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Long-term US borrowing costs climbed to levels not seen since before the global financial crisis after the Treasury auctioned $25bn (€21.3bn) in 30-year bonds at a high yield of 5.058% on Wednesday, according to the department’s own data.
The sale came only hours after the US Senate voted to confirm former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh as the next chairman, succeeding Jerome Powell.
The auction result immediately complicated the backdrop for Warsh’s arrival at the central bank, underlining the pressure facing policymakers as inflation is rising.
At the time of writing on Thursday, US 30-year bonds are trading at 5.02% while 10-year notes are selling with a yield of 4.44%.
US inflation figures released earlier this week showed consumer prices rose 3.8% from April 2025 as the 10-week Iran war pushed energy costs higher and distanced inflation from the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
Producer price data also pointed to persistent underlying cost pressures across the economy, reinforcing expectations that the central bank may struggle to ease monetary policy quickly.
Rising Treasury yields have broad implications for the economy because they influence borrowing costs on mortgages, corporate debt and other forms of credit.
Higher long-term yields can also increase financing costs for the US government at a time when public debt is nearing $40 trillion (€34.1tn).
Investors are increasingly concerned that a combination of resilient economic growth, elevated energy prices and sustained government borrowing could keep inflationary pressures alive despite two years of restrictive monetary policy.
The yield on the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond being auctioned above 5% is a symbolic threshold last reached in 2007 before the onset of the global financial crisis.
While market conditions today differ substantially from that period, the move nonetheless underscores the sharp repricing that has taken place in global bond markets over the past two years.
Kevin Warsh takes over the Federal Reserve at a delicate moment for the US economy.
The former Morgan Stanley banker and Fed governor has previously argued in favour of maintaining the central bank’s credibility on inflation, while also signalling support for reforms to the institution’s communication strategy and balance sheet policies.
Warsh’s confirmation comes as financial markets remain divided over how aggressively the Federal Reserve should respond to persistent inflation pressures.
Some investors believe rates may need to stay higher for an extended period, while others warn that maintaining tight monetary conditions for too long could weigh heavily on economic growth and employment.
The main driver of the rise in inflation is the current disruption to global energy markets caused by the Iran war which also leaves the central bank at the mercy of geopolitics and not able to effectively control the situation.
Analysts stated that Wednesday’s Treasury auction illustrated the immediate challenge confronting the incoming Fed chair.
Elevated bond yields can help tighten financial conditions without additional rate increases from the central bank, but they can also amplify risks for heavily indebted households, businesses and the federal government itself.
For Warsh, the market reaction served as an early reminder that restoring confidence on inflation may prove more complicated than simply holding interest rates at restrictive levels.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images News
When Kevin Hart announced in January that he’d licensed his name to Authentic Brands Group, the popular comedian was silent on a key detail: the future of his namesake media company.
Hart sold some ownership and oversight of his brand in exchange for an undisclosed sum of money and a stake in Authentic, a New York-based firm that manages the likenesses of Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali, Shaquille O’Neal and David Beckham.
Hart used the partnership with Authentic to reset his relationship with the people around him and his company, according to six current and former employees. Hart’s employees say they worry that this deal marks the beginning of the end of Hartbeat, the comedian’s namesake media company that produces films, owns a network of short-form video channels and handles marketing for brands.
Though the announcement made no mention of Hartbeat, the agreement gave Hart money to buy out his private equity partner in the company over time and regain control of the use of his name, image and likeness. Hart’s endorsement deals, which had been a pillar of Hartbeat business, will now be handled by Authentic.
Once valued at about $650 million, Hartbeat has shriveled over the past few years. The company enacted its latest round of job cuts in December, firing the heads of its scripted TV division, as well as employees working across marketing, social media and brand partnerships, said the people. Earlier this year it let go the leaders of its podcast division and later sued them for breach of contract.
Hart has withdrawn from the company, leaving day-to-day management in the hands of a small group of executives. Staff meetings have been canceled. The development of new film and TV projects has slowed. A slate of new podcasts was pitched but never produced.
Hartbeat’s struggles reflected the challenging environment for many Hollywood production companies as media giants merge and cut spending. The company is also a cautionary tale in this age of the celebrity media mogul. Financial firms have plowed money into media companies led by high-profile figures, believing they could use their notoriety to build valuable businesses. Yet even seemingly successful ones have had a hard time.
