Many Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh facing diminished income are supplementing their needs with work in the camps. Steve Sandford talks to a few young and old entrepreneurs who have set up new businesses in the refugee zones.
…
Israel’s markets regulator said on Monday he will propose regulation to ban companies based on bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE).
Shmuel Hauser, the chairman of the Israel Securities Authority (ISA), told the Calcalist business conference he will bring the proposal to the ISA board next week. If approved, it would be subject to a public hearing and then the TASE bylaws would need to be amended.
“If we have a company that their main business is digital currencies we would not allow it. If already listed, its trading will be suspended,” Hauser said, adding the ISA must find the appropriate regulation for such companies.
Bitcoin plunged by 30 percent to below $12,000 on Friday as investors dumped the cryptocurrency after its sharp rise to nearly $20,000. It recouped some losses to trade above $14,000 on the Bitstamp platform, down 9 percent on the day.
“We feel that the prices of bitcoin behave like bubbles and we don’t want investors to be subject to that volatility and uncertainty,” Hauser said. “There is an importance to signal to the market where things are… Investors should know where we stand.”
Earlier this month, Hauser had said bitcoin-based companies would not be included in TASE indexes and that there was a need for a suitable regulatory framework for such instruments given that the global market value of all digital currencies grew in 2017 to $300 billion from $18 billion.
The proposal will likely be the last for Hauser, who will step down next month after 6-1/2 years as ISA chief.
“But once it’s on its way it will continue to be pursued,” said Hauser, who will be replaced by Anat Guetta.
He said he hopes she will promote easing capital gains taxes and focus on regulatory enforcement.
Management experts are always coming up with innovative ideas to improve the work environment, inspire employees and raise productivity. Big companies in Germany, like Lufthansa, Siemens, Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen’s Audi, are bringing harmony to the workplace by having symphony orchestras and encouraging employees to play music together. Faiza Elmasry has the story. Faith Lapidus narrates.
…
In 2017, China’s Xi Jinping rose to become the country’s most powerful leader in decades. And as he shoulders more responsibility, analysts say the government in Beijing is likely to take more risks in 2018 at home and overseas, even as it deals with economic challenges at home, a nuclear North Korea and the looming threat of trade tensions with the United States. VOA’s Bill Ide has this report.
…
Americans are traveling in record numbers this season, according to the American Automobile Association’s (AAA) annual estimate, which forecasts more than 107 million will travel by road, rail or air between now and the start of 2018.
Despite higher gas prices, travel volume is expected to be 3.1 percent higher than last year’s holiday season, the association said.
AAA said this season marks the ninth consecutive year of rising year-end holiday travel in the United States. Since 2005, it said, holiday travel has grown by 21.6 million, an increase of 25 percent.
The majority of travelers, 97.4 million, will make their way to their destinations by road, while 6.4 million people are expected to fly to see family and friends or to take holiday vacations. Only 3.6 million are expected to take to trains, buses or cruise ships for the holiday.
Apparently, not all holiday travelers are making family visits.
AAA said, for the second year in a row, the top destinations for holiday travel are Orlando, Florida, and Anaheim, California – the homes of theme parks Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
Sunny destinations also make up the next seven entries on the top 10 destinations: Cancun, Mexico; Hawaii, Jamaica, Dominican Republic and several locations in Florida. The only non-beach destination on the list? No. 10, New York City.
The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote Friday on another round of targeted sanctions aimed at further restricting North Korea’s crude oil imports, which fuel its illicit weapons programs.
The proposed sanctions come in response to Pyongyang’s November 28 launch of a newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) called a Hwasong-15, which the North Koreans claim is capable of delivering nuclear warheads anywhere in the continental United States.
It was Pyongyang’s third ICMB test this year and its 20th ballistic missile launch of 2017.
The United States drafted the text and negotiated it with China. It was circulated to the wider council membership on Thursday, and a vote is scheduled Friday at 1 p.m. EST (1800 UTC).
“We hope there will be a consensus and vote — the sooner, the better — and we are on board,” France’s U.N. ambassador, Francois Delattre, told reporters Thursday.
‘A good message’
“We support it wholeheartedly and we hope that it will be unanimous,” Japanese Ambassador Koro Bessho said. “I think it will be sending a good message if we can pass it, and that’s what I think will happen.”
The draft resolution, seen by VOA, seeks to cap crude oil exports to North Korea at current levels, not exceeding 4 million barrels per year. It would allow exemptions only on a case-by-case basis with Security Council approval.
The text also seeks to impose a ban on 90 percent of refined petroleum products exported to North Korea, as well as on all industrial machinery and some transport vehicles.
An earlier round of sanctions this year called on states not to renew work visas for North Korean laborers. The new draft goes a step further, requiring all North Koreans working abroad and their minders to return home within a year.
Council members have expressed concern that the regime sends its citizens abroad to perform manual labor and then confiscates all or part of their wages to help finance its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Deceptive shipping alleged
Some council members have also noted that North Korea appears to be illegally exporting coal and acquiring prohibited oil through deceptive shipping practices. The proposed text seeks to tighten maritime interdiction and inspection regimes.
There are also 19 new individuals, most of them in the banking sector, proposed for travel bans and asset freezes, as well as the Army ministry.
If approved, this will be the third round of targeted sanctions imposed by the Security Council this year in a bid to stop Pyongyang from advancing its illicit weapons programs and bring it to the negotiating table.
…
Papa John’s founder John Schnatter will step down as CEO next month, about two months after he publicly criticized the NFL leadership over national anthem protests by football players — comments for which the company later apologized.
Schnatter will be replaced as chief executive by Chief Operating Officer Steve Ritchie on Jan. 1, the company announced Thursday. Schnatter, who appears in the chain’s commercials and on its pizza boxes, and is the company’s biggest shareholder, remains chairman of the board.
Earlier this year, Schnatter blamed slowing sales growth at Papa John’s — an NFL sponsor and advertiser — on the outcry surrounding players kneeling during the national anthem. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick had kneeled during the national anthem to protest what he said was police mistreatment of black men, and other players started kneeling as well.
“The controversy is polarizing the customer, polarizing the country,” Schnatter said during a conference call about the company’s earnings on Nov. 1.
Papa John’s apologized two weeks later, after white supremacists praised Schnatter’s comments. The Louisville, Kentucky-based company distanced itself from the group, saying that it did not want them to buy their pizza.
