FRIDAY 11/3/23
The Labor Department counts 150,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy in October, well below the average of 250,000 per month for the previous 12 months. The unemployment rate rose by 0.5 points to 3.9%, marking the 21st month below 4%, which is traditionally considered ‘full employment.’ Newly added jobs were tempered by labor strikes last month, primarily the UAW action against the Detroit Three automakers, with whom the union has reached tentative agreements. Productivity was up 4.7%, however, which lowered unit labor cost by 0.8%. Job gains were noted particularly for health care, government, and social services.
Deadly Deadlock – Continued war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is, at this point, impossible to resolve. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel Friday for his second visit since October 7 to push the nation's leaders to take “humanitarian pauses” to help the flow of aid to Palestinians in Gaza and to facilitate the release of hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu Friday said there will be no ceasefire until the hostages are released.
Also on Friday, Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah “stopped short” of saying his powerful militia has joined the Israel-Hamas war but added that the fighting with Israel on the Lebananon-Israeli border would “not be limited,” The Guardian reports.
•••
SBF Guilty – After five hours of deliberations, a jury found ex-cryptocurrency king Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of each of the seven criminal charges, including fraud, that he faced in connection with FTX and Alameda Research, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Prosecution presented a solid case with SBF’s former friends and colleagues testifying against him in the four-week trial, including former girlfriend and Alameda Research chief Caroline Ellison and co-founder of FTX and Alameda, Gary Wang.
Wang had pleaded guilty on separate charges and agreed to co-operate with prosecutors in the SBF case.
Bankman-Fried, 31, is scheduled to be sentenced next March and will likely spend the rest of his life in prison, NPR says, though he is also likely to appeal the conviction.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa