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☆ Norwegian Cruise lifts profit forecast on higher ticket prices, steady demand
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Ananya Mariam Rajesh Anne Florentyna Gnanaraja Sekar | Ananya Mariam Rajesh | Anne Florentyna Gnanaraja Sekar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

loss per share of 30 cents vs loss est. of 41 centsCompany says it sees "strong consumer demand"May 1(Reuters) - Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NCLH.N) raised its annual profit forecast and sailed past first-quarter estimates on Monday, betting on higher ticket pricing, pent-up demand and robust on-board spending from wealthy customers. Norwegian, which mostly caters to the affluent, has also been raising prices of its tickets to offset the impact from higher costs of fuel and food due to supply chain snags worsened by the Russia-Ukraine crisis. The company expects 2023 adjusted profit of 75 cents per share, compared with its earlier forecast of about 70 cents per share. Shares in the company were up about 1% in premarket trade, paring some gains after it forecast second-quarter adjusted earnings per share below estimates.

NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - Vanguard, the world's second-largest asset manager, increased exposure to large bank's bonds during the banking rout in March, taking advantage of cheap valuations, according to a report seen by Reuters. "The banking troubles offered a brief window to add large banks at compelling valuations," said the report, written by Sara Devereux, global head of fixed income group, and her team. "We had little exposure to troubled banks and do not see evidence of a systemic risk to the financial system," it said. Core inflation, however, is likely to be sticky, according to Vanguard, limiting the Fed's ability to ease monetary policy in coming quarters. "Barring a major economic surprise, we think the Fed will hold policy rates high for longer than the market currently expects."

☆ From swimming pools to gardening, the rich's privileged lifestyles are driving urban water crises, study says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Anmar Frangoul | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Published in the Nature Sustainability journal this week, the peer-reviewed research looked at the South African city of Cape Town, which has experienced severe drought in recent years. For the study, researchers split Cape Town's urban population into five social groupings and then modeled water consumption. "Informal dwellers and lower-income households constitute together 61.5% of Cape Town's population but consume a mere 27.3% of the city's water." "Specifically, privileged water consumption is unsustainable because in the short term, it disproportionally uses the water available for the entire urban population." Longer term, the report described what it called privileged consumption as constituting an environmental threat to the status of local water sources.

☆ Lower income Americans are the group most likely to think they should be taxed more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Lower-income Americans were the group most likely to say they should be taxed more, according to the Pew Research Center. 72 million households didn't pay federal income taxes last year. Married couples — under the age of 65 — filing jointly owe no federal taxes if they make under $25,900 annually. Disruptions from Covid have also increased the share of low-income households paying no federal income taxes. That's 72 million households paying no federal income taxes, with about a third of them headed by someone aged 65 years or older.

☆ Exclusive: N. American fixed income group won't take legal action over Credit Suisse AT1 fiasco-source
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Divya Rajagopal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TORONTO, March 23 (Reuters) - The Credit Roundtable, a lobby group of some of the biggest fixed income asset managers from the United States and Canada, has decided not to take legal action against Credit Suisse AG (CSGN.S) a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. Earlier this week, the Swiss regulator ordered 16 billion Swiss francs ($17.5 billion) of Additional Tier-1 (AT1) debt to be wiped out under its rescue takeover by UBS (UBSG.S). The Credit Roundtable was not available for an immediate comment. Launched in 2007 for bondholders protection, Credit Roundtable consists of 43 members including PIMCO, Vanguard, MetLife (MET.N), Canadian pension fund Omers, Sun Life Financial Inc (SLF.TO) among others. The bond holders of Credit Suisse in Europe and UK have been seeking legal advice over the Swiss banking regulator's decision to write off AT1 bonds under the rescue take over by UBS.

☆ Exclusive: N. American fixed income group will not take legal action over Credit Suisse AT1 wipeout -source
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Divya Rajagopal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TORONTO, March 23 (Reuters) - The Credit Roundtable, a lobby group of some of the biggest fixed income asset managers from the United States and Canada, has decided not to take legal action against Credit Suisse AG (CSGN.S), a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. The Credit Roundtable was unavailable for comment. Launched in 2007 for bondholders' protection, Credit Roundtable consists of 43 members including PIMCO, Vanguard, MetLife (MET.N), Canadian pension fund Omers, and Sun Life Financial Inc (SLF.TO). The source said individual members are free to pursue legal action independently. The bond holders of Credit Suisse in Europe and UK have been seeking legal advice over the Swiss banking regulator's decision to write off AT1 bonds under the rescue take over by UBS.

☆ Low-wage workers got big raises during the pandemic. Now that's coming to an end.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute analyzes wage growth from 2019 to 2022. Researchers found that the lowest-earners saw the highest real wage growth out of the groups analyzed. That growing pay was due to pandemic policy and need for workers, but those policies have ended. EPI looked at how the real wage growth of 9.0% for the lowest-paid workers compared to earlier business cycles and recessions. While it might sound counterintuitive that job losses lead to higher wages, EPI identifies this phenomenon as something called "severed monopsony."

☆ Biden Seeks Extension of Trump Tax Cuts for Most Households
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Richard Rubin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—President Biden largely wants to extend Trump-era tax cuts for households making under $400,000 a year beyond their scheduled expiration after 2025, the White House said in a budget statement Thursday. Mr. Biden’s budget calls for extending those tax cuts “in a fiscally responsible manner” by using new tax increases on wealthy people and large corporations to offset the budget-deficit increases that extended tax cuts would create. The cuts expanded the standard deduction and lowered tax rates for all income groups and will lapse after 2025 unless Congress acts.

☆ Where New York’s Asian Neighborhoods Shifted to the Right
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Jason Kao | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +15 min

In last year’s governor’s election, voters in Asian neighborhoods across New York City sharply increased their support for Republicans. And predominantly Asian areas — precincts with a majority of eligible Asian voters — have undergone a pivotal shift. Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Note: The precinct in Kensington is mostly Indian and Bangladeshi. Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Flushing, 2022 Murray Hill Bayside Flushing Northern Blvd. Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area state senate race Bensonhurst Sunset Park McDonald Ave. 65th St. New Utrecht Ave. 8th Ave.

☆ Performance for top hedge funds including Citadel, Millennium, Point72 just dropped. An unlikely winner is at the top of the pile.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Alex Morrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

February performance figures show a mixed-bag at the top multi-strategy hedge funds. Citadel, continuing its winning streak, is up 2.8% so far, while Millennium is up just 0.5%. Some of the largest multi-strategy hedge funds had killer years in 2022 while much of the industry struggled. An unlikely winner is off to a torrid start after a challenging year in 2022: ExodusPoint is up 2.9% through February on the back of a 2% gain during the short month, according to people familiar with the matter. Citadel has continued its winning streak after record-breaking performance in 2022, up 2.8% this year, sources told Insider.

☆ The US economy has been 'more than fine' without your student debt
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Her story shows the extra juice that delaying — or as some would argue, canceling — student debt can provide to people's lives and the economy as a whole. "If we cancel student debt, what that really means is the federal government is choosing not to collect payments from debtors on the debt that's already issued," Steinbaum said. Biden's student loan bailout will cost every taxpayer, even those who never went to college, at least $2,500." But to be clear, we don't have the most concrete data about the effects of student loan relief — since, well, it hasn't been done. Do you have a story to share about student debt?

☆ China urban employment, per capita spending logged rare declines in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Joe Cash | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIJING, Feb 28 (Reuters) - China's urban employment fell for the first time in six decades last year and per capita spending also marked a rare decline, as harsh COVID-19 curbs ravaged the world's second-biggest economy. The new data from the National Bureau of Statistics also showed the smallest income growth in more than three decades. The number of China's urban jobs dropped by 8.4 million to 459.31 million, the first drop since 1962. Per capita spending fell 0.2% in real terms, the statistics bureau data showed. Disposable income per capita in China grew by just 2.9% in real terms, the second smallest rise since 1989.

☆ China per capita spending last year marked rare decline in real terms
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Joe Cash | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIJING, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Per capita spending in China fell 0.2% in real terms last year as harsh COVID curbs took their toll on consumer appetite, marking only the third such decline since records for that data began in 1980. That in turn was a rebound from a decline of 4% in 2020 during the initial throes of the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, income per capita in China grew by just 2.9% in real terms, the second smallest rise since 1989 and retail sales fell 0.2%, the second worst performance since 1968. Xu Tianchen, an economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit said, a steep drop in income growth for China's lowest income earners was a key factor behind the weak spending data. Rural areas performed better than urbanised zones, with the incomes of rural households growing by 4.2% in real terms on the year, compared with 1.9% growth in real terms for urban residents.

☆ U.S. consumer confidence ebbs; house price inflation slows further
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Lucia Mutikani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

But the correlation between confidence and consumer spending has been weak. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index dropped to 102.9 this month from 106.0 in January. Consumer spending increased by the most in nearly two years in January, driven by a surge in wage gains. The S&P CoreLogic Case Shiller national home price index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, increased 5.8% year-on-year in December, a second report showed on Tuesday. Price growth remained strong in the South, with double-digit gains in Miami, Tampa and Atlanta.

☆ Student debt forgiveness heads to the Supreme Court—here's what borrowers need to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Kamaron Mcnair | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Activists and students protest in front of the Supreme Court during a rally for student debt cancellation in Washington, DC, on February 28, 2023. The Supreme Court hears oral arguments this week against and for President Joe Biden's student debt forgiveness plan. The Biden administration has appealed both rulings, maintaining the president is within his authority to cancel federal student debt. Who will benefit the most from student debt forgiveness? What happens if the Supreme Court stops debt forgiveness?

☆ Malaysia's Anwar eyes smaller deficit in first budget, tightens spending
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Anwar, in the report, said he will launch measures to strengthen the governance of public finances, and gradually reduce Malaysia's debt. Malaysia had earlier forecast 2023 growth at 4%-5%. Government expenditure this year is expected to total 386.1 billion ringgit ($87.11 billion), lower than last year's preliminary spending estimate of 395.2 billion ringgit. Revenue is expected to drop to 291.5 billion ringgit from 294.4 billion ringgit. State oil company Petronas (PETR.UL) is expected to pay the government a dividend of 40 billion ringgit, higher than the previous government's projection of 35 billion ringgit.

"There have been a number of approaches, but so far without getting any response" from the government, the source added. But progress has been complicated by a two-year civil war that broke out in November 2020, killing thousands of people and displacing millions. The international bond only makes up a small part of the country's total external government debt, which stood at $27.4 billion in the third quarter of last year, according to World Bank data. International bondholders have not formed a private creditors committee for the extension proposal because Ethiopia has continued to service the bond normally, two of the sources added. Recent filings show that Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Group and Allianz Global Investors U.S. LLC are some of the holders of the bond, according to EMAXX data.

☆ Black couples pay a higher tax penalty for marriage than White couples. Here’s why
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

A recent study by the Tax Policy Center, for example, found that Black couples on average face higher tax costs associated with marriage than White couples. “We find that Black couples are more likely than White couples to experience an income tax penalty from marriage and to face higher penalties. Differences in dollars and centsResearchers found that among couples hit with a marriage penalty, Black couples paid less in dollars ($1,804 versus $2,091) but more as a share of their income than White couples (1.8% versus 1.4%). Only 33% of Black couples got a marriage bonus compared to 44% of Whites, and those bonuses were roughly $170 smaller on average. “Taken together, Black couples in this income group paid, on average, a net penalty of $358.

☆ Singapore's budget expected to focus on inflation and support for laid off workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong will deliver the Singapore Budget 2023 on Feb. 14 in Parliament. Rising inflation and layoffs are among the top concerns for Singaporeans and are expected to be addressed in Singapore's budget for 2023. The budget will be delivered by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. in Parliament. The Singapore budget sets forth a series of measures to support Singaporeans for each financial year, which starts on April 1 and ends on March 31 the following year. He also promised measures to help Singaporeans — particularly the more vulnerable and lower-income group — cope with rising inflation and prices.

☆ The number of Americans earning over $100,000 who are living paycheck to paycheck is climbing as inflation squeezes households, survey shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

51% of Americans earning over $100,000 a year are living paycheck to paycheck, a new survey found. That's up from 42% of those surveyed by Pymnts.com and Lending Club at the end of 2021. 51% of high-income earners surveyed — those making over $100,000 — said they were living paycheck to paycheck in December. Consumers surveyed said they were expecting high inflation to continue for the next two years with over half predicting higher inflation in 2023, per the report. In June 2022, over a third of high-income consumers making over $250,000 were also living paycheck to paycheck.

☆ Euro zone can afford to keep fiscal taps running
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Francesco Guerrera | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

If they don’t overdo it, governments can also ease the blow of the European Central Bank’s efforts to tame inflation. But euro zone leaders like Germany’s Olaf Scholz, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni face pressure from economic policymakers to curb the handouts. The Commission estimates that the euro zone aggregate deficit will be 3.7% of GDP in 2023. As the ECB keeps a lid on growth to slay inflation, European governments can keep the fiscal taps open. Follow @guerreraf72 on TwitterloadingCONTEXT NEWSThe European Central Bank is putting pressure on euro zone governments to rein in fiscal spending.

☆ Global supply chain scars will spark sea change: podcast
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Aimee Donnellan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Euro zone can afford to keep fiscal taps running, article with imageBreakingviews category · January 31, 2023 · 10:16 AM UTCIn the past two years, European governments opened the fiscal faucets, flooding the euro zone with around 530 billion euros to combat the effects of the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This outburst of austerity looks short-sighted. Government budgets and debt burdens are manageable. Finance ministers should use the extra funds to enhance growth, help lower-income groups and enact structural reforms. If they don’t overdo it, governments can also ease the blow of the European Central Bank’s efforts to tame inflation.

☆ Household wealth optimism collapses, global survey shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Mark John | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Jan 16 (Reuters) - Barely two in five people believe their families will be better off in the future, according to a regular global survey that also identified growing levels of distrust in institutions among low-income households. It further confirmed how societies have been divided by the impacts of the pandemic and inflation. Higher-income households still broadly trust institutions such as government, business, media and NGOs. Globally, only 40% agreed with the statement "my family and I will be better off in five years" compared to 50% a year before, with advanced economies most downbeat: the United States (36%), Britain (23%), Germany (15%) and Japan (9%). While Edelman's longstanding Trust Index registered an average 63% trust level in key institutions among high-income U.S. respondents, that figure fell to just 40% among low-income groups.

☆ Analysis: U.S. House Republicans favor message over substance in early legislation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) speaks during a news conference following Senate Republican leadership elections that included the re-election of U.S. The bills are meant to provide a political benefit, as Republicans seek to fulfill 2022 campaign promises and formulate plans to capture the Senate and White House in 2024. "You'll watch it week after week after week." "The real purpose for the House Republican conference is to hold down spending and try to limit the debt," said Republican strategist Charles Black. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise said would target people earning less than $400,000 and break Biden's promise not to raise taxes on that income group.

☆ NY Fed survey finds reduced near-term inflation expectations in December
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Meanwhile, respondents’ expectations for inflation three years from now were unchanged at 3% while projections of inflation in five years’ time stood at 2.4%, up from 2.3% in November. The decline in near-term inflation expectations comes as the Fed has been aggressively pushing forward with rate rises aimed at lowering some of the highest price pressure readings in decades. Fed officials have been confident that will succeed in part because they have viewed longer-run inflation expectations data as relatively stable compared with their 2% target. Respondents to the survey had discordant expectations about their outlooks for income and spending. But expected spending tumbled, falling from November’s 6.9% expected rise to 5.9% in December.

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