Ritchie declined to say Thursday if the NFL comments played a role in Schnatter stepping down, only saying that it’s “the right time to make this change.”
Tougher competition
Shares of Papa John’s are down about 13 percent since the day before the NFL comments were made, reducing the value of Schnatter’s stake in the company by nearly $84 million. Schnatter owns about 9.5 million shares of Papa John’s International Inc., and his total stake was valued at more than $560 million on Thursday, according to FactSet. The company’s stock is down 30 percent since the beginning of the year.
Schnatter, 56, founded Papa John’s more than three decades ago, when he turned a broom closet at his father’s bar into a pizza spot. And it has since grown to more than 5,000 locations. Schnatter has also become the face of the company, showing up in TV ads with former football player Peyton Manning. Schnatter stepped away from the CEO role before, in 2005, but returned about three years later.
Ritchie said new ads would come out next year. The company said later Thursday that it had “no plans to remove John from our communications.”
The Papa John’s leadership change comes as the pizza chains that once dominated the fast-food delivery business face tougher competition from hamburger and fried-chicken chains that are expanding their delivery business. McDonald’s Corp., for example, expects to increase delivery from 5,000 of its nearly 14,000 U.S. locations by the end of the year.
New strategy
Ritchie said his focus as CEO will be making it easier for customers to order a Papa John’s pizza from anywhere. That’s a strategy that has worked for Domino’s, which takes orders from tweets, text messages and voice-activated devices, such as Amazon’s Echo. Papa John’s customers can order through Facebook and Apple TV, but Ritchie said he wants the chain to be everywhere customers are.
“The world is evolving and changing,” he said.
Ritchie, 43, began working at a Papa John’s restaurant 21 years ago, making pizzas and answering phones, the company said. He became a franchise owner in 2006 and owns nine locations. He was named chief operating officer three years ago. Ritchie said plans for him to succeed Schnatter were made after that.
…
This remote town in Peru’s southern Andes was supposed to serve as a model for how companies can help communities uprooted by mining.
Named Nueva Fuerabamba, it was built to house around 1,600 people who gave up their village and farmland to make room for a massive, open-pit copper mine.
The new hamlet boasts paved streets and tidy houses with electricity and indoor plumbing, once luxuries to the indigenous Quechua-speaking people who now call this place home.
The mine’s operator, MMG Ltd, the Melbourne-based unit of state-owned China Minmetals Corp, threw in jobs and enough cash so that some villagers no longer work.
But the high-profile deal has not brought the harmony sought by villagers or MMG, a testament to the difficulty in averting mining disputes in this mineral-rich nation.
Resource battles are common in Latin America, but tensions are particularly high in Peru, the world’s No. 2 producer of copper, zinc and silver. Peasant farmers have revolted against an industry that many see as damaging their land and livelihoods while denying them a fair share of the wealth.
Peru is home to 167 social conflicts, most related to mining, according to the national ombudsman’s office, whose mission includes defusing hostilities.
Nueva Fuerabamba was the centerpiece of one of the most generous mining settlements ever negotiated in Peru. But three years after moving in, many transplants are struggling amid their suburban-style conveniences, Reuters interviews with two dozen residents showed.
Many miss their old lives growing potatoes and raising livestock. Some have squandered their cash settlements. Idleness and isolation have dulled the spirits of a people whose ancestors were feared cattle rustlers.
“It is like we are trapped in a jail, in a cage where little animals are kept,” said Cipriano Lima, 43, a former farmer.
Meanwhile, the mine, known as Las Bambas, has remained a magnet for discontent. Clashes between demonstrators and authorities in 2015 and 2016 left four area men dead.
Nueva Fuerabamba residents have blocked copper transport roads to press for more financial help from MMG.
The company acknowledged the transition has been difficult for some villagers, but said most have benefited from improved housing, healthcare and education.
“Nueva Fuerabamba has experienced significant positive change,” Troy Hey, MMG’s executive general manager of stakeholder relations, said in an email to Reuters. MMG said it spent “hundreds of millions” on the relocation effort.
Mining is the driver of Peru’s economy, which has averaged 5.5 percent annual growth over the past decade. Still, pitched conflicts have derailed billions of dollars worth of investment in recent years, including projects by Newmont Mining and Southern Copper.
To defuse opposition, President Pablo Kuczynski has vowed to boost social services in rural highland areas, where nearly half of residents live in poverty.
But moving from conflict to cooperation is not easy after centuries of mistrust. Relocations are particularly fraught, according to Camilo Leon, a mining resettlement specialist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.
Subsistence farmers have struggled to adapt to the loss of their traditions and the “very urban, very organized” layout of planned towns, Leon said.
“It is generally a shock for rural communities,” Leon said.
At least six proposed mines have required relocations in Peru in the past decade, Leon said. Later this month, Peru will tender a $2-billion copper project, Michiquillay, which would require moving yet another village.
‘Everything is Money’
MMG inherited the Nueva Fuerabamba project when it bought Las Bambas from Switzerland’s Glencore Plc in 2014 for $7 billion.
Under terms of a deal struck in 2009 and reviewed by Reuters, villagers voted to trade their existing homes and farmland for houses in a new community. Heads of each household, about 500 in all, were promised mining jobs. University scholarships would be given to their children. Residents were to receive new land for farming and grazing, albeit in a parcel four hours away by car.
Cash was an added sweetener. Villagers say each household got 400,000 soles ($120,000), which amounts to a lifetime’s earnings for a minimum-wage worker in Peru.
MMG declined to confirm the payments, saying its agreements are confidential.
Built into a hillside 15 miles from the Las Bambas mine, Nueva Fuerabamba was the product of extensive community input, MMG said. Amenities include a hospital, soccer fields and a cement bull ring for festivals.
But some residents say the deal has not been the windfall they hoped. Their new two-and-three story houses, made of drywall, are drafty and appear flimsy compared to their old thatched-roof adobe cottages heated by wood-fired stoves, some said.
Many no longer plant crops or tend livestock because their replacement plots are too far away. Jobs provided by MMG mostly involve maintaining the town because most residents lack the skills to work in a modern mine.
Many villagers spent their settlements unwisely, said community president Alfonso Vargas. “Some invested in businesses but others did not. They went drinking,” he said.
Now basics like water, food and fuel – once wrested from the land – must be paid for.
