WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Tuesday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes
- A lot of signaling embedded in the day’s news, starting with the signing of three documents at the White House, formally committing Bahrain, the UAE and Israel to open embassies in each other’s capitals, connect airline routes and upgrade their previously low-profile cooperation. While termed a peace agreement or an anti-Iran coalition, the normalization of relations will not necessarily reduce the possibility of attacks from Gaza, from where two rockets were launched into Israeli territory as the Abraham Accords were being signed in Washington. Two Israelis were injured. Hamas acknowledged responsibility. The White House said other Arab countries could follow with their own normalizations although many experts are skeptical Saudi Arabia will ever be more than a tacit participant. The UAE and Bahrain agreements were not identical and Bahrain in particular is not promising any relaxation of domestic policies that would be regarded as oppressive in Israel or the U.S.. The UAE’s acquisition of F-35s is still not a done deal with Israel and its supporters on Capitol Hill worrying that even with reduced capabilities, the fighter jets could upset the weapons hierarchy in the region. Iran, meanwhile, appears closer than ever to a nuclear weapons capability. The Palestinians, who the White House keeps saying will someday embrace a peace arrangement, so far are not following that script.
- Signaling of another sort from the Justice Department, warning off future insider tell-all authors by making known a criminal investigation into former National Security Adviser John Bolton for allegedly disclosing classified information in his book. The New York Times said new Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe called for the probe, encouraged by Trump tweets.
- A strong signal how one city regards police misconduct as St. Louis agreed to pay the family of slain Breonna Taylor $12 million in addition to agreeing to a number of police reforms.
- In an evening ABC Town Hall, President Trump gave familiar answers to questions like one that asked why he “dropped the ball” fighting the virus. Trump recounted the medical response anf displaying a new Abbott point-of-care rapid test kit. “I feel like we’ve done a tremendous job, actually.” Anchor George Stephanopoulos challenged Trump’s claim that the U.S. “excess mortality rate” is better than any other country and on other responses. Trump repeated the U.S. has more cases because it does more testing and, “I don’t want people to panic.” China’s Xi said his country was handling the virus well, Trump said, so that is why he didn’t criticize Xi at the time. Why doesn’t he wear a mask? He replied that Democrats haven’t worn masks either. “A lot of people say masks are not good.” Who? “Waiters,” Trump said. “I didn’t downplay it. I actually up-played it in terms of action,” he said. What about the 195,000deaths? “We would have had two million deaths” if “I didn’t close” the country. “It’s going to disappear, George,” with or without a vaccine. He added, “We’re rounding the corner.”
- With nearly 90 wildfires burning in 10Western states, a smoky haze was visible during the day on the East Coast . Meanwhile Hurricane Sally was expected to meander into a landfall in Alabama by morning, dumping heavy prolonged rain from Louisiana to Florida.
- The U.S. dropped its tariffs on Canadian aluminum just hours before Canada was to announce retaliatory tariffs on $3.6 billion in U.S. products. Separately, the WTO decision that the U.S. has been wrong to impose some of the tariffs on China exports will likely be referred to an appellate panel that won’t be able to follow through with the case since the U.S. has disabled the process by blocking the appointment of replacement judges.
- Upcoming economic reports include the MBA’s weekly tabulation of mortgage applications at 7a ET, the retail sales report at 8:30a, the EIA’s report on oil stocks at 10:30a. The FOMC announcement at 2p is not expected to reflect any change in policy. Chair Jay Powell’s news conference begins at 2:30p. As Kevin Kastner wrote on this macenews.com site, the morning’s report on industrial production posted another gain in August however the pace of growth slowed considerably, evidence the recovery is running out of steam.
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