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The Fed may have reassured Powell it’s safe to leave the board early when a new chair takes over

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After enduring a string of attacks on the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell may now feel confident that the central bank is in good enough hands to step away completely when a new chair takes over.

Earlier this month, the Fed reappointed its regional bank presidents a bit earlier than usual, surprising Wall Street and easing concerns about its independence in the face of President Donald Trump’s continued demands for steeper rate cuts.

It came after recent suggestions from the Trump administration that new conditions ought to be placed on the Fed presidents, raising fears it was eyeing a purge. That fit a pattern of extreme pressure on policymakers. Trump has relentlessly insulted Powell for not easing more, considered firing him, threatened to sue over cost overruns on the Fed’s headquarters renovation, and is still attempting to oust Governor Lisa Cook.

Given Powell’s commitment to Fed independence, there were doubts that he would leave the board of governors when his replacement as chair comes in, bucking tradition, in order to retain a vote on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee and help ensure policy stays apolitical. His term as chair expires on May 15, 2026, but his term as a governor extends to January 2028. 

But with the regional presidents re-upped, that adds some stability to the FOMC, which is comprised of governors and presidents, potentially letting him ride off into the sunset.

“I don’t think Powell wants to stay. I think he’s done with this job, and I don’t blame him,” Christopher Hodge, chief U.S. economist at Natixis CIB Americas, told Fortune

He put a high probability on Powell leaving the board, but a few uncertainties remain. One is Trump’s pick to be the new Fed chair. The current names under consideration—Kevin Hassett, Kevin Warsh, and Chis Waller—would be palatable, but an unserious candidate from left field would give Powell pause, according to Hodge, who previously served as principal economist at the New York Fed.

Another unknown is how the Supreme Court will rule in Trump’s effort to fire Cook over mortgage fraud claims, which she had denied. If the justices determine the White House can easily dismiss governors, then Powell might stay on.

“But ultimately, I think this reappointment of these regional Fed presidents is a barrier that he wanted to get over, and I think that certainly helped clear the way for him stepping down after the meeting in May,” Hodge said.

He added, “as long as Powell is fairly certain that the guardrails are staying in place, and that the Fed is in a long-run position to stay credible, then I think he’s going to step down” from the board of governors. 

Robert Kaplan, vice chairman at Goldman Sachs and former president of the Dallas Fed, said the reappointment of the Fed presidents was big news that didn’t get much attention.

He told CNBC last week there was some concern that a reshuffling on the board of governors would lead to changes in the Fed presidents, who must be approved by the governors.

“I think it’s possible that that won’t happen. And that means the next Fed chair will have to get seven votes through persuasion and debate and getting a consensus. You won’t come in with seven votes wired,” Kaplan added, referring to the votes need for a majority on the 12-member FOMC.

He also urged Powell to not remain on the board when his term as chairman expires. If Powell hangs on, he might be seen as a thorn in the side of the new chair, Kaplan explained.

“In the same way a CEO would leave and leave it to their successor, I think that’s the gracious thing to do,” he said. “I think Jay is a gracious person, and I think it’s the right thing for him to do.”



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Telluride resort owner rips into ski patrol union after strikes shuts down slopes on Christmas

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Telluride, one of the best-known ski resorts in the Western U.S., plans to close in the coming days due to a labor dispute between its owner and the ski patrol union.

The Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association voted Tuesday to strike Saturday after contract negotiations since June failed to yield an agreement on pay. With no more talks planned before the weekend, Telluride Ski Resort said it will not open that day.

“We are concerned that any organization, particularly one that exists to help people, would do something that will have such a devastating effect on our community,” owner Chuck Horning said Wednesday in a statement.

It was not immediately clear whether the closure will last longer. Resort officials were working on a plan to reopen even if the strike continues, according to the statement.

The patrollers are seeking to be paid more in line with their counterparts at other resorts in the region.

The union wants starting pay to rise from $21 to $28 per hour, and for wages for patrollers with more than 30 years of experience to increase from $30-$36 per hour to $39-$48.60 per hour.

While resort officials sought to lay blame for the impending closure on the union, Andy Dennis, interim safety director and spokesperson for patrollers’ association, said it lies with Horning.

“He’s being a bully. This is what bullies do, take their toys and run,” Dennis said. “All he has to do is give us a fair contract, and this would all be over.”

Ski patrollers sometimes argue for more pay on the grounds that the cost of living is high in ski towns and they are responsible for people’s safety. Patrollers’ duties include attending to injured skiers and the controlled release of avalanches with explosives when nobody is in range.

Even without a strike, Telluride has yet to get going fully this season, with unusually warm weather meaning just 20 of the resort’s 149 trails have been able to open.

Patrollers around the Rocky Mountain region have been voting on unionizing recently.

