The consumer price index, a broad measure of goods and services costs across the U.S. economy, fell a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in March, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 2.4%, down from 2.8% in February.

Excluding food and energy, so-called core inflation ran at a 2.8% annual rate, having increased 0.1% for the month. That was the lowest rate for core inflation since March 2021.

Slumping energy prices helped keep inflation tame, as a 6.3% drop in gasoline prices helped drive a 2.4% broader decline in the energy index. Food prices climbed 0.4% on the month.

Moreover, shelter prices, among the most stubborn components of inflation, increased just 0.2% in March and were up 4% on a 12-month basis, the smallest gain since November 2021. Used vehicle prices were off 0.7% while new vehicle costs increased just 0.1%, ahead of tariffs that are expected to hit the auto industry hard.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday dropped new tariff rates on imports from most U.S. trade partners to 10% for 90 days to allow trade negotiations with those countries.

The president also said in a social media post that he was raising the tariffs imposed on imports from China to 125% “effective immediately” due to the “lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets.” China, which is the U.S.’s third-largest trading partner, earlier Wednesday said it would increase its tariff rate for imports from the U.S. to 84%.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in a tweet, said that he and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sat with Trump while he wrote out the announcement on Truth Social, “one of the most extraordinary Truth posts of his Presidency.”

“The world is ready to work with President Trump to fix global trade, and China has chosen the opposite direction,” Lutnick wrote.

China unveiled retaliatory tariffs of 84% on imports of US goods on Wednesday, matching additional tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump earlier in the day.

President Trump’s sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs took effect earlier on Wednesday. China was the hardest-hit nation with a levy now totaling at least 104% on all its goods. The two countries have been involved in a game of tit-for-tat on trade, with Beijing standing firmly against each new tariff introduced by Washington.

The amped-up retaliation comes after China repeatedly warned that it would “fight to the end” if the US moved forward with further tariffs. On Wednesday, President Trump’s additional levies on Chinese imports had originally been set to increase by 34 percentage points.

But the President tacked on another 50 percentage points after Beijing refused to back down from the standoff. Prior to the latest rounds of escalation, President Trump had already imposed 20% levies on China since his return to the White House.

In addition to the increased levy, China’s Commerce Ministry imposed export controls on 12 American companies, barring Chinese companies from supplying them with dual-use items that have both military and civilian applications.

It also added six more US firms to its “unreliable entity list,” banning them from trading or making new investments in China, and filed a complaint to the World Trade Organization over the latest US tariffs.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has shrugged off China’s retaliatory move, telling Fox Business on Wednesday that it is unfortunate that China does not “want to come and negotiate” a tariff deal. He called China the “worst offenders in the international trading system.”

“They have the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world, and I can tell you that this escalation is a loser for them … They’re the surplus country,” Bessent said. China’s “exports to the US are five times our exports to China. So, they can raise their tariffs. But so what?”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent weighed in on America’s tariff negotiations with other countries during a late Monday afternoon appearance on “Kudlow.”

Bessent told host Larry Kudlow that Trump is “better than anyone at giving himself maximum leverage, so what he has done is we outlined the tariffs on April 2 and then gave countries several days to think about it.”

“As I advised on many shows on April 2, I suggested that the foreign officials keep your cool, that you do not escalate and come to us with your offers on how you’re going to drop tariffs, how you’re going to drop non-tariff barriers, how you’re going to stop your currency manipulation, how you’re going to stop the subsidized financing, and at a point, President Trump will be ready to negotiate,” he explained.

During his appearance, Bessent defended the Trump administration using trade deficits in its calculus for determining reciprocal tariffs on imports from some foreign countries. He also noted that “academic studies have shown that it’s the non-tariff trade barriers that are the real problem in the U.S. having free and fair access to these markets.”

We Energies is asking state utility regulators to approve special rates for data centers that would require those users to pay for infrastructure built for their developments.

