Tax Season Alert: IRS Audit Risks and Red Flags for American Filers

As Americans submit their tax returns this season, there’s a growing concern about IRS audits amidst the agency’s efforts to enhance service, technology, and enforcement.

Recent IRS actions have targeted affluent individuals, large corporations, and intricate partnerships. However, ordinary taxpayers might still find themselves under audit, with specific issues drawing greater IRS scrutiny, experts note.

Ryan Losi, an executive vice president at CPA firm Piascik, cautioned against the risks of the “audit lottery.” He emphasized the importance of accuracy in tax reporting to avoid potential audit triggers.

Audit rates for individual income tax returns have declined across all income brackets from 2010 to 2019 due to decreased IRS funding, according to a Government Accountability Office report. Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse reported that in fiscal year 2022, the IRS audited 0.38% of returns, down from 0.41% in 2021.

However, Mark Steber, chief tax information officer at Jackson Hewitt, believes that many Americans might feel overly secure about their audit risk.

Here are some key factors that could raise red flags for IRS audits:

1.Unreported Income: The IRS can easily detect unreported income through information returns sent by employers and financial institutions. Income from freelancing or investments, reported via forms like 1099-NEC or 1099-B, can be particularly scrutinized.

  1. Excessive Deductions: Claiming deductions significantly higher than what’s typical for your income level could draw attention. For instance, if your reported deductions are disproportionate to your income, especially in areas like charitable deductions, it might trigger scrutiny.
  2. Rounded Numbers: Filing with rounded figures, especially for significant deductions, may increase the likelihood of an audit. Experts advise against using rounded estimates and emphasize the importance of accurate reporting.
  3. Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC): This credit, designed for low- to moderate-income earners, has historically attracted scrutiny due to improper payments. While higher-income earners are more likely to be audited, EITC claimants face a substantially higher audit rate due to issues with improper payments.

Despite this, the IRS has announced plans to reduce correspondence audits for EITC claimants starting in fiscal year 2024.

While audit rates have decreased overall, taxpayers should remain vigilant about potential audit triggers and ensure accurate reporting to avoid unnecessary scrutiny from the IRS.

US Inflation Slows in January, Easing Pressure on Federal Reserve Amid Economic Growth

Consumer prices experienced a 3.1% increase in January compared to the previous year, a notable deceleration from the prior month but falling short of the anticipated larger cooldown, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The slowing inflation trend brought some relief for the Federal Reserve as it evaluates potential interest rate adjustments.

Core inflation, a significant metric that excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose by 3.9% over the year ending in January, matching the slowdown observed in the previous month. This report contrasts with a slight uptick in price hikes seen in December.

The Federal Reserve had been navigating a complex landscape due to the earlier acceleration in inflation, which complicated its strategy to ease its inflation battle through a series of interest rate cuts. Recently, the central bank opted to maintain interest rates at their current levels, choosing to monitor further economic developments before reversing a nearly unprecedented streak of rate hikes initiated last year.

The January slowdown in inflation offers a positive signal for the Fed as it approaches its upcoming rate decision in March. Despite a significant decline from last year’s peak, inflation remains nearly one percentage point above the Fed’s target.

Despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to temper economic growth by increasing borrowing costs for households and businesses, the U.S. economy has largely resisted these measures. Last month, the economy surpassed expectations by adding 353,000 jobs while maintaining the unemployment rate at a historically low 3.7%, according to data released earlier by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Moreover, recent reports indicate that the gross domestic product (GDP) performed better than anticipated at the end of last year, while consumer sentiment soared in January. However, this remarkable performance may pose challenges for policymakers at the Federal Reserve in their fight against inflation.

The Fed faces the risk of inflation rebounding if it moves too swiftly in cutting interest rates, as heightened consumer demand could fuel a resurgence in price increases. Fed Chair Jerome Powell, speaking in Washington, D.C., last month, acknowledged the consistent decline in inflation over recent months and the robust hiring trends accompanying it. However, he cautioned against an overheated economy.

“We’re not looking for a weaker labor market,” Powell emphasized. “We’re looking for inflation to continue to come down, as it has been coming down for the last six months.”

He further noted, “We’re not declaring victory at this point. We think we have a ways to go.”

Millennials Navigate Economic Challenges: Reevaluating the American Dream Amidst Soaring Prices, Housing Dilemmas, and Shifting Priorities

Rachael Gambino and Garrett Mazzeo meticulously followed the financial playbook: education, debt reduction, aggressive savings, marriage, homeownership, and starting a family—a quintessential American dream. However, seated at the kitchen table of their suburban Pennsylvania home, a property they both appreciate and feel somewhat ensnared by, they reflect on their journey, expressing reservations about doing it all over again the same way.

The couple, parents to nine-month-old Miles, has a different perspective for their son. Rachael, 33, observes, “I think a lot of Millennials were forced into saying, ‘you need a four-year degree in order to be successful,’” emphasizing the burden of significant student loan debt taken on at a young age. Concerned about this narrative, she adds, “At 18, you’re signing up to be $100,000 in debt before you even really know how to make the best decisions for yourself. I think we need to change that narrative.”

Rachael and Garrett acknowledge their fortune, both maintaining steady employment and temporarily residing with Rachael’s sister, Kristen Gambino, who helps with the mortgage. Despite these advantages, the couple feels precarious, managing their daily lives meticulously through a budget where Garrett, 35, monitors every dollar flowing in and out. Rachael questions, “This is the American Dream. But at what cost? What are we paying for the American Dream now?”

The Vibecession

In post-Covid America, an odd paradox exists: the economy appears robust, yet a pervasive sense of discontent prevails. A recent CNN poll revealed that a staggering 71% of Americans deemed economic conditions “poor,” with 38% describing them as “very poor.” This sentiment has improved marginally since the summer of 2022 when 82% perceived the economy as poor.

Various factors contribute to this economic dissatisfaction, including soaring prices, a challenging housing market, persistent inequality, and escalating debt. While inflation, reaching decades-high levels, is gradually receding, the aftermath is a landscape of elevated prices for essentials and indulgences deferred during the pandemic, such as concert tickets and vacations.

Despite Millennials making significant strides in wealth accumulation over the past four years, they endured over a decade of stagnant wages and relatively flat wealth growth. Brendan Duke, senior director for economic policy at the Center for American Progress, highlights that Millennials are the most educated generation in U.S. history, but this education came at a substantial cost. Between 1987 and 2017, the cost of attending a public four-year college surged by over 200%, leaving the average student debt for those aged 25 to 34 at $32,000.

Generational Wealth Gap

Millennials, now aged 27 to 42, have struggled to match the wealth accumulation of their Baby Boomer parents and Gen X counterparts. Raised during the economic boom of the 1990s, they entered adulthood during the Great Recession, a period that scarred their early professional lives. The recession not only made entry-level jobs scarce but also delayed the retirement plans of older workers, hindering career progression for the younger generation.

By 2016, families led by Millennials born in the 1980s were approximately 34% below their “wealth expectations.” While this gap has diminished, with Millennials now only 11% below these expectations, they face the highest debt burden across demographics, making them particularly susceptible to economic shocks, such as a pandemic.

The Myth of the Nest Egg

The quintessential American Dream often centers around homeownership as the key to wealth building. However, in the Covid-era economy, this dream has transformed into more of a fantasy. Low housing inventory, a lingering effect of the 2007 housing bubble collapse, combined with remote work trends, led to a surge in home prices between 2021 and 2022.

For Rachael and Garrett, who aimed for a 20% down payment to secure a home in 2022, the rapidly rising home prices and interest rates dealt a painful blow. Missing the low-rate window, they find themselves with a monthly mortgage payment consuming 40% of their take-home income. While interest rates are anticipated to decrease, offering a chance to refinance, the couple currently navigates a challenging financial landscape.

Renting, once seen as less favorable than buying, is now a more financially viable option. A report from Attom, a real estate data company, indicates that renting a three-bedroom home is more affordable than owning a similarly sized unit in nearly 90% of local markets in the U.S. Despite this, homeownership remains a priority for many Millennials, ingrained in them as a fundamental part of the American Dream.

Rachael and Garrett, though acknowledging their relative fortune, harbor concerns about potential financial instability. The fear of job loss or unexpected medical bills looms large, and the eventual departure of Rachael’s sister, currently a tenant, adds another layer of uncertainty to their financial planning.

Silver Linings

The economic challenges faced by consumers in the previous year, marked by rapidly rising prices and interest rates, have been taxing. However, some relief is on the horizon. Wages have outpaced prices since 2019, with Millennials experiencing an average wage increase of 14%, adjusted for inflation, between ages 29 and 38.

While this wage growth is a positive development, Brendan Duke notes that it may not fully alleviate the financial strain on workers who have become parents during the same period. The high cost of childcare often offsets wage increases, emphasizing the need for societal investments in areas like parental leave and affordable housing.

For Rachael and Garrett, the reality of childcare costs prompted a reassessment of their family planning timeline. Rachael expresses the desire to have children close in age, but financial constraints dictate a delay of at least four years before expanding their family.

Rachael and Garrett’s story reflects the broader struggles of Millennials as they navigate the complex economic landscape. The American Dream, once a straightforward path to prosperity, now demands a nuanced approach and a critical examination of the traditional narratives surrounding education, homeownership, and financial stability.

Google Pay and NPCI Collaborate to Propel India’s UPI onto the Global Stage, Streamlining International Payments and Redefining Digital Payment Infrastructures Worldwide

Alphabet Inc.’s Google Pay is teaming up with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to propel India’s innovative mobile payment system, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), onto the global stage.

The collaboration between Google India Digital Services and NPCI aims to streamline international payments for Indian travelers and contribute to the establishment of UPI-like digital payment infrastructures in other countries. This aligns with NPCI’s goal to elevate India’s standing in the global digital payment arena and simplify remittances by reducing reliance on traditional money transfer systems.

Ritesh Shukla, CEO of NIPL, expressed excitement about the potential of this partnership, stating, “UPI has demonstrated to the world the change that happens in economies with the introduction of interoperable, population-scale digital infrastructure, and each economy that joins such networks will create an impact beyond the sum of parts.”

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian government has actively promoted the international expansion of UPI. In a significant move last year, India and Singapore merged their systems, enabling real-time monetary transfers. Ongoing explorations for collaborations with countries like Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates are indicative of India’s commitment to expanding UPI’s global reach.

According to recent statistics from India’s central bank, in November alone, UPI processed transactions worth approximately $209 billion. The new partnership with Google Pay is expected to further amplify UPI’s reach and influence in the international digital payments sphere.

Google Pay’s alliance with NPCI marks a strategic move to propel UPI onto the global stage, benefiting Indian travelers with simplified international payments and aiding the development of similar digital payment infrastructures worldwide. The enthusiasm expressed by NIPL’s CEO underscores the transformative potential of interoperable digital infrastructure, while the Indian government’s initiatives, under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership, continue to drive UPI’s international expansion. The impressive transaction volumes in November highlight UPI’s current significance, with the collaboration set to enhance its impact in the global digital payments landscape.

Blooming BRICS: Former White House Economist Warns of Dollar’s Growing Challenge

The US dollar could encounter a formidable challenge from BRICS countries due to their expanding size and influence in global trade, warns former White House economist Joe Sullivan.

Sullivan, in a recent op-ed for Foreign Policy, highlighted the rising concerns that BRICS nations might introduce a currency to rival the US dollar in international trade. This potential currency could potentially displace the dollar from its current dominant position in global trade markets and as the primary reserve currency.

Although BRICS officials have denied the existence of such a rival currency, Sullivan cautioned that the bloc of emerging market countries, which has recently welcomed Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, poses a threat to the greenback based on its growing influence.

Sullivan also pointed out the substantial influence of the BRICS bloc in commodities markets. Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates are among the world’s leading exporters of fossil fuels, while Brazil, China, and Russia are significant exporters of precious metals.

The inclusion of Saudi Arabia, in particular, could provide BRICS+ with a significant advantage, as the Middle Eastern nation holds over $100 billion in US Treasury bonds, contributing to the total holdings of US Treasurys by BRICS countries surpassing $1 trillion, according to Sullivan.

Sullivan argued, “The BRICS+ nations do not need to wait until a shared trade currency meets the technical conditions typical of a global reserve currency before they swing their newly enlarged economic wrecking ball at the dollar.”

He also highlighted the growing prominence of China’s yuan in global trade, as Beijing’s trading partners increasingly use the renminbi.

Sullivan further warned that these trends could eventually place the US dollar in a position similar to that of the British pound in the 1800s when it lost its international dominance.

He explained, “The BRICS+ states do not even necessarily need to have a shared trade currency to chip away at King Dollar’s domain. If BRICS+ demanded that you pay each member in its own national currency to trade with any of them, the dollar’s role in the world economy would diminish. There would not be a clear replacement for the dollar as a global reserve. A variety of currencies would gain in importance.”

However, some economists hold a different view, suggesting that the US dollar’s role as the world’s primary trading and reserve currency will likely persist for an extended period. The data from the Bank of International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund show that the greenback continues to outperform rival currencies in international trade and central bank reserves by a significant margin. The yuan has only recently made modest gains in central banks’ holdings.

The Top Economies in the World(1980-2075)

As per a new report from Goldman Sachs, the equilibrium of worldwide financial power is projected to move decisively in the next few decades.

In the realistic above, we’ve made a knock diagram that gives a verifiable and prescient outline of the world’s best 15 economies at a few achievements: 1980, 2000, 2022, and Goldman Sachs projections for 2050 and 2075.

Projections and Features for 2050

Rank Country Real GDP in 2050 (USD trillions)
1  China $41.9
2  US $37.2
3  India $22.2
4  Indonesia $6.3
5  Germany $6.2
6  Japan $6.0
7  UK $5.2
8  Brazil $4.9
9  France $4.6
10  Russia $4.5
11  Mexico $4.2
12  Egypt $3.5
13  Saudi Arabia $3.5
14  Canada $3.4
15  Nigeria $3.4

The accompanying table shows the extended top economies on the planet for 2050. All figures address genuine Gross domestic product projections, in light of 2021 USD.

A significant subject of the beyond a very long while has been China and India’s inconceivable development. For example, somewhere in the range of 2000 and 2022, India bounced eight spots to turn into the fifth biggest economy, outperforming the UK and France.

By 2050, Goldman Sachs accepts that the heaviness of worldwide Gross domestic product will move significantly more towards Asia. While this is somewhat because of Asia beating past figures, it is additionally because of BRICS countries failing to meet expectations.

Prominently, Indonesia will turn into the fourth greatest economy by 2050, outperforming Brazil and Russia as the biggest developing business sector. Indonesia is the world’s biggest archipelagic state, and right now has the fourth biggest populace at 277 million.

The Top Economies On the planet in 2075

The accompanying table incorporates the fundamental numbers for 2075. Yet again figures address genuine Gross domestic product projections, in light of 2021 USD.

Rank Country Real GDP in 2075 (USD trillions)
1  China $57.0
2  India $52.5
3  US $51.5
4  Indonesia $13.7
5  Nigeria $13.1
6  Pakistan $12.3
7  Egypt $10.4
8  Brazil $8.7
9  Germany $8.1
10  UK $7.6
11  Mexico $7.6
12  Japan $7.5
13  Russia $6.9
14  Philippines $6.6
15  France $6.5

Projecting further to 2075 uncovers a radically unique world request, with Nigeria, Pakistan, and Egypt breaking into the main 10. A significant thought in these evaluations is quick populace development, which ought to bring about a huge workforce across each of the three countries.

In the mean time, European economies will keep on slipping further down the rankings. Germany, which was once the world’s third biggest economy, will sit at 10th behind Brazil.

It ought to likewise be noticed that China, India, and the U.S. are supposed to have comparative GDPs at this point, recommending fairly equivalent monetary power. Accordingly, how these countries decide to draw in with each other is probably going to shape the worldwide scene in manners that have sweeping ramifications.

Student Loan Repayments Set to Resume with Potential Debt Forgiveness, New Repayment Plan, and Loan Servicer Changes

Following a hiatus of over three years, federal student loan payments are set to resume in the coming months. The recent debt ceiling agreement, signed into law by President Joe Biden, includes a clause that effectively ends the suspension of federal student loan repayments and may make it more difficult for the U.S. Department of Education to prolong the pause. Consequently, around 40 million Americans carrying education debt can expect their next payment due in September.

During the pandemic, the Biden administration has been actively revamping the federal student loan system. As borrowers return to repayment, they may encounter several modifications either already implemented or in the pipeline. Here are three notable changes:

Potential lower payments due to forgiveness

In August, President Biden introduced a groundbreaking proposal to eliminate $10,000 in student debt for tens of millions of Americans, or up to $20,000 for those who received a Pell Grant during their college years. However, legal challenges led to the closure of the application portal within a month.

The Supreme Court is currently reviewing two lawsuits against the plan, with a ruling expected by the end of the month. If approved, around 14 million individuals, or one-third of federal student loan borrowers, would have their entire balances forgiven, according to higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

These borrowers “likely won’t have to make a student loan payment again,” he said. For those with remaining balances, the Education Department plans to “re-amortize” their debts, recalculating monthly payments based on the reduced amount and remaining repayment timeline.

A new income-driven repayment option

The Biden administration is developing a more affordable repayment plan for student loan borrowers. This new program, called the Revised Pay as You Earn Repayment Plan, would require borrowers to contribute 5% of their discretionary income toward undergraduate loans, instead of the current 10%.

According to Kantrowitz, this revamped plan could significantly reduce monthly payments for many borrowers. The payment plan is expected to become available by July 2024, but it may be implemented earlier if circumstances permit.

A new servicer handling loans

During the pandemic, several prominent federal student loan servicers, including Navient, Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (also known as FedLoan), and Granite State, announced they would no longer manage these loans. Consequently, around 16 million borrowers will likely have a different company handling their loans when payments resume.

Kantrowitz warned that “whenever there is a change of loan servicer, there can be problems transferring borrower data.” Borrowers should be prepared for potential glitches and will receive multiple notices about the change in lender, according to Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance. If a payment is mistakenly sent to the old servicer, it should be forwarded to the new one.

Top Battery Stocks Set to Thrive as Global EV Demand Skyrockets and Lithium Prices Rebound

Leading battery stocks are set to stand out as the demand for electric vehicles surges. The International Energy Agency predicts that one in every five cars globally will be electric this year, significantly impacting EV battery demand.

In fact, Fortune Business Insights estimates that the global EV battery market could expand from $37.9 billion in 2021 to nearly $98.9 billion by 2029, benefiting these three battery stocks.

Albemarle (ALB)

A prime investment opportunity in the electric vehicle battery boom lies in lithium stocks, such as Albemarle (NYSE:ALB). Firstly, the company announced a $1.3 billion investment in a new lithium hydroxide plant in South Carolina to address battery demand. Secondly, the facility is expected to generate around 50,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium, with the capacity to double production.

Thirdly, this output could facilitate the manufacturing of 2.4 million electric vehicles annually. Adding to the potential growth, lithium prices are recovering. Citigroup analysts even suggest that the downturn in lithium prices may have ended, with an anticipated increase of up to 40% by year-end.

Furthermore, Albemarle has now partnered with Ford, providing battery-grade lithium hydroxide for the automaker’s EVs. Under the agreement, Albemarle will supply over 100,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide to power roughly 3 million future Ford EV batteries. The five-year supply contract commences in 2026 and runs through 2030.

Solid Power

Although the chart might not look promising, Solid Power (NASDAQ:SLDP) should not be dismissed. Needham analysts recently reinstated their buy rating for the stock with a $5 price target, referring to SLDP as a “well-funded call option.” Solid Power is also working to strengthen its partnership with BMW (OTCMKTS:BMWYY) through a joint development agreement, which contributed to the company’s $3.8 million revenue in Q1 2023, an increase of $1.6 million YoY.

Moreover, the company has two significant milestones this year: anticipated improvements in key cell performance metrics and the expected delivery of EV cells to partners by late 2023.

Amplify Lithium & Battery Technology ETF (BATT)

With a 0.59% expense ratio, the Amplify Lithium & Battery Technology ETF (NYSEARCA:BATT) offers investors access to international companies involved in lithium battery technology.

As lithium prices recover, the BATT ETF is also gaining momentum. In fact, with the aggressive increase in lithium prices, the BATT ETF has risen from a recent low of $11.60 to $12.59 per share. Moving forward, it would be ideal for the BATT ETF to retest the $14 per share mark.

Report Reveals Staggering Disparity Among Global Top 1%: Monaco Tops the List, India Ranks 22nd

Many people associate wealth with owning a luxurious home, an extravagant car, and other valuable possessions. However, the top one per cent of the world’s wealthiest individuals possess far more than most can fathom.

Global real estate consulting firm Knight Frank recently published its updated Wealth Report, which discloses the amount of wealth required to become part of the elite one per cent in various countries. Monaco leads the pack, where entering the top tier necessitates a net worth of at least eight figures. According to Knight Frank’s findings, the starting point for Monaco’s wealthiest one per cent is $12.4 million.

Wondering about India? The country ranks 22nd on the list of 25 nations featured in the wealth report, with a minimum requirement of $175,000 (Rs 1.44 crore) to join the top one per cent. India places higher than South Africa, the Philippines, and Kenya.

Knight Frank’s 2022 report highlights that the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals in India grew by 11 per cent, driven by thriving equity markets and a digital revolution. Among Asian countries, Singapore boasts the highest entry threshold, with $3.5 million needed to join the top one per cent, slightly ahead of Hong Kong’s $3.4 million.

Forbes’ 2023 list of billionaires includes 169 Indians, up from 166 the previous year. Mukesh Ambani retains his title as the richest person in both India and Asia, despite an eight per cent decrease in his wealth over the past year.

Knight Frank’s findings emphasize how the pandemic and rising living expenses have exacerbated the divide between affluent and impoverished nations. The entry-level for Monaco’s wealthiest is over 200 times greater than the $57,000 required to be part of the top one percent in the Philippines, which ranks among the lowest in Knight Frank’s study.

IRS To Launch Free Online Tax-Filing System

The IRS has revealed plans to initiate a trial of a complimentary, direct online tax-filing system for the 2024 tax season. This decision is based on significant taxpayer interest and a relatively low cost associated with the system.

In their eagerly awaited report, the IRS disclosed that they have developed a prototype system which will be introduced through a pilot program. The program will involve a limited number of taxpayers and offer restricted functionality, enabling the Treasury Department to assess how users engage with the system, according to IRS and Treasury officials.

Laurel Blatchford, who leads the Treasury Department’s office responsible for implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, stated, “Dozens of other countries have provided free tax-filing options to their citizens, and American taxpayers who want to file their taxes for free online should have an acceptable option.”

The Inflation Reduction Act increased IRS funding by $80 billion and mandated the agency to evaluate the feasibility of a direct tax-filing system. If implemented, this program could potentially allow taxpayers to prepare and submit their taxes without relying on popular tax preparation companies, which have invested millions to oppose similar proposals in the past.

IRS considers revamping tax filing process

The IRS has identified a strong demand for a complimentary tax-filing service, now referred to as “Direct File.” Laurel Blatchford mentioned, “Seventy percent of the public is interested in a free option deployed by the IRS, so we think there will be excitement there.” The Treasury Department’s decision to proceed with the pilot program was influenced by evident taxpayer interest.

An IRS-conducted survey revealed that 72 percent of taxpayers expressed high or moderate interest in using the direct file service. Additionally, 68 percent of those who prepare their returns stated they would be highly or moderately likely to switch to the IRS’s free online tool.

Significant impact with minimal expected cost

The report estimates the direct file system’s cost to be only a small portion of the $80 billion budget increase the IRS obtained through the Inflation Reduction Act, most of which is designated for enhanced enforcement capabilities. The report found that “Annual costs of Direct File may range from $64 million (assuming 5 million users and a narrow scope of covered tax situations) to $249 million (assuming 25 million users and a broad scope of covered tax situations).”

Funding for this initiative will be sourced from the IRS’s technology and products budget, as well as its customer support budget. IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel also suggested that systems modernization funds allocated in the Inflation Reduction Act could be utilized to strengthen the system.

Understanding Direct File

The report suggests that taxpayers’ confidence in using the IRS system stems from the fact that the IRS already has access to their personal information. However, Danny Werfel, the IRS Commissioner, stated that the direct file prototype would not likely utilize pre-populated forms to further automate interactions with government software, explaining, “Given that it will be limited in scope, we do not expect pre-population or predetermining tax obligations to be part of it.”

This implies that the prototype software will likely adopt a question-and-answer format, similar to many commercial software options, as indicated by the IRS’s recent strategic operating plan for its expanded budget.

Direct File eligibility

Tuesday’s report outlines various scenarios that the Direct File system could accommodate, ranging from basic wage income taxed with the standard deduction to more complex situations involving state returns. Werfel mentioned that the pilot program would further determine the specific taxpayer cases that could utilize the system.

With nearly 90% of all filers using the standard deduction and wages and salaries being taxed at 99% compliance, the Direct File system might handle the majority of common tax situations. This has led to recommendations for a direct file option from the Government Accountability Office, the National Taxpayer Advocate, and numerous tax experts over the years.

Since the early 2000s, the IRS’s Free File program, an agreement between the IRS and a group of private tax preparation companies, has offered free commercial software to lower-income individuals. However, only a small percentage of eligible taxpayers have used it, resulting in accusations of deceit and a $141 million settlement paid by TurboTax maker Intuit to taxpayers across nine states.

Lawmakers’ opinions on IRS e-filing

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) wrote a letter to Werfel this week, encouraging the adoption of an e-filing program and stating, “The IRS established the free e-filing program in 2003, but it did so in partnership with major tax preparation software companies that frequently mislead taxpayers into paying for their services.”

Werfel recently asserted that his agency has the legal authority to proceed with the report’s conclusions, despite opposition from Senate Finance Committee Republicans. He also mentioned being open to other legal interpretations if questions about authority arise.

Both Republican and Democratic administrations have supported the idea of more direct tax filing methods in the past. Kitty Richards, former director of State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, highlighted proposals from Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush for voluntary return-free systems and an easy, no-cost online filing option, respectively. However, she noted that the tax preparation industry recognized the threat a free government tax preparation and filing process would pose to their profits.

Global Economies Seek to Break Free from US Dollar Dominance

Nations worldwide are embarking on an irreversible course to break away from the US dollar, according to seasoned investment expert Matthew Piepenburg. In a recent interview at the Deutsche Goldmesse conference with the Soar Financially YouTube channel, Piepenburg, partner at emerging markets-focused Matterhorn Asset Management, claims that major economies are now evidently trying to distance themselves from dollar dominance.

He asserts that the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes are driving countries like China and Russia to adopt settlement systems that don’t depend on the USD. In addition to China and Russia, both members of the BRICS coalition, Piepenburg reveals that 41 other nations are following suit, possibly concerned about how the US has treated Russia during its conflict with Ukraine.

Piepenburg explains, “So when that dollar gets higher, because Powell is raising the rates, that becomes more onerous and painful for the rest of the world and they begin to break ranks.” He further adds, “Asia in general, China and Russia in particular are very big rank-breaking nations. And, of course, they’re bringing 41 other countries alongside to have trade settlements outside the US dollar.”

The BRICS group, representing the economically-aligned nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, is considering launching a global currency that does not rely on the US dollar. Several nations reportedly want to participate, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Egypt, Bahrain, Indonesia, two unnamed East African countries, and one from West Africa.

While Piepenburg doesn’t foresee the yuan or any other currency replacing the dollar as the world reserve currency in the near future, he does identify a “clear trend” of countries worldwide bypassing the dollar as the primary, trusted medium of trade. He concludes, “The clear trend of breaking ranks with the US dollar as a trusted, reliable, dependable trade currency and payment system is now I think irrevocable.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) advises against using sugar substitutes for weight loss, as new guidelines reveal that non-sugar sweeteners (NSS) do not provide long-term benefits in reducing body fat for adults or children. Francesco Branca, director of WHO’s Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, stated, “Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners does not help people control their weight long-term.” The guidance applies to everyone except those with preexisting diabetes.

While the review identified potential undesirable effects from long-term sugar substitute use, such as a mildly increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, Branca clarified that the recommendation doesn’t comment on the safety of consumption. He added, “What this guideline says is that if we’re looking for reduction of obesity, weight control or risk of noncommunicable diseases, that is unfortunately something science been unable to demonstrate.”

The Deadline Looms For Debt Ceiling

The US federal government is on the brink of being unable to make debt payments, and it’s up to Congress to vote on raising the nation’s borrowing cap, also known as the debt limit. However, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Biden are currently at odds over Republican demands to link the debt limit to spending caps and other policy requirements. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has cautioned that the country could exhaust its borrowing authority by June 1, leaving little time for negotiators to reach a consensus.

In a recent meeting with McCarthy, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Biden aimed to find a way forward. Although they didn’t reach an agreement, staff-level discussions continue in an attempt to avert default.

Debt ceiling

You might have some questions about the debt ceiling and the ongoing debate. The debt ceiling, or debt limit, is a restriction on the amount of debt the federal government can accumulate. As Jason Furman, a former economic advisor to President Obama and current economics professor at Harvard, explains, “It used to be that every time you did a Treasury auction where you borrowed, Congress would pass a new law just for that one auction.” However, in 1917, during World War I, Congress opted for a more streamlined approach, allowing the government to borrow up to a specified amount before needing to request an increase. Since 1960, Congress has raised or suspended the debt limit 78 times, according to the Treasury Department.

How do experts know when the government has really run out of funds?

Picture : NBC

Experts determine when the government is nearing its funding limit by examining expected tax revenue, the timing of those payments arriving in Treasury accounts, and scheduled debt payments. This analysis helps establish a timeframe, referred to as an X-Date, when the debt authority might be depleted.

Nonetheless, the Treasury Department has several options, known as extraordinary measures, to prevent default. These measures involve reallocating investments and using accounting techniques to redistribute funds. The federal government technically reached the debt limit in January, but these extraordinary measures have maintained payment flows since then. While experts cannot pinpoint an exact date for when funds will be exhausted, they can estimate a general range, which currently falls between early June and potentially as late as July or August.

Why is there a fight over it?

Debt has generally been viewed unfavorably in American politics, and lawmakers often hesitate to be seen as endorsing more federal borrowing or spending. Additionally, they tend to attach unrelated priorities to must-pass legislation, making the debt limit a prime target for political disputes.

As Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, explains, “Everybody uses [bills to increase] the debt ceiling for their favorite policies.” The real issue arises when discussions about defaulting become more serious. Historically, votes to raise the debt limit were relatively uneventful; however, the situation changed in 2011 when the US came dangerously close to default.

Mark Zandi, an analyst at Moody’s Analytics, notes that while there have been previous political battles over the debt, none were as risky or significant as the 2011 conflict. At that time, Republican House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and President Obama were in a standoff over spending. Republicans demanded deep spending cuts and caps on future spending growth, while Obama insisted on raising the debt limit without any extraneous policies – a clean increase.

Ultimately, Congress reached an agreement to increase the debt limit along with caps on future spending, but not before Standard & Poor’s downgraded the nation’s debt for the first time in history. Today’s situation bears a striking resemblance to the 2011 political struggle, raising serious concerns about the possibility of a default.

What could happen if it’s not raised?

If the debt ceiling is not raised, the Treasury Department would be unable to fulfill its due payments, resulting in a default. This would occur regardless of the type or size of the missed payment.

Some Republicans have proposed a system called payment prioritization, in which certain debts are selected for repayment. However, this would require Congress to pass new legislation, which is politically improbable. Moreover, most experts believe that implementing such a system could be practically unfeasible, and it is not currently being considered as a serious solution.

Has the U.S. ever failed to make these debt payments?

No, the U.S. has never failed to make its debt payments. This reliability is a significant reason why the federal government can easily sell Treasury bonds to investors worldwide and why the U.S. dollar is one of the most trusted currencies.

As MacGuineas points out, “Treasuries are the debt vehicle that are most trusted in the entire world, even if there is an economic crisis that originated in the U.S., people come and buy treasuries because they trust them.” If that trust is jeopardized due to a default or missed interest payment, the U.S. would likely struggle to regain its previous status as the world’s most trusted debtor.

Would capping or cutting spending now resolve the problem?

No, capping or cutting spending now would not resolve the problem, as the debt limit pertains to money already spent due to laws previously passed by Congress. Furman emphasizes that “this borrowing isn’t some unilateral thing that President Biden wants to do… It is in order to accomplish what Congress told him to accomplish.”

Some of the current debt accumulation even results from laws enacted under former presidents, such as Donald Trump. Spending caps and other changes proposed by House Republicans are separate policies designed to address future debt accumulation rather than the immediate need to raise the debt limit.

What else could be affected by a default?

The possibility of a U.S. default may result in a domino effect of negative outcomes across the worldwide financial landscape. The nation’s credit rating could suffer long-term damage, diminishing the value of U.S. treasuries and making it a less attractive investment destination. MacGuineas expressed deep concern, stating, “I am truly concerned there is an actual chance of default and that is so dangerous and such a sign that the U.S. is not able to govern itself in a way that is functioning.”

Zandi cautioned that the fallout might extend beyond merely investment and borrowing rates. He advised, “Don’t worry about your stock portfolio, worry about your job,” emphasizing the potential loss of employment and increased unemployment rates. He added, “This will certainly push us and, you know, it’s going to be about layoffs. Stock portfolios will be the least of people’s worries.”

Furman compared the potential crisis to the 2008 financial meltdown caused by Lehman Brothers Bank’s collapse, suggesting it could be even more severe. “It could be worse than Lehman Brothers, where everyone basically demands their money back because they don’t believe the collateral anymore,” he explained. “And you have the equivalent of a run on the global financial system.”

Is default the same thing as a shutdown?

Default and shutdown are not the same thing. A government shutdown transpires when Congress does not pass annual spending bills before the fiscal year concludes on September 30. Although these two matters may be connected at times, this is because legislators have, on occasion, deliberately synchronized the debt limit extension with the end of the fiscal year to prompt more comprehensive spending debates in conjunction with debt authorization.

Are there other ways this problem could be fixed, aside from just increasing the debt limit?

Apart from merely raising the debt limit, there are alternative solutions to address the issue, as the existing process is widely considered ineffective. MacGuineas from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget believes that while Congress should reassess debt and spending priorities, the current debt limit mechanism fails to compel them to make decisions. She stated, “The debt ceiling is a terrible way to try to impose fiscal responsibility,” describing it as a “dumb approach.”

Instead, MacGuineas proposes a system where the debt limit is increased in line with the passage of legislation by Congress. Some economists have even suggested eliminating the debt limit entirely.

Other less conventional ideas involve minting a $1 trillion platinum coin to cover the debt or elevating the limit to such an extent that subsequent debates would be postponed for years or even decades.

India Phases Out ₹2,000 Notes, Sets September 30 Deadline for Exchange

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced its decision to phase out ₹ 2,000 notes and has set a deadline of September 30 for people to exchange or deposit them in their bank accounts. Starting May 23, the RBI’s 19 regional offices and other banks will accept ₹ 2,000 notes in exchange for lower denomination currency. It is important to note that these notes will continue to be considered legal tender, as stated by the RBI.

The RBI has instructed all banks to cease issuing ₹ 2,000 notes with immediate effect.

The introduction of the ₹ 2,000 note took place in November 2016 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sudden demonetization move, which rendered high-value ₹ 1,000 and ₹ 500 notes invalid overnight.

The RBI explained its decision, stating, “The purpose of introducing ₹ 2,000 banknotes was fulfilled once banknotes of other denominations became sufficiently available. Consequently, the printing of ₹ 2,000 banknotes was discontinued in 2018-19.”

To ensure convenience and minimize disruption to regular banking operations, the RBI has allowed the exchange of ₹ 2,000 notes for lower denomination notes, up to a limit of ₹ 20,000 at a time, at any bank beginning May 23, 2023. This facility will be available until September 30, allowing individuals to either exchange or deposit their ₹ 2,000 notes.

Sources informed NDTV that the RBI might extend the deadline beyond September 30 if necessary. However, even after the current deadline, ₹ 2,000 notes will remain valid as legal tender.

The RBI highlighted that approximately 89% of ₹ 2,000 denomination banknotes were issued before March 2017 and are reaching the end of their expected lifespan of four to five years. The total value of these notes in circulation decreased from ₹ 6.73 lakh crore at its peak on March 31, 2018 (comprising 37.3% of the currency in circulation) to ₹ 3.62 lakh crore, representing only 10.8% of the currency in circulation as of March 31, 2023.

