Investors are eying the middle of September when the Federal Reserve Board will meet and decide whether to lower borrowing costs. One factor to consider is something that the leader of the Chicago Fed said: the labor market could go downhill quickly.
While the Fed is expected to take action, Congress will likely not when it comes to agreeing on a new Farm Bill for the next five years. That has leaders in one Midwestern state warning that the ramifications could go beyond the farm. Meanwhile, the CEO of a multi-state carbon sequestration pipeline project explains how his company is trying to overcome serious challenges in one of the states.
Time to Act – Fourteen months of maintaining the federal funds rate at a 23-year high may have slowed the economy, allowed inflation to fall, and prevented the country – at least so far – from falling into recession following the artificial boost of trillions in government aid after COVID-19 attacked. But the labor supply could suffer if economy policy doesn’t adjust, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee warned.
Goolsbee told Quartz that economic conditions have changed greatly since 2023. Inflation is much lower, and unemployment is higher. He said that the past shows that the job market can worsen quickly.
Farm Bill Failure – The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives suffered a self-induced political paralysis as far right members dumped the speaker, threatened to shut down parts of the federal government, and talked repeatedly about impeaching the president of the United States.
The Democratic-led U.S. Senate lost another one of its members when West Virginia’s Joe Manchin followed Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema in declaring themselves Independents. The Senate Agriculture Committee, which Democrats lead, has declined to produce a framework for a new Farm Bill, unlike the Republicans who lead the House Agriculture Committee.
Democrats have prioritized nutrition, conservation, and climate change priorities in a new Farm Bill, while Republicans have focused on increased agricultural support. It’s a stalemate in a presidential election year with the balance of political control of both chambers of Congress also at stake.
The Daily Item in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, reports on an event with U.S. Representative Glenn “G.T.” Thompson, a Republican from Pennsylvania. Thompson chairs the House Agriculture Committee. He said that he believes that Congress will pass a new Farm Bill, but he thinks that it will happen after the November 5th election. Read that story here.
Pipeline Progress – Public meetings will take place in 23 Iowa counties that are in the path of the expansion of the carbon sequestration pipeline project by Summit Carbon Solutions, according to its CEO Lee Blank. The Iowa Utilities Commission has already given the company permission to use eminent domain to force access for its project onto the land of property owners who have refused to grant it.
The company is waiting on permit approval in North Dakota and Minnesota, two of the other states where its pipeline would travel to transport carbon emissions from ethanol plants and eventually empty into an underground storage facility in North Dakota.
Progress has been more challenging in South Dakota. KTIV-TV in Sioux City, Iowa, reports on what Blank said that his company is doing to deal with landowners who haven’t permitted access. Watch that story here.
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