THE WEEK AHEAD

Shutdown, trade deadlines loom over economy

Two self-imposed deadlines are approaching fast. One comes on Friday, while the highest-level talks yet to meet the second get underway in the week ahead.

The first deadline is to get a portion of the federal government funded through September. Another government shutdown looms if President Donald Trump and the Democratic congressional leaders can’t agree on border security. If not, it will mark the fourth time in two years pieces of the federal government can’t operate and hundreds of thousands of families could see their pay interrupted or skipped altogether.

The last partial shutdown cost the economy $18 billion, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. That’s not an enormous cost to the American economy, but it is to those households missing paychecks.

Across the globe in Beijing, the U.S. and China will have their most senior-level trade talks yet ahead of Trump’s March 2 deadline to strike a deal or hike tariffs on all kinds of Chinese-made goods. If that should happen, China likely would quickly follow suit.

Investors aren’t solely focused on these deadlines, but missing them without real hope of resolution further erodes confidence and trust necessary to lead the economy.

Tom Hudson, Miami Herald