The central bank emphasized that the ₹ 2,000 note is not commonly used for transactions. Similar measures were taken by the RBI in 2013-2014 when certain notes were phased out of circulation.

How America Sustains High Deficits Without Economic Collapse

The United States has consistently maintained a high trade deficit for decades, raising questions about how the country manages to avoid economic repercussions that typically accompany such imbalances. This article delves into the factors that enable the US to sustain these high deficits without experiencing financial collapse.

Picture : The Blance

One of the primary reasons the US can maintain high trade deficits is the dominance of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Central banks across the globe hold their foreign exchange reserves in dollars, contributing to the currency’s stability and demand. This status allows the US to run persistent trade deficits without causing a depreciation in its currency value.

Another factor that enables the US to support high trade deficits is the inflow of foreign investments. International investors view the US as a safe haven for their capital due to the country’s strong and stable economy. These investments help finance the trade deficit by providing an influx of foreign funds, which offsets the negative effects of the deficit on the US economy.

The US economy is driven primarily by domestic consumption, which accounts for approximately 70% of its GDP. This strong demand for goods and services helps offset the trade deficit by creating a robust market for imports. As a result, the US can continue importing goods from other countries without significantly harming its own industries.

The US is a global leader in innovation and technological advancements, which contribute to the country’s overall economic strength. These innovations attract foreign investments and facilitate the export of high-value goods and services, such as software, pharmaceutical products, and aerospace technology. This, in turn, helps to mitigate the impact of the trade deficit on the US economy.

The US government’s fiscal policies also play a role in managing the trade deficit. By implementing policies that promote economic growth, the government can stimulate demand for goods and services. Additionally, the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policies influence interest rates and the money supply, which can impact the trade deficit indirectly.

Despite maintaining a high trade deficit, the United States has managed to avoid the economic pitfalls often associated with such imbalances. Factors such as the US dollar’s status as a global reserve currency, foreign investment, strong domestic demand, innovation, and government fiscal policies all contribute to the country’s ability to sustain these deficits. However, it is essential to continue monitoring the trade deficit and its potential long-term impacts on the US economy.

Turbotax Customers Can Claim $141M Settlement Money

(AP) — Millions of Americans who qualified for free tax services — but were instead deceived into paying TurboTax for their returns — will soon get settlement checks in the mail.

In a settlement last year, TurboTax’s owner Intuit Inc. was ordered to pay $141 million to some 4.4 million people across the country. Those impacted were low-income consumers eligible for free, federally-supported tax services — but paid TurboTax to file their federal returns across the 2016, 2017 and 2018 tax years due to “predatory and deceptive marketing,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia signed the May 2022 settlement, which was led by James.

Consumers eligible for restitution payments do not need to file a claim, the New York Attorney’s General Office said Thursday. They will be notified by an email from Rust Consulting, the settlement fund administrator, and receive a check automatically.

Checks will be mailed starting next week, and continue through the month of May. The amount paid to each eligible consumer ranges from $29 to $85 — depending on the number of tax years they qualify for.

“TurboTax’s predatory and deceptive marketing cheated millions of low-income Americans who were trying to fulfill their legal duties to file their taxes,” James said in a Thursday statement. “Today we are righting that wrong and putting money back into the pockets of hardworking taxpayers who should have never paid to file their taxes.”

At the time of the May 2022 settlement, James said her investigation into Intuit was sparked by a 2019 ProPublica report that found the company was using deceptive tactics to steer low-income tax filers away from the free, federal services they qualified for — and toward its own commercial products instead.

Under the terms of last year’s settlement, Intuit Inc. agreed to suspend TurboTax’s “free, free, free” ad campaign. According to documents obtained by ProPublica, Intuit executives were aware of the impact of advertising free services that were actually not free for everyone.

“The website lists Free, Free, Free and the customers are assuming their return will be free,” an internal company PowerPoint presentation said, per ProPublica. “Customers are getting upset.”

When contacted by The Associated Press on Friday, Inuit pointed to the company’s May 2022 statement following the settlement agreement.

“Intuit is pleased to have reached a resolution with the state attorneys general that will ensure the company can return our focus to providing vital services to American taxpayers today and in the future,” Kerry McLean, Intuit’s executive vice president and general counsel, said at the time.

Biden Administration Warns About Growing Risks Of Medical Loans And Medical Credit Cards

The Biden administration has issued a warning to Americans concerning the financial risks associated with medical credit cards and other loans for medical bills. In a recent report, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) estimated that Americans paid $1 billion in deferred interest on medical credit cards and other medical financing between 2018 and 2020. The agency found that interest payments can increase medical bills by almost 25 percent, which can deepen patients’ debts and threaten their financial security.

CFPB’s Director, Rohit Chopra, stated that “lending outfits are designing costly loan products to peddle to patients looking to make ends meet on their medical bills. These new forms of medical debt can create financial ruin for individuals who get sick.” Nationally, KFF Health News found that approximately 100 million people, including 41 percent of adults, have healthcare debt. This large scale problem is feeding a multibillion-dollar patient financing business, with private equity and big banks looking to capitalize on the situation when patients and their families are unable to pay for care. The profit margins in the patient financing industry top 29 percent, according to research firm IBISWorld, which is seven times what is considered a solid hospital profit margin.

One of the most prominent financing options is credit cards like CareCredit offered by Synchrony Bank which is often marketed in physician and dentist waiting rooms to help pay off medical bills. These cards typically offer a promotional period where patients pay no interest, but if the patient missed a payment or could not pay off the loan during the promotional period, they could face interest rates that rise as high as 27 percent, according to the CFPB. Patients are also increasingly drawn into loans administered by financing companies such as AccessOne.

These loans, which often replace no-interest instalment plans that hospitals once commonly offered, can add hundreds or thousands of dollars in interest to the debts patients owe. Hospital and finance industry officials insist that they take care to educate patients about the risks of taking out loans with interest rates. However, federal regulators have found that many patients remain confused about the terms of the loans.

According to the CFPB, the risks are particularly high for lower-income borrowers and those with poor credit. About a quarter of people with a low credit score who signed up for a deferred-interest medical loan were unable to pay it off before interest rates jumped. By contrast, just 10% of borrowers with excellent credit failed to avoid the high interest rates. Regulators found that many patients remained confused about the terms of the loans and that patients often didn’t fully understand the products’ terms and found themselves in crippling financing arrangements.

Despite this, the new CFPB report does not recommend new sanctions against lenders. The study cautioned that the system still traps many patients in damaging financing arrangements. It also stated that “consumers complain that these products offer confusion and hardship rather than benefit, as claimed by the companies offering these products.” The report concluded that “many people would be better off without these products.”

The growth of patient financing products pose risks to low-income patients. Patients should be offered financial assistance to pay large medical bills, but instead, they are funnelled into credit cards, debt consolidations or personal loans that pile interest on top of medical bills they cannot afford.

An investigation conducted by KFF Health News with NPR explored the scale and impact of the nation’s medical debt crisis. They found that 41% of adults have some form of healthcare debt. In the patient financing industry, profit margins are over 29%, which is nearly 7x higher than what is considered to be a solid hospital profit margin. A UNC Health public records analysis found that after AccessOne began administering payment plans for the system’s patients, the percentage of people paying interest on their bills increased from 9% to 46%.

According to the CFPB, “Patients appear not to fully understand the terms of the products and sometimes end up with credit they’re unable to afford.” Federal regulators warned that patient financing products pose another risk to low-income patients. They should be offered financial assistance with large medical bills, but instead, they are being routed into credit cards or loans that pile interest on top of medical bills they cannot afford.

Medical credit cards and other loans for medical bills can deepen patients’ debts and threaten their financial security. The number of people with healthcare debts is increasing, and many patients remain confused about the terms of the loans. Profit margins in the patient financing industry are high, and patients are often funnelled into credit cards rather than offered financial assistance with large medical bills. This can lead to confusion and financial ruin for those who get sick. The report concluded that “many people would be better off without these products.”

Warnings Of Potential Cash Shortage By June 1st, If Debt Ceiling Not Raised

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has issued a warning that the United States could run out of cash by 1 June if Congress fails to raise or suspend the debt ceiling. The country reaching the debt ceiling means the government would be unable to borrow any further money. On Monday, Yellen urged Congress to act quickly to address the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling. In response, President Joe Biden has called a meeting of congressional leaders to discuss the issue on May 9th.

The debt ceiling has been raised, extended, or revised 78 times since 1960. However, in this instance, House Republicans are demanding drastic spending cuts and a reversal of some aspects of President Biden’s agenda, including his student loan forgiveness program and green energy tax credits, in exchange for votes to raise the debt ceiling. This has resulted in objections from Democrats in the Senate and from President Biden himself, who stated last week that the issue is “not negotiable.”

The president is coming under increasing pressure from business groups, including the US Chamber of Congress, to discuss Republican proposals. A default, which would be the first in US history, could disrupt global financial markets and damage trust in the US as a global business partner. Experts have warned that it could also lead to a recession and rising unemployment. It would also mean that the US would be unable to borrow money to pay the salaries of government employees and military personnel, social security checks, or other obligations such as defense contractor payments.

In addition, even weather forecasts could be impacted, as many rely on data from the federally-funded National Weather Service. In a letter to members of Congress, Yellen stated that “We have learned from past debt limit impasses that waiting until the last minute to suspend or increase the debt limit can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise short-term borrowing costs for taxpayers, and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States.”

Yellen added that it is impossible to know for sure when exactly the US will run out of cash. Her announcement came on the same day as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that there is a “significantly greater risk that the Treasury will run out of funds in early June.” The CBO report said that “The projected exhaustion date remains uncertain, however, because the timing and amount of revenue collections and outlays over the coming weeks are difficult to predict.”

The Treasury plans to increase borrowing through the end of the quarter ending in June, totalling about $726 billion – about $449 billion more than projected earlier this year. Officials have said that this is partly due to lower-than-expected income tax receipts, higher government spending, and a beginning-of-quarter cash balance that was lower than anticipated.

In a joint statement, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that the US “does not have the luxury of waiting until June 1 to come together, pass a clean bill to avoid a default and prevent catastrophic consequences for our economy and millions of American families.” The statement also accused Republicans of attempting to impose their “radical agenda” on America.

On the Republican side, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy accused President Biden of “refusing to do his job” and “threatening to bumble our nation into its first-ever default.” He further stated that “The clock is ticking… The Senate and the President need to get to work — and soon.”

In another letter sent to members of Congress in January, Yellen stated that the Treasury Department had begun “extraordinary measures” to avoid a government default. It is important to resolve this issue as soon as possible to avoid negative consequences for the US economy and its citizens.

GOP-Led Congress Passes “Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023”

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, April 26, 2023 passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 as the debt ceiling debate continues in the nation’s capital. House speaker Kevin McCarthy introduced the legislation on April 19, which would “limit federal spending, save taxpayer dollars,” and “grow the economy.”

The legislation passed 217-215. Four Republicans voted against the bill, which did not get a single vote from a Democrat.

The vote allows the US to raise the nation’s debt limit for one year and limit federal spending growth to 1% annually. The plan, titled the “Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023,” would increase the debt limit by $1.5 trillion, or until March 31, 2024, whichever comes first.

McCarthy also plans to repeal key parts of Democrats’ signature legislative package and President Biden’s college student debt cancellation program. The GOP bill would also remove $80 billion that Democrats approved last year to improve the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). However, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that repealing the measure would increase the deficit.

McCarthy said on the House floor that limiting government spending would reduce inflation and restore fiscal discipline in Washington. He added that if Washington wants to spend more, it will have to find savings elsewhere, as every household in America does. McCarthy noted that Medicare and Social Security would not be impacted by the cuts. The framework also includes work requirements for adults without dependents enrolled in federal assistance programs.

According to a press release, the legislation would specifically:

  • “End the Era of Reckless Washington Spending
  • “Reclaim Unspent COVID Funds
  • “Defund Biden’s IRS Army
  • “Repeal ‘Green New Deal’ Tax Credits
  • “Prohibit [President Joe] Biden’s Student Loan Giveaway to the Wealthy
  • “Strengthen the Workforce and Reduce Childhood Poverty
  • “Prevent Executive Overreach and Restore Article I
  • “Lower Energy Costs and Utilities”

The plan also includes “a responsible debt limit increase.”

However, Democrats remain critical of any efforts to link debt ceiling negotiations to legislation that would require work requirements for those on assistance programs. David Scott, the House Agriculture Committee ranking member, said that holding food assistance hostage for those who depend on it in exchange for increasing the debt limit is a nonstarter.

The US hit its current debt limit of $31 trillion in January. The Treasury Department is employing what it refers to as extraordinary measures to essentially act as a band-aid for several months. Those measures are set to run out in early summer. Should Congress fail to raise the debt limit by then, there would be an unprecedented debt default, something that would throw worldwide financial markets into dire straits and likely lead to a recession.

In a speech, McCarthy blasted the president for not meeting with him to negotiate. The pair last met in February and remain at odds over how to address the debt limit. Biden has repeatedly said he wants to sign a clean debt limit bill. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has also said that efforts to address spending cuts “belong in the discussion about budget, not as a precondition for avoiding default.”

The proposal is likely to face opposition in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Passing the bill would require bipartisan support, which may be difficult given the current political climate. Nonetheless, McCarthy remains optimistic that the proposal will succeed.

“Limited government spending will reduce inflation and restore fiscal discipline in Washington,” McCarthy said. “If Washington wants to spend more, it will have to come together and find savings elsewhere — just like every single household in America.”

“Our plan ensures adults without dependents earn a paycheck and learn new skills,” he said. “By restoring these commonsense measures, we can help more Americans earn a paycheck, learn new skills, reduce childhood poverty and rebuild the workforce.”

“By including these radical proposals as a lever in debt limit negotiations, Speaker McCarthy and his extreme Republican colleagues are ensuring their failure,” David Scott, D-Ga., House Agriculture Committee ranking member, said of McCarthy’s proposal for work requirements.

“President Biden has a choice: Come to the table and stop playing partisan political games, or cover his ears, refuse to negotiate and risk bumbling his way into the first default in our nation’s history,” McCarthy said.

Warren Buffett Worried About Nuclear Threats And Pandemics

Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor, expressed that he is not worried about the success of his company, Berkshire Hathaway, despite current economic headwinds such as banking failures and rising interest rates. Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the 92-year-old said, “I never go to bed worried about Berkshire and how we’ll handle a thing.” He added that, at his age, he has other things to worry about, such as “the nuclear threat” and “a pandemic in the future.”

Berkshire Hathaway, under Buffett’s leadership since 1965, has become one of the world’s largest companies with a market capitalization above $707 billion. Its portfolio of investments includes Geico, Dairy Queen, Duracell, and Fruit of the Loom. Buffett’s history of optimism is well-documented, with data scientists identifying a surplus of positivity in his annual letters to shareholders.

Buffett’s investment strategy is to choose investments he believes in, regardless of their current price, and take advantage of stock drops to buy more of companies he trusts. During a volatile market period in 2016, he advised investors not to watch the market closely when stocks are down. He is known to be supremely self-confident, with “99 and a fraction percent” of his net worth invested in Berkshire, along with several family members.

When confronted with scary issues that are outside of his control, such as nuclear war or future pandemics, Buffett attempts to reduce his stress by focusing on situations and tasks that he can actually solve himself. “I worry about things nobody else worries about, but I can’t solve them all,” he said. “But anything that can be solved, I should be thinking about that.”

Regarding Berkshire’s future, Buffett has already selected the company’s next CEO, Greg Abel, who has stated that he does not plan to diverge from Buffett’s successful formula. Buffett trusts the leaders of Berkshire’s portfolio companies to make the right business decisions and expects Abel to do the same. “I am not giving [Abel] some envelope that tells him what to do next,” but Berkshire Hathaway is “so damn lucky” to have Abel taking the reins, Buffett said.

In conclusion, Warren Buffett’s optimism and confidence have helped him build and sustain one of the world’s largest companies. Despite economic headwinds, he remains unworried about the future of Berkshire Hathaway and instead focuses on things he can control. With a trusted successor in place, Buffett is confident that the company’s success will continue long after he steps down.

NITI Aayog Vice Chair Suman Bery Leads Discussion On Indian Economy In New York

The Indian Consulate in New York held a Round Table on India’s economy on April 20, 2023, which was led by India’s Vice Chairman of Niti Aayog Suman Bery, who is on a visit to the United States.

The Round Table was entitled, Indian Growth Story: Speed, Scale, and Opportunities, and it was attended by high-profile guests from the business sector such as Deepak Raj, managing director of private investment firm Raj Associates and Padma Shri recipient Dr. Sudhir Parikh, chairman of Parikh Worldwide Media.

Caption: Vice Chairman of India’s NITI Aayog Suman Bery, speaking at the Round Table on India’s economy held April 20, 2022, at the Indian Consulate in New York. PHOTO: Indian Consulate.

“It was a pleasure participating in the roundtable discussion on the Indian Growth Story: Speed, Scale and Opportunities at the Consulate General of India, New York (@IndiainNewYork) last evening,” Bery, an economist who took over at NITI last year in May, tweeted after the meeting.

The event was attended by approximately 50 corporate leaders from various sectors such as IT, technology, finance, healthcare, high-level executives, and policymakers.

Picture : The Hindu

Dr. Sudhir Parikh, chairman of Parikh Worldwide Media, asking a question at the April 20, 2023, Round Table on India’s economy with Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Suman Bery, held at the Indian Consulate in New York. Also seen are other high profile participants, as well as India’s Deputy Consul General Dr. Varun Jeph, right. PHOTO: Indian Consulate

Among the subjects discussed were the markers of India’s economic growth making it one of the world’s fastest-growing economies; elements of India’s energy transition, New Delhi’s Free Trade Agreements which give a strong push to Indian trade, India’s G20 leadership, women’s empowerment, etc.

Businessman from New Jersey Deepak Raj, addressing India’s NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery (not in picture) at the April 20, 2023, Round Table on India’s economy, held at the Indian Consulate in New York. PHOTO: Indian Consulat

The International Monetary Fund estimates India’s growth projections at 5.9 percent in 2023, and 6.3 percent in 2024, compared to the much lower World Output at 2.8 percent in and 3.0 percent, Bery noted accompanied by a visual table.

India has signed 13 Free Trade Agreements and 6 preferential pants so far with its trading partners for ensuring greater market access for domestic goods and promoting exports, Bery pointed out, with appropriated visual representations. The most recent FTAs signed are with Mauritius, UAE, and Australia.

More than 50 high- profile attendees were present at the April 20, 2023, Round Table on the Indian economy, held at the Indian Consulate in New York, with Vice Chair of India’s NITI Aayog Suman Bery. PHOTO: Indian Consulate

India is also actively engaged in FTA negotiations with countries like United Kingdom, European Union, and Canada.

India’s energy transition includes elements of – increasing electrification; higher penetration of cleaner fuels in energy mix; accelerated adoption of energy-efficient technologies; rising digitalization, among other efficiencies, Bery noted.

On the same day, April 20, Bery was the chief guest at a Student Roundtable and Lunch in Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy at the School of International and Public Affairs.

Before being appointed Vice Chair at NITI Aayog, Bery served in various capacities – Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi; a Global Fellow in the Asia Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington D.C.; and a non-resident fellow at Bruegel, an economic policy research institution in Brussels.

In 2012 until mid-2016, Bery was Shell’s Global Chief Economist, where he advised the board and management on global economic and political developments. He was also part of the senior leadership of Shell’s global scenarios group.

Prior to that, Bery served as Director-General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, one of India’s leading socioeconomic research institutions.

Bery also served at various times as a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, of India’s Statistical Commission, and of the Reserve Bank of India’s Technical Advisory Committee on Monetary Policy.

He also worked at the World Bank, engaged in research on financial sector development and country policy and strategy, focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Do The Rich Pay Their ‘Fair Share’?

Tax Day has recently passed and according to a recent Pew Research poll, Americans’ frustration with the tax code has reached its highest point in recent years. The majority of Americans, 56%, say they pay “more than their fair share” of taxes, with the number having increased from 51% from 2019.

It is also no surprise that almost two-thirds of Americans believe that the wealthy do not pay enough taxes, with 61% supporting the idea of raising taxes on households earning over $400,000. However, the definition of what constitutes a “fair share” of taxes is subjective and many Americans may not understand how much of the tax burden the rich bear.

In 2020, the top 1% of taxpayers paid $722 billion in income taxes, which accounted for 42.3% of all income taxes paid – the highest percentage in modern history. In contrast, the bottom 90% of taxpayers paid $450 billion in income taxes, or just 26.3% of the total, representing their lowest percentage of the tax burden in decades. This means that the top 1% of taxpayers pay a far greater share of the nation’s tax burden than 142 million of their neighbors combined.

Picture : Federal Budget

The wealthy do not pay a larger amount solely because they earn the most money. In 2020, the top 1% of taxpayers earned 22% of all adjusted gross income, while their 42.3% share of income taxes is nearly twice their income share. The opposite is true for the bottom 90%, who earned more than half of the nation’s income but paid only 26.3% of the taxes, representing roughly half of their share of the nation’s income. This was not the case in 1980, where the tax burden was more evenly shared. The bottom 90% earned 68% of the nation’s income and paid 52% of the income taxes, while the top 1% earned 9.6% of the nation’s income and paid 17% of the income taxes.

One of the reasons for the progressive tax system in the United States is the massive expansion of social programs delivered through the tax code over the past three decades. Many of the most significant programs aimed at lower-income families and those with children, such as the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit, are run through the IRS, which deliver roughly $180 billion in benefits each year, much of which is refundable. Since the mid-1990s, tax credits have multiplied, with credits for adoption, child care, senior care, college tuition, buying electric cars or solar panels, and buying health insurance, among other things. However, these responsibilities are beyond the capacity of a tax collection agency, making it difficult for the IRS to function.

Record numbers of taxpayers now pay no income taxes after claiming their credits and deductions, with 34% of tax filers paying no income taxes due to generous credits and deductions in the tax code. In 2019, 54 million tax filers, equal to 34%, paid no income taxes because of the tax code’s generous credits and deductions. In 1980, only 21% of tax filers paid no income taxes due to credits and deductions.

Despite politicians’ rhetoric about ensuring the fair share of taxes, the burden on top earners continues to climb. If the wealthy were indeed able to use loopholes to avoid paying taxes, many of them would need better accountants.

How Ajay Banga Could Reshape World Bank To Tackle Climate Change

World Bank shareholders are gathered in Washington this week for their annual spring meetings, while the global financial institution is poised for new leadership that could change how it approaches climate and other global crises. Business executive Ajay Banga is expected to be confirmed as the bank’s president in the coming weeks.

Richard T. Clark is a political scientist who studies policymaking at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Clark says Banga could push the World Bank to tackle climate change more aggressively in three ways, but that each approach carries risk.

Clark says:

“The World Bank is at an inflection point – Ajay Banga is slated to take over for current President David Malpass, who has been labeled a climate-skeptic by some observers. Banga, who was nominated by the United States, faces pressure to reorient the World Bank’s lending portfolio to tackle climate change more aggressively. He could do this in several ways, but each has its pitfalls.

“First, he could ask member states, who fund the organization, for additional resources, but Janet Yellen – the U.S. Treasury Secretary – said the U.S. would not back such a move. Given that the U.S. is the Bank’s largest shareholder, this makes a capital increase unlikely.

“A second option is for Banga to ease capital requirements by expanding the Bank’s lending portfolio without additional funds from member states, but this could put the Bank’s AAA credit rating at risk, especially given that many of the Bank’s debtors are experiencing debt crises of their own, limiting their ability to repay future debt.

“Third, Banga could reallocate funds traditionally offered to developing countries for poverty reduction and physical infrastructure towards climate and clean energy initiatives – for instance, lending to middle-income countries to help them transition away from coal. Unsurprisingly, the world’s poorest nations oppose such a move since it limits their ability to draw on the Fund’s resources to promote growth. More generally, developing nations have long been frustrated with the fact that the World Bank is governed primarily by rich Western countries who may put their own needs ahead of those of the developing world.”

The Rising Cyber Weapons Market Forecast, 2021-2031

Allied Market Research published a report, titled, “Cyber Weapons Market by Type (Defensive, Offensive), by Application (National Defense System, Public Utility, Automated Transportation system, Smart Power Grid, Industrial Control System, Financial System, Communication Network, Others), by End User (Government, BFSI, Corporate, Other): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2031.” According to the report, the global cyber weapons market was valued at $9.2 billion in 2021 and is estimated to generate $23.7 billion by 2031, witnessing a CAGR of 10.1% from 2022 to 2031.

The use of cyber weapons has grown significantly as the U.S. attempts to develop new tools and capacities for national security and defence. The National Security Agency (NSA) and Cyber Command are at the center of the American government’s significant investments in the creation of cyberweapons. The development of cyber weapons has been fueled by both the rise in reliance on digital infrastructure and the threat of cyberattacks from other countries, criminal groups, and other entities. The U.S. government accessed crucial data from other countries using cyber weapons.

According to Interesting Engineering, in September 2022, the U.S. National Security Agency’s (NSA) cyber-warfare unit used 41 different types of weapons to steal critical technology data from a Chinese space and aviation university. This data included the configuration of critical network equipment, network management information, and critical operational information. Specific information regarding their creation and use is not made available to the general public because the use of cyber weapons by the U.S. is highly classified. Also, it is evident that cyber weapons have grown in importance as a tool in the U.S. national security strategy, which has fueled the growth of the cyber weapons business in the country.

On the basis of application the global cyber weapons market, is segmented into national defense systems, public utility, automated transportation systems, smart power grid, industrial control systems, financial systems, communication networks, and others. The development of international trade and the improvement of living standards have been facilitated by transportation infrastructure. Communities all over the world are connecting more than ever because of huge advancements in the flow of people and things. Yet, the presence of various control systems and auxiliary systems is increasing the interconnection and complexity of transportation networks.

The use of communications and IT has increased the effectiveness and functionality of transportation networks, but it has also raised the possibility of vulnerabilities. Attacks using cyber weapons on transportation networks can take a variety of shapes and have a range of possibilities and outcomes. A popular attack method that overburdens the system and causes a denial-of-service (DoS) for the entire system is traffic redirection to the server. A different type of cyber weapon effect is the theft of personal information, which can result in the displacement of expensive and/or dangerous commodities like explosives, radioactive agents, chemical, and biological chemicals, which is problematic for the transportation industry. Terrorists might utilise these materials, if they were stolen, to make bombs and other deadly weapons. Automated transportation systems that integrate cyber weapons are used to prevent or respond to such incidents, which supports the market’s growth.

Luxury Jewelry Market Size Is Projected To Reach USD 95.8 Billion By 2030

The Global Luxury Jewelry Market is anticipated to grow at a 7.85% CAGR and is estimated to be worth USD 95.78 Billion by the end of 2030.

Luxury Jewelry is well-known for its sophisticated designs and utilization of the most precious and uncommon unrefined substances. The Luxury Jewelry Market is vigorous and quickly developing. It’s also exceptionally divided and determined by buyer conduct and style. In the nearing years, huge market development is normal, from increasing extra cash and amplifying buyer consumption of extravagant merchandise. Assimilating the luxury gems industry with diversion and allure businesses has set new open doors for the market.

One of the main points herding the Luxury Jewelry Market is boosting discretionary cash flow. When the population’s discretionary cash flow develops, so does their purchasing power, bringing about amplified interest and utilization of luxury gems. Also, the traditions embracing extravagant metals are necessary components driving the interest in extravagant adornment pieces.

Amplifying interest in men’s adornments addresses viable freedom for the development of the market over the figure time frame. Generally, ladies are more minded than men toward buying luxury gems. Be that as it may, this pattern is remodelling, inferable from expanding the focal point of men on self-grooming and graceful allure.

The Global Luxury Jewelry Market is segmented into five regions; North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa.

Europe represented the biggest portion of the global industry on the lookout, followed by North America. These areas comprise created nations with high per capita pay, just as significant luxury brands, filling the market development. Also, the high female workforce interest rate in these countries is a significant factor that adds to the development of the market. Besides, the Asia- Pacific area is expected to have a high CAGR during the estimated time frame.

Asia Pacific dominated the market for luxury jewelry and was considered for the largest revenue share of 65.4% in 2021. China and India are the two largest markets for luxury jewelry in the region. The latest styles and the requirement for high-quality jewelry among top customers are two eloquent drivers driving the market for luxury jewelry in this region.

The region is anticipated to see an increase in the popularity of online distribution. The majority of luxury jewelry is bought for special occasions or events like marriages and engagements. Further, due to continuous restrictions on international travel and the augmentation of domestic duty-free zones in China, demand from younger customers as well as those who shop domestically is anticipated to climb.

The global Luxury Jewelry Market’s prominent key players are Buccellati Holding, Italia SPA, Chopard International SA, Mikimoto & Co. Ltd., Bulgari S.P.A., Graff Diamond Corporation, Companies Financiere Richmond S.A., Tiffany & Co., Societe Cartier, Harry Winston Inc., Guccio Gucci S.P.A., Chanel, LVMH Moet Hennessy, Signet Jewellers, Cartier International SNC, Rajesh Exports Ltd.

New Leaders At World Bank And BRICS Bank Have Different Outlooks

US President Joe Biden announced that the United States had placed the nomination of Ajay Banga to be the next head of the World Bank, established in 1944. There will be no other official candidates for this job since—by convention—the US nominee is automatically selected for the post. This has been the case for the 13 previous presidents of the World Bank—the one exception was the acting president Kristalina Georgieva of Bulgaria, who held the post for two months in 2019. Georgieva is currently the managing director of the IMF.

In the official history of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), J. Keith Horsefield wrote that US authorities “considered that the Bank would have to be headed by a US citizen in order to win the confidence of the banking community, and that it would be impracticable to appoint US citizens to head both the Bank and the Fund.” By an undemocratic convention, therefore, the World Bank head was to be a US citizen and the head of the IMF was to be a European national . Therefore, Biden’s nomination of Banga guarantees his ascension to the post.

A month later, the New Development Bank’s Board of Governors—which includes representatives from Brazil, China, India, Russia, and South Africa (the BRICS countries) as well as one person to represent Bangladesh, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates—elected Brazil’s former president Dilma Rousseff to head the NDB, popularly known as the BRICS Bank.

The BRICS Bank, which was first discussed in 2012, began to operate in 2016 when it issued its first green financial bonds. There have only been three managing directors of the BRICS Bank—the first from India (K.V. Kamath) and then the next two from Brazil (Marcos Prado Troyjo and now Rousseff to finish Troyjo’s term). The president of the BRICS Bank will be elected from its members, not from just one country.

Banga comes to the World Bank, whose office is in Washington, D.C., from the world of international corporations. He spent his entire career in these multinational corporations, from his early days in India at Nestlé to his later international career at Citigroup and Mastercard. Most recently, Banga was the head of the International Chamber of Commerce, an “executive” of multinational corporations that was founded in 1919 and is based in Paris, France.

As Banga says, during his time at Citigroup, he ran its microfinance division, and, during his time at Mastercard, he made various pledges regarding the environment. Nonetheless, he has no experience in the world of development finance and investment. He told the Financial Times that he would turn to the private sector for funds and ideas. His resume is not unlike that of most US appointees to head the World Bank.

The first president of the World Bank was Eugene Meyer, who built the chemical multinational Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation (later Honeywell) and who owned the Washington Post. He too had no direct experience working on eradicating poverty or building public infrastructure. It was through the World Bank that the United States pushed an agenda to privatize public institutions. Men such as Banga have been integral to the fulfillment of that agenda.

Dilma Rousseff, meanwhile, comes to the BRICS Bank with a different resume. Her political career began in the democratic fight against the 21-year military dictatorship (1964-1985) that was inflicted on Brazil by the United States and its allies. During Lula da Silva’s two terms as president (2003-2011), Dilma Rousseff was a cabinet minister and his chief of staff.

She took charge of the Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento (Growth Acceleration Program) or PAC, which organized the anti-poverty work of the government. Because of her work in poverty eradication, Dilma became known popularly as the “mãe do PAC” (mother of PAC). A World Bank study from 2015 showed that Brazil had “succeeded in significantly reducing poverty in the last decade”; extreme poverty fell from 10 percent in 2001 to 4 percent in 2013. “[A]pproximately 25 million Brazilians escaped extreme or moderate poverty,” the report said.

This poverty reduction was not a result of privatization, but of two government schemes developed and established by Lula and Dilma: Bolsa Família (the family allowance scheme) and Brasil sem Misería (the Brazil Without Extreme Poverty plan, which helped families with employment and built infrastructure such as schools, running water, and sewer systems in low-income areas). Dilma Rousseff brings her experience in these programs, the benefits of which were reversed under her successors (Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro).

Banga, who comes from the international capital markets, will manage the World Bank’s net investment portfolio of $82.1 billion as of June 2022. There will be considerable attention to the work of the World Bank, whose power is leveraged by Washington’s authority and by its work with the International Monetary Fund’s debt-austerity lending practices.

In response to the debt-austerity practices of the IMF and the World Bank, the BRICS Health/Sciencecountries—when Dilma was president of Brazil (2011-2016)—set up institutions such as the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (as an alternative to the IMF with a $100 billion corpus) and the New Development Bank (as an alternative to the World Bank, with another $100 billion as its initial authorized capital).

These new institutions seek to provide development finance through a new development policy that does not enforce austerity on the poorer nations but is driven by the principle of poverty eradication. The BRICS Bank is a young institution compared to the World Bank, but it has considerable financial resources and will need to be innovative in providing assistance that does not lead to endemic debt. Whether the new BRICS Think Tank Network for Finance will be able to break with the IMF’s orthodoxy is yet to be seen.

De-Dollarization Gaining Momentum As Countries Seek Alternatives To Dollar

The U.S. dollar has dominated global trade and capital flows over many decades. However, many nations are looking for alternatives to the greenback to reduce their dependence on the United States.

This graphic catalogs the rise of the U.S. dollar as the dominant international reserve currency, and the recent efforts by various nations to de-dollarize and reduce their dependence on the U.S. financial system.

The global de-dollarization campaign is gaining momentum, as countries around the world seek alternatives to the hegemony of the US dollar.

The global de-dollarization campaign is gaining momentum, as countries around the world seek alternatives to the hegemony of the US dollar. China, Russia, Brazil, India, ASEAN nations, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are now using local currencies in trade.

The Dollar Dominance

The United States became, almost overnight, the leading financial power after World War I. The country entered the war only in 1917 and emerged far stronger than its European counterparts.

As a result, the dollar began to displace the pound sterling as the international reserve currency and the U.S. also became a significant recipient of wartime gold inflows.

The dollar then gained a greater role in 1944, when 44 countries signed the Bretton Woods Agreement, creating a collective international currency exchange regime pegged to the U.S. dollar which was, in turn, pegged to the price of gold.

Picture : Elements of visual capitalist

By the late 1960s, European and Japanese exports became more competitive with U.S. exports. There was a large supply of dollars around the world, making it difficult to back dollars with gold. President Nixon ceased the direct convertibility of U.S. dollars to gold in 1971. This ended both the gold standard and the limit on the amount of currency that could be printed.

Although it has remained the international reserve currency, the U.S. dollar has increasingly lost its purchasing power since then.

Russia and China’s Steps Towards De-Dollarization

Concerned about America’s dominance over the global financial system and the country’s ability to ‘weaponize’ it, other nations have been testing alternatives to reduce the dollar’s hegemony.

As the United States and other Western nations imposed economic sanctions against Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow and the Chinese government have been teaming up to reduce reliance on the dollar and to establish cooperation between their financial systems.

Since the invasion in 2022, the ruble-yuan trade has increased eighty-fold. Russia and Iran are also working together to launch a cryptocurrency backed by gold, according to Russian news agency Vedmosti. In addition, central banks (especially Russia’s and China’s) have bought gold at the fastest pace since 1967 as countries move to diversify their reserves away from the dollar.

How Other Countries are Reducing Dollar Dependence

De-dollarization it’s a theme in other parts of the world as well. In recent months, Brazil and Argentina have discussed the creation of a common currency for the two largest economies in South America.

In a conference in Singapore in January, multiple former Southeast Asian officials spoke about de-dollarization efforts underway. The UAE and India are in talks to use Rupees to trade non-oil commodities in a shift away from the dollar, according to Reuters.

For the first time in 48 years, Saudi Arabia said that the oil-rich nation is open to trading in currencies besides the U.S. dollar. Despite these movements, few expect to see the end of the dollar’s global sovereign status anytime soon. Currently, central banks still hold about 60% of their foreign exchange reserves in dollars.

