Lawmakers are careening toward a shutdown of the federal government that could deprive policymakers, business leaders and investors of critical data they need to assess the state of the US economy. Many federal operations will pause and nonessential employees will be furloughed or fired if lawmakers can’t reach an agreement by the time the current fiscal year ends on Tuesday. Per the latest guidelines, the Bureau of Labor Statistics — responsible for a number of gold-standard US economic releases — would cease operations and likely delay Friday’s payroll report in the event of a shutdown. Given uncertainty about the ... (full story)