Hartbeat, like many of its peers, has suffered from mismanagement and grappled with the tension between the needs of the star and his company. Hart, one of the hardest-working people in Hollywood, tired of subsidizing a company that relied so much on him
Hart declined to comment for this story, which is based on conversations with several current and former employees. On Sunday night, Hart, who hosted the widely viewed roast of NFL great Tom Brady two years ago, was the subject of his own roast on Netflix.
One of the most successful stand-up comedians and actors of his generation, Hart, 46, has always been entrepreneurial. In 2017, he started Laugh Out Loud, an online video comedy business that later grew to include branded entertainment. He also operated his own production company, Hartbeat Productions, that made programs for streaming services like Peacock, Quibi and Netflix Inc.
With Hollywood in the midst of a production boom, Hart watched his fellow celebrities get rich from their media enterprises. Reese Witherspoon sold her media company, Hello Sunshine, in a deal that valued it at as much as $900 million. Hart’s friend LeBron James raised money for his company, SpringHill, at a valuation of $725 million. Hart believed he could be next.
In late 2022, Hart merged his business interests under the Hartbeat banner and raised money by selling a 15% stake to the private equity firm Abry Partners. The deal valued the company at about $650 million.
The new business was predicated on three pillars: film and TV, short-form video and advertising. Hartbeat had a deal to produce movies for Netflix, a slate of podcasts for SiriusXM Holdings Inc. and original audio series for Audible. Hartbeat also developed relationships with advertisers such as Lyft Inc., Procter & Gamble Co. and DraftKings Inc.
While Hart would star in Hartbeat projects, the goal of the company was to develop projects and new business that didn’t involve its namesake founder. The company could leverage Hart to sell projects and secure broad programming partnerships. Hart would ask that Hartbeat be involved in producing his movies and any advertising campaign for which he was a spokesperson. His fees as a producer and brand ambassador would help pay the bills. The hope was he’d convince other celebrities to use Hartbeat as well. Thai Randolph, who had been running Laugh Out Loud, was named chief executive officer.
Hartbeat opened offices in New York and Atlanta and took over a 40,000-square-foot West Hollywood office once occupied by Oprah Winfrey. Hart redesigned the space and installed a world-class art collection.
The upper-level lobby featured a work by Ghanaian artist Serge Attukwei Clottey, while the conference room had a sculpture by Zimbabwean artist Moffat Takadiwa made of computer keyboard keys. A portrait of Kobe Bryant by Julian Pace hung outside a podcast studio.
Hart’s own office featured a dressing room, a series of paintings by South African artist Feni Chulumanco, multiple TVs and a desk from a prominent French designer. “He really has almost a full-service apartment in his suite,” Kai Williamson, who worked with Hart on the project, told Architectural Digest. Hart was interviewed for a story and also filmed an episode of the design magazine’s “Open Door” video series.
While Hartbeat expanded, Hollywood entered a recession. Economic uncertainty, rising interest rates and growing skepticism about the profitability of streaming caused major media companies to fire staff and pull back on buying new projects. Hartbeat was a little more insulated than most because talent like Hart could usually still get a project made. Still, producing projects without Hart in a starring role became more difficult.
Randolph left the company in late 2023 and was replaced by Jay Levine, who had spent much of his career at Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. Levine brought in a couple of other senior leaders with experience at major media companies.
A contingent of executives pushed Hart to scale back some ambitions, the people said. The company couldn’t afford to be working in so many different businesses at the same time, especially as areas like free, advertising-supported online video, and podcasts got more competitive. Hart was one of the most prolific and productive creative people in the world, starring in and producing movies, TV shows, comedy, short-form videos and advertisements. The point of the company was to relieve the stress on him, not add to it.
While Hartbeat closed its New York office, Hart was reluctant to scale back his vision or replace some long-time lieutenants. Levine negotiated his exit at the end of 2024 and was followed out the door by the company’s chief financial officer and chief content officer. Days before Thanksgiving, Hartbeat laid off about 20 people, nearly one quarter of its work force.
