There’s a Billion-Dollar Bidding War for EV Plants Across the US

Gabrielle Coppola
Thu, October 13, 2022 





(Bloomberg) -- Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer wasn’t happy. Ford Motor Co., a company whose very name is synonymous with Detroit, had just announced it had chosen two southern states, Tennessee and Kentucky, as sites for an $11 billion electric-vehicle project.

They had won Ford over by dangling huge incentives, and Whitmer knew Michigan needed to do more to compete. So she pleaded with lawmakers in a letter last October to put “more tools in our economic toolbox to attract private investment.” Two months later, they delivered, handing her a $1 billion fund for corporate subsidies. And a month after that, Whitmer dipped into the fund to net a giant deal from General Motors Co.: a $6.6 billion electric-truck factory and battery plant.

Michigan’s largesse -- and Tennessee’s and Kentucky’s -- was made possible in part by hundreds of billions in federal aid pumped into US states as part of President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan. The money was meant to soften the blow of a pandemic-induced fiscal apocalypse that never happened. Instead, it’s left states flush with cash, supercharging competition to win the automotive jobs of the future and cushioning the bottom lines of companies like Ford, GM, and Panasonic Holdings Corp., a battery supplier to Tesla Inc.

There’s a risk that all the money sloshing around amid the EV development frenzy will fund boondoggles, like Foxconn Technology Group’s heavily subsidized television factory in Wisconsin that never materialized.

To counter that risk, state and local officials helping to fund this EV boom say they built in protections to keep taxpayers from getting fleeced. But the stakes are getting bigger: The cost per permanent job for some projects is now eight times the average seen less than a decade ago.

Ford’s Tennessee hub will cost about $414,000 for each direct job, Michigan is contributing $450,000 per GM job, while Georgia committed to forgo revenue that amounts to $212,000 per job to win megaprojects from Rivian Automotive Inc. and Hyundai Motor Co. in the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The average per-job cost of economic incentives in the US was about $52,000 in 2015, measured in today’s dollars, according to a study by Tim Bartik, an economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

States have been competing to lure companies since at least the Great Depression. But the scale and the ferocity of it now -- for EV plants, semiconductor factories and other megaprojects -- are unprecedented.

“I have never seen the same kind of surge in subsidies all across the US all happening at the same time,” said Michael Farren, a senior researcher at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and a critic of corporate incentives. “It’s pretty clear that there’s an external motivating factor, and that is the American Rescue Plan relief funds.”

Companies that receive incentives saved an average of 30% on state and local taxes as of 2015, a rate that had tripled since 1990, according to the study by Bartik. The same study found incentives don’t correlate strongly with states’ current or past unemployment levels, or future economic growth.

To skeptics, of whom there are many in academia and policy circles, these subsidies are a poor use of state resources that could otherwise be earmarked to hospitals or schools. The incentives create a race-to-the-bottom effect where local governments furiously try to one-up each other on handouts that deliver unproven payoffs. There’s also a question as to whether EV and battery plants will employ as many people or pay as well as combustion-engine cars.

“States have justified huge subsidy packages for assembly plants in part to capture the more numerous upstream jobs, but those jobs are clearly going to shrink a great deal,” said Greg Leroy, the executive director of Good Jobs First, which has written a report on the subject.

The $350 billion that Congress set aside for states and municipalities in May 2021 is coinciding with a once-in-a-century transformation of the auto industry, as carmakers prepare to retire the combustion engine in favor of battery power. While there are strict limits on how local governments can use the Covid relief money, the aid helped free up cash for corporate incentives.

Financial disclosures vary by state, and some withhold data at the behest of a company or to stay competitive against other states. This makes the full picture of corporate incentives incomplete.

What is known is that global carmakers and established battery manufacturers have announced plans to invest at least $50 billion into at least 10 states to build EV assembly and battery plants since the start of 2021, and states have made commitments totaling at least $10.8 billion to lure those investments, according to a tally of publicly disclosed incentives by Bloomberg and Good Jobs First. That figure almost certainly underestimates the actual number.

Blue Oval City

The electric-vehicle hub that Ford and battery partner SK Innovation Co. chose to locate in Tennessee is a good example of how the full cost of an incentive package typically isn’t made plain to the public.

Blue Oval City, a six-square-mile site an hour’s drive northeast of Memphis, will house an assembly plant making the new electric F-150 pickup and a battery plant that together promise to create 5,800 jobs. Construction will generate 33,000 temporary jobs; once completed, the twin plants and their suppliers will support 27,000 direct or indirect positions, and add $3.5 billion annually to Tennessee’s economy, state officials have said.

