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Economy

ISM-manufacturing-index

The Institute for Supply Management’s Manufacturing Report On Business Survey. (Photo: REUTERS)

The Manufacturing ISM Report On Business showed the sector expanded in October, albeit by a slower pace than the median forecast had expected. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) on Tuesday said its manufacturing index rose to 51.9 in October from 51.5 in September. A reading above 50 indicates that factory activity is growing, while a reading under 50 signals contraction.

The new orders index declined, but production and employment both rose and offset the results.

Of the 18 manufacturing industries, 10 are reporting growth in October. These industries reported in the following order:

Textile Mills; Miscellaneous Manufacturing; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Computer & Electronic Products; Furniture & Related Products; Paper Products; Printing & Related Support Activities; Petroleum & Coal Products; and Chemical Products. The eight industries reporting contraction in October — listed in order — are: Wood Products; Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Primary Metals; Plastics & Rubber Products; Transportation Equipment; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Fabricated Metal Products; and Machinery.

MANUFACTURING AT A GLANCE
October 2016
Index Series
Index
Oct		 Series
Index
Sep		 Percentage
Point
Change		 Direction Rate
of
Change		 Trend*
(Months)
PMI® 51.9 51.5 +0.4 Growing Faster 2
New Orders 52.1 55.1 -3.0 Growing Slower 2
Production 54.6 52.8 +1.8 Growing Faster 2
Employment 52.9 49.7 +3.2 Growing From Contracting 1
Supplier Deliveries 52.2 50.3 +1.9 Slowing Faster 6
Inventories 47.5 49.5 -2.0 Contracting Faster 16
Customers’ Inventories 49.5 53.0 -3.5 Too Low From Too High 1
Prices 54.5 53.0 +1.5 Increasing Faster 8
Backlog of Orders 45.5 49.5 -4.0 Contracting Faster 4
New Export Orders 52.5 52.0 +0.5 Growing Faster 8
Imports 52.0 49.0 +3.0 Growing From Contracting 1
OVERALL ECONOMY Growing Faster 89
Manufacturing Sector Growing Faster 2

Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business® data is seasonally adjusted for the New Orders, Production, Employment and Supplier Deliveries Indexes.

*Number of months moving in current direction.

The Manufacturing ISM Report On Business showed

Politics

Trump-Putin-AP-Reuters

New York businessman Donald J. Trump, left, and Vladimir Putin. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP; Reuters)

Despite repeated claims by Democrats throughout the summer, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says it has found no link between Russia and Donald Trump. The New York Times reported Tuesday the FBI investigated advisers close to Mr. Trump, looked for financial ties to Russian financial oligarchs and individuals involved in hacking the computers of Democrats.

They even chased a lead — which ultimately proved bogus — about possible email communications from the Trump Organization to a Russian bank.

Officials say that the investigations did not uncover any link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government. Regarding the hacking of Democratic emails, the FBI and intelligence officials believe its goal is to reveal secrets to voters before the presidential election, rather than to elect Mr. Trump. Further, sources from the intel community have told PPD that the widely-cited evidence fingering Russia for the WikiLeaks hacks is thin, at best.

“The level of sophistication would point to Russia or another state actor, but it hasn’t been established one way or the other,” the source, who works on cyber crimes said. “In truth, these email likely have come from multiple sources.”

Supporters of Hillary Clinton are furious at the Bureau for what they see as a lack of legal scrutiny of Mr. Trump by law enforcement officials, fair or not. This weekend, they began demanding FBI Director James Comey discuss the results of the investigation publicly, as he did last week when he announced that a new batch of emails possibly connected to Mrs. Clinton had been discovered.

While a part of the investigation involved Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, the case focus was on his ties with a kleptocratic government in Ukraine and whether he declared the income in the United States. Officials say it was not focusing on whether there was any Russian influence.

Mr. Manafort, a veteran Republican political strategist, served as an adviser to that country’s ousted president, Viktor F. Yanukovych.

Meanwhile, the FBI spent the weekend obtaining a warrant to review newly found emails “pertinent” to the Clinton email investigation. A law enforcement official told People’s Pundit Daily on Sunday they include but are not limited to a laptop top Clinton aide Huma Abedin shared with her husband, now the disgraced New York Democratic congressnman Anthony Weiner.