In January 2025, Hart announced he would be the new CEO of Hartbeat and pledged to outline the firm’s strategy in the coming weeks. Instead, Hart went weeks and sometimes months without visiting the office, the people said, and empowered Jeff Clanagan and CFO Eric Stoneburner to run the company day to day. (Hart was on set to shoot at least a couple movies last year, in addition to his other work.)
A former concert promoter and movie producer, Clanagan had helped make Hart a major star. He had partnered with Hart to bring his stand-up specials to the big screen, producing shows such as 2013’s Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain, which grossed $32 million at the box office. Clanagan produced some of these specials under the banner of his own company, Codeblack Films, which helps promote, market and distribute video from Black creators.
Clanagan continued to operate Codeblack while serving in a senior capacity at Hartbeat, said the people. He pushed employees at Hartbeat to post its videos to the Codeblack channels as well, saying they could use the additional reach to raise awareness. The videos generated advertising sales for Codeblack.
Clanagan had employees at Hartbeat oversee Codeblack’s social media pages and asked to get those channels loaded into Hartbeat’s content management system. That gave Codeblack’s YouTube channels advantages over others because of Hart’s prominence and his company’s designation with YouTube. Employees raised concerns with human resources and the company’s lawyer.
Clanagan also became increasingly interested in video generated by artificial intelligence. He started a new app called Blktopia, a streaming service for Black viewers programmed with content from online creators and often made by AI. He urged employees to work on it, the people said. Clanagan initially responded to a request for comment and then retracted the text message.
Meanwhile, many of Hartbeat’s main businesses languished. Sales from the company’s YouTube channels fell and investment in new film and TV projects slowed. Hartbeat, once profitable, started to bleed cash. Hartbeat had hired Eric Eddings and Lesley Gwam to produce audio shows that didn’t involve Hart. While the pair developed a slate of projects, they never got approval to make them.
In mid-December, Hartbeat fired about a dozen employees, including some of those who were supposed to develop the podcasts. Eddings and Gwam then decided to start their own company and began trying to raise money. When Clanagan found out, Hartbeat fired them and sued for alleged theft of trade secrets and breach of contract.
A court approved a temporary restraining order but then rejected a preliminary injunction, saying Hartbeat had not demonstrated Eddings and Gwam had used proprietary information or trade secrets. The court said the request was “vague, ambiguous, and overly broad.” The case is ongoing.
Hartbeat also fired the heads of its TV division, Tiffany Brown and Mike Stein, who were in the middle of producing a TV show based on the film Barbershop for Amazon.com Inc. and a second season of the animated series Lil Kev.
The company made no official announcement explaining the cuts. The following week, senior leadership arranged a Zoom meeting. Hart remained off camera until it was his time to speak. He talked for a few minutes about changes at the company and took no questions. Hart changed his phone number in the weeks following the layoffs. (Some of his advisors had suggested he do this years earlier so that he wasn’t so available.)
A few weeks later, Hart announced the deal with Authentic Brands Group. Hart used some of the proceeds to buy out Abry Partners, freeing him to steer his brand deals to Authentic and outside of Hartbeat. A few of his employees and his publicist joined him at Authentic.
“This is a turning point for Hartbeat,” the company wrote in a subsequent email to employees, explaining that the deal would free Hart up to focus on what he does best, while allowing Hartbeat to stand on its own and grow beyond him.
“I know the past few months have been tough,” Hart wrote, adding that for too long the company had been too dependent on him. The email was said to be from “Kevin AKA Boss Man.” It was sent by Hart’s assistant.
Shaw writes for Bloomberg.
WASHINGTON — The Senate Banking Committee voted on party lines Wednesday to approve Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve to replace Jerome Powell, a longtime target of President Trump’s insults for not cutting borrowing costs as far as the president wanted.
The vote was 13-11, with all Republican senators voting in favor and Democrats opposed.
Warsh is a former top Fed official but has also been a sharp critic of the institution and Powell’s leadership. He has called the inflation spike to 9.1% in 2022 the central bank’s biggest policy mistake in four decades. A vote on his nomination probably won’t take place until next month, but he could be confirmed by the time Powell’s term as chair ends May 15.