“Everything is money,” Margot Portilla, 20, said as she cooked rice on a gas stove in her sister-in-law’s bright-yellow home. “Before we could make a fire for cooking with cow dung. Now we have to buy gas.”
Ghost Town
Some residents said they have benefited from the move.
The new town is cleaner than the old village, said Betsabe Mendoza, 25. She invested her settlement in a metalworking business in a bigger town.
Portilla, the young mom, says her younger sisters are getting a better education than she did.
Still, the streets of Nueva Fuerabamba were virtually deserted on a recent weekday. Vargas, the community leader, said many residents have returned to the countryside or sought work elsewhere.
Alcoholism, fueled by idle time and settlement money, is on the rise, he said.
Some villagers have committed suicide. Over the 12 months through July, four residents killed themselves by taking farming chemicals, according to the provincial district attorney’s office. It could not provide data on suicides in the old village of Fuerabamba.
MMG, citing an “independent” study done prior to the relocation, said the community previously suffered from high rates of domestic violence, alcoholism, illiteracy and poverty.
While the company considers the new town a success, it acknowledged the transition has not been easy for all.
“Connection to land, livelihood restoration and simple adaptation to new living conditions remain a challenge,” MMG said.
Nueva Fuerabamba residents continue pressuring the company for additional assistance. Demands include more jobs and deeds to their houses, which have yet to be delivered because of bureaucratic delays, said Godofredo Huamani, the community’s lawyer.
MMG said it stays apace of community needs through town hall meetings and has representatives on hand to field complaints.
While villagers fret about the future, many cling to the past. Flora Huamani, 39, a mother of four girls, recalled how women used to get together to weave wool from their own sheep into the embroidered black dresses they wear.
“Those were our traditions,” said Huamani from a bench in her walled front yard. “Now our tradition is meeting after meeting after meeting” to discuss the community’s problems.
…
The United States needs to encourage domestic production of a handful of minerals critical for the technology and defense industries, and stem reliance on China, U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Tuesday.
Zinke made the remarks at the Interior Department as he unveiled a report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which detailed the extent to which the United States is dependent upon foreign competitors for its supply of certain minerals.
The report identified 23 out of 88 minerals that are priorities for U.S. national defense and the economy because they are components in products ranging from batteries to military equipment.
The report found that the United States was 100 percent net import reliant on 20 mineral commodities in 2016, including manganese, niobium, tantalum and others. In 1954, the U.S. was 100 percent import reliant for the supply of just eight nonfuel mineral commodities.
“We have the minerals here and likely we have enough to provide our needs and be a world trader in them, but we have to go forward and identify where they are at,” Zinke told reporters at an Interior Department briefing.
He also blamed previous administrations for allowing foreign competitors like China to dominate mineral production for minerals, such as rare earth elements, used in smartphones, computers and military equipment.
Zinke said the report is likely to shape Interior Department policy-making in 2018, as the agency looks to carry out its “Energy Dominance” strategy, expanding mining and resource extraction on federal lands.
The survey is the first update of a 1973 USGS report that catalogued the production of minerals worldwide. The update was started under the Obama administration in 2013.
Many of the commodities that are covered in the new volume were of minor importance when the original survey was done, since it pre-dated the global electronics boom.
The USGS and Interior Department said the report is meant to be used by national security experts, economists, private companies, the World Bank and resource managers.
It does not offer policy recommendations, but Zinke will rely on the findings as he prioritizes research into certain mineral deposit areas on federal land and plans policies to promote mining.
“We do expect that to lead to policy changes. The USGS is not involved in policy, but I suspect you will see some policy changes,” said Larry Meinert, lead author of the report.
…
Greece’s parliament on Tuesday approved the 2018 state budget, which includes further austerity measures beyond the official end of the country’s third international bailout next summer.
All 153 lawmakers from the left-led governing coalition backed the budget measures in a late vote, while the 144 opposition lawmakers present rejected them. Three were absent from the vote.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras promised that the country would smoothly exit the eight-year crisis that has seen its economy shrink by a quarter and unemployment hit highs previously unseen during peacetime.
Tsipras argued that international money markets — on whose credit Greece will have to depend once its rescue loan program ends — are showing strong confidence in the country’s prospects, with the yield on Greek government bonds dropping to a pre-crisis low of less than 4 percent.
“The way to exit [the crisis] is for our borrowing costs to return to acceptable levels so the country can finance itself without the restrictive bailout framework,” Tsipras said.
The budget promises Greece’s international lenders continued belt-tightening measures and high primary budget surpluses — the budget balance before debt and interest payments are taken into account.
It sets the primary surplus at 2.44 percent for 2017 and 3.82 percent for 2018, higher than previously estimated. The economy is forecast to grow by 1.6 percent in 2017 and 2.5 percent next year, helped by a return to growth across Europe.
Debt to hold steady
With the Greek economy worth around 185 billion euros ($271 billion) in 2018, the national debt will remain at just under 180 percent of annual GDP, roughly unchanged from the previous year.
Greeks will see new tax hikes and pension cuts over the next two years. Bailout lenders had demanded additional guarantees the Greek economy will be stabilized before considering measures to improve the country’s debt repayment terms.
Opposition parties have criticized the budget, saying it will prolong the pain for Greeks. The main opposition conservative New Democracy party said the budget was “bleeding dry” the Greek people with 1.9 billion euros’ worth of new austerity measures.
Greece’s latest international bailout officially ends in August, more than eight years after the country began receiving emergency loans from the other European Union countries that use the euro currency, as well as from the International Monetary Fund.
In return for the funds, successive governments have had to impose repeated rounds of tax hikes and spending cuts, as well as structural changes aimed at reforming the country’s moribund economy and making it more competitive.
Tsipras first was elected in 2015 on promises to quickly end the painful austerity. But negotiations with bailout creditors soon went awry and, threatened with a disastrous euro exit, he signed on to more income cuts, increased taxation and further spending cuts.
His governing Syriza party is trailing New Democracy in the polls. But Tsipras insisted Tuesday that the government would see out its mandate, which ends in 2019.
…
One of the most prominent people convicted in Latin America’s largest corruption scandal left prison Tuesday for house arrest after serving two-and-a-half years behind bars at a time when many Brazilians are becoming disillusioned with the graft investigation once hailed as a political game-changer.
Marcelo Odebrecht’s release came a day after Brazil’s top court halted investigations into several lawmakers, underscoring the limitations of the “Car Wash” investigation that uncovered nearly institutionalized corruption involving senior politicians in several countries and several major Brazilian companies.
Odebrecht, who was CEO of his family’s company of the same name, cooperated with prosecutors and testified that executives routinely paid bribes and made illegal campaign contributions to politicians in exchange for favors. He was originally sentenced to 19 years in prison but, once he began cooperating, that penalty was reduced to 10, with the agreement that the majority of it would be served under house arrest.
Odebrecht’s conviction and jailing were seen as a major victory for Car Wash prosecutors. The testimony of Odebrecht and other executives revealed that, for years, the company had essentially captured the Brazilian state, paying bribes and kickbacks to whoever was in power.
The corruption was so organized — and endemic — that it had its own department at Odebrecht, blandly named the Division of Structured Operations.
On Tuesday, Odebrecht left prison and went to the federal court in the southern state of Parana, where an electronic bracelet was attached, the court said. Neither the court nor his representatives would say where he was headed next, but local media have reported he will serve out his term in his home in an upscale neighborhood of Sao Paulo.
“The main objective of this new phase of his life is, I repeat, to return to the family fold, which is very dear to him, and to be effective in his collaboration” with prosecutors, Nabor Bulhoes, a lawyer for Odebrecht told reporters outside the court. “Right now, he has no other plan and no other goal.”
Lack of ‘real accountability’
While Odebrecht’s release was expected, it underscored the inequalities in Brazil’s criminal justice system, in which corruption and white-collar crimes generally receive little jail time.
“It’s terrible for the image of Brazil,” said Celcino Rodrigues Junior, a 26-year-old law student in Sao Paulo, referring to Odebrecht’s release. “It’s favorable to him because he will be in a mansion, he will be in total comfort.”
Revealing the extent of corruption in Brazil was one of Car Wash’s great achievements. The other was managing to put some of its masterminds, Odebrecht among them, in jail.
But the investigation has slowed in recent months, and there have been accusations that President Michel Temer and other senior politicians are trying to hinder it. Some fear the new chief of the federal police will be less aggressive in investigating corruption, and others bemoaned the closure earlier this year of the task force dedicated to the probe. Temer has always maintained that he supports the investigation.
Despite its success in sending several businessmen to jail, the Car Wash operation has also struggled to put senior politicians behind bars. That’s at least partially because sitting politicians have the right to be tried in the Supreme Court, where justice is slow and often deferential.
On Monday, a Supreme Court panel voted 2-1 to stop Car Wash investigations against four members of Congress. The decision effectively shields them from investigation while they remain in office.
Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes also ordered house arrest instead of jail for Adriana Anselmo, wife of former Rio de Janeiro Gov. Sergio Cabral. Cabral has been convicted of corruption and is in prison, while his wife has been in jail accused of several crimes.
“Brazilians, as a whole, are exhausted by this marathon of scandal, and it’s only natural that they would be disappointed by and exhausted by the absence of any real accountability,” said Matthew Taylor, an associate professor at the School of International Service at American University in Washington.
Even though the operation, known as Lava Jato in Portugese, hasn’t always lived up to Brazil’s highest hopes, Taylor says it has made significant progress.
“The fact that Odebrecht went to jail at all is a paradigm-shifting event in Brazilian history,” he said. “Lava Jato has moved the needle.”
…
A planned massive Republican tax overhaul has led Wall Street strategists to revise their 2018 corporate earnings forecasts sharply higher, but the jury is out on how long the accelerating effect on profits will last.
The tax bill, which the U.S. House of Representatives approved on Tuesday, will cut the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, beginning Jan. 1, and would be the biggest positive factor for U.S. earnings in 2018. A Senate vote was still awaited.
Although there is a wide range of profit estimates for 2018, the expected tax plan benefit has strategists now calling for double-digit profit gains in 2018 over 2017, compared with their forecasts for mid-single-digit gains without the tax cuts. S&P 500 earnings growth for 2017 was an estimated 11.9 percent, according to Reuters data.
“This is going to drive the earnings numbers. [Tax] is going to overwhelm everything,” said Credit Suisse Group U.S. Equity Strategist Jonathan Golub, who was waiting for the bill’s passage to adjust his own earnings estimates.
With the U.S. and world economies expanding, consumer demand strong and interest rates low, corporate profits were expected to be healthy next year. The tax law will give them an added jolt of adrenaline.
Many strategists estimate the cut in corporate tax could deliver an extra boost to earnings next year of between about 7 percent to more than 10 percent. Some of the forecasts were based on a previous version of the legislation calling for a tax cut to 20 percent.
In one of the most recent projections, UBS on Friday said it saw a potential 9.1 percent boost to S&P earnings per share because of the tax plan.
Ripple effect unclear
It is unclear how great the lasting positive impact will be.
“The retention of this benefit is unclear,” said Savita Subramanian, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch’s head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy, who forecasts the plan could add $19, or about 14 percent, to S&P 500 earnings including potential paybacks from repatriation, with the net recurring benefit likely to be closer to $11, or 8 percent.
Subramanian, in a presentation earlier this month, said companies may look to use the benefit for short-term lifts. For example, retailers, which have been suffering from competition from Amazon, may want to pass the benefit on with bigger sales and more promotions.
“You have to wonder how much of that benefit you’re going to really see float to the bottom line on a longer-term basis,” Subramanian said.
The boost to profits goes a long way to justify some of the rapid rise in stock valuations since Donald Trump’s election as president a year ago. Stronger earnings mean less stretched price-to-earnings ratios.
The S&P 500 has gained about 5 percent since mid-November when the House passed its tax overhaul bill, and is up about 20 percent year-to-date.
Golub and others said after the initial boost to forecasts, the profit numbers could still drift higher in the months ahead as companies adjust their plans.
“We’ll get a big jump in ’18, but the ripple effect of the tax bill could be the big surprise in the second half of ’18,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.
“The tax cuts … will give companies a lot more flexibility to do dividend increases, buybacks and hiring, and that’s what’s difficult to get a handle on,” Hellwig said.
…
U.S. single-family homebuilding and permits surged to more than 10-year highs in November, in a hopeful sign for a housing market that has been hobbled by supply constraints.