India Now Has Third Highest Number Of Billionaires In The World

India, which has the third-most billionaires, with 169, had a more mixed year. Indian billionaires as a group – worth $675 billion – are $75 billion poorer than in 2022, as per the Forbes World’s Billionaires List 2023.

As per the list, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is the richest India with a net worth of $63.4 billion. Ambani is the 9th richest in the world as per the list.

The Us still boasts the most billionaires, with 735 list members worth a collective $4.5 trillion. China (including Hong Kong and Macau) remains second, with 562 billionaires worth $2 trillion, followed by India, with 169 billionaires worth $675 billion.

Nearly half of all billionaires are poorer than they were a year ago, as per the Forbes World’s Billionaires List 2023.

Falling stocks, wounded unicorns, and rising interest rates translated into a down year for the world’s wealthiest people.

Globally, the list counted 2,640 ten-figure fortunes, down from 2,668 last year. Altogether, the planet’s billionaires are now worth $12.2 trillion, a drop of $500 billion from $12.7 trillion in March 2022.

Nearly half the list is poorer than a year ago, including Elon Musk, who falls from No. 1 to No. 2 after his pricey acquisition of Twitter helped sink Tesla shares.

Bernard Arnault, head of luxury goods giant LVMH, takes his place as the world’s richest person, marking the first time a citizen of France leads the ranking.

Despite a down year in the markets, rising inflation and war in Eastern Europe, more than 1,000 billionaires are actually richer than they were on Forbes’ 2022 list – some by tens of billions of dollars.

Luxury goods tycoon Arnault has had the best run. His net worth surged by $53 billion since last year, a bigger gain than anyone on the planet. Shares of his LVMH, which owns brands like Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Tiffany & Co, rose by 18 per cent on the back of strong demand. Now worth $211 billion, Arnault has taken the top spot on the World’s Billionaires ranking. It’s his first time at No 1 – and the first time a citizen of France has led the list.

Michael Bloomberg is ranked 7th on the list with a net worth of $ 84.5 billion. (IANS)

Bernard Arnault Tops Forbes’ Annual Billionaires List

Elon Musk has officially been dethroned from the top of Forbes’ annual “World’s Billionaire’s List.”  The Tesla and Twitter chief is now the second-richest billionaire, worth an estimated $180 billion, which is $39 billion less than the previous year. The top spot has been awarded to Bernard Arnault, the chairman of French luxury goods giant LVMH. His net worth increased more than $50 billion in the past year to $211 billion.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to Musk, whose position wobbled on the Forbes’ “Real-Time Billionaires” list, which is updated daily, for the past several months. He and Arnault often switch places.

However, Tuesday’s list tracks his wealth annually. Forbes explained that Musk’s wealth had fallen because his $44 billion Twitter purchase, funded by Tesla shares, scared investors and sent Tesla stock sinking sharply last year. Tesla gained much of those losses back this year but is still significantly lower than before Musk bought Twitter.

Picture : Bussiness Insider

Forbes said that “Musk has mostly tweeted himself out of the top spot on the ranks” because Tesla shares are down 50% since his Twitter takeover a year ago. SpaceX is a bright spot for the billionaire, the magazine notes, since its valuation has increased $13 billion to $140 billion over the past year.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lost the most amount of money of any billionaire on the list ($57 billion), knocking him down from second position to third. The loss can be attributed to Amazon shares losing nearly 40% of their value last year.

As for Arnault, Forbes said the Frenchman had a “banner year” in 2022 because of record-high profits at the luxury conglomerate, which comprises Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Tiffany & Co. Shares of LVMH have climbed 25% over the past year and the patriarch has recently unveiled succession plans to his children.

Forbes said that the total number of billionaires on this year’s list fell to 2,640 (down from 2,668), marking the second-straight year of decline.

“It’s been another rare down year for the planet’s richest people,” said Chase Peterson-Withorn, Forbes senior editor of wealth, in a release. “Nearly half the list is poorer than they were 12 months ago, but a lucky few are billions — or even tens of billions — of dollars richer.”

More than 250 people who were on last year’s list didn’t appear on this year’s, including Kanye West, who lost his Adidas deal, and embattled FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who lost 94% of his wealth in one day.

Money Can Buy Happiness, Scientists Say

People get happy as they earn more, according to a new study which overturns the dominant thinking that money cannot buy happiness.

The study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper, shows that, on average, larger incomes are associated with ever-increasing levels of happiness.

Two prominent researchers, Daniel Kahneman from Princeton University and Matthew Killingsworth from the University of Pennsylvania, surveyed 33,391 adults aged between 18 and 65 who live in the US, are employed and report a household income of at least $10,000 a year.

For the least happy group, happiness rose with income until $100,000, then showed no further increase as income grew. For those in the middle range of emotional well-being, happiness increases linearly with income, and for the happiest group the association actually accelerates above $100,000.

“In the simplest terms, this suggests that for most people larger incomes are associated with greater happiness,” said lead author Killingsworth.

“The exception is people who are financially well-off but unhappy. For instance, if you’re rich and miserable, more money won’t help. For everyone else, more money was associated with higher happiness to somewhat varying degrees,” he added.

The researchers said that the study shows both a happy majority and an unhappy minority exist.

For the former, happiness keeps rising as more money comes in; the latter’s happiness improves as income rises but only up to a certain income threshold, after which it progresses no further.

These findings also have real-world implications, according to Killingsworth.

For one, they could inform thinking about tax rates or how to compensate employees. And, of course, they matter to individuals as they navigate career choices or weigh a larger income against other priorities in life, Killingsworth said.

However, he adds that for emotional well-being money isn’t all. “Money is just one of the many determinants of happiness,” he says. “Money is not the secret to happiness, but it can probably help a bit.”  (IANS)

Biden’s $5 Trillion Tax Gambit Catches Congress By Surprise

President Biden went big in his $6.8 trillion annual budget proposal to Congress by calling for $5 trillion in tax increases over the next decade, more than what lawmakers expected after the president downplayed his tax agenda in earlier meetings.  It’s a risky move for the president as he heads into a tough reelection campaign in 2024.

Senate Democrats will have to defend 23 seats next year, including in Republican-leaning states such as Ohio, Montana and West Virginia, and Americans are concerned about inflation and the direction of the economy.

Republicans say Biden’s budget plan marks the return of tax-and-spend liberal politics; they warn higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy will hurt the economy.  Biden, however, thinks he can win the debate by pledging that he won’t raise taxes on anyone who earns less than $400,000 a year.

Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, called Biden’s ambitious tax plan “jaw-dropping.”

“This is exactly the wrong approach to solving our fiscal problems,” he said of the $5 trillion aggregate total of proposed tax hikes. “I think this sets a new record, by far.”

Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, a group that advocates for lower taxes, said “in dollar terms, it’s the largest tax increase in American history.”

A surprise and a ‘negotiating position’

Many lawmakers were expecting Biden to propose between $2 trillion and $2.5 trillion in tax increases, based on what he said in his State of the Union address on Feb. 7 and on what media outlets reported in the days before the White House unveiled its budget plan.

The $5 trillion in new tax revenues is more than what the president called for last year, when Democrats controlled the House and Senate.

In October of 2021, when Biden was trying to nail down a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on the Build Back Better agenda, he proposed a more modest $2 trillion in tax increases.

The headline number even surprised some Democratic policy experts, though they agree the federal government needs to collect more revenue.

“I didn’t expect to see a number that big, but I’m not alarmed by it. I think it’s a negotiating position,” said Jim Kessler, the executive vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank.

Biden told lawmakers at his State of the Union address that his budget plan would lower the deficit by $2 trillion and that he would “pay for the ideas I’ve talked about tonight by making the wealthy and big corporations begin to pay their fair share.”

The president then surprised lawmakers with a budget proposal to cut $3 trillion from deficit over the next decade and to do it almost entirely by raising tax revenues.

Biden has called for a 25 percent tax on the nation’s wealthiest 0.01 percent of families. He has proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and the top marginal income tax rate from 37 percent to 39.6 percent. He wants to quadruple the 1 percent tax on stock buybacks. He has proposed taxing capital gains at 39.6 percent for people with income of more than $1 million.

Kessler noted that Biden’s budget doesn’t include significant spending cuts nor does it reform Social Security, despite Biden’s pledge during the 2020 election to reduce the program’s imbalance.  Kessler defended the president’s strategy of focusing instead on taxing wealthy individuals and corporations.

“The amount of unrealized wealth that people have at the top dwarfs anything that we’ve ever seen in the past,” he said.  “These are opening bids” ahead of the negotiations between Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to raise the debt limit.

Senate Republicans are trying to chip away at Biden’s argument that his tax policy will only hit wealthy individuals and companies. “It’s probably not good for the economy. Last time I checked, most tax increases on the business side are passed on to consumers, and I think we need to control spending more than adding $5 trillion in new taxes,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Norquist, the conservative anti-tax activist, warned that if enacted, raising the corporate tax rate would reverberate throughout the economy.  “The corporate income tax, 70 percent of that is paid by workers and lower wages,” he said.

He said raising the top marginal tax rate and capital gains tax rate would hit small businesses that file under subchapter S of the tax code. “When you raise the top individual rate, you’re raising taxes on millions of smaller businesses in the United States,” he said. “Their employees end up paying that because that’s money they don’t have in the business anymore.”

How does Biden compare to predecessors?

Norquist noted that Obama and Clinton both cut taxes during their administrations, citing Clinton’s role in cutting the capital gains rate and Obama’s role in making many of the Bush-era tax cuts permanent.  “Both of them ran a more moderate campaign. This guy is going Bernie Sanders,” he said of Biden, comparing him to the liberal independent senator from Vermont.

Biden’s budget is a significant departure from the approach then-President Obama took 12 years ago, when he also faced a standoff with a GOP-controlled House over the debt.

In his first year working with a House GOP majority, Obama in his fiscal 2012 budget proposed cutting the deficit by $1.1 trillion, of which he said two-thirds should come from spending cuts and one-third from tax increases.  Obama later ramped up his proposal in the fall of 2011 by floating a plan to cut the deficit by $3.6 trillion over a decade and raise taxes by $1.6 trillion during that span.

Concerning for some Democrats

Republican strategists say they’ll use Biden’s proposed tax increases as ammunition against Democratic incumbents up for reelection next year.  National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines (Mont.) said Biden’s budget provides “a contrast” ahead of the election.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who faces a tough re-election in a state that former President Trump with 57 percent of the vote, said he’s leery about trillions of dollars in new taxes.

Asked last week if he’s worried about how Montanans might react to Biden’s proposed tax increases, Tester replied: “For sure. I got to make sure that will work. I just got to see what he’s doing.”

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Manchin, who is up for reelection in another red state, has called on his fellow Democrats to focus more on how the federal budget has swelled from $3.8 trillion in 2013 to $6.7 trillion today.

“Can we just see if we can go back to normal? Where were we before COVID? What was our trajectory before that?” he asked in a CNN interview Thursday.   “How did it grow so quickly? How do we have so many things that are so necessary that weren’t before?” he said of the federal budget and debt.

The White House branded the House Freedom Caucus’ deficit plan as “tax breaks for the super wealthy and wasteful spending for special interests,” as the two sides continued to trade jabs amid an escalating debt ceiling battle.

“MAGA House Republicans are proposing, if spread evenly across affected discretionary programs, at least a 20 [percent] across the board cut,” White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt said in an initial analysis of the proposal.

LaBolt pointed to several typically Republican issue areas that would be impacted by such cuts, including law enforcement, border security, education and manufacturing.

“The one thing MAGA Republicans do want to protect are tax cuts for the super-wealthy,” he added. “This means that their plan, with all of the sacrifices they are asking of working-class Americans, will reduce the deficit by…$0.”

The Freedom Caucus on Friday unveiled its initial spending demands for a possible debt ceiling increase, as the potential for default looms this summer. The proposal would cap discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels for 10 years, resulting in a $131 billion cut from current levels. Defense spending would be maintained at current levels.

LaBolt claimed that the proposal would also defund police and make the border less secure, turning around two accusations that Republicans have frequently lobbed at the Biden administration.

Such spending cuts would, according to LaBolt’s analysis, eliminate funding for 400 state, local and tribal police officers and several thousand FBI agents and personnel and “deny the men and women of Customs and Border Protection the resources they need to secure our borders.”

He also criticized the Freedom Caucus’s calls to end President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan and to rescind unspent COVID-19 and Inflation Reduction Act funds, claiming they would increase prescription drug and energy costs and ship manufacturing jobs overseas.

The analysis also accused the group of hard-line conservatives of making plans that would actually increase the federal deficit by $114 billion, and allow “the wealthy and big corporations to continue to cheat on their taxes.” Biden’s $6.8 trillion budget released on Thursday included tax hikes on the wealthy.

LaBolt’s 20 percent number represents a slight adjustment from Biden’s claim on Friday that the plan would require a 25 percent cut in discretionary spending across the board.

“If what they say they mean, they’re going to keep the tax cuts from the last president … no additional taxes on the wealthy — matter of fact reducing taxes — and in addition to that, on top of that, they’re going to say we have to cut 25 percent of every program across the broad,” Biden said during remarks on the economy. “I don’t know what there’s much to negotiate on.”

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-Pa.) hit back at the president on Friday, accusing him of misrepresenting their proposal. “For him to mention things like firefighters, police officers and health care — obviously, either he didn’t watch the press conference, he can’t read, or someone is, you know, got their hand up his back and they’re speaking for him, because those are just abject lies,” Perry told The Hill. “It’s the same old, you know, smear-and-fear campaign by the Biden administration.” (Courtesy: CNN)

Indian Startups With Millions Of Dollars Stuck In Silicon Valley Bank Failure

Indian startups that have millions of dollars stuck with the troubled Silicon Valley Bank are waiting for business hours in the US to resume Monday and could withdraw all their money from the bank en masse. The only thing that could stop that is if the US government manages to find a buyer for the beleaguered bank, reports said.

Courtesy a maneuver of the US government on March 12th, businesses with accounts at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) will have full access to their deposits, unlike a previous measure where only an insured amount of $250,000 would have been immediately accessible. As of December 2022, SVB had $209 billion in total assets and about $175 billion in total deposits.

SVB collapsed Friday morning after a stunning 48 hours in which a bank run and a capital crisis led to the second-largest failure of a financial institution in US history. The chaos instigated by high interest rates led to an old-fashioned bank run on Thursday, in which depositors yanked $42 billion from SVB.

When the FDIC took control of the bank Friday, it said it would pay customers their insured deposits on Monday, which only covers up to $250,000. But there’s a lot of money – and influence – at stake. SVB provided financing for almost half of US venture-backed technology and health care companies. At the end of 2022, the bank said it had $151.5 billion in uninsured deposits, $137.6 billion of which was held by US depositors.

Though a lot of money may have come out during the bank run and customers could receive some uninsured funds as the government liquidates SVB, they are still unsure if they can recover all their cash.

Fearing a larger fall out from the bank collapse, the United States government mobilized immediately in response to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank, working over the weekend to insure depositors who had more than $200 billion of venture capital and high-tech start-up money stored in the two banks.

But unlike the 2008 financial crisis, during which Congress passed new legislation in order to salvage the country’s largest banks, the current rescue plan is smaller in scale, pertains to only two banks, and isn’t additional taxpayer money — for now.

In order to make sure depositors can still withdraw funds from their accounts — the vast majority of which exceeded the $250,000 limit for standard insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) — regulators say they’re pulling from a special fund maintained by the FDIC called the deposit insurance fund (DIF).

“For the two banks that were put into receivership, the FDIC will use funds from the deposit insurance fund to ensure that all of its depositors are made whole,” a Treasury official told reporters on Sunday night. “In that case the deposit insurance funded is bearing the risk. This is not funds from the taxpayer.”

Where the money comes from

The money in the DIF comes from insurance premiums that banks are required to pay into it as well as interest earned on funds invested in U.S. bonds and other securities and obligations.

This is why some observers have been saying that the term “bailout” shouldn’t be used in reference to the current government intervention — because it’s bank money plus interest that’s being used to insure depositors, and it’s only being administered by the federal government.

But standing behind the DIF is the “the full faith and credit of the United States government,” according to the FDIC, meaning that if the DIF runs out of money or encounters a problem, the Treasury could call on taxpayers as a next resort.

This is not an impossibility. The DIF had a $125 billion balance as of the last quarter of 2022 and SVB reported $212 billion in assets in the same quarter. Treasury officials sounded confident on Sunday night the money in the DIF would be more than enough to cover SVB’s deposits.

The Fed steps in for backup

To settle fears of a potential shortfall, the Federal Reserve announced an additional line of credit known as a Bank Term Funding Program, offering loans of up to one year to banks, credit unions, and other types of depository institutions. For collateral, the Fed will take U.S. bonds and mortgage-backed securities, and the line of credit will be backed up by $25 billion from the Treasury’s $38 billion Exchange Stabilization Fund.

“Both of these steps are likely to increase confidence among depositors, though they stop short of an FDIC guarantee of uninsured accounts as was implemented in 2008,” analysts for Goldman Sachs wrote in a Sunday note to investors.

“The Dodd-Frank Act limits the FDIC’s authority to provide guarantees by requiring congressional passage of a joint resolution of approval, which is only marginally easier than passing a new legislation. Given the actions announced today, we do not expect near-term actions in Congress to provide guarantees,” they wrote.

Even as the US government scrambles to find a buyer for the bank, SVB’s UK arm was sold to HSBC for £1, the Bank of England and the British government announced Monday morning. Sheila Bair, former chairperson of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) – which took over the bank after it was shut down –told the US press that finding a buyer for SVB was “the best outcome.”

India impact

While the British arm of SVB has managed to find a buyer in the UK, that is unlikely to calm Indian startups since they primarily have deposited their money with the US-based SVB, which is headquartered in New York.

The fallout of SVB’s collapse could be far-reaching. Startups may be unable to pay employees in the coming days and venture capital firms may be unable to raise funds. The tech industry is the biggest customer of SVB with a large number of Indian startups, especially in the SaaS (software as a service) sector that services US clients, having accounts at the bank.

Additional loans

Instead of a total government bailout that would have required taxpayer money, the United States’ Federal Reserve announced that it would make available additional loans to eligible depository institutions to help assure that banks have the ability to meet the needs of all their depositors.

A new entity called the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) will be created and it will offer loans of up to one year in length to banks, savings associations, credit unions, and other eligible depository institutions. Those taking advantage of the facility will be asked to pledge high-quality collateral such as Treasuries, agency debt and mortgage-backed securities.

While relatively unknown outside Silicon Valley, SVB was among the top 20 American commercial banks, with $209 billion in total assets at the end of last year, according to the FDIC. It’s the largest lender to fail since Washington Mutual collapsed in 2008.

$8.8 Bn Lost To Scams In 2022

The consumers in the US lost nearly $8.8 billion to scams in 2022, an increase of more than 30 per cent over the previous year, a new report has shown. According to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), consumers reported losing more money to investment scams — more than $3.8 billion — than any other category in 2022.

That amount more than doubles the amount reported lost in 2021.  Moreover, the report showed that imposter scams caused the second-highest loss amount — $2.6 billion, up from $2.4 billion in 2021.

Prizes, sweepstakes, lotteries, investment-related scams, and business and job opportunities rounded out the top five fraud categories.  Nearly 2.4 million consumers reported fraudulent activity on their accounts last year, most commonly imposter scams, followed by online shopping scams, the report said.

Earlier this month, the FTC released a similar report, saying romance scammers received a hefty payout last year, involving 70,000 victims who lost a combined $1.3 billion.

The report showed that romance scammers often use dating apps to target people looking for love.  Nearly 40 per cent of people who lost money to a romance scam last year, said the contact started on social media, while 19 per cent said it started on a website or app.

Many people mentioned that the scammer then quickly moved the conversation to WhatsApp, Google Chat or Telegram. (IANS)

When Is The US Recession Expected?

(AP) — A majority of the nation’s business economists expect a U.S. recession to begin later this year than they had previously forecast, after a series of reports have pointed to a surprisingly resilient economy despite steadily higher interest rates.

Fifty-eight percent of 48 economists who responded to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics envision a recession sometime this year, the same proportion who said so in the NABE’s survey in December. But only a quarter think a recession will have begun by the end of March, only half the proportion who had thought so in December.

The findings, reflecting a survey of economists from businesses, trade associations and academia, were released Monday.

A third of the economists who responded to the survey now expect a recession to begin in the April-June quarter. One-fifth think it will start in the July-September quarter.

The delay in the economists’ expectations of when a downturn will begin follows a series of government reports that have pointed to a still-robust economy even after the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates eight times in a strenuous effort to slow growth and curb high inflation.

In January, employers added more than a half-million jobs, and the unemployment rate reached 3.4%, the lowest level since 1969.

And sales at retail stores and restaurants jumped 3% in January, the sharpest monthly gain in nearly two years. That suggested that consumers as a whole, who drive most of the economy’s growth, still feel financially healthy and willing to spend.

At the same time, several government releases also showed that inflation shot back up in January after weakening for several months, fanning fears that the Fed will raise its benchmark rate even higher than was previously expected. When the Fed lifts its key rate, it typically leads to more expensive mortgages, auto loans and credit card borrowing. Interest rates on business loans also rise.

Tighter credit can then weaken the economy and even cause a recession. Economic research released Friday found that the Fed has never managed to reduce inflation from the high levels it has recently reached without causing a recession.

₹ 305 Crore Of Jewelry Seized From Joyalukkas

The Enforcement Directorate has seized assets worth ₹ 305.84 crore of the popular jewellery chain Joyalukkas on Friday, days after five of the company’s premises were raided by the probe agency. The ED has accused the jewellery chain of violating provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act.

The case relates to a huge amount of cash transferred to Dubai from India through Hawala channels and subsequently invested in Joyalukkas Jewellery LLC, Dubai which is 100 per cent owned by Joy Alukkas Verghese. On Tuesday, the company had withdrawn its ₹ 2,300 crore initial public offering or IPO saying it needed more time to incorporate substantial changes to its financial results.

The attached assets include 33 immovable properties valued at ₹ 81.54 crore consisting of land and a residential building in Shobha City, Thrissur. Three bank accounts valued at ₹ 91.22 lakh, three fixed deposits amounting to ₹ 5.58 crore and Joyalukkas shares worth 217.81 crores have also been seized by the Enforcement Directorate.

The company had plans to refile its IPO documents “at the earliest, subject to market conditions,” Chief Executive Baby George told Reuters on Tuesday, without elaborating further.

Post a comment The jewellery retailer, which focuses mainly on Southern India, is the latest to delay or pull its IPO plans amid market volatility and stubbornly high inflation. The company operates showrooms across roughly 68 cities.

US Supreme Court Hears Case On Students Loan Forgiveness

(AP) — The United States Supreme Court won’t have far to look if it wants a personal take on the “crushing weight” of student debt that underlies the Biden administration’s college loan forgiveness plan. Justice Clarence Thomas was in his mid-40s and in his third year on the nation’s highest court when he paid off the last of his debt from his time at Yale Law School.

Thomas, the court’s longest-serving justice and staunchest conservative, has been skeptical of other Biden administration initiatives. And when the Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday involving President Joe Biden’s debt relief plan that would wipe away up to $20,000 in outstanding student loans, Thomas is not likely to be a vote in the administration’s favor.

But the justices’ own experiences can be relevant in how they approach a case, and alone among them, Thomas has written about the role student loans played in his financial struggles.

A fellow law school student even suggested Thomas declare bankruptcy after graduating “to get out from under the crushing weight of all my student loans,” the justice wrote in his best-selling 2007 memoir, “My Grandfather’s Son.” He rejected the idea.

It’s not clear that any of the other justices borrowed money to attend college or law school or have done so for their children’s educations. Some justices grew up in relative wealth. Others reported they had scholarships to pay their way to some of the country’s most expensive private institutions.

Picture : TheUNN

Of the seven justices on the court who are parents, four have signaled through their investments that they don’t want their own children to be saddled with onerous college debt, and have piled money into tax-free college savings accounts that might limit any need for loans.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch have the most on hand, at least $600,000 and at least $300,000, respectively, according to annual disclosure reports the justices filed in 2022. Each has two children.

Justices Amy Coney Barrett, who has seven children, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who has two, also have invested money in college-savings accounts, in which any earnings or growth is tax free if spent on education. None of the justices would comment for this story, a court spokeswoman said.

Thomas wrote vividly about his past money woes in his up-from-poverty story, recounting how a bank once foreclosed on one of his loans because repayment and delinquency notices were sent to his grandparents’ house in Savannah, Georgia, instead of Thomas’ home at the time in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Thomas was able to take out another loan to repay the bank only because his mentor, John Danforth, then-Missouri attorney general and later a U.S. senator, vouched for him.

Thomas noted that he signed up for a tuition postponement program at Yale in which a group of students jointly paid for their outstanding loans according to their financial ability, with those earning the most paying the most.

At the time, Thomas’ first wife, Kathy, was pregnant. “I didn’t know what else to do, so I signed on the dotted line, and spent the next two decades paying off the money I borrowed during my last two years at Yale,” Thomas wrote.

When he was first nominated to be a federal judge in 1989, Thomas reported $10,000 in outstanding student loans, according to a news report at the time. The Biden administration has picked the same number as the amount of debt relief most borrowers would get under its plan.

Personal experience can shape the justices’ questions in the courtroom and affect their private conversations about a case, even if it doesn’t figure in the outcome.

“It is helpful to have people with life experiences that are varied just because it enriches the conversation,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor has said. Sotomayor, like Thomas, also grew up poor. She got a full scholarship to Princeton as an undergraduate, she has said, and went on to Yale for law school, as Thomas did.

Keeping people from avoiding the kinds of difficult choices Thomas faced is a key part of the administration’s argument for loan forgiveness. The administration says that without additional help, many borrowers will fall behind on their payments once a hold in place since the start of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago is lifted, no later than this summer.

Under a plan announced in August but so far blocked by federal courts, $10,000 in federal loans would be canceled for people making less than $125,000 or for households with less than $250,000 in income. Recipients of Pell Grants, who tend to have fewer financial resources, would get an additional $10,000 in debt forgiven.

The White House says 26 million people already have applied and 16 million have been approved for relief. The program is estimated to cost $400 billion over the next three decades.

The legal fight could turn on any of several elements, including whether the Republican-led states and individuals suing over the plan have legal standing to go to court and whether Biden has the authority under federal law for so extensive a loan forgiveness program.

Nebraska and other states challenging the program argue that far from falling behind, 20 million borrowers would get a “windfall” because their entire student debt would be erased, Nebraska Attorney General Michael Hilgers wrote in the states’ main Supreme Court brief.

Which of those arguments resonate with the court may become clear on Tuesday.

When she was dean of Harvard Law School, Justice Elena Kagan showed her own concern about the high cost of law school, especially for students who were considering lower-paying jobs.

Kagan established a program that would allow students to attend their final year tuition-free if they agreed to a five-year commitment to work in the public sector. While that program no longer exists, Harvard offers grants to students for public service work.

At the time the program was created, Kagan said she wanted students to be able to go to work where they “can make the biggest difference, but that isn’t the case now.” Instead, she said: “They often go to work where they don’t want to work because of the debt burden.”

Ajay Banga Nominated By Biden To Lead World Bank

President Joe Biden has nominated a former boss of Mastercard with decades of experience on Wall Street to lead the World Bank and oversee a shake-up at the development organization to shift its focus to the climate crisis.

Ajay Banga, an American citizen born in India, comes a week after David Malpass, a Donald Trump appointee, quit the role. The World Bank’s governing body is expected to make a decision in May, but the US is the Washington-based organisation’s largest shareholder and has traditionally been allowed to nominate without challenge its preferred candidate for the post.

Malpass, who is due to step down on 30 June, was nominated by Trump in February 2019 and took up the post officially that April. He is known to have lost the confidence of Biden’s head of the US Treasury, Janet Yellen, who with other shareholders wanted to expand the bank’s development remit to include the climate crisis and other global challenges.

Ajay Banga, former president and CEO of Mastercard and current vice chairman of the private equity firm General Atlantic, is Biden’s nomination as the next president of the World Bank.

Biden, in a statement Thursday, called Banga – a native of India and former chairman of the International Chamber of commerce – “uniquely equipped” to lead the World Bank, a global development institution that provides grants and loans to low-income countries to reduce poverty and spur development.

Biden touted Banga’s work leading global companies that brought investment to developing economies and his record of enlisting the public and private sectors to “tackle the most urgent challenges of our time, including climate change.”

The Biden administration is looking to recalibrate the focus of the World Bank to align with global efforts to reduce climate change.

Malpass, nominated by former President Donald Trump, still had a year remaining on his five-year term as president. Malpass came under fire when he said, “I’m not a scientist,” when asked at a New York Times event in September whether he accepts the overwhelming scientific evidence that the burning of fossil fuels has caused global temperatures to rise. Former Vice President Al Gore, who called Malpass a “climate denier,” was among several well-known climate activists to call for his resignation.

Banga was the top executive at Mastercard from 2010 to 2020. He has served as a co-chair of Vice President Kamala Harris’ Partnership for Central America, which has sought to bring private investment to the region.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen applauded Biden’s pick. She said Banga understands the World Bank’s goals to eliminate poverty and expand prosperity are “deeply intertwined with challenges like meeting ambitious goals for climate adaptation and emissions reduction, preparing for and preventing future pandemics, and mitigating the root causes and consequences of conflict and fragility.”

Banga still needs confirmation by the bank’s board to become president. It’s unclear whether there will be additional nominees from other nations.

Stocks Tumbles 20% After US Research Group Accuses Adani Group Of Stock Manipulation

Shares of Adani Enterprises plunged on Friday as a scathing report by a US-based short seller triggered a massive selloff in the conglomerate’s listed firms, casting doubts on the company’s record $2.45 billion secondary offering, reported news agency Reuters.

The selloff in Adani’s corporate empire accelerated on Friday, erasing more than $50 billion of market value in less than two sessions as Asia’s richest man struggles to contain the fallout, reported news agency Bloomberg.

Adani Group’s share prices of its seven listed companies nosedived last week, after Hindenburg Research stated that it assumed a short position, in particular securities of the conglomerate. In response, Adani Group dismissed the allegations as ‘baseless’, termed the report as ‘malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale,’ and is contemplating legal action against the American investor.

“If Adani is serious, it should also file suit in the U.S. where we operate. We have a long list of documents we would demand in a legal discovery process,” Hindenburg said while also asserting that it fully stands by its findings.

As per reports, Hindenburg Research said that the company hasn’t addressed a single substantive issue raised in the 32,000-word report. “At the conclusion of our report, we asked 88 straightforward questions that we believe give the company a chance to be transparent. Thus far, Adani has answered none of these questions,” the short seller has reportedly said.

The report alleges that the Indian group, headed by Asia’s richest man, Gautam Adani, had engaged in brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud. It contains details of the Adani family’s alleged shell companies in tax havens across Mauritius, the United Arab Emirates, and the Caribbean, established for facilitating money laundering and tax evasion through siphoning money from the group’s listed entities.

Following the accusations, Adani Transmission shares crashed above 19 percent and Adani Gas tumbled 19.1 percent in their biggest downward trajectory since March 2020, while Adani Green Energy depreciated around 16 percent on the BSE during today’s early trading session. The share prices of Ambuja Cements, NDTV, and ACC, the Indian conglomerate’s recent acquisitions, also declined 7.71 percent, 4.98 percent, and 7.26 percent respectively, on Wednesday, according to reports.

The Adani Group announced on Jan 26, 2023, that it is considering taking legal action against Hindenburg Research for a report from January 23, 2023, that accused the Indian conglomerate of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme.”

Jatin Jalundhwala, legal head for Adani Group, said, “The maliciously mischievous, unresearched report published by Hindenburg Research on 24 Jan 2023 has adversely affected the Adani Group, our shareholders and investors.”

The report was released ahead of the Rs 20,000 crore follow-on public offer (FPO) by Adani Enterprises, the flagship company of the Adani Group. The FPO had raised Rs 5,984.9 crore from 33 anchor investors on Wednesday.

A foreign brokerage house has said that Indian banks have an exposure of Rs 81,200 crore to Adani Group, whose group debt is Rs 2 lakh crore (about $24 billion), according to media reports.

Analysts said the listed Adani firms lost more than Rs 3 lakh crore in market capitalisation on Friday and more than Rs 4.10 lakh crore since Wednesday.

The three companies recently acquired by the Adani group — Ambuja Cement, ACC and NDTV — also wilted. The tycoon has seen over $7 billion of his personal wealth wiped out since the start of the year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires’ Index which has yet to factor in last week’s meltdown.

India Continues As World’s Fastest-Growing Economy With 5.8% Growth Rate

United Nations– India will remain the fastest-growing major economy recording a growth of 5.8 per cent this year, while the rest of the world will grow by a paltry 1.9 per cent, the UN said on Thursday.

The UN’s World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) report sliced off 0.2 per cent from the 6 per cent gross domestic product growth projection made last May without affecting India’s rank as the country faces headwinds from the global economy.

Overall, the report said: “Growth in India is expected to remain strong at 5.8 per cent, albeit slightly lower than the estimated 6.4 per cent in 2022, as higher interest rates and a global slowdown weigh on investment and exports.” Next year, the UN expects India’s economy to grow by 6.7 per cent.

Picture : Rediff.com

The WESP gave a positive picture of India’s jobs scene, noting that its “unemployment rate dropped to a four-year low of 6.4 per cent in India, as the economy added jobs both in urban and rural areas in 2022”. For the world, the WESP forecast is 1.9 per cent this year and rising to 2.7 per cent next year.

In New Delhi, India’s President Droupadi Murmu credited India’s economic performance to “its leadership. India has been among the fastest-growing major economies because of the timely and proactive interventions of the government. The ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative, in particular, has evoked great response among the people at large,” Murmu said in her Republic Day speech.

China, which came in second, is projected to grow by 4.8 per cent this year and 4.5 next year, after a 3% growth in 2022. The US economy, which grew by 2.9% this year is projected to grow by 0.4% this year and 1.7 per cent the next.

For South Asia as a whole, the report said the region’s “economic outlook has significantly deteriorated due to high food and energy prices, monetary tightening and fiscal vulnerabilities” and it forecast a 4.8 percent growth year and 5.9 percent next year.

This was buoyed by India as the report said: “The prospects are more challenging for other economies in the region. Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka sought financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2022.”

Rashid attributed the Indian economy’s growth to three factors: falling unemployment that signals strong domestic demand; easing of inflation, and lower import bills.

He said that the “unemployment rate has come down significantly in the last four years” to 6.4 per cent and “that means the domestic demand has been pretty strong”.

The WESP said that this occurred because “the economy added jobs both in urban and rural areas in 2022”.

“The inflation pressure also has eased quite significantly,” Rashid said with the year-on-year inflation rate to be 5.5 per cent this year and 5 per cent next year.

“That means that the central bank would not have to be aggressive over monetary tightening,” he said.

India has also benefitted to from lower imports, especially energy import cost that has been lower than in previous years, he added.

“I think this is a sustainable growth rate for India, given India also has a significant number of people living in poverty. So this would be a great boost if India can sustain this growth rate in the near term,” Rashid said.

He also pointed to two risk factors for India’s economy mainly emanating from the global situation.

One is from higher interest rates that would raise the debt servicing cost which has exceeded 20 per cent of the budget, he said.

“That is a significantly high debt servicing cost and that would probably have some drag on the growth prospect,” he said.

The second risk is from global external demands falling.

If Europe and the US go into a very slow growth mode resulting in lower global exports, the world economy may suffer, Rashid said.

“But on the balance, we believe that Indian economy is on a strong footing given the strong domestic demand in the near term,” he said.

For South Asia as a whole, the report said the region’s “economic outlook has significantly deteriorated due to high food and energy prices, monetary tightening and fiscal vulnerabilities” and it forecast a 4.8 per cent growth year and 5.9 per cent next year.

This was buoyed by India as the report said, “The prospects are more challenging for other economies in the region. Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka sought financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2022.”

Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have gone to the International Monetary Fund for help. Rashid said, “We call for greater international support in this difficult time for countries, especially countries that are facing significant challenges with debt burden and again we call for more meaningful restructuring of debt.”

“It might be more prudent and may make more economic sense to re-profile the debt, reschedule the debt, (the) external debt burden,” he said. But he said that the assistance should not go into consumption, but into investment in “productive capacity (that) can be very important driver of both short-term recovery and long-term resilience”.