While FBI investigators found the emails on a device seized during an unrelated investigation of Mr. Weiner, who was sexting with a 15-year old girl, sources tell PPD the laptop was used to make multiple back ups for Abedin, a revelation indicating she lied to the FBI and under oath during a deposition for the watchdog group Judicial Watch.

In February 2013, Abedin signed a routine State Department document under penalty of perjury in which she promised to “turn over all classified or administratively controlled documents and materials” before she left her government job, and promised that she was not retaining copies, “including any diaries, memorandums of conversation or other documents of a personal nature.”

The source, who has knowledge of the probe, said investigators would complete the review of Abedin’s emails expeditiously, but it was unclear whether developments would come before the election on on Tuesday, November 8.

Despite repeated claims by Democrats throughout the

Opinion

FBI Director James Comey speaks during a press conference relating to the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server to mishandle classified information. (Photo: AP)

FBI Director James Comey speaks during a press conference relating to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to mishandle classified information. (Photo: AP)

Amid all the polling whiplash, one survey consistently backs Hillary Clinton, and with enthusiasm. Though not an official poll, it offers a relatively emotion-free referendum on the stakes in this presidential election. And its participants tend to be high-income and highly informed.

We speak of the broad financial markets, a daily vote by investors on the direction of America’s economy. Right after FBI Director James Comey mouthed off Friday about finding new emails that could — possibly, perhaps, maybe or maybe not — have bearing on the tiresome investigation of Clinton’s emails, stock prices swooned. Gold prices, which climb at times of economic anxiety, spiked. And so did the VIX, the so-called fear index, showing expectation of sharp market swings ahead.

Never mind that Clinton still seemed headed for victory. Never mind that the story of a new Clinton “scandal” started falling apart moments after Comey hinted that more dirt could be found in a new pile of emails — emails that the FBI hadn’t even read and that may not have been written by Clinton or to her.

Never mind that some nice economic news still radiated from earlier in the morning. The gross domestic product rose nearly 3 percent in the third quarter — the highest growth rate in two years. Net exports of U.S. products were up. Over a half-million new jobs were created, and consumer spending got stronger.

The markets clearly dread Donald Trump. For investors big and small, a mere chip in confidence that Clinton will prevail Nov. 8 raises more red flags than the Chinese Embassy.

The bottom line for investors is their bottom line. Unlike conventional political polls, the markets don’t dwell much on questions of a candidate’s honesty, trustworthiness or sexual behavior. With few exceptions, America’s business leaders have endorsed Clinton’s candidacy. Even the Koch brothers won’t support Trump.

The business community sees a Trump presidency as an economic disaster in the making. America would be electing a circus act, a man both ignorant about the world and held in contempt by it. Trump’s nomination by a major political party has already caused global investors to doubt the stability of a country they have regarded as a safe harbor.

It’s this stability that prompts the world to invest in Treasury securities offering meager returns. Lose it and the cost of borrowing will rise, not only for taxpayers but also for Main Street businesses and ordinary folks trying to buy a house.

The election-related spasms in broad indexes plainly reflect investors’ belief that Clinton would be the most competent by far to oversee the economy. It does not follow, however, that she a close buddy with everyone in corporate America.

One sector that does not thrill to the notion of a Clinton presidency is Big Pharma. As Clinton’s prospects improved, many drug company stocks fell. That’s because she has vowed to curb predatory drug pricing.

Her plan to end the gouging, meanwhile, could help companies offering part of the solution. For example, some stock analysts are touting Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefits manager that makes more profit off cheaper generic drugs. Same goes for Teva, the world’s biggest maker of generics, which is active in developing “biosimilars,” copies of a drug that can be made by another company when the patent expires.

Throughout this campaign, it’s been stunning to observe how little many Trump supporters understand what a Trump presidency could do to their already precarious finances. Investors, on the other hand, seem to get it. That’s why they’re voting with their money for Clinton and, even more so, against Trump.

After FBI Director James Comey mouthed off

Opinion

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at Goodyear Hall and Theater in Akron, Ohio, Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. (Photo: AP/Associated Press)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at Goodyear Hall and Theater in Akron, Ohio, Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. (Photo: AP/Associated Press)

After Friday’s column, A Presidency from Hell, about the investigations a President Hillary Clinton would face, by afternoon it was clear I had understated the gravity of the situation.

Networks exploded with news that FBI Director James Comey had informed Congress he was reopening the investigation into Clinton’s email scandal, which he had said in July had been concluded.

