Nine US Senators Launch Inquiry Into Kamala Harris’ Failure As ‘Broadband Czar’
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr criticized the Biden-Harris administration, pointing out that their $42.45 billion program to bring high-speed internet to rural America has yet to connect a single person. He said it had been 1,038 days, and “not a single person has been connected” since the program debuted.
1️⃣,0️⃣3️⃣7️⃣ days.
Vice President Harris has been leading the Administration’s signature, $42 billion plan to extend Internet to millions of Americans for 1️⃣,0️⃣3️⃣7️⃣ days now.
The result?
0️⃣ people have been connected to the Internet. Not one home. Not one business. None. pic.twitter.com/n1HLYkUZwD
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) September 17, 2024
Carr on X pushed out a post in the early afternoon of Wednesday featuring a new letter from nine US senators, including Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), stressing concern about VP Harris’ time as ‘broadband czar’ entirely mismanaged the $42.45 billion program to connect rural America. Considering that not a single home in rural America has been connected, the senators warned that the failures are piling up for VP Harris, citing her failure as ‘border czar.’
Dear Vice President Harris:
We are writing to express serious concerns regarding your role as the Biden-Harris administration’s “broadband czar” and the mismanagement of federal broadband initiatives under your leadership. It appears that your performance as “broadband czar” has mirrored your performance as “border czar,” marked by poor management and a lack of effectiveness despite significant federal broadband investments and your promises to deliver broadband to rural areas.
As you are aware, Congress, through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, provided the National Telecommunications and Information Administration with $42.45 billion for the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. These funds are intended to provide broadband access to unserved communities, particularly those in rural areas.
In 2021, you were specifically tasked by President Biden to lead the administration’s efforts to expand broadband services to unserved Americans. And at the time, you stated, “we can bring broadband to rural America today.” Despite your assurances over three years ago, rural and unserved communities continue to wait for the connectivity they were promised. Under your leadership, not a single person has been connected to the internet using the $42.45 billion allocated for the BEAD program. Indeed, Politico recently reported on “the messy, delayed rollout of” this program.
Instead of focusing on delivering broadband services to unserved areas, your administration has used the BEAD program to add partisan, extralegal requirements that were never envisioned by Congress and have obstructed broadband deployment. By imposing burdensome climate change mandates on infrastructure projects, prioritizing government-owned networks over private investment, mandating the use of unionized labor in states, and seeking to regulate broadband rates, your administration has caused unnecessary delays leaving millions of Americans unconnected.
The administration’s lack of focus on truly connecting the unconnected has failed the American people and represents a gross misuse of limited taxpayer dollars. The American public deserves better.
NEW
Senators write Vice President Kamala Harris over her mismanagement of a $42 billion program to expand Internet.
After 1️⃣,0️⃣3️⃣8️⃣ days “not a single person has been connected to the internet using the $42.45 billion.” pic.twitter.com/F6RUBgoNwq
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) September 18, 2024
‘All-In’ podcast host Jason Calacanis recently said, “Our government is corrupt and stealing our money. United airlines just put Starlink on 1,000+ planes, but the FCC claims we need to spend 5-10k per rural home for wired connections?!? These homes are putting starlink in on their nickel while they wait for a cable modem in 10 years — wtf??? Pure corruption or insane stupidity — you decide!”
Our government is corrupt and stealing our money.
United airlines just put Starlink on 1,000+ planes, but the FCC claims we need to spend 5-10k per rural home for wired connections?!?
These homes are putting starlink in on their nickel while they wait for a cable modem in 10… https://t.co/vy4lpUGHH5
— @jason (@Jason) September 13, 2024
Carr recently chimed in and said Elon Musk’s Starlink offered the FCC a secured commitment of $1,300 per household for 640,000 rural locations. He said in 2023, the federal government rejected Starlink and decided to spend $100,000 per location.
In 2020, the FCC secured a commitment from Starlink to offer high-speed Internet to 640,000 rural locations for $1,300 per location in federal support.
After revoking that award in 2023, the government is now spending in the ballpark & upwards of $100,000 per location in cases. pic.twitter.com/D1q4AGcUag
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) September 13, 2024
Musk said Wednesday that the FCC rejected Starlink because of “lawfare.”
Lawfare https://t.co/Y7eGLYllMW
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 18, 2024
Here’s what X users are saying about an inefficient and what appears to be a ‘corruption’ within the Biden-Harris admin:
glad some senators are standing up for the americans who need better access
— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) September 18, 2024
Put Mayor Pete in charge, he’ll fix it now that he’s done creating all those charging stations.
