Poverty fell last year as federal aid softened job losses - September 16, 2021

Retail sales posted an unexpected gain in August despite fears stemming from escalating COVID-19 cases. Sales increased 0.7% for the month against a Dow Jones estimate of a decline of 0.8%. Applications for U.S. state unemployment benefits rose last week, led by a jump in Southern states following Hurricane Ida. America’s Grand Reopening, Postponed - The New York Times China’s Economy Weakens on Delta Outbreak and Wary Consumers - Bloomberg @JamesVGrimaldi: Resilience is the word of the day with retail sales report: U.S. re­tail sales rose 0.7% last month, a sign the economic recovery has staying power despite the Delta variant. State and local governments have shed more than 400,000 jobs since the beginning of 2020, and those jobs have been far slower to return than the private sector positions that rebounded. Despite more Americans’ incomes falling last year, fewer people were living in poverty. The economic toll was balanced by the trillions of dollars in federal aid offered to the millions of people who were laid off. Long-Term Impacts of the COVID-19 K-Shaped Recovery - Investopedia How the U.S. Nailed the Economic Response to Covid-19 - The Wall Street Journal President Joe Biden called a meeting of top business leaders Wednesday to build for a sweeping vaccine mandate that will impact most of America’s workers. The message centered on vaccine efficacy and how the stalled uptake is holding back the economy. Biden invoked commentary by Wall Street firms, which have said vaccinations have a positive impact on jobs and the economy. EEOC Files First Lawsuit Against Employer for Failing to Accommodate Work Request due to COVID-19 - JD Supra @LaurenSHirsch: President Biden is meeting w/ top execs from Microsoft, Disney, Walgreens & others to discuss the federal effort to require employees of large companies to be vaccinated or regularly tested. Alaska’s worsening COVID-19 situation prompted the state’s largest hospital to implement a “crisis standard of care” in an effort to ration resources.