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$1 Trillion Infrastructure Deal Scales Senate Hurdle with Bipartisan Vote

Senator Mitt Romney of Utah and other Republicans who negotiated the deal urged their colleagues to support a measure they said would provide badly needed funding for infrastructure projects. | T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The vote was a breakthrough after weeks of wrangling among White House officials and senators in both parties, clearing the way for action on a top priority for President Biden.

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted on Wednesday to take up a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that would make far-reaching investments in the nation’s public works system, as Republicans joined Democrats in clearing the way for action on a crucial piece of President Biden’s agenda.

The 67-to-32 vote, which included 17 Republicans in favor, came just hours after centrist senators in both parties and the White House reached a long-sought compromise on the bill, which would provide about $550 billion in new federal money for roads, bridges, rail, transit, water and other physical infrastructure programs.

Among those in support of moving forward was Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader and a longtime foil of major legislation pushed by Democratic presidents. Mr. McConnell’s backing signaled that his party was — at least for now — open to teaming with Democrats to enact the plan. » | Emily Cochrane and Jim Tankersley | Wednesday, July 28, 2021

A Look at What the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal Would Do »

Bitcoin Price Slides amid EU Call to Make Transfers Traceable, and Rise of ‘Stablecoins’

THE GUARDIAN: European regulator want banks to hold personal details of cryptocurrency clients, while US wants swift work to establish less volatile ‘stablecoins’

Bitcoin has slipped below $30,000 as calls grew among regulators in the US, Europe and Asia for tighter checks on cryptocurrencies, and the less volatile digi-currency known as “stablecoins”.

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency fell as much as 5% to $29,300, its lowest since 22 June, and investors said it was likely to test the $28,600 level touched last month, its lowest since early January, as it faced a variety of regulatory headwinds. Smaller cryptocurrencies such as ether and XRP also lost around 5%.

On Tuesday, European regulators outlined plans to make cryptocurrencies more traceable as part of a wider crackdown on money-laundering in the bloc.

The European Commission said companies handling virtual assets, such as bitcoin, should become subject to anti-money laundering rules, along with transparency requirements for transfers of crypto assets. » | Martin Farrer | Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Lebanon Crisis Escalates as Designated Prime Minister Hariri Resigns | DW News

Jul 16, 2021 • Lebanon’s PM-designate Hariri steps down as crisis deepens. Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri says he will not be able to form a government as a bitter political rivalry continues to keep Lebanon without a government. The Middle Eastern country has been without a government since October. This period of political crisis has been accompanied by an unprecedented economic meltdown that has seen the free fall of the Lebanese currency, which has nosedived 90% since 2019 against the dollar. Poverty has skyrocketed and the country faces a dire shortage of medicines, fuel and electricity.

Bank of England ‘Addicted’ to Creating Money, Say Peers

THE GUARDIAN: BoE must be more transparent and justify use of quantitative easing, says Lords report

The Bank of England risks becoming addicted to creating money and needs to come clean about how it plans to unwind its £895bn bond-buying programme, the House of Lords has warned.

A report from a Lords committee – the members of which include the former Threadneedle Street governor Mervyn King – said there was a threat of quantitative easing (QE) leading to higher inflation and causing damage to the government’s finances.

The Bank started using QE, a process whereby it creates money by buying government and corporate bonds, in 2009 during the global financial crisis, but has stepped up its use during the coronavirus pandemic.

But the Lords economic affairs committee said the Bank had become too dependent on the use of QE, which it said was widening Britain’s wealth gap by boosting asset prices.

Michael Forsyth, the committee’s chairman, said: “The Bank of England has become addicted to quantitative easing. It appears to be its answer to all the country’s economic problems and by the end of 2021, the Bank will own an eye-watering £875bn of government bonds and £20bn in corporate bonds.” » | Larry Elliot, Economics editor | Friday, July 16, 2021

The clowns of Threadneedle Street! The fools don’t understand the first principles of sound economics! It’s all to do with Economics 101! They must have missed those lectures at university! We are being led by fools! We really are! By creating a distortion in the market—in this case, the distortion of super cheap money, brought about by setting extremely low and unhealthy interest rates, and for such a protracted period of time (11+ years)—they have unwittingly enriched the already superrich, the squillionaires, and impoverished the rest. In fact, it has been made virtually impossible for the less-than-privileged young to gain a foothold in the housing market unless, of course, Daddy is able to help darling son or darling daughter along the way with a generous pecuniary gift! Alas, for many of our young people today, such a scenario is a pipedream. There is one thing that our central bankers need to understand: The economy should be run for the benefit of the many, not the few! – © Mark

EZB trifft Vorbereitungen für einen digitalen Euro | DW Nachrichten

Jul 14, 2021 • Im Jahr 2002 wurde der Euro eingeführt, knapp 20 Jahre danach soll ein E-Euro auf den Weg gebracht werden - eine digitale Währung also, die die Europäische Zentralbank ausgeben und kontrollieren will. Darüber hat die Notenbank heute in Frankfurt beraten: wobei noch viele Fragen offen sind, die Konkurrenz aber schon jetzt groß ist. Vom Münzgeld zum elektronischen Portemonnaie. Ein digitaler Euro soll künftig wie die Plattformen Paypal und Apple Wallet funktionieren, oder wie Cryptowährungen wie Bitcoin - allerdings kontrolliert durch die EZB. Die Pandemie und das vermehrte Online-Shopping haben Investitionen in digitale Währungen beschleunigt.

