Update 697 — Season of Dodging BulletsDemocrats Avert Default, Deficit Disasters We open by noting this morning’s jobs report for May — a much stronger than expected 339,000 jobs were added to the economy while unemployment rose to 3.7 percent, from 3.4 in April. This signal of the labor market’s continued resilience comes two weeks …
Update 696 – Economic Policy Week in ReviewDebt Limit Deal Talks Going Down to the Wire Negotiators from the White House and House Republicans met throughout the week to hammer out details on a debt limit deal. While nothing is final, indications suggest that the two sides are focused on a handful of issues, slowly …
Update 694 – Economic Policy Week in ReviewDebt Limit Stalemate, Failed Bank Execs Plead Case The financial community and much of the American public remain on tenterhooks going into the weekend, with debt limit negotiations on hold and a wide range of outcomes still possible with a dozen days to go before Treasury’s X-date of …
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Update 692 — Debt Limit Talks, on HoldLead Economic Developments This Week Last night it was announced that President Biden would not be meeting with four Congressional leaders about the debt limit today as planned. Instead, the meeting will occur early next week to give aides time to work out a deal. The debt limit …
Update 690 — From Extraordinary to X-DateDangerous Month Ahead for the Debt Limit President Biden will meet with Congressional leaders from both parties on Tuesday, May 9, to discuss the debt limit. The meeting comes on the heels of Secretary Yellen’s announcement this week that the federal government could breach the debt ceiling as soon …
Update 674 — X-Date Approaching FastPrioritization: Pushing Default to the Limit The two hearings held in Congress this week on the debt limit showed a stark but all-too-familiar partisan contrast. Senate Democrats agreed that the full faith and credit of the United States must not be questioned, consistent with the command of the Constitution and …
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 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 574 — Debt Limit Agreement:Resolution for Now; Reform for Later? Late yesterday, House Democrats adopted legislation allowing the Senate to raise the debt ceiling without having to overcome a filibuster, this once. The Senate GOP is expected to cooperate to avoid a sovereign default that would otherwise have occurred within days or weeks. The fast-track process …
Update 558 — Debt Limit Dilemma:Have Faith in “Full Faith and Credit”? The U.S. financial system and therefore the economy is under the sword of Damocles right now, with the statutory debt limit already exceeded, emergency measures estimated to expire as soon as mid-October, markets in turmoil, and no viable legislative solution in reasonable reach. Last night, …