In an application with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin this week, the utility outlined rate proposals for customers that are expected to need enough energy to power hundreds of thousands of homes each year.

It’s the first attempt to craft a rate structure for data center-scale customers in Wisconsin. Data centers are among the most “energy intensive” types of buildings, using 10 to 50 times more energy per floor space than a typical commercial office building.

Several data centers have been planned within We Energies’ service territory. Microsoft is developing a more than $3.3 billion data center campus in Mount Pleasant, with additional plans for another site in Kenosha. Data center developer Cloverleaf Infrastructure has another project planned in Port Washington.

Under the proposal, customers with a load of at least 500 megawatts, enough energy to power more than 300,000 homes annually, would agree to be responsible for costs related to new resources that the utility builds to meet their demand.

Resource agreements with those “very large customers” would be “effective for the depreciable life of the resource, except for wind or solar resources which will have a term of 20 years or more,” We Energies said in its application.

We Energies asked regulators to approve the proposal by the end of the year. The utility has already applied to build new generation resources to support Microsoft and other industrial development in southeast Wisconsin. The state commission is reviewing plans for more than $2 billion in natural gas infrastructure, including new plants in Oak Creek and Kenosha County.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley was elected by the Court today to serve as chief justice, effective May 1, 2025. She succeeds Chief Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler in this role. Justice Bradley was first elected to the Court in 1995 and will leave the Court after serving three full 10-year terms on July 31, 2025. Justice Bradley has indicated she will step down as chief on June 30, 2025, after two months in the role.

“It is a tremendous honor to be elected by my colleagues as the leader of this great court,” said Justice Bradley. “It has been my life’s goal to honor the rule of law, enhance access to justice, and serve the 5.9 million people who call Wisconsin home. Serving as Chief Justice enables me to further those goals. The court system is full of wonderful staff and justices, from the circuit court to the appellate Court to our Supreme Court. So I deeply appreciate the opportunity to serve as the administrative head of this august institution.”

In anticipation of Justice Bradley’s retirement, the Court elected Justice Jill J. Karofsky to become Chief Justice as of July 1, 2025. Justice Karofsky was elected to the Court in 2020 and will serve the remainder of the two-year Chief Justice term until April 30, 2027.

Pursuant to Article VII, Section 4 (3) of the Wisconsin Constitution, the chief justice of the Supreme Court is the administrative head of the judicial system and exercises administrative authority pursuant to procedures adopted by the Supreme Court. In this role, the chief justice works with fellow justices, the director of state courts, chief judges and other administrators to ensure the courts operate efficiently.

The U.S. government’s fiscal strength is deteriorating as the trend of larger budget deficits and mounting debt continues, Moody’s Ratings said in a report released Tuesday.

Moody’s said that America’s fiscal health has worsened in the time since it lowered its outlook on the country’s AAA credit rating in November 2023. Fitch cut the U.S. credit rating one tier from AAA to AA+ in 2023 over fiscal challenges and debt limit brinksmanship, while Standard and Poor’s did so after the 2011 debt limit crisis that spurred a partial government shutdown.

The ratings agency is the last of the major ratings agencies to keep U.S. sovereign debt at its top level, AAA, though it took a more pessimistic view of the government’s debt in 2023 due to wider annual deficits and higher interest payments on the national debt.

“Even in a very positive and low probability economic and financial scenario, debt affordability remains materially weaker than for other AAA-rated and highly rated sovereigns,” Moody’s wrote.

The firm projects that the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product (GDP), a metric favored by economists in assessing government debt relative to the size of the economy, will rise from nearly 100% in 2025 to about 130% in 2035.

Debt affordability is expected to worsen at a faster rate, with interest payments accounting for 30% of revenue by 2035 — a dramatic increase from 9% in 2021, Moody’s wrote.

The firm explained that lower U.S. debt affordability meant that the central roles played by the dollar and the Treasury market in global financial markets have become more critical in supporting the AAA rating.

