Update 668 — What’s that Fee For?Biden Boosts Battle Against Junk Fees Americans have watched in recent years as financial and other services come with a proliferation of fees and penalties, adding costs that make the services unaffordable for many consumers. In his State of the Union address this week, President Biden took aim at …
Update 667 — Biden’s SOTU SerenadeClarion Call to Get Economic Job Done Displaying a mastery of the venue and appealing directly to Americans watching, President Biden delivered his second State of the Union to an animated joint session of Congress last night, making a convincing case for his economic record and direction. In a performance …
Update 666 — Jan. Jobs Gain of 517KGood News but a Quandary for the Fed Today’s blow out jobs report indicated US employers added 517,000 jobs in January – many more than forecasters had estimated and a spike not seen since July of 2022. The report brought mixed reactions. In a speech this morning, Biden …
Update 665 — Senate Committees SetRole of Chamber in Divided Government We turn to the expected 25 bp rate hike announced today by the Federal Reserve, with more hikes to come, and the jobs report that will inform the Fed’s next monetary policy move, when that report is out on Friday. In the meantime, we …
Update 664 – House Committees & Caucuses: What’s New? What’s Out? And Who’s on Top With this week’s appointment of committees and assignments of members in the U.S. House, the blurry picture of the 118th Congress comes to greater focus. The committee and caucus assignments stand in contrast to the 117th. Despite ominous-sounding titles like …
Update 663 — Early GOP Economic BillsWhat is Message, What Meant to Enact? In the early days of the 118th Congress, the House GOP has wasted no time setting the legislative tone for the next two years. The over 350 bills proposed by the GOP to date range from seriously threatening to downright silly. The …
Update 662 — Weaponizing the DebtHouse GOP’s Cause: Whose Default? The Full Faith and Credit clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that “[t]he validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law… shall not be questioned.” With good reason, given debts incurred in waging the Civil War, and …
Update 661 — A Soft Landing in 2023?Jobs, CPI, Tracking Fed Plane in the Sky As we enter a new year, the economy appears to be on the mend. Last year, inflation began accelerating and stayed elevated throughout. As yesterday’s CPI report makes clear, prices continue a descent thanks (only in part) to the Fed’s …
Update 660 — Rules of Engagement:Starve the Beast, with an Orwell Nod On Monday, the House of Representatives adopted the GOP Rules for the 118th Congress. Newly-minted Speaker McCarthy had to make many concessions with the most extreme MAGA members in his conference in exchange for their votes, including creating new oversight committees and spending …
Update 659 — The Putative 118th Congress:What’s Ahead for Economic Policy Legislation The House GOP conference has had several thousand dollars of pizza delivered this week to sustain it through failed ballot after ballot to elect a Speaker. This spectacular display of chaotic dysfunction comes two years after the insurrection on the Capitol, a more …