When the project was announced, state officials disclosed a $500 million cash grant to be approved by the legislature; local press reports later pegged the cost at $884 million.

In fact, contract documents obtained by Bloomberg show the value of the package is at least $2.4 billion, which includes tax breaks, donated land, infrastructure improvements and short-term wage subsidies from the federal government.

Even that figure is an undercount. It excludes an electricity subsidy provided by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest federal utility.

Tennessee officials said Bloomberg’s incentives calculation is “misleading” because some infrastructure investments were made years earlier, and some of the workforce training costs are estimates. They also argue that new property tax revenue, even at a reduced rate, is more than local governments would get without the project.

“Blue Oval City will be transformational for West Tennessee,” said Lindsey Tipton, a spokeswoman for the state’s economic development department. “For future projects, we will offer grant assistance, but at a much lower cost-per-job and more in line with a typical incentive package from our department.”

Ford said its decision was influenced by many factors beyond financial incentives.

“Public-private partnerships are essential for the United States to be a leader in the global transition to electric vehicles,” the company said in a statement.

Even states that have tried to move away from incentives have caved to the pressure to compete for jobs, said Dennis Cuneo, a former Toyota Motor Corp. executive and site consultant who has helped automakers pick locations.

“Incentives are like free agency in baseball -- nobody likes it, but you’ve got to do it if you want to win,” he said.

Georgia and Rivian

Georgia, which has emerged as a big winner in the current investment surge, landed two $5 billion EV deals from Rivian and Hyundai that promise to create more than 15,000 jobs. The state offered incentives worth $3.3 billion to win the projects.

State economic commissioner Pat Wilson said Georgia competes by helping companies move fast with shovel-ready sites and limited red tape, rather than putting the most cash on the table. He called Bloomberg’s per-job incentives calculation “terribly misleading” because it includes tax breaks written into state law that aren’t discretionary.

“I view the incentives that we put on the table really as Georgia being part-investor in these projects,” Wilson said in an interview. “We know the payroll for those jobs and the benefits they provide are going to trickle out and benefit the health of communities and families all across the state.”

Picasso's first lover more than a victim in Paris expo

Agence France-Presse
October 13, 2022

Pablo Picasso (AFP)

Fifty years on from Pablo Picasso's death -- and five years after the #MeToo movement started highlighting celebrities' abuse of women -- a new exhibition in Paris focuses on one of the early partners of the controversial artist.

If Picasso's reputation has taken a battering in the post-MeToo world, it is in part due to his treatment of Fernande Olivier, his first serious partner.

But for Cecile Debray, director of the Picasso Museum in Paris, we cannot just view the artist through the prism of modern-day sensibilities.

Possessive and jealous, Picasso would lock Olivier in their ramshackle Paris apartment when he went out and made sure she doted on him while he worked long into the night.


This should not however overshadow the story of their time together, say the organizers of a new exhibition at the Montmartre Museum, in the north of Paris.

The new show puts pages from her memoirs alongside dozens of paintings and sculptures by Picasso and others from that famous artists' circle.

"Picasso, due to a sort of morbid jealousy, kept me as a recluse," Olivier wrote in her diary. "But with tea, books, a divan and little cleaning to do, I was happy, very happy."

But her writings show she was more than a victim, said Debray.

'A strong woman'

Debray, who is overseeing the anniversary celebrations, has criticized recent "ahistorical" attacks on the artist for his treatment of women.

"It was a relationship almost of equals," she told AFP.

"Certainly, he was jealous, worked a lot... but he was also tender and loving, the only lover of that type that Fernande Olivier ever had."

He was more than just the "minotaur", the monster, that some recent accounts have portrayed, said Debray.

Their relationship ended after eight years in 1912, just as Picasso was gaining serious renown.

Twenty years later, Olivier published a book about the period, "Picasso and his Friends", which the artist tried to ban.

Her memoirs revealed a difficult life beyond their time together.

She was abandoned by her parents and raised by an unloving aunt, then forced into a marriage with a violently abusive husband before she fled and eventually met Picasso.

"They provide a look at the condition of women generally at the start of the century that is very raw and realistic, as well as of a hard worker who did many little jobs to stay independent beyond her marriage," said Debray.

"She was a strong woman, very intelligent in her writings and her vision of society and artists."

The Montmartre Museum exhibition is the first of several planned around Paris for the anniversary of Picasso's death on April 8.

© 2022 AFP

WAIT, WHAT?!

