As the government shutdown turns 28 days old, its impact is quickly spreading beyond the rising number of federal employees missing paychecks.

While the Trump administration previously moved money around to fund some federal programs until the end of the month, it recently said the SNAP food assistance relied on by over 40 million people won’t be funded starting on Nov. 1—which has never happened during a shutdown before. Some states plan to fund SNAP from their own coffers, but others warned residents to prepare for a lapse in benefits and advised them to turn to food banks.

Also on Nov. 1:

• Funding for some early childhood education and nutrition services that are part of the Head Start program is due to dry up, which could affect 59,000+ children nationwide.
• Subsidies for commercial flights to rural areas might be cut off, forcing airlines to increase ticket prices.
• Many Americans will face higher health insurance premiums due to the lapse of Obama-era healthcare subsidies axed in the Republican budget earlier this year—which, in large part, prompted the shutdown, as Democrats refused to pass government funding without extending them.

Not fired, but unpaid

Over 1.4 million federal workers are either furloughed or working without pay, with many due to miss their first paycheck of the shutdown this week, according to the Bipartisan Policy Institute.

Many of Uncle Sam’s employees are picking up side gigs, like caring for pets and driving for ride-hailing apps, to carry themselves over, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, air traffic controllers—who are required to work without pay—have been calling out sick, leading to understaffed airport towers and skyrocketing flight delays.

Pressure is mounting: The largest federal worker union, which represents more than 800,000 members, called on lawmakers to put aside partisanship and pass a government funding bill that would get the direct deposits flowing again.—SK

Hurricane Melissa approaches Jamaica as a dangerous storm. The hurricane strengthened into a Category 5 storm yesterday, picking up strength as it traveled over unusually warm waters in the Caribbean Sea. It’s expected to make landfall in Jamaica this morning and to bring destructive flooding, storm surge, and winds. People were ordered to evacuate coastal areas yesterday in preparation for the slow-moving storm, which is likely to cause severe damage to the nation’s infrastructure. It’s expected to be the most powerful storm to hit Jamaica since it began keeping records in 1851, and the island’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness said, “I have been on my knees in prayer.”

Amazon plans mass corporate layoffs. The e-commerce giant will cut up to 30,000 corporate jobs across departments, Reuters reported yesterday. That would make the terminations, set to start today, the largest corporate layoff in the company’s history, per CNBC, trumping the 27,000 it let go in 2022. Amazon employs 1.5+ million people overall, but only about 350,000 on the corporate side. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been looking to cut costs and simplify the company’s corporate organization, and he also predicted that AI would likely lead to a reduction in its corporate headcount.

NBA reviewing its policies after gambling arrests. The league told its teams yesterday that it had commenced a review of how it reports player injuries to the public, as well as prop bets and how it might use AI and other tools to identify gamblers with insider information. The review follows the arrest of Miami guard Terry Rozier and Portland coach Chauncey Billups, who were accused of participating in illegal gambling schemes. The league called it “an opportune time to carefully reassess how sports betting should be regulated and how sports leagues can best protect themselves, their players, and their fans.”—AR

At JPMorgan Chase, the dread of AI taking jobs is being offset by the joy of AI writing performance reviews. The bank is giving its employees the option of letting its in-house chatbot help author time-consuming year-end evaluations, according to the Financial Times.

The shortcut of submitting prompts and receiving text from a chatbot has potential benefits for both reviewers and reviewees:

• AI tools can reduce writing time by 40%, per Boston Consulting Group. So if it normally takes an hour to write vague goals and objectives for the following year, that’s 24 minutes right back into your pocket to focus on your office fantasy football league work.
• Having more standardized feedback can reduce the perception of “playing favorites” or other biases, according to a management expert who spoke with Business Insider.

Raise it: Per FT, JPMorgan says AI can’t be used for salary decisions, and employees are ultimately responsible for final submissions, so copy and paste at your own risk.

Banking on it: CEO Jamie Dimon told Bloomberg that the company’s $2 billion annual investment in AI has already paid for itself and has been used to trim headcount. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, however, told Axios that he doesn’t foresee Wall Street’s embrace of AI as a threat to the hiring of future junior bankers.—DL

Don’t cry because you’re not going to Aspen this year, smile because a ski family might avoid paying some taxes by flying there privately. Bloomberg reported yesterday that ultra-wealthy Americans are taking full advantage of a new rule in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that allows them to completely write off certain high-value assets.

ICYMI: President Trump’s landmark legislation expanded a tax break known as bonus depreciation, which now lets business owners deduct 100% of certain purchases from their taxable income. Eligible splurges include yachts, cars, racehorses, and private jets—as long as they’re used for business more than half of the time. Demand is climbing:

• Sales of private jets are up by 11% from this time last year, according to data from the jet broker Global Charter.
• Horse sales at the world’s largest thoroughbred auction in Kentucky grew by 24% last month compared to 2024.

Gas stations and car washes also qualify. Sales of these establishments spiked after Trump temporarily expanded bonus depreciation in 2017. One entrepreneur told Bloomberg that he avoided millions of dollars in taxes by buying several car washes, which offset income from the sale of his family business.

Looking ahead…this rule will cost the IRS $363 billion in lost revenue over the next decade, according to estimates by Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation.—ML

We regret to inform you that the kids are not all right—and by kids, we mean the adult children of financially comfortable older Americans. Polling by the Wall Street Journal this summer showed many respondents were OK with their own economic position, but concerned about the future for the next generation, with nearly 80% saying they weren’t confident that their children would be better off. The poll, conducted in July, showed:

• About 23% of respondents said they were extremely or very confident they could afford to buy a home, compared with 11% for today’s children.
• Meanwhile, 32% said they believe they can keep up with their expenses, while just 14% thought that the children can.

And the younger generation agrees. Compared to respondents aged 30+, a smaller share of those aged 18–29 felt confident they could: keep up with expenses, buy a car, pay for an unexpected medical expense, or have enough savings for retirement. These gloomy predictions for the nation’s youth come as unemployment has risen for recent college grads and as housing prices have shot up 50% since the beginning of the pandemic, the WSJ notes.—AR