It’s Friday…
President Biden’s public schedule for 08/30/2024:
| 10:00 AM Closed Press | The President receives the President’s Daily Brief |
| 10:00 AM Out-of-Town Pool | Out-of-Town Pool Call Time |
Economic Tweets
From Thursday…
After seven years, union members have secured a contract with Gate Gourmet that improves health care, wages, and working conditions.
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 29, 2024
This is yet another win for workers under my Administration, and a testament to the progress employers and unions make when they work together. https://t.co/6loND178BP
From Unite Here.org…
08/29/2024:
Over 8,000 union workers employed by airline catering subcontractor Gate Gourmet at 30 U.S. Airports have officially ratified a new five-year union contract that will bring significant raises and better, affordable health care, among other benefits. Voting to ratify the new contract concluded on Wednesday, capping a negotiating process that began in 2017.
Workers at Gate Gourmet are members of labor unions UNITE HERE, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers Union (BCTGM), and the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). They are represented by the IBT/HERE Employee Representatives’ Council.
Gate Gourmet employees had been preparing to strike since late June, when the National Mediation Board released them from federal mediation, declaring that all practical methods to reach an agreement under the Railway Labor Act had been exhausted. A 30-day “cooling-off” period was set to expire on July 30th and upon expiration workers would have been free to self-help—which includes strike activity. Just days before the expiration, both parties reached a tentative agreement.
Airline catering workers prepare, pack, and deliver food and beverages to aircraft departing airports across the country. The new agreement brings substantial improvements commensurate with the essential nature of their work, which requires skill and precision to prevent flight delays and ensure food safety. Highlights include raising the minimum wage nationwide to $17 per hour, a new quality, affordable healthcare plan, a new wage structure that increases year to year and rewards both years of service and job skills. Workers will also receive additional sick time and better equipment to keep them safe when working in extreme temperatures, from refrigerated food prep rooms to hot airport tarmacs.
Thousands of Gate Gourmet Airline Food Workers at 30 U.S. Airports Ratify Historic New Union Contract. 08/29/2024.
This morning we learned that our investments in hardworking families continue to deliver, with our economy growing a strong 3% last quarter.
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 29, 2024
And we did it while lowering inflation.
Our work’s not done, but we’re making real progress. pic.twitter.com/Q1hwicm9nq
From BEA.gov…
08/29/2024:
Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 3.0 percent in the second quarter of 2024 (table 1), according to the “second” estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP increased 1.4 percent.
The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the “advance” estimate issued last month. In the advance estimate, the increase in real GDP was 2.8 percent. The update primarily reflected an upward revision to consumer spending (refer to “Updates to GDP”).
The increase in real GDP primarily reflected increases in consumer spending, private inventory investment, and nonresidential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased (table 2).
Compared to the first quarter, the acceleration in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected an upturn in private inventory investment and an acceleration in consumer spending. These movements were partly offset by a downturn in residential fixed investment.
Current‑dollar GDP increased 5.5 percent at an annual rate, or $383.2 billion, in the second quarter to a level of $28.65 trillion, an upward revision of $23.2 billion from the previous estimate (tables 1 and 3). More information on the source data that underlie the estimates is available in the “Key Source Data and Assumptions” file on BEA’s website.
The price index for gross domestic purchases increased 2.4 percent in the second quarter, an upward revision of 0.1 percentage point from the previous estimate. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased 2.5 percent, a downward revision of 0.1 percentage point. Excluding food and energy prices, the PCE price index increased 2.8 percent, a downward revision of 0.1 percentage point.
Gross Domestic Product (Second Estimate), Corporate Profits (Preliminary Estimate), Second Quarter 2024. 08/29/2024.
Personal Income
Current-dollar personal income increased $233.6 billion in the second quarter, a downward revision of $4.0 billion from the previous estimate. The increase primarily reflected increases in compensation and personal current transfer receipts (table 8).
Disposable personal income increased $183.0 billion, or 3.6 percent, in the second quarter, a downward revision of $3.2 billion from the previous estimate. Real disposable personal income increased 1.0 percent, unrevised from the prior estimate.
Personal saving was $686.4 billion in the second quarter, a downward revision of $34.1 billion from the previous estimate. The personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 3.3 percent in the second quarter, a downward revision of 0.2 percentage point.
