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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) yesterday proposed to ease federal student loan debt with executive authority, in a policy rollout aimed at attracting young voters, Bloomberg News reported. Warren said that as president, she would not wait for Congress to approve her plans to cancel or modify federal student debt. Instead, she would directly authorize the Department of Education to provide as much as $50,000 in relief to about 95 percent of student loan borrowers. She has said she would relieve $640 billion of student debt, a pledge that would be funded by her proposed tax on wealth for households with assets of more than $50 million. That, however, depends on the wealth tax passing Congress, which would take longer and might be difficult. Under the Higher Education Act, Warren argued, the Department of Education has the discretion “to modify, compromise, waive or release student loans.” She says that would allow her administration to cancel federal student debt.

U.S. job growth likely slowed in December, but the pace of hiring probably remains more than enough to keep the longest economic expansion in history on track despite a deepening downturn in a manufacturing sector stung by trade disputes, Reuters reported. The Labor Department’s closely watched monthly employment report on Friday could buttress the Federal Reserve’s assessment that both the economy and monetary policy are in a “good place.” It would extend the run of upbeat data such as consumer spending, trade and housing that have suggested the expansion, now in its 11th year, is not in immediate danger of being derailed by a recession. Worries that a downturn might be triggered by the Trump administration’s trade war with China spurred the Fed to cut interest rates three times in 2019. Indeed economic growth did slow last year, throttling back to 2.1 percent in the third quarter from 2018’s pace of nearly 3 percent. With a Phase 1 deal with China set to be signed next week, policymakers are now more confident in the outlook and last month signaled borrowing costs could remain unchanged at least through this year. Economists are pegging growth at the end of last year around a 2.3 percent rate. Some of the anticipated slowdown in December is attributed to seasonal volatility associated with a later-than-normal Thanksgiving Day.