WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Friday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes:
- “Do you want want to open bars or open schools?” Best quote yet from the NIH’s Tony Fauci as his consternation becomes more tangible every day. It was Thursday when his Task Force colleague Robert Redfield, head of the CDC, warned the convergence of influenza and the corona virus “could make the “worst fall” for health outcomes “we’ve ever had.” Then there’s another Task Force member, the man in charge of testing, Adm. Brett Giroir, who for a second day tried to defend the nation’s testing regime in which tests are declining. In a contentious interview on CNN Giroir insisted everything that can be done to expand testing is being done, that testing is “not a panacea.” A slew of private sector experts kept pillorying him anyway.
- Girior did acknowledge that the virus death toll, that he said is a “lagging indicator” was going to keep going up for at least a couple of weeks and the latest figures proved him right. Still another 24 hours with more than 1,000 deaths for something like the 19th day in a row. The latest 1,219 deaths lifted the total to 168,167 (NYT Tracker).
- With market optimists still anticipating a vaccine soon and the pessimists anticipating urban unrest among the jobless and hungry, the U.S. stocks indices kind of stood still for a second day. That again raised the questions whether the market’s sails are flapping as the wind changes. Apparently only a selloff will bring the White House and Democrats back to the negotiating table. And the longer the time they don’t restart enhanced unemployment benefits, supplemental food benefits, small business aid, state and local government aid, the more likely a selloff becomes?
- Yes, it’s August, when trading rooms and newsrooms are turned over to junior folks, hence the crazy headlines from time to time. Except this time home confinement has taken reporters off the campaign trail and ruined a lot of vacations and the threat of that selloff is keeping traders on the edge of their seats. So the craziness is more sophisticated. Hence the mail-in ballot/Postal Service story. It started as a conjunction of plausible and implausible elements, including the president making explicit he hopes Postal Service travails deny Democrats what they want. The fact the Postal Service was in dire straits to begin with got lost in the conspiracy theories which suddenly Friday solidified into letters from the Post Office lawyers to state election officials that there’s no guarantee ballots can be delivered back to headquarters by the deadlines specified by 46 states. Did President Trump conspire with his Postmaster General appointee to sabotage the elections? Stay tuned. And one more thing, CNN reported the Postal Service is going to freeze removals of letter boxes in at least 13 states.
- Reporters who cover the president are used to his non-sequitur answers and so the latest chapter in the China saga of demonization and provocation and purposeful ambiguity drew little notice. As the president was taking off for another weekend at his Bedminster golf resort, he was asked: Q-There were supposed to be some new talks with the Chinese on trade this Saturday. Are they happening or not happening? PRESIDENT: We’re doing very well on our trade deal but I feel differently about China than I’ve ever felt.”
- Earlier the president delivered another non-answer to a question about corporate objections to his threatened September WeChat ban but late Friday the White House issued some very clear legalese saying TikTok’s owner ByteDance was being blocked from acquiring another app operation on national security grounds.
- China-related, Taiwan signed a 10-year $62 billion contract to buy 66 updated F-16 fighters from Lockheed-Martin, increasing cross-straits tensions some more after the earlier visit of a U.S. Cabinet member.
- Upcoming economic data is on the light side next week, though the minutes of the last Federal Reserve policy meeting Wednesday might be a little more interesting than usual. Kevin Kastner’s preview of the week is at macenews.com.
- The coming week features the Democratic National Convention, without the packed convention floor, without the reporters tugging at politicians’ lapels, without the cascading balloons. Whether it will have that excitement push for the candidates remains to be seen.
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Edited by Denny Gulino (denny@macenews). Content may appear first or exclusively on the Mace News premium service. For real-time email delivery contact tony@macenews.com