US President Donald Trump made a surprise statement on Twitter on Tuesday that he ordered a halt to talks with Congress on a new economic aid package.
No deal US of A
“Nancy Pelosi is asking for $2.4 Trillion Dollars to bailout poorly run, high crime, Democrat States, money that is in no way related to COVID-19. We made a very generous offer of $1.6 Trillion Dollars and, as usual, she is not negotiating in good faith. I am rejecting their request, and looking to the future of our Country. I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” Trump tweeted.
US House of Representatives Speaker and Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi has been negotiating a new aid package for American workers and businesses with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his team representing the Trump White House for months now. The parties has repeatedly failed to reach a consensus.
“Crazy Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left Democrats were just playing “games” with the desperately needed Workers Stimulus Payments.They just wanted to take care of Democrat failed, high crime, Cities and States. They were never in it to help the workers, and they never will be!,” Trump further tweeted.
He later proposed to Congressional leaders a stand-alone bill for stimulus checks of 1200 for every American.
Trump’s announcement resulted in a loss of more than 300 points inDow Jones. Losses in other indices deepened down to 2 percent.
Shortly after Trump’s statement, Pelosi accused the President of the United States of putting himself before the nation.
Powell remarks
Both Trump and Pelosi cited parts of a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the National Association for Business Economics in which he said that over time, household and job insolvencies would increase, hurt the productive capacity of the economy and hinder wage growth unless fiscal aid was provided.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden vying to remove Trump from the White House in the November 3 presidential election, accused the President of turning his back on the Americans.
Fed minutes
The Federal Reserve announced last month that interest rates would remain at or near zero until 2023, and adopted a new policy path to stay away from rate increases until inflation reached 2% and began to rise slightly above this level for a while.
It remains unclear how much and how long the inflation will be kept above 2%.
Minutes from the Fed’s September meeting today at 1800 GMT are expected to shed some light and clearer answers to these questions.
Powell warned on Tuesday that the outlook for the US economy is “extremely uncertain” and too little policy support could lead to more household and business bankruptcies and a weak recovery to “recession dynamics”.
Minutes can show how widely this concern is shared.
In his statements since the September meeting, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said he expects the US economy to recover almost completely from the coronavirus recession by the end of the year.
At the other end of the spectrum is Boston Fed Chairman Eric Rosengren, who warned that a second wave of Covid-19 this fall and winter could bring back the recovery and create a credit crisis.
Nuclear negotiations
The Russian Presidency, the Kremlin, said on Wednesday that it sees no reason to be optimistic in talks with the US to expand a major nuclear weapons control pact and wants the negotiations to be more successful.
New START, the last major nuclear weapons deal between Russia and the United States, will expire in February.
The two countries, the heirs of the cold war, have been in talks for a new nuclear weapons control pact since the beginning of the year. Washington insists on the inclusion of the People’s Republic of China in nuclear weapons control mechanisms.
Oil down
Oil prices plummeted Wednesday, following the collapse of stimulus package talks in Washington. Prices have also been pressured by a larger than expected increase in US crude oil stocks.
Brent crude futures lost 74 cents, or 1.7%, at 10:10 London time to $ 41.91 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil fell 89 cents, or 2.2%, to $ 39.78.
Crude oil was also affected by data from the American Petroleum Institute showing that US oil stocks increased by 951,000 barrels last week.
US energy companies, where Hurricane Delta threatened US oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, halted production on offshore platforms, evacuating their workers for the sixth time this year. Delta rose to Category 4 on Tuesday night, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
The storm stopped 29.2% of offshore oil production in the Gulf, which covers 17% of total US crude oil production.
Norwegian Lederne workers‘ union said on Tuesday that it would extend the oil workers’ strikes to October 10 if wages were not raised. Six Norwegian offshore oil and gas fields were closed Monday due to the strike.