Builders have struggled to meet robust demand for housing, which is being fueled by a labor market near full employment.
Land and skilled labor have been in short supply, while lumber price increases have accelerated.
The Commerce Department said on Tuesday that single-family homebuilding, which accounts for the largest share of the housing market, jumped 5.3 percent to a rate of 930,000 units.
That was the highest level since September 2007.
Pointing to further gains, single-family home permits rose 1.4 percent to a pace of 862,000 units, a level not seen since August 2007. The jump in groundbreaking on single-family housing units suggests housing could contribute to gross domestic product in the fourth quarter.
Investment in residential construction has declined for two straight quarters, weighing on economic growth. A survey on Monday showed confidence among homebuilders soaring to near an 18-1/2-year high in December, amid optimism over buyer traffic and sales over the next six months.
Prices of U.S. Treasuries remained at session lows after the data while the dollar pared declines against a basket of currencies. U.S. stock index futures were mixed.
Last month, single-family home construction in the densely-populated South shot up 8.4 percent to the highest level since July 2007 as disruptions from recent hurricanes continued to fade and communities in the region replaced houses damaged by flooding.
Single-family starts in the West increased 11.4 percent to their highest level since July 2007. They were unchanged in the Northeast and fell 11.1 percent in the Midwest.
Overall housing starts increased 3.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.297 million units. While that was the highest level since October 2016, October’s sales pace was revised down to 1.256 million units from the previously reported 1.290 million units.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts decreasing to a pace of 1.250 million units last month. Starts for the volatile multi-family housing segment fell 1.6 percent to a rate of 367,000 units.
Overall building permits dropped 1.4 percent to a rate of 1.298 million units in November, pulled down by a 6.4 percent decline in permits for the construction of multi-family homes.
…
The U.S. House of Representatives will vote Tuesday on a Republican $1.5 trillion tax bill that will provide tax relief for most Americans, but benefit the wealthy the most, according to a non-partisan tax analysis group.
Following the House vote, the Senate will vote on the measure later Tuesday, according to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. If both houses approve the measure, it will be sent to President Donald Trump for him to sign into law, completing the first extensive modification of the U.S. tax code in more than 30 years and giving Trump his first major legislative victory.
Republican lawmakers appear to have the votes to permanently cut corporate taxes from 35 to 21 percent, temporarily and modestly reduce taxes paid by wage and salary earners, and boost America’s national debt by up to $1.5 trillion.
The non-partisan Tax Policy Center concluded Monday the bill would cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans next year, but average cuts for top earners would greatly exceed reductions for people earning less.
The legislation also partially repeals former president Barack Obama’s signature health care law and is expected to add nearly $1.5 trillion to the federal debt during the next decade.
Republican supporters of the measure are hoping that eight consecutive years of U.S. economic growth will continue and accelerate due to a stimulus they hope the tax cuts will provide.
“This is going to make such a positive difference in the lives of working Americans,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Tuesday on Capitol Hill.
Democratic opposition
Democrats, who were excluded from the Republican closed-door bill drafting meetings, are unanimously opposed to the measure. They have argued the tax package favors big corporations and the wealthy, largely ignores the middle class and forces the elderly to pay a heavy price.
“There are so many rip-offs in this bill that people are going to say this is some kind of new Gilded Age,” said Ron Wyden, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Tax Committee.
Unless Republicans withdraw their support at the last minute, Congress could send the tax bill to the White House for Trump’s signature as early as Wednesday. Minority Democrats do not have the votes to kill the bill on their own, but have vowed to make it a major campaign issue in next year’s midterm elections.
As the Republican bill moves closer to becoming law, many polls show that most Americans oppose it.
A Harvard CAPS-Harris survey conducted between December 8-11 indicates 64-percent of American voters oppose the measure. A new CNN poll conducted by the research firm SSRS shows 55-percent of Americans oppose it, a 10-percent increase since early November. A Reuters/Ipsos released on December 11 found nearly half of Americans opposed the plan.
When asked about the bill’s weak showing in the polls, Ryan said he had “no concerns whatsoever,” and added “when you have a mudfest on TV … that’s what’s going to happen. Results are going to make this popular.”
European Union environment and energy ministers on Monday agreed on renewable energy targets for 2030 ahead of negotiations next year with the European Parliament, which has called for more ambitious green energy goals.
Ministers said they would aim to source at least 27 percent of the bloc’s energy from renewables by 2030 — up from a target of 20 percent by 2020.
In October, the European Parliament called for this target to be increased to 35 percent, a level also put forward by a group of big technology, industry and power companies last week.
As part of the package of measures, ministers also agreed on the share of renewable fuels to be used in transport, while setting a cap on first-generation biofuels, which critics say compete for agricultural land with food.
EU member states set a 14 percent renewables target for fuels used in road transport by 2030, with bonuses given for the use of renewable electricity in road and rail transport.
The inclusion of rail into the renewable transport targets was criticized by the European Commission, as large parts of the European rail network are already electrified.
“The level of ambition is clearly insufficient,” Europe’s climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete told ministers during negotiations.
The European Council and the European Parliament will need to find a compromise in talks over the final legal texts on these matters next year.
The EU’s renewables targets are part of a set of proposals to implement the bloc’s climate goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, in the wake of the Paris Agreement to limit further global warming to no more than 2 degrees.
Ministers also reached a common position on a set of rules for the internal electricity market, such as the roll out of more sophisticated electricity meters to consumers and allowing grid operators to run energy storage facilities.
…
Argentina’s Congress could pass a hotly debated pension reform measure Monday, lawmakers told reporters, as stone-throwing demonstrators gathered in the capital and the country’s main union called a 24-hour general strike to protest the proposal.
Debate on the bill was suspended Thursday amid violent protests, which were put down by police firing rubber bullets and tear gas. On Friday, the government amended the proposal to include a bonus payment to the most needy retirees.
But that did not satisfy thousands of opposition demonstrators who gathered around the congressional building again Monday as lawmakers debated the proposal inside.
The protesters, some wearing balaclavas, used sling shots to fire rocks at police. Security forces answered by using water cannons and tear gas, turning the vast lawn in front of the capital complex into a battlefield.
“This bill will put millions of retirees at risk. It changes the whole pension system,” Laura Rivas, a 34-year-old teacher, told Reuters, standing back from the most violent protest areas.