Richest 1% Have Two-Thirds Of New Wealth Created In The Last Two Years

Over the last two years, the richest 1% of people have accumulated close to two-thirds of all new wealth created around the world, a new report from Oxfam says.

A total of $42 trillion in new wealth has been created since 2020, with $26 trillion, or 63%, of that being amassed by the top 1% of the ultra-rich, according to the report. The remaining 99% of the global population collected just $16 trillion of new wealth, the global poverty charity says.

“A billionaire gained roughly $1.7 million for every $1 of new global wealth earned by a person in the bottom 90 percent,” the report, released as the World Economic Forum kicks off in Davos, Switzerland, reads.

It suggests that the pace at which wealth is being created has sped up, as the world’s richest 1% amassed around half of all new wealth over the past 10 years.

Oxfam’s report analyzed data on global wealth creation from Credit Suisse, as well figures from the Forbes Billionaire’s List and the Forbes Real-Time Billionaire’s list to assess changes to the wealth of the ultra-rich.

The research contrasts this wealth creation with reports from the World Bank, which said in October 2022 that it would likely not meet its goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 as the Covid-19 pandemic slowed down efforts to combat poverty.

Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International, called for taxes to be increased for the ultra-rich, saying that this was a “strategic precondition to reducing inequality and resuscitating democracy.”

In the report’s press release, she also said changes to taxation policies would help tackle ongoing crises around the world.

“Taxing the super-rich and big corporations is the door out of today’s overlapping crises. It’s time we demolish the convenient myth that tax cuts for the richest result in their wealth somehow ‘trickling down’ to everyone else,” Bucher said.

Coinciding crises around the world that feed into each other and produce greater adversity together than they would separately are also referred to as a “polycrisis.” In recent weeks, researchers, economists and politicians have suggested that the world is currently facing such a crisis as pressures from the cost-of-living crisis, climate change, and other pressures are colliding

5% Of Indians Own More Than 60% Of The Country’s Wealth

Just 5% of Indians own more than 60% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 50% possess only 3% of wealth, according to Oxfam India’s latest report ‘Survival of the Richest: The India story’, which will be released today at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

An appeal

Oxfam India, an NGO that works in the sectors of child education, women empowerment and addressing inequality, through this report, seeks to urge the Union finance minister to implement progressive tax measures, such as wealth tax, in the upcoming Union Budget, it said in a press statement.

India currently does not have any wealth tax – which essentially refers to tax levied on one’s entire property in all forms.

India used to have a system under which a tax was levied at 1% on the net wealth in excess of Rs 30 lakh under the Wealth Tax Act 1957 – which was abolished in 2015. The taxation system, however, was not progressive in nature, as it did not have any slabs to ensure that the percentage of tax increased with an increase in wealth beyond the flat mark of Rs 30 lakh.

India’s richest

The total number of billionaires in India increased from 102 in 2020 to 166 billionaires in 2022.

The report highlights that the combined wealth of India’s 100 richest has touched $660 billion (Rs 54.12 lakh crore) – an amount that could fund the entire Union Budget for more than 18 months.

“While the poor face severe hardships, the wealth of the top 10 richest in India stands at Rs 27.52 lakh crore ($335.7 billion) – an increase of around 32.8% compared to 2021,” the statement said.

The wealth of the top 10 richest can finance the Ministry of Health and Family welfare and Ministry of Ayush for more than 30 years, India’s Union education budget for 26 years, or can fund MGNREGA for 38 years, it said.

Factors That Could Determine How 2023 Shapes Up For Global Equity Markets

Optimists may point out that the rate-hiking peak is on the horizon, possibly in March, with money markets expecting the Fed to switch into rate-cutting mode by the end of 2023. A Bloomberg News survey found 71 per cent of top global investors expect equities to rise in 2023.

Vincent Mortier, chief investment officer at Amundi, Europe’s largest money manager, recommends defensive positioning for investors going into the New Year. He expects a bumpy ride in 2023 but reckons “a Fed pivot in the first part of the year could trigger interesting entry points”.

But after a year that blindsided the investment community’s best and brightest, many are bracing for further reversals. One risk is that inflation stays too high for policymakers’ comfort and rate cuts don’t materialise. A Bloomberg Economics model shows a 100 per cent probability of recession starting by August, yet it looks unlikely central banks will rush in with policy easing when faced with cracks in the economy, a strategy they deployed repeatedly in the past decade.

“Policymakers, at least in the US and Europe, now appear resigned to weaker economic growth in 2023,” Deutsche Bank Private Bank’s global chief investment officer Christian Nolting told clients in a note. Recessions might be short but “will not be painless”, he warned.

Big tech troubles

A big unknown is how tech mega-caps fare, following a 35 per cent slump for the Nasdaq 100 in 2022. Companies such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Tesla Inc. have shed some two-thirds of their value, while losses at Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc. neared or exceeded 50 per cent.

Expensively-valued tech stocks do suffer more when interest rates rise. But other trends that supported tech’s advance in recent years may also go into reverse – economic recession risks hitting iPhone demand while a slump in online advertising could drag on Meta and Alphabet Inc.

In Bloomberg’s annual survey, only about half the respondents said they would buy the sector – selectively.

“Some of the tech names will come back as they have done a great job convincing customers to use them, like Amazon, but others will probably never reach that peak as people have moved on,” Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners, told Bloomberg Television.

Earnings recession

Previously resilient corporate profits are widely expected to crumble in 2023, as pressure builds on margins and consumer demand weakens.

“The final chapter to this bear market is all about the path of earnings estimates, which are far too high,” according to Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson, a Wall Street bear who predicts earnings of $180 per share in 2023 for the S&P 500, versus analysts’ expectations of $231.

The upcoming earnings recession may rival 2008, and markets are yet to price it in, he said.

China, a turning point

Beijing’s early-December decision to dismantle stringent Covid curbs seemed like a turning point for MSCI’s China Index, whose 24 per cent drop was a major contributor to global equity market losses in 2022.

Options boom

Technicals are increasingly driving day-to-day equity moves, with the S&P 500 witnessing below-average stock turnover in 2022, but explosive growth in very short-term options trading.

Professional traders and algorithmic-powered institutions have piled into such options, which were until recently dominated by small-time investors. That can make for bumpier markets, causing sudden volatility outbreaks such as the big intraday swing after October’s hot US inflation print.

Finally, with the S&P 500 failing to break out from its 2022 downtrend, short-term speculation remains skewed to the downside. But should the market turn, it will add fuel to the rebound.

India’s Billionaire Club Shrinks To 120, Gautam Adani Tops Rich List

In comparison, Ambani, who topped the list last year, has seen a 2.5 per cent decline in his family’s net worth to $101.75 billion from $104.4 billion a year ago

The year 2022 saw many lose the ‘billionaire’ tag, though some of the richest Indian promoters have become even richer. According to the report, the number of promoters with a net worth of over $1 billion has declined to 120 this year from an all-time high of 142 at the end of 2021.

Picture : Bussiness Standard

The billionaire promoters’ combined wealth is down 8.8 percent to around $685 billion ( ₹56.5 trillion) from $751.6 billion ( ₹56.62 trillion) a year ago, said the report, although it added that the fall in rupee terms is not significant owing to the currency depreciating against the US dollar.

Gautam Adani has been an outperformer in 2022, replacing Mukesh Ambani as India’s richest person. Adani’s net worth stands at $135.7 billion, up 69.6 percent from $80 billion last year, it said, citing Bloomberg data, that also highlights that he is also the richest person in Asia and third-richest in the world.

Meanwhile, Ambani has seen a 2.5 percent decline in his family’s net worth to $101.75 billion from $104.4 billion a year ago, added the report.

In fact, only three of the top 10 billionaires – Adani, Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma, and Sunil Mittal of Bharti Airtel – saw an increase in the net worth this year, as per the report.

Mittal’s gains can be attributed to a rise of Bharti Airtel, which benefited from tariff hikes announced by mobile services operators, clarity over regulatory issues, and a stable business environment, mentioned the report.

While, gains for Shanghvi were driven by factors like an improved performance of Sun Pharma, which benefited from a better show in its specialty business in North America and growth in its India formulations business, added BS.

Radhakishan Damani of Avenue Supermarts (DMart), who is India’s third-richest promoter, saw a 21 percent decline in the net worth at $23.8 billion in 2022.

Other promoters in the top 10 list include Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies, Azim Premji of Wipro and Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank.

IRS Announces New Tax Brackets And Standard Deduction For 2023

Inflations isn’t fun, but it could help lower your taxes in 2023. The IRS has announced the new 2023 tax brackets and the new standard deduction.

The Internal Revenue Service recently announced its inflation adjustments to the standard deduction and federal income tax brackets for 2023. Knowing these numbers can allow you to make some smart tax-planning moves before the year’s end. If you expect to be in a low bracket next year, you may want to try and delay some income to next year. On the other hand, if you expect to be in a high tax bracket in 2023, you may want to delay some tax deductions until next year.

New Standard Deduction For 2023

There is some good news for taxpayers regarding inflation; in 2023, the standard deductions will increase. For married couples filing jointly, the new standard deduction for 2023 will be $27,700. This is a jump of $1,800 from the 2022 standard deduction.

The 2023 standard deduction for single taxpayers and married filing separately will be $13,850. This is a jump of $900 from the 2022 standard deduction.

You may be wondering what is the standard deduction and what does it mean? The standard deduction is the number of tax deductions you can subtract from your income before you begin to owe taxes. For example, if you were a single filer and made $13,850 in 2023, you could take the standard deduction and not owe any federal income taxes. You may still owe payroll taxes and state taxes.

For taxpayers 65 or older, you can add $1,500 to your standard deduction for 2023 if you are married. This increases to $1,850 if you are unmarried or a surviving spouse (age 65 or older in 2023).

Changes To the Federal Tax Rates For 2023

The income that fits in each tax bracket for 2023 is the only change. Put more plainly; the federal marginal tax rates will remain the same in 2023. This is unless some new legislation was to change tax rates or brackets further. Each tax bracket has been adjusted for 2023 to account for inflation.

High inflation has led the IRS to increase the federal income tax brackets. This increase in tax bracket could help lower your 2023 taxes.

2023 Tax Brackets for Single Filers

37%: incomes higher than $578,125

35%: incomes over $231,250

32%: incomes over $182,100

24%: incomes over $95,375

22%: incomes over $44,725

12%: incomes over $11,000

10%: incomes of $11,000 or less

2023 Tax Brackets for Married Couples Filing Jointly

37%: incomes higher than $693,750

35%: incomes over $462,500

32%: incomes over $364,200

24%: incomes over $190,750

22%: incomes over $89,450

12%: incomes over $22,000

10%: incomes of $22,000 or less

The marriage penalty for federal income taxes doesn’t kick in until you reach the 37% tax bracket. If you are itemizing your tax deductions, there are other limitations to tax breaks you can benefit from, as well as more examples of the marriage penalty in the tax code. For example, the $10,000 SALT cap is the same whether you are single or married.

The higher your income, the more valuable proactive tax planning guidance can be. As a Los Angeles Financial Advisor, California residents can face a combined state and federal income tax rate beyond 50% on income that falls into the highest tax brackets. The tax burden can be tough on business owners who must pay both sides of the Social Security payroll taxes. Work with your tax pro and Certified Financial Planner™ to ensure you optimize your retirement plans and minimize taxes along the way.

$2.04 Billion Powerball Jackpot Ticket Was Sold In California

A lone winning ticket for the record $2.04 billion Powerball lottery jackpot was sold in Altadena, California, lottery officials said Tuesday, making the lucky ticket holder the winner of the largest lottery prize ever, media reports stated.

The ticket was sold at a Joe’s Service Center, the California Lottery said on Twitter. Results posted to Powerball.com similarly said there was one winner who matched all six numbers in California – the odds of which were 1 in 292.2 million, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association.

The winning numbers, which were announced Tuesday morning after Monday night’s drawing was delayed, were 10-33-41-47-56 and the Powerball was 10, according to the association.

The odds of winning the jackpot in Monday’s draw are one in 292.2 million, according to Powerball. The premier lottery game has had no winner in more than three months after 40 consecutive drawings.

Here is what you need to know about the lottery and its big prize.

The previous world-record jackpot was set in 2016, when $1.59bn was split between three Powerball players.

“Like the rest of America, and the world, I think we’re all eager to find out when this historic jackpot will eventually be won,” Drew Svitko, the chair of the Powerball Product Group, said in a statement.

While no-one claimed Saturday’s winning prize, there were 16 tickets matching the five main numbers to win $1m each. Another ticket – drawn in Kentucky – won $2m , while 219 tickets across the US won $50,000 and 51 won $150,000.

Only one other Powerball jackpot reached 41 consecutive drawings. The 2021 drawing ended with a nearly $700m winner in California.

Picture: CBS

How do you play Powerball?

Powerball tickets cost $2 to buy, and a winner has the option to choose a lump sum payment, which is currently estimated at $929. Winners can also choose to receive the full amount in an annuity paid over 29 years, but almost all winners opt for the upfront cash option.

The game, which began in 1992, is played in 45 of the 50 US states, the capital city of Washington, and in the US territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

A ticket must match all six numbers drawn to score the jackpot. If multiple winners select the same combination of numbers in the draw, they will equally share the jackpot.

The winnings are subject to federal taxes of between 24% and 37%, and, in most cases, state taxes. Only 10 states do not have state taxes. In several locations – such as New York City – the winnings are also subject to municipal taxes.

According to BBC, the jackpot was last won on August 3rd, when the owner of the winning ticket opted for a lump sum payment of $206.9m. In July, a “Mega Millions” ticket sold in Illinois won $1.34bn.

Players have to be at least 18 years old, but some states have set the age limit at 21. Some states also allow winners to remain anonymous.

Why is there such a big jackpot?

This record-breaking jackpot is being attributed in part to changes the lottery made in 2015. To boost sales, it made smaller prizes easier to win – but the jackpot harder.

It tweaked the game, notably including having players choose five numbers from one to 69 instead of from one to 59 under the previous rules.

Players also select the Powerball – their sixth number – from one to 26, instead of the previous one to 35 .

That increased the odds for the grand prize from one in 175.2 million to the current 1 in 292.2 million.

It’s not the first time to lottery the game rules were adjusted – it has made regular changes in its 30-year history, and recently added the Monday night draw.

Can Powerball be played outside the US?

Powerball tickets can be purchased from abroad online. Participants do not need to be US citizens nor residents.

Winnings, however, need to be claimed in the state to which a ticket belongs.

For US residents, this means that those living in states that don’t participate in the Powerball would need to travel to buy a ticket and claim winnings.

Similar rules are in place for other lottery games.

In 2015, a 37-year old Iraqi man from Baghdad won a $6.4m (£5.5m) “Megabucks” jackpot in Oregon after purchasing the ticket through a Malta-based website.

Lottery winners have also been reported in a number of other countries, including Australia and El Salvador.

Who owns Powerball?

Powerball is coordinated by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), a US non-profit comprised of 38 state lotteries from across the US, Washington DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. It was formed in 1987 and launched its first game – Lotto America – the following year.

The organisation provides a number of services to its constituent members, such as game development, central accounting and the actual conduct of lottery drawings.

Money from tickets sales goes both towards the prize money and the rest to the government-run state lotteries that participate in Powerball, as well as to retailer commissions.

According to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, US lottery sales totalled over $91bn in the 2019 fiscal year.

10 Richest People Who Ever Lived

The likes of Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Gautam Adani may be worth billions, but their riches pale in comparison to the entrepreneurs, emperors and rulers of days past

Russia’s Catherine the Great and Joseph Stalin sat atop trillions, Mali’s Mansa Musa had insane amounts of gold, and Genghis Khan founded the world’s biggest empire – so who’s. 

Forbes estimates the serial tech entrepreneur’s fortune at be about US$220 billion, thanks to his portfolio of companies including electric car manufacturer Tesla, rocket producer SpaceX and tunnelling project The Boring Company.

Yet, despite his astonishing net worth, the 51-year-old’s billions don’t even come close to the wealth of the richest people in history – proportionally speaking.. Yup, that means Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Indian tycoons Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani also don’t make the cut.

It is however important to note that the further we go back in time, the harder it is to put an accurate or fair figure on how relatively rich an individual was as, well, times were much different back then. Wealth was based on gold, land, salt and power – and not all academics agree on the valuations. But we’ve done our best stocktaking, and according to several sources, and the work of a number of historians, these are richest people to ever walk the earth – after factoring in inflation and the worth of commodities in the day – in 2022 dollars.

  1. John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937)

Estimated net worth today: US$340 billion

According to numerous sources including Celebrity Net Worth, John D. Rockefeller built up a fortune that would be worth around US$340 billion in today’s money.

The American business magnate and philanthropist established the Standard Oil Company in 1870, which controlled 90 per cent of US refineries and pipelines by the early 1880s, according to the website History. While the New Yorker faced controversy for monopolising of the industry, Rockefeller also played a big part in giving back to the community, donating about US$500 million to educational, religious and scientific causes through the Rockefeller Foundation.

  1. Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)

Estimated net worth today: US$372 billion

Money.com states that this Scottish-born industrialist stacked up the equivalent of around US$372 billion by leading the expansion of the American steel industry in the 19th and early 20th century.

He eventually sold his Carnegie Steel company in 1901 to JP Morgan for US$480 million (in the currency of the day). Carnegie also donated 90 per cent of his earnings to philanthropic causes by the time of his death in 1919.

  1. Catherine the Great (1729-1796)

Estimated net worth today: US$1.5 trillion

The Russian monarch inherited and controlled a vast network of land, wealth and political power, after assuming the throne in 1762 – investments worth 5 per cent of Russian GDP, or the equivalent of US$1.5 trillion today, according to Luxuo.

  1. Augustus Caesar (63BC-14AD)

Estimated net worth today: US$4.6 trillion

the founder of the Roman empire needs no introduction as one of the greatest and most famous rulers in history.

Augustus Caesar’s empire produced around 25 to 30 per cent of the world’s global output, and around a fifth of that was his own personal wealth, according to Luxuo. That means he would have been worth around US$4.6 trillion today.

  1. Joseph Stalin (1878-1953)

Estimated net worth today: US$7.5 trillion

Money.com says that it’s virtually impossible to separate Stalin’s wealth from the wealth of the Soviet Union, with economists claiming that his complete control of the USSR makes him one of the richest people to ever live.

Data from The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicates that in 1950, the USSR made up about 9.5 per cent of the global economic output (about US$7.5 trillion in today’s money).

Though Stalin didn’t technically “own” the money, he did have the power to “control the wealth of the country”, points out George O. Liber, a professor of history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

  1. Empress Wu (624-705)

Estimated net worth today: US$16 trillion

he first and only female emperor of China was intelligent, politically savvy – and famous for being ruthless when it came to bumping off her opponents. She ruled the country when the economy of China accounted for around 23 per cent of global GDP, which would be around US$16 trillion today. Despite her sometimes controversial methods of wielding power, she nevertheless built up the country’s wealth by trading tea and silk on the Silk Road, and oversaw the expansion of Imperial China into central Asia. Some call her the richest woman ever.

Genghis Khan, John D. Rockefeller, Mansa Musa, Empress Wu and Catherine the Great all had immense wealth. Photos: Handout; Shutterstock; @Dr_TheHistories/Twitter; Mary Evans Picture Library; @catherinee_thee_greatt/Instagram

  1. Akbar I (1542-1605)

Estimated net worth today: US$21 trillion

Akbar I lived far more extravagantly than European leaders with equivalent wealth at the time. 

Abu’l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third emperor to rule the Mughal empire.

Thanks to his ability to extract wealth from the population, Money.com claims that he ruled over an empire valued at 25 per cent of the global GDP. Comparable to the wealth of Elizabethan England at the time, the extravagance of Akbar I’s lifestyle nevertheless easily “surpassed that of the European society”, according to economic historian Angus Maddison.

  1. Emperor Shenzong (1048-1085)

Estimated net worth today: US$30 trillion

The sixth emperor of China’s Song dynasty ruled over an immensely economically powerful empire worth 25 to 30 per cent of the world’s GDP at the time, according to Money.com. Historians claim that the kingdom was light-years ahead of European governments when it came to effective tax collection, and its technological innovations and centralised form of governance also added to their wealth.

  1. Genghis Khan (1162-1227)

Estimated net worth today: US$120 trillion

It is believed that Genghis Khan was so powerful, and his Mongol empire so wide-reaching, that his DNA can be found in as many as 16 million men today, according to a 2003 scientific report.

And, having created the largest empire of all time – which covered most of China and Central Asia during his lifetime, and stretched as far as Poland and Vietnam afterward – The Richest estimates that he would have been worth about US$120 trillion in today’s money.

It is believed that Genghis Khan was so powerful, and his Mongol empire so wide-reaching, that his DNA can be found in as many as 16 million men today, according to a 2003 scientific report.

And, having created the largest empire of all time – which covered most of China and Central Asia during his lifetime, and stretched as far as Poland and Vietnam afterward – The Richest estimates that he would have been worth about US$120 trillion in today’s money.

  1. Mansa Musa (1280-1337)

Estimated net worth … “Incomprehensible”

Mansa Musa is considered the richest man to have ever lived, according to historians.

Coming in strong at No 1 is a name that you may not even recognize. Mansa Musa was the ruler of the Mali empire, which was immensely rich in land, salt and gold. Historians estimate the Mali Empire was at one point the largest gold producer in the world, meaning its ruler was in possession of “incomprehensible wealth”. While Celebrity Net Worth has estimated his wealth to have been the equivalent of around US$400 billion, historians believe it’s virtually impossible to come to a conclusion on the real number.

The African ruler was famous for making the most extravagant pilgrimage to Mecca of all time, with the BBC reporting that the king left Mali with about 60,000 men, from royal officials to camel drivers and slaves. He spent so much gold in Cairo during his three month stay there that he destabilized the local economy, affecting the price of gold in the region for the next 10 years!

Today’s Richest

Right now, Elon Musk is by far the richest person on earth. Tesla boss Elon Musk’s immense fortune pales into insignificance compared to the richest people in history. 

Forbes estimates the serial tech entrepreneur’s fortune at be about US$220 billion, thanks to his portfolio of companies including electric car manufacturer Tesla, rocket producer SpaceX and tunnelling project The Boring Company.

Yet, despite his astonishing net worth, the 51-year-old’s billions don’t even come close to the wealth of the richest people in history – proportionally speaking.. Yup, that means Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Indian tycoons Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani also don’t make the cut.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is currently the second richest person on the planet – but not necessarily the second richest of all time. Photo: AP

It is however important to note that the further we go back in time, the harder it is to put an accurate or fair figure on how relatively rich an individual was as, well, times were much different back then. Wealth was based on gold, land, salt and power – and not all academics agree on the valuations.

But we’ve done our best stocktaking, and according to several sources, and the work of a number of historians, these are richest people to ever walk the earth – after factoring in inflation and the worth of commodities in the day – in 2022 dollars. (Courtesy: Forbes)

Picture: Life Byond Post

Chinese Yuan Becomes World’s Fifth Most Traded Currency, Survey Finds

The Chinese currency, yuan leaped over the Australian, Canadian and Swiss currencies to become the fifth most traded currency in the world, according to the Bank for International Settlements’ Triennial Central Bank Survey.

The Chinese yuan has become the world’s fifth most traded currency, jumping from eighth place three years ago, according to a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) report, as the renminbi continues to gain international traction amid heightened geopolitical tensions.

The Chinese currency was involved in 7% of all trades in 2022, compared with 4% three years ago, Basel-based BIS said in a report on Thursday. Meanwhile, total daily trades rose 14% to $7.5 trillion. 

The dollar maintained its decade-long place as the world’s most traded currency, accounting for one side of 88% of all transactions. The euro, yen and pound also held their spots in the top four.

According to Bloomberg News, the yuan is becoming a more important global currency as China takes steps to open its financial markets. This is reflected in an increase in yuan cross-border settlements as well as a higher share of yuan among global FX reserves.

Bloomberg says the increase in cross-border yuan settlements, as well as the higher share among global foreign exchange reserves, is due to Beijing’s moves to open up its financial markets.

The BIS survey covered more than 1,200 banks and other intermediaries worldwide. Russia, which accounted for less than 1% of the global total in 2019, was excluded this year, while Dubai was included for the first time.

Movie Star Anna May Wong To Be First Asian American Featured On US Currency

Movie star Anna May Wong, who broke into Hollywood during the silent film era, will become the first Asian American to appear on US currency, a century after she landed her first leading role. Wong’s image, with her trademark blunt bangs and pencil-thin eyebrows, will feature on the back of new quarters from October 24th, 2022.

The design is the fifth to emerge from the American Women Quarters Program, which highlights pioneering women in their respective fields. The other four quarters, all put into production this year, feature poet and activist Maya Angelou; the first American woman in space, Sally Ride; Cherokee Nation leader Wilma Mankiller; and suffragist Nina Otero-Warren. The latter two were, along with Wong, selected with input from the public.

“These inspiring coin designs tell the stories of five extraordinary women whose contributions are indelibly etched in American culture,” the US Mint’s acting director, Alison Doone, said in a statement to CNN last year, when the list was revealed.

Considered the movie industry’s first Chinese American star, Wong overcame widespread discrimination to carve out a four-decade career in film, theater and radio. She acted alongside icons including Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford and Laurence Olivier and appeared on stage in London and New York.

Born in Los Angeles, she began acting at 14 and took a lead role in “The Toll of the Sea” three years later, in 1922. She went on to appear in dozens of movies but faced deeply entrenched racism in Hollywood, where she struggled to break from stereotypical roles.

She moved to Europe in the 1920s, but later returned to the US to make hits including “Shanghai Express,” the 1932 adventure-romance movie that gave Wong one of her best-known roles — it starred Dietrich as a notorious courtesan who takes a three-day rail journey through China during the Chinese Civil War and is held hostage on board, with Wong playing a fellow first-class passenger.

Throughout her life, Wong advocated for greater representation of Asian American actors in Hollywood. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, the year before she died aged 56.

Her keen sense of style also made her a fashion icon, with Wong often mixing traditional Chinese gowns and flapper-era styles with eccentric touches. A biopic of the actor’s life, which will see her portrayed by “Crazy Rich Asians” star Gemma Chan, is currently in production.

“Many prominent actors from the 1920s and 1930s saw their name framed by lightbulbs on movie theater marquees, so I thought it made sense to feature Anna May Wong in this way,” said the coin’s designer, Emily Damstra, in a press release.

“Along with the hard work, determination, and skill Anna May Wong brought to the profession of acting, I think it was her face and expressive gestures that really captivated movie audiences, so I included these elements next to her name.”

The American Women Quarters program will choose five different women each year to be featured on the coin’s reverse side through 2025. Next year’s confirmed designs will spotlight pilot Bessie Coleman, composer Edith Kanakaʻole, former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, journalist and activist Jovita Idar and ballerina Maria Tallchief. (The Hill)

New IRS Rules Mean Your Paycheck Could Be Bigger Next Year

Inflation may be pushing prices up, but it also may help push up your take-home pay starting next year.

Thanks to inflation adjustments to 2023 federal income tax brackets and other provisions announced by the Internal Revenue Service this week, more of your 2023 wages may be subject to lower tax rates than they were this year, and you may be able to deduct higher amounts of income.

“It is very likely that you would see more in your paycheck starting in January [due to the IRS inflation adjustments, which] tend to result in lower withholding for a given level of income,” said Mark Luscombe, principal federal tax analyst for Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting.

Since the changes don’t apply until 2023, they won’t have any affect on your 2022 tax return that you must file by mid-April of next year.

Here are some of the big changes the IRS is making:

Income tax brackets

  • There are seven different federal income tax rates at which earned income is taxed: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37%. And the range of income subject to each of those rates is called a tax bracket.
  • The more you earn, the higher your “top” rate – that’s the rate at which your last dollar is taxed.
  • The IRS inflation adjustments amount to a roughly 7% increase in each bracket.
  • Starting next year, here are the amounts of income that will apply to each rate:
  • 10% applies to the first $11,000 of income for single filers ($22,000 for married couples filing jointly).
  • 12% applies to income over $11,000 ($22,000 for joint filers)
  • 22% applies to income over $44,725 ($89,450 for joint filers)
  • 24% applies to incomes over $95,375 ($190,750 for joint filers)
  • 32% applies to incomes over $182,100 ($364,200 for joint filers)
  • 37% applies to incomes over $578,125 ($693,750 for joint filers)

Standard deduction

The standard deduction, which most filers claim, will go up by $900 to $13,850 for single people and by $1,800 to $27,700 for married couples filing jointly.

The standard deduction is the dollar amount that those who don’t itemize deductions can subtract from their adjustable gross income before federal income tax is applied.

Healthcare Flexible Spending Account contribution limits

Next year, you will be allowed to contribute up to $3,050 to a flexible spending account, which can cover some out-of-pocket healthcare costs not covered by health insurance. That money is deductible so it will reduce the amount of tax taken out of your paycheck. If your employer’s plan also allows you to carry over unused portions of your FSA amount, the maximum carryover permitted will be $610, $40 higher than this year’s maximum.

Earned Income Tax Credit

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) enables low-income workers to keep more of their paycheck. However, they will not get paid the money until they file their 2023 taxes in early 2024.

The IRS raised the maximum amounts one can claim for the EITC by about 7%.

For example, a qualifying taxpayer with three or more qualifying children could get an EITC of up to $7,430 in 2023, up from $6,935 this year.

India Cancels Foreign Contribution Regulation Act License Of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation

India’s Union Home Ministry has cancelled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licence of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF), a non-governmental organisation headed by Sonia Gandhi, for allegedly violating the foreign funding law.

The foundation will no longer be allowed to receive foreign funds.

According to sources, the FCRA license of the foundation has been cancelled due to violation of foreign funding rules. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had also constituted a committee in 2020 to probe this. This decision has been taken on the basis of the report by the same inquiry committee.

The trustees of the organization include former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and MPs Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

According to sources, the RGF came under the scanner in July, 2020. The MHA then constituted an inter-ministerial committee headed by an Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer to investigate NGOs, including the RGF, linked to the Gandhi family. The foundation was accused of tampering with income tax returns, including suspected FCRA violations.

The RGF was established in 1991. For many years, this foundation worked on important issues regarding health, science and technology, women, children and education, etc.

In 2020, BJP President J.P. Nadda also alleged that the foundation took such funds from China, “which were not in the interest of the country”. (IANS)

Loan Forgiveness Application Available For Students Now

The Department of Education launched a beta test version of its student loan relief website on Friday with an application that borrowers can fill out ahead of the site’s official launch later this month.

Since August, when President Biden announced that he would fulfill his campaign promise to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt, borrowers have been waiting diligently to hear the next steps. While the application—which was originally supposed to open in early October—is not fully functional, the Department of Education is welcoming applicants to submit their applications on the beta test site.

The beta site’s application will be available “on and off” over the next few weeks, according to the Education Department. The department chose to launch its beta version early so their technical team can work to detect and remedy any issues that might come up

How does the beta application process go?

The federal agency said that there’s no advantage to completing the application before its official launch because it won’t be processed until then, but if a borrower fills out the application during the beta period, they won’t have to worry about filling it out again later. 

The application process takes about 5 minutes, and it’s available in English and Spanish. Applicants also don’t need to log in or provide any documents, according to the department. About 95% of federal student loan borrowers are eligible for relief.

The Education Department’s technical team will be responding to potential issues in real-time, and although the application itself won’t change, the team may make changes to the website if faced with any glitches. 

The beta version of the site will have scheduled pauses for the team to observe its progress and refine any errors, so the department is encouraging applicants to check back later if the site is down when they try to visit it. The department’s website crashed in August on the day of the student loan relief announcement, so the department is likely testing the site thoroughly to avoid a repeat.

How quickly are borrowers expected to receive relief?

The Biden administration initially said that the debt relief application would become available in early October, but in a legal filing on Friday, the Department of Education announced that it won’t be available before Oct. 23. From that point, the application will be available until Dec. 31, 2023.

​​The application asks borrowers to submit their Social Security numbers and to corroborate that they meet the income caps for the program, which are limited to a salary less than $125,000, or under $250,000 for married couples, in 2020 or 2021. Borrowers are eligible to cancel $10,000 of federal student loan debt and Pell Grant recipients are eligible for up to $20,000 of relief.

The Federal Student Aid office will confirm applicants’ eligibility, and reach out to applicants if more information is needed. Applicants’ loan service providers will be responsible for contacting them once their relief has been processed.

Borrowers can expect to see their relief granted within four to six weeks after filling out the application, according to Education Secretary, Miguel Cardona. With looming legal action challenging the student loan relief program and an imminent renewal of student loan payments beginning in January, experts have encouraged borrowers to fill out the application as soon as possible.

Rupee Plunges To All-Time Low Against Dollar

The Indian Rupee pared most of its initial losses and settled 4 paise lower at a fresh lifetime low of ₹82.34 (provisional) against the U.S. dollar on Monday, October 10, 2022, weighed down by as risk-averse sentiment among investors.

Indian rupee on Friday last week fell sharply to its all-time low of 82.33 against the dollar owing to a rise in US bond yields and firming up of crude oil prices. Rupee had closed at 81.89 on Thursday.

It was trading at 82.30 against the dollar in the morning after opening at 82.19 a dollar. Later, it touched an all-time low of 82.33 against the dollar.

The all-time low plunge in the rupee has come a day after the World Bank had on Thursday cut India’s growth forecast for this financial year by a full percentage point amid rising inflation and adverse geo-political conditions. (IANS)

The US dollar has surged this year. The world’s largest wealth manager explains why that dizzying rally isn’t done yet.

Meanwhile market watchers say, the surging US dollar has yet to peak. That’s according to UBS, which thinks the Federal Reserve is unlikely to start cutting interest rates any time soon, keeping the dollar rising against rival currencies globally. 

The greenback has already flown up 16.7% this year, bolstered by Fed rate hikes and weaknesses among major counterparts. But hopes of a pivot in the Fed’s policy pumped the brakes on its rise recently, with the US dollar index, which measures the buck against a basket of six currencies, retreating on the speculation fueled by a fall in US job openings and a lower-than-expected rate increase in Australia.

However, UBS’s analysts, led by CIO Mark Haefele, said in a note to clients this week that it’s too early to call a peak in both Fed hawkishness and the US dollar. 

“The number of job openings in the US remains much higher than those unemployed, while the latest core personal consumption expenditure price index showed that inflation is still elevated,” the note read. 

“Fed officials including Chair Jerome Powell have stressed that the central bank’s job is not yet done.” 

Against a backdrop of global uncertainty amid the war in Ukraine, the pressure weighing on the euro is likely to prop up the dollar in the near future, UBS says. 

S&P 500 Down 20% This Year, Retirement Savings Sink Impacting Millions

Despite stock market gains in the last couple of days, some investors are clearly tired of seeing losses in their retirement accounts this year. New data from Alight Solutions shows last month the vast majority of daily trades in 401(k) plans went from equities to fixed income.

“Almost every time Wall Street has a major dip, we see people taking their money out of stocks and moving it into bonds,” said Rob Austin, head of research for Alight Solutions, which measures the daily trading activity of more than 2 million 401(k) investors, with about $200 billion in assets.

Austin noted the movement was more pronounced in September than in August and July. “It was not surprising that it coincided at the time that the market fell,” he said.

Investors are seeking safety

Investors sought safety mostly in stable value funds, with 80% of traded assets put there in September, according to the Alight Solutions 401(k) Index. Money market funds garnered 15% of inflows, while bond funds got about 2% of assets.

Meanwhile, 50% of money that was traded came out target date funds, which are designed to invest more conservatively as you get older. And more than a third of outflows came out of large-cap U.S. equity and mid-cap U.S. equity funds.

Many stick with a 60/40 stocks, bonds split

The traditional portfolio of 60% stocks and 40% bonds has lost about 20% of its value year to date, but most investment advisors recommend sticking with a balanced strategy. With bond yields improving, that mix looks better than it has in years, some say.

Financial advisors also caution against switching strategies when the markets are in turmoil. Trying to time the market can mean investors lock in losses and miss out on the upside.

“If you wake up in the morning and decide to cash out and capture losses, it’s either too late or a bad decision,” said certified financial planner Jon Ulin with Ulin & Co. Wealth Management in Boca Raton, Florida. “Cash does not provide much in the way of a dividend and will not help to make up for 8% losses to inflation over time in as much as a diversified portfolio.” 

The 60/40 split can be a good starting point for moderate-risk investors who don’t need to pull the money for 10 years or more.  Some advisors say what we saw this year with stocks and bonds both declining at the same time could be an anomaly.