Gross Domestic Product (Second Estimate), Corporate Profits (Preliminary Estimate), Second Quarter 2024. 08/29/2024.
Gross Domestic Income and Corporate Profits
Real gross domestic income (GDI) increased 1.3 percent in the second quarter, the same as in the first quarter. The average of real GDP and real GDI, a supplemental measure of U.S. economic activity that equally weights GDP and GDI, increased 2.1 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 1.4 percent in the first quarter (table 1).
Profits from current production (corporate profits with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) increased $57.6 billion in the second quarter, in contrast to a decrease of $47.1 billion in the first quarter (table 10).
Profits of domestic financial corporations increased $46.4 billion in the second quarter, compared with an increase of $65.0 billion in the first quarter. Profits of domestic nonfinancial corporations increased $29.2 billion, in contrast to a decrease of $114.5 billion. Rest-of-the-world profits decreased $18.0 billion, in contrast to an increase of $2.3 billion. In the second quarter, receipts decreased $6.2 billion, and payments increased $11.8 billion.
Gross Domestic Product (Second Estimate), Corporate Profits (Preliminary Estimate), Second Quarter 2024. 08/29/2024.
Updates to GDP
With the second estimate, an upward revision to consumer spending was partly offset by downward revisions to nonresidential fixed investment, exports, private inventory investment, federal government spending, state and local government spending, and residential fixed investment. Imports were revised up. For more information, refer to the Technical Note. For information on updates to GDP, refer to the “Additional Information” section that follows.
Gross Domestic Product (Second Estimate), Corporate Profits (Preliminary Estimate), Second Quarter 2024. 08/29/2024.
First Quarter Wages and Salaries
BEA’s standard practice for first-quarter estimates of wages and salaries is to incorporate data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program as part of the annual update of the National Economic Accounts. New QCEW data for the first quarter of 2024 will be incorporated in next month’s release along with the 2024 Annual Update of the National Economic Accounts (refer to box below for details).
Gross Domestic Product (Second Estimate), Corporate Profits (Preliminary Estimate), Second Quarter 2024. 08/29/2024.
From Friday…
The great American comeback. pic.twitter.com/W8xn9Q0h0f
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 30, 2024
BLS.gov has archives of the past jobs reports from 1994 forward…
Opioid Crisis Tweets
From Thursday…
For anyone struggling with substance use, help is available.
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 29, 2024
Visit https://t.co/LFz0JJumB6 for more information.
For the first time in 5 years, the number of overdose deaths in the United States has started to decline.
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 29, 2024
But even one death is one too many, and far too many Americans continue to lose loved ones to the scourge of illicit fentanyl.
I found the tweet text; A Proclamation on Overdose Awareness Week, 2024
During Overdose Awareness Week, we mourn those who have lost their lives to overdose deaths. We acknowledge the devastating toll the opioid epidemic has taken on individuals, families, and communities across America. We reflect on the progress we have made so far in reducing the number of annual overdose deaths and protecting American lives — and how much more there is to do. And we reaffirm our commitment to doing more to disrupt the supply of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids and support those who suffer with substance use disorder and their families in all of our communities.
My Administration made beating the opioid epidemic a key priority in my Unity Agenda for the Nation, calling for Republicans and Democrats to work together to stop fentanyl from flowing into our communities, hold those who brought it here accountable, and deliver life-saving medication and care across America.
We are working to tackle this crisis through a comprehensive approach, including by expanding access to evidence-based prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery support services as well as reducing the supply of illicit drugs. We have expanded access to life-saving treatments, like medications to treat opioid use disorder, and have increased the number of health care providers who can prescribe these medications by 15 times. In February 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule to comprehensively update the regulations in governing Opioid Treatment Programs for the first time in 20 years — removing barriers to the treatment of substance use disorder and expanding access to care. My Administration has made historic investments in the State Opioid Response and Tribal Opioid Response programs to improve prevention; expand treatment; and deliver free, life-saving medications across America. Already, this program has delivered nearly 10 million kits of opioid overdose reversal medications, such as naloxone.
