Tuesday 29 June 2021

Saudi Arabian Economy: Economic Crisis?

Oct 18, 2020 • The Economy of Saudi Arabia is a great example of what happens when you fail to adjust your economy quickly enough to shifting economic sands.

Having started an oil price war in March 2020 By increasing supply, at a time when demand was crashing, this inevitably led to an oil price crash. In doing so, Saudi Arabia has encountered a bit of a problem… an oil price below the magic $76 threshold required for the Kingdom to balance its state budget.


Monday 28 June 2021

Lebanon Economic Crisis among World's Worst in 150 years | DW News

Jun 28, 2021 • Inflation has driven Lebanon's currency to historically low values in recent weeks. The crash of the Lebanese pound is playing its part in the country’s grave economic crisis, which has left half the population living below the poverty line.

Fire and fury have hit the streets of Beirut. Lebanon is descending fast into an economic crisis that the World Bank says will likely rank among the world's worst of the last 150 years. Where some streets witness protests, others host long lines of cars queuing for a share of Lebanon's insufficient supply of gasoline.

Shortages are pushing up the costs of many essentials. The price of subsidized bread has been hiked five times this year alone. Citizens are also getting much less for their money because of record inflation.

The Lebanese pound has been trading at an all-time high on the black market - at over 10 times its official rate against the US dollar.

The crisis is largely the result of three decades of financial mismanagement by successive governments, following Lebanon's civil war. But it's been made even worse by a global pandemic, and the billions of dollars of damage caused by last year's deadly blast in Beirut port.



‘This is the end of times’: Lebanon struggles to find political path through its crisis »

Saturday 26 June 2021

Abigail Disney: Dynasties Are Very Bad for Democracy | Amanpour and Company

Jun 25, 2021 • Philanthropist and filmmaker Abigail Disney, worth an estimated $120 million, has dedicated her life to redistributing her wealth, giving away more than half that amount. She explains why in an op-ed in The Atlantic entitled “I Was Taught from a Very Young Age to Protect My Dynastic Wealth.” Disney speaks with Hari Sreenivasan about fair taxes for the rich, and the lasting influence of her famous grandfather. Originally aired on June 24, 2021

Tuesday 22 June 2021

Will China Become the Centre of the World Economy? | FT

The global economy is shifting away from the US and Europe towards Asia. The FT's global China editor James Kynge and FT economics commentator Martin Sandbu discuss whether China will dominate global commerce or whether the world economy could split along regional lines

Brexit Frustration – Five Years after the Brexit Referendum | DW Documentary

Trade with Great Britain has been severely disrupted since the Brexit agreement came into force. Fish traders and clothing sellers are struggling to cope with new customs and health regulations. Companies often bear the burden of the extra costs.

Nerys Edwards is a shellfish wholesaler from Wales. Her family has been in the business for generations, but since the start of the year, trading has become more complicated than ever before. Her company buys shellfish such as shrimps and lobster from local fishermen and exports them to the EU, chiefly to Spain. Requirements for new health certificates have delayed deliveries to the extent that some sea creatures, which are transported live, have perished en route. Each truckload is worth 50,000 pounds (about 58,400 euros). The financial losses for her family and the fishermen are considerable. Tensions are running high and Nerys Edwards worries about every shipment.

There are problems in continental Europe, too. German-British truck driver Colin Francis has been struggling with his schedule since Brexit. He transports goods through the Eurotunnel, in both directions, for a German logistics company. Like many other drivers, he has been held up for long periods at the new customs checkpoints in the UK. When Colin Francis sets off in the morning, he hopes to make it home to his family in the evening, instead of having to sleep in his truck. Now, he can’t be sure where he will spend the night. The logistics firm and their customers now often need to plan three times as long for trips that used to take a day.

Brexit has also forced entrepreneurs like Edzard van der Wyck from London to rethink their business strategy. His company produces clothing from New Zealand wool. Since January, it’s become more expensive to export to the EU than to the United States. Like many other British exporters, he now wants to set up a new distribution center and move parts of his business to continental Europe.


Bitcoin Price Slumps Further as China Tightens Crackdown

THE GUARDIAN: Investors wary after authorities in Sichuan ordered bitcoin mining projects to close

Bitcoin has tumbled further in the wake of China’s expanding crackdown on bitcoin mining, as investors grow more uncertain about the future of the leading cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin fell as low as $31,333 on Monday, a two-week trough, dragging down other cryptocurrencies. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency has lost more than 20% in the past six days alone and was at half its April peak of almost $65,000. In the year to date, it remains up about 11%.