“Provided that inflation is under control, we expect that bonds will revert to their historical role of both a safe asset and one that provides relatively safe income,” said Arthur J.W. Ebersole of Ebersole Financial in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts.

Cash is an option for the risk averse

For investors who really can’t stomach the risk, cash may not be a bad placeholder for now. But the risk adverse should know it is difficult to generate the returns they will need to retire with a 3% return.  

“It’s really easy for my teammates [and I], or our industry, to say, ‘Well, don’t worry, just take the long-term approach and everything over the long-term will be fine,’” said Jason Ray, CEO of Zenith Wealth Partners in Philadelphia.

Ray suggests investors break down their portfolios to see the returns in different asset classes. He recommends adding dividend-paying stocks as a value play and suggests younger investors with a longer time horizon add alternative investments, including investing in early stage startup companies and real estate.  (https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/04/sp-500-down-20percent-for-year-retirement-investors-reconsider-stock-bond-strategy-.html)

Pound Plunges Against Dollar

By, Jill Lawless And Danica Kirka

UK markets were in focus as the pound crashed to an all-time low and bond yields surged to the highest in more than a decade, sparking talk of emergency action by the Bank of England on Monday, September 26th. The market mayhem unleashed by the government’s fiscal plan on Friday went into overdrive after the government pledged further tax cuts.

The Bank of England sought to reassure financial markets after the British pound touched an all-time low against the U.S. dollar, but its entreaty fell flat for investors concerned about a sweeping package of tax cuts that further jolted a faltering economy that the government’s plan was meant to prop up.

The central bank said it was “closely monitoring” the markets and would not hesitate to boost interest rates to curb inflation. Its statement came after the pound plunged as low as $1.0373, the lowest since the decimalization of the currency in 1971, on concerns that tax cuts announced Friday by Treasury chief Kwasi Kwarteng would swell government debt and fuel further inflation as the United Kingdom teeters toward recession.

The bank, which raised rates Thursday, said it would fully assess the government’s tax and spending commitments before it meets next in November and “will not hesitate to change interest rates by as much as needed to return inflation to the 2% target sustainably in the medium term.”

Also Monday, the U.K. Treasury said it would set out a medium-term fiscal plan on Nov. 23, alongside an economic forecast by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.

The statements did little to ease misgivings about the government’s economic policies, with the pound dropping from $1.0857 to $1.0664 after they were issued. The pound had rallied from the record low earlier in the day on expectations that the central bank might take action to stabilize the currency.

The weakening pound piles pressure on the new Conservative government, which has gambled that it can slash taxes to spur economic growth while at the same time borrowing billions of pounds to help consumers and businesses struggling with soaring energy costs. Many economists say it’s more likely to fuel already high inflation, push down the pound and drive up the cost of U.K. government borrowing — a potential perfect storm of economic headwinds.

Kwarteng has been criticized for failing to release any independent analysis of the plans when he announced the U.K.’s biggest tax cuts in 50 years.

The government plans to cut 45 billion pounds ($49 billion) in taxes at the same time as it spends more than 60 billion pounds to cap energy prices that are driving a cost-of-living crisis.

Kwarteng and Prime Minister Liz Truss, who replaced Boris Johnson as prime minister on Sept. 6, are betting that lower taxes and reduced bureaucracy eventually will generate enough additional tax revenue to cover government spending. Economists suggest it is unlikely the gamble will pay off.

Opposition Labour Party economy spokeswoman Rachel Reeves accused the government of “a return to trickle-down economics, an idea that has been tried, has been tested and has failed.”

“They are not gambling with their money — they are gambling with yours,” she told an audience at the party’s annual conference Monday.

The new and untested Truss also faces pressure from a nervous Conservative Party, which faces an election within two years.

Some Conservatives have welcomed the tax-cutting moves as a return to free-market values after years of state intervention in the economy during the coronavirus pandemic. But others worry it is unconservative for the government to rack up huge debts that taxpayers will eventually have to pay.

Monday’s turbulence follows a 3% fall in the pound Friday, the biggest one-day drop against the U.S. dollar since Johnson announced Britain’s first COVID-19 lockdown on March 18, 2020. Before that, the pound lost more than 10% of its value immediately after the U.K. voted to leave the European Union in June 2016 before rebounding.

The sense of a government losing control led some to compare current events with Sept. 16, 1992 — “Black Wednesday” — when a collapsing pound against the backdrop of high inflation forced the U.K. to crash out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, which was meant to stabilize exchange rates. It took the U.K. years to recover from the economic shock.

Kwarteng insisted the government was acting responsibly — and said there were more tax cuts to come.

“We’ve only been here 19 days. I want to see, over the next year, people retain more of their income because I believe that it is the British people that are going to drive this economy,” he told the BBC.

As it is cutting taxes, the government plans to cap electricity and natural gas prices for homes and businesses to help cushion price rises that have been triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine and have sent inflation to a near 40-year high of 9.9%.

This program will cost 60 billion pounds, and the government will borrow to finance it, Kwarteng said Friday.

He said Sunday that it was the right policy because the government needed to help consumers squeezed by the unprecedented pressures caused by the war in Ukraine and the pandemic.

Britain can afford the cost because its debt as a percentage of gross domestic product is the second lowest among the Group of Seven large industrial economies, Kwarteng said. He said the government would announce a “medium-term fiscal plan” for reducing the nation’s debt in the coming months.

Rupee Nosedives As Dollar Continues To Gain

A hattrick of record low: The rupee plunged 54 paise to provisionally close at a new all-time low of 81.63 against the US dollar on Monday. It had ended at its lowest ever on both Thursday and Friday, making Monday’s deeper plunge the third successive record low levels in three sessions.

There’s panic: It has been created by the dollar index, which has witnessed strong buying as a strong hedge against interest rate hikes and inflation cycle. The downtrend may continue for the rupee until positive triggers are not witnessed from the inflation forefront, experts feel.

The main story: The dollar has become profitable as the US Fed is hiking rates to tame inflationary trends in its market. The dollar rally reflects the ‘flight-to-safety’ approach by investors. As a result the Asian markets have become riskier and are experiencing crisis-level stress again. Two most significant Asian currencies — the yen and the yuan — have been falling under the dollar’s assault. The US is hawkish, the Asians are dovish.

RBI has a job to do: Its monetary policy committee (MPC) is meeting this week and is expected to hike rates by 50 basis points. Market experts feel this could provide some respite to the rupee but it still may lie in the 80.50-81.50 range.

Pressure on forex: RBI has been holding the rupee for quite some time through rate hikes and by selling dollars from its foreign exchange reserves. But this meant that India’s foreign exchange reserves fell below $550 billion for the first time in nearly two years last week, which marked the seventh successive week of forex decline.

And shares? The 30-share BSE index tanked 953.70 points to settle at 57,145, recovering after plummeting 1,061 points during the day. The NSE Nifty fell 311.05 points to close at 17,016. In the last four sessions, the Sensex has lost about 2,575 points and the market capitalisation of the BSE-listed companies reduced by over Rs 13.3 lakh crore.  (Times Of India)

Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan To Cost $400 Billion

President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive $10,000 in federal student debt for most borrowers will cost the government about $400 billion, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in an estimate released Monday.

The CBO’s evaluation of the administration’s policy said the price tag is “a result of the action canceling up to $10,000 of debt issued on or before June 30, 2022.”

The estimate applies to the plan Biden announced last month to forgive $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers earning less than $125,000 and $20,000 for borrowers who received Pell Grants.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said 43 million borrowers shared $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt as of June 30. Under Biden’s plan, about $430 billion of that debt will be wiped out, the reporting shows.

The CBO also estimated the costs for the Biden administration’s recent renewal of the moratorium on federal student loan payments and interest accrual, which had been set to lapse at the end of August. The extension, which punts the deadline to the end of the year, was projected to cost $20 billion in the new report. 

As of the end of June, 43 million borrowers held $1.6 trillion in federal student loans and about $430 billion of that debt will be canceled, the CBO estimated. The White House, borrowing language from the CBO analysis, responded by focusing on the agency’s own assessment that its $400 billion estimate was “highly uncertain.”

“CBO called its own estimate ‘highly uncertain.’ We agree,'” the White House said in a memo. “By law, the federal budget computes the complete cost of student loan relief over the lifetime of the loans, and then records that cost in the year the loans are modified,” the memo continued. “But that’s not how this program will affect the bottom line in reality. The cost to the government is not the long-term score, but rather, the annual lost receipts.”

Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan To Cost $400 Billion

President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive $10,000 in federal student debt for most borrowers will cost the government about $400 billion, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in an estimate released Monday.

The CBO’s evaluation of the administration’s policy said the price tag is “a result of the action canceling up to $10,000 of debt issued on or before June 30, 2022.”

The estimate applies to the plan Biden announced last month to forgive $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers earning less than $125,000 and $20,000 for borrowers who received Pell Grants.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said 43 million borrowers shared $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt as of June 30. Under Biden’s plan, about $430 billion of that debt will be wiped out, the reporting shows.

The CBO also estimated the costs for the Biden administration’s recent renewal of the moratorium on federal student loan payments and interest accrual, which had been set to lapse at the end of August. The extension, which punts the deadline to the end of the year, was projected to cost $20 billion in the new report.

As of the end of June, 43 million borrowers held $1.6 trillion in federal student loans and about $430 billion of that debt will be canceled, the CBO estimated. The White House, borrowing language from the CBO analysis, responded by focusing on the agency’s own assessment that its $400 billion estimate was “highly uncertain.”

“CBO called its own estimate ‘highly uncertain.’ We agree,'” the White House said in a memo. “By law, the federal budget computes the complete cost of student loan relief over the lifetime of the loans, and then records that cost in the year the loans are modified,” the memo continued. “But that’s not how this program will affect the bottom line in reality. The cost to the government is not the long-term score, but rather, the annual lost receipts.”

Rupee Nosedives As Dollar Continues To Gain

A hattrick of record low: The rupee plunged 54 paise to provisionally close at a new all-time low of 81.63 against the US dollar on Monday. It had ended at its lowest ever on both Thursday and Friday, making Monday’s deeper plunge the third successive record low levels in three sessions.

There’s panic: It has been created by the dollar index, which has witnessed strong buying as a strong hedge against interest rate hikes and inflation cycle. The downtrend may continue for the rupee until positive triggers are not witnessed from the inflation forefront, experts feel.

The main story: The dollar has become profitable as the US Fed is hiking rates to tame inflationary trends in its market. The dollar rally reflects the ‘flight-to-safety’ approach by investors. As a result the Asian markets have become riskier and are experiencing crisis-level stress again. Two most significant Asian currencies — the yen and the yuan — have been falling under the dollar’s assault. The US is hawkish, the Asians are dovish.

RBI has a job to do: Its monetary policy committee (MPC) is meeting this week and is expected to hike rates by 50 basis points. Market experts feel this could provide some respite to the rupee but it still may lie in the 80.50-81.50 range.

Pressure on forex: RBI has been holding the rupee for quite some time through rate hikes and by selling dollars from its foreign exchange reserves. But this meant that India’s foreign exchange reserves fell below $550 billion for the first time in nearly two years last week, which marked the seventh successive week of forex decline.

And shares? The 30-share BSE index tanked 953.70 points to settle at 57,145, recovering after plummeting 1,061 points during the day. The NSE Nifty fell 311.05 points to close at 17,016. In the last four sessions, the Sensex has lost about 2,575 points and the market capitalisation of the BSE-listed companies reduced by over Rs 13.3 lakh crore.  (Times Of India)

Pound Plunges Against Dollar

UK markets were in focus as the pound crashed to an all-time low and bond yields surged to the highest in more than a decade, sparking talk of emergency action by the Bank of England on Monday, September 26th. The market mayhem unleashed by the government’s fiscal plan on Friday went into overdrive after the government pledged further tax cuts.

The Bank of England sought to reassure financial markets after the British pound touched an all-time low against the U.S. dollar, but its entreaty fell flat for investors concerned about a sweeping package of tax cuts that further jolted a faltering economy that the government’s plan was meant to prop up.

The central bank said it was “closely monitoring” the markets and would not hesitate to boost interest rates to curb inflation. Its statement came after the pound plunged as low as $1.0373, the lowest since the decimalization of the currency in 1971, on concerns that tax cuts announced Friday by Treasury chief Kwasi Kwarteng would swell government debt and fuel further inflation as the United Kingdom teeters toward recession.

The bank, which raised rates Thursday, said it would fully assess the government’s tax and spending commitments before it meets next in November and “will not hesitate to change interest rates by as much as needed to return inflation to the 2% target sustainably in the medium term.”

Also Monday, the U.K. Treasury said it would set out a medium-term fiscal plan on Nov. 23, alongside an economic forecast by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.

The statements did little to ease misgivings about the government’s economic policies, with the pound dropping from $1.0857 to $1.0664 after they were issued. The pound had rallied from the record low earlier in the day on expectations that the central bank might take action to stabilize the currency.

The weakening pound piles pressure on the new Conservative government, which has gambled that it can slash taxes to spur economic growth while at the same time borrowing billions of pounds to help consumers and businesses struggling with soaring energy costs. Many economists say it’s more likely to fuel already high inflation, push down the pound and drive up the cost of U.K. government borrowing — a potential perfect storm of economic headwinds.

Kwarteng has been criticized for failing to release any independent analysis of the plans when he announced the U.K.’s biggest tax cuts in 50 years.

The government plans to cut 45 billion pounds ($49 billion) in taxes at the same time as it spends more than 60 billion pounds to cap energy prices that are driving a cost-of-living crisis.

Kwarteng and Prime Minister Liz Truss, who replaced Boris Johnson as prime minister on Sept. 6, are betting that lower taxes and reduced bureaucracy eventually will generate enough additional tax revenue to cover government spending. Economists suggest it is unlikely the gamble will pay off.

Opposition Labour Party economy spokeswoman Rachel Reeves accused the government of “a return to trickle-down economics, an idea that has been tried, has been tested and has failed.”

“They are not gambling with their money — they are gambling with yours,” she told an audience at the party’s annual conference Monday.

The new and untested Truss also faces pressure from a nervous Conservative Party, which faces an election within two years.

Some Conservatives have welcomed the tax-cutting moves as a return to free-market values after years of state intervention in the economy during the coronavirus pandemic. But others worry it is unconservative for the government to rack up huge debts that taxpayers will eventually have to pay.

Monday’s turbulence follows a 3% fall in the pound Friday, the biggest one-day drop against the U.S. dollar since Johnson announced Britain’s first COVID-19 lockdown on March 18, 2020. Before that, the pound lost more than 10% of its value immediately after the U.K. voted to leave the European Union in June 2016 before rebounding.

The sense of a government losing control led some to compare current events with Sept. 16, 1992 — “Black Wednesday” — when a collapsing pound against the backdrop of high inflation forced the U.K. to crash out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, which was meant to stabilize exchange rates. It took the U.K. years to recover from the economic shock.

Kwarteng insisted the government was acting responsibly — and said there were more tax cuts to come.

“We’ve only been here 19 days. I want to see, over the next year, people retain more of their income because I believe that it is the British people that are going to drive this economy,” he told the BBC.

As it is cutting taxes, the government plans to cap electricity and natural gas prices for homes and businesses to help cushion price rises that have been triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine and have sent inflation to a near 40-year high of 9.9%.

This program will cost 60 billion pounds, and the government will borrow to finance it, Kwarteng said Friday.

He said Sunday that it was the right policy because the government needed to help consumers squeezed by the unprecedented pressures caused by the war in Ukraine and the pandemic.

Britain can afford the cost because its debt as a percentage of gross domestic product is the second lowest among the Group of Seven large industrial economies, Kwarteng said. He said the government would announce a “medium-term fiscal plan” for reducing the nation’s debt in the coming months.

Repel The Recession With These 5 Tips

It doesn’t hurt your bottom line to take a step back and self-evaluate. Learn how you’ll be able to repel the recession with these 5 tips.

While the professional pundits debate when or if an economic recession is imminent, it may be a good idea to ensure you’re prepared, nonetheless. It doesn’t hurt your bottom line to take a step back and self-evaluate. Learn how you’ll be able to repel the recession with these 5 tips.

Live Your Life Within Your Means

Many of you may already live your everyday lives with this money-management strategy and if you do, then you’re ahead of the curve. But let’s be honest, we all know people who do not live within their means. Saying ‘no’ when deciding on an unneeded purchase is a skill that sometimes needs to be learned.

It’s important to carefully weigh all decisions about money, especially if a recession is looming. Don’t get caught in the trap of thinking the recession may not last long. The more conscious you are about spending habits, the more you can avoid going into debt with credit cards and loans. It’s better to save now and put off making big purchases, then to build up your debt and struggle to get out from under it later in life. Speaking of saving…

Look For Ways to Save

It’s always a good idea to audit your own finances. Most people are aware of their paycheck, but they are often fuzzy about the money that leaves their account. Re-evaluate your monthly subscriptions. Do you need every single streaming service? How often do you make coffee runs to your local café? It might be time to brew a cup from home.

Divide your monthly expenses into wants and needs. Make sure you’re not overpaying for those wants. Cut down on the trips to the restaurants. If you had any planned vacations or renovations, it might be in your best interest to postpone. Perhaps we learned all those money-saving tricks during the 2020 quarantine for a reason. It might be time to revisit those lessons.

Have an Emergency Fund

You may call it a rainy-day fund. If so, the skies are getting cloudy. If you haven’t already put money aside in a secured FDIC account for emergencies, it may be time to start. In the event of a lost job or your forced to take a pay cut, you want the flexibility to cover expenses while you engage in a plan of action. This fund is designed for necessary expenses. Be diligent with how you use the money. Again, you don’t know how long a potential recession could last.

Obtain Additional Income

A smart tactic — and one that’s been popularized in recent years — is finding other streams of revenue outside of your job. We live in a gig economy and the skills you’ve honed at your current employer may prove valuable in a consulting capacity. You could replace any lost income from a job loss or salary reduction by uncovering potential freelancing opportunities in your specialty. It doesn’t hurt to add more skills to your resume. The more you know how to do, the more attractive you become to your current or future employer.

Anticipate the Worst

No one expects to lose their job, but don’t be unprepared if it happens. It would be appropriate for you to consider your options in the event of the unthinkable. Update your resume. Update your LinkedIn profile. All those professional relationships you developed, both online and in-person, could become leads to new positions. Prepare for the worst, expect the best.

(Courtesy: https://barnumfinancialgroup.com/repel-the-recession-with-these-5-tips/)

Thousands Of Yellow Cab Owner-Drivers To See Debt Relief They Won After 45-Day Camp Out And 15-Day Hunger Strike

(New York, NY) Thousands of yellow cab medallion owner-drivers will finally begin to see the debt relief they won after NYTWA members held a 45-day camp out and 15-day hunger strike last November, as City Hall announced today that the program to provide a city-backed guarantee on restructured loans will be operational starting September 19th.

Under the program, loans that are reduced by medallion lenders to no more than $200,000 will receive a $30,000 grant and the remaining balance will be guaranteed by the city in case of default.

The average debt is currently $550,000 with average monthly payments at $3,000. Under the final program, the new loan term for thousands will be $170,000 payable at $1,234 per month.

The final program reflects an increase in interest agreed upon in November 2021 from 5% to 7.3% as rates have gone up due to inflation; and a longer term of 25 years from 20 years to help drivers offset some of that cost.

The loan will be secured by a city-backed guarantee, relieving thousands of drivers from the fear of losing their homes or thousands of dollars in case of default.

Marblegate Assets, the largest holder of loans, is ready to begin restructurings on September 19th – bringing immediate relief to the largest segment of owner-driver borrowers.

The City’s program is for all lenders and all eligible medallion owners (medallion owners who do not own more than 5 medallions.) Other lenders representing hundreds more loans are expected to also participate.

NYTWA Executive Director Bhairavi Desai said: “We are finally at the starting line of a new life for thousands of drivers and our families. The city-backed guarantee is a ground-breaking program that will save and change lives. We are thankful to City Hall, the TLC, the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, the Law Department, and to Marblegate for burning the midnight oil to set up this historic program to address the crisis of debt across the industry. As we collectively work to end this crisis and hit re-start, we look forward to working with all lenders. I congratulate all of our union members who chose to organize, and not despair, and won back their lives. Against the darkness of a crushing debt, their courage remained the light, and today, the triumph is fully theirs.”

BACKGROUND:

Since City Hall agreed to a city-backed guarantee in November 2021, the Adams administration’s TLC, Office of Management and Budget and Law Department have been working to make the program operational. The City negotiated program terms and documents with Marblegate Assets, the largest medallion loan holder, and NYTWA.

NYTWA members voted unanimously to give their sign-off at the end of negotiations.

The new terms for drivers means:

  • No personal guarantee in case of default
  • No Confession of Judgment; COJ are pre-signed documents by the borrower accepting responsibility in case of default and waving their right to a hearing. Lenders would be empowered to skip the court process including a trial to receive a judgment that could then be collected on immediately; including going after people’s homes as the COJ would be combined with a personal guarantee.
  • No balloon payments; Balloon payments meant that the lender could demand the full balance on a loan at the end of a balloon which would typically be every 3 or 5 years. Owner-drivers would be forced to agree to any new terms, including high interest rates, the lender would demand at the end of the balloon.
  • No pre-payment penalty in case a borrower wants to pay off the loan earlier

 

Click here to see our statement on November 3, 2021 when the agreement was first reached

India Ranks Seventh In Digital Currency Ownership Worldwide: UN

The United Nations announced that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented rise in According to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), around 7.3 percent of Indians owned some form of digital currency in 2021. This highlights that over the last couple of years, digital assets have surged to popularity among the Indian populace amounting to over 100 million crypto holders.

Cryptocurrency use worldwide has risen, with India moving up to the seventh-highest position in terms of ownership. The UN noted that 7.3 percent of Indians possessed assets in the form of digital currency as of 2021. According to data from 2021, developing nations made up 15 of the top 20 economies in terms of the percentage of the total population that owns cryptocurrency. The statistics for other nations were also provided by UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development).

The report also states that 15 of the top 20 nations in terms of digital currency ownership were developing countries, with India ranking 7th, one position behind the US. Pakistan also made it to the list coming in 15th while the UK and Australia occupied the 13th and 20th positions respectively. Topping the list was Ukraine, with 12.7 percent of its population holding crypto assets.

As per the UNCTAD report, the crypto ecosystem ballooned by over 2,300 percent between September 2019 and June 2021. However, Indian investors have grown sceptical of these digital assets, with regulatory bodies coming down hard on cryptocurrencies.

While buying and selling crypto assets is not illegal, profits from the same are being treated as winnings from gambling, and the income from the transfer of virtual assets is being taxed at 30 percent. On top of this, there is also one percent TDS deduction on all transactions.

Earlier this year, crypto exchanges in the country were also forced to halt UPI payments due to uncertainty from regulatory bodies. This made it harder to acquire digital assets. Such uncertainties are also driving crypto firms to set up bases elsewhere, with several projects looking to countries like Dubai as a hub for digital asset operations.

US House Panel Advances Prior Authorization Relief Bill For Seniors

Newswise — The House Ways and Means Committee has voted unanimously to advance the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act of 2022 (H.R. 8487), positioning the bill for passage in Congress possibly this fall. The bill would reform prior authorization under the Medicare Advantage program to help ensure America’s seniors get the care they need when they need it.

Support for this commonsense legislation is overwhelming. The bill has more than 330 cosponsors in the House and Senate, and has been endorsed by more 500 organizations, including the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and more 30 additional ophthalmic subspecialty and state societies.

recent report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General underscored the need for reform, finding that Medicare Advantage plans have denied prior authorization requests that met Medicare coverage rules.

The bill was introduced by Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Ami Bera, MD, (D-CA), and Larry Bucshon, MD, (R-IN). If enacted, the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act would streamline and standardize prior authorization in the Medicare Advantage (MA) program, providing much-needed oversight and transparency while protecting beneficiaries from unnecessary care delays and denials. The legislation would improve prior authorization in MA plans by:

Establishing an electronic prior authorization (ePA) program;

Standardizing and streamlining the prior authorization process for routinely approved services, including establishing a list of services eligible for real-time prior authorization decisions;

Ensuring prior authorization requests are reviewed by qualified medical personnel; and

Increasing transparency around MA prior authorization requirements and their use.

This bill has been years in the making. The Academy is a founding member of the Regulatory Relief Coalition, a group of sixteen national physician specialty and two allied organizations advocating for a reduction in Medicare program regulatory burdens to protect patients’ timely access to care and allow physicians to spend more time with their patients. We thank the bill’s sponsors, as well as the chair and ranking member of House Ways and Means Committee, Reps. Richie Neal (D-MA) and Kevin Brady (R-TX).

“We believe this bill will help remove some of the unnecessary red tape that overburdens our healthcare system and prevents us from providing the care America’s seniors need when they need it,” said David Glasser, MD, the Academy’s secretary for Federal Affairs. “We’re confident that when this bill comes to the House floor, Congress will agree with these commonsense reforms.”

When Will The Indian Rupee Stop Falling?

The Indian Rupee breached the psychological 80-mark for the first time against the US dollar on Tuesday, July 18th, declining to 80.06 per Dollar. The Reserve Bank of India intervened in the currency market to help the Rupee steady after hitting seven straight intraday record lows. A recovery in domestic shares also favored the Indian currency.

According analysts, a wobbly global macroeconomic environment marked by a spell of monetary tightening unleashed, firstly, by the Federal Reserve and being mimicked in earnest by the major central bank governors across the globe has led to an exodus of hot money from developing economies to the “safe haven” of the Dollar. The scenario is compounded further by record-breaking crude oil prices, which balloon India’s imports, diminish the cumulative value of India’s exports and widen our trade deficit.

It is a regular demand-supply market. Currently, there is a greater demand for Dollars than there is for the Rupee. Two factors have pushed demand — India’s current account deficit has sharply widened particularly after Russia invaded Ukraine, and investment in the Indian economy has fallen due to heavy flight of funds in recent months.

Depreciation of the Rupee makes imported items — including petrol and mobile phones — and gives India’s export a competitive edge. But India is a net importer. For those eyeing a trip abroad, earlier budgets on food, boarding, and transportation will now fall short – leaving one with the option to either expand their budgets or opt for countries where the rupee commands a stronger position compared to their domestic currencies.

The dollar has been appreciating against all currencies including the Euro. Market watchers, in fact, say that the Rupee has fared better compared to other currencies including the Euro.

In FY’22, as per the provisional figures released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India’s current account deficit widened to $38.7 billion from a surplus of $23.9 billion in the previous FY. 

A widening current account deficit indicates that Indians have been converting more of their rupees into dollars to complete trade and investment transactions consequently spiking up the demand for dollars. It doesn’t help that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been dumping Indian equities after a strong bullish spell, and making a beeline for US treasury notes and bonds.

The RBI has intervened by selling Dollars to check the Rupee’s slide. Else, the free market would have seen a further weaker Rupee. The current exchange market scenarios suggest that the rupee’s fall may continue for a few more months, breaching even the 82-mark. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took a dig at the Rupee’s slide saying a “strong government” is “giving us a weaker Rupee”.

US Dollar Gains Are Boon To Americans Traveling Abroad

The surging value of the U.S. dollar in recent weeks is a boon to the American traveler, who will get more bang for their buck overseas despite surging inflation at home.  

But a strong American currency could limit international visitors to the U.S., where tourism firms are still licking their wounds from the height of the pandemic.  

The dollar recently hit parity with the euro for the first time in two decades, making trips to Europe 10 to 15 percent less expensive for Americans than at the same time last year.  

The dollar is also soaring in destinations like Thailand, India and South Korea — countries with ample tourism interest from Americans and relatively weaker economic growth than the U.S. 

“With the rising cost of travel, the strong U.S. dollar is a net positive amidst all the disruption in the industry,” said Erika Richter, vice president of communications at the American Society of Travel Advisors.  Richter noted that Americans are spending 11 percent more on travel compared to 2019. 

The idea of a strong dollar might seem like a farce to Americans after annual inflation hit 9.1 percent in June and the price of gas and food rose far faster. But the dollar has still become more valuable abroad even as it yields less in goods and services at home. 

Demand for the U.S. dollar in other countries has skyrocketed amid concerns about a global recession caused by high inflation, the war in Ukraine and lingering COVID-19 supply shocks.  

While the U.S. is not immune from those threats, the economy has held up far stronger than other nations, making its currency more valuable abroad. The dollar is also used as the world’s reserve currency, meaning foreign individuals and companies will often boost their holdings and conduct transactions in dollars to protect themselves from financial shocks. 

The strength of the U.S. economy has allowed the Federal Reserve to boost interest rates at a much faster pace. That makes the U.S. dollar more expensive to acquire — and more valuable in other countries. 

“A stronger dollar benefits American households directly if they want to travel to Europe, as the relative cost of everything is cheaper. It also makes imports cheaper for American households and businesses,” explained Angel Talavera, head of European economics at Oxford Economics. 

Half of American travelers say high prices kept them from traveling in June, up 8 percentage points from the previous month, according to a recent survey from Destination Analysts. 

But favorable exchange rates blunt the impact of inflation, which has risen at similar rates to the U.S. in Europe. Expedia data found that searches for summer trips to popular European destinations such as Paris, Frankfurt, Brussels, Amsterdam and Dublin rose by double digits last week. Copenhagen, Athens and Madrid saw similar increases in lodging interest, according to Hotels.com. 

“The U.S. has never really developed its tourism infrastructure the way Europe has, so a lot of our inventory sold out months ago,” said Leslie Overton, an advisor at travel firm Fora. “While I’m not saying either is cheap, Europe might be considered more competitive than some of the higher end product here in the U.S. right now.” 

One dollar buys roughly 15 percent more than it did one year ago in the 19 European countries that use the euro. The dollar is trading at its highest ever level against India’s rupee and Thailand’s baht. The Mexican peso and Canadian dollar have remained mostly flat.  

But currency fluctuations won’t help much with soaring airfares. While domestic airfare is 13 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels, international flights are 22 percent pricier, according to data from travel firm Hopper. 

Those traveling to parts of Europe face a heightened risk of delays or cancellations.  London’s Heathrow Airport on Wednesday asked airlines to stop selling summer tickets after staffing shortages forced the airport to delay roughly half of its flights this month. The Netherlands’ largest airport is similarly making large cuts to its flight schedules, driving up prices.  

Conversely, the strength of the dollar will make trips to the U.S. far more expensive for many international travelers, potentially weakening the U.S. tourism industry as it aims to claw back some of the millions of jobs lost during the pandemic.  

A stronger U.S. dollar also boosts pressure on global economies to raise their own interest rates to keep up, a force that raises the risk of a severe global recession that could bounce back to the U.S. in dangerous ways. 

The U.S. welcomed 22.1 million inbound travelers in 2021 — down 79 percent from 2019 — amid COVID-19 travel restrictions that lasted throughout most of the year, according to the International Trade Administration. The agency found that the lack of tourism in the U.S. in the first year of the pandemic accounted for 56 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product decline.

Wishing To Be Off Billionaires List, Bill Gates Donates $20 Billion To Foundation

That’s Bill Gates’ estimated net worth, making him the world’s fourth-richest person — but he doesn’t intend to rank that high forever. On Wednesday, the Microsoft co-founder said he wants to “move down and eventually off of the list of the world’s richest people” because he feels “obligated to return his resources to society.” 

On the same day, Gates moved $20 billion of his wealth into the endowment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest philanthropies in the world. The foundation plans to increase its payouts from nearly $6 billion to $9 billion each year by 2026. 

Bill Gates is moving $20 billion of his wealth into the endowment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is ramping up its spending in the face of global challenges, including the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, media reports said. 

The foundation, one of the world’s largest philanthropies, plans to increase its payouts by 50 per cent over pre-pandemic levels, from nearly $6 billion to $9 billion each year by 2026. The foundation is primarily focused on charitable giving that’s aimed at improving global health, gender equality and education, among other issues, CNN reported.

The Microsoft co-founder and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, have both pledged to donate the vast majority of their wealth to the foundation they established together 20 years ago, as well as to other philanthropic endeavours.

The couple announced their divorce in May 2021, saying they would work together as co-chairs under a two-year trial period. At the end of that trial, French Gates has the option to resign and receive a payout from her former husband, who would remain in charge of the foundation.

With an estimated net worth of around $ 114 billion, Bill Gates is currently the world’s fourth-richest person, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, with most of his wealth tied to Microsoft shares.

But he doesn’t intend to rank that high forever. “I will move down and eventually off of the list of the world’s richest people,” Gates wrote in a blog.

“I have an obligation to return my resources to society in ways that have the greatest impact for improving lives. I hope others in positions of great wealth and privilege will step up in this moment too,” he said, CNN reported. (IANS)

Top Billionaires Lose $1.4 Trillion In Worst Half Of Year 2022

With policy makers now raising interest rates to combat elevated inflation, some of the highest-flying shares — and the billionaires who own them — are losing their combined wealth due to economic factors that has impacted global economies around the world. 

Elon Musk’s fortune plunged almost $62 billion. Jeff Bezos saw his wealth tumble by about $63 billion. Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth was slashed by more than half.

All told, the world’s 500 richest people lost $1.4 trillion in the first half of 2022, a dizzying decline that marks the steepest six-month drop ever for the global billionaire class.

It’s a sharp departure from the previous two years, when the fortunes of the ultra-rich swelled as governments and central banks unleashed unprecedented stimulus measures in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, juicing the value of everything from tech companies to cryptocurrencies.

With policy makers now raising interest rates to combat elevated inflation, some of the highest-flying shares — and the billionaires who own them — are losing altitude fast. Tesla Inc. had its worst quarter ever in the three months through June, while Amazon.com Inc. plummeted by the most since the dot-com bubble burst.

Though the losses are piling up for the world’s richest people, it only represents a modest move toward narrowing wealth inequality. Musk, Tesla’s co-founder, still has the biggest fortune on the planet, at $208.5 billion, while Amazon’s Bezos is second with a $129.6 billion net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Bernard Arnault, France’s richest person, ranks third with a $128.7 billion fortune, followed by Bill Gates with $114.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg index. They’re the only four that are worth more than $100 billion — at the start of the year, 10 people worldwide exceeded that amount, including Zuckerberg, who is now 17th on the wealth list with $60 billion.

Changpeng Zhao, the crypto pioneer who debuted on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in January with an estimated fortune of $96 billion, has seen his wealth tumble by almost $80 billion this year amid the turmoil in digital assets.

Still, the billionaire class has amassed so much wealth in recent years that not only can the vast majority withstand the worst first half since 1970 for the S&P 500 Index, but they’re likely looking for bargains, said Thorne Perkin, president of Papamarkou Wellner Asset Management.

“Often their mindset is a bit more contrarian,” Perkin said. “A lot of our clients look for opportunities when there’s trouble in the streets.” That held true in the first half of the year in some of the most distressed corners of the global financial markets.

Vladimir Potanin, Russia’s wealthiest man with a $35.2 billion fortune, acquired Societe Generale SA’s entire position in Rosbank PJSC earlier this year amid the fallout from Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. He also bought out sanctioned Russian mogul Oleg Tinkov’s stake in a digital bank for a fraction of what it was once worth.

Sam Bankman-Fried, chief executive officer of crypto exchange FTX, bought a 7.6% stake in Robinhood Markets Inc. in early May after the app-based brokerage’s share price tumbled 77% from its hotly anticipated initial public offering last July. The 30-year-old billionaire has also been acting as a lender of last resort for some troubled crypto companies.

The most high-profile buyout of all belonged to Musk, who reached a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter Inc. He offered to pay $54.20 a share; the social-media company’s stock traded at $37.44 at 10:25 a.m. in New York. The world’s richest man said in an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait last month that there are “a few unresolved matters” before the transaction can be completed. “There’s a limit to what I can say publicly,” he said. “It is somewhat of a sensitive matter.”

How Much Health Insurers Pay For Almost Everything Is About To Go Public

Consumers, employers and just about everyone else interested in health care prices will soon get an unprecedented look at what insurers pay for care, perhaps helping answer a question that has long dogged those who buy insurance: Are we getting the best deal we can?

Starting July 1, health insurers and self-insured employers must post on websites just about every price they’ve negotiated with providers for health care services, item by item. About the only exclusion is the prices paid for prescription drugs, except those administered in hospitals or doctors’ offices.

The federally required data release could affect future prices or even how employers contract for health care. Many will see for the first time how well their insurers are doing compared with others.