Right-wing host Dennis Prager: “There’s no secular argument against adult incest”

Prager University founder says the Bible is the only reason relatives should not have sex

By BRANDON GAGE

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 13, 2022 

Dennis Prager speaking at the Turning Point High School Leadership Summit in Washington, DC. (Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

Right-wing radio host Dennis Prager declared on Tuesday's broadcast of The Dennis Prager Show on the Salem Radio Network that incest between immediate siblings that results in childbirth should not necessarily be avoided.

Birth defects due to inbreeding are well-documented and result from a lack of DNA diversity, increasing the chances that a baby will inherit and display recessive genetic traits. The risks grow if the illicit reproductive practice is continued by future generations.

But Prager's views are formulated from his fundamentalist interpretation of a verse from the biblical book of Deuteronomy.

"It's a big deal, and I try to explain everything. Just this one verse that men should not wear women's clothing or women men's clothing. So, let's go to my motto, preferring clarity to agreement. Either the Bible's right or the left is right. They can't both be right," Prager said in the latest edition of "The Ultimate Issues Hour."

First, he proclaimed that "you can't be a serious Jew or Christian and be a leftist. You can be a liberal, you can be a conservative, but you can't be a leftist. Just on this issue alone. You just would have to say the Bible's wrong and you're right. Mm, mm here. The public nudity calls are interesting. Anyway, none of you have a secular argument against it and I don't blame you for that because there isn't any."

Prager then pivoted to bolster his point.

"There's no secular argument against adult incest. Brother and sister want to make love, what's your argument? That they're going to produce mentally retarded offspring? That's nonsense. It takes many generations of inbreeding to do that. There is no secular argument against adult consensual incest. There is a religious argument – sex cannot enter family life. It's a big taboo," he said.

"See, people think we can live without the greatest source of wisdom and morality in the history of the world, the Bible," Prager added. "That's what they think. And some secular conservatives think that. They don't realize that they're living on the fumes of the Judeo-Christian value system. But if you ultimately extract those flowers from the soil that nurtured them, those flowers will wither and die. I don't want to see that happen."

Watch below via Media Matters for America or at this link:

RENT IS INFLATIONARY

Surging rents have Canadian condo owners rethinking their plans to sell, report finds
Shantaé Campbell - 

An apartment building in the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto.© Provided by Financial Post



Surging rents are draining inventory from Canada’s resale condominium markets as would-be sellers opt to lease out their units long-term instead, a new report suggests.

Condominium sales were down in the first eight months of 2022 in four key markets — Greater Vancouver/Fraser Valley, Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa and Nova Scotia — according RE/MAX Canada’s 2022 Canadian Condominium Report, which was released Oct. 12. Calgary and Edmonton bucked the trend, reporting double-digit sales gains.

Meanwhile, monthly rents have been surging. Average rent in the Greater Toronto Area, for example, rose 21 per cent on a year-over-year basis in August, a recent rent report by Rentals.ca and Bullpen Research & Consulting found.

“The affordability factor is the key issue in today’s housing market ,” said Christopher Alexander, president of RE/MAX Canada. “Rising interest rates have slowly eroded purchasing power and, despite lower housing values and cooling market conditions, buying a house is more challenging now than ever before.”

That means the cost of renting is now comparable to carrying a mortgage — and sellers are capitalizing on the trend by holding onto their properties and becoming landlords.

“They are getting great returns on their investment if they decide to rent their unit instead of selling. Rents have gone up 25 per cent, pretty much, across the board,” Alexander said. “So if you can cover all your expenses through rental income, and you can refinance to buy something else, you’re in really good shape.”

Jamie Johnson, a broker who owns RE/MAX Condos Plus, said he has encountered numerous would-be sellers who have pulled their listings and asked to advertise their condos as rentals instead.

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Not enough workers to build homes needed to address housing affordability: CMHC

“For every condo listing for sale, we’re seeing about six listings for rent or lease,” he said.

Despite the rental effect, urban market condos increased their share of total sales as buyers opted for cheaper options and market activity slowed overall. In Toronto, for example, the bulk of condominium apartment sales now hover in the $500,000–$700,000 range, down from $600,000–$800,000 earlier in the year.

Compared to year-to-date levels one year ago, condominiums now represent more than 54 per cent of total residential sales in Greater Vancouver, 36.3 per cent in the Greater Toronto Area, 32 per cent in the Fraser Valley, just over 25 per cent in Edmonton and Ottawa, and almost 20 per cent in Calgary. Nova Scotia was the only market to register a decline in condominium market share.

“Buyers should be cautioned that the current slowdown in sales activity is likely not indicative of a crash,” says Elton Ash, executive vice- president, RE/MAX Canada. “Prices for condominium product have remained stable or risen in most major urban centres year-to-date. Conditions are balanced overall and, as such, buyers and sellers with realistic expectations should be able to achieve reasonable objectives.”