Last year an almost two-week strike closed many runs and caused long lift lines at Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort. That strike ended when Colorado-based Vail Resorts acceded to demands including a $2-an-hour base pay increase and raises for senior ski patrollers.



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Cursor CEO warns vibe coding builds ‘shaky foundations’ and eventually ‘things start to crumble’

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Cursor may utilize AI to help programmers code, but just don’t call it vibe coding, CEO and cofounder Michael Truell said.

Ten years ago, programming meant typing code into a blank word processor and editing it manually. But with the advent of generative AI, this type of programming is quickly becoming a thing of the past, he explained.

“More and more, you can take a step back from the code, and you can ask an AI to go do end-to-end tasks for you,” Truell said at the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference earlier this month. 

Yet programmers may not want to step back too far, he added, pointing out that there’s levels to AI-assisted coding. 

The oft-repeated term “vibe coding” may seem to encapsulate all AI coding assistants. In reality, it suggests amateur builders or inexperienced AI users trying to bring an idea to life without necessarily looking under the hood.

“Vibe coding refers to a method of coding with AI where you kind of close your eyes and you don’t look at the code at all and you just ask the AI to go build the thing for you,” he said.

Truell likened it to building a house by putting up four walls and a roof without knowing what’s going on under the floorboards or with the wiring.

This coding method may be perfect for AI users looking to quickly mock up a game or website, but when it comes to more advanced programming, things have the potential to go wrong, he warned.

“If you close your eyes and you don’t look at the code and you have AIs build things with shaky foundations as you add another floor, and another floor, and another floor, and another floor, things start to kind of crumble,” he said. 

With Cursor, by contrast, programmers can embed AI directly into the integrated development environment where programmers write their code. By using the context of the existing code, or even an entire code base, it can often predict the next line. The tool includes everything from multi-line-autocomplete to full function generation. It can also help a programmer debug their code and explain errors.

Despite being only 25 years old, Truell’s take on AI coding carries real weight. He and three other graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created what would become Cursor as a project in 2022.

Since then, Cursor has become one of the most popular coding assistants out there, with a reported 1 million daily users as of earlier this year, Bloomberg reported. Since it launched, the company has reached $1 billion in annualized revenue and amassed 300 employees, according to CNBC.

Cursor received its first $8 million investment from OpenAI’s Startup Fund in 2023. It later raised more millions from some of the biggest venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, including Andreessen Horowitz. Fast forward to 2025, and the company has closed on a $2.3 billion funding round at a $29.3 billion post-money valuation.

While vibe coders may be flying blind, Truell said the Cursor coding assistant is the best of both worlds, helping its expert customers get into the nitty gritty details of their code.

“But then in the places where you want to take a step back and you want to ask the AI to do something end-to-end you can do that too,” he said.



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Trump and CBS News’ chief both tried to stop a critical ’60 Minutes’ segment from airing. Somehow it leaked online anyway

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news segment about the Trump administration’s immigration policy that was abruptly pulled from “60 Minutes” was mistakenly aired on a TV app after the last minute decision not to air it touched off a public debate about journalistic independence.

The segment featured interviews with migrants who were sent to a notorious El Salvador prison called the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, under President Donald Trump’s aggressive crackdown on immigration.

The story was pulled from Global Television Network, one of Canada’s largest networks, but still ran on the network’s app. Global Television Network swiftly corrected the error, but copies of it continued to float around the internet and pop up before being taken down.

“Paramount’s content protection team is in the process of routine take down orders for the unaired and unauthorized segment,” a CBS spokesperson said Tuesday via email.

A representative of Global Television Network did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the story, two men who were deported reported torture, beatings and abuse. One Venezuelan said he was punished with sexual abuse and solitary confinement.

Another was a college student who said guards beat him and knocked out his tooth upon arrival.

“When you get there, you already know you’re in hell. You don’t need anyone to tell you,” he said.

The segment featured numerous experts who called into question the legal basis for deporting migrants so hastily amid pending judicial decisions. Reporters for the show also corroborated findings by Human Rights Watch suggesting that only eight of the deported men had been sentenced for violent or potentially violent crimes, using available ICE data.

The decision to pull a story critical of the Trump administration was met with widespread accusations that CBS leadership was shielding the president from unfavorable coverage.

The journalist who reported the story, Sharyn Alfonsi, said in an email sent to fellow “60 Minutes” correspondents that the story was factually correct and had been cleared by CBS lawyers and its standards division.

CBS News chief Bari Weiss said Monday that the story did not “advance the ball” and pointed out that the Trump administration had refused to comment for the story. Weiss said she wanted a greater effort made to get its point of view and said she looked forward to airing Alfonsi’s piece “when it’s ready.”

The dispute put one of journalism’s most respected brands — and a frequent target of Trump — back in the spotlight and amplified questions about whether Weiss’ appointment is a signal that CBS News is headed in a more Trump-friendly direction.



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