Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Biden takes a victory lap

A blowout government report for July has pegged the US jobless rate at 3.5%. The last time unemployment was this low, the Apollo moon landings were still in full swing. Employers added more than double the number of jobs forecast, illustrating rock-solid labor demand. Wage growth accelerated, too, which will likely prod the Federal Reserve to keep going with aggressive rate hikes. But that didn’t stop President Joe Biden from taking some credit for burning the recession-is-looming chorus in a week already marked by a series of wins for the administration. “More people are working than at any point in American history,” he said. “It’s the result of my economic plan to build the economy from the bottom up and middle out.” —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

The jobs report followed a week in which Senate Democrats agreed to a slimmed down version of Biden’s signature “Build Back Better” economic agenda, now called the “Inflation Reduction Act,” marking an unprecedented effort to slow global warming while including subsidies to lower healthcare costs; gas prices continued to fall, now for more than a month; and Congress approved a package that included more than $50 billion in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Not to mention the CIA having killed an Al Qaeda leader second only to Osama Bin Laden. 

The Taliban’s apparent sheltering of the now-dead Ayman al-Zawahiri, which echoed similar hospitality provided to Bin Laden before 9-11, has dealt a blow to an already faltering effort to free up $3.5 billion in frozen bank funds to alleviate poverty and famine in Afghanistan.

Lockheed Martin still can’t get it right. The top US military contractor has delivered more than 800 F-35 fighter jets as part of a program bedeviled by mistakes and problems. Even now, years later, production continues to be marred by excessive defects and fixes that risk substantial delivery delays and reduced American military readiness, according to the Pentagon’s Defense Contract Management Agency. “Too many quality assurance defects” aren’t found at the initial assembly station, only to be discovered either before or after formal acceptance of the warplanes, the agency said. But it’s not just Lockheed: F-35 subcontractors Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems also “have had many manufacturing non-compliances,” the contracting agency said.

Lockheed Martin's headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland  Photographer: Andrew Harrer

China continued its most provocative military drills in decades on Friday and cut off defense talks with the US, as relations between the world’s biggest economies deteriorate in the wake of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan. A day after firing missiles suspected of having flown over the island of 23 million people, China sent warships across the Taiwan Strait’s median line. The Chinese army also sent waves of warplanes across the US-defined boundary, the third straight day of such flights.

South Africa’s parliament will appoint an independent panel that will recommend whether or not to initiate a process to impeach President Cyril Ramaphosa.

When Group of Seven leaders gathered in the Bavarian Alps in June, they pledged to stand with Ukraine for the long haul. Their Group of 20 counterparts are proving less supportive. Comprising nations that account for some 85% of global economic output, the G-20 is supposed to be more sanctions imposed on Russia over its war on Ukraine. 

If signed into law as written, Biden’s $370 billion economic agenda would change the calculus for American households thinking about going solar. The legislation stands to make that transition more affordable while also subsidizing purchases of electric cars, heat pumps, high-tech water heaters and battery-storage systems—clean-energy upgrades that will spur more household demand for electricity.  

• The rich escape tax hikes in Biden bill. But the IRS will be tougher.
• Western senators secured $4 billion for drought in the package.
• CEOs blame remote workers for slow sales and earnings shortfalls.
• Tiger cubs stung by rout dumped stocks then missed rally.
• Amazon’s Roomba deal is really about mapping your home.
• With US abortion access shrinking, some fear IVF is next.
• Toyota offers to buy back EVs over risk of wheels coming off.

A Nevada metals trader with a side gig on the world poker circuit was accused Friday of manipulating gold and silver markets. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleged that Daniel Shak, who also runs a small hedge fund, repeatedly placed orders for gold and silver futures contracts with the intent to cancel the bids or offers before execution. The practice, as you may remember, is called spoofing.

Dan Shak  Photographer: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images North America

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