The new rules are far broader than those that went into effect last year requiring hospitals to post their negotiated rates for the public to see. Now insurers must post the amounts paid for “every physician in network, every hospital, every surgery center, every nursing facility,” said Jeffrey Leibach, a partner at the consulting firm Guidehouse.

“When you start doing the math, you’re talking trillions of records,” he said. The fines the federal government could impose for noncompliance are also heftier than the penalties that hospitals face.

Federal officials learned from the hospital experience and gave insurers more direction on what was expected, said Leibach. Insurers or self-insured employers could be fined as much as $100 a day for each violation and each affected enrollee if they fail to provide the data. “Get your calculator out: All of a sudden you are in the millions pretty fast,” Leibach said.

Determined consumers, especially those with high-deductible health plans, may try to dig in right away and use the data to try comparing what they will have to pay at different hospitals, clinics, or doctor offices for specific services.

But each database’s enormous size may mean that most people “will find it very hard to use the data in a nuanced way,” said Katherine Baicker, dean of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.

At least at first, Entrepreneurs are expected to quickly translate the information into more user-friendly formats so it can be incorporated into new or existing services that estimate costs for patients. And starting Jan. 1, the rules require insurers to provide online tools that will help people get upfront cost estimates for about 500 so-called “shoppable” services, meaning medical care they can schedule ahead of time.

Once those things happen, “you’ll at least have the options in front of you,” said Chris Severn, CEO of Turquoise Health, an online company that has posted price information made available under the rules for hospitals, although many hospitals have yet to comply.

With the addition of the insurers’ data, sites like his will be able to drill down further into cost variation from one place to another or among insurers.

“If you’re going to get an X-ray, you will be able to see that you can do it for $250 at this hospital, $75 at the imaging center down the road, or your specialist can do it in office for $25,” he said.

Everyone will know everyone else’s business: for example, how much insurers Aetna and Humana pay the same surgery center for a knee replacement. The requirements stem from the Affordable Care Act and a 2019 executive order by then-President Donald Trump.

“These plans are supposed to be acting on behalf of employers in negotiating good rates, and the little insight we have on that shows it has not happened,” said Elizabeth Mitchell, president and CEO of the Purchaser Business Group on Health, an affiliation of employers who offer job-based health benefits to workers. “I do believe the dynamics are going to change.”

Other observers are more circumspect.

“Maybe at best this will reduce the wide variance of prices out there,” said Zack Cooper, director of health policy at the Yale University Institution for Social and Policy Studies. “But it won’t be unleashing a consumer revolution.”

Still, the biggest value of the July data release may well be to shed light on how successful insurers have been at negotiating prices. It comes on the heels of research that has shown tremendous variation in what is paid for health care. A recent study by the Rand Corp., for example, shows that employers that offer job-based insurance plans paid, on average, 224% more than Medicare for the same services.

Tens of thousands of employers who buy insurance coverage for their workers will get this more-complete pricing picture — and may not like what they see.

“What we’re learning from the hospital data is that insurers are really bad at negotiating,” said Gerard Anderson, a professor in the department of health policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, citing research that found that negotiated rates for hospital care can be higher than what the facilities accept from patients who are not using insurance and are paying cash.

That could add to the frustration that Mitchell and others say employers have with the current health insurance system. More might try to contract with providers directly, only using insurance companies for claims processing. Other employers may bring their insurers back to the bargaining table.

“For the first time, an employer will be able to go to an insurance company and say, ‘You have not negotiated a good-enough deal, and we know that because we can see the same provider has negotiated a better deal with another company,'” said James Gelfand, president of the ERISA Industry Committee, a trade group of self-insured employers.

If that happens, he added, “patients will be able to save money.” That’s not necessarily a given, however.

Because this kind of public release of pricing data hasn’t been tried widely in health care before, how it will affect future spending remains uncertain. If insurers are pushed back to the bargaining table or providers see where they stand relative to their peers, prices could drop. However, some providers could raise their prices if they see they are charging less than their peers.

“Downward pressure may not be a given,” said Kelley Schultz, vice president of commercial policy for AHIP, the industry’s trade lobby.

Baicker, of the University of Chicago, said that even after the data is out, rates will continue to be heavily influenced by local conditions, such as the size of an insurer or employer — providers often give bigger discounts, for example, to the insurers or self-insured employers that can send them the most patients. The number of hospitals in a region also matters — if an area has only one, for instance, that usually means the facility can demand higher rates.

Another unknown: Will insurers meet the deadline and provide usable data?

Schultz, at AHIP, said the industry is well on the way, partly because the original deadline was extended by six months. She expects insurers to do better than the hospital industry. “We saw a lot of hospitals that just decided not to post files or make them difficult to find,” she said.

So far, more than 300 noncompliant hospitals have received warning letters from the government. But they could face $300-a-day fines for failing to comply, which is less than what insurers potentially face, although the federal government has recently upped the ante to up to $5,500 a day for the largest facilities.

Even after the pricing data is public, “I don’t think things will change overnight,” said Leibach. “Patients are still going to make care decisions based on their doctors and referrals, a lot of reasons other than price.”

(This story was produced by The Hill in partnership with Kaiser Health News. KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. It is an editorially independent operating program of Kaiser Family Foundation).

Dow Tumbles 876 Points And Stocks Enter Bear Market On Worries Of Drastic Rate Hikes

US stocks have plunged into a bear market as Wall Street investors grew increasingly nervous about the prospect of even harsher medicine from the Fed to take the sting out of inflation.

The Dow (INDU) sank 876 points or 2.8%. The Nasdaq was down by 4.7% and has tumbled more than 10% in the past two trading sessions.

The broader S&P 500 fell 3.9%. That index is now more than 20% below its all-time high set in January, putting stocks in a bear-market.

Recession fears mounted after Friday’s miserable Consumer Price Index report showed US inflation was significantly higher than economists had expected last month. That could make the Federal Reserve’s inflation-control efforts more difficult.

After raising rates by a half point in May — an action the Fed hadn’t taken since 2000 — Chair Jerome Powell pledged more of the same until the central bank was satisfied that inflation was under control. At that point, the Fed would resume standard quarter-point hikes, he said.

But after May’s hotter-than-expected inflation report, Wall Street is increasingly calling for tougher action from the Fed to keep prices under control. Jefferies joined Barclays on Monday in predicting that the Federal Reserve would hike rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, an action the Fed hasn’t taken since 1994.

“After holding their breath for nearly a week awaiting the US CPI report for May, investors exhaled in exasperation as inflation came in hotter than expected,” Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA, said in a note to clients Monday morning.

Stovall said the risk of larger hikes dragged the markets lower Monday.

Investors fear two outcomes, neither of them good: Higher rates mean bigger borrowing costs for businesses, which can eat into their bottom lines. And overly zealous action from the Fed could unintentionally plunge the US economy into a recession, especially if businesses start laying off workers and the red-hot housing market crumbles.

There’s no sign that the job and housing markets are in danger of collapse, although both are cooling off somewhat.

In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria Sunday, former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke said a US recession remains possible. But Bernanke said he had faith that Powell and the Fed could achieve a so-called soft landing, the elusive outcome in which the central bank can cool the economy down to get inflation under control without slowing it down so much that it enters a recession.

“Economists are very bad at predicting recessions, but I think the Fed has a decent chance — a reasonable chance — of achieving what Powell calls a soft-ish landing, either no recession or a very mild recession to bring inflation down,” Bernanke said.

Analysts appeared to move beyond a “buy the dip” mentality on Monday, signaling that they don’t see markets recovering quickly.

“Valuations aren’t much cheaper given rising interest rates and a weaker earnings outlook, in our view,” wrote strategists at BlackRock in a Monday notes. “A higher path of policy rates justifies lower equity prices. Plus, margin pressures are a risk to earnings.”

BlackRock will remain neutral on stocks for the next six- to 12-months, the strategists said.

Bears and bulls

The S&P 500 closed in a bear market, so the bull run that started on March 23, 2020 has come to an end. But, because of the tricky way these things are measured, the bear market technically began on January 3, when the S&P 500 hit its all-time high.

That means the latest bull market lasted just over 21 months — the shortest on record, according to Howard Silverblatt, S&P Dow Jones Indices senior index analyst. Over the past century, bull markets have lasted an average of about 60 months.

The shortest bull market followed the shortest bear market, one that lasted just over a month — from February 19 to March 23, 2020. Bear markets historically last an average of 19 months, according to Silverblatt.

Stocks briefly fell into a bear market on May 20, although a late-day rally rescued the market from closing below that threshold for the first time since the early days of the pandemic.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq has been in a bear market for some time and is now more than 32% below its all-time high set in November 2021. The Dow is still some way from a bear market. It has fallen about 16% from the all-time high it reached on the last day of 2021.

Warren Buffet Warns Of A 50% Fall In Stock Market Buffet Told Investors That They Should Be Prepared For A 50 Per Cent Fall In The Shares

Veteran investor Warren Buffett has tremendous experience in the stock market that makes everyone trust his forecasts. Not only this, he has earned a lot of wealth from the stock market. Now amidst the ongoing volatility in the stock market, he has asked to be prepared for a fall of up to 50 per cent in the shares.

Warren Buffett has shared a video on Instagram. In this video he is giving advice to the investors investing in the stock market. He told investors that they should be prepared for a 50 per cent fall in the shares. This video has been shared on Instagram with the handle Warret Buffet Videos.

He said that when Berkshire’s stock fell, there was nothing wrong with the company. He said that the mind of the investor should be right. Otherwise, your life will be spent in buying and selling shares at the wrong time and you will continue to cry for loss. Investors take decisions on the advice of others when prices fluctuate.

They say that if you cannot keep investing in a stock for a long time, then you should not buy it. He says that just as you keep the farm with you for a long period, in the same way you need to be financially and psychologically prepared to hold the shares. Buffett had also said during an interview that you should invest in only those companies, which he understands. They should expect that the company’s shares will give good returns in the long run.

Warren Buffett takes the help of three rules to buy shares. He says that the first rule is that the company should have a good income on the amount invested in the business. Second, the management of the company should be in the hands of honest and skilled managers. Third the company’s share price should be correct.

A New Billionaire Has Been Minted Almost Daily During The Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has been good for the wallets of the wealthy. Some 573 people have joined the billionaire ranks since 2020, bringing the worldwide total to 2,668, according to an analysis released by Oxfam on Sunday. That means a new billionaire was minted about every 30 hours, on average, so far during the pandemic.

The report, which draws on data compiled by Forbes, looks at the rise of inequality over the past two years. It is timed to coincide with the kickoff of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, a gathering of some of the wealthiest people and world leaders.

Billionaires have seen their total net worth soar by $3.8 trillion, or 42%, to $12.7 trillion during the pandemic. A large part of the increase has been fueled by strong gains in the stock markets, which was aided by governments injecting money into the global economy to soften the financial blow of the coronavirus.

Much of the jump in wealth came in the first year of the pandemic. It then plateaued and has since dropped a bit, said Max Lawson, head of inequality policy at Oxfam.

At the same time, Covid-19, growing inequality and rising food prices could push as many as 263 million people into extreme poverty this year, reversing decades of progress, Oxfam said in a report released last month. “I’ve never seen such a dramatic growth in poverty and growth in wealth at the same moment in history,” Lawson said. “It’s going to hurt a lot of people.”

Benefiting from high prices

Consumers around the world are contending with the soaring cost of energy and food, but corporations in these industries and their leaders are benefiting from the rise in prices, Oxfam said.

Billionaires in the food and agribusiness sector have seen their total wealth increase by $382 billion, or 45%, over the past two years, after adjusting for inflation. Some 62 food billionaires were created since 2020.

Meanwhile, the net worth of their peers in the oil, gas and coal sectors jumped by $53 billion, or 24%, since 2020, after adjusting for inflation.

Davos is back and the world has changed. Have the global elite noticed?

Forty new pandemic billionaires were created in the pharmaceutical industry, which has been at the forefront of the battle against Covid-19 and the beneficiary of billions in public funding.

The tech sector has spawned many billionaires, including seven of the 10 world’s richest people, such as Telsa’s Elon Musk, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Microsoft’s Bill Gates. These men increased their wealth by $436 billion to $934 billion over the past two years, after adjusting for inflation.

Tax the rich

To counter the meteoric growth in inequality and help those struggling with the rise in prices, Oxfam is pushing governments to tax the wealthy and corporations.

It is calling for a temporary 90% tax on excess corporate profits, as well as a one-time tax on billionaires’ wealth.

The group would also like to levy a permanent wealth tax on the super-rich. It suggests a 2% tax on assets greater than $5 million, rising to 5% for net worth above $1 billion. This could raise $2.5 trillion worldwide.

Wealth taxes, however, have not been embraced by many governments. Efforts to levy taxes on the net worth of the richest Americans have failed to advance in Congress in recent years.

Rise of the Super Rich & Fall of the World’s Poor

Michael Bloomberg, the three-term Mayor of New York city and a billionaire philanthropist, was once quoted as saying that by the time he dies, he would have given away all his wealth to charity – so that his cheque to the funeral undertaker will bounce for lack of funds in his bank account.

Sounds altruistic – even as the number of billionaires keep rising while the poorest of the world’s poor keep multiplying.

The latest brief by Oxfam International, titled “Profiting from Pain” and released May 23, shows that 573 people became new billionaires during the two-and-a half-year Covid 19 pandemic —while the world’s poverty stricken continued to increase.

“We expect this year that 263 million more people will crash into extreme poverty, at a rate of a million people every 33 hours,” Oxfam said.

Billionaires’ wealth has risen more in the first 24 months of COVID-19 than in 23 years combined. The total wealth of the world’s billionaires is now equivalent to 13.9 percent of global GDP. This is a three-fold increase (up from 4.4 percent) in 2000, according to the study.

Asked about the philanthropic gestures, Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International, told IPS wealthy individuals who use their money to help others should be congratulated.

“But charitable giving is no substitute for wealthy people and companies paying their fair share of tax or ensuring their workers are paid a decent wage. And it does not justify them using their power and connections to lobby for unfair advantages over others,” she declared.

Oxfam’s new research also reveals that corporations in the energy, food and pharmaceutical sectors —where monopolies are especially common— are posting record-high profits, even as wages have barely budged and workers struggle with decades-high prices amid COVID-19.

The fortunes of food and energy billionaires have risen by $453 billion in the last two years, equivalent to $1 billion every two days, says Oxfam.

Five of the largest energy companies (BP, Shell, Total Energies, Exxon and Chevron) are together making $2,600 profit every second, and there are now 62 new food billionaires.

Currently, the world’s total population is around 7.8 billion, and according to the UN, more than 736 million people live below the international poverty line.

A World Bank report last year said extreme poverty is set to rise, for the first time in more than two decades, and the impact of the spreading virus is expected to push up to 115 million more people into poverty, while the pandemic is compounding the forces of conflict and climate change, that has already been slowing poverty reduction.

By 2021, as many as 150 million more people could be living in extreme poverty.

Yasmeen Hassan, Global Executive Director at Equality Now, told IPS Oxfam’s report demonstrates systemic failings in the discriminatory nature of countries’ economies and underscores the urgent need for financial systems to be restructured so that they benefit the 99%, not the 1%.

“As with any crisis, Equality Now foresaw that gender would influence how individuals and communities experienced the pandemic, but even we were shocked at how exceptionally and intensely pre-existing inequalities and sex-based discrimination has been exacerbated”, she said.

While billionaires — the vast majority of whom are men — continue to amass vast sums of wealth, women around the world remain trapped in poverty. Wealthy elites are profiting off women’s labor, much of which is underappreciated, underpaid, and uncompensated, she pointed out.

“Economic hardship and inadequate policy responses to the pandemic have eroded many of the hard-won gains that have been achieved over recent years for women and girls. From increases in child marriage, sexual exploitation and human trafficking, to landlords demanding sex from female tenants who have lost their job, and domestic workers trapped inside with abusive employers, women and girls around the world have borne the brunt of the pandemic,” Hassan declared.

The Oxfam study has been released to coincide with the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting—which includes the presence of the rich and the superrich—taking place in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland from 22-26 May. The meeting, whose theme is ‘Working Together, Restoring Trust’, will be the first global in-person leadership event since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020

“Billionaires are arriving in Davos to celebrate an incredible surge in their fortunes. The pandemic, and now the steep increases in food and energy prices have, simply put, been a bonanza for them. Meanwhile, decades of progress on extreme poverty are now in reverse and millions of people are facing impossible rises in the cost of simply staying alive,” said Oxfam’s Bucher.

She said billionaires’ fortunes have not increased because they are now smarter or working harder. But it is really the workers who are working harder, for less pay and in worse conditions.

The super-rich, she argued, have rigged the system with impunity for decades and they are now reaping the benefits. They have seized a shocking amount of the world’s wealth as a result of privatization and monopolies, gutting regulation and workers’ rights while stashing their cash in tax havens — all with the complicity of governments.”

“Meanwhile, millions of others are skipping meals, turning off the heating, falling behind on bills and wondering what they can possibly do next to survive. Across East Africa, one person is likely dying every minute from hunger. This grotesque inequality is breaking the bonds that hold us together as humanity. It is divisive, corrosive and dangerous. This is inequality that literally kills.”

Elaborating further, Hassan of Equality Now said women are more likely to be informally employed, low-wage earners, and this disadvantaged position has resulted in higher rates of women losing their jobs, particularly in sectors that were not prioritized in government relief packages.

“Women are also more likely to be primary caretaker and many have had to absorb increases in unpaid duties while schools and nurseries shut down. As a consequence, some women have been forced out of jobs as they found it impossible to juggle full-time work while also providing full-time childcare. This loss of income has been especially catastrophic for women in poverty and has made them more vulnerable to a range of human rights violations.”

She said world leaders must stop pursuing policy agendas that benefit the rich and hurt the poor.

“Instead, we urgently need a committed and coordinated response from governments and policymakers to reduce inequality and poverty, and address discrimination that is holding women and girls back while allowing the super-rich to get richer still,” she added.

The Oxfam study also says the pandemic has created 40 new pharma billionaires.

Pharmaceutical corporations like Moderna and Pfizer are making $1,000 profit every second just from their monopoly control of the COVID-19 vaccine, despite its development having been supported by billions of dollars in public investments.

“They are charging governments up to 24 times more than the potential cost of generic production. 87 percent of people in low-income countries have still not been fully vaccinated.”

“The extremely rich and powerful are profiting from pain and suffering. This is unconscionable. Some have grown rich by denying billions of people access to vaccines, others by exploiting rising food and energy prices. They are paying out massive bonuses and dividends while paying as little tax as possible. This rising wealth and rising poverty are two sides of the same coin, proof that our economic system is functioning exactly how the rich and powerful designed it to do,” said Bucher.

Oxfam recommends that governments urgently:

–·Introduce one-off solidarity taxes on billionaires’ pandemic windfalls to fund support for people facing rising food and energy costs and a fair and sustainable recovery from COVID-19. Argentina adopted a one-off special levy dubbed the ‘millionaire’s tax’ and is now considering introducing a windfall tax on energy profits as well as a tax on undeclared assets held overseas to repay IMF debt. The super-rich have stashed nearly $8 trillion in tax havens.

  • — End crisis profiteering by introducing a temporary excess profit tax of 90 percent to capture the windfall profits of big corporations across all industries. Oxfam estimated that such a tax on just 32 super-profitable multinational companies could have generated $104 billion in revenue in 2020.

— Introduce permanent wealth taxes to rein in extreme wealth and monopoly power, as well as the outsized carbon emissions of the super-rich. An annual wealth tax on millionaires starting at just 2 percent, and 5 percent on billionaires, could generate $2.52 trillion a year —enough to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, make enough vaccines for the world, and deliver universal healthcare and social protection for everyone living in low- and lower middle-income countries.

Indian Rupee Falls To The Lowest

The Indian rupee extended its losses and touched an all-time low of 77.42 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday, May 10th.

The Indian currency is weighed by the strength of the American currency in the overseas market and continued foreign fund outflows. Further, rupee slipped on surge in crude oil prices

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Friday, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 5,517.08 crore, as per stock exchange data. They have been selling equities constantly in the recent months.

Rupee has been under-pressure after global central banks started normalising policy and last week RBI too started raising key interest rates.

On Friday, the rupee had slumped 55 paise to close at 76.90 against the US dollar.

“Local units are also hit by haven dollar flows, higher global rates due to rising inflation and risk-off sentiments. Weakness in Chinese yuan, which fell to its weakest level since November 2020, also weighing on regional currencies,” said Dilip Parmar, Retail Research Analyst at HDFC Securities.

So far this year, foreign institutions have withdrawn a total of nearly $19 billion from domestic equities and debt markets, Parmar said.

Parmar sees near term depreciation in rupee could continue for a few more days with lower side limited in the range of 77.70 to 78. In the event of unwinding, the rupee could see levels of 77 to 76.70.

According to Sugandha Sachdeva, VP-Commodity and Currency Research at Religare Broking, the Indian rupee has plummeted to record lows amid the deteriorating risk sentiments and the unrelenting spree of overseas outflows from the domestic equities.

Besides, an unabated rise in the dollar index towards a two-decade high, soaring US treasury yields and crude prices, all of them have worked their way to push the domestic currency on a downward trajectory, Sachdeva told IANS.

“Markets are concerned about the spiralling inflation and prospects of an aggressive tightening path that continues to threaten the growth outlook, leading to safe-haven flows in the greenback.”

Also, hardening crude oil prices as the EU is moving ahead to impose an embargo on Russian oil are roiling the sentiments, leading to worries about the widening current account deficit and exacerbating the pressure on the domestic currency.

Going ahead, as the Indian rupee has breached the previous all-time lows of the 77.14-mark, it seems poised to witness further depreciation towards the 78-mark in the near term.

Sachdeva, however, anticipates that RBI will intervene around the 78-mark to curb excessive depreciation in the Indian currency.

According to experts, this depreciation is caused by the strength of the American currency in the overseas market and continuous foreign fund outflows from the Indian market. Some also attribute the fall of the rupee to rising crude oil prices globally due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the COVID induced lockdown in Shanghai.

Toyota To Invest $ 624 Million In India

Toyota Group plans to invest 48 billion Indian rupees ($624 million) to make electric vehicle components in India, as the Japanese carmaker works toward carbon neutrality by 2050.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts signed a memorandum of understanding with the southern state of Karnataka to invest 41 billion Indian rupees, the group said in a statement Saturday. The rest will come from Toyota Industries Engine India.

Toyota is aligning its own green targets with India’s ambitions of becoming a manufacturing hub though the switch to clean transport in the South Asian nation is slower than other countries such as China and the U.S. Expensive price tags, lack of options in electric models and insufficient charging stations have led to sluggish adoption of battery vehicles in India.

“From a direct employment point of view, we are looking at around 3,500 new jobs,” Toyota Kirloskar executive vice president Vikram Gulati told the Press Trust of India in an interview. “As the supply chain system builds, we expect much more to come in later.”

He added that the company would be moving toward a new area of technology — electrified powertrain parts — with production set to start in the “very near-term.”

Indian automakers could generate $20 billion in revenue from electric vehicles between now and fiscal year 2026, according to forecast by Crisil. By 2040, 53% of new automobile sales in India will be electric, compared with 77% in China, according to BloombergNEF.

Gautam Adani Is World’s 5th Richest Person

Gautam Adani, the Indian infrastructure mogul, became the richest Asian billionaire in history earlier this month–and he’s kept on climbing, reported Forbes magazine.

“Adani has now passed Warren Buffett to become the 5th richest person in the world,” said Forbes, estimating that the 59-year-old Adani has a net worth of $123.7 billion, as of Friday’s market close, edging out the $121.7 billion fortune of Buffett, who is 91.

Worth $8.9 billion just two years ago, Adani’s fortune spiked to an estimated $50.5 billion in March 2021 because of his skyrocketing share prices–then nearly doubled by March 2022, to an estimated $90 billion, as Adani Group stocks rose even further, according to Forbes.

“Adani’s estimated $123.7 billion net worth makes him the richest person in India, $19 billion wealthier than the country’s number 2, Mukesh Ambani (who’s worth an estimated $104.7 billion). He surpasses Buffett as shares of the famed investor’s Berkshire Hathaway dropped by 2% on Friday amid a broad drop in the U.S. stock market,” said Forbes.

There are now only four people on the planet richer than Adani, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaire tracker: Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates (worth an estimated $130.2 billion), French luxury goods king Bernard Arnault ($167.9 billion), Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($170.2 billion) and Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk ($269.7 billion), according to Forbes.

World today has 2,668 billionaires, including 236 newcomers—far fewer than last year’s 493

Forbes’ 36th annual World’s Billionaires List, released earlier this month, reveals 2,668 billionaires, including 236 newcomers—far fewer than last year’s 493.

Elon Musk tops the World’s Billionaires ranking for the first time ever, with an estimated net worth of $219 billion. Altogether the total net worth of the world’s billionaires is $12.7 trillion, down from last year’s $13.1 trillion.

Following last year’s record-breaking number of billionaires, the past 12 months have proven to be more volatile. The number of billionaires fell to 2,668, down from 2,755 last year. A total of 329 people dropped off the list this year—the most in a single year since the 2009 financial crisis.

“The tumultuous stock market contributed to sharp declines in the fortunes of many of the world’s richest,” said Kerry A. Dolan, Assistant Managing Editor of Wealth, Forbes. “Still, more than 1,000 billionaires got wealthier over the past year. The top 20 richest alone are worth a combined $2 trillion, up from $1.8 trillion in 2021.”

Key facts for the 2022 World’s Billionaires list:

  • Top Five: Tesla’s Elon Musk tops the list, unseating Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who drops to the No. 2 spot after spending the past four years as the richest person in the world. Bernard Arnault of LVMH remains at No. 3, followed by Bill Gates at No. 4. Rounding out the top five is Warren Buffett, who rejoins the top five after falling to No. 6 last year.
  • Newcomers: Among the list of notable newcomers are Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson(No.1929); OpenSea founders Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah (Nos. 1397); social media and e-commerce tycoon Miranda Qu (No. 1645) and pop star and cosmetics mogul Rihanna (No. 1729).
  • Self-Made: Of the total 2,668 people on the 2022 ranking, 1,891 are self-made billionaires, who founded or cofounded a company or established their own fortune (as opposed to inheriting it).
  • Women: There are 327 women billionaires, including 16 who share a fortune with a spouse, child or sibling, down from 328 in 2021.
  • Globally: Regionally, Asia-Pacific boasts the most billionaires, with 1,088, followed by the United States, with 735, and Europe, with 592.
  • Drop-offs: The war in Ukraine, a Chinese tech crackdown and slipping stock prices pushed 329 people off the World’s Billionaires list this year, including 169 one-hit wonders who were part of last year’s record 493 newcomers.

To view the full list, visit www.forbes.com/billionaires.

The 2022 Billionaires issue features five consecutive covers, including:

  • Igor Bukhman: When Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Igor Bukhman, the Russia-born billionaire founder of gaming company Playrix, found himself with thousands of employees divided by the frontlines. His internal battlefield offers lessons for us all.
  • Ken Griffin: War in Europe. The China-Russia alliance. De-dollarization. Ken Griffin, Wall Street’s billionaire kingpin, is making the best out of the worst of times.
  • Tope Awotona: Awotona built Calendly out of frustration. Now the scheduling app is worth $3 billion—and the subject of a heated Twitter spat among Silicon Valley elite.
  • Ryan Breslow: Bolt cofounder Ryan Breslow has boosted the value of his fintech to the moon by promising an Amazon-style checkout to millions of online retailers. Now the new billionaire is making a lot of noise—and some powerful enemies—challenging the tech industry’s culture and ethics.
  • Falguni Nayar: A decade ago, when she was 49, Nayar left behind her investment banking career to launch beauty-and-fashion retailer Nykaa. She took it public in November and is now India’s richest self-made woman. Nykaa, which means “one in the spotlight,” currently sells more than 4,000 brands online and in its 102 stores.

The Forbes World’s Billionaires list is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and currency exchange rates from March 11, 2022.

Bitcoin Miners Seek Ways To Dump Fossil Fuels

For the past year a company that “mines” cryptocurrency had what seemed the ideal location for its thousands of power-thirsty computers working around the clock to verify bitcoin transactions: the grounds of a coal-fired power plant in rural Montana.

But with the cryptocurrency industry under increasing pressure to rein in the environmental impact of its massive electricity consumption, Marathon Digital Holdings made the decision to pack up its computers, called miners, and relocate them to a wind farm in Texas.

“For us, it just came down to the fact that we don’t want to be operating on fossil fuels,” said company CEO Fred Thiel.

In the world of bitcoin mining, access to cheap and reliable electricity is everything. But many economists and environmentalists have warned that as the still widely misunderstood digital currency grows in price — and with it popularity — the process of mining that is central to its existence and value is becoming increasingly energy intensive and potentially unsustainable.

The Hardin Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant that is also home to the cryptocurrency “mining” operation Big Horn Data Hub, is seen on April 20, 2022, in Hardin, Mont. Energy from burning coal is used to power thousands of computers that are kept on site to produce the digital currency known as bitcoins. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

Bitcoin was was created in 2009 as a new way of paying for things that would not be subject to central banks or government oversight. While it has yet to widely catch on as a method of payment, it has seen its popularity as a speculative investment surge despite volatility that can cause its price to swing wildly. In March 2020, one bitcoin was worth just over $5,000. That surged to a record of more than $67,000 in November 2021 before falling to just over $35,000 in January.

Central to bitcoin’s technology is the process through which transactions are verified and then recorded on what’s known as the blockchain. Computers connected to the bitcoin network race to solve complex mathematical calculations that verify the transactions, with the winner earning newly minted bitcoins as a reward. Currently, when a machine solves the puzzle, its owner is rewarded with 6.25 bitcoins — worth about $260,000 total. The system is calibrated to release 6.25 bitcoins every 10 minutes.

When bitcoin was first invented it was possible to solve the puzzles using a regular home computer, but the technology was designed so problems become harder to solve as more miners work on them. Those mining today use specialized machines that have no monitors and look more like a high-tech fan than a traditional computer. The amount of energy used by computers to solve the puzzles grows as more computers join the effort and puzzles are made more difficult.

Marathon Digital, for example, currently has about 37,000 miners, but hopes to have 199,000 online by early next year, the company said.

Determining how much energy the industry uses is difficult because not all mining companies report their use and some operations are mobile, moving storage containers full of miners around the country chasing low-cost power.

The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index estimates bitcoin mining used about 109 terrawatt hours of electricity over the past year — close to the amount used in Virginia in 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Center. The current usage rate would work out to 143 TWh over a full year, or about the amount used by Ohio or New York state in 2020.

Cambridge’s estimate does not include energy used to mine other cryptocurrencies.

A key moment in the debate over bitcoin’s energy use came last spring, when just weeks after Tesla Motors said it was buying $1.5 billion in bitcoin and would also accept the digital currency as payment for electric vehicles, CEO Elon Musk joined critics in calling out the industry’s energy use and said the company would no longer be taking it as payment.

Some want the government to step in with regulation. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul is being pressured to declare a moratorium on the so-called proof-of-work mining method — the one bitcoin uses — and to deny an air quality permit for a project at a retrofitted coal-fired power plant that runs on natural gas.

A New York State judge recently ruled the project would not impact the air or water of nearby Seneca Lake. “Repowering or expanding coal and gas plants to make fake money in the middle of a climate crisis is literally insane,” Yvonne Taylor, vice president of Seneca Lake Guardians, said in a statement.

Anne Hedges with the Montana Environmental Information Center said that before Marathon Digital showed up, environmental groups had expected the coal-fired power plant in Hardin, Montana, to close.

“It was a death watch,” Hedges said. “We were getting their quarterly reports. We were looking at how much they were operating. We were seeing it continue to decline year after year — and last year that totally changed. It would have gone out of existence but for bitcoin.”

The cryptocurrency industry “needs to find a way to reduce its energy demand,” and needs to be regulated, Hedges said. “That’s all there is to it. This is unsustainable.”

Some say the solution is to switch from proof-of-work verification to proof-of-stake verification, which is already used by some cryptocurrencies. With proof of stake, verification of digital currency transfers is assigned to computers, rather than having them compete. People or groups that stake more of their cryptocurrency are more likely to get the work — and the reward.

While the method uses far less electricity, some critics argue proof-of-stake blockchains are less secure. Some companies in the industry acknowledge there is a problem and are committing to achieving net-zero emissions — adding no greenhouse gases to the atmosphere — from the electricity they use by 2030 by signing onto a Crypto Climate Accord, modeled after the Paris Climate Agreement.

“All crypto communities should work together, with urgency, to ensure crypto does not further exacerbate global warming, but instead becomes a net positive contributor to the vital transition to a low carbon global economy,” the accord states.

Marathon Digital is one of several companies pinning its hopes on tapping into excess renewable energy from solar and wind farms in Texas. Earlier this month the companies Blockstream Mining and Block, formerly Square, announced they were breaking ground in Texas on a small, off-the-grid mining facility using Tesla solar panels and batteries.

“This is a step to proving our thesis that bitcoin mining can fund zero-emission power infrastructure,” said Adam Back, CEO and co-founder of Blockstream.

Companies argue that cryptocurrency mining can provide an economic incentive to build more renewable energy projects and help stabilize power grids. Miners give renewable energy generators a guaranteed customer, making it easier for the projects to get financing and generate power at their full capacity.

The mining companies are able to contract for lower-priced energy because “all the energy they use can be shut off and given back to the grid at a moment’s notice,” said Thiel.

In Pennsylvania, Stronghold Digital is cleaning up hundreds of years of coal waste by burning it to create what the state classifies as renewable energy that can be sent to the grid or used in bitcoin mining, depending on power demands.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection is a partner in the work, which uses relatively new technology to burn the waste coal more efficiently and with fewer emissions. Left alone, piles of waste coal can catch fire and burn for years, releasing greenhouse gases. When wet, the waste coal leaches acid into area waterways.

After using the coal waste to generate electricity, what’s left is “toxicity-free fly ash,” which is registered by the state as a clean fertilizer, Stronghold Digital spokesperson Naomi Harrington said.

As Marathon Digital gradually moves its 30,000 miners out of Montana, it’s leaving behind tens of millions of dollars in mining infrastructure behind.

Just because Marathon doesn’t want to use coal-fired power anymore doesn’t mean there won’t be another bitcoin miner to take its place. Thiel said he assumes the power plant owners will find a company to do just that. “No reason not to,” he said.

Biden Admn. To Decide On Student Loans In Months

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week that President Biden’s use of executive action to cancel some federal student loan debt is “still on the table” and that a “decision” could be made in the coming months.

Psaki made the comments during an appearance on “Pod Save America” after being pressed about past comments by White House chief of staff Ron Klain. “Yes, still on the table, still on the table,” Psaki could be heard saying to apparent cheers from the audience attending the live podcast, which was released by the platform on Friday. She then pointed to the Aug. 31 deadline for when the freeze on student loan debt payments and interest accrual is set to lapse, saying: “We have to then decide whether it’s extended.”

“Nobody’s had to pay a dollar, a cent, anything in student loans since Joe Biden has been president,” Psaki said. “And if that can help people ease the burden of costs in other parts of their lives, that’s an important thing to consider. That’s a big part of the consideration.”

Between now and the end of August, Psaki said the moratorium is “either going to be extended or we’re going to make a decision, as Ron referenced, about canceling student debt.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday said President Biden’s use of executive action to cancel some federal student loan debt is “still on the table” and that a “decision” could be made in the coming months.

Between now and the end of August, Psaki said the current moratorium on student loan payments is “either going to be extended or we’re going to make a decision, as [White House chief of staff Ron Klain] referenced, about canceling student debt.”

Biden last extended the pause earlier this month amid mounting pressure from advocates, borrowers and members of his own party to provide further relief.

Biden during his campaign called for federal student loan debt cancellation, and supported forgiveness of at least $10,000 per borrower. However, some top Democrats have pushed for him to go beyond that, canceling up to $50,000 per borrower or wiping out federal student loan debt entirely.

The White House called on Congress to send legislation canceling debt to Biden’s desk, but Democrats are not optimistic about their chances of doing so in the 50-50 Senate given staunch GOP opposition. Sixty votes would be needed to overcome procedural hurdles.

The background: The current pause on federal student loan payments was first implemented under the Trump administration at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic. It has since been extended six times.

Biden last extended the pause earlier this month amid mounting pressure from advocates, borrowers and members of his own party to provide further relief.

