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What's News |
| Good Morning Here's what we're watching as the U.S. business day gets under way: |
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Options dwindle to boost economic growth. After debating for days whether the U.S. is going into a downturn, policy makers and Wall Street investors barreled into an even more difficult problem: There are few good options to deal with one if it happens. |
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The Federal Reserve's recalibration. Officials didn't see their rate cut last month as the start of a more aggressive easing cycle and were reluctant at their July meeting to say how future moves would unfold. |
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Defining a doctrine around when to cut rates. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell must articulate clearly why the central bank is likely to continue reducing rates absent obvious signs of economic deterioration. |
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Health insurers to expand ACA offerings. Companies including Oscar, Cigna and Centene are expanding their Affordable Care Act plans for next year, with the once-troubled business now generating profits. 🎧 Hear more from reporter Anna Mathews in today's What's News podcast. |
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U.S. and Venezuela hold secret talks. The Trump administration has been secretly talking with top aides of Nicolás Maduro in an effort to oust Venezuela’s president and clear the way for free elections, according to officials. |
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Fires ravage Amazon rainforest. Flames are tearing through the Amazon at a rate not seen in years, at a time when there is international pushback against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental policies. |
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Immigrant families to be held longer. The Trump administration moved to allow the government to indefinitely detain families crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and supersede a decades-old settlement that limits how long migrant children can be held. |
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Yields plumb new lows, but ultralong bonds remain scarce. Only a handful of governments have responded as many bankers and investors say they should, by locking in ultralow rates for decades. |
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PG&E line that sparked Camp Fire was inspected weeks earlier. The utility conducted an unusual inspection of the power line that started the deadliest wildfire in California history shortly before it failed. |
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Alibaba postpones Hong Kong listing. The Chinese e-commerce company put plans for a multibillion-dollar share listing on hold due to market instability and political uncertainty in the city. |
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| LINH PHAM FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL |
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For manufacturers in China, breaking up is hard to do. As the U.S.-China trade fight intensifies, companies are rushing to set up new supply chains in countries such as Vietnam. They’re quickly finding no place offers the complete solution that China does. |
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Traffic congestion swells. The average auto commuter in 2017 spent roughly 12 and a half minutes every workday stuck in traffic, according to a new report. That’s 54 hours a year, roughly the time it would take to binge-watch five seasons of a TV show. |
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Virginia to commemorate 1619 slavery anniversary. The state will hold events this weekend to mark 400 years since the first arrival of captured Africans to the area, which many historians consider the founding of black slavery in the U.S. |
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When managing your home requires a full-time hire. Struggling to keep up with the demands of maintaining a property? Maybe it’s time to hire an estate manager, writes Beth DeCarbo. |
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Pelosi corrals a combative caucus. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pushed back against progressive lawmakers on a range of issues to protect the Democratic Party’s most vulnerable members. |
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Crop scouts size up a tough year on the farm. Participants on a crop tour this week are attempting to assess the development and health of corn and soybeans in hundreds of fields across the Farm Belt after a rainy spring. |
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Meet the robocall's evil twin: the robotext. Credit consult! New listings! You’ve WON! Spam texts are the latest plague of our times. Here are some partial cures. |
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| What Members Are Talking About |
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| Highlights from our tax coverage |
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1. Then again, maybe not. President Trump floated the idea of cutting capital-gains and payroll taxes to bolster the economy—before reversing course the next day. Economists say the capital-gains idea would likely do little for growth. 2. Companies backtrack on buybacks. Big publicly traded companies sharply cut the amount they spent to repurchase their own shares in the second quarter, alarming investors as they eye trade battles, weaker profits and signs of a global downturn. 3. Don’t be cryptic about crypto. Tax experts are advising cryptocurrency users on how to come clean with the IRS, which is cracking down on crypto noncompliance. First task: check whether the wrongdoing was fraudulent, writes tax columnist Laura Saunders. — Theo Francis |
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You got a "free" internet speed upgrade. Then your bill rose. Cable companies are leaning heavily on their broadband businesses to drive growth as pay TV subscribers dwindle. They are using a range of tactics to shift consumers onto premium-speed tiers. |
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Japan Annexes Korea The Empire of Japan formally annexed Korea, crafting a treaty that gave it sovereign rule of the nation. The treaty followed years of slow Korean integration into Japanese rule and was promulgated one week later. Korea would remain under Japanese control until the end of World War II, followed by the country's split into two after the U.S. and Soviet Union failed to reach an agreement in 1948. |
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