A moment of comity prevailed late yesterday, on a day including physical threats in both chambers, when the House adopted Speaker Johnson’s early holiday gift of a clean, two-step laddered continuing resolution, with the Senate and President Biden expected to sign on and avert a government shutdown until January 19. Democrats provided a majority of the House …
Update 735: Shutdown Threat In Temporary Remission Read More »
The GOP House effort to elect a Speaker concluded this afternoon when Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) prevailed in a 220-209 party-line vote. This means that Congress can return to fiscal policy — though already about half the time available to move past the current FY24 continuing resolution that is keeping the government open until November …
Update 729 — House Elects Speaker: Can Bipartisan Fiscal Policy Follow? Read More »
In late breaking news, the House GOP has dropped the nomination of Rep. Jim Jordan for Speaker, ending a bid that had fallen short in three ballots of voting and was marked by grave threats issued against opponents. After another week of House GOP speakership debate and balloting, full of sound and fury signifying nothing, …
Update 728 — Suspended Animation:House Left Behind as the World Turns Read More »
A tumultuous week in Washington and the industrial Midwest hints at a set of short-term challenges that threaten the nation’s rapid recovery from the post-Covid recession. Failure this week, particularly by House Republicans bent on impeachment, to make meaningful budget making progress and avoid a government shutdown and by Detroit automakers to avert the UAW …
Update 722 — From Strikes to Shutdown: Challenges to the Post-Covid Recovery Read More »
Week of Data Drops Shows: Economy Yielding at Last to Fed Rate Hikes From today’s benign August jobs report to a downward GDP growth revision, to dips in inventory investment, mortgage rates, and Treasury yields, this week’s data drops show an economy cooling, perhaps enough to encourage the Fed to pause its long campaign of …
It is safe to say the resilient U.S. consumer has kept the economy from flirting with recession. And again in June, consumer spending increased by 0.5 percent over May, and again, up faster than disposable income. During and shortly after the pandemic, consumers splurged on a range of discretionary items — home gym equipment, patio …
Update 719 — Discretionary to Discount: Consumer Spending Trends and Trajectory Read More »
Status of Merger and Competition Policy It’s not just inflation making consumers uneasy about products and prices. Critical sectors of the U.S. economy have seen increased concentration in recent years, and whether it’s Taylor Swift tickets or food on the table, limited choices and rising costs afflict consumers everywhere. Today, we look at reforms proposed …
We note without comment the fourth indictment brought against Donald Trump late Monday, but note that the case brought by the District Attorney in Fulton County, Georgia differs from the previous three. This indictment focuses on Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia and names 19 co-conspirators on racketeering …
Update 716 — A Year After IRA Passage, Implementation Key to Popular Support Read More »
July Inflation 3.2%: Cooling and the Core The encouraging moderation in prices throughout the economy this summer belies the fact that the trickiest part of fighting inflation lies just ahead: knowing when to stop. The contractionary policy of the Fed, which is in the midst of its steepest set of interest rate increases since the …
Fitch Cut’s Costs, Causes and Cures The United States received a forewarned but still somewhat unexpected report card — coming in the wake of June’s debt limit agreement — from the Fitch Ratings last week when it downgraded US debt securities by one notch, from a pristine AAA to AA+. Fitch cited the same reasons …