India’s Apex Court Upholds BJP Govt’s Foreign Contribution Regulation Act

The Supreme Court on Friday, April 8th affirmed the validity of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment (FCRA) Act, 2020, which imposes new conditions on the receipt and use of funds by NGOs.

A bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar upheld the 2020 amendments made to the FCRA Act, 2010. The detailed judgment in the case will be uploaded on the top court website later in the day.

The Centre had told the Supreme Court that there exists no fundamental right to receive unbridled foreign contributions without any regulation, while defending the amendments made in 2020 to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.

The MHA emphasized that FCRA aim was to ensure foreign contribution does not adversely impinge upon the functioning of parliamentary institutions, political associations, and academic, and other voluntary organisations as well as individuals in India.

The petitioners had challenged the amendments, which included newly added sections 12 and 17, which state that the foreign contributions must be deposited in the FCRA account created in the specified branch of the scheduled bank, which was later notified as State Bank of India, New Delhi branch.

The petitioners claimed the amendments were arbitrary and stringent, which made the functioning of NGOs extremely difficult.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in a 355-page affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, said Parliament has enacted the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, laying down a clear legislative policy of strict controls over foreign contributions for certain activities in the country.

The MHA said the “legislation has also prohibited acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality for any activities detrimental to the national interest and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”. The affidavit was settled by Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, who was assisted by advocate Kanu Agrawal.

Petitioners in the matter were — Noel Harper and Nigel Mills of Share and Care Foundation in Andhra Pradesh and Joseph Lizy and Annamma Joachim of National Workers Welfare Trust in Telangana.

British Chancellor Rishi Sunak Seeks Inquiry Into Wife Akshata Murty’s Tax Leak

Rishi Sunak of the United Kingdom, an embattled British Conservative party Chancellor of the exchequer, has defended his Indian wife Akshata Murthy, daughter of Narayana Murthy, one of the founders of software giant Infosys, against charges of avoiding paying taxes in Britain.

Sunak, who is of East African-Indian origin, told media that reports about her non-domicile status are ‘unpleasant smears’. A non-dom in the United Kingdom does not have to pay tax on her overseas income. The BBC estimated “she would have avoided 2.1 million pounds a year in UK tax”.

This, while not unlawful, is embarrassing for Sunak, under whom comes Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). “To smear my wife to get at me is awful,” Sunak insisted.

Murthy is said to own a 0.9 per cent stake in Infosys, which has been calculated as being worth 500 million pounds. Annual dividends from this holding is estimated to be 11.6 million pounds. On Thursday, it emerged she pays just 30,000 pounds a year in the UK on the British income.

Rishi Sunak is now demanding a Whitehall inquiry to find out who leaked details about his wife Akshata Murty’s tax arrangements. Murty has said she will pay UK taxes on her overseas income, following a row over her non-domicile status, the BBC reported.

Downing Street has rejected newspaper reports that its staff leaked damaging stories about Sunak to the media. It has been a bruising week for the Chancellor, and now he has asked senior civil servants for a full investigation to establish who divulged his wife’s tax status.

His allies say very few people had access to the personal information, which Sunak declared to Whitehall officials when he became a minister in 2018, the BBC reported.

Some Conservative MPs say he was naive to think the details would remain private, and that he should have predicted that the tax arrangements would be criticised as inappropriate, despite being legal. Sunak’s team has dismissed suggestions of a rift with Downing Street and say the prime minister has been “incredibly supportive”.

The opposition Labor party said it would be “breath-taking hypocrisy” if the Chancellor’s wife had reduced her tax bill as he raised taxes for millions of workers — referring to the rise in National Insurance contributions imposed in last month’s budget by Sunak.

Opposition Labor Party MP Louise Haigh said: “I think the question many people will be asking is whether it was ethical and whether it was right that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whilst piling on 15 separate tax rises to the British public, was benefiting from a tax scheme that allowed his household to pay significantly less to the tune of potentially tens of millions of pounds.”

The Chancellor’s brand, vigorously promoted since he came to office, has been damaged, with some members of the ruling Conservative Party questioning his judgement. Opposition MPs have said Sunak’s family is benefiting at a time when he is putting up taxes for millions of others, the BBC reported.

However, a section of British newspapers has claimed that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office is leaking damaging material about Sunak to media. 10 Downing Street described the allegations as “categorically untrue” and “baseless”.

On Thursday, the pro-Johnson Daily Mail ran a headline, which read: “Collapsed fitness chain backed by Rishi Sunak’s non-dom wife was paid up to 650,000 pounds in furlough cash – while her billionaire father’s IT firm claimed Covid handout for hundreds of UK staff”.

Earlier, the attack against Sunak ranged from he being the richest member of Parliament with a net worth of 200 million pounds, to Infosys operating in Russia, which western corporate houses are restrained from doing after the West’s sanctions against the Russian Federation following its invasion of Ukraine.

While Sunak may have built a slight fortune as an investment banker, his background is upper middle class, his father being a general practitioner and mother an owner of a chemist’s shop.

The allegation about Infosys was ridiculous as an Indian company is under no obligation to copy its western counterparts, since the government of India maintains normal economic ties with Moscow.

From December 2021 until before the Russia-Ukraine conflict — when Johnson’s continuity as head of government looked untenable, because of a series of scandals associated with him — it was widely being speculated in British print media as well as in Conservative circles that Sunak was a front-runner to succeed Johnson.

It was also pointed out at that point that while other cabinet colleagues were strenuously defending Johnson against the barrage of demands for him to step down, Sunak was lukewarm in doing so, which was interpreted as ‘ambition’.

Sunak became popular when the British government was significantly generous in protecting the livelihoods during the Covid-19 crisis. But having borrowed money to extend such assistance, it was inevitable that he would have to raise taxes to repay the debt. However, given the cost of living crisis that had descended on Britons because of inflation, the Chancellor’s recent budget has been condemned as uncaring.

In Britain, a budget is identified in particular with the Chancellor, although the intelligentsia is aware its contents have the prior approval of the Prime Minister. With Johnson not saying much to protect Sunak against the onslaught unleashed against him on his proposals or lack of them, an impression has grown that the latter is being thrown under a bus.

Rising Oil Prices To Keep Indian Rupee On A Slippery Slope

High crude oil prices combined with fears of rising inflation are expected to keep the Indian rupee under pressure, next week. Lately, the Brent crude oil price has remained elevated due to the Russian-Ukrainian war. The price has hovered in the range of $100-$110 in the last few weeks.

“Rupee has been under pressure due to rising US bond yields, inflation and high crude oil prices,” said Sajal Gupta Head Fx & Rates Edelweiss.

“These circumstances are going to be tough for the Indian rupee to appreciate. Expect rupee to trade between 75.50 and 76.25 in the next week.” Last week, the rupee closed at 75.90 to a greenback.

“Next week is a relatively shorter week but market participants will be keeping an eye on the inflation and industrial production number to gauge a view for the currency,” said Gaurang Somaiya, Forex & Bullion Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

“Expectation is that inflation could remain elevated following the recent rise in energy and food prices. On the other hand, industrial production could grow at a slower pace in January and could further weigh on the currency.”

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is slated to release the macro-economic data points of Index of Industrial Production (IIP), Consumer Price Index (CPI) on March 12.

On the other hand, expectations of India Inc’s healthy Q4FY22 results season should attract fresh equity focused foreign funds which might cub any sharp weakness in the Indian rupee versus the US dollar.

“Dollar index have surged past week and it is now trading near crucial psychological mark of 100,” said Devarsh Vakil, Deputy Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

“Rupee is likely to consolidate next week on back of improving sentiments for equity markets. In near term, spot USD INR expected to trade in the range of 76.20 to 75.70. with bias towards appreciation.”

$40 Billion Borrowed By US Consumers in February Alone

Americans got into a lot more debt in February this year as rampant inflation kept up the pressure, the Federal Reserve’s consumer credit report showed last week. Debt levels jumped by nearly $42 billion to a total of almost $4.5 trillion. That’s an annual increase of 11.3%, seasonally adjusted, far outperforming economists’ expectations and setting a new high. In January, total credit had grown only 2.4%.

The Fed’s historical consumer credit data goes back to the early 1940s. Revolving credit, which includes credit cards, jumped by 20.7% to about $1.1 trillion. The category increased by only 4% in the prior month.

Nonrevolving credit, such as student or car loans, grew by 8.4% to $3.4 trillion, also outpacing a smaller January gain.

Americans have been challenged with a rapid pace of price increases everywhere, from the grocery store to the gas station. Year-over-year inflation has increased at a pace not seen in 40 years.

Consumer spending has kept up the pace so far, but it is not immediately clear whether that’s because people are paying more for the same items that got more expensive or are actually buying more goods and services.

In late February, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine jolted global energy markets and boosted the price of gasoline. With prices at the pump rising higher in March, credit card spending is unlikely to have gone down after the February jump.

Elon Musk Could Become World’s First Trillionaire In 2024

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk could become the first person to ever accumulate a $1 trillion net worth, and it could happen as soon as 2024, says a new report.

Musk is currently said to be the richest person in the world, overtaking former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos last year to claim the title, reports Teslarati.

While Musk has stated many times that material possessions are not a concern of his, eventually selling nearly all of his personal properties as proof, a new study from Tipalti Approve suggests he could become the first person to ever accumulate a $1 trillion net worth.

Musk’s net worth, according to Forbes’ Real Time Billionaires list, sits at over $260 billion, nearly $70 billion more than Bezos’ current estimation of about $190 billion.

His wealth skyrocketed over the past few years thanks to his majority ownership of Tesla, which increased in value substantially since 2020. SpaceX also has helped Musk’s net worth skyrocket and could catalyze even more growth in the next two years.

“Since 2017, Musk’s fortune has shown an annual average increase of 129 per cent, which could potentially see him enter the trillion-dollar club in just two short years, achieving a net worth of $1.38 trillion by 2024 at age 52,” Tipalti Approve, who conducted the study, said in their report.

“SpaceX generates massive incomes by charging governmental and commercial clients to send various things into space, including satellites, ISS supplies, and people,” it added.

Other billionaires are also expected to hit the trillion-dollar range, but not before Musk, the report said.

Zhang Yiming, TikTok’s founder, is projected to reach a $1 trillion net worth by 2026 at 42 years old, making him the youngest trillionaire. Bezos may not hit the threshold until 2030. Bezos broke ground in the net worth realm by reaching $100 billion before any other entrepreneur in the world.

Ukraine Incursion, World Stagflation

Finger pointing in the blame game over Russia’s Ukraine incursion obscures the damage it is doing on many fronts. Meanwhile, billions struggle to cope with worsening living standards, exacerbated by the pandemic and more.

Losing sight in the fog of war

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken insists, “the Russian people will suffer the consequences of their leaders’ choices”. Western leaders and media seem to believe their unprecedentedcrushing sanctions” will have a “chilling effect” on Russia.

With sanctions intended to strangle Russia’s economy, the US and its allies somehow hope to increase domestic pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to retreat from Ukraine. The West wants to choke Russia by cutting its revenue streams, e.g., from oil and gas sales to Europe.

Already, the rouble has been hammered by preventing Russia’s central bank from accessing its US$643bn in foreign currency reserves, and barring Russian banks from using the US-run global payments transfer system, SWIFT.

Withdrawal of major Western transnational companies – such as Shell, McDonald’s and Apple – will undoubtedly hurt many Russians – not only oligarchs, their ostensible target.

Thus, Blinken’s claim that “The economic costs that we’ve been forced to impose on Russia are not aimed at you [ordinary Russians]” may well ring hollow to them. They will get little comfort from knowing, “They are aimed at compelling your government to stop its actions, to stop its aggression”.

As The New York Times notes, “sanctions have a poor record of persuading governments to change their behavior”. US sanctions against Cuba over six decades have undoubtedly hurt its economy and people.

But – as in Iran, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela – it has failed to achieve its supposed objectives. Clearly, “If the goal of sanctions is to compel Mr. Putin to halt his war, then the end point seems far-off.”

Russia, major commodity exporter

Undoubtedly, Russia no longer has the industrial and technological edges it once had. Following Yeltsin era reforms in the early 1990s, its economy shrank by half – lowering Russian life expectancy more than anywhere else in the last six millennia!

Russia has become a major primary commodity producer – not unlike many developing countries and the former settler colonies of North America and Australasia. It is now a major exporter of crude oil and natural gas.

It is also the largest exporter of palladium and wheat, and among the world’s biggest suppliers of fertilizers using potash and nitrogen. On 4 March, Moscow suspended fertilizer exports, citing “sabotage” by “foreign logistics companies”.

Farmers and consumers will suffer as yields drop by up to half. Sudden massive supply disruptions will thus have serious ramifications for the world economy – now more interdependent than ever, due to earlier globalization.

Sanctions’ inflation boomerang

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has ominously warned of the Ukraine crisis’ economic fallouts. She cautions wide-ranging sanctions on Russia will worsen inflation and further slow growth.

No country is immune, including those imposing sanctions. But the worst hit are poor countries, particularly in Africa, already struggling with rising fuel and food prices.

For Georgieva, more inflation – due to Russian sanctions – is the greatest threat to the world economy. “The surging prices for energy and other commodities – corn, metals, inputs for fertilizers, semiconductors – coming on top of already high inflation” are of grave concern to the world.

Russia and Ukraine export more than a quarter of the world’s wheat while Ukraine is also a major corn exporter. Supply chain shocks and disruptions could add between 0.2% to 0.4% to ‘headline inflation’ – which includes both food and fuel prices – in developed economies over the coming months.

US petrol prices jumped to a 17-year high in the first week of March. The costs of other necessities, especially food, are rising as well. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has acknowledged that the sanctions are worsening US inflation.

The European Union (EU) gets 40% of its natural gas from Russia. Finding alternative supplies will be neither easy nor cheap. The EU is Russia’s largest trading partner, accounting for 37% of global trade in 2020. Thus, sanctions may well hurt Europe more than Russia – like cutting one’s nose to spite one’s face.

The European Central Bank now expects stagflation – economic stagnation with inflation, and presumably, rising unemployment. It has already slashed its growth forecast for 2022 from 4.2% to 3.7%. Inflation is expected to hit a record 5.1% – way above its previous 3.2% forecast!

Developing countries worse victims
Global food prices are already at record highs, with the Food Price Index (FPI) of the Food and Agricultural Organization up more than 40% over the past two years.

The FPI hit an all-time high in February – largely due to bad weather and rising energy and fertilizer costs. By February 2022, the Agricultural Commodity Price Index was 35% higher, while maize and wheat prices were 26% and 23% more than in January 2021.

Besides shortages and rising production costs – due to surging fuel and fertilizer prices – speculation may also push food prices up – as in 2007-2008.

Signs of such speculation are already visible. Chicago Board of Trade wheat future prices rose 40% in early March – its largest weekly increase since 1959!

Rising food prices impact people in low- and middle-income countries more as they spend much larger shares of their incomes on food than in high-income countries. The main food insecurity measure has doubled in the past two years, with 45 million people close to starvation, even before the Ukraine crisis.

Countries in Africa and Asia rely much more on Russian and Ukrainian grain. The World Bank has warned, “There will be important ramifications for the Middle East, for Africa, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, in particular”, where many were already food insecure before the incursion.

The Ukraine crisis will be devastating for countries struggling to cope with the pandemic. Unable to access enough vaccines or mount adequate responses, they already lag behind rich countries. The latest food and fuel price hikes will also worsen balance-of-payments problems and domestic inflationary pressures.

No to war!

The African proverb, “When two elephants fight, all grass gets trampled”, sums up the world situation well. The US and its allies seem intent to ‘strangle Russia’ at all costs, regardless of the massive collateral damage to others.

This international crisis comes after multilateralism has been undermined for decades. Hopes for reduced international hostilities, after President Biden’s election, have evaporated as US foreign policy double standards become more apparent.

Russia has little support for its aggressive violation of international law and norms. Despite decades of deliberate NATO provocations, even after the Soviet Union ended, Putin has lost international sympathy with his aggression in Ukraine.

But there is no widespread support for NATO or the West. Following the vaccine apartheid and climate finance fiascos, the poorer, ‘darker nations’ have become more cynical of Western hypocrisy as its racism becomes more brazen.

59 Percent Of Indian Billionaires Are Self-Made

Fifty-nine percent of Indian billionaires are self-made, according to a new report.

“We are happy to be associated with Hurun India for the launch of the M3M Hurun Global Rich List 2022, curated with an in-depth market research which demonstrates that Indian businesses are one of the fastest value creators,” said Pankaj Bansal, Director, M3M India, on the M3M Hurun Global Rich List 2022.

Over the last few years, wealth creation by India Inc. has catapulted the economic growth in the country.

Interestingly, 59 per cent of the country’s billionaires are self-made, thus indicating that the new-generation entrepreneurs are financially-wise, asset-rich and investment-vibrant. Also, gender inclusivity and equality has been a noticeable theme with women outranking men across industries, said Bansal.

“Having said this, it is also true that the rich have invested in philanthropy and have played a significant role in the social and economic growth in India, particularly focusing on nutrition, education and women empowerment,” he said.

As Andrew Carnegie, one of the greatest philanthropists, said, “Ninety per cent of all millionaires become so through owning real-estate.”

“The real estate sector is ranked third amongst major sector in India and is also the second largest in terms of employment generation, and it particularly delivers in short-term and long-term employment creation. This sector is also looking forward to contribute 13 per cent in India’s GDP by 2025 and reach a market size of $1 trillion by 2030.

“No wonder, it contributed 8.1 per cent to the overall list of billionaires and possesses a concentration of 275 billionaires, which I am certain will see a significant jump in the next 5 years owing to unmet housing demands generated by urbanisation and modernisation of towns,” Bansal said.

“We are hopeful that the year 2022 will ignite the economic buoyancy in the country and will enable us to match steps with our global counterparts. Particularly, when India is gaining momentum in startups and unicorns, and has become 3rd largest ecosystem in the world, only after US and China,” he added.

The U.S. Is Considering A Radical Rethinking Of The Dollar For Today’s Digital World

Since its establishment as the country’s national currency, the dollar has undergone many updates and changes, but nothing compares to the proposal being debated today.

The U.S. is gingerly considering whether to adopt a digital version of its currency, one better suited for today’s increasingly cashless world, ushering in what could be one of the dollar’s most fundamental transformations.

In that scenario, the U.S. would not only mint the coins and print paper bills but also issue digital cash, or a central bank digital currency (CBDC), that would be stored in apps or “digital wallets” on our smartphones.

We could then use them to pay for things, just like we do with Venmo or Apple Pay, and no physical money would change hands.

It’s a vision of a cashless future that other countries are already embracing. China, for example, has unveiled the digital yuan on a trial basis. India this week said it would create a digital rupee.

Now the U.S. is weighing whether it wants to get into the game.

Last month, the Federal Reserve released a much-anticipated paper, laying out the advantages and disadvantages of a digital currency.

The Fed says it’s a first step, meant to kick-start an important conversation among policymakers and to gather feedback from average people to some of the country’s largest financial institutions.

So, how would it actually work?

Policymakers stress these are early days yet, and there is a lot that needs to be hammered out. All in all, the transactions conducted with digital dollars probably wouldn’t seem too different from existing private alternatives that allow us to pay for things by bringing our smartphones next to digital readers.

China, for example, allows digital yuan payments in the cities in which the country is piloting its digital currency, allowing citizens to make payments via an app set up by the government.

Reducing or eliminating fees is one clear benefit.

When you make a contactless payment today, it may seem immediate, but according to Chris Giancarlo, the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a lot happens behind the scenes.

“My mobile device tells his mobile device to inform a whole series of banks, to confirm who I am, how much money is in my bank, that there is enough money to move from my bank to his bank,” he says.

And at each step of the way, there are transaction fees. In 2020, they added up to more than $110 billion, which was generally shouldered by businesses.

With a digital dollar, you could in theory eliminate those middlemen. If you wanted to buy a sandwich, for instance, you could transfer money from a digital wallet directly to a cashier.

It wouldn’t necessarily entirely eliminate nongovernment players. In China, for example, users who want to use the digital yuan can go to banks to add money to their digital wallets.

But just having digital dollars in circulation could put pressure on credit card companies and payment processors to lower fees to be competitive. That is, if enough people start using the Fed-run version.

In China, adoption of the e-renminbi has been slow given that private providers such as WeChat or Alipay are already pretty popular and entrenched.

Another argument for creating a digital dollar is to open up digital transactions to Americans who don’t have bank accounts. According to the Fed, more than 5% of U.S. households are “unbanked.”

Providing them with a digital wallet would allow people to participate in our increasingly cashless financial system.

It would also make it easier for the federal government to distribute benefits.. For example, having a digital dollar in place during the pandemic could have allowed the government to transfer relief payments directly into digital wallets.

What are the challenges?

Without question, one of the biggest issues is privacy. Because the Fed would implement and oversee the project, the central bank could accrue a vast amount of data, potentially giving it a lot more visibility into everyone’s financial life.

That could be useful to regulators who want to combat money laundering, for example, but it would also raise serious privacy concerns.

That makes it critical to sort out how much information the Fed would have, according to Raghuram Rajan, a professor of finance at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

“There will be legitimate questions about how much the government knows about each individual, and also, how much it can act to restrain activities by individuals,” he says.

Cybersecurity is another critical issue, especially given the uptick in hacks and heists at cryptocurrency exchanges.

To implement a digital dollar, the U.S. government would need to modernize the country’s financial infrastructure to stave off attacks.

A digital version of the Chinese yuan is displayed during a trade fair in Beijing in September. China is among a handful of countries that are experimenting with national digital currencies.

So what’s next?

Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues are moving ahead cautiously and methodically.

The Fed is in the process of soliciting feedback from the public after releasing its paper last month. And last week, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston released preliminary results of its ongoing research into the technological challenges associated with implementing a digital currency in the U.S.

It would take five to 10 years to introduce a digital currency in the U.S., several experts say, but they argue policymakers can’t sit idly by.

There is concern that by moving slowly, the U.S. is letting other countries shape standards for national digital currencies, and the popularity of the dollar could be diminished.

After all, for decades, it has been the world’s primary reserve currency, meaning many countries hold their reserves in U.S. dollars.

But Powell has made it clear he’s in no hurry. Last year, a reporter asked the central banker whether he was worried the U.S. was falling behind countries like China.

“I think it’s more important to do this right than to do it fast,” he replied.

World Bank Downgrades 2022 Global Growth Forecast To 4.1%

The global economy is on track to grow by 4.1 per cent in 2022, down 0.2 percentage point from a previous projection, the World Bank Group said in its latest Global Economic Prospects release.

“The global recovery is set to decelerate markedly amid continued Covid-19 flare-ups, diminished policy support, and lingering supply bottlenecks,” the semiannual report added on Tuesday.

The global outlook is “clouded by various downside risks,” including renewed Covid-19 outbreaks due to new virus variants, the possibility of unanchored inflation expectations, and financial stress in a context of record-high debt levels, according to the report.

After rebounding to an estimated 5.5 per cent in 2021, global growth is expected to decelerate markedly to 4.1 per cent in 2022, the report noted. The latest projection for 2021 and 2022 is 0.2 percentage point lower than the June forecast, respectively.

The report also noted that the Covid-19 pandemic has raised global income inequality, partly reversing the decline that was achieved over the previous two decades, Xinhua news agency reported.

By 2023, annual output is expected to remain below the pre-pandemic trend in all emerging market and developing economy (EMDE) regions, in contrast to advanced economies, where the gap is projected to close.

Preliminary evidence suggests that the pandemic has also caused within-country income inequality to rise somewhat in EMDEs because of particularly severe job and income losses among lower-income population groups, according to the report.

“The world economy is simultaneously facing Covid-19, inflation, and policy uncertainty, with government spending and monetary policies in uncharted territory,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass.

Noting that rising inequality and security challenges are “particularly harmful” for developing countries, Malpass added that putting more countries on a favourable growth path requires concerted international action and a comprehensive set of national policy responses.

Eternalhealth Raises $10 Million Series A Funding After Initial $10 Million In Seed Financing

EternalHealth, the first new health plan to be approved in Massachusetts since 2013, announced today that it has raised another $10 million in Series A funding. This additional financing follows an initial $10 million in Seed and Pre-Series A investment by successful healthcare and tech entrepreneurs last summer.

John Sculley, former Apple CEO, is involved in the Series A funding round and believes in the mission of eternalHealth, which is founded by Pooja Ika, the first woman at the age of 24 to launch a new Medicare Advantage Health Plan in the United States.

“Around two decades ago, I decided I wanted to disrupt the healthcare industry by collaborating with entrepreneurs who believed in their mission,” said Sculley, former Apple CEO and an investors and shareholder in eternalHealth, “I truly believe we have a healthcare Moonshot with eternalHealth and I am excited to see how we can better the space together. I believe in Pooja’s mission and with the help of her team, she has been able to accomplish so much in one year.”

Ms. Ika said the Series A funding, which includes seed investors and additional successful technology and healthcare entrepreneurs, will be used to support the day-to-day operations, and help attract and retain membership, while most of the capital will be used as risk-based capital to support the company’s membership growth.

Typically, the launch of a new health plan takes two to three years and costs tens of millions of dollars, said Ms. Ika.

“At eternalHealth, we accomplished this historic goal within a year. The initial seed round helped us build a technology-powered infrastructure, optimize our operations, and hire a skilled team of 20 professionals,” added Ms. Ika. “Now, that we are operationally sound, we are actively trying to grow and increase our membership base. The goal has always been to build a sustainable business model, that is committed to doing things the right way.”

New insurers have raised hundreds of millions of dollars at the same stage Ms. Ika is at now, but Ms. Ika is very mindful about raising capital and said, “It is not because we cannot raise the capital, it is because we are being intentional with our use of capital. I strive to achieve the same results of some of my mentors who have started successful health plans across the country. Their advice to me was to get all of our regulatory approvals with as little capital as possible, and that is exactly what we did.”  Ms. Ika added that this is the first time ever that a health plan has been launched in the United States by a woman at 24 and not only that, but by a woman of color.

“Navigating through the healthcare system can be complicated, and insurance companies are not always the best at helping beneficiaries navigate through it,” said Ms. Ika. “eternalHealth is committed to empowering and educating our members so that they make informed decisions and take their care into their own hands. By educating our members, establishing collaborative relationships with the providers and health systems in our network, and using the latest technology and tools, we can deliver higher quality care at a lower cost to our members.”

eternalHealth believes that through their partnership with Red Sox legend David Ortiz, popularly known as Big Papi, Massachusetts residents will be able to connect Ortiz’s trustworthy and kind personality to eternalHealth’s commitment to offering high quality, affordable products, while acting as a trustworthy and transparent partner to its members.

Through its technology-driven, innovative platform, eternalHealth is looking to substantially reduce its administrative & operating costs (SG&A) across the entire enterprise. The cost savings will allow for more dollars to be allocated towards the total cost of care, while also passing down the savings to their members through its robust benefits to lead them in the healthy direction.

Once eternalHealth reaches the critical membership threshold, it will implement value-based contracting with providers, through which they will collaborate with providers and help them manage the overall quality of care for their patients through platform driven intelligence, improve the overall quality of life, and reduce healthcare costs. Ms. Ika says, “At eternalHealth, we believe we can really reduce healthcare costs by leveraging the right technology. That helps with member retention and satisfaction, which remains a key priority for eternalHealth. Just because it has not been done before, that does not mean it is impossible. eternalHealth strives to be a catalyst for change in a market that has seen little disruption.

About eternalHealth

Headquartered in Boston, eternalHealth provides high-quality care with low out-of-pocket costs to the residents of Massachusetts, while prioritizing preventive care and transparency. Founded, owned, and built by women, eternalHealth is a Medicare Advantage health plan that offers HMO and PPO products. For more information about our plans and services, please visit our website at www.eternalHealth.com

Democrats Look To Scale Back Biden Bill To Get It Passed

According to media reports, momentum is growing for narrowing the scope of President Biden’s social spending and climate package as Democrats seek a way to get the bill through the Senate with Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) support.

Manchin effectively killed a much more wide-ranging bill, known as the Build Back Better Act, on Sunday by announcing his opposition, deeply disappointing and angering the White House and fellow congressional Democrats.

Days later, the pain still stings, but Democrats are actively seeking solutions that might find muster with the conservative West Virginia senator, whose vote is a necessity in the 50-50 Senate evenly divided between the two parties.

Democratic lawmakers, lobbyists and experts at think tanks believe Manchin might be won over if the bill is revised to include fewer programs for a longer period of time.

“That is the way forward here,” said Ben Ritz, director of the Center for Funding America’s Future at the Progressive Policy Institute, who has advocated for a bill with fewer items.  “Most of the party is starting to come around to that,” Ritz added. Some Democrats think their party made a mistake in going too large in the first place.

Progressives initially pushed a $6 trillion measure before falling back to $3.5 trillion — in part to signal that cut represented a concession on their party. The lower figure also proved too high for Manchin and fellow centrist Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), however, and the House ultimately passed a roughly $2 trillion version of Biden’s spending plan in November, which had a number of key provisions that were temporary. For example, the bill included provisions to extend the increased child tax credit amount for one year, and to create a universal preschool program for six years.

“To get someone like Manchin, a Democrat representing a conservative state, to a point where they can support something, [Democrats] started off on the wrong foot about letting the bill get too big about too many things,” said Tucker Shumack, a principal at Ogilvy Government Relations who previously served as an aide to former moderate Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

Manchin argued that Democrats are not being honest about the cost of the bill, since temporary programs are likely to be extended in the future. “They continue to camouflage the real cost of the intent behind this bill,” Manchin said in a statement Sunday outlining his opposition to the measure.

In his recent comments, Manchin said he couldn’t explain voting for Build Back Better in West Virginia, a state former President Trump won twice by double digits. Jorge Castro, co-lead of the tax-policy practice at Miller & Chevalier and a former aide to former West Virginia Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D), said that a more focused bill could help Democrats counter Republican attacks that the bill is a grab-bag of spending. “I think it definitely helps from a messaging perspective,” he said.

Some moderate Democrats have long called for the Build Back Better Act to include fewer items for a longer time period, and are emphasizing this idea in the wake of Manchin’s recent comments.

“At the start of these negotiations many months ago, we called for prioritizing doing a few things well for longer, and we believe that adopting such an approach could open a potential path forward for this legislation,” Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) chair of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, said in a statement Sunday.

White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain tweeted a link to DelBene’s statement, saying the administration appreciates “all that @RepDelBene and the House New Dem Coalition has done to move forward on Build Back Better and the President’s agenda!”

Progressive lawmakers have been leading supporters of including more items in the bill, even if that means some programs are temporary. But they are acknowledging that some items may need to be removed from the package in subsequent negotiations.

In a statement on Wednesday, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said that cuts should be as minimal as possible.

“In Congress, we will continue to prioritize a legislative path for Build Back Better, focused on taking the current text of the legislation passed by the House, keeping as much of it as possible — but no less than the elements contained in the framework negotiated by the President and committed to by Senators Manchin and Sinema some months ago,” Jayapal said.

It’s not certain exactly which items from the House-passed bill would end up in a narrower bill, and exactly which would be left out. The New Democrat Coalition in their statement mentioned as top priorities the expanded child tax credit, building on ObamaCare and addressing climate change. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) also made reference to those items in a statement.

Manchin has raised concerns about including Medicare expansion and paid family leave in the spending package, suggesting that those items might not make it into a package with fewer content areas.

The expanded child tax credit could prove to be challenging to include in a compromise with Manchin. The West Virginia senator has expressed a desire for the income limits for the credit to be lowered and for there to be work requirements associated with the credit.

The Washington Post on Monday reported that Manchin had provided the White House last week with a $1.8 trillion proposal that included universal preschool for 10 years, ObamaCare expansion and climate spending, but not the expanded child tax credit. Neither Manchin’s office nor the White House have publicly confirmed the report.

Ritz said it’s possible that Manchin and other Democrats could reach a compromise on the child tax credit, such as by targeting the child tax credit expansion more toward younger children or lowering the income level where the expanded credit starts to phase out.

He also said that even if a bill didn’t include an extension of the expanded child tax credit, a package that included other items such as universal preschool, Obama Care expansion, climate funding and affordable housing investments would still be transformative.

Biden Administration Extends Student Loan Pause Through May 1, 2022

The U.S. Department of Education announced a 90-day extension of the pause on student loan repayment, interest, and collections through May 1, 2022. The extension will allow the Administration to assess the impacts of the Omicron variant on student borrowers and provide additional time for borrowers to plan for the resumption of payments and reduce the risk of delinquency and defaults after restart.

The Department will continue its work to transition borrowers smoothly back into repayment, including by improving student loan servicing.

“Since Day One of this Administration, the Department has focused on supporting students and borrowers throughout the pandemic and ensuring they have the resources they need to return to repayment successfully,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “This additional extension of the repayment pause will provide critical relief to borrowers who continue to face financial hardships as a result of the pandemic, and will allow our Administration to assess the impacts of Omicron on student borrowers.

As we prepare for the return to repayment in May, we will continue to provide tools and supports to borrowers so they can enter into the repayment plan that is responsive to their financial situation, such as an income-driven repayment plan. Students and borrowers will always be at the center of our work at the Department, and we are committed to not only ensuring a smooth return to repayment, but also increasing accountability and stronger customer service from our loan servicers as borrowers prepare for repayment.”

The pause on student loan payments will help 41 million borrowers save $5 billion per month. Borrowers are encouraged to use the additional time to ensure their contact information is up to date and to consider enrolling in electronic debit and income-driven repayment plans to support a smooth transition to repayment. More information can be found at StudentAid.gov.

This action is one of a series of steps the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to support students and borrowers, make higher education more affordable, and improve student loan servicing, including providing nearly $13 billion in targeted loan relief to over 640,000 borrowers. Actions within that include:

Revamping the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program in October, which has already provided $2.4 billion in loan relief to 38,000 borrowers. As part of that effort, the Department implemented a Limited PSLF Waiver to count all prior payments made by student borrowers toward PSLF, regardless of the loan program. Borrowers who are working in public service but have not yet applied for PSLF should do so before October 31, 2022, and can find out more at StudentAid.gov/PSLF.

Providing $7.0 billion in relief for 401,000 borrowers who have a total and permanent disability. Approving $1.5 billion in borrower defense claims, including extending full relief to approved claims and approving new types of claims.

Providing $1.26 billion in closed school discharges to 107,000 borrowers who attended the now-defunct ITT Technical Institute. Helping 30,000 small business owners with student loans seeking help from the Paycheck Protection Program.

The Reasons And Solutions To Rising Inflation In The US

With inflation at a 39-year high, Americans are feeling the pinch in just about every facet of daily life. The consumer price index jumped 6.8% from a year earlier, the fastest pace since 1982, as prices surged for staples such as food and gasoline, as well as new and used cars, rent and medical care, the Labor Department said Friday.

There’s been plenty of finger-pointing from both sides of the political aisle about who’s responsible for the spiraling costs, but as usual with issues that have such a broad impact, the causes are complex.

President Joe Biden acknowledged last month that “inflation hurts Americans’ pocketbooks, and reversing this trend is a top priority for me.’’ But he said his $1 trillion infrastructure package, including spending on roads, bridges and ports, would help ease supply bottlenecks.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how we got here and some of the strategies that might help reverse the trend:

►CPI Report: Consumer prices climbed 6.8% in November from a year earlier, the most since 1982, as inflation surged higher

►Inflation surges to 39-year high: How much more are you paying and what’s the damage for Biden?

►Personal finance: What’s not to love? The US savings bond that earns 7% with inflation protection, yet gets ignored

Why are grocery prices so high?

There are myriad reasons for the higher grocery bills, including the same labor shortages, supply chain bottlenecks and strong consumer demand that have driven up the cost of other goods and services. Toss in the wild cards plaguing the food industry: Extreme weather, particularly heat and drought that have curtailed crop yields. A surge in exports. COVID-19 outbreaks at meatpacking plants. Volatile consumer eating patterns amid the ups and downs of the health crisis.

Meanwhile, dire worker shortages, particularly at restaurants, have pushed up wages and the cost of dining out.

There are still fewer factory, warehouse and port workers as parents care for distance-learning children or stay home because of COVID-19 fears. Fuel costs have soared. Dozens of container ships are stuck in the waters near the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, waiting to unload cargo. The cost to lease a shipping container for a delivery from China has increased nearly tenfold to $20,000.

Other factors driving inflation

Cars are one of the leading culprits.

Also behind the spike are items such as hotel rates and airline fares, which plunged last year in the early days of the pandemic and rose sharply from those lows this year as consumer demand returned amid the reopening economy.

