The U.S. economy may “plunge into an immediate recession” if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling this fall, cautions a recent analysis by Moody’s Analytics. Congress suspended the debt ceiling — a statutory limit on the amount of money the U.S. Treasury Department is authorized to borrow — three times during Trump’s presidency, the most recent of which expired last month. If lawmakers prove unable or unwilling to raise it again in the coming weeks, a measure in which Republicans legislators have exhibited scant interest, the U.S. government would find itself compelled to default on its debt obligations, which could, economists warn, 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 Hollywood news, months of contractual negotiations between IATSE, which represents more than 150,000 workers in the entertainment industry, and several major film studies have begun to deteriorate. On Monday, then, the union initiated a strike authorization vote. IATSE seeks higher wages and longer rest periods for workers on film and television sets, as testimonials revealing the grueling working conditions to which many of them are subject have gone viral on social media in recent weeks. The studios, for their part, have declined to respond to the union’s latest proposals and allowed the CBA to expire earlier this month. “The failure to continue negotiating can only be interpreted one way,” the IATSE bargaining committed asserted in a statement. “We will now proceed with a nationwide strike authorization vote to demonstrate our commitment to achieving the change that is long overdue in this industry.” A strike in the entertainment industry could prove historic — Hollywood’s last major one was nearly eight decades ago.

As the Democratic caucus’ ideological battle over its “big, bold” budget blueprint rages, leading unions have been “lobbying fiercely” and “spending liberally” to galvanize support for the legislative package. The unions are attracted not only to the organized jobs the legislation would generate, but also a series of less visible measures it includes designed to facilitate labor organizing. For example, the bill would empower the NLRB to impose civil fines on employers who violate federal labor law and to conduct union elections online — innovations labor leaders have requested for several years. Although the measures set forth in the bill fall short of the statutory transformation many view as essential to revitalizing the U.S. labor movement, they would amount to the most significant shift in federal law favoring unions in at least a generation. In addition, the reconciliation bill would augment the penalties available to both OSHA and the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division and direct hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to the NLRB. For these reasons, unions have spent millions promoting the bill. “Labor is not only all over supporting [the budget bill],” explained AFT President Randi Weingarten — labor “has helped craft it.”