We also continue to fight the stigmatization that surrounds substance use and accidental overdose so that people feel comfortable reaching out for help when they need it. Naloxone is now available over-the-counter for people to purchase at their local grocery stores and pharmacies. We also launched the White House Challenge to Save Lives from Overdose and several awareness campaigns, raising awareness and securing commitments from local governments and cross-sector organizations to increase training on and access to opioid overdose reversal medications in schools, worksites, transit systems, and other places where overdose may occur in our communities. My Fiscal Year 2025 Budget requests $22 billion to expand substance use treatment and help more Americans achieve and stay in recovery.
Under my Administration, Federal law enforcement agents are keeping more deadly drugs out of our communities than ever before. We are seizing deadly drugs at our borders so that illicit drugs never reach our neighborhoods. Officials have stopped more illicit fentanyl at ports of entry over the last 2 fiscal years than in the previous 5 fiscal years combined. The Department of Justice has prosecuted leaders of the world’s largest and most powerful drug cartel along with thousands of drug traffickers. The Department of the Treasury has sanctioned more than 300 people and organizations involved in the global illicit drug trade. I have also deployed cutting-edge drug detection technology across our southwest border, and I continue to call on the Congress to strengthen border security, increase penalties on those who bring deadly drugs into our communities, and close loopholes that drug traffickers exploit. And in July 2024, I issued a National Security Memorandum that calls on all relevant Federal departments and agencies to work collaboratively to do even more than they are already doing to stop the supply of illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids into our country.
I am also committed to working with partners across the globe to address this crisis. Last year, I negotiated the re-launch of counternarcotics cooperation between the United States and the People’s Republic of China — which has led to increased law enforcement coordination, increased efforts to tackle illicit financing of drug cartels, and increased regulation of certain precursor chemicals. I have increased counternarcotics cooperation with other key foreign governments; launched the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats, which brings together more than 150 countries in the fight against drug trafficking cartels; put in place new initiatives between the United States, Mexico, and Canada targeting the supply of illicit drugs; and made countering fentanyl and other synthetic opioids a key priority of the G7.
Now for the first time in 5 years, the number of overdose deaths in the United States has started to decline. But even one death is one too many, and far too many Americans continue to lose loved ones to fentanyl.
Today I grieve with all the families and friends who have lost someone to an overdose. This is a time to act. And this is a time to stand together — for all those we have lost and all the lives we can still save.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim August 25 through August 31, 2024, as Overdose Awareness Week. I call upon citizens, government agencies, civil society organizations, health care providers, and research institutions to raise awareness of substance use disorder so that our Nation can combat stigmatization, promote treatment, celebrate recovery, and strengthen our collective efforts to prevent overdose deaths. August 31 also marks Overdose Awareness Day, on which we honor and remember those who have lost their lives to the overdose epidemic.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-third day of August, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.
A Proclamation on Overdose Awareness Week, 2024. 08/23/2024.
In May 2024 the CDC said…
U.S. Overdose Deaths Decrease in 2023, First Time Since 2018
Provisional data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics indicate there were an estimated 107,543 drug overdose deaths in the United States during 2023—a decrease of 3% from the 111,029 deaths estimated in 2022. This is the first annual decrease in drug overdose deaths since 2018.
The data are featured in an interactive web data visualization. The 2023 data presented in this visualization are provisional—they are incomplete and subject to change as more 2023 data are submitted to the National Vital Statistics System.
The new data show overdose deaths involving opioids decreased from an estimated 84,181 in 2022 to 81,083 in 2023. While overdose deaths from synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl) decreased in 2023 compared to 2022, cocaine and psychostimulants (like methamphetamine) increased.
Several states across the nation saw decreases; Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana, and Maine experienced declines of 15% or more. Still, some states saw increases. Alaska, Washington, and Oregon stood out with notable increases of at least 27% compared to the same period in 2022.
The visualization includes:
U.S. Overdose Deaths Decrease in 2023, First Time Since 2018. 05/15/2024.
- Reported and predicted (estimated) provisional counts of deaths due to drug overdose occurring nationally and in each jurisdiction.
- U.S. map of the percentage changes in provisional drug overdose deaths for the 12-month period ending in December 2023 compared with the 12-month period ending in December 2022, by jurisdiction.