The Senate Banking vote is the first of two key events surrounding the future of the Fed’s leadership. Also Wednesday, Powell is presiding over what will probably be his last meeting of the Fed’s interest rate-setting committee. At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Powell may indicate whether he will remain as a member of the central bank’s board of governors after his term as chair ends.
It would be unusual for Powell to stay, but doing so would deprive the Trump administration of an opportunity to appoint a new member to the board. Powell may choose to stay if he sees it as necessary to protect the Fed’s independence, which has become part of his legacy as its leader.
Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican and chair of the committee, said Warsh is “battle tested” and added that, “It is incredibly important that we break the bind of Bidenomics on households across this nation.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, criticized the banking panel for voting on Warsh’s nomination. Doing so “will bring the president one step closer to completing his illegal attempt to seize control of the Fed and artificially juice the economy,” she said, citing Trump’s effort to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook and investigate Powell.
The Fed on Wednesday is widely expected to leave its key rate unchanged at about 3.6% for its third straight meeting, defying Trump’s calls for lower rates.
Warsh has called for “regime change” at the Fed and could alter many of its practices, including the economics models it focuses on, how it communicates with the public, and how large its bondholdings will be in the long run.
Those changes could affect financial markets, but otherwise won’t necessarily be visible to the general public. But Warsh has also advocated for additional interest rate cuts, which could potentially lower borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and business loans. He will face barriers to implementing those cuts anytime soon, however, largely because the Iran war has caused a spike in gas prices, pushing inflation to a two-year high of 3.3%.
The Fed typically keeps rates elevated, or even raises them, to combat worsening inflation.
Most of the other 11 members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee have indicated they would prefer to wait and evaluate where inflation and the economy are headed before making any changes to rates. It could take time for Warsh to build up enough influence to push for rapid rate cuts. He will also replace Stephen Miran, a member of the Fed’s rate-setting committee who was appointed by Trump last September and is the most consistent advocate for rate reductions at the central bank.
Warsh also faces questions about his independence from the White House, a key issue that dogged him during a Senate Banking hearing last week. On Wednesday, Warren said, “Mr. Warsh is a Trump sock puppet who is so cowed by the president that he could not even say that Trump lost the 2020 election.”
Last December, Trump called for much lower interest rates in a social media post, and added that “anyone who does not agree with me will never be Fed chair!” And just last week he told Fox Business that he expects rates to head lower, “when Kevin gets in.”
Warsh denied at his hearing, however, that Trump had ever pressured him directly to cut rates.
Rugaber writes for the Associated Press.
The co-creators of the new Prime Video series “Kevin” tried to make the show “as personal as possible,” says Joe Wengert, explaining that he and Aubrey Plaza looked back to the end of their relationship nearly two decades ago for inspiration. Then, Wengert says, they focused on “the emotional story and investing in the inner lives” of the main characters. (Plaza’s production partner, Dan Murphy, was a third co-creator.)
And, Plaza adds, they strived to give the show a real “groundedness” in its specific New York neighborhood — Astoria, Queens, where she and Wengert lived together — while also “infusing some of my film nerdiness and love of New York films.” There’s even a rooftop scene that’s a homage to Al Pacino’s first leading film role, in “The Panic in Needle Park.”
OK, so all of that’s totally true, but “Kevin” is mostly a silly, raunchy animated series with a star-studded comedy cast about talking animals and their escapades in a life generally free of human owners.
The show opens with a couple, Dan (Mike Mitchell) and Dana (Plaza), breaking up and their cat, Kevin (Jason Schwartzman), deciding he’s done with both humans and will find his own way in the world.
“Joe and I were talking and realized we both weirdly wanted to do a cat comedy, and he had this idea and I loved it,” Plaza says, explaining that when they broke up, Kevin and another cat, Howard, passively went with Wengert. (Howard died relatively young, but, spoiler alert, Plaza says a cat named Howard will make an appearance as a tribute.)
“Joe was then doing a lot of comedy about being a single guy with cats.”
Wengert, who serves as showrunner, says the breakup was “a significant moment in my life” and he wanted to explore that, but a sad man going off to reconnect with his friends was not as funny as this concept. “The idea of this just made us laugh,” he says.