Average prices rose by up to 26 per cent year over year, the report found. In the GTA, prices jumped 15.7 per cent to $796,457 in 2022 from $688,137 in 2021.

• Email: shcampbell@postmedia.com

Poundmaker Cree Nation leaves FSIN, will leave AFN, to 'protect treaty rights' independently

Saskatoon StarPhoenix - 

Poundmaker Cree Nation Chief Duane Antoine speaks to media in 2016.© Provided by Star Phoenix

Poundmaker Cree Nation is pulling out of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, and also intends to leave the national Association of First Nations (AFN). Leaders say the band will preserve and protect Treaty rights as an independent nation.

Poundmaker, “in exercising their jurisdiction,” served a band council resolution to the FSIN terminating its membership, effective immediately, the band said Thursday in a news release.

According to the notice, Poundmaker members “no longer want to be associated or represented by the FSIN, as they do not serve the purpose it’s intended for, which is to ‘preserve and protect Treaty.’ ”

Chief Duane Antoine said Poundmaker will also serve notice to the AFN “within a couple of weeks,” ending that relationship.

He said the First Nation will now represent itself directly with the provincial and federal governments “on its own desired self-determined initiatives that support Treaty and inherent rights within the terms of Treaty 6.”

“We are moving along,” he said. “We want to deal directly to our Treaty partner, the Federal government, nation to nation.”

Longtime councillor Bryan Tootoosis said this decision has been years in the making.

“ We’ve discussed it publicly, through our Elders, our band members, in meetings we’ve had about what’s best for our children, the unborn and our Elders, thinking, of course, all the time, about the needs and the requirements of the people from Poundmaker,” he said.

Matters have now come “to a boiling point,” Tootoosis said.

“FSIN has not preserved and protected our Treaty rights for a long time. We just lost faith in the whole area of jurisdiction.”

He said the First Nation has been working hard on issues of education, community safety, health and food sovereignty — but when it needed help, “there was no FSIN around, anywhere.”

In particular, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tootoosis said it has been difficult to get the money and support they need to keep their people safe and well.

“Funding for the pandemic was going through everybody else,” he said. “By the time it got to us, we got crumbs.”

Tootoosis echoed Chief Antoine’s wish for Poundmaker to take on a nation-to-nation relationship with the federal government, one Treaty Six signatory to another.

“We have the education. We have lots of professional people from Poundmaker. We have lawyers, we have social workers, we have all the university-educated people.

“We need to do things ourselves — and I think we do better when we do things ourselves.”

Tootoosis emphasized that this decision is “not a personal attack” on the these advocacy organizations or the people who work there — he himself used to work for the FSIN, and Poundmaker members are still employed there.

“We are trying our best to make things work for everybody, and our number one priority is protecting our Treaty rights and obligations,” he said. “It’s a business, political and community-based decision. The Elders have spoken many times about this, and we decided that this is the appropriate time.”

The FSIN now represents 73 First Nations in Saskatchewan. The federation, which could not immediately be reached for comment, says its mandate is to honour the spirit and intent of the treaties, as well as the promotion, protection and implementation of the treaty promises that were made more than a century ago.

The AFN represents more than 600 First Nations and more than 900,000 Indigenous people in Canada.

Poundmaker Cree Nation, located near Cut Knife, has more than 1,250 members.

— Local Journalism Initiative

jupeterson@postmedia.com

Alberta First Nations file human rights complaint over supports for disabled adults


CALGARY — Representatives from three First Nations in southern Alberta have filed a complaint against the federal government for alleged discrimination against adults with developmental disabilities.


Alberta First Nations file human rights complaint over supports for disabled adults© Provided by The Canadian Press

The complaint from the Siksika, Piikani and Kainai or Blood Tribe First Nations, which was filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, accuses Indigenous Services Canada of "systemic discrimination" against adult members with disabilities.

Siksika Coun. Tracy McHugh said federal supports are available for children with disabilities who live on reserves until they turn 18. After that, families can stay on the reserves with no supports or they can access help throughAlberta's Persons with Developmental Disabilities program. But in order to get those provincial supports, they would have to move off reserve.

"Neither of those choices is ideal. Neither of those choices is something a parent or guardian should have to make," said McHugh.

"They have to leave the reserve, and we come from a people that is predominantly under poverty, and ask them to uproot everything to move and leave family behind," she added.

"You leave a whole lot of that culture behind ... to go and access funding. It creates isolation. It creates