- Reported and predicted provisional counts of drug overdose deaths involving specific drugs or drug classes occurring nationally and in selected jurisdictions.
NCHS releases both reported and predicted provisional drug overdose death counts each month. They represent the numbers of these deaths due to drug overdose occurring in the 12-month periods ending in the month indicated. Deaths are reported by the jurisdiction in which the death occurred.
U.S. Overdose Deaths Decrease in 2023, First Time Since 2018. 05/15/2024.
| DRUG TYPE* | (ESTIMATED DEATHS 2023) | (ESTIMATED DEATHS 2022) |
|---|---|---|
| Synthetic Opioids (fentanyl) | 74,702 | 76,226 |
| Psychostimulants (including methamphetamine) | 36,251 | 35,550 |
| Cocaine | 29,918 | 28,441 |
| Natural/semi-synthetic | 10,171 | 12,135 |
From the White House…
08/30/2024:
A Proclamation on National Recovery Month, 2024
This month, we recognize the more than 21 million Americans in recovery from substance use disorder. They exemplify courage, hope, and resilience as they seek new beginnings and help countless others find pathways to healing. People in recovery serve in every sector of society as business leaders, public servants, community leaders, and more. During National Recovery Month, we celebrate their contributions, and we honor the loved ones who have supported them on their recovery journeys. We also reaffirm our commitment to making sure every American has the resources they need to recover and thrive.
Substance use disorder impacts Americans in communities nationwide. Too many families have lost their children, siblings, parents, and friends to substance misuse and overdose. Every loss is a painful call to action. With adequate support and resources, recovery is possible. Our Nation is stronger when people in recovery do well.The main goal of my Administration’s National Drug Control Strategy is to save lives. My Administration is taking steps to provide the resources needed to ensure people can achieve and sustain recovery, no matter where they are. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration opened the Office of Recovery to improve community-based recovery services across the country. And last year, we released the Recovery-Ready Workplace Toolkit to help employers create a safe and healthy work environment, reduce stigmatization of people with substance use disorder and mental illness, and promote treatment and recovery services.
We are also disrupting the flow of illicit drugs across our borders and into our neighborhoods; increasing prevention efforts; and expanding access to treatment for substance use disorder and mental health conditions, overdose reversal medications, and recovery services. Under my Administration, Federal law enforcement agents are keeping more deadly drugs out of our communities than ever before. Officials have stopped more illicit fentanyl at ports of entry over the last 2 fiscal years than in the previous 5 fiscal years combined. The Department of Justice has prosecuted thousands of drug traffickers, and the Department of the Treasury has sanctioned more than 300 people and organizations involved in the global illicit drug trade. And in July 2024, I issued a National Security Memorandum that calls on all relevant Federal departments and agencies to work collaboratively to do even more to disrupt the supply of illicit drugs.
We have expanded access to life-saving treatments, like medications to treat opioid use disorder, and have increased the number of health care providers who can prescribe these medications by 15 times. In February 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule to comprehensively update the regulations in governing Opioid Treatment Programs for the first time in 20 years — removing barriers to the treatment of substance use disorder and expanding access to care. My Administration has made historic investments in the State Opioid Response and Tribal Opioid Response programs to improve prevention; expand treatment; and deliver free, life-saving medications across America. Already, this program has delivered nearly 10 million kits of opioid overdose reversal medications, such as naloxone.
And I have proposed a Budget that includes $1.8 billion for recovery, including over $200 million of Federal Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant program funding for recovery support services to help all Americans access health care, no matter where they are in their recovery process, as well as $22 billion to expand substance use treatment and help more Americans achieve and stay in recovery.
During National Recovery Month, we support everyone in their journey to and during recovery. We recommit to helping them live long, successful, and healthy lives, and we thank them for their contributions to our country. And we continue to ensure that those battling substance use disorder are supported.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 2024 as National Recovery Month. I call upon all citizens, government agencies, private businesses, nonprofit organizations, and other groups to take action to promote recovery and improve the health of our Nation.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
A Proclamation on National Recovery Month, 2024. 08/30/2024.
thirtieth day of August, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.
“New” from the White House…
08/30/2024:
08/29/2024:
This is an open thread