— Nine Foot Couch (@9FootCouch) September 18, 2024
Good question.
Hmmmm…curious. Wonder where all that money could have possibly gone?
— Joe Citizen 🇺🇸 🇵🇱 🇺🇸 (@JoeCitizen15) September 18, 2024
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Originally Posted at; https://www.zerohedge.com//
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Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
A second wave of device explosions killed 14 people and wounded more than 450 others on Wednesday in Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, officials said, stoking fears of an all-out war with Israel.
A source close to Hezbollah said walkie-talkies used by its members blew up in its Beirut stronghold, with state media reporting similar blasts in south and east Lebanon.
AFPTV footage showed people running for cover when an explosion went off during a funeral for Hezbollah militants in south Beirut in the afternoon.
Fourteen people were killed and more than 450 wounded in the latest attacks, the health ministry said, also describing the devices targeted as walkie-talkies.
They came a day after the simultaneous explosion of hundreds of paging devices used by Hezbollah killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded up to 2,800 others across Lebanon, in an unprecedented attack blamed on Israel.
There was no comment from Israel, which only hours before Tuesday’s attacks had announced it was broadening the aims of its war with Hamas in Gaza to include its fight against the Palestinian group’s ally Hezbollah.
“The centre of gravity is moving northward,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said during a visit to an air base on Wednesday. “We are at the start of a new phase in the war.”
Israeli officials have remained tight-lipped about the explosions which led the television news bulletins and dominated newspaper headlines.
Amos Harel of the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper said the pager and walkie-talkie blasts had put “Israel and Hezbollah on the brink of all-out war”.
The White House warned all sides against “an escalation of any kind”.
“We don’t believe that the way to solve where we’re at in this crisis is by additional military operations at all,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces since Palestinian militants attacked Israel on October 7, sparking the war in Gaza.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib warned the “blatant assault on Lebanon’s sovereignty and security” was a dangerous development that could “signal a wider war”.
Hezbollah said Israel was “fully responsible for this criminal aggression” and vowed revenge.
The influx of so many casualties all at once overwhelmed hospitals in Hezbollah strongholds.
At a Beirut hospital, doctor Joelle Khadra said “the injuries were mainly to the eyes and hands, with finger amputations, shrapnel in the eyes — some people lost their sight.”
A doctor at another hospital in the Lebanese capital said he had worked through the night and that the injuries were “out of this world — never seen anything like it”.
– Heavy blow –
Analysts said operatives had likely planted explosives on the paging devices before they were delivered to Hezbollah.
“A small plastic explosive was almost certainly concealed alongside the battery, for remote detonation via a call or page,” said Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute.
Among the dead was the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member, killed in east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley when her father’s pager exploded, the family and a source close to the group said.
The attack dealt a heavy blow to Hezbollah, which already had concerns about the security of its communications after losing several key commanders to targeted air strikes in recent months.
The preliminary findings of a Lebanese investigation into the blasts found the pagers had been booby-trapped, a security official said.
“Data indicates the devices were pre-programmed to detonate and contained explosive materials planted next to the battery,” the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, said the pagers were “recently imported” and appeared to have been “sabotaged at source”.
After The New York Times reported the pagers had been ordered from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, the company said they had been produced by its Hungarian partner BAC Consulting KFT.
A government spokesman in Budapest said the company was “a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary”.
As fears again surged of a regional conflagration nearly a year into the Gaza war, Lufthansa and Air France announced the suspension of flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran and Beirut until Thursday.
– ‘Extremely volatile’ –
Since October, the unabating exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah have killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens including soldiers on the Israeli side.
They have also forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.
United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said Tuesday’s attack had come at an “extremely volatile time”, calling the blasts “shocking” and their impact on civilians “unacceptable”.
UN chief Antonio Guterres urged governments “not to weaponise civilian objects”.
Senior diplomats from the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Italy will meet on Thursday in Paris to discuss the spiralling tensions in the Middle East, sources said, ahead of a UN Security Council meeting planned for Friday.
The October 7 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, on the Israeli side, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures which includes hostages killed in captivity.
Out of 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,272 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to data provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has acknowledged these figures as reliable.
In Gaza on Wednesday, the civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter killed five people, while the Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants.
