The U.S. economy may “plunge into an immediate recession” should Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling this fall, warns a recent analysis by Moody’s Analytics. Congress suspended the debt ceiling — a statutory limit on the amount of money the Treasury Department is authorized to borrow — three times during Trump’s presidency, the most recent of which expired last month.

Should lawmakers prove unable or unwilling to increase the debt ceiling again in the coming weeks — something Republicans lawmakers have so far displayed little inclination to do — the U.S. government would be forced to default on its debt obligations, a dramatic development which would threaten to extinguish millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in household wealth from an economy still struggling to recover several million jobs lost to the pandemic.

In entertainment news, months of negotiations between IATSE and several major film studies are showing signs of disintegration, as the studios declined to respond to the union’s latest proposals and allowed the contract to expire, prompting the union to take a strike authorization vote on Monday.

IATSE — which represents more than 150,000 workers in the industry — is demanding higher wages and longer breaks for the crews on film and television sets. The stakes have been powerfully dramatized in recent weeks, as testimonials have gone viral exposing the grueling conditions that many of these workers, whose often invisible behind-the-scenes labor is essential to creating our favorite movies and shows, endure. A strike in the industry could prove historic and disruptive; Hollywood’s last major work stoppage was nearly eight decades ago.

As congressional Democrats’ ideological battle over their “big, bold” budget reconciliation blueprint continues to unfold, major labor organizations have begun “lobbying fiercely” and “spending liberally” to galvanize support for the package. The groups are seeking to secure not only the thousands of union jobs the sweeping legislation would create but also a series of less visible measures aimed at facilitating labor organizing included in the package. Among other things, the package would pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the NLRB’s enforcement capacity and empower the agency to impose civil fines on employers and conduct union elections virtually — reforms labor activists have sought for several years. It would similarly enhance the penalties available to OSHA and the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division.

While these measures fall far short of the statutory transformation many regard as essential to revitalizing the labor movement, they would still amount to the most significant prolabor shift in federal law in generations. “Labor is not only all over supporting [the budget bill],” remarked AFT President Randi Weingarten. Labor “has helped craft it.”