Infrastructure
There is a new blog post entitled, “If you seek justice, don’t blame the U.S. Senate Parliamentarian.”
Jennifer Haberkorn, “Senate parliamentarian won’t allow citizenship pathway for immigrants in Democrats’ spending bill,” Los Angeles Times, September 19, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-09-19/parliamentarian-decision-on-pathway-to-citizenship
Jonathan Chait, “Kyrsten Sinema Threatens to Kill Her Own Infrastructure Bill,” New York, September 20, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/09/kyrsten-sinema-threatens-infrastructure-bill-biden-build-back-better.html
Paul Waldman, “Kyrsten Sinema needs to show us what she believes in,” Washington Post, September 20, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/20/kyrsten-sinema-needs-show-us-what-she-believes/
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
Isaac Stanley-Becker, “Lindsey Graham and Mike Lee personally vetted Trump’s fraud claims, new book says. They were unpersuaded,” Washington Post, September 20, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/20/peril-woodward-costa-graham-lee-fraud/
Wall Street
This drop in the stock market seems a little too far out of the blue to strike me as significant, but it is a relatively large drop and it does have some folks worried.[1] “The immediate trigger seems to be a Reuters story on Friday saying that Chinese officials told property tycoons in Hong Kong to be more patriotic and back Beijing’s interests in the city, including solving the city’s acute housing shortage,”[2] which is not at all the sort of thing capitalists like to hear. Remember always that the psychology of the market is more important than the actual data.
That said, if the worriers are right about the property market—I’d be surprised but I’m also not paying particular attention—the U.S. property, market[3] where prices have been skyrocketing,[4] could be affected.[5]
Clare Jim and Farah Master, “With tighter grip, Beijing sends message to Hong Kong tycoons: fall in line,” Reuters, September 17, 2021, copy in possession of author.
Gunjan Banerji and Elaine Yu, “Stock Market Pares Losses, but Dow, S&P 500 Fall Nearly 2%,” Wall Street Journal, September 20, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/stock-futures-european-and-asian-indexes-fall-sharply-11632123909
Lianting Tu and Low De Wei, “Contagion worries as Chinese property developer Sinic sinks 87pc,” Sydney Morning Herald, September 20, 2021, https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/contagion-worries-as-chinese-property-developer-sinic-sinks-87pc-20210920-p58tby.html
Jacky Wong, “Hong Kong Tycoons Won’t Escape China Crackdown,” Wall Street Journal, September 20, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-tycoons-wont-escape-chinese-populism-11632135169
- [1]Gunjan Banerji and Elaine Yu, “Stock Market Pares Losses, but Dow, S&P 500 Fall Nearly 2%,” Wall Street Journal, September 20, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/stock-futures-european-and-asian-indexes-fall-sharply-11632123909↩
- [2]Jacky Wong, “Hong Kong Tycoons Won’t Escape China Crackdown,” Wall Street Journal, September 20, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-tycoons-wont-escape-chinese-populism-11632135169↩
- [3]Gunjan Banerji and Elaine Yu, “Stock Market Pares Losses, but Dow, S&P 500 Fall Nearly 2%,” Wall Street Journal, September 20, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/stock-futures-european-and-asian-indexes-fall-sharply-11632123909↩
- [4]Jerusalem Demsas, “Covid-19 caused a recession. So why did the housing market boom?” Vox, February 5, 2021, https://www.vox.com/22264268/covid-19-housing-insecurity-housing-prices-mortgage-rates-pandemic-zoning-supply-demand↩
- [5]Gunjan Banerji and Elaine Yu, “Stock Market Pares Losses, but Dow, S&P 500 Fall Nearly 2%,” Wall Street Journal, September 20, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/stock-futures-european-and-asian-indexes-fall-sharply-11632123909↩