Tax cuts are back on the agenda. They're not a done deal

London (CNN Business)Happy Wednesday. A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business' Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You cansign up right here.

Central bankers will take center stage when they gather in Jackson Hole later this week. But for now, as investors sit and wait, monetary policy isn't what's generating the most buzz.

That's right. Almost two years after US President Donald Trump and Republicans passed a $1.5 trillion tax cut package, fiscal stimulus has reentered the conversation.

"We're looking at various tax rate deductions," Trump said on Tuesday. "But I'm looking at that all the time ... that's one of the reasons we're in such a strong economic position."

His remarks followed a report that some members of the Trump administration have weighed whether to push for a temporary payroll tax cut to fight fears of an economic slowdown.

More from CNN's reporters in Washington: "Despite Trump's public-facing vociferousness about the strength of the [US] economy on his watch ... officials have discussed the possibility of a potential payroll tax cut to stave off anxiety" in recent days.

Stocks, which closed lower on Tuesday, didn't show much exuberance on the early reporting. That may reflect the fact that, at best, discussions are in extremely early stages.

A tax cut could also face political barriers, with Democrats in control of the House of Representatives.

From Deutsche Bank: A payroll tax cut "is a somewhat progressive form of tax cut, so it could tempt Democrats into supporting it, but it remains to be seen if the House will want to hand Trump any [legislative] wins in an election year." And that doesn't even get into concerns about the US budget deficit.

It's not just the United States. Germany's government faces growing pressure to spend more to stimulate its economy. The Bundesbank warned this week that the country could slip into a recession. But stimulus remains a tough sell in a country notoriously wary of borrowing.

Remember: Economists have been warning that central banks will have depleted arsenals heading into the next downturn. Chatter about what governments can do on the fiscal side of things will only increase.

Investor insight: Attention should pivot back to central banks when the Federal Reserve releases minutes from its July meeting on Wednesday. The European Central Bank follows on Thursday.

hit a wall Could Netflix hit a wall ? It's a question worth asking, per my CNN Business colleague Brian Lowry in Los Angeles.

Shares of the company are down almost 9% in the past year, with recent subscriber growth missing expectations. But that's not the streaming service's only problem.

Competition from Disney, Hulu, Amazon, Apple and CNN parent company AT&T is about to get fierce. Netflix has a head start, with a base of more than 150 million subscribers. But Disney's deep bench of content, in particular, poses a serious threat.

The issue, from Brian: "If Netflix has to spend more to acquire content, that will cut into its profits. But raising prices for the service to offset that carries risks in terms of losing subscribers. That happened in July, when the company posted its first drop in the United States in eight years."

Source: CNN

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