“Bombshell” declared Carl Bernstein. The stock market tumbled. “October surprise!” came the cry.

The only explanation, it seemed, was that the FBI had uncovered new information that could lead to a possible indictment of the former secretary of state, who by then could be the president of the United States.

By Sunday, we knew the source of the eruption.

Huma Abedin, Clinton’s top aide, sent thousands of emails to the private laptop she shared with husband Anthony Weiner, a.k.a. Carlos Danger, who is under FBI investigation for allegedly sexting with a 15-year-old girl.

The Weiner-Abedin laptop contains 650,000 emails.

The FBI has not yet reviewed Abedin’s emails, and they could turn out to be duplicates of those the FBI has already seen, benign, or not relevant to the investigation of Clinton.

But it does appear that Abedin misled the FBI when she told them all communications devices containing State Department work product were turned over to State when she departed in 2013.

Clinton, understandably, was stunned and outraged by Comey’s letter. For it casts a cloud of suspicion over her candidacy by raising the possibility that the FBI director could reverse his decision of July, and recommend her prosecution.

By Monday, Oct. 31, new problems had arisen, some potentially crippling or possibly lethal to a Clinton presidency.

Reporters have unearthed a near-mutiny inside the FBI over the decision to shut down the investigation of the Clinton email scandal and Comey’s recommendation of no prosecution.

Andrew McCabe, No. 2 at the FBI, has come under anonymous fire from inside the bureau as one of those most reluctant to pursue aggressively any investigations of the Clintons.

McCabe’s wife, in a 2015 state senate race in Virginia, received $475,000 in PAC contributions from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime friend and major fundraiser for Bill and Hillary Clinton.

After the Senate race that McCabe’s wife lost, he was promoted from No. 3 at the FBI to No. 2, where he has far more influence over decisions to investigate and recommend prosecution.

Justice Department higher-ups under Attorney General Loretta Lynch apparently disagreed with Comey notifying Congress, and the nation, to new developments in the email scandal. Yet Comey had given his word to Congress that he would do so.

In the Southern District of New York, which has jurisdiction over the Weiner sexting investigation, FBI agents have reportedly been blocked from opening an investigation into charges of corruption in the Clinton Foundation.

This follows revelations that corporate chiefs and foreign rulers and regimes, hit up for contributions to the Clinton Foundation, were then urged by an ex-Clinton aide to provide six-figure speaking fees for Bill Clinton.

This follows reports the Clinton Foundation took contributions for victims of natural disasters, and awarded multimillion-dollar contracts to contributors to do the work.

Still unanswered is what Bill Clinton and Attorney General Lynch discussed during that 30-minute meeting on the Phoenix tarmac, prior to the FBI and Justice Department decision not to indict Hillary Clinton.

The stench of corruption is reaching Bhopal dimensions.

What appears about to happen seems inevitable and predictable.

If Hillary Clinton is elected, the email scandal, the pay-for-play scandal involving the Clinton Foundation, “Bill Clinton, Inc.,” the truthfulness of her testimony, and reports of Clinton-paid dirty tricksters engaging in brownshirt tactics at Trump rallies, are all going to be investigated more thoroughly by the FBI.

And if Clinton is president, there is no way her Justice Department can investigate the Clinton scandals, any more than this city in the early 1970s would entrust an investigation into Watergate to the Nixon Justice Department.

If Clinton wins this election, and Republicans hold onto one or both houses of Congress, investigations of the Clinton scandals will start soon after her inaugural and will go on for years. And the clamor for a special prosecutor, who will, as Archibald Cox did with Nixon, build a huge staff and spend years investigating, will become irresistible.

Realizing that this is the near-certain fate and future of any Hillary Clinton presidency, and would be disastrous for the country, Sunday night, Doug Schoen, who worked for President Clinton for six years, said he has changed his mind and will not be voting for Hillary.

Donald Trump says this is worse than Watergate. As of now, it is only potentially so.

But if Hillary Clinton, this distrusted and disbelieved woman, does take the oath of office on Jan. 20, there is a real possibility that, like Nixon, down the road a year or two, she could be forced from office.

Do we really want to go through this again?

After Friday’s column about the investigations a

Opinion

Job seekers navigate through a better labor market but still teetering economy. (Photo: REUTERS)

Job seekers navigate through a better labor market but still teetering economy. (Photo: REUTERS)

It is especially painful for me, as an economist, to see that two small cities in northern California — San Mateo and Burlingame — have rent control proposals on the ballot this election year.