The day-long strike called by Argentina’s main CGT labor group started at noon local time (1500 GMT). It was not expected to affect the nation’s transportation system until late Monday night, allowing workers to get home in the afternoon.
The bill, key to President Mauricio Macri’s efforts to lower business costs and reduce Argentina’s fiscal deficit, has already passed the Senate, leaving the lower House to give final legislative approval. Opposition lawmakers said the one-time bonus amendment did little to persuade them to vote in favor.
“It will be a one-time bonus payment made in March,” opposition lawmaker Agustin Rossi told reporters, adding that the overall bill remained inadequate to meet pensioners’ needs.
Macri is aiming to cut the fiscal deficit to 3.2 percent of gross domestic product next year from 4.2 percent this year, and reduce inflation to between 8 percent and 12 percent from more than 20 percent this year.
The pension bill would change the formula used to calculate benefits. Payments would adjust every quarter based on inflation, rather than the current system of twice-yearly adjustments linked to wage hikes and tax revenue.
Economists say the current formula means benefits go up in line with past inflation. Left unchanged, that could harm Macri’s efforts to cut the deficit.
Under the new formula, benefits would increase by 5 percentage points above inflation, according to cabinet chief Marcos Pena. The plan would take effect at a time of lower inflation expectations and would slow the pace of pension benefit increases.
…
Egypt’s economic prospects are looking brighter after the long-anticipated production of undersea gas from the al Zohr gas field began coming online in recent days.
Petroleum Minister Tareq al Molla tells Arab media the al Zohr field will be a major boon for the economy, saving $750 million to possibly several billion dollars a year in energy costs.
He says that the giant al Zohr gas field has a reserve of 30 trillion cubic feet and the first phase of production of 1.2 billion cubic feet per day is expected to be reached around mid 2018, with production being ramped up to 2.7 billion cubic feet per day by mid- to late 2019.
Italy’s ENI petroleum company is heading production of the al Zohr field, while the BP company is overseeing production of another large undersea gas field off Egypt’s Nile Delta region, known as al Nooros.
Al Molla told Egyptian media the al Nooros field presents an unexpected bonus.
Al Molla said he was expecting a production of 350 million cubic feet per day [from the al Nooros field], but production has reached 1.1 billion cubic feet per day, which came as a pleasant surprise.
Natural gas use
Egyptian consumers use natural gas for cooking, heating and running natural gas-powered vehicles. The government is also planning to produce more electricity with natural gas powered plants, now that water levels on the Nile are in danger of dropping from construction of a new dam in Ethiopia. Egypt’s Aswan High Dam produces electricity from Nile water.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi recently met with the leaders of Cyprus and Greece to discuss the prospects of economic cooperation, as Cypriot undersea gas is also brought online. Prospects of laying an undersea pipeline to Greece and exporting gas to Europe were also discussed.
He says the discovery of energy in the eastern Mediterranean could be an important factor in achieving stability and peace, in addition to the fact that these discoveries could supplement the energy needs of Europe and diversify its energy sources, adding to the strategic importance of countries like Egypt and Cyprus.
Contractual arrangements give Egypt 40 percent of the revenue from the al Zohr.
Georgetown University adjunct professor Paul Sullivan is cautious about Egypt’s natural gas windfall, telling VOA estimates of possible reserves are sometimes off the mark.
“What is actually in place is not the same amount of natural gas that can be taken out, and if they are talking about 500 million cubic feet per day, it could be 350, it could be 500, it could be 600,” Sullivan said. “There are lots of geological and other things that happen and pressures change, and frankly, inside of gas fields, it is hard to tell exactly what you are going to get out of them within five to 10 years.”
Sullivan says that al Zohr is “one of the biggest fields in the world discovered in the past 20 years,” but he added, “There is also a lot of competition in the area,” which could depress prices in the regional market. Israel has already been producing gas from its undersea natural gas reserves for some time, and Lebanon and Cyprus are in various stages of starting production.
Parceling out holiday shopping in small amounts and completing it in a realistic schedule helps people maintain the self-control needed to avoid being swept away in impulse purchases that can wreck budgets, a study to be published in January said.
The study from Texas A&M University researchers looked at how well people complied with maintaining self-control for tasks such as making purchases and found that people should pace themselves if they want to accomplish larger goals.
“Try to conserve your energy. Don’t try to make it too hard on yourself because it is going to backfire,” said Marco Palma, director of the Human Behavior Laboratory at Texas A&M and co-author of the study called “Self-control: Knowledge or perishable resource?” It will be published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.
Palma recommended making a list and dividing it into sub-goals of small purchases. Shopping online and shopping early in the day can help conserve energy, which can also help people exercise self-control.
“Committing to a shopping list will help you stay on budget,” he said in an interview this week.
The worst shopping scenario in terms of self-control is waiting until the last minute to make the bulk of holiday purchases, he said.
The study used biometric data including eye tracking and brain scanning to measure how well people complied with easy and difficult tasks that required self-control.
It found that an initial moderate self-control act enhances subsequent self-control ability by increasing confidence and motivation, but exerting too much self-control drains subsequent self-control ability.
But humans are humans and even when they are nice, they can be a little bit naughty. A person who completes a holiday shopping list as planned may splurge with a little reward for themselves, Palma said.
…
Peru’s president has acknowledged that he did “earn some money” from scandal-plagued Brazilian builder Odebrecht when his consulting business received payments from the builder more than 10 years ago
In a televised interview Sunday, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski characterized the payments as simply “dividends,” the result of business and investments the company earned in a year. “There is nothing hidden here,” he said.
Kuczynski, who is facing impeachment proceedings over alleged corruption, said during the interview that “it would have been much better,” if he had known about the transactions. He did not, however, admit to any wrongdoing and did not reveal how much he profited from his company’s dealings with Odebrecht.
Kuczynski has said he had no management duties in his consulting firm when it received nearly $800,000 from Odebrecht.
The president denied as recently as last month to having any links to Odebrecht.
Opposition lawmakers filed an impeachment motion against the president last week, saying he was morally unfit to lead the country after he resisted calls to resign over the alleged corruption.
Twenty-seven of 130 members of Peru’s Congress approved launching the process to oust the president during a special session on Friday.
Kuczynski vowed to fight on and not resign during a televised speech Thursday.
