#fiscal-policy

#fiscal-policy

"European NATO members are under pressure from the United States to build up their defence spending. Though they pledged last June to raise their defence and security-related outlays to five percent of GDP by 2035, Wadephul said progress in Europe so far had been lacking. "Unfortunately, efforts in the French Republic have also been insufficient to achieve this so far," Wadephul said. "France, too, needs to do what we are doing here with difficult discussions."

The newly-named Federal Reserve chairman faces an historic challenge that no predecessor has encountered since the years immediately following World War II. In that period, the gigantic spending required to aid our allies and secure military victory saddled the U.S. with towering debt. President Truman-fearing that huge interest costs would swamp the budget-heavily pressured the Fed to hold down rates. Today, the U.S. is wrestling with its biggest budget crisis in 70 years, and we're confronting a similar conundrum.

"war bonds"

Public sector net borrowing the difference between spending and income was 11.6bn last month, the Office for National Statistics said, compared with 18.7bn in the same month a year earlier. Economists polled by Reuters had expected borrowing to be 13bn in December. The figure is closely watched by the City as it shows how much the government is borrowing to finance its spending plans and whether it is exceeding its target for the year.

A quarter of countries in the developing world are poorer than they were in 2019 before the Covid pandemic, the World Bank has found. The Washington-based organisation said a large group of low-income countries, many in sub-Saharan Africa, had suffered a negative shock in the six years to the end of last year. The bank said global growth had downshifted since the pandemic, and the pace was now insufficient to reduce extreme poverty and create jobs where they're needed most.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has conveyed to a governing party executive her intention to dissolve parliament's lower house next week, according to the Kyodo news agency, less than three months into her tenure. Citing a source, Kyodo reported on Tuesday that Takaichi plans to declare the dissolution of parliament at the beginning of the regular session of the Diet on January 23.

The United States' current borrowing trajectory will place an "undue burden on future generations," an economic think tank has warned, with younger generations facing a higher interest rate environment, slower economic growth, and stalling wage increases. The latest research from the American Action Forum chimes with concerns across both the public and private sectors. Everyone from JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon to Fed chairman Jerome Powell is nervously eyeing the nation's $38 trillion debt burden.

When Rachel Reeves urged Labour MPs at a half-empty private meeting on Monday night to back her high stakes budget, she told them that while they might not like everything in it, she was convinced that overall it was fair. After weeks of anxiety on the backbenches over manifesto breaches and speculation over Keir Starmer's leadership, she was determined to reassure them that her plans were Labour through and through and would give them plenty to offer voters on the doorstep.

It depends how the bond market reacts. If the bond market reacts very badly the government will have to react if bond yields start to go up too much, he said. Zahn suggested that it would be unsustainable if the yield, or interest rate, on either 10-year or 30-year UK bonds reached 6%. Such high interest rates created a death spiral, he warned, meaning the government would hopefully act before yields rose that high.

Moody's said its rating was based on the Scottish government's "prudent fiscal management" and the country's economic stability.

There is one narrow, perilous route by which Rachel Reeves can successfully deliver her 26 November budget, and it runs right through government bond markets. But the current outbreak of Labour infighting driven by a flurry of pugilistic briefings from inside No 10 risks cutting that route off with two weeks still to go before budget day. Before news broke of an abortive leadership challenge, the chancellor had been carefully laying the groundwork for a tough statement, likely to include busting Labour's manifesto pledges

The employment rate came in at 75.0% in the three months to September, versus 75.1% in August. Unemployment came in at 5.0%, in September, versus 4.8% in August and market expectations of 4.9% and economic Inactivity in the three months to September came in at 21.0%. Annual total earnings growth came in at 4.8%, versus 5.0% in the previous three-month period, and market expectations of 4.9%.

The group, which ranges from the rightwing Adam Smith Institute to the leftwing New Economics Foundation, published proposals for sweeping pro-growth reforms the chancellor could introduce to tax all income from work equally. A separate report on Wednesday from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) urged Reeves to make brave choices and look for an extraordinary 50bn of spending cuts and tax rises to triple the size of her fiscal buffer.

There will never be enough taxes to make up for what the Mercury News says will be a $223 million federal cut. The county politicians have done nothing to reduce expenditures, and they've been negligent in not telling us the truth. It's obscene that County Executive James Williams would have asked for more in Measure A had there not been legal limits.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

In a boost for the chancellor, the yield in effect the interest rate on 10-year UK government bonds has fallen by about 0.15 percentage points this week, after briefly dipping below 4.5% early on Friday for the first time in three months. Government bond yields have tumbled across advanced economies, as investors scrambled to buy safe-haven assets amid fears over US-China trade tensions and signs of stress in the US banking system.