Lewis, Mertens, Stock Weekly Economic Index (WEI) is down 1.1 ppts, while Baumeister, Leiva-Leon, Sims Weekly Economic Conditions Indicator (for deviation from trend growth) is down 0.7 ppts.
Figure 1: Lewis, Mertens, Stock Weekly Economic Index (blue), and Baumeister, Leiva-Leon, Sims Weekly Economic Conditions Indicator for US (tan), all y/y growth rate in %. Source: NY Fed via FRED, WECI, accessed 10/31, and author’s calculations.
Speaking of tariffs, yesterday the Senate passed Joint Senate Resolution 88, “terminating the national emergency declared to impose global tariffs”:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/88/text
To become binding, the Resolution would also have to pass the House and to be signed by the felon-in-chief. The House is not in session because the Speaker is protecting pedophiles, so cannot vote on the Resolution.
The felon, who is the pedophile the Speaker most wants to protect, has responded that “The Administration strongly opposes S.J. Res. 88, which would terminate the national emergency that President Trump declared on April 2, 2025.” So a whole lot more votes would be needed, enough to overcome a veto, in order to legislate away the IEEPA tariffs.
This is one of those fundamental structure of government issues that has been ruined by the Supreme Court, going all the way back to a 1980s decision called Sharma, and which has been highlighted by Prof. Josh Chafetz.
Formerly these emergency declarations could be voided by a “concurrent” resolution, meaning that if either House of Congress voted it down, the emergency declaration terminated. In Sharma, the Supreme Court said that such a resolution must be a “joint” resolution, meaning *both* Houses of Congress must so vote, and was subject to a veto by the President. But instead of voiding the entire statutory scheme, and letting Congress start from scratch, it left the remaining part of the scheme, i;e;., the Executive’s declaration of emergencies, intact.
This amounted to a huge transfer of power from the Congress to the Executive, since we went from a majority of 1 House being necessary, to a 2/3’s majority of both Houses being necessary, to overrule the Executive. In effect, in all such areas, it transferred actual legislative power to the Executive.
One of the Supreme Court’s many rulings which altogether have all but defenestrated the Framers’ original intent that Congress be the most powerful branch of government.
Off topic – election tampering:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/politics/doj-monitor-polling-sites-california-new-jersey
This CNN piece raises the issue of the January 6 insurrection, efforts to overturn the 2020 election and Republican efforts to keep the “stolen election” lie alive, and also hints at efforts to tamper with 2026 elections. That’s admirable.
The Justice Department is obviously practicing up to interfere in the midterm elections. Republicans from around the country will call for DOJ monitoring efforts, and the DOJ will dutifully find election irregularities where none exist. In every case, the fake irregularities will be used to do what the felon-in-chief failed to do in 2020 – give elected offices to Republicans who did not win a majority of the vote.
Democracy in the U.S. is at risk. It has been since 2020. The felon-in-chief has learned from his failure then. The judicial system failed to deal with his insurrection. Now, his tactics are more sophisticated, his minions chosen for loyalty above all else. We could soon find government of, by and for the people a thing of the past.