Odebrecht has shaken the politics across Latin America with its confession as part of a leniency deal last year that it gave kickbacks to officials in a dozen countries for more than a decade.
Peru’s opposition lawmakers control more than half of the seats in the country’s Congress, whose president, Luis Galarreta, said a vote on impeachment could take place this week.
If Kuczynski is removed from office, his first vice president would be next in line to the presidency.
…
Another security based on the price of bitcoin, the digital currency that has soared in value and volatility this year, began trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Sunday.
The CME Group, which owns the exchange, opened up bitcoin futures for trading at 6 p.m. EST on Sunday. The futures contract that expires in January opened higher at $20,650, then declined steadily. The futures were trading at $18,775 at 9:00 p.m. EST, down $725.
The CME futures, like the ones that CME competitor the Cboe started trading last week, do not involve actual bitcoin. The CME’s futures will track an index of bitcoin prices pulled from several private exchanges. The Cboe’s futures track the price of bitcoin prices on the particular private exchange known as Gemini.
Each contract sold on the CME will be for five bitcoin.
As bitcoin’s price has skyrocketed on private exchanges this year, largely under its own momentum, interest on Wall Street has grown. The virtual currency was trading below $1,000 at the beginning of the year, and rose to more than $19,000 on some exchanges in the days leading up to its debut on the Cboe and CME. Bitcoin was trading at $18,417 Sunday evening on Coinbase.
But the growing interest in bitcoin has raised questions on whether its value has gotten too frothy. The Securities and Exchange Commission put out a statement last week warning investors to be careful with any investment in bitcoin or other digital currencies. Further, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission has proposed regulating bitcoin like a commodity, not unlike gold, silver, platinum or oil.
Futures are a type of contract where a buyer and seller agree on a price on a particular item to be delivered on a certain date in the future, hence the name. Futures are available for nearly every type of security out there, but are most familiarly used in commodities, like oil wheat, soy and gold.
Bitcoin is the world’s most popular virtual currency. Such currencies are not tied to a bank or government and allow users to spend money anonymously. They are basically lines of computer code that are digitally signed each time they are traded.
A debate is raging on the merits of such currencies. Some say they serve merely to facilitate money laundering and illicit, anonymous payments. Others say they can be helpful methods of payment, such as in crisis situations where national currencies have collapsed.
…
Vietnam is set to auction up to a $5 billion stake in top brewer Sabeco on Monday, with Thai Beverage the only potential bidder to have expressed interest in a majority stake.
The keenly anticipated sale of the state-owned maker of Bia Saigon gained momentum in recent months after being hampered for years by political resistance, fickle policy-making and complications over valuations.
The government has set a minimum sale price of 320,000 dong or $14.10 a share for Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp (Sabeco), whose shares have nearly trebled to 309,200 dong since its listing a year ago.
Thai Beverage, through a partly owned Vietnam unit, is the only company that has expressed interest in owning more than 25 percent of the company, which has roughly 40 percent of the beer-loving Vietnamese market.
So far no formal bid had been made.
Vietnam’s young population and booming economy should make Sabeco an attractive asset for global brewers hoping to expand in Southeast Asia, but a high minimum bid price and foreign ownership limits appear to have turned off potential buyers.
Sabeco’s foreign ownership is capped at 49 percent. With 10 percent already in foreign hands, that leaves only 39 percent on the table for overseas buyers at Monday’s auction. Local bidders can bid for a majority stake of up to 54 percent. Heinken holds a 5 percent stake.
“There’s a disconnect between what the government wants to achieve and how international brewers view this auction,” said one person familiar with the matter. “In a normal auction, bidders are fully aware of what stake they’ll end up owning and bid for it accordingly,” said the person, who was not authorized to speak to the media.
Unlike similar sales in developed markets, where investors are whittled down over several rounds and offers can be adjusted, Sabeco bidders need to submit a single offer for a specific number of shares in a sealed envelope in one round.
Thai Bev, controlled by tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, was keen to acquire Sabeco as part of a strategy to expand outside its home market, sources told Reuters. The company had lined up bank guarantees to support the bid by its Vietnam unit, sources said.
There was no immediate response from Thai Bev to a query from Reuters.
Reuters previously reported that the auction was drawing the interest of brewing groups such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, Kirin Holdings, Asahi Group Holdings and San Miguel, but there is no clear sign of whether they have participated in the auction so far.
The government’s minimum price for the 54 percent stake on offer valued Sabeco at about 36 times core earnings, more than double the trading multiples of around 15 for some global peers, according to Reuters data.
Vietnam’s trade ministry is expected to announce the bidding result Monday afternoon.
…
U.S. President Donald Trump continued to tout the Republican tax bill Saturday, saying “everybody’s going to benefit” if it is signed into law.
“But I think the greatest benefit is going to be for jobs and for the middle class, middle income,” Trump said to reporters on the White House South Lawn before departing for the presidential Camp David retreat in Maryland.
Republican Senate and House negotiators finalized a final version Friday of their compromise $1.5 trillion tax bill, after appeasing Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who demanded an expansion of the child tax credit that provides benefits for low-income families.
Republican lawmakers hammered out differences Wednesday between the House and Senate versions, and both chambers of Congress plan to vote on the final bill early next week, with the intent of submitting it to President Donald Trump for his signature before Christmas.
Rubio said late Friday he would vote for the bill after saying one day earlier he would not support it unless it includes a more generous child tax credit, which has been beneficial to lower-income families by partially offsetting the expenses of raising children.
The bill doubles the current child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 per child and allows parents to get a refund of up to $1,400 if the credit is greater than their federal income tax liability.
No Democratic support
No Democrats have publicly expressed their support for the legislation, which they have attacked as a giveaway to corporations and the wealthiest of taxpayers, including Trump, a billionaire.
The measure would cut taxes by $1.5 trillion over the next decade, heavily weighted toward lower corporate taxation, and perhaps add $1 trillion or more to the country’s long-term $20 trillion debt obligations to investors and foreign governments such as China – the largest owner of U.S. debt.
When asked about the debt, Trump responded by saying a new tax law will encourage inflows of overseas money. “This is going to bring money in. As an example, we think four trillion dollars will come flowing back into the country. That’s money that’s overseas, that’s stuck there for years and years.”
Trump administration officials say millions of individual taxpayers, but not everyone, would see their annual tax obligation to the government cut, in many cases by a few hundred dollars, or in the case of wealthy taxpayers, by thousands of dollars.
