Also, Biden is set to speak about the debt deal. Here’s the latest at the end of Friday.
American employers added 339,000 jobs last month, according to data released today — a surprisingly strong showing. The notable increase from the previous month reaffirmed the job market’s vigor despite a swirl of economic headwinds.
For more than a year, economists have warned that rising interest rates and economic uncertainty would lead to a sharp drop in consumer demand and an increase in unemployment. But even as the growth of the U.S. economy slowed a bit, the overall picture has remained rosier than expected.
Still, many forecasters expect a recession to begin by the end of the year.
Today’s report complicates the picture for the Federal Reserve, which had signaled that it could hold interest rates steady at its upcoming meeting. The new data could make that choice harder.The U.S. averts a default
President Biden is expected to sign a bill tomorrow to suspend the debt ceiling, just two days before the Treasury said the U.S. would no longer be able to pay its bills. Tonight, Biden will deliver a rare Oval Office address at 7 p.m. to discuss the debt limit.
The negotiations that led to the debt deal, which appears to have averted a potentially devastating default, proved yet again that the big drivers of future deficits — especially Social Security and Medicare, but also the military — are all off the table in a divided Washington.Blinken called Russia’s war a “strategic failure”
Speaking from the capital of Finland — NATO’s newest member and a country bordering Russia — Secretary of State Antony Blinken described how the war in Ukraine has in many ways weakened Russia. Blinken drew a contrast between Russia’s hobbled economy and the growing size and unity of NATO, which President Vladimir Putin has described as a grave threat.
Blinken also said that strengthening Ukraine’s defenses against Russia was a “prerequisite” for diplomacy to end the war. Short-term cease-fires, he said, may just play to Moscow’s military advantage.Lawyers couldn’t find a secret document Trump discussed
Federal prosecutors investigating Donald Trump’s handling of classified material obtained in recent months a recording of the former president discussing what appeared to be a sensitive document on military options for confronting Iran. Soon after, the prosecutors issued a subpoena seeking the return of all records that resembled the document mentioned.
