Jobless Claims, Fed Yield-Curve Debate, ECB Decision: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Good morning Americas. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your Thursday started:

• The U.S. Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims report has yet to reflect at least half a million filings for a federal pandemic program, with data reporting lagging behind payouts
  • Unemployment in the U.S. is getting to the levels of the Great Depression of the 1930s, but as bad as it is, the jobless rate is a bit of an outlier. Other measures of the health of the economy are considerably stronger than they were during the Depression
• The European Central Bank is set to decide today whether even bolder rescue action is needed
  • That comes after Germany has agreed on a $146 billion package to help revive the continent’s biggest economy
• The Federal Reserve has a decision looming next week, although officials are unlikely to signal any new moves. Still many economists expect they will turn to yield-curve control later this year, recruiting a tool not used in the U.S. since World War II
• The economics profession has had a hard time getting a fix on racial discrimination, Peter Coy writes in Businessweek
• Coronavirus has posed a fundamental question for Americans: How will we take care of each other, now and in the future?
• Bloomberg Economics’ global GDP tracker shows output continued to fall in May, albeit at a slower pace than in April
• Canada’s labor market is showing clear signs of healing as lockdowns begin to lift in an economy awash in money from government support programs
• Britain’s dominant services industry is being left out of the country’s post-Brexit trade negotiations, putting a large part of the economy at risk of profound damage, according to a report by the U.K. in a Changing Europe
• Japan’s already mammoth spending, including trillions of dollars in stimulus, likely requires a third extra budget to help plug a gaping hole spending and tax receipts
• Finally, don’t miss this week’s episode of the Stephanomics podcast

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