In the final compromise bill, the individual tax rate for the highest income earners would be cut from 39.6 percent to 37 percent.
The country’s corporate tax rate, now at 35 percent and among the highest in the industrialized world, would be cut substantially to 21 percent.
With Democrat Doug Jones winning a special Senate election Tuesday in Alabama, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer has asked that the final tax vote be delayed until January after Jones is sworn in. But Republicans appear intent on voting before then while they have one more Republican vote in the Senate.
An original version of the Senate bill was approved 51-49 with Rubio’s support. So if Rubio votes against the bill, it could still pass, though with a narrower margin.
If approved and signed into law, the tax legislation would be the first major legislative achievement of Trump’s nearly 11-month presidency after he and Republicans failed earlier this year dismantle national health care policies championed by former president Barack Obama.
…
British Finance Minister Philip Hammond said Saturday it is likely Britain will want to negotiate a bespoke arrangement for a future trade deal with the European Union, rather than copying existing arrangements like the Canada-EU deal.
The European Union agreed Friday to move Brexit talks onto trade and a transition pact, but some leaders cautioned that the final year of divorce negotiations before Britain’s exit could be fraught with peril.
Summit chairman Donald Tusk said the world’s biggest trading bloc would begin “exploratory contacts” with Britain on what London wants in a future trade relationship, as well as starting discussion on the immediate post-Brexit transition.
No off-the-shelf deal
Speaking in Beijing, Hammond it was probably not helpful to think in terms of off-the-shelf models like the Canada-EU deal.
“We have a level of trade and commercial integration with the EU 27 which is unlike the situation of any trade partner that the EU has ever done a trade deal with before,” he told reporters.
“And therefore it is likely that we will want to negotiate specific arrangements, bespoke arrangements,” Hammond added.
“So I expect that we will develop something that is neither the Canada model nor an EEA model, but something which draws on the strength of our existing relationship.”
The Brexit negotiations have been a vexed issue for the global economy as markets feared prolonged uncertainty would hit global trade and growth.
A transition period is now seen as crucial for investors and businesses who worry that a “cliff-edge” Brexit would disrupt trade flows and sow chaos through financial markets.
China visit
Hammond’s China visit is the latest installment in long-running economic talks between the two states, but it has now taken on new importance for Britain as it looks to re-invent itself as a global trading nation after leaving the EU in 2019.
China is one of the countries Britain hopes to sign a free trade agreement with once it leaves the EU, and London and Beijing have been keen to show that Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc will not affect ties.
Hammond sought to offer reassurance to Chinese firms post-March 2019 when Britain formally leaves the EU.
“We won’t technically or legally be in the customs union or in the single market, but we’re committed as a result of the agreement we’ve made this week to creating an environment which will effectively replicate the current status quo,” he said.
Addressing the press after Hammond had spoken, Chinese Vice Finance Minister Shi Yaobin said China hopes Britain and the EU can reach a win-win agreement.
…
After weeks of quarrels and qualms and then 11th-hour horse-trading, Republicans revealed their huge national tax rewrite late Friday, along with announcements of support that all but guarantee approval next week.
The legislation would slash tax rates for big business and lower levies on the richest Americans in a massive $1.5 trillion bill that the GOP plans to pass through Congress before the year-end break. Benefits for most other taxpayers would be smaller.
“This is happening. Tax reform under Republican control of Washington is happening,” House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin told rank-and-file members in a conference call. “Most critics out there didn’t think it could happen. … And now we’re on the doorstep of something truly historic.”
According to the 1,097-page bill, today’s 35 percent rate on corporations would fall to 21 percent, the crown jewel of the measure for many Republicans. Trump and GOP leaders had set 20 percent as their goal, but added a point to free money for other tax cuts that won over wavering lawmakers in final talks.
Party’s first achievement of 2017
The legislation represents the first major legislative achievement for the GOP after nearly a full year in control of Congress and the White House. It’s the widest-ranging reshaping of the tax code in three decades and is expected to add to the nation’s $20 trillion debt. The debt is expected to soar by at least $1 trillion more than it would without the tax measure, according to projections.
Support is now expected from all Senate Republicans, ensuring narrow approval. Democrats are expected to oppose the legislation unanimously.
“Under this bill, the working class, middle class and upper middle class get skewered while the rich and wealthy corporations make out like bandits,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “It is just the opposite of what America needs, and Republicans will rue the day they pass this.”
The bill would drop today’s 39.6 percent top rate on individuals to 37 percent. The standard deduction, used by about two-thirds of households, would be nearly doubled.
Those who itemize their taxes face mixed results. The $1,000-per-child tax deduction would grow to $2,000. The bill makes a smaller amount — $1,400 — available to families even if they owe no income tax. The money would come in the form of a tax refund, which is why it’s called a “refundable” tax credit. In an earlier verison of the bill, the amount was $1,000.
But the deduction that millions use in connection with state and local income, property and sales taxes would be capped at $10,000. Deductions for medical expenses that lawmakers once considered eliminating would be retained.
Only on Friday did Republicans cement support for the major overhaul, securing endorsements from wavering senators.
Rubio, Corker relent
Marco Rubio of Florida relented in his high-profile opposition after negotiators expanded the child tax credit, and he said he would vote for the measure next week.
Rubio had been holding out for a bigger child tax credit for low-income families. After he got it, he tweeted that the change was “a solid step toward broader reforms which are both Pro-Growth and Pro-Worker.”
Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the only Republican to vote against the Senate version earlier this month, made the surprise announcement that he would back the legislation. Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has repeatedly warned that the nation’s growing debt is the most serious threat to national security.
Although he deemed the bill far from perfect, he said it was a once-in-a-generation opportunity.
“I realize this is a bet on our country’s enterprising spirit, and that is a bet I am willing to make,” Corker said.
Members of a House-Senate conference committee signed the final version of the legislation Friday, sending it to the two chambers for final passage next week. They have been working to blend the different versions passed by the two houses.
Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate, including two ailing senators who have missed votes this past week.
John McCain of Arizona, 81, is at a Washington-area military hospital being treated for the side effects of brain cancer treatment, and Thad Cochran, 80, of Mississippi had a non-melanoma lesion removed from his nose earlier this week. GOP leaders are hopeful they will be available next week.
…