Wells coming off confidential list the next two weeks: link here.
Military travel: politicos in Washington, DC, are concerned about the cost of flying 800 general officers and flag offices and 200 support staff to the states tomorrow.
Let's get some perspective here. First, these folks are traveling all the time; this is but a slip in all their travel expenses. Second, every year, about 600,000 military men and women move to a new permanent change of station and a third of those moves come in the three summer months (June, July, August). And then, of course, there's all the other travel. As usual, folks are concerned about the numerator and don't even ask about the denominator. It get tedious.
Market: early trading. More records are being set.
Pending home sales: beat. Another strong housing report.
Kimmel: on Thursday, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" averaged 2.3 million total viewers — a staggering 64% drop from the 6.5 million who tuned in for Tuesday's much-hyped return.
Coal expansion: announced by Trump administration. CNBC's Brian Sullivan refers to Doug Burgum as Trump's vice president. Long interview at the 1:00 o'clock hour, Brian Sullivan and Doug Burgum. Link here.
Government shutdown: tea leaves -- unlikely that Trump will back down.
Trump might handle this shutdown differently. US government has twelve appropriations bills to cover all government funding except "must pay" expenses. My hunch: he directs that certain mission-essential government employees that would not be paid during the shutdown would continue to be paid. In fact, this may be an opportunity once this shutdown is resolved, to add a few more folks to the "must-pay" column, such as ATC workers; FEMA; military; TSA. There may be some other agencies.
Government shutdown: for nice summary of "government shutdown" (multiple times; longest five weeks) vs "debt ceiling breach / default" (has never occurred), ask AI this:
In a government shutdown, if the government is truly out of cash, how does the US government continue to pay "must-pay" expenses -- social security, military pension? Does the US Treasury Secretary authorized to sell more bonds to cover those "must-pay" expenses? In other words, how does "a government shutdown" differ from a "debt ceiling breach / default"?