The real Kevin was a homebody, not a cat who looked longingly out the window, Wengert says, adding that he always felt bad for Kevin: “You could have been with Aubrey Plaza but you’re stuck with me in my studio apartment.”
In the series, Kevin soon lands at an animal rescue where he falls in with Cupcake (Whoopi Goldberg), a self-declared feral cat with a kinky and rebellious side; Armando (John Waters), an aristocratic cat with a haughty attitude; Judy (Aparna Nancherla), a cat with gross eye infections who is way more upbeat and hopeful about the world than she should be; and a shrill and bossy dog named Brandi (Amy Sedaris), who runs the human Seth (Gil Ozeri) — ostensibly the operator of the shelter.
After his owners break up, Kevin decides to stay at an animal shelter, where he makes friends with a rag-tag group of cats, dogs and other animals.
(Courtesy of Prime)
“This idea of fending for yourself and trusting your instincts is part of checking off boxes to show you have lived a quote unquote real life,” says Schwartzman, briefly growing philosophical about what intrigued him about playing a neurotic cat.
The cats encounter plenty of other animals on their adventures, from a drunk spider to a deer that gets hit by a car and curses out the driver. “That made me laugh out loud,” says Plaza, who also voices numerous animals, including the spider and a pitbull love interest for Cupcake. “I’ve always wanted a love story with Whoopi Goldberg,” she adds.
(Wengert voices a parrot named Paco, among others, and says there’s talk of adding a tortoise.)
One secondary character is a horse named Patti Lupony, who, naturally, is voiced by Patti LuPone. She’s part of a stacked guest star roster that includes Addison Rae, Cary Elwes, Charles Melton, Nicole Byer, Jim O’Heir, Maria Bamford, Quinta Brunson and Tig Notaro. Many of the actors, including Schwartzman, Waters, LuPone and O’Heir, are Plaza’s friends.
“I like to do things that people don’t expect me to be in, and this is definitely one of them,” says Waters, adding that “Armando is not a real fan of humans, and as a human, I’m not a real fan of cats.”
Still, Waters, who prefers dogs, says he was easily able to get into Armando’s skin. “I’m a Method actor, so I was crawling around the floor,” he jokes, before adding, “If I was a cat, I would probably act like Armando.”
For what it’s worth, Schwartzman also owns dogs, though he’s quick to point out that growing up in Los Angeles, he volunteered at a cat shelter, and these days Plaza actually owns a dog, too. But as anyone who has seen her in “Parks and Recreation” or other roles would surmise, Plaza says, “I have cat-like tendencies and relate more to cats.”
Plaza and Wengert also incorporated the actors’ sensibilities and personalities.
“We would change things on the fly based on the actor’s input,” Wengert says.
Plaza says that Waters is known for being provocative and loves reading tabloids but that he asked to tone down Armando’s snide put-downs of celebrities. “I felt ill at ease about them,” Waters says. “I’ve gotten away with my career for 50 years because I’m not mean. My specialty is praising things other people hate, not the other way around.”
Wengert says the change “forced us to dig deeper and find something more unique in the character, so I’m happy that he asked us to make the change.”
(He adds that he expected Goldberg to object more “because we gave her so many outrageous lines” but she rarely did, except “to pitch something that was even funnier that worked better.”)
Plaza knew Kevin’s neuroses fit Schwartzman but also that he could bring his own touches while improvising. “He’s really funny about his own body,” she says. “We were hanging out once and he just said, ‘Feel this, my leg is really heavy.’ So we put that in for Kevin.”
Schwartzman says, seemingly seriously, “Wow, I don’t have a memory of that exact moment, but it is true that my leg does feel heavy.” And he adds that his friendship with Plaza enabled him to feel comfortable throwing out ideas during recording, adding that the improvising and tweaking went both ways, with the writers constantly adding new ideas. “It was a collaboration and an evolution,” he says.
The writers room is stacked with people who, like Plaza and Wengert, hail from the Upright Citizens Brigade improv world. (Wengert, who also imported writers he’d worked with on Netflix’s “Big Mouth,” was running the UCB school when they met.) “Our sense of humor is very aligned,” Plaza says.
While Plaza loves how “freeing” animation is — “your imagination can run totally wild” — she says that even though it’s out of character for her, she’d play the “bad cop” in the writers room. Wengert says one day she brought Schwartzman in and he and the writers pitched some wild ideas that made them say, “What the f— is going on.”
