🏛️ Shutdown Fallout: Federal Layoffs Begin
What started as a standoff in Congress has now hit home.
Thousands of federal workers across departments … including Treasury, Education, and Homeland Security … are being laid off as the government shutdown enters its second week.
The White House says the cuts are “necessary to stabilize operations,” but unions call it illegal and are preparing lawsuits.
📎 Read more from Reuters
💸 Economy on Pause: No Data, No Clarity
The shutdown is doing more than freezing paychecks, it’s blocking critical economic data.
With inflation, jobs, and GDP reports delayed, investors and economists are flying blind.
That uncertainty is starting to ripple through Wall Street and Main Street alike.
📎 Full story via Al Jazeera
📉 Markets Slide After New Tariff Threats
President Trump’s renewed talk of tariffs on Chinese rare-earth exports sent markets tumbling Friday.
The Dow erased a week’s worth of gains as investors braced for another round of global trade tensions.
Analysts warn that “tariff politics” could add more volatility if talks don’t ease soon.
📎 Barron’s Review & Preview: Tariff Tumble
🪖 Troop Talk and Legal Pushback
The administration’s proposal to deploy federal troops in cities like Chicago, New York, and San Francisco has sparked bipartisan blowback.
A federal judge in Illinois temporarily blocked one such deployment, calling it “a constitutional overreach.”
Behind the scenes, the FBI is also lobbying to classify certain cartel suspects as terrorists, marking a major potential shift in national security policy.
📎 Coverage via ABC News
🗣️ Quick Takeaway
The U.S. is balancing on a tightrope … between shutdown politics, global trade shocks, and domestic unrest.
Every move in Washington now sends ripples through paychecks, portfolios, and public trust.