China has been tightening its crackdown on cryptocurrencies. On Friday, authorities in the south-west province of Sichuan ordered bitcoin mining projects to close.
Last month the State Council, China’s cabinet, vowed to clamp down on mining and trading as part of a campaign to control financial risks. » | Reuters | Tuesday, June 22, 2021

‘I put my life savings in crypto’: how a generation of amateurs got hooked on high-risk trading »

Friday 18 June 2021

The New Brexit Trade Deals Are a Disaster - Here’s Why

British Food and Drink Exports to EU Fall by £2bn in First Quarter of 2021

THE GUARDIAN: Industry body says analysis of HMRC data shows structural rather than teething problems with Brexit

British food and drink exports to the EU fell by £2bn in the first three months of 2021, with sales of dairy products plummeting by 90%, according to an analysis of HMRC data.

Brexit checks, stockpiling and Covid have been blamed for much of the downturn, but the sector has said the figures show structural rather than teething problems with the UK’s departure from the EU.

“The loss of £2bn of exports to the EU is a disaster for our industry, and is a very clear indication of the scale of losses that UK manufacturers face in the longer-term due to new trade barriers with the EU,” said Dominic Goudie, the head of international trade at the Food and Drink Federation (FDF). » | Lisa O’Carroll | Friday, June 18, 2021

Thursday 17 June 2021

Controversial New Labour Laws Set to Shake Up Working Life in Greece

THE GUARDIAN: Critics claim employment law reforms will abolish eight-hour day and are ‘Thatcherite policies on steroids’

Greece is set for the biggest shake-up of working life in decades after its pro-business government sought to brand parliament’s passage of controversial labour laws as a fresh start for a nation once at the centre of Europe’s financial crisis.

The passage of legislation described as antediluvian by opponents and positively life-changing by supporters came within hours of the EU’s top executive arriving in Athens on Thursday to endorse a post-pandemic recovery plan for the country.

“Today I am very happy to announce that the commission has given the green light for Greece’s national recovery plan,” the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a speech at Athens’s ancient agora as the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, stood next to her. “This plan … belongs to the Greek people and will transform the Greek economy.”

Dubbed Greece 2.0, the scheme foresees €30.5bn (£26bn) in grants and loans being unlocked to support 175 critical investments in areas ranging from the environment to digital reform. » | Helena Smith in Athens | Thursday, June 17, 2021

The Guardian View on Post-Brexit Trade: Counting the Wrong Things

THE GUARDIAN: The government’s obstinate refusal to treat the EU as a valued trading partner is making Britain poorer

The agreement reached with Australia this week is celebrated by the UK government as a landmark trade deal – the first that isn’t a rollover of old European Union membership terms. But that honour surely belongs to a treaty that was signed by Boris Johnson in December 2020. It is the trade and cooperation agreement (TCA) covering the exchange of goods between Britain and 27 other nations.

But those nations constitute the European single market, which Mr Johnson does not appear to count as a valuable trading partner, despite its proximity.

Disruption caused by the pandemic makes it hard to measure the impact of Brexit. Treasury analysis from 2018 estimated the long-term cost of a deal along the lines of the one concluded by Mr Johnson at around 5% of GDP. In March this year, the Office for Budget Responsibility estimated that the fall in trade with the EU under the TCA would shave around 0.5% from GDP in the first quarter of 2021. And that is at a time when “grace periods” are still easing border friction. » | Editorial | Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Wednesday 16 June 2021

Silver Spoon Oligarchs: How America's 50 Largest Inherited-Wealth Dynasties Accelerate Inequality

INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES: Introduction – Much of the media’s focus today is on new wealth billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, or Elon Musk, who have become centi-billionaires in their lifetimes. Lurking behind these dynamic first-generation stories, however, are persistent examples of even greater multi-generational dynastic wealth.

In healthy, equitable democratic societies, great fortunes dissipate over a few generations as initial wealth holders have children and grandchildren, pay their fair share of taxes, and make charitable gifts. But our country’s wealth is accumulating in fewer hands, including among people who may be up to seven generations removed from the original source of their family’s wealth.

At a certain stage, some of these wealth holders — or their descendants — shift resources to consolidate their wealth, fend off competition, and create monopolies. As this report will show, they focus less on creating new wealth and more on preserving existing systems that extract ongoing rents from consumers and the real economy.