The state Building Commission again deadlocked on the Gov. Tony Evers’ capital budget, sending it to the GOP-run Joint Finance Committee with no recommendation as Republican lawmakers argued more discussion was needed.

Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, told Evers at the outset of yesterday’s meeting that a lot of worthy projects had been proposed. But she raised concerns about the more than $3.8 billion in new bonding he had proposed, noting it was more than what the Legislature had approved in the past five capital budgets combined.

“I think to get to a more appropriate level, further discussion is needed, and we need to hear from stakeholders and the public, and that just hasn’t happened,” Felzkowski said.

The four GOP lawmakers backed a motion upfront that would’ve sent the guv’s $4.3 billion capital budget to the Joint Finance Committee with no recommendation. But the guv, his appointees and the two Dem legislators opposed the move. The commission then deadlocked 4-4 on each agency proposal in the document, ending with the same result as the GOP motion.

It is the fourth straight time the commission has deadlocked with Republicans in control of the Legislature — giving them four spots on the body — and Evers in the East Wing, giving his party the other four.

The deadlocked vote six years ago was believed to be the first time the commission had sent the capital budget to the Finance Committee without a recommendation.

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) is accepting applications for new Export Expansion Grants through April 9, 2025. These grants are funded through the Wisconsin Initiative for Agricultural Exports (WIAE).

Export Expansion Grants aim to accelerate the growth of Wisconsin dairy, meat, and crop product exports. Applicants must be not-for-profit organizations located in Wisconsin that are currently serving or can serve Wisconsin agribusinesses. Wisconsin agribusiness associations, technical colleges, universities, and economic development organizations are encouraged to apply.

Applications will be accepted for projects in two categories: meat or crop exports with awards from $25,000 to $50,000, or dairy exports with awards from $25,000 to $100,000. Matching funds are required at 20% of the grant award and can be cash or in-kind. Eligible project expenses include, but are not limited to, travel associated with trade promotion activities, event promotion, marketing materials, advertising, subscriptions, contractor fees, and translation services.

DATCP will select recipients through a competitive review process. Project work will begin in May 2025, and all projects must be completed by May 1, 2026.

Grant information and application materials are available at https://datcp.wi.gov/Pages/AgDevelopment/ExportExpansionGrants.aspx. Contact DATCP grants specialist Kevin Webb at DATCPDADGrants@wisconsin.gov or (608) 224-5049 with questions.

Consistent with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s March 2, 2025 announcement, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is issuing an interim final rule that removes the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report beneficial ownership information (BOI) to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act.

In that interim final rule, FinCEN revises the definition of “reporting company” in its implementing regulations to mean only those entities that are formed under the law of a foreign country and that have registered to do business in any U.S. State or Tribal jurisdiction by the filing of a document with a secretary of state or similar office (formerly known as “foreign reporting companies”). FinCEN also exempts entities previously known as “domestic reporting companies” from BOI reporting requirements.

Thus, through this interim final rule, all entities created in the United States — including those previously known as “domestic reporting companies” — and their beneficial owners will be exempt from the requirement to report BOI to FinCEN. Foreign entities that meet the new definition of a “reporting company” and do not qualify for an exemption from the reporting requirements must report their BOI to FinCEN under new deadlines, detailed below. These foreign entities, however, will not be required to report any U.S. persons as beneficial owners, and U.S. persons will not be required to report BOI with respect to any such entity for which they are a beneficial owner.

Upon the publication of the interim final rule, the following deadlines apply for foreign entities that are reporting companies:

• Reporting companies registered to do business in the United States before the date of publication of the IFR must file BOI reports no later than 30 days from that date.
• Reporting companies registered to do business in the United States on or after the date of publication of the IFR have 30 calendar days to file an initial BOI report after receiving notice that their registration is effective.

FinCEN is accepting comments on this interim final rule and intends to finalize the rule this year.