MNI POLITICAL RISK ANALYSIS – US Daily Brief 01-04-22

Executive Summary:

• 10:45 ET 15:45 GMT: President Biden will deliver remarks on the march jobs data and, with another strong report forecast, there is expected to be plenty for the White House to take credit for.
• Ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine will resume in Turkey today. The newswires yesterday were dominated by US intelligence claims that Russian president Vladimir Putin is becoming increasingly detached from his defence advisors.
• Biden: ‘There’s a lot of speculation but he seems to be — I’m not saying this with a certainty — he seems to be self-isolating and there’s some indication that he has fired or put under house arrest some of his advisers.’
• President Biden announced another oil release from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In remarks at the White House Biden took aim at energy companies engaged in ‘price gouging’ and called on Congress to legislate a ‘use it or lose it’ law which will compel energy companies to increase production on idle concessions.
• The Senate will recess without substantial progress on a new Covid-19 relief package although Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) said that they were ‘getting close to a final agreement that would garner bipartisan support.’ The difficulty for Schumer is that the Senate is expected to spend most of next week on the SCOTUS confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be followed by a two-week recess for Passover and Easter meaning action on Covid funding may not remerge until May.

Please find the full article attached below:

MNI POLITICAL RISK ANALYSIS – US Daily Brief 01-04-22 .pdf