US ECONOMY & POLITICS

Biden Turns Up Pressure for Administration Recognition – Wall Street Journal, 11/16/20

• President-elect Joe Biden’s top adviser said Sunday that a government agency’s delay in officially acknowledging his electoral victory could hinder his efforts to prepare for the distribution of a coronavirus vaccine, among other critical issues.
• Ron Klain, named to become Mr. Biden’s White House chief of staff, said Sunday that the transition team would press the General Services Administration this week to issue a designation that would allow his aides to meet with Health and Human Services officials over the looming logistical hurdles of manufacturing and distributing a vaccine for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
• The GSA designation has become the focal point in the polarized debate around whether President Trump should concede after Mr. Biden earlier this month secured the electoral votes necessary to become the next president, according to the Associated Press and major media organizations.
• While Senate Republicans have largely backed Mr. Trump’s right to mount legal challenges to the election’s outcome, an increasing number have called for Mr. Biden to receive intelligence briefings as part of a transition.

Millions of Unemployed Americans Face Loss of Benefits at Year’s End – Wall Street Journal, 11/16/20

• Two key programs Congress passed this year to expand and enhance unemployment insurance expire on Jan. 1, leaving millions of people without benefits unless lawmakers can break a monthslong deadlock over a fresh round of pandemic relief.
• Unemployed workers in most states get 26 weeks of benefits, plus additional weeks when the economy is poor.
• Congress in March provided an additional 13 weeks of benefits.
• It also expanded eligibility to include people who ordinarily wouldn’t qualify for benefits, such as freelancers, contract workers and people who were forced out of work by the pandemic—for example, because they contracted the disease or had to care for a sick family member.
• As of Oct. 24, the latest week for which data are available, more than 13 million people were enrolled in one of the two programs.
• The number of people receiving extended benefits is expected to rise in coming weeks as more workers—many of them jobless since the pandemic began—exhaust their regular benefits.
• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) have both said Congress should pass another economic relief bill by the end of the year. But they remain far apart on the cost.
• Democrats seek a bill topping $2 trillion, which would extend the programs set to expire and restore the $600-a-week supplemental benefit.
• Republicans favor a $650 billion proposal that would increase payments by $300 a week but not renew the expiring programs.
• President-elect Joe Biden has also said he wants to see an aid bill passed by year’s end.

New York City Restaurants in Precarious State as Winter Nears – Wall Street Journal, 11/16/20

• As winter approaches, New York City’s beleaguered restaurant owners are doing their best to prepare while crossing their fingers that officials don’t reimpose bans on sit-down dining.
• Indoor dining was banned until Sept. 30 and remains limited to 25% capacity, while restaurants elsewhere in New York are allowed 50% capacity.
• The prospect of loosening capacity restrictions dimmed last week, as New York’s infection rate steadily increased and Gov. Andrew Cuomo enacted a statewide 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew on indoor and outdoor dining at all establishments with state liquor licenses.
• A recent survey of more than 400 restaurants, bars and nightlife establishments by the industry group NYC Hospitality Alliance found 88% couldn’t pay their full rent in October and 30% paid no rent at all.

Biden Plan to Forgive Student Debt Hinges on Democratic Control of Senate – Wall Street Journal, 11/16/20

• President-elect Joe Biden’s ability to deliver on his plan to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt faces steep odds unless Democrats take control of the Senate.
• Barring that outcome—which hinges on two Georgia races in January—Democrats have urged a second option: bypassing Congress through executive action. It isn’t clear whether such a move would survive a legal challenge.
• During the election campaign, Mr. Biden said he would push to forgive $10,000 in debt for every American with federal student loans to help them cope with the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
• Congressional Democrats sought to forgive $10,000 for all borrowers early this year as part of a broad pandemic-relief bill known as the Cares Act, but the Republican-controlled Senate opposed it.

EUROPE & WORLD

China Economy Gathers Steam, Setting Stage for a Strong End to the Year – Wall Street Journal, 11/16/20

• China’s economic activity posted a broad-based recovery in October, paving the way for a faster economic rebound in the final quarter of the year.
• Industrial output, which has led the nation’s economic recovery in recent months, rose 6.9% in October from a year earlier, on par with September’s pace and higher than market expectations for a 6.5% increase, according to data released Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics.
• Fixed-asset investment rose 1.8% in the January-October period, accelerating from 0.8% growth in the first three quarters of the year and coming in higher than the 1.6% increase expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
• Retail sales, a key gauge of Chinese consumer spending, rose 4.3% in October from a year ago, accelerating from a 3.3% increase in September, but lower than a 4.6% increase expected by surveyed economists.
• The Chinese government’s main unemployment measure, the urban surveyed jobless rate, which excludes migrant workers who were once employed in cities but returned home for various reasons, also fell slightly to 5.3% in October, compared with September’s 5.4%.
• Economists widely expected growth of between 5% and 6% in the fourth quarter, putting the world’s second largest economy on track to record an expansion of about 2% for all of 2020.

Japan’s Economy Expands as It Recovers from Coronavirus Pandemic – Wall Street Journal, 11/15/20

• The Japanese economy expanded at its fastest pace in at least 40 years in the July-September period as private consumption and exports improved along with the reopening of the global economy.
• The world’s third-largest economy after the U.S. and China expanded 5% in the third quarter of 2020 from the previous quarter, the first growth in four quarters and the biggest expansion since 1980, the period for which comparable data are available.
• Private spending rose 4.7% from the previous quarter as consumers went out more for shopping and dining. Meanwhile, external demand added 2.9% to growth.
• On an annualized basis, which reflects what would happen if the third-quarter pace continued for a full year, Japan’s economy expanded 21.4%, compared with a consensus forecast of 18.9%.
• In the third quarter, the nation’s gross domestic product totaled an annualized 508 trillion yen, equivalent to $4.85 trillion, recovering a little more than half of what it lost in the coronavirus pandemic.

China’s JD.com beats estimates on online sales boom – Reuters, 11/16/20

• Chinese e-commerce company JD.com posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday as online sales remained strong even after coronavirus-led restrictions were lifted in the world’s second-largest economy.
• JD.com’s net revenue rose 29% to 174.21 billion yuan in the third quarter ended Sept. 30.
• Analysts had expected revenue of 170.2 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
• Sales in JD.com’s product segment, which includes online retail sales, rose 27% to 151.4 billion yuan ($22.99 billion) in the quarter.
• Excluding items, JD.com earned 3.42 yuan per American depository share (ADS) while analysts had expected a profit of 2.65 yuan per ADS.

Time is running out for Brexit deal, EU tells Britain – Reuters, 11/15/20

• European Union diplomats warned Britain on Monday that time was fast running out for a Brexit deal, and that it may already be too late to ratify one, as negotiators in Brussels began a last-ditch attempt to avoid a tumultuous exit at the end of December.
• Ireland, the EU nation most exposed to Brexit, said there were just days, or possibly weeks, left to find a way to unlock trade talks, while a senior EU official said there may no longer be time to put any trade deal agreed into force.
• “It’s getting terribly late and may be too late already,” said the senior EU official, as talks between the bloc’s negotiator Michel Barnier and his British counterpart, David Frost, resumed in Brussels.
• Britain said there had been some progress and that the two sides had common draft treaty texts, though significant elements were yet to be agreed.

Factmonster – TODAY in HISTORY

• General Sherman and his troops began their “March to the sea” during the Civil War. (1864)
• The United States and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations. (1933)
• President George W. Bush nominated Condoleezza Rice to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state. (2004)