Good morning from staff writer and Thursday newsletter hombre Timothy Noah!
If youâre like me, perhaps you wonder why you keep reading about how well talks are going between President Joe Biden and Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, when we never see any progress in moving Build Back Better to the Senate floor. On Monday, for instance, the White House called the talks âconstructive.â Well, Politico finally quoted âa source briefed on the conversations,â saying that âthe talks between [Biden] and Manchin have been going very poorly. They are far apart.â Which we all kind of knew, but at least now somebodyâs willing to say it out loud. Maybe itâs time for the talks to get less constructive. Biden âhas grown tired of the elongated talks and will soon push [Manchin] to make a decision and support the legislation,â Politico reports.
Ebenezer Scrooge will soon be visited by three ghosts. You and I will be visited next yearâboo!âby three interest rate hikes. Thatâs what Federal Reserve officials anticipate, anyway. âIn September,â reports Nick Timiraos in The Wall Street Journal, âaround half of those officials thought rate increases wouldnât be warranted until 2023.â But that was before the consumer price index rose 6.8 percent on an annualized basis. Bafflingly, the Journal reports that stock futures are up, even though the stock market likes inflation and doesnât like efforts to rein it in.
In a policy statement Wednesday, the Fed said it will wind down monthly bond-buying more quickly than previously planned. The reason is inflation, but Covid-19 remains the indicator to watch. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that âthe rise in Covid cases in recent weeks, along with the emergence of the Omicron variant, pose risks to the outlook,â The New York Times reports. Hospitalizations are a better gauge, but why quibble? You want to fix this economy, end this pandemic.
Case in point: the Broadway theater, which has been reopening through the fall. Now The New York Times reports itâs canceling performances: two for Tina, a jukebox musical about Tina Turner, one for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, one for Hamilton, four for a musical version of Mrs. Doubtfire, all because one or more members of the cast and crew tested positive for Covid. âFor a show grossing $1 million a week,â the Timesâ Michael Paulson reports, âeach missed performance would mean a loss of about $125,000; cancellations on weekends are costlier, because thatâs when many shows are most full.â The losses may be higher, actually, because Broadway houses are fuller during the holiday season.
Another case in point: Britain, where omicron is pushing daily new cases to record levels. France, where omicron hasnât yet taken root, responded today by banning nonessential travel to and from the United Kingdom. Ten days ago, France closed its nightclubs for four weeks. Now itâs shutting out Britons. (Is that easier to do because of Brexit? Just asking.) This is very bad news for Boris Johnson, whose penchant for bullshitting charmingly through every crisis no longer helps now that a press aide has been caught on video joking about a secret Christmas party his government held last year even as Johnson was telling everybody else not to have them. Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said yesterday: âWe canât go on with a prime minister whoâs too weak to lead.â
Seven years after the advent of the Flint, Michigan, water crisis, the Biden administration says itâs getting rid of every underground lead pipe in America by requiring water utilities to remove them. Up to 10 million lead pipes still carry water to homes and businesses in the United States. The Environmental Protection Agency will write the regulation. The infrastructure bill signed into law last month already commits $15 billion to removing lead pipes, and the Build Back Better bill commits $10 billion more. The White House says it will get $2.9 billion of that out to states, territories, and tribes next year. The question now, The Washington Post reports, is what deadline the EPA will set for their removal.
At NewRepublic.com, Daniel Strauss reviews five big questions raised by the latest January 6 revelations, the biggest being, âWhat did Donald Trump doâor not doâduring those fateful 187 minutesâ while Don Jr. and assorted Fox News assets begged Meadows to persuade Trump to send the insurgents home? (My best guess: He downed two Big Macs, two Filets-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted while relishing the mayhem on TV, pausing periodically to punch a triumphant fist in the air.) Matt Ford games Republican threats to terrorize congressional Democrats, if they regain the House, in retaliation for voting Mark Meadows and Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress. Ford concludes that the certainty Republicans will do this no matter what makes it âeasier for Democrats and their allies to continue to pursue their constitutional oversight duties.â And Maya Wiley says President Joe Biden isnât pushing hard enough to pass the Build Back Better bill (see lead item, above).
Thanks for reading,
âTim Noah, staff writer |
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