There are various other campaigns, in other places around the country, for and against minimum wage laws, which likewise make me wonder if the economics profession has failed to educate the public in the most elementary economic lessons.

Neither rent control nor minimum wage laws — nor price control laws in general — are new. Price control laws go back as far as ancient Egypt and Babylon, and they have been imposed at one time or other on every inhabited continent.

History alone should be able to tell us what the actual consequences of such laws have been, since they have been around for thousands of years. Anyone who has taken a course in Economics 1 should understand why those consequences have been so different from what their advocates expected. It is not rocket science.

Nevertheless, advocates of a rent control law are saying things like “this will prevent some landlords from gouging tenants and making a ton of money off the housing crisis.”

The reason there is a housing crisis in the first place is that existing laws in much of California prevent enough housing from being built to supply the apartments and homes that people want. If landlords were all sweethearts, and never raised rents, that would still not get one new building built.

Rising rents are a symptom of the problem. The actual cause of the problem is a refusal of many California officials to allow enough housing to be built for all the people who want to rent an apartment.

Supply and demand is one of the first things taught in introductory economics textbooks. Why it should be a mystery to people living in an upscale community — people who have probably graduated from an expensive college — is the real puzzle. Supply and demand is not a breakthrough on the frontiers of knowledge.

A century ago, virtually any economist could have explained why preventing housing from being built would lead to higher rents, and why rent control would further widen the gap between the amount of housing supplied and the amount demanded. Not to mention such other consequences as a faster deterioration of existing housing, since upkeep gets neglected when there is a housing shortage.

Today’s economists have advanced to far more complicated problems. It is as if we had the world’s greatest mathematicians but most college graduates couldn’t do arithmetic.

Part of the problem is that even our most prestigious colleges seldom have any real curriculum requirements that would ensure that their graduates had at least a basic understanding of economics, history, mathematics, science or other fundamental subjects.

Many students and their parents spend great amounts of money, and go into debt, for an education that too often leaves them illiterate in economics and ignorant of many other subjects.

Part of the problem is that many college graduates do not take a single course in economics. Another part of the problem is that many economics departments leave the teaching of introductory economics in the hands of some junior or transient faculty member, or even graduate students who get stuck with the job.

One of the things that made me proud of the economics department at UCLA when I taught there, decades ago, was that teaching the introductory economics course was the job of a full professor, even if not the same professor every year.

In all too many subjects today, the introductory course is taught by junior faculty, transient faculty or graduate students, while the full professors teach only upper level courses or postgraduate courses.

That may save a department the expense of staffing the introductory course with their more highly paid members. But, it is extravagantly expensive from the standpoint of society as a whole, when it means sending graduates out into the world unable to see through the wasteful economic hokum spread by politicians.

That is how you get ill-informed voters who support price controls of many kinds, without understanding that prices convey economic realities that do not change just because the government changes the prices. It is as if someone’s fever was treated by putting the thermometer in cold water to bring the temperature reading down. You don’t get more housing with rent control.

[caption id="attachment_42981" align="aligncenter" width="740"] Job seekers navigate

Politics

Donna Brazile, longtime Clinton ally and new interim head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Following the WikiLeak email dump.

Donna Brazile, longtime Clinton ally and new interim head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Following the WikiLeak email dump.

CNN says it is “completely uncomfortable” with revelations Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile leaking debate questions to Hillary Clinton. According to an email released Monday by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, Brazile sent Clinton Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri titled, “One of the questions directed to HRC tomorrow is from a woman with a rash,” the night before the March 6 primary debate in Flint, Michigan.

“Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary do as president to help the ppl of Flint,” Brazile wrote.

On March 7, the following night, Lee-Anne Walters, a mom whose twin boys stopped growing and whose daughter lost her hair during the Flint water crisis, asked the following question to both Mrs. Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders

CNN said it has accepted her resignation, but the date in the statement is notable. In a statement, CNN spokeswoman Lauren Pratapas said that on Oct. 14, the network accepted Brazile’s resignation.

“On October 14th, CNN accepted Donna Brazile’s resignation as a CNN contributor,” Pratapas said. “[Her deal had previously been suspended in July when she became the interim head of the DNC.] CNN never gave Brazile access to any questions, prep material, attendee list, background information or meetings in advance of a town hall or debate. We are completely uncomfortable with what we have learned about her interactions with the Clinton campaign while she was a CNN contributor.”