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Trilateral Commission’s Goal Of Technocracy Pursues Immigration Crisis To Get There
by Patrick Wood, Activist Post:
Technocracy is a system pitted against all others, including capitalism, Marxism, and outright Fascism. However, it will use those other systems to achieve its goals of Scientific Dictatorship. The Trilateral Commission kickstarted modern Technocracy in 1973 and devised a policy of using mass immigration as a tool to break down Western society. Peter Sutherland did it in Europe. Antony Blinken is doing it in the U.S.No other continent suffers from an immigration crisis. Not China. Not Asia. Not South America. Not Africa. Not India or Russia. What Trilateral policy did in Europe is working on America, with similar results.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
Wade though this thoughtful paper and consider the author’s conclusions:
- “The oligarchs that wish to see Technocracy established can capitalize on the ramblings of the real far-right minority by framing all dissent against the emerging Technate as “extremism.”
- Perhaps more crucially, by perpetuating the left-right paradigm, pitting the identitarian movement against the advocates of identity politics, populations can be mired in pointless debates. This irrelevant distraction, embodied by the vacuum of party politics, leaves the global public-private partnership free to push ahead with the rollout of Technocracy while the people engage in counter-productive arguments and continually fail to recognize their real enemy: the oligarchs. — Technocracy News & Trends Editor Patrick Wood
Posted By: Iain Davis via Substack
In the UK, the so-called far-right’s stance on immigration is said to be driven by “the Great Replacement conspiracy theory.” According to the influential global think tank the Institute for Strategic Studies (ISD):
“The Great Replacement” theory was first coined by French writer Renaud Camus. Identitarian movements across Europe (including in Austria, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany) have used the theory to recruit others to their cause, claiming their countries and national “identities” are under threat due to increasing immigrant populations.
It is true, in part, that Camus made this argument. Some elements of his philosophy are racist and do offer apparent rationales for religious bigotry. It is also true that Camus has been influential in the rise of the identitarian movement, which is perceived as “right-wing.” Identitarianism broadly stands in opposition to identitiy politics, considered progressive or “left-wing.”
While the identitarian movement generally opposes multiculturalism and defends ethno-culturalism, identity politics largely holds that states foist structural inequality of opportunity upon people based on their personal characteristics—such as their ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation and disability, etc. Those who oppose multiculturalism perceive identity politics as a deliberate attempt to dilute or even eradicate their culture.
These sociopolitical and philosophical concepts have a massive “influence” on our polity, public discourse and society. The right vs left paradigm is thereby created and perpetuated through the constantly reported clash between the identitarian movement and identity politics.
Those who espouse the Great Replacement theory often cite the comments of Peter Sutherland (1946 – 2018) as evidence that there is a cohesive “plan” to replace European culture. Sutherland was “influential” in guiding the development of the EU and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). He was a banker, business man, lawyer and politician. Sutherland sat on the Bilderberg steering committee, he was chairman of Trilateral Commission European division and the European Round Table movement.
Peter Sutherland
Sutherland was part of what US Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) member David Rothkopf called the “Superclass.” In an on-stage discussion, held by the global think tank the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), Rothkopf generously defined members of the alleged Superclass as “people who influence the lives of millions across borders on a regular basis.”
Rothkopf’s opinion is aligned with a branch of political science called “elite theory.” It generally argues that oligarchs—those who use their immense wealth to buy social and political “influence”—are beneficial for, or necessary to, the function of a healthy society. Numerous contrarian economists, philosophers, political theorists and scientists have argued the elite theorists’ assertions are abject nonsense.
In 2012, speaking in the UK House of Lords to the the European Union Home Affairs Health and Education inquiry on Global Approach to Migration and Mobility, Sutherland was asked by Lord Sharkey to explain why he viewed inward migration necessary. Sutherland was of the opinion that declining and ageing populations in Europe needed demographic stimulus, even if just from an economic perspective.
Originally Posted at https://www.sgtreport.com
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Ukraine planning ‘inhumane’ false flag attack – Russian intelligence
from RT:
A children’s facility could be targeted, the SVR has claimed
Kiev is preparing a false flag operation, in which a children’s hospital or kindergarten could be hit by a supposed Russian missile strike, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has claimed.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
The “inhumane provocation” is being masterminded by the leaders of Ukrainian intelligence and the military at the advice of “US handlers,” the statement said on Monday. The goal is to cause a large number of casualties and publicize the event through the international media, the agency added.
Kiev hopes that its plot will help justify long-range strikes using Western weapons deep inside Russia, the SVR believes. The US would then use the incident to ramp up pressure on Iran and North Korea for supposedly providing ballistic missiles to Russia, the agency said.
On July 8, Kiev accused Moscow of deliberately targeting the Okhmatdet children’s hospital in central Kiev during a large-scale missile barrage. Interior Minister Igor Klimenko reported that two adults were killed in the incident, and 32 people including children were injured.
