September 28—Vice President Kamala Harris, emphasizing her focus on building out the nation's middle class in a speech to the Economic Club of Pittsburg, pledged tax credits for domestic manufacturers and a doubling of apprencticeships.

October 3—A major aspect of moving the nation to carbon-neutrality will involve enhancements to power grids. Drawing on funding authorized by the Biden administration-sponsored infrastructure bill of 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy has announced $1.5 billion in funding for transmission projects which will add 1,000 miles of lines in Louisana, Mississippi, Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. DOE states that the projects will create 9,000 jobs.

September 28—The latest Bloomberg poll gives Vice President Harris an edge in six of the seven battleground states, with a surprising 7-point lead in Nevada and 5 points in Pennsylvania. The poll has Harris leading in all other battleground states except Georgia, where she and Trump are tied. The fly in the ointment: all leads are within the margin of era. Translation: anything could happen. And a New York Times/ Siena College poll has Harris with a mere 1-point lead in Michigan and 2 points to spare in Wisconsin, two states considered crucial for a Harris win.

September 27—Visiting the nation's southern border on Friday, Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris proposed maintaining President Biden's recently imposed ban on asylum for those crossing the border illegally and promised "further action to keep the border closed between ports of entry," including immediate expulsion of illegal entrants and a bar on such would-be migrants' re-entry for five years. The Biden administration's lax enforcement of the nation's immigration laws (every U.S. president takes an oath to "faithfully execute" the nation's laws) has become one of the Democratic Party's (and candidate Harris's) key weaknesses going into the November elections. TSD welcomes Harris's statements, and we can only hope that they are not too little, too late.

September 23—With the signing of a new law on Monday by Governor Gavin Newsom, California has joined a host of other states in limiting or banning the use of mobile phones by students in the state's public schools.

September 24—Reflecting the Biden administration's embrace of "industrial policy," Polar Semiconductor will receive a $123 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to expand its Minnesota operations, part of the Biden administration's $52.7 billion dollar program to boost domestic chip production.

September 18—Private investment firm Monroe Capital LLC is launching a fund of up to $1 billion in loans to smaller auto manufacturing suppliers transitioning to electric vehicles. The fund, which will ultimately be backed by U.S. government guarantees, reflects the Biden administration's commitment to the electric vehicle transition.

September 18—The U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, has cut its benchmark policy rate by half a percentage point, beginning a long-awaited move away from high interest rates installed to tame pandemic-induced inflation. This initial reduction, almost certain to be followed by others in the coming months, will begin the nation on a course to make everything from mortgages and cars to credit card purchases more affordable and should encourage hiring. The decision reflects the Fed's conclusion that slow growth and unemployment are now greater concerns than inflation, which has largely returned to pre-pandemic levels.

September 4—AP News offers a side-by-side comparison of Harris and Trump's plans for managing the U.S. economy.

September 4—Gold-plated Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs prefers Kamala Harris's economic plans to those of Donald Trump, noting that Trump's promised tariffs and restrictions on immigration would stifle growth and reduce employment while, under Harris: "new spending and expanded middle-income tax credits would slightly more than offset lower investment due to higher corporate tax rates, resulting in a very slight boost to GDP." No, regardless of Republican rhetoric and the beliefs of gullible Trump followers, the failed businessman and blithering ignoraumus would not be a safe steward of the U.S. economy!

September 2—10,000 members of hospitality workers union Unite Here are striking hotel chains owned by Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt. At issue are not only wages but post-pandemic short-staffing, which has led to increased workloads for hotel staff.

August 27—The Biden administration has announced $521 million in new grants to build out the nation's EV charging station capacity. $321 million will go to community projects, while the remaining $200 million will fund so-called "corridor," fast-charging stations.

August 27—Georgia's election commission, with a majority of Trump supporters, has issued rules empowering local election boards to delay or cancel certifying results. Georgia Democrats are suing to prevent this travesty—custom designed to enable a new round of election denying in November—from going forward.

August 27—Speaking at the Federal Reserve Bank's annual conference in Jackson Hole, WY, Chairman Jerome Powell signaled that the central bank's focus is now shifting away from deploying high interest rates to tame pandemic-era inflation to a looser monetary policy aimed at boosting employment. The current U.S. unemployment rate, at 4.3 percent, represents 7.2 million Americans looking for work in a system with inadequate social support for those who lose their jobs.

August 26—A Washington Post article this week reports that the 50 largest donors have cumulatively poured $1.5 billion dollars into this election cycle. That is an average of $30 million dollars per donor. Direct contributions to campaigns are, of course, highly regulated and limited to several thousand dollars; but private donors can give unlimited amounts to outside groups, such as PACs, that support candidate; these groups as often as not ignore rules forbidding coordination with those candidates' campaign apparatuses. We are not living true democracy when wealthy individuals have such an outsized influence on what political ads you see on your TV or computer screen; or whether a candidate has the resources to hire canvassing staff. TSD supports the public funding of all political campaigns with very strict limits on private donations.