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☆ Americans’ debt surpasses $17 trillion for the first time
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

To this point, credit card debt has been rising at the sharpest pace of any debt covered in the report, said Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst for Bankrate. Last year, 39% carried debt month to month. Increases in credit card debt can be a either sign of confidence or struggle, he added. “For the foreseeable future, we’re stuck with high credit card rates, high balances, and more people carrying debt,” he said. “My advice would be to pay down credit card debt, as quickly and cost effectively as possible.

☆ The US once had a 'mini-default' on some of its debts because of a technical glitch. The minor mistake cost billions.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The incident caused Treasury yields to spike up by 60 basis points or 0.6 percent and cost billions long-term. The US is now flirting with a full default as Republicans in Congress demand spending cuts in exchange for paying America's debt. "Payment delays were chiefly due to back-office technical and organizational problems," according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan public policy research institute of Congress. Congress has raised the debt ceiling multiple times under previous administrations without negotiations — including under President Donald Trump. President Joe Biden has refused to negotiate over the debt ceiling, while Republicans are also holding firm on their demands.

"I'd love to work more hours," Sharples told Reuters at the home in northern England she shares with her children and web-developer husband. The Centre for Progressive Policy (CPP) think tank has estimated that around 1.5 million British mums would work more hours if childcare permitted. Business groups and researchers argue that acting on childcare in his March 15 budget would do more to unlock greater economic growth. The government says it has spent more than 20 billion pounds in the last five years helping with the cost of childcare. "Childcare unlocks not just the potential of children, but also the potential of parents," Labour leader Keir Starmer said last month.

☆ Biden billionaire tax policy is not desirable for U.S. economy, says Alex Brill
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailBiden billionaire tax policy is not desirable for U.S. economy, says Alex BrillStephanie Kelton, Stony Brook University professor of economics & policy, and Alex Brill, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, join 'Squawk Box' to discuss how it's possible to create a wealth tax, how to avoid double taxation and more.

☆ Britain’s NHS was once idolized. Now its worst-ever crisis is fueling a boom in private health care
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Private hospital groups flourishTo keep up with growing demand for their services, private health care providers are expanding at a rapid clip. CEO Justin Ash estimates that the market for private health care in the United Kingdom has doubled since before the pandemic to 15 million people. Ash said that appetite for private health care spans a much broader set of ages and incomes than in the past. “We’ve clearly moved into a world in which we’re all NHS patients but have episodes of private care,” he said. There is no universal health care in America and most people have private health insurance because health care is very expensive.

Attorney General Merrick Garland issued new guidance on Friday essentially eliminating the disparity in federal sentencing for the distribution of crack cocaine versus powder cocaine, a policy that has long punished crack offenders, and people of color, more severely. Offenses involving 500 grams of powder cocaine carried the same 5-year mandatory minimum prison time as offenses involving 28 grams of crack cocaine, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan public policy research institute. Crack cocaine became prevalent in the 1980s, sparking a nationwide “war on drugs” and leading to the passage of two federal sentencing laws concerning crack cocaine in 1986 and 1988 that created the discrepancies, according to The Sentencing Project, which advocated for overhauling the sentencing guidelines. The road to sentencing reform for crack offenders was partly put into motion in 2018 with the First Step Act, which, in part, shortened mandatory federal prison sentences, including for those in prison for pre-2010 crack cocaine offenses. The new guidance was applauded by several groups, including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which called it "a big win and a historic step in the right direction toward eliminating the unjust disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing."

☆ UN experts at COP27: Corporate climate pledges rife with greenwashing
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Gloria Dickie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and others attend the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt November 7, 2022. At last year's climate negotiations in Glasgow, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed 17 experts to review the integrity of non-state net zero commitments amid concerns about "a surplus of confusion and deficit of credibility" involving corporate green boasting. "Bogus net zero claims drive up the cost that ultimately everyone will pay," she said. An estimated 80% of global emissions are now covered by pledges that commit to reaching net zero emissions. For example, a company cannot claim to be net zero if it continues to build or invest in new fossil fuel infrastructure or deforestation.

☆ Analysis: Despite tax U-turn, UK's Hunt still faces tough budget choices
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( William Schomberg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The screeching about-turn on tax cuts by finance minister Jeremy Hunt on Monday will not spare Britain from painful spending cuts and new tax hikes to fix the country's public finances. Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think-tank, said Monday's tax cuts U-turn was relatively simple compared with the balance Hunt must strike between more tax increases and spending cuts over the next two weeks. Hunt said the tax U-turns announced so far would raise about 32 billion pounds a year in extra revenues. That was 40 billion pounds above the level needed to cut debt as a share of the economy which currently is about 97%. "With tens of billions of spending cuts still to come, and a new energy support package needing to be devised, many of Jeremy Hunt's tough choices still lie ahead," Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, said.

☆ U.K.'s new finance chief warns of 'difficult decisions ahead' amid political and market turmoil
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-15 | by ( Leila Sackur | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON — The U.K.'s new finance minister warned of “difficult decisions ahead” on Saturday, the morning after he had replaced his predecessor who was only 38 days into the job. Warning of “difficult decisions ahead” Hunt told British broadcaster Sky News: “Some taxes will not be cut as quickly as people would want, some taxes will go up.” (Sky News is owned by Comcast, the parent company of NBC News.) Kwarteng became the second shortest-serving chancellor of the exchequer, as the British finance minister is known. Britain's Prime Minister Liz Truss at a news conference on Friday. Truss is Britain’s third prime minister in six years.

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