“We’re just building the world, so you need some rules, otherwise all the inanimate objects can start talking,” Plaza says. “When things started getting too crazy, I’d say, ‘Let’s rein it in.’”
The example Wengert gives is that they can briefly have a talking pizza slice (it is New York, after all) but they don’t want it to become close friends with Kevin in a major plotline.
But if they get to produce a second season — the scripts are already written — Plaza says the leash will get looser “and it will get more insane.”
Angie Quinn Screen Time Reporter
08:00, 18 Apr 2026
Coronation Street icon Kevin Kennedy portrayed Curly on the ITV soap for two decades, but off-screen, he battled addiction.
Curly made his debut in the summer of 1983 and is fondly remembered for his romantic misfortunes and a succession of unsuccessful marriages. He was married to Rovers Return barmaid Raquel (Sarah Lancashire), though regrettably, they ended their rocky marriage after just five years.
Ultimately, however, Curly discovered contentment with his second wife, police officer Emma Taylor (Angela Lonsdale). The couple left the cobbles and set off to begin a fresh chapter in Newcastle-upon-Tyne following a perjury incident in 2003. Tragically, their marriage didn’t survive.
Curly returned briefly in a 2010 DVD special for the Coronation Street film A Knight’s Tale, where he disclosed that he and Emma had separated, leaving Curly single once more, reports the Daily Star.
Away from the BBC soap, Kevin struggled with alcohol addiction and has remained clean and sober for 27 years.
Speaking to The Mirror in 2013 regarding his addiction, Kevin admitted he would add shots of rum to his coffee. He would then consume a bottle of vodka before arriving at the Corrie set, where he secretly drank more in his dressing room to cope with filming.
Kevin said, “If it wasn’t for Coronation Street, I would be dead. If I were lucky, the drink would have killed me straight away by a fall or by walking in front of a bus.
“If I were unlucky, it would have taken everything from me first, kept me alive for another 10 years, and then killed me.”
Having departed the Cobbles in 2003, Kevin established an addiction recovery charity to support others battling addictive and mental health disorders, following more than two decades on his own personal recovery journey from alcohol addiction.
The organisation provides a helpline, staffed by trained coaches all in active recovery, alongside free virtual recovery coaching, support, signposting, and workshops.
Kevin told the Manchester Evening News: “The Kennedy Street Foundation is my passion; all we want to do is help people who find themselves in the desperate situation I was in 22 years ago.”
He further stated: “Our national recovery helpline is receiving calls every day, and we really need to raise as much money as possible in order to be able to help each and every one start their own Road2Recovery.”
Since departing Coronation Street 23 years ago, Kevin wrote and produced a programme entitled Spanish Capers, which broadcast between 2005 and 2007.
The 64-year-old, from Manchester, took on a role in Ben Elton’s musical We Will Rock You, portraying a hippie named Pop. Further television credits include appearances in Blue Murder, Doctors (both in 2006), and Holby City (in 2017).
In 2019, Kevin made his return to the small screen, portraying Clyde in a single episode of Mrs Brown’s Boys. The former Coronation Street star also trod the boards between 2018 and 2019, taking on the role of Dennis Dupree in the hit musical Rock of Ages.
According to The Guardian, Kevin is also an accomplished musician who was once signed to Simon Cowell’s record label. He performed in America alongside globally renowned acts, including Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson.
“Along with [the Smiths bassist] Andy Rourke, we were in a band called Paris Valentinos. As soon as I heard Johnny play the guitar, I thought: this is special, what a privilege to be here for this”, he told the publication.
Kevin is equally at home on stage, having played His Royal Highness, King Curlington in Cinderella at a County Durham pantomime in 2024, before going on to appear in the Pretty Vacant UK tour, which charts the story of punk and the new wave generation.
He has also been cast in the forthcoming UK tour of The Picture of Dorian Gray – A New Musical, scheduled to run from October 2026 through to April 2027, in which he will take on the role of Mr. Issacs.
For more information, help, and advice about addiction and recovery, visit Kennedy Street here.
Coronation Street airs weekdays on ITV and ITVX