Originally Posted at https://www.sgtreport.com
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Trump suggests Fed ‘playing politics’ with US rate cut
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested the Federal Reserve was playing politics on Wednesday, after the US central bank announced a long-awaited interest rate cut of half a percentage point.
“I guess it shows the economy is very bad to cut it by that much, assuming they’re not just playing politics,” Trump said in televised comments from a bitcoin bar in New York. “The economy would be very bad or they’re playing politics, one or the other. But it was a big cut.”
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Lesbian social worker gets £63,000 after lawsuit over being disciplined for misgendering ‘gender fluid’ dog
An incident involving a “gender-fluid” dog has cost taxpayers £63,000 after a social worker and another colleague referred to the pet as a male. The assertion left the dog’s owner outraged, prompting him to file a formal complaint accusing the pair of “transphobia,” which resulted in disciplinary action.
Elizabeth Pitt, a 62-year-old lesbian social worker, was subjected to harassment by her colleagues at Cambridgeshire County Council after she was accused of making “non-inclusive and transphobic” remarks about the dachshund owned by her colleague, Gleicon Analha, as reported by The Telegraph.
The incident occurred when Analha chaired a Zoom call of the authority’s LGBTQ employee group last year. During the call, Analha dressed his dachshund in a dress to spark a “debate about gender.” He claimed to the group that his dog was “gender-fluid.”
Pitt immediately denied that Analha’s dog was gender-fluid saying, “Your dog is male!” Another lesbian coworker agreed with Pitt and doubled down that the pooch is not, in fact, gender-fluid.
The pair reportedly proceeded to express gender-critical views, such as their criticism of trans-identified biological men competing in women’s sports and using female-only spaces.
The comments resulted in Pitt receiving disciplinary action from managers.
However, the authority was forced to pay £63,000 in costs and compensation after it eventually acknowledged being liable for blatant discrimination based on her beliefs after Pitt filed a tribunal complaint.
Analha claimed in the complaint to the authority, according to documents reviewed by the Daily Mail, that the two women made several “transphobic comments” about his dog Pablo Vittar which “caused an emotional impact on the peer group.”
The assertion that Pablo Vittar was a male, he said, left the group “silent and shocked,” adding that it felt like a personal attack on his “choices and lived experiences.”
“I found a way to bring awareness regarding gender and sexuality through my dog via Instagram and informal conversation on the streets,” Analha said. “I identify my dog as gender fluid, and I actually enjoy speaking with people about human gender expression and how we – as a society – imprinted this in animals and culturally we repeat the gender expressions and stereotypes to the young generation.”
“When the other employee stated, ‘Your dog is male!’ with a provocative and angry tone,” he continued, “The group was silent and shocked. She ignored our previous conversation and I felt this was the first attack on my personal choices and lived experience.”
The incident, he said, left people “shaking, feeling threatened and horrified with the disrespectful comments.”
Management implemented a formal disciplinary action against Pitt.
In formal complaints filed against her, her comments were characterized as “offensive” and “nasty opinions,” while another individual described her tone as “really aggressive.”
Pitt was ordered to refrain from making “comments or taking actions in the workplace that might discriminate against others on grounds of a protected characteristic.” She was also banned from contacting members of the LGBTQ group.
However, Pitt raised a complaint arguing that she was subjected “to harassment/direct discrimination” from the council based on her personal beliefs. An employment judge ruled in her favor and ordered the county council to pay her £30,000 in loss of earnings and £22,000 compensation for injury to feelings. The county council was also ordered to pay her £8,000 in legal fees.
This Story originally came from humanevents.com
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‘I am a rapist like everyone else in this room’: French man who drugged wife, allowed dozens of men to rape her gives first trial testimony
Dominique Pélicot, the French man on trial for drugging his wife and allowing dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious, admitted in court that he is a rapist along with the other defendants involved in the case.
“I am a rapist, like everyone else in this room. They cannot say otherwise,” Pélicot declared during his first testimony in court. The statement directly contradicted the testimony of many of the 50 men accused, who previously claimed they were unaware that the wife had been drugged and had not consented to the sexual acts.
Investigators revealed that Pélicot regularly drugged his wife, Gisèle Pélicot, with anti-anxiety medication without her knowledge. While she was unconscious, she was raped at least 92 times by 72 men between 2011 and 2020. Of those, 51 individuals have been identified and charged in connection with the assaults. According to The Washington Post, Pélicot instructed the men to avoid wearing perfume or smoking to ensure his wife remained unconscious during the rapes.
Prosecutors have charged 49 men with rape, one with attempted rape, and one with sexual assault. Most of the defendants face sentences of up to 20 years in prison, according to Le Monde. Some of the accused have contested the charges, arguing they believed the acts were consensual within the couple.