America’s dynastic families, both old and new, are deploying a range of wealth preservation strategies to further concentrate wealth and power — power that is deployed to influence democratic institutions, depress civic imagination, and rig the rules to further entrench inequality. This tax avoidance means less support for the infrastructure we all rely on to preserve our health, safety, and quality of life. » | Chuck Collins | Joe Fitzgerald | Omar Ocampo | Sophia Paslaski | Kalena Thomhave | Undated

Wealth Secret of the Super Rich Revealed: Be Born into a Rich Family

THE GUARDIAN: The 10 richest dynasties, such as those behind Walmart and Mars, grew their net worth by $136bn during the pandemic, report finds

Self-made billionaires including Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk made huge profits during the Covid-19 pandemic but a new report shows there’s no beating family money when it comes to getting – and staying – really, really rich.

Ten of the US’s richest families, including the Walmart family and the dynasties behind industries including candy and cosmetics, also saw their assets balloon over the pandemic, with a shared increase in their combined net worth of over $136bn in 14 months, according to a report by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) published on Wednesday.

The report, Silver Spoon Oligarchs, details how these families have not only increased their wealth by billions in the last year, but have also worked to ensure the system supports this exponential growth over decades. » | Amanda Holpuch in New York | Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Saturday 12 June 2021

Clamour for Wealth Tax Grows after Revelations about Super-rich’s Affairs

THE OBSERVER: Data leak published by ProPublica fuels calls to tighten up system which sees ultra-wealthy pay little or no tax

The revelation last week that the 25 richest US billionaires have paid very little tax even as their fortunes have soared has reignited demands for wealth taxes on both sides of the Atlantic.

An unprecedented leak of “a vast trove” of 15 years of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data to the investigative news site ProPublica has provided a staggering insight into the legal strategies the very rich deploy to avoid tax.

It discovered that Jeff Bezos – founder of Amazon and world’s richest person, with a $193bn (£136bn) fortune – paid no federal taxes in 2011 and even claimed $4,000 in tax credit for his children.

The second wealthiest person – the head of Tesla, Elon Musk – paid no tax in 2018 because he took out vast loans against his shareholdings and deducted the interest costs he paid on the loans from his taxes. » | Rupert Neate | Saturday, June 12, 2021

Thursday 10 June 2021

Aux Etats-Unis, un système fiscal inique

LE MONDE: Alors que les pays du G7 se sont accordés sur la mise en place d’un impôt minimal mondial sur les multinationales, les révélations du site d’investigation « ProPublica », selon lesquelles les milliardaires américains payeraient moins d’impôts que le reste de la population, relancent le débat sur la taxation des plus riches dans le pays.

Editorial du « Monde ».
Sale temps pour l’optimisation fiscale. Quelques jours après l’initiative tardive mais salutaire des pays du G7 pour tenter d’nstaurer au niveau mondial un impôt plus juste sur les bénéfices des multinationales, la divulgation des déclarations fiscales des vingt-cinq premiers milliardaires américains relance le débat sur la taxation des plus riches aux Etats-Unis.

ProPublica, une association spécialisée dans le journalisme d’investigation d’intérêt public a eu accès à ces documents officiels, qui montrent que ces ultrariches, dont Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Michael Bloomberg (Bloomberg) et Elon Musk (Tesla), ont payé proportionnellement peu, voire pas du tout d’impôt sur le revenu entre 2014 et 2018. Le taux moyen qui leur a été appliqué s’élève à 15,8 %, alors que le taux marginal aux Etats-Unis est de 37 %. Les documents, théoriquement inaccessibles au public, leur divulgation pouvant constituer une infraction pénale, révèlent l’iniquité du système fiscal américain. » | Éditorial | vendredi 10 juin 2021

Piers Morgan - Monte Carlo | Documentary

The Luxury Life Of Monte Carlo (Monaco)

The Guardian View on the Super-rich: A Billion Reasons for a Wealth Tax

THE GUARDIAN: When America’s richest are paying proportionately less in tax than those struggling from paycheck to paycheck, the tax system demands a radical overhaul

This week, Jeff Bezos announced his plan to become the first billionaire in space. Next month, on the 52nd anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, he will fly about 100 km above the rest of us, see the curve of the Earth and experience a few minutes of weightlessness, before a final descent. As a metaphor for the relationship between the super-rich and everyone else, it does not come much better. What also takes some beating is the justification from the world’s richest person for living out the sci-fi dreams he had as a boy: he has so much money he doesn’t know how to spend it.

