WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Thursday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes.
· It could be a scene out of a Gothic political novel, a new genre. A president on high-dose steroids railing in an evacuated White House for his attorney general to prosecute Hillary and Barack, political opponents about whom he obsesses. At the Capitol the speaker of the House talks of examining his competency to execute his duties in the context of the exercise of the 25th Amendment. In Michigan, arrests of a pack of would-be terrorists, not from Antifa but right-wing opponents of lockdowns and masks, just like the president – a president who once tweeted “Liberate Michigan.”
· In the near distance an election that may be an agonizing test of the structures of democracy. The president organizes an “army” of poll watchers his enemies think will be detailed to Democratic areas, particularly where minorities are majorities.
· Backgrounding everything is the pandemic, a scythe cutting down the elderly and not only the elderly. More than two hundred thousand dead and, warns the experts, maybe two hundred thousand more to come into the New Year.
· The president breaks quarantine to visit his Oval Office two days in a row. He took time out Wednesday to record two videos outside, the one released Friday saying the synethic antibodies he credits as a “cure” will be made available to everyone free. The manufacturer, Regeneron, says the first small number of doses, 50,000, may be free, but not the many more that will be needed should it pass all the tests ahead. The president received it after being tested on only 275 people.
· All the details are chronicled in the @macenewsmacro tweets through the day. There were other subjects distantly related. For instance, Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Eric Rosengren worried about financial stability in an era of prolonged low interest rates. Later in the day Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan told Bloomberg the economy recovery is “stalling out.” More stimulus is needed. But the stimulus journey has become a spiral staircase going nowhere or maybe somewhere. The day’s stock markets seemed to lose some of the assurance that it all ends up in a good place for the unemployed, the near bankrupt, those who want a virus test and still can’t get one. The size of the virus challenge calls for 4 million or so tests a day instead of 850,000.
· The puzzle is this. The president tweeted in mid-week he told his negotiators to stop talking to Pelosi. But the talks didn’t stop. She said in the day’s briefing that the president’s declaration was a surprise to many people, including many Republicans who complained back to the White House. She said she is willing to consider the money for airlines the president says he still wants, but only if there is a commitment to a large, comprehensive bill with money enough “to crush the virus.”
· Pelosi’s spokesman said in her latest conversation with Trump’s negotiator, Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin, he assured her the president wants a deal.
· Back at the White House a spokesperson, one of the few left not infected, repeated the deal the president wants is a small-sized aid package for the airlines and for direct checks to individuals. So which wins out, small targeted programs that Trump wants, or small targeted programs plus a big comprehensive program that Pelosi wants? Or nothing and everyone loses?
–
Content may appear first or exclusively on the Mace News premium service. For real-time email delivery contact tony@macenews.com. Twitter headlines @macenewsmacro.
