US ECONOMY & POLITICS

Inflation Stayed High in July as Economy Rebounded – Wall Street Journal, 8/11/2021

• Inflation remained elevated in July, as the economy continued to rebound amid pandemic-related shortages of labor and supplies.
• The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its consumer-price index rose 5.4% in July from a year earlier, the same pace as in June and the highest 12-month rate since 2008.
• The CPI climbed a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in July from June, a slightly cooler pace than its 0.9% increase in June from May.
• U.S. gross domestic product rose at a rapid 6.5% seasonally adjusted annual rate in the second quarter.
• It was powered by consumer spending that climbed at an 11.8% pace as more people received vaccinations, businesses reopened and trillions of dollars in federal aid flowed through the economy.
• Consumers’ median inflation expectation for three years from now rose slightly to 3.7% in July, from 3.6% a month earlier, and was the highest reading since August 2013, according to a survey by the New York Fed.

Covid-19 Rent-Relief Program Marred by Delays, Confusion, Burdensome Paperwork – Wall Street Journal, 8/11/2021

• Since last December, Congress has appropriated a total of $46.6 billion to help tenants who were behind on their rent.
• As of June 30, just $3 billion had been distributed, though a senior official said the Biden administration hoped at least another $2 billion had been distributed in July.
• While the program is overseen by the Treasury, it relies on a patchwork of more than 450 state, county and municipal governments and charitable organizations to distribute aid.
• Often, tenants and landlords didn’t know money was available, and many of those who did apply had to contend with cumbersome applications and requests for documentation.
• For now, tenants are protected by a national eviction moratorium, which has been extended five times and is now set to expire on Oct. 3.

Senate Passes Democrats’ $3.5 Trillion Budget Blueprint – Wall Street Journal, 8/11/2021

• The Senate passed a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint early Wednesday, the first step in an arduous process designed to allow Democrats to push through a sweeping package of education, healthcare, climate and other provisions without GOP support.
• The party line vote, 50-49, came just before 4 a.m., one day after the Senate passed a roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package.
• For much of the day Tuesday and into Wednesday morning, the Senate slogged through a raft of largely symbolic amendment votes known as vote-a-rama that precede the final vote on the budget resolution.
• Republicans have criticized the budget framework as an unprecedented deluge of spending that could fuel inflation and increase taxes for individuals and corporations.
• If the House passes a budget resolution identical to the Senate’s, Democrats can unlock a special process known as reconciliation that allows them to pass legislation with a simple majority in the Senate rather than the 60 votes most bills need.

Fed’s Evans Open to Reducing Asset Purchases Later This Year – Wall Street Journal, 8/10/2021

• The economy is on track to later this year satisfy the Federal Reserve’s threshold to begin reducing its $120 billion in monthly asset purchases, a top central bank official said Tuesday.
• Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said he expected recent employment gains to continue, which would allow the Fed to declare that the economy has achieved the “substantial further progress” it laid out last December.
• Mr. Evans said he expects the unemployment rate to fall to 4.5% by year’s end and the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, excluding volatile food and energy categories, to end the year around or slightly above 3%.
• He expects that core inflation gauge to decline to around 2.1% by the end of next year.

Senate Passes $550 Billion Infrastructure Plan in Biden Win – Bloomberg, 8/10/2021

• The Senate passed a $550 billion infrastructure plan that would represent the biggest burst of spending on U.S. public works in decades, sending the legislation to the House where its fate is in the hands of the fractious Democratic caucus.
• The bipartisan 69-30 vote Tuesday marked a significant victory for President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.
• Nineteen Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, joined with all 50 senators who caucus with Democrats to support the bill.
• The bill still faces hurdles in the House, which is scheduled to be on break until Sept. 20.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, under pressure from progressives who want their priorities addressed, has said she will not allow a vote on the bipartisan package until the Senate has passed the broader economic plan.

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul Begins Transition Following Gov. Cuomo’s Resignation– Wall Street Journal, 8/11/2021

• New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul is lining up support among local politicians as she transitions to become New York’s first female governor after Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday he would resign.
• She has served as lieutenant governor since 2015 and previously was a member of Congress representing western New York.
• Ms. Hochul takes over the state during a period of political tumult and economic uncertainty.
• The Covid-19 pandemic created a rent crisis in New York, leaving tens of thousands of tenants in arrears, but the state has been slow to distribute federal aid.

EUROPE & WORLD

Fresh U.K. Covid-19 Data Boosts Hopes That Delta Variant Can Be Held in Check – Wall Street Journal, 8/11/2021

• The latest surge of Covid-19 cases in the U.K. is giving rise to growing optimism among doctors and scientists that the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus can be held at bay with high levels of vaccination and public caution.
• Between 90% and 94% of British adults have some degree of immunity to coronavirus from full or partial vaccination, or prior infection, the U.K. statistics office estimates, based on statistical analysis of blood samples.
• The seven-day average of new Covid-19 cases in the U.K. stood at 28,007 Tuesday, down 41% from a peak of almost 48,000 nearly three weeks ago.
• In early August, visits to restaurants, shopping malls and recreational settings such as cinemas were around 7% below pre-pandemic levels. Public-transport use is a third lower. Visits to workplaces are 40% lower.
• Nathan Spence, a doctor working in an acute admissions unit in a hospital in Oxford, England, said he is currently treating around 30 Covid-19 patients, compared with 250 to 300 in January.

China Sentences Canadian Citizen to 11 Years for Espionage in Case at Heart of Diplomatic Standoff – Wall Street Journal, 8/11/2021

• A Chinese court sentenced entrepreneur Michael Spavor to 11 years in prison on espionage charges in the first of two national-security cases involving Canadian citizens that sit at the center of a fierce standoff with both Canada and the U.S.
• Mr. Spavor was found guilty of “probing into and illegally providing state secrets” to foreign actors, said the Dandong Intermediate People’s Court in northeastern Liaoning province on its website Wednesday.
• Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Mr. Spavor ran a Dandong, China-based nonprofit called Paektu Cultural Exchange.
• The organization put together academic, tourist and business trips to North Korea, including one by former Chicago Bulls basketball star Dennis Rodman, who had developed a fascination with the nation and its young leader, Kim Jong Un.

Russia announces new criminal charge against Navalny – Reuters, 8/11/2021

• Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny faces a new criminal charge of establishing an organization that incited Russians to break the law, the Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said on Wednesday.
• Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest domestic critic, is already serving a 2-1/2-year sentence for parole violations he calls trumped up.
• The Investigative Committee said in a statement that Navalny and his allies used his Anti-Corruption Foundation to call on Russians to take part in unauthorized protests in January that authorities said were illegal.

Factmonster – TODAY in HISTORY

• The first inmates arrived at the federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. (1934)
• More than seven years of fighting in Indochina formerly ended with the cessation of French control. (1954)
• Chad gained its independence from France. (1960)
• Charles Taylor, president of Liberia, formally relinquished his office to Moses Blah and left for Nigeria. (2003)