“A mix of high borrowing costs, dwindling job openings and growing economic and political uncertainty have left many U.S. households at a standstill, with many Americans saying they feel unable to buy new homes, take new jobs or move to new cities,” the Washington Post reports.

“The Trump administration flexed its new authority over U.S. Steel, blocking the company’s plan to shut down production at an Illinois plant this fall,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Two weeks ago, U.S. Steel notified workers in Granite City, Ill., that plant operations would cease in November. The company, owned by Tokyo-based Nippon Steel, said it would continue paying the mill’s nearly 800 employees, even without them doing regular production work.”

“Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick got wind of the plan and called U.S. Steel Chief Executive Dave Burritt… Lutnick told Burritt the administration wouldn’t allow operations to cease, and the president would invoke his so-called golden share authority over plant operations.”

“In the 1970s, Hamburger Helper became a staple on American dinner tables as families, strained by inflation and soaring beef prices, looked to turn a pound of ground beef into an entire meal,” the New York Times reports.

“These days, those same pressures are why the flavored pasta mix is coming to the rescue again.”

“While most food companies are seeing declines in consumer demand for their products, sales of Hamburger Helper are up 14.5 percent in the year through August.”

“Reps. Don Bacon (R-NE) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) plan to introduce a bill to exclude one everyday product from President Donald Trump’s tariffs: coffee,” the Washington Post reports.

“Their bipartisan legislation would exempt coffee products from any tariff imposed after Jan. 19, 2025 — the day before Trump came into office… That exemption would apply to roasted and decaffeinated coffee, as well as coffee husks, skins, and other drinks or substitutes containing coffee, essentially rolling back the White House’s tariffs for coffee products.”

“President Trump’s team is weighing a plan to spur the construction of factories and other infrastructure in a bid to jump-start the American manufacturing sector,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Under the plan, the administration would use money from a $550 billion investment fund established as part of trade negotiations with Japan to invest in the development of semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals, energy, ships and quantum computing.”

“Some of the projects would be granted preferential treatment from the government, including expedited regulatory review.”

“Corporate leaders regularly praise the Trump administration and its policies in public. Behind closed doors, their mood is darker,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“At a meeting of CEOs and other executives on Wednesday convened by the Yale School of Management, dozens of America’s business leaders sounded off on their concerns about tariffs, immigration, foreign policy matters and what many described as an increasingly chaotic, hard-to-navigate business environment.”

Fed chair Jerome Powell readily admitted that this moment for the U.S. economy continues to be weird, Punchbowl News reports.

Said Powell: “It is such an unusual situation. Ordinarily, when the labor market is weak, inflation is low, and when the labor market is really strong, that’s when you’ve got to be careful about inflation. So we have a situation where we have two-sided risk, and that means there’s no risk-free path.”

Later, Powell put it more bluntly: “It’s not incredibly obvious what to do.”

In her first public comments since President Trump fired her, the former head of the government agency that measures inflation and job growth called her dismissal “a dangerous step” for the economy, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Erika McEntarfer pointed to what she called “not a good list” of other countries where statisticians have been pushed out over disappointing statistics, including Argentina, Greece and Turkey.

“The unemployment rate for Black Americans is up sharply this year,” Axios reports.

“The Black unemployment rate has long been higher than the jobless rate overall — but the gap narrows when the labor market is strong, as it was in 2019 right before the pandemic and during the strong job market of 2022 and 2023.”

“Workers across the country who’ve mocked Charlie Kirk’s death online have quickly learned their words can get them fired,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“From American Airlines to Nasdaq—and in workplaces that include restaurants, schools and law firms—employers have ousted or suspended staff in recent days for gloating, deriding or making otherwise contentious posts about the conservative activist’s killing. Many are getting flagged to the posts by online activists who’ve collected the names of commenters. Some prominent conservatives have joined the call, too.”

Congressional Budget Office director Phillip Swagel said that President Trump’s tariffs appear to have pushed inflation up higher than CBO analysts had initially expected, CNBC reports.

“Two years ago, Shawn Fain led the United Automobile Workers union through simultaneous strikes at three large carmakers, a strategy that helped produce big gains in wages and benefits for the union’s members,” the New York Times reports.

“Now, however, a small but vocal faction in the U.A.W. is gearing up for a long-shot bid to oust Mr. Fain as he prepares to run for re-election next year.”

“More Americans are facing stretches of unemployment of six months or more, a worrisome sign for the U.S. economy,” the Washington Post reports.

“More than 1 in 4 workers without jobs have been unemployed for at least half a year, new data shows. That number is a post-pandemic high and a level typically only seen during periods of economic turmoil.”

Politico: “The Congressional Budget Office’s new economic estimates released Friday predict that over the next three years, policies implemented this year by Trump and the Republican-led Congress will have little effect on growth before the 2028 election.”

“That’s because Trump’s tariff policies and crackdown on immigration are estimated to cool the economy this year, more than outweighing any growth spurred by the tax and spending package Republicans turned into law this summer.”

Bloomberg: “The report also shows unemployment peaking at a higher rate of 4.5% at the end of this year.”