WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Thursday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes:
In the words of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott the Gulf Coast region as well as the northern path inland of Hurricane Laura “dodged a bullet” Thursday with the storm a shade less powerful than feared and casualties in single digits. Even with its hurricane status maintained for close to 200 miles north, with a landscape strewn with debris and billowing smoke from a burning chlorine tank fire the coastal refineries were mostly left intact.. Recovery from the rampant destruction however, will take a long time.
Demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin, ignored a curfew yet remained orderly for a change overnight. The 17-year-old charged with firing his AR-15 with twice-deadly effect is being extradited back into Wisconsin from Illinois. In Minneapolis, still a tinderbox, the suicide of a suspect was misconstrued to be another police shooting, triggering more violence. The NBA protest pause spread to other sports.
At the red, white and blue White House, transformed on its north face by colored lights and on the South Lawn by all the trappings of a major TV production, about 1,500 Republicans applauded President Trump and his formal acceptance of the nomination at 10:29p ET. There were plenty of speakers – even Rudy Giuliani – warning of the “huge risk” of the “radical Socialist agenda” of a “weak and dangerous”Joe Biden while Biden himself said earlier Trump is “rooting for more violence.” Officials insisted the risk of superspreading was minimal despite the close seating and widespread absence of masks because many attendees had been properly screened.
It was historic yet not surprising as Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell confirmed all those stories about recalibrating the relationship between the fed’s jobs and inflation mandates, with inflation now a threat of being too low, carrying inflation expectations with it. No better time for an emphasis on jobs which was already the Powell story even before the pandemic’s damage. The macenews.com site had it all, with stories and analysis by Steve Beckner and Denny Gulino along with a word-by-word analysis was what the new policy has added and deleted, at least for the five years until the next framework review.
In upcoming economic data there’s the report on the goods trade balance at 8:30a ET along with the latest month’s personal income measure. The Chicago PMI is at 9:45a, the consumer sentiment report at 10a and finally the Baker-Hughes rig count – which finally went up last week – at 1p. The morning’s report on fresh applications for unemployment benefits reminded how past tense is full employment. With 14.535 million collecting benefits, lucky enough to be covered by state insurance, many more outside of coverage were also without paychecks.
The government regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as expected, extended its moratorium on evictions until the end of the year. But the GSEs are linked to only 28 million homeowners while many more are not protected by the federal or state moratoriums.
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