Supply chain bottlenecks, with COVID-19-related worker absences at factories and ports still high, are also leading to low supplies and higher prices for consumer electronics, appliances and many other products.

The crunch comes on top of a semiconductor shortage and parts supply disruptions that have meant low inventories and higher prices for cars.

The average sales price of a new vehicle hit a record $42,802 in September, breaking the old record of $41,528 set in August, J.D. Power said. The average U.S. price is up nearly 19% from a year ago, when it broke $36,000 for the first time, J.D. Power said. The auto price increases have helped to drive up U.S. inflation.

The Gerald Jones Honda lot in Augusta, Ga., is mostly empty. On a late October morning, there were only six new cars available when there are usually around 250.

►Where are we going from here? Are we at risk of stagflation as prices rise and growth slows?

►The high cost of buying a car: US vehicle sales tumble amid chip shortage, record prices

What role did the stimulus play in driving inflation?

That’s complicated. The stimulus checks, which started to get mailed out under President Donald Trump’s administration, continued through March, when eligible married couples, for example, received up to $2,800 – plus $1,400 for each dependent.

The economy looked very different in the spring of 2020, when Americans first started to receive stimulus checks: The U.S. economy had collapsed as lockdowns took effect, businesses closed or cut hours and consumers stayed home as a health precaution. Employers slashed 22 million jobs. Economic output plunged at a record-shattering 31% annual rate in last year’s April-June quarter.

Everyone braced for more misery. Companies cut investment. Restocking was put off. And a brutal recession ensued.

Yet instead of sinking into a prolonged downturn, the economy staged an unexpectedly rousing recovery, fueled by massive government spending and a bevy of emergency moves by the Fed. By the spring of 2021, the rollout of vaccines had emboldened consumers to return to restaurants, bars and shops.

Suddenly, businesses had to scramble to meet demand. They couldn’t hire fast enough to plug job openings – a near record 10.4 million in August – or buy enough supplies to fill customer orders. As business roared back, ports and freight yards couldn’t handle the traffic. Global supply chains became snarled.

Costs rose. And companies found that they could pass along those higher costs in the form of higher prices to consumers, many of whom had managed to sock away a ton of savings during the pandemic.

To curb inflation, fed reduces bond purchases

Last month, in a milestone for the U.S. recovery from the COVID-19 recession, the Federal Reserve agreed to gradually dial back the bond-buying stimulus it launched early in the health crisis.

The decision, which has been expected for months, reflects the strides the economy has made, with unemployment falling sharply from its pandemic peak. But it also pointedly reveals the central bank’s growing concern about inflation that has surged in recent months amid supply chain bottlenecks.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters the Fed will be patient and hold off on raising rates so the economy can reach full employment, but he added officials “won’t hesitate” to act if inflation doesn’t ease, presumably by the second half of next year.

►Worker shortage: As millions of jobs go unfilled, employers look to familiar faces in ‘boomerang employees’

►Personal finance and politics: What the jump in consumer prices means for your pocketbook, Joe Biden’s troubles

Biden announces ports open 24/7 to fight inflation, reduce supply chain crunch

In October, Biden announced that the Port of Los Angeles – at the center of the supply chain logjam – will operate around the clock to help clear out some of the hundreds of thousands of shipping containers from Asia stranded on its docks. The neighboring Port of Long Beach, which has been conducting a similar pilot project at one of its 12 terminals, is expected to follow.

As ports gear up operations, dozens of cargo vessels dot the surrounding harbor, waiting for the chance to unload 40-foot containers filled with food, clothing and even holiday gifts, from skateboards to elliptical bicycles. In normal times, there are no waits. But it’s not that simple.

A visit to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and interviews with port officials, union representatives, workers and freight companies reveal it likely will take months to make a significant dent in the port backlog and disentangle the myriad other kinks in the nation’s vast supply network.

Other players, including truck drivers and warehouse workers, need to shift their schedules. There are also equipment shortfalls, bureaucratic hurdles and severe worker shortages at other hubs in the overwhelmed supply chain.

►Will it save holiday shopping? Biden says running LA ports 24/7 will help save Christmas shopping. It’s not that simple, experts warn.

Gasoline Costs More For A Host Of Reasons

Americans are acutely sensitive to gasoline prices, especially when they’re on the rise. One reason, of course, is that we buy a lot of gas: an estimated 570 gallons this year for the average driver, which at current national average prices would cost close to $2,000. Also, gas prices are posted all over town on large signs – unlike, say, milk prices – and people typically buy gas on its own rather than as part of a larger shopping trip, making price changes more noticeable. And gas prices can and do swing sharply and unpredictably, in ways that can seem unconnected to the rest of the economy.

Regular gas costs, on average, 58.7% more than it did a year ago this time – $3.491 a gallon last month, versus $2.20 in November 2020, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA).

But looking just at the recent rise can be misleading, or at least incomplete. For one thing, a year ago the United States was battling yet another wave of COVID-19 cases, large parts of the economy were still shuttered and demand for gas was way down. Estimated consumption in 2020 was 534 gallons per driver, down 14.4% from 624 gallons in 2019.

How we did this

Also, the volatility of gas prices means they can go down as sharply and as suddenly as they go up. In the spring of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic sparked widespread lockdowns, the average gas price sank 27% between Feb. 24 and April 27. Since 1994, average gas prices have fluctuated between a low of 96.2 cents a gallon in February 1999 and a high of $4.114 in July 2008. The current average price, in fact, is almost exactly what it was in September 2014 – at least on a nominal basis.

When inflation is factored in, today’s prices appear more modest. In today’s dollars, gas cost an average of $5.20 a gallon in June 2008, and more than $4 as recently as September 2014.

Also, gasoline is not a single, uniform product. Besides regular, midgrade and premium gas, which differ by octane rating, there’s conventional and “reformulated” gas. The latter is required to be sold in California, along the Northeastern seaboard and in several other major urban areas to reduce smog and other air pollutants.

Over the past year, reformulated gas was consistently 30 to 35 cents more expensive than conventional gas until mid-October, when the differential began to widen, according to an analysis of EIA price data – it’s­ now about 46 cents more expensive. Over the same period, midgrade gas has ranged from 37 cents to 46 cents more expensive than regular, while premium has been 25 to 27 cents higher than midgrade.

Where you buy gas also matters. Much of the U.S. petroleum industry is concentrated along the Gulf Coast, making it perhaps unsurprising that gas tends to be cheapest there. The average price in that region was $3.072 a gallon in late November, and in Texas it was also a hairsbreadth above $3.

By contrast, California almost always has the most expensive gas in the country. The state’s average price in late November was $4.642 a gallon, and in San Francisco it was $4.816. Besides the fact that California already uses pricier reformulated gas and has relatively high gas taxes and environmental fees, it is geographically far removed from other refining centers and relatively few fuel pipelines cross the Rocky Mountains to connect California’s refineries to the rest of the country.

Under normal conditions, the state’s refineries can produce enough gasoline to meet demand there, according to the California Energy Commission. But if refineries go offline due to weather, accidents or mechanical breakdowns, the state typically imports gasoline from overseas – adding to the price because of the cost of marine shipments.

A Good Pay Raise Next Year Expected As Companies Struggle To Fill Jobs

The amount of money companies are setting aside for raises is expected to rise at the fastest rate in more than a decade, as employers fight to keep and hire workers in a historically tight labor market, a new survey says.  

Budgets for wage hikes are projected to jump 3.9% next year, the biggest annual leap since 2008, according to a November survey of compensation executives by the Conference Board, a nonprofit membership group of mostly large businesses.  

The growing pools of cash are meant to entice young workers and hold on to existing staff at a time when a record number of jobs are going unfilled, and consumers are dealing with the worst inflation in 39 years.   

“Growth in wages for new hires and accelerating inflation are the main causes of the jump in salary increase budgets,’’ the report said. It added that 46% of executives said higher pay for new employees was a reason for the larger pay pools that are expected, while 39% said inflation helped fuel the increase.

The consumer price index increased 6.8% in November as compared to the previous year, the fastest pace since 1982, with the cost of groceries, gas, rent and cars all on the rise, the Labor Department said Friday.

Labor shortage and wages

Budgets for salary increases have already risen, with the average pool of cash increasing by 3% in the survey taken last month, compared with the 2.6% that was predicted in an earlier survey in April.

A labor shortage has helped spark a ripple effect, enabling younger people entering the workforce to earn higher wages, more experienced employees to pursue new positions and potentially higher pay, and blue-collar workers to demand union representation and better work conditions.

“The rapid increase in wages and inflation are forcing businesses to make important decisions regarding their approach to salaries, recruiting, and retention,’’ the Conference Board report said, It tnoted that labor shortages will probably continue through 2022 while wages likely increase by more than 4%.

Blue-collar workers as well as those in unions are also expected to see pay hikes. “Wages for new hires, and workers in blue-collar and manual services jobs will grow faster than average,’’ the report wrote. 

Workers, from Kellogg cereal facilities to university faculty to Starbucks stores, are demanding higher wages and improved working conditions amid a pandemic that many say magnified inequities and disparities.

The pay hikes many businesses are offering could cost consumers if companies raise the price of services or goods to cover the higher wages, says the Conference Board.. 

And the Federal Reserve may boost interest rates beyond the two increases that economists are already projecting for next year to help slow inflation, according to the Board.

Is India Against Cryptocurrencies?

While the crypto currency market is booming and thousands of new virtual currencies are being mined every week, many financial experts and governments are vehemently raising voice to ban all cryptos for various reasons.

Last week, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said the Reserve Bank had “serious concerns from the point of view of macro-economic and financial stability” and that blockchain technology can thrive without cryptocurrencies. Really, there is a grain of truth to the claim that cryptocurrencies are rivals of central banks as they cannot control them like sovereign money.

India has recently taken a more keen note on cryptocurrencies, thanks to its robust growth in the country amid a lack of regulations. However, things are likely to undergo a drastic change, with the government eager to bring in rules and regulations in the digital currency sector. (News18.com 12/18/2021).

There are thousands of virtual currencies on the market today, which are known as cryptocurrencies. Such currencies exchanged through crypto exchanges have not yet been approved by any country or central bank. Recently, El Salvador, a Central American country, officially recognized only the powerful Bitcoin.

But the CBDC is the official cryptocurrency issued by the Central Bank of India. This is the main difference between other cryptocurrencies and CDBC. The CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) will also be  marketed through the blockchain technology as done by other virtual currencies . It is likely to be a digital token or electronic form of the current currency. The Reserve Bank of India will be in charge of supervising and monitoring the official crypto of the Indian government. Digital money cannot be withdrawn as we usually withdraw from banks and ATMs. Their transactions will be through digital platforms. It is not yet clear whether it will be listed on other crypto exchanges.

There is no doubt that the operation of private currencies is being restricted to strengthen the official cryptocurrencies. There are some valid points to know about the official cryptocurrency of India.

The primary concern for India’s central bank is the anonymity that virtual currencies offer to their investors. While the record of cryptos is kept on an open ledger, the owner’s identity is not revealed. This can create problems for banks and the IRS to track the flow of money. And hence cryptocurrencies could be used to transfer illegal money or evade taxes and fund terrorist activities.

Digital currency will reduce the difference between the value of an ordinary currency and the cost of printing it. The bottom line is that government spending will go down. Meanwhile, the RBI Due to the restrictions, the value of digital currency will not fluctuate as seen in cryptocurrencies. This is where investors are most likely to stay away.

The total amount of digital currency issued can be converted into cash and is part of the currency in circulation in the economy. Over the last 5-6 years, the currency, including notes and coins, has grown from Rs 16.63 lakh crore to Rs 28.60 lakh crore. One of the main reasons for the rise in inflation is the circulation of this currency in the markets.

With the advent of digital currency, the RBI’s ability to intervene in markets will increase. Digital currency can reduce the amount of money in the market. After Kovid, people are increasingly using digital means.

Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin Appoints MR Rangaswami As State’s ‘Investment Ambassador’

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has appointed a prominent Indian American venture capitalist, M.R. Rangaswami as Tamil Nadu’s ‘Investment Ambassador’ on Friday, November 26.

Rangaswami has been an active member of the Indian American community whose influence has inspired many.

Over the years he has worn many hats including being an entrepreneur, investor, corporate eco-strategy expert, community builder and a philanthropist.

Most importantly, he is the founder of Indiaspora, a nonprofit who mission is to unite the Indian diaspora and to transform their success into meaningful impact in India and on the global stage.

By sharing insights, hosting events and connecting people, Indiaspora unites the professionally, geographically and religiously diverse Indian American community toward collective action, the press release said.

On honoring him his new crown, CM Stalin praised Rangaswami for his achievements in the US.

Dr. VGP, an Indian American community leader and president of the World Federation of Tamil Youth, USA in Chicago, congratulated CM Stalin on the appointment and said Tamil Nadu will soon become India’s number one industrialized state under Rangaswami’s captaincy, it said.

Neil Khot, national chairman of the Indian American Business Coalition, based in Washington, D.C., congratulated Rangasawami, saying that he is an excellent and apt choice who can make things happen.

Tamil Nadu has made giant strides in attracting global investment recently, thanks to IAS officer T. Muruganandam, who was till recently industries secretary and was now promoted to the key position as the state’s finance secretary, noted the release.

The event was attended by Rangaswami wife and his two children, who have been supportive of his past endeavors and his current leadership position to tackle more India-centric issues.

What Does Current Inflation Tell Us About The Future?

What signal should we be taking from current inflation for future inflation? The answer: some signal, but not a lot. To be sure, inflation is running high (figure 1); and, after excluding the typically volatile categories of food and energy prices, is running higher than it has been in decades. But because the factors that are leading to inflation are pandemic-related and therefore temporary, the current trend does not forecast the future.

To examine whether this short-term run up in inflation points to higher inflation in the years ahead, I look at the factors that appear to be contributing. I find that the strength and composition of consumer demand for goods since the pandemic began as well as supply constraints caused by the pandemic are the sources of the current spike. The clearly temporary nature of those factors suggests we should not extrapolate recent inflation pressure into the future.

Key Points:

Goods inflation has indeed been extraordinarily high.

The identifiable factors behind goods inflation—a surge in consumer demand and lagging supply—are primarily pandemic-related.

Increasing vaccination rates and decreasing the health risks should rebalance spending patterns, leading to a decrease in demand for goods and an increase in demand for services.

If increases in the supply of services lags behind increases in demand for services, we would see new and worrying inflation risks arise.

Inflation as of October 2021

Figure 1 shows inflation from 1969 to 2021, both by the consumer price index (CPI) and by the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) deflator. Some observers have tried to draw parallels between the current episode in inflation and the 1970s; this is incorrect.

While inflation has increased relative to recent years, inflation is significantly below the levels seen in the 1970s.

As measured by the CPI, the annual rate of inflation from October 2020 to October 2021 was 6.2 percent. As measured by the PCE deflator, the annual rate of inflation from September 2020 to September 2021 (the most recent available data) was 4.4 percent. Some of those price increases reflect a bounce back from the unusually low level of prices in the first part of the pandemic. For example, if the CPI had grown at a rate close to the Federal Reserve’s target from the first month of the pandemic through October 2020, the CPI annual inflation rate over the last year would have been 5.1 percent. That rate is still quite high, but a percentage point lower than the actual annual rate.

Which goods and services have driven the recent run-up in inflation? Figure 2 shows that the answer is core commodities, or goods. As figure 2a shows, core goods inflation has been strikingly high in recent months. In contrast, inflation in core services (2b) has been far more muted and has generally recovered to pre-pandemic rates.

Figures 2c and 2d show that inflation in energy and in food, which are excluded from core inflation, are both elevated. Energy inflation is quite volatile; domestic energy producers faced very low prices early in the pandemic, and those producers may be waiting to see if price increases are durable before increasing supply. Food inflation is worrying and appears to be a global trend related to the pandemic among other factors. The same trends are evident looking at PCE inflation (not shown).

Figure 3 shows just how unusual core goods inflation has been: it is higher than it’s been over the last 30 years. Since 2000, core goods inflation has been negative roughly half the time, meaning that the price of goods (on a quality-adjusted basis) falls on average. Given this recent history, the skyrocketing goods prices seen during the pandemic are all the more extraordinary. In contrast, core services inflation has been close to its average from the early 1990s to 2008 (when the significant decline in house prices dampened shelter costs).

Inflation in Economic Recoveries

As I have shown, the primary contributor to the recent spike in inflation is core goods. The strength in real consumer spending (shown in figure 4a) has reflected a surge in spending on consumer goods (shown in figure 4b). Real goods spending is currently about 15 percent higher than it was pre-pandemic, and there were a couple of months when it was 20 percent higher.

Are the trends described above a signal that we should expect continued extraordinary inflation for core goods—everything from automobiles to exercise mats—in the coming years? Three factors suggest no.

First, the surge in spending on goods has put upward pressure on prices as suppliers have been unable to keep up with demand. Suppliers have strong incentives to iron out issues with the supply chain to get more product onto shelves; in addition, the problems with the supply chain that owe more directly to the pandemic will ebb as the pandemic is brought under control globally.

Second, that surge in goods spending is no doubt temporary because households—as the pandemic recedes—will rebalance consumer spending toward services, which has been unusually depressed (figure 4c).

Third, the fiscal support to households that has helped to finance the surge in goods spending has largely waned.

In contrast to spending on consumer goods, spending on services remains below its pre-pandemic peak. This pattern is a significant departure from previous business cycles where services were relatively unaffected.

Inflation Risks on the Horizon

Although the recent surge in consumer goods inflation does not suggest persistent inflation in this sector going forward, two other issues present risk to the inflation outlook: labor supply and demand in the services sector as well as the recent increases in housing prices.

As consumer spending rebalances towards services, demand for labor in the services sector will rise beyond already-elevated levels. For example, in September, job openings in leisure and hospitality were a remarkable 530,000 higher than trend but employment was 1.5 million below its pre-pandemic level. If consumer demand for leisure and hospitality services return to (or temporarily exceeds) pre-pandemic levels, demand for labor will likely increase significantly.

Softness in labor force participation rates and a frustratingly slow pace of matching job seekers with jobs has raised concerns about weakness in the supply of labor. To be sure, the pace of job matching is probably slowed by the sheer number of job openings and opportunities across multiple industries that candidates have to consider. In addition, because of pandemic-related issues, some people are constrained from working or worried about the health risks of working. My expectation is that those issues will resolve.

However, continued weakness in labor supply may suggest that the experience of the pandemic and the changing nature of work since March 2020 could persistently dampen how much labor people are willing to supply. If labor supply continues to be restrained, this will affect the ability of the U.S. economy to produce goods and services.

That would increase inflationary pressures for a given level of aggregate demand, which is a problem. But, in that circumstance the more significant problem to address would be that our standard of living would be lower.

The other factor that is creating some inflationary risks on the horizon is house price growth and how that is going to spill over into the rental market. Historically, there is a strong relationship between house price growth and inflation in the rental market (figure 5). After rents grew at roughly a 3¾ percent annual pace before the pandemic, this inflation rate was at a remarkably low level of less than 2 percent in the first half of this year.

Rent inflation is now rising to more typical levels; rents grew 2¾ percent between October 2020 and October 2021 and that rate looks poised to increase. While deserving of notice, worrying inflation in this sector would be more of the plain vanilla-type that less accommodative monetary policy would be well-equipped to dampen.

Conclusion

The biggest risk to inflation going forward is not a continuation of the forces currently at work in the goods sector: this will not be persistent. Instead, the biggest risk is that large increases in demand for workers in the services sector will not be met by equally large increases in labor supply.

Policymakers can encourage labor supply by continuing to get the pandemic under control through vaccinations and sensible health policies. Moreover, policymakers can also remove barriers that make work costly, such as lack of access to affordable, high-quality childcare. Policymakers can facilitate the matching of job seekers with jobs through job fairs and better access to labor market information. Finally, immigrants are a critical source of workers in the U.S., and rates of immigration are significantly down relative to pre-pandemic projections.

A return to more typical levels of, for example, green card issuance would help to expand labor supply in the U.S. to meet the growing demand for labor. In short, the policies that will rein in inflation in the future are the same policies that support a sustained and equitable labor market recovery.

World Bank Reports, India Received Largest Remittances In 2021

The recently launched report by World Bank noted that India received $87 billion in remittances in 2021, and the United States was the biggest source, accounting for over 20% of these funds.

On Wednesday, November 17, the World Bank report stated, “Flows to India (the world’s largest recipient of remittances) are expected to reach $87 billion, a gain of 4.6% — with the severity of COVID-19 caseloads and deaths during the second quarter (well above the global average) playing a prominent role in drawing altruistic flows (including for the purchase of oxygen tanks) to the country,”

India is followed by China, Mexico, the Philippines, and Egypt, the report said. In India, remittances are projected to grow 3% in 2022 to $89.6 billion, reflecting a drop in overall migrant stock, as a large proportion of returnees from the Arab countries await return, it said.

Remittances to low- and middle-income countries are projected to have grown a strong 7.3% to reach $589 billion in 2021, the Bank said.

This return to growth is more robust than earlier estimates and follows the resilience of flows in 2020 when remittances declined by only 1.7% despite a severe global recession due to COVID-19, according to estimates from the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief.

“Remittance flows from migrants have greatly complemented government cash transfer programs to support families suffering economic hardships during the COVID-19 crisis. Facilitating the flow of remittances to provide relief to strained household budgets should be a key component of government policies to support a global recovery from the pandemic,” said Michal Rutkowski, World Bank Global Director for Social Protection and Jobs.

Inflation Explained: Why Prices Keep Going Up And Who’s To Blame?

Confused about inflation? You’re not alone. Inflation is, paradoxically, both incredibly simple to understand and absurdly complicated.  Let’s start with the simplest version: Inflation happens when prices broadly go up.

That “broadly” is important: At any given time, the price of goods will fluctuate based on shifting tastes. Someone makes a viral TikTok about brussels sprouts and suddenly everyone’s gotta have them; sprouts prices go up. Meanwhile sellers of cauliflower, last season’s trendy veg, are practically giving their goods away. Those fluctuations are constant.

Inflation is when the average price of virtually everything consumers buy goes up. Food, houses, cars, clothes, toys, etc. To afford those necessities, wages have to rise too.

It’s not a bad thing. In the United States, for the past 40 years or so (and particularly this century), we’ve been living in an ideal low-and-slow level of inflation that comes with a well-oiled consumer-driven economy, with prices going up around 2% a year, if that. Sure, prices on some things, like housing and health care, are much higher than they used to be, but other things, like computers and TVs, have become much cheaper — the average of all the things combined has been relatively stable.

Still with me?

All right, let’s cut to today, and why inflation is all over the news.

When ‘inflation’ is a bad word

Inflation becomes problematic when that low-and-slow simmer gets fired up to a boil. That’s when you hear economists talk about the economy “overheating.” For a variety of reasons, largely stemming from the pandemic, the global economy finds itself at a rigorous boil right now.

In the United States, prices have climbed 6.2% — the biggest increase since November 1990, and well above the Federal Reserve’s long-term inflation goal of around 2%.

And here’s where Econ 101 merges a bit with Psych 101. There’s a behavioral economics aspect to inflation where it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. When prices go up for a long enough period of time, consumers start to anticipate the price increases. You’ll buy more goods today if you think they’ll cost appreciably more tomorrow. That has the effect of increasing demand, which causes prices to rise even more. And so on. And so on.

That’s where it can get especially tricky for the Federal Reserve, whose main job is to control money supply and keep inflation in check.

How’d we get here? Blame the pandemic.

In the spring of 2020, as Covid-19 spread, it was like pulling the plug on the global economy. Factories around the world shut down; people stopped going out to restaurants; airlines grounded flights. Millions of people were laid off as business disappeared practically overnight. The unemployment rate in America shot up to nearly 15% from about 3.5% in February 2020.

It was the sharpest economic contraction on record.

By early summer, however, demand for consumer goods started to pick back up. Rapidly. Congress and President Joe Biden passed a historic $1.9 trillion stimulus bill in March that made Americans suddenly flush with cash and unemployment assistance. People started shopping again. Demand went from zero to 100, but supply couldn’t bounce back so easily.

When you pull the plug on the global economy, you can’t just plug it back in and expect it start humming at the same pace as before.

Take cars, for example. Automakers saw the Covid crisis beginning and did what any smart business would do — shut down temporarily and try to mitigate losses. But not long after the pandemic shut factories down, it also drove up demand for cars as people worried about exposure on public transit and avoided flying. Automakers had whiplash.

Cars require an immense number of parts, from an immense number of different factories around the world, to be built by highly skilled laborers in other parts of the world. Getting all of those discreet operations back online takes time, and doing so while keeping workers from getting sick takes even more time.

Economists often describe inflation as too much money chasing too few goods. That’s exactly what happened with cars. And houses. And Peloton bikes. And any number of other items that became hot ticket items.

How’s the supply chain involved in all this?

“Supply chain bottlenecks” — that’s another one you see all over, right?

Let’s go back to the car example.

We know that high demand + limited supply = prices go up.

But high demand + limited supply + production delays = prices go up even more.

All modern cars rely on a variety of computer chips to function. But those chips are also used in cellphones, appliances, TVs, laptops and dozens of other items that, as bad luck would have it, were all in high demand at the same time.

That’s just one example of the disconnect in the global supply chain. Because new cars have been slow to roll in, used car demand shot through the roof, which drove overall inflation higher. In some cases, car owners were able to sell their used cars for more than what they paid for them a year or two prior.

What happens next?

Prices and wages are likely to keep going up well into 2022, officials and economists say. But for how long and how much depends on countless variables across the globe.

Policymakers’ top priority is to unclog the supply chain bottlenecks to get goods moving at their pre-pandemic pace. That’s a lot easier said than done. And there’s no telling what kind of shocks — a resurgent Covid variant, a massive shipping container getting stuck in a key waterway, a natural disaster — could set back progress.

Economists and investors in the United States expect that the Fed will tighten monetary policy by raising interest rates and dialing back emergency stimulus, thereby slow the pace of inflation. When money becomes more expensive to borrow, that can take the heat off price increases and bring the economy back down to that nice, gentle simmer.

US Announces Big Hike In Medicare Premiums

The federal government announced a large hike in Medicare premiums Friday night, blaming the pandemic but also what it called uncertainty over how much it may have to be forced to pay for a pricey and controversial new Alzheimer’s drug.

The 14.5% increase in Part B premiums will take monthly payments for those in the lowest income bracket from $148.50 a month this year to $170.10 in 2022. Medicare Part B covers physician services, outpatient hospital services, certain home health services, medical equipment, and certain other medical and health services not covered by Medicare Part A, including medications given in doctors’ offices.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services played down the spike, pointing out that most beneficiaries also collect Social Security benefits and will see a cost-of-living adjustment of 5.9% in their 2022 monthly payments, the agency said in a statement. That’s the largest bump in 30 years.

“This significant COLA increase will more than cover the increase in the Medicare Part B monthly premium,” CMS said. “Most people with Medicare will see a significant net increase in Social Security benefits. For example, a retired worker who currently receives $1,565 per month from Social Security can expect to receive a net increase of $70.40 more per month after the Medicare Part B premium is deducted.”

The increase, however, is far more than the Medicare trustees estimated in their annual report, which was released in late August. They predicted the monthly premium for 2022 would be $158.50. The actual spike — the largest since 2016 — could hurt some seniors financially.

It “will consume the entire annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) of Social Security recipients with the very lowest benefits, of about $365 per month,” said Mary Johnson, a Social Security and Medicare policy analyst for The Senior Citizens League, an advocacy group. “Social Security recipients with higher benefits should be able to cover the $21.60 per month increase, but they may not wind up with as much left over as they were counting on.”

Medicare premiums have typically increased at a far faster rate than Social Security’s annual adjustments, the league said. And much of the 2022 increase in Social Security benefits will be eaten up by inflation, which is also rising at a rapid clip.

CMS said part of the increase for 2022 was because of uncertainty over how much the agency will end up paying to treat beneficiaries to be treated with Aduhelm, an Alzheimer’s drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in June over the objections of its advisers. Some experts estimate it will cost $56,000 a year. Medicare is deciding whether to pay for it now on a case-by-case basis.

Because Aduhelm is administered in physicians’ offices, it should be covered under Medicare Part B, not Part D plans, which pay for medications bought at pharmacies. Traditional Medicare enrollees have to pick up 20% of the cost of most Part B medications, which would translate into about $11,500 in out-of-pocket costs for those prescribed Aduhelm.

“The increase in the Part B premium for 2022 is continued evidence that rising drug costs threaten the affordability and sustainability of the Medicare program,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris Administration is working to make drug prices more affordable and equitable for all Americans, and to advance drug pricing reform through competition, innovation, and transparency.”

Also, Congress last year limited the 2021 premium increase even as emergency Medicare spending surged during the coronavirus pandemic. The monthly charge rose less than $4.

Along with the premium spike, the annual deductible for Medicare Part B beneficiaries is rising to $233 in 2022, up from $203 in 2021.

Medicare is the federal health insurance plan covering more than 62 million people, mostly 65 and older.  Part B premiums are based on income. Individuals earning $500,000 or more a year and joint filers making $750,000 or more annually will pay $578.30 a month for coverage in 2022.

China Overtakes U.S. To Grab Top Spot On Global Wealth

Global wealth tripled over the last two decades, with China leading the way and overtaking the U.S. for the top spot worldwide.

That’s one of the takeaways from a new report by the research arm of consultants McKinsey & Co. that examines the national balance sheets of ten countries representing more than 60% of world income.

“We are now wealthier than we have ever been,” Jan Mischke, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute in Zurich, said in an interview.

Net worth worldwide rose to $514 trillion in 2020, from $156 trillion in 2000, according to the study. China accounted for almost one-third of the increase. Its wealth skyrocketed to $120 trillion from a mere $7 trillion in 2000, the year before it joined the World Trade Organization, speeding its economic ascent.

Richest 10%

The U.S., held back by more muted increases in property prices, saw its net worth more than double over the period, to $90 trillion.

In both countries — the world’s biggest economies — more than two-thirds of the wealth is held by the richest 10% of households, and their share has been increasing, the report said.

As computed by McKinsey, 68% of global net worth is stored in real estate. The balance is held in such things as infrastructure, machinery and equipment and, to a much lesser extent, so-called intangibles like intellectual property and patents.

Financial assets are not counted in the global wealth calculations because they are effectively offset by liabilities: A corporate bond held by an individual investor, for instance, represents an I.O.U. by that company.

The steep rise in net worth over the past two decades has outstripped the increase in global gross domestic product and has been fueled by ballooning property prices pumped up by declining interest rates, according to McKinsey. It found that asset prices are almost 50% above their long-run average relative to income. That raises questions about the sustainability of the wealth boom.

“Net worth via price increases above and beyond inflation is questionable in so many ways,” Mischke said. “It comes with all kinds of side effects.”

Surging real-estate values can make home ownership unaffordable for many people and increase the risk of a financial crisis — like the one that hit the U.S. in 2008 after a housing bubble burst. China could potentially run into similar trouble over the debt of property developers like China Evergrande Group.

The ideal resolution would be for the world’s wealth to find its way into more productive investments that expand global GDP, according to the report. The nightmare scenario would be a collapse in asset prices that could erase as much as one-third of global wealth, bringing it more in line with world income.

Inflation Expectations Among Consumers Hit New Highs, Fed Survey

Americans’ inflation fears continued to accelerate in October, climbing for the 12th consecutive month in a row to another record high, according to a key Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey published Monday, November 8, 2021.

“Median inflation uncertainty – or the uncertainty expressed regarding future inflation outcomes – increased at both the short- and medium-term horizons. Both measures reached series highs in October,” the survey said.

Heads of households surveyed by the New York Fed expected consumer prices to rise by a median of 5.7 percent over the next year, according to the bank’s October Survey of Consumer Expectations.  The one-year inflation rate projected by consumers rose 0.4 percentage points since September and reached the highest level since the survey began in 2013.

The Fed and economists pay close attention to inflation expectations among consumers, particularly long-term expectations, when assessing the future of price increases. Steady increases in consumer inflation expectations could lead to what economists call a wage-price spiral: higher prices prompting workers to hold out for higher wages, which exacerbates the need to raise prices.

With consumers braced for the highest inflation levels in nearly a decade, they are also expecting the price of things like food, gasoline, rent and college tuition to rise over the next year. The only things that Americans expect to get cheaper over the next year are home prices and medical care.

The report is based on a rotating panel of 1,300 households.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has largely attributed the spike in consumer prices to pandemic-induced disruptions in the supply chain, a shortage of workers that has pushed wages higher and a wave of pent-up consumers flush with stimulus cash.

Although Powell has repeatedly said the rise in inflation is likely “transitory,” he acknowledged last week during the Fed’s two-day policy-setting meeting that the surge may not fade until the latter half of 2022. He maintained that wild swings in consumer prices will stop once current pressures on the supply chain dissipate.

“Our baseline expectation is that supply bottlenecks and shortages will persist well into next year and elevated inflation as well,” Powell told reporters. “And that, as the pandemic subsides, supply chain bottlenecks will abate and job growth will move back up. And as that happens, inflation will decline from today’s elevated levels.”

His comments came after the Federal Open Market Committee voted to begin pulling back on the extraordinary stimulus it has given the economy since March 2020. The U.S. central bank announced that it would reduce its aggressive bond-buying program by $15 billion a month in mid-November, lowering its purchases of long-term Treasury bonds by $10 billion a month and purchases of mortgage-backed securities by $5 billion a month.

C.S. Venkatakrishnan To Be CEO of Barclays

Barclays new CEO is CS Venkatakrishnan, an Indian-American and the first person of color to hold that position. Mysore-born CS Venkatakrishnan has replaced Jes Staley as Barclays CEO after the latter stepped down on Monday, November 1st. Barclays said succession planning has been in place for some time, and he had been identified as the preferred candidate more than a year ago.

Jes Staley stepped down from Barclays, which is Britain’s third-biggest bank by market value, after a probe into his relationship with financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The bank said Staley will get a 2.5 million pound ($3.5 million) payout and receive other benefits for a year.

Better known as ‘Venkat’, he studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he got a PhD in operations research, after which he joined JPMorgan Chase in 1994. At JP Morgan Chase, venkat had held senior roles in Asset Management, where he was Chief Investment Officer for approximately $200 billion in Global Fixed Income, as well as in Investment Banking, and in Risk.

He joined Barclays in 2016. Prior to his appointment as Group CEO, Venkat was Head of Global Markets, Co-President of Barclays Bank PLC (BBPLC), and a member of the Group Executive Committee of Barclays, based in New York. He has also served as Chief Risk Officer at Barclays.

Venkat will be on a higher base salary than his predecessor and will receive £2.7 million ($3.69 million) in fixed pay – half in cash and half in shares. This amount is more than Staley’s 2.4 million pounds a year, it’s still a cut from Venkat’s – undisclosed – fixed pay as head of global markets, Barclays’ board said. Venkat will be eligible for a bonus up to a maximum of 93 per cent of his fixed pay and long-term incentives up to 140 per cent of fixed pay per year and a cash payment instead of a pension of £135,000 a year.

Venkatakrishnan joined Barclays as chief risk officer and initiated a comprehensive review of the bank’s exposure to bad credit card debt. The review led to Barclays taking a £320 million impairment charge after Venkatakrishnan urged the bank to adopt a more conservative approach to predicting how much of its credit card book would not be paid. Venkat is the executive sponsor for Embrace, the global multi-cultural network at Barclays, the bank said in its stock exchange announcement on Monday.

The board “identified Venkat as its preferred candidate for this role over a year ago, as a result of which he moved from the position of group chief risk officer to head of global markets,” London-headquartered Barclays noted in an announcement to the stock exchange. “The board has long been confident in Venkat’s capabilities to run the Barclays Group.”

The executive, known for his “genial unflappability” and “fondness for emojis,” appears to care about diversity. He has made progress on promoting women, Bloomberg reported. Venkatakrishnan is also the executive sponsor for Embrace, the global multi-cultural network at Barclays. He leads the company’s “Race at Work Action Plan,” which has strived to improve diversity at the company where underrepresented minorities comprise just 5% and 21% of the staff in the UK and the US respectively.

The 56-year-old who is now based in New York was born in Mysore, the southernmost city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Even now, Venkatakrishnan enjoys a meal at an Indian restaurant that would “serve lunch on orange plastic trays,” Ken Abbott, Barclays’ chief risk officer for the Americas until 2018, told Bloomberg. “He thought that was very authentic.”

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