WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Tuesday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes
- Yes, everyone is focusing on the obscene 200,000 death toll, actually 201,800 by one count by now, just as “Status Check” did Monday night. And 33 states now seeing higher case rates again, much of it originating in dozens of college communities. And that video clisplayed again and again of a MAGA rally in Ohio booing an official holding masks. On CNN, contributor John Heileman called it all a “death cult.” On the way to 400,000 by yearend. It’s hard to watch. So let’s avert our eyes for the moment..
- How about that gamesradar.com story, of Amazon’s sales of Xbox game consoles up 474%. Of course, lots of mistaken sales to people buying the current Xbox One X when they thought they were buying the new similarly named Xbox Series X. And how about that TikTok deal? Still a tangled mess on several levels. Still waiting for China to chime in, and CFIUS. OK, have we been able to stop thinking about about 200,000 yet? On to another depressing subject.
- Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell, and Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin, spent three hours at the House Financial Services Committee. If you’re really interested in the tick and the tock, check out the three dozen or so Q&A tweets on the @macenewsmacro account. Spoiler alert. It was a Groundhog Day series of familiar questions and as familiar answers, notable for the lack of a sense of urgency when the subject of more congressional pandemic relief came up. In fact, Powell sort of argued against urgency when he said personal savings are way up, cushioning the crunch as CARES Act checks and the unemployment checks enhanced for a brief period by executive order run out. See if he tweaks his remarks with a little more urgency when he appears Wednesday before the Corona Virus Oversight Committee and when he and Mnuchin go before Senate Banking Thursday.
- Remember when Treasury’s Mnuchin confirmed the deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a “clean” continuing resolution so there will be no government shutdown starting Oct. 1? And Pelosi saying, “No one wants to shut down the government?” Skipping ahead to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellTuesday saying the CR as drafted ended up to be, yes, too clean, Pelosi, he said, wanted farmers to “drop dead” because the House did not include any replenishment of the Commodity Credit Corp., the conduit for much of the government’s generous support for ag land? Well, at the last minute Republicans and Democrats threw in $8 billion for nutrition assistance in return for clearing the way for farmer aid and the CR was passed late in the day.There was a provision, Pelosi said, to prevent the farm funds being used to bail out Big Oil. The Senate will follow up and so, no government shutdown.
- And at the UN Tuesday, not much, because the General Assembly had everyone phone it in, or broadband it in for the first time. President Trump decided to use only a few of the allotted 15 minutes, blasting China once again for wreaking virus havoc on the world. And China? Follow the science was the message. Iran? The U.S. is doing to that country what the police did to George Floyd. In short, another evidently inconsequential exercise.
- The Treasury’s OFAC arm sanctioned five political figures in Venezuela, members of the General Assembly who have stifled opposition to the Maduro regime.
- The Chicago Fed’s Charles Evans sort of chastised all those anchor people who have blithely summed up the new Fed policy framework by saying the central bank decided to let the economy “run hot” for a while. Hot? Have they checked the unemployment rate lately? The year’s expected minus GDP? Anyway, Evans said the Fed is not likely to meet its 2% inflation target for a few more years,
- What, no mention of Washington’s fixation, the next Supreme Court justice? Mitt Romney, not a dissident on this round. He’ll judge the nominee on the merits. “My decision regarding a Supreme Court nomination is not the result of a subjective test of ‘fairness’ which, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.” Deep. Comedian and non-Trump lover Jimmy Kimmel, referring to the Emmy’s sweep, said, “Now we’re all up Mitt’s Creek.”
- Ex-Bulls Charles Oakley got cut from the audience-less DWTS, saving Carol Baskin, of “Tiger King” notoriety, for another day.
- In upcoming economic statistics, the MBA’s report on mortgage applications last week at 7a ET. The day’s report on existing home sales was another housing industry standout, as Kevin Kastner details elsewhere on this macenews.com site.
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This story was updated with additional details about the budget CR.
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