whether she can be a responsible steward of the interest rates and economy. Trump has previously won orders from the courts conservative majority to fire the presidentially appointed leaders of other independent federal agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board and the Federal Trade Commission, even as legal fights continue. Those firings have been at will, with no cause given. The Supreme Court has distinguished the Federal Reserve from those other agencies, strongly suggesting that Trump cant act against Fed governors without cause. In its new filing to the Supreme Court, the administration is asking Chief Justice John Roberts for a temporary order that would effectively remove Cook from the board and a more lasting order from the whole court that would be in place while her legal case continues. By Mark Sherman, Associated Press.
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E-Commerce
The collaborative productivity application Notion is getting a boost in AI power. Instead of simply answering questions and offering basic assistance, a built-in AI tool called Notion Agent will now be able to conduct research, draft detailed documents, and set up or update custom Notion databases on demand.“Essentially, it can do everything that humans can do inside Notion,” says Notion cofounder and COO Akshay Kothari. In a demo for Fast Company, Kothari showed how Notion Agent could pull user feedback on a new product from multiple sources, generating a well-cited report with recommendations for future updates. It could also create a database of articles from a news site. The software can handle operations like assigning tasks to team members at the start of a new project or updating a company knowledge base with new information.Notion Personal Agent [Gif: Courtesy of Notion]To do all this, Notion Agent can access data from the web, information already stored in Notion, and integrations with platforms such as Slack, Zendesk, and Google Driveall while respecting security settings and permissions from the linked applications.Once content is generated, users can edit it themselves or ask the AI to make changes. Often, Kothari says, people let the AI handle the busywork before applying the finishing touches.Kothari refers to the agentic AI-enabled product as Notion 3.0, essentially calling the new technology a leap on par with the previous addition of databases and workflowsNotion 2.0and its initial launch in 2016 as a tool primarily for building and sharing documents. Like other Notion features, the AI is highly customizable. Users can choose from personas such as “sidekick” or “analyst,” and they can edit or completely rewrite a profile document that defines how the AI should behave. That includes everything from context on how to answer certain questions to stylistic tweaks in tone. Users can also ask the AI itself to adjust aspects of its behaviorand even pick from a variety of logo designs to represent Notions AI features.Custom Agents [Gif: Courtesy of Notion]The company is also testing a feature it calls Custom Agents, which are designed for specific purposes, like regularly updating a document or database based on specific information. Custom Agents can be configured to run at regular time intervals or in response to certain external triggers, and they can even be set up with instructions crafted with the aid of the general purpose Notion Agent. Internally, Kothari says, the company already uses some Custom Agents to handle questions and feedback posted in Slack, responding itself when appropriate and sometimes routing messages to the appropriate humans through instructions that can be modified over time. Notion plans to soon begin testing Custom Agents with a few hundred customers, in part to determine how they’re used and how they should be priced, before making them available to the general user base. So far, Kothari says, the Custom Agentsconfigured to run on a regular schedule or frequently triggered by events like Slack inquiriesappear to generate significantly more AI utilization than the ordinary Notion Agent, which only takes action in response to user queries within the main platform. “I think that’s an area that we’re gonna really study in the coming weeks and months and then figure out how we can roll it out to all our customers,” says Kothari.
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E-Commerce
Wall Street is rising toward more records on Thursday as Nvidia and Intel lead a rally for technology stocks after announcing a deal that includes a $5 billion investment. The S&P 500 rose 0.5% and was on track to squeak past its all-time high, which was set at the start of the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 88 points, or 0.2%, as of noon Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher. Both were likewise flirting with records. Intel soared 29.3% and was heading toward its best day since 1973 after Nvidia said it would buy $5 billion of the chipmakers stock. Its part of a collaboration where the pair will develop products for data centers and personal computers. Nvidia climbed 3.4% and was by far the strongest force lifting the S&P 500 because its Wall Streets most valuable company. Encouraging reports on the economy, meanwhile, helped send Treasury yields climbing in the bond market. One report said that growth in manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region was much stronger than economists expected. Another said that fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than expected. The second report could indicate the pace of layoffs is slowing, and it was a relief after the prior weeks data showed a disconcerting leap to a four-year high. The job market has slowed so much that the Federal Reserve on Wednesday cut its main interest rate for the first time this year in order to give it some help. The Fed also indicated more cuts may be on the way this year and next, though Chair Jerome Powell warned that the Fed is stuck in a precarious position and may have to change course quickly. Thats because the economy is in the unusual situation where the job market is slowing when inflation is remaining stubbornly high at the same time. The Fed is in charge of fixing both, but it has only one tool to do that. And helping one by moving interest rates often hurts the other in the short term. Expectations are high on Wall Street for the Fed to keep cutting interest rates, and a halt in cuts could send stocks tumbling. Critics say stock prices have already shot too high and become too expensive, in part because of the heavy bets on continued cuts in rates. On Wall Street, Novo Nordisk saw its stock that trades in the United States rise 5.8% after the Danish company said a newly published study showed its once-a-day pill version of Wegovy helped people lose significant weight. It also said that its Ozempic product reduced the risk of heart attack, stroke and death for patients versus another treatment for some people with type 2 diabetes. Stocks in the cryptocurrency industry also jumped to strong gains, including rises of 7.8% for Coinbase Global, 11.3% for Bullish and 6.1% for Circle Internet Group. Bitcoin has climbed above $117,500 following the Fed’s cut to interest rates. On the losing end of Wall Street, the company behind Olive Garden and other restaurant chains sank 9.5% after it reported a profit for the latest quarter that was below analysts’ expectations. Darden Restaurants also raised its forecast for revenue growth this fiscal year, but not by much more than analysts expected. Cracker Barrel fell 4.8% after the restaurant chain likewise reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also gave a forecast for revenue in its upcoming fiscal year that fell short of analysts, as the controversy over its planned logo change continues to play out. The Walt Disney Co. slipped 1.5% after the entertainment giant announced that its ABC television division had suspended Jimmy Kimmels late-night show indefinitely after comments that he made about Charlie Kirks killing led a group of ABC-affiliated stations to say they would not air the show. Earlier in the day, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called Kimmels comments truly sick and said his agency has a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and Disney accountable for spreading misinformation. In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a mixed performance in Asia. Londons FTSE 100 added 0.2% after the Bank of England held its main interest rate steady. South Koreas Kospi rallied 1.4%, and Hong Kongs Hang Seng fell 1.4% for two of the worlds bigger moves. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.11% from 4.06% late Wednesday. Its a notable move after it had briefly dropped below 4% on Wednesday, weighed down by expectations for continued cuts to interest rates by the Fed. Stan Choe, AP business writer AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.
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