Analysten schätzen, dass sich Verbraucher daran gewöhnen, ihre Einkäufe online zu tätigen und per Smartphone zu bezahlen. Daher sei wichtig, eine sichere digitale Währung zu haben. Auch andere Zentralbanken sind daran interessiert. Großbritannien untersucht derzeit die Einführung einer eigenen Digitalwährung - "Brit-Coin" genannt - auch die USA und Japan erwägen diese Möglichkeit.

Die EZB verspricht, dass ein künftiger digitaler Euro "schnell, einfach und sicher" sein würde, die Dienstleistungen kostenlos, und dass Zahlungen per Karte oder Smartphone erfolgen könnten. Viele Fragen bleiben bislang unbeantwortet, aber es bleibt noch Zeit. Denn der digitale Euro kommt frühestens in fünf Jahren auf den Markt.

Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Report Bumper Second-quarter Profits

THE GUARDIAN: Investment banking arms of two Wall Street firms benefit from global glut of mergers and acquisitions

Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have reported bumper profits for the second quarter as their investment banking divisions continued to ride the global boom in mergers and takeover deals.

The two US banks have been capitalising on the surge in merger and acquisitions activity, which broke records for the second straight quarter in the three months to June, according to Refinitiv data, and helped make up for a slowdown in trading since the start of the year.

Goldman Sachs, which continues to generate the highest investment banking fees among its peers, reported profits of $5.5bn (£4bn) in the second quarter. That was the second highest profit on record for the bank, only surpassed by its first quarter of 2021, and compared with just $373m in profits a year earlier when the group had to draw down provisions to cover a $2.9bn settlement over the 1MDB corruption scandal with global regulators. » | Kalyeena Makortoff, Banking correspondent |Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Lebanon Faces Dire Crisis after the Elite Plundered the State for Decades, Exacerbating Inequality

Jul 9, 2021 • Lebanon is days away from a “social explosion,” according to the country’s prime minister, amid what the World Bank has described as one of the worst economic depressions in modern history. The country’s currency has lost more than 90% of its value, unemployment has skyrocketed, and fuel prices have soared. Most homes and businesses, and even hospitals, only have power for a few hours each day, and pharmacies are running low on medicine. The U.N. has warned over three-quarters of households in Lebanon do not have enough food or money to buy food. Lebanon is also facing a massive political crisis following the devastating explosion at the Port of Beirut last August, which killed over 200 people, injured 7,000 and left more than a quarter-million Beirut residents unhoused. Nisreen Salti, an economics professor at the American University of Beirut, says “the entire system crumbled” in Lebanon due to decades of structural inequality. “The business and political class that benefited from the system was able to plunder the economy for 20-odd years,” Salti says. We also speak with Middle East scholar Ziad Abu-Rish of Bard College. He says the economic crisis and the port explosion, for which there have been no major prosecutions, both reveal the impunity with which the country’s elites operate. “Part of the problem is the total lack of accountability,” Abu-Rish says.

Peru’s Middle Class Shrank by Almost Half in 2020

THE RIO TIMES: According to the new data, only 24% of Peruvians now belong to that category against 43.6% in 2019 due to the economic impacts of the coronavirus health crisis.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A new study released Tuesday (6) by the Institute of Economics and Business Development (Iedep) of the Lima Chamber of Commerce showed that some 6.3 million Peruvians fell out of the country’s middle-class social group during 2020.

According to the new data, only 24% of Peruvians now belong to that category against 43.6% in 2019 due to the economic impacts of the coronavirus health crisis.

The Iedep survey specified that 7.9 million people remain within the concept of the middle class, while that group consisted of about 14 million in 2019.

To be classified into that category, individuals need to at least live in four-person households with monthly incomes ranging between S/2,150 and S/10,750 (between US$560 and US$2,795).

The coronavirus crisis has thus dealt a severe blow to the country’s fight against poverty which can also be expressed as a ten-year setback, as the number of people under that line grew to be 30.1% of the population during 2020, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI). » | Latin America News | Wednesday, July 7, 2021

More news from Peru HERE »

Inside Giorgio Armani's Fashion Legacy | The Business of Fashion

May 4, 2015 • Just days before the opening of Armani/Silos a new museum housing the vast Armani archive, BoF's Imran Amed interviews Giorgio Armani on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his business.

Giorgio Armani Documentary - Success Story (2012)

How Häagen-Dazs Got Its Start

Nov 14, 2011 • Despite its foreign-looking name, Häagen-Dazs was the brainchild of a young entrepreneur who grew up selling ice cream in New York.

The Furlough Scheme Should Never Have Been Allowed to Fund Million-pound Bonuses

THE GUARDIAN: JD Sports has handed its chief £6m. It’s clear the Treasury did not attach enough strings to its business life-support scheme

It is windfall time for those lucky few who sit in the shade of the magic money tree. Take Peter Cowgill, for example, executive chairman of JD Sports. He has been paid almost £6m in bonuses since February last year. What makes this huge amount even more shocking is that his company has received more than £100m in government support since the start of the pandemic.

Unlike Primark, which has committed to paying back £121m received under the furlough scheme and business rates relief, and the big UK supermarkets, which will pay back about £1.8bn in business rates, JD Sports has not yet decided whether it will return any furlough scheme money to the government. It wants to wait and see until Covid restrictions are fully lifted.

Let’s not forget that the massive public subsidies to Britain’s businesses were drawn up in the spring of last year, when many businesses faced existential crises and did not know if they would survive the pandemic. As it turned out, though, some of them thrived as our spending habits changed. And JD Sports was one of the winners. Its profits are set to rise by at least 70% to an estimated £550m this year. » | Stefan Stern | Friday, July 2, 2021