Yellen’s Challenge, Hiring Problems, Inflation Debate: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to Thursday, Americas. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:

• As the U.S. job market comes roaring back, there’s a growing debate about whether there are enough workers to power faster economic growth. In earnings calls and business surveys, executives often blame stimulus checks and generous unemployment benefits for hampering hiring efforts
• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen faces the challenge of speeding a debt-ceiling increase through Congress without shaking investor confidence, a potentially difficult task even with Democrats controlling both chambers and the White House

• U.S. inflation is unlikely to get out of control despite the unprecedented government spending that’s been authorized in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Federal Reserve officials said

  • Those who are putting their money where their mouths are have pushed one gauge of expected price pressures to an almost 13-year high
  • Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has called the risks emanating from “frothy” stock prices and other potential financial imbalances “manageable.” Some current and former central bankers are not so sure
• President Joe Biden’s plan to raise $700 billion over a decade from increased tax audits of the wealthy and corporations -- a major funding source for his economic-investment proposals -- will probably take years to bear fruit and faces skepticism that the figure is realistic
  • Here’s a closer look at how Biden wants to foil strategies used to transfer wealth from generation to generation
• The Fed is deciding whether to give financial-technology companies more direct access to its payment system after many of the upstarts swelled in popularity during the pandemic
• U.S. support for a waiver of patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines heads to the World Trade Organization, setting the stage for potentially thorny talks over sharing the proprietary know-how needed to boost global supplies of the life-saving shots
• Brazil’s central bank lifted its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points and promised another hike of the same size next month in a renewed push to bring inflation back to target
• Former IMF official Simon Cueva will become Ecuador’s next finance minister, President-elect Guillermo Lasso said in an interview with newspaper El Comercio
• Colombia is determined to cut the fiscal deficit and defend its investment grade credit rating, the nation’s new finance minister said
• Chinese travel surged over the Labor Day holidays to exceed pre-pandemic levels while spending continued to lag, signaling a slow recovery in consumption
• Consumers who saw their savings jump during the pandemic might be deterred from splashing out as the economy recovers if a 19th-century theory holds
• Finally, check out this week’s Stephanomics podcast: The world’s biggest businesses are getting even larger, and that may not be a good thing

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