Despite his admission, Pélicot claimed he did not force the men to participate.
“They came looking for me themselves. They asked me, I said yes. I didn’t put handcuffs on anyone to force them to come,” he testified.
Gisèle Pélicot only became aware of her husband’s actions in 2020 after police caught him filming up women’s skirts. Upon searching his electronic device, authorities discovered photos and videos documenting the assaults on his wife.
During her testimony, Gisèle Pélicot described the horror of realizing what had been done to her.
“When you see this woman, drugged, mistreated, dead on a bed — of course the body is not cold, it is warm, but I am like dead,” she told judges in court earlier this month. “These men are defiling me, taking advantage of me.”
This Story originally came from humanevents.com
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Agatha After Party: Episode 1-2 | Disney CUTS Subscription Prices as Agatha FAILS to Drive Interest!
Originally Posted At WDW Pro YouTube Channel
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Pixar FORCED To Make Inside Out 2 LESS Gay | Disney Backing AWAY From Woke After Too Many FAILS
Originally_Posted_At_Doomcocks_YouTube_Channel
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Fed Goes Big: Cuts Rates by Half Percentage Point
The Federal Reserve moved to cut interest rates by a half percentage point—the first reduction since the central bank cut rates to near zero when the pandemic struck in 2020—in a vote of confidence that inflation will continue to moderate and an attempt to fend off a further increase in unemployment.
“Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace. Job gains have slowed, and the unemployment rate has moved up but remains low. Inflation has made further progress toward the Committee’s 2 percent objective but remains somewhat elevated,” the Fed said in a statement.
The Fed’s benchmark rate will now be a range of 4.75 to 5 percent, where it last was in April of 2023.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and other Democrat lawmakers had called on Powell to cut rates more aggressively, urging the Fed in a letter to reduce its benchmark federal funds rate by three-quarters of a percentage point.
Powell said that the cut on Wednesday was the beginning of a process to move the Fed away from a restrictive monetary policy but added that Fed policy is “not on any preset course.” Powell argued that the 50 basis point cut on Wednesday was not a guarantee that future cuts would be that at large.
“I don’t think anyone should look at this and say, ‘This is the new pace,’” Powell said.
The decision to lower rates reflects increased confidence on the part of Fed officials that inflation is moving sustainably toward their two percent target.
Fed officials have also said that they now view the risks to their mandate to maintain full employment to be greater than the risks of a resurgence of inflation. Earlier this summer, the unemployment rate tripped the Sahm Rule threshold by rising more than a half a percentage point above its recent low, typically a signal that the economy is already in a recession. Claudia Sahm, whose research is behind the rule, has said she does not think the economy is currently in a recession but worries that restrictive monetary policy could unnecessarily increase unemployment even more.
Evidence for a weakening labor market, however, has been scarce. Hiring in June and July disappointed and revisions showed it was weaker than expected. But, at least in the government’s preliminary estimate, payroll growth rebounded in August. Layoffs have been low, with jobless claims last week around where they were a year ago.
Both retail spending and industrial production came in better than expected in August, according to reports released this week.
The last time the Fed began cutting rates prior to the pandemic, in July 2019, the benchmark rate was a range of two percent to 2.25 percent. The Fed began cutting then as a pre-emptive strike to stave off what it feared would be a looming global slowdown and ameliorate any damage to the economy from trade tensions.
The Fed also released a new set of economic projections of Fed officials. The median forecast for the fed funds rate at the end of this year fell from 5.1 percent to 4.4 percent. Next year’s projection was brought down to 3.4 percent from 4.1 percent. Officials also see an improved picture for inflation, projecting the personal consumption expenditures price index to be up 2.3 percent for this year instead of 2.6 percent and 2.1 percent next year instead of 2.3 percent.
The longer-run projection for the fed funds rate rose to 2.9 percent, four-tenths of a point above the 2.5 percent the Fed had consistently projected from 2019 through the end of last year. In the June projections, officials had indicated an expectation for a longer run rate of 2.8 percent.
On the other hand, unemployment is now seen as going higher. When the Fed last released projections in June, officials forecast a four percent rate of unemployment at year-end. The new projections have unemployment rising to 4.4 percent. Next year, unemployment is seen as staying at 4.4 percent, up from the earlier estimate of 4.2 percent. Similarly, the median projection for economic growth ticked down to two percent from 2.1 percent this year.
Eleven officials voted for the rate cut. One Fed governor, Michelle Bowman, dissented, preferring a quarter-point cut.
Originally Posted At www.breitbart.com
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