However, the date indicates the network had severed ties with the DNC chair after the first story broke relating to another debate question.

Brazile, who replaced Debbie Wasserman Schultz as DNC chair after WikiLeaks released emails that revealed an anti-Sanders bias, came under fire following an earlier email indicating she gave the Clinton campaign a separate death penalty question before a CNN-hosted town hall event later that same month. That exchange began with Brazile sending Palmieri the text of the question with the subject line: “From time to time I get the questions in advance.”

After Palmieri responded, Brazile wrote back: “I’ll send a few more.”

Roland Martin asked the exact same death penalty question–verbatim–the next night.

In a tweet, Brazile thanked CNN and her now former colleagues there.

A CNN employee, speaking on background, suggested Brazile may have met the woman who was supposed to pose the question about lead poisoning during a service event planned the day before the debate.

As for the town hall event, a follow up email from Brazile posted by WikiLeaks on Monday indicated Roland Martin, a TV One host who was co-moderating the Town Hall, was the source of the questions. He has denied it.

[brid video=”69868″ player=”2077″ title=”‘Youre Like a Thief’ Donna Brazile Lashes Out at Megyn Kelly When Asked About WikiLeaks”]

CNN says it is "completely uncomfortable" with

Elections

DNC chair Donna Brazile fends off reporters at the third and final presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday, October 19, 2016.

DNC chair Donna Brazile fends off reporters at the third and final presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday, October 19, 2016.

Yet another leaked email reveals Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Donna Brazile shared debate questions with the Hillary Clinton campaign. Brazile, a former CNN contributor, has repeatedly claimed he did not, even after a previously released email showed the contrary.

According to an email released Monday by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, Brazile sent Clinton Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri an email titled, “One of the questions directed to HRC tomorrow is from a woman with a rash,” the night before the March 6 primary debate in Flint, Michigan.

“Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary do as president to help the ppl of Flint,” Brazile wrote.

On March 7, the following night, Lee-Anne Walters, a mom whose twin boys stopped growing and whose daughter lost her hair during the Flint water crisis, asked the following question to both Mrs. Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders:

“After my family, the city of Flint and the children in D.C. were poisoned by lead, will you make a personal promise to me right now that, as president, in your first 100 days in office, you will make it a requirement that all public water systems must remove all lead service lines throughout the entire United States, and notification made to the — the citizens that have said service lines?”

Mrs. Clinton responded with a longwinded, clearly prepared answer that CNN moderator Anderson Cooper had to twice interrupt in an attempt to hold her to the agreed-upon time limit. While Mrs. Clinton received an applause from the crowd, it is obvious now she was interrupted while attempting to regurgitate a practiced answer on a loaded-but-leaked question.

She wound up ultimately losing the state’s primary to Sanders two days later in an upset polls did not predict. Interestingly, though she was running 10 to 25 points ahead of Sen. Sanders, WikiLeaks emails also show the campaign knew they were likely going to lose.

Brazile, who replaced Debbie Wasserman Schultz as DNC chair after WikiLeaks released emails that revealed an anti-Sanders bias, came under fire following an earlier email indicating she gave the Clinton campaign a separate death penalty question before a CNN-hosted town hall event later that same month. That exchange began with Brazile sending Palmieri the text of the question with the subject line: “From time to time I get the questions in advance.”

After Palmieri responded, Brazile wrote back: “I’ll send a few more.”

Roland Martin asked the exact same death penalty question–verbatim–the next night.

In a brutal interview with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly on October 19, Brazile denied tipping off Clinton during the primaries. When pressed by Kelly and read her own words, Brazile flipped out and called her a “thief in the night,” claiming she was being persecuted and questioning the veracity of the hacked files.

“Well, Kelly, since I play straight up and I play straight up with you, I did not receive any questions from CNN,” she said. “As a Christian woman, I understand persecution, but I will not sit here and be persecuted,” Brazile said. “Your information is totally false.”

The DNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[brid video=”69868″ player=”2077″ title=”‘Youre Like a Thief’ Donna Brazile Lashes Out at Megyn Kelly When Asked About WikiLeaks”]

Yet another leaked email reveals Democratic National

Economy

consumer-spending

A shopper organizes his cash before paying for merchandise at a Best Buy Co. store in Peoria, Illinois, U.S., on Friday, Nov. 23, 2012. (Photo: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty)

The Commerce Department said on Monday that consumer spending Consumer spending increased 0.5% last month, beating expectations for a rise of 0.4%. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, slowed last quarter and increases this month after a downwardly revised 0.1% decline in August.

Personal income increased 0.3%. That missed the 0.4% estimate.

The report comes before the Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee meets for two days on Tuesday. While the U.S. central bank is not expected to raise rates, it is expected to increase borrowing costs in December.

The Commerce Department said on Monday that

Politics

FBI Director James Comey, left, holds a press conference in Washington D.C. Former Secretary Hillary Clinton, right, works from a desk inside a C-17 military plane following her departure from Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea, bound for Tripoli, Libya, Oct.18, 2011. Former Libyan dictator Col. Moammar Gaddafi, right. (Photos: Kevin Lamarque - Associated Press)

FBI Director James Comey, left, holds a press conference in Washington D.C. Former Secretary Hillary Clinton, right, works from a desk inside a C-17 military plane following her departure from Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea, bound for Tripoli, Libya, Oct.18, 2011. Former Libyan dictator Col. Moammar Gaddafi, right. (Photos: Kevin Lamarque – Associated Press)

On Sunday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) obtained a warrant to review newly found emails “pertinent” to the Hillary Clinton email server investigation. A law enforcement official told People’s Pundit Daily on Sunday they include but are not limited to a laptop top Clinton aide Huma Abedin shared with her husband, now the disgraced New York Democratic congressnman Anthony Weiner.

While FBI investigators found the emails on a device seized during an unrelated investigation of Mr. Weiner, who was sexting with a 15-year old girl, sources tell PPD the laptop was used to make multiple back ups for Abedin, a revelation indicating she lied to the FBI and under oath during a deposition for the watchdog group Judicial Watch.

In February 2013, Abedin signed a routine State Department document under penalty of perjury in which she promised to “turn over all classified or administratively controlled documents and materials” before she left her government job, and promised that she was not retaining copies, “including any diaries, memorandums of conversation or other documents of a personal nature.”

The source, who has knowledge of the probe, said investigators would complete the review of Abedin’s emails expeditiously, but it was unclear whether developments would come before the election on on Tuesday, November 8.

The Clinton email investigation, which closed without charges in July, was confirmed reopened Friday when FBI Director James Comey alerted lawmakers in a letter.

Just hours after Mrs. Clinton called on the FBI to release “all the information that it has” sparking a new investigation, an internal FBI memo surfaced. In the internal memo obtained by Fox News, Director Comey told agents he alerted Congress about reopening the investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s private email server because it “would be misleading to the American people” not to do so before the election.

Mr. Comey said he typically would not communicate with the public when reopening a case, but that he had to alert Republican and Democrats in Congress to this case because Mrs. Clinton is seeking the White House in an election on Nov. 8.

“Of course we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed,” Director Comey wrote. “I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record.

James Kallstrom, the former assistant director of the FBI, said he thinks “something big is going to happen.”

“I think there’s something happening. People are asking me what is this about. I think something big is going to happen,” Kallstrom said over the weekend. “I don’t know what it is. It’s just my gut feeling. I think so.”

On Sunday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Economy

Midwest-Auto-manufacturing-factory

Auto manufacturing plant and worker in Midwest. (Photo: Reuters)

The Chicago Business Barometer, the Institute for Supply Management’s gauge of Midwest manufacturing, fell to 50.6 in October from 54.2 the month prior. The reading missed the media forecast, which called for a smaller decline to 54.0.

It is the lowest reading since May, marking a 5-month low. Readings above 50 point to expansion, while those below indicate contraction.

“A key takeaway from the latest survey was the pick-up in Prices Paid to a nearly two-year high. Inflationary pressures are on the rise, which is one of the metrics the Federal Reserve has been waiting for to increase rates. However, economic growth ahead, as read by the October Chicago Business Barometer, looks very disappointing. Hopefully, it doesn’t mark the start of a downward trend,” said Lorena Castellanos, senior economist at MNI Indicators.

The decline in the Chicago Business Barometer was fueled by Production, which fell 5.4 points to 54.4, losing most of the gain seen last month but remaining above the 2016 average.

The Chicago Business Barometer, the Institute for

People's Pundit Daily
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