USA Outlook, October 17 to 21, 2022

Weekly newsletter October 17 to October 21

October 17, 2022

October 18, 2022

Biden Administration Seeks to Expand 24/7 Mental Health Care The government announced plans Tuesday to award millions of dollars in grants to expand allhours mental health and substance abuse care in more communities around the country. “Today we’re talking about providing to Americans 24/7 support for crisis care,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said. “That’s something that’s only been available to some, in some places. But depending on your income and ZIP code, you could be totally out of luck. That’s going to start to change.”

Photo: The New York Times

Bank of America’s Latest Earnings Suggest U.S. Consumers Remain Strong and Active Loan and deposit growth at the nation’s secondlargest bank suggest that a possible global economic slowdown has not yet hurt many Americans. If there are signs of an impending recession in the United States, they are hard to find in Bank of America’s quarterly earnings report released on Monday.

Doctors send patients who need immediate help to the clinic, to avoid long wait times at expensive, private rehabilitation centers. And police officers now take some people who are in crisis to the lodge, rather than jail cell or a hospital. The lodge’s urgent care is staffed with nurses, mental health specialists and peer counselors who help walk-ins develop plans for treatment, said executive director Mike Drummond.

“On a walk-in basis, we can evaluate them, assess them, develop a plan of treatment, initiate treatment,” Drummond said.

The second-largest bank in the country earned $7.1 billion in profit in the third quarter, an 8 percent drop from a year ago, but more than analysts were expecting. Consumer deposits grew 1 percent and credit card spending rose 13 percent. The bank’s chief financial officer, Alastair Borthwick, said Bank of America’s retail customers appeared to be in great shape.

On Wall Street, Bank of America’s sales and trading revenue rose 13 percent, with revenue from trading bonds, commodities, and other financial interests up 27 percent from the same period last year, while revenue from trading stocks fell 4 percent. Bank of America’s shares rose nearly 5 percent in early trading on Monday.

Photo: The Associated Press Source: nytimes.com/2022/10/17/business/bank-of-america-earnings.html

Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-10-18/bidenadministration-seeks-to-expand-24-7-mental-health-care

October 19, 2022

October 20, 2022

Americans brace for steep winter heating bills as energy costs soar The Department of Energy is projecting sharp price increases for home heating compared with last winter and some worry whether heating assistance programs will be able to make up the difference for struggling families. The situation is even bleaker in Europe, with Russia's continued curtailment of natural gas pushing prices upward and causing painful shortages.

Photo: US News

Biden Aims to Tackle Gas Prices with Oil Reserve Release President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced that his administration would sell off 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to bring down prices at the pump ahead of the midterm elections in November. “With my announcement today, we're going to continue to stabilize markets and decrease the prices at a time when the actions of other countries cause such volatility,” Biden said in a speech at the White House.

Several factors are converging to create a bleak situation: Global energy consumption has rebounded from the start of the pandemic, and supply was barely keeping pace before the war in Ukraine further reduced supplies. The National Energy Assistance Directors Association says energy costs will be the highest in more than a decade this winter.

The Energy Department projects heating bills will jump 28% this winter for those who rely on natural gas, used by nearly half of U.S. households for heat.

Heating oil is projected to be 27% higher and electricity 10% higher, the agency said. Also, the OPEC+ alliance of oil-exporting countries earlier this month decided to sharply cut production to support sagging oil prices, a move that could raise home heating costs as well as gas prices.

The move completes the 180-million-barrel release plan first outlined in March. The decision comes after OPEC+ – an alliance between the cartel and several other major oil-producing nations – announced production cuts.

The Biden administration accused the group of aligning with Russia and pledged to respond to the move.

“That means oil companies can invest to ramp up production now with confidence they'll be able to sell their oil to us at that price in the future,” Biden said. “My message to the American energy companies is this: You should not be using your profits to buy back stock or for dividends – not now, not while a war is raging,” Biden said.

Photo: CBS News Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2022-10-19/biden-aims-totackle-gas-prices-with-oil-reserve-release

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/inflation-heating-bills-this-winter-energy-costsrising-2022/

October 20, 2022

Photo: US News

British Prime Minister Liz Truss Resigns After Short, Chaotic Reign British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced Thursday that she would resign after a scant 45-day tenure that included a disastrous budget roll-out, a plunging pound and numerous policy U-turns. The turmoil culminated Wednesday evening in chaotic scenes in Parliament that saw several Conservative ministers’ rebel against the government and publicly and loudly voice their anger at their own leadership.

Truss, who became a much-memed and frequent laughingstock of the British tabloids, said she will remain in power until a new prime minister could be selected, which she said would be in the next week. She will likely be the shortest-serving premier in U.K. history.

In a speech outside of Downing Street, Truss acknowledged that, “Given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.” “After 12 years of Tory failure, the British people deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos,” he said. Starmer called for a general election, which can only be triggered at this point by the ruling party. Truss’s tumultuous time in office has also left in shambles the Conservative Party – already on tenterhooks after the resignation of scandal-plagued Boris Johnson late this summer.

Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/world-report/articles/2022-10-20/british-primeminister-liz-truss-resigns-after-short-chaotic-reign