“The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel,” he said in 2018. “That is basically it.” To which the possible counter-suggestions might include: pay your workers more. Or perhaps: pay higher taxes. Because the other big bit of Bezos news this week is that in 2007 and 2011 the multi-billionaire did not pay a cent in US federal income tax. He was in good company: in 2018 Elon Musk of Tesla also paid no federal income taxes. Michael Bloomberg, Carl Icahn and George Soros are also all recent members of the zero club. » | Editorial | Wednesday, June 9, 2021

Wednesday 9 June 2021

That’s Rich: How US Billionaires Avoided Paying Any Income Taxes | The Mehdi Hasan Show

A ProPublica report revealed how some of America’s wealthiest people paid zero, zilch, nada, some year, in federal income taxes. Author Anand Giridharadas and economist Arthur Laffer have a fiery debate on how much the nation’s top earners should be taxed.

Tuesday 8 June 2021

Can Bitcoin Be Trusted? | Inside Story

In just over a decade, Bitcoin has turned from an idea into one of the most talked-about financial assets.

El Salvador's president is planning to make his country the first to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. But as some countries embrace cryptocurrencies, others are cracking down because of its use by criminal gangs.

So, what does the future hold for digital money?

Presenter: Sohail Rahman; Guests: Thibault Schrepel - Assistant Professor in Economic Law, Utrecht University; Delaram Kahrobaei - Chair of Cyber Security in the Department of Computer Science, University of York; John Biggs - Journalist and entrepreneur


Monday 7 June 2021

Senate Poised to Pass Huge Industrial Policy Bill to Counter China

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The broad support for the bill highlights how competition with Beijing is one of the few issues that can still unite both political parties.

WASHINGTON — Faced with an urgent competitive threat from China, the Senate is poised to pass the most expansive industrial policy legislation in U.S. history, blowing past partisan divisions over government support for private industry to embrace a nearly quarter-trillion-dollar investment in building up America’s manufacturing and technological edge.

The legislation, which could be voted on as early as Tuesday, is expected to pass by a large margin. That alone is a testament to how commercial and military competition with Beijing has become one of the few issues that can unite both political parties.

It is an especially striking shift for Republicans, who are following the lead of former President Donald J. Trump and casting aside what was once their party’s staunch opposition to government intervention in the economy. Now, both parties are embracing an enormous investment in semiconductor manufacturing, artificial intelligence research, robotics, quantum computing and a range of other technologies.

And while the bill’s sponsors are selling it in part as a jobs plan, the debate over its passage has been laced with Cold War references and warnings that a failure to act would leave the United States perilously dependent on its biggest geopolitical adversary. » | David E. Sanger, Catie Edmondson, David McCabe and Thomas Kaplan | Monday, January 7, 2021

Sunday 6 June 2021

The US’ Position as the Dominant Capitalist Power Is Changing - Richard Wolff [Global Capitalism]

This is a clip from the May 2021 Global Capitalism lecture in which Richard Wolff gives three examples that indicate the US's position of global power is changing, and its ability to influence global events is shrinking.

Saturday 5 June 2021

Post-Brexit: Businesses Hit by Labour Shortages Call for Brexit Rules to Be Relaxed

As the UK economy begins the long road to recovery, many businesses are wondering: where have all the workers gone?

Covid has seen hundreds of thousands of employees lose or leave their jobs, and in many cases leave the country altogether. From farms to factories and hospitality to haulage, many industries are warning they won't be able to bounce back unless Brexit rules on workers are relaxed.


Rishi Sunak Announces ‘Historic Agreement’ by G7 on Tax Reform

THE GUARDIAN: Finance ministers agree deal to force multinationals to pay tax in all countries where they operate

The G7 group of wealthy nations have signed a landmark deal to tackle tax abuses by some of the world’s biggest multinationals and establish a minimum global corporation tax for the first time.

Finance ministers from the world’s richest economies agreed the historic deal on Saturday as part of talks held in London, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said.

As part of the plan, finance ministers also agreed to the principle of a global minimum rate that ensures multinationals pay tax of at least 15% in each country in which they operate.

Sunak said: “These seismic tax reforms are something the UK has been pushing for and a huge prize for the British taxpayer – creating a fairer tax system fit for the 21st century. » | Phillip Inman | Saturday, June 5, 2021