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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Business Briefs: Despite oil import drop, trade gap grows

From Wire Reports

WASHINGTON – The U.S. trade deficit climbed to the highest level in five months in February as demand for American exports fell while imports increased slightly.

The deficit increased to $42.3 billion, which was 7.7 percent above the January imbalance of $39.3 billion, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

U.S. exports slipped 1.1 percent to $190.4 billion as sales of commercial aircraft, computers and farm goods fell. Imports edged up 0.4 percent to $232.7 billion, reflecting gains in imports of autos and clothing which offset a drop in crude oil to the lowest level in more than three years.

A higher trade deficit acts as a drag on economic growth because it means U.S. companies are making less overseas than their foreign competitors are earning in U.S. sales.

The wider February deficit prompted some economists to reduce their estimate for overall economic growth for the January-March quarter.

Obama pick leaving Federal Reserve Board

WASHINGTON – Jeremy Stein, a member of the Federal Reserve Board, announced Thursday that he plans to resign next month to return to Harvard University, creating more turnover on the seven-member board.

In a letter to President Barack Obama, Stein said he will resign effective May 28 and return to Harvard, where he had been an economics professor beginning in 2000. Stein had been on the Fed board since 2012. There had been speculation that he might leave given that he was facing a May deadline to decide whether to return to his tenured Harvard teaching post.

Currently, there are three Obama nominations pending before the Senate including Stanley Fischer, a former head of Israel’s central bank who Obama has nominated as vice chairman. Fischer would succeed Janet Yellen, who in February became Fed chair.

Obama has also nominated Lael Brainard, who served as Treasury undersecretary for international affairs during Obama’s first term, and Jerome Powell, a Republican, whom Obama has nominated for another term of the board.

Obama will now need to select a replacement for Stein as well as a replacement for Elizabeth Duke, who left the board last year.

Stein, 53, had been appointed by Obama to fill a term that ends on Jan. 31, 2018. Fed board terms are for 14 years or for the remaining portion of an unexpired term.

Donation furor pushes Mozilla CEO to resign

Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich is stepping down as CEO and leaving the company following protests over his support of a gay marriage ban in California.

The nonprofit that makes the Firefox browser infuriated many employees and users last week by naming Eich head of the Mountain View, Calif.-based organization.

At issue was Eich’s $1,000 donation in 2008 to the campaign to pass California’s Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that outlawed same-sex marriages. The ban was overturned last year when the U.S. Supreme Court left in place a lower-court ruling striking down the ballot measure.

Eich’s contribution had drawn negative attention in the past but took on more weight when he was named CEO.

Eich said in a statement Thursday that Mozilla’s mission is “bigger than any one of us, and under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader.”

His resignation represents an about-face from his confident and sometimes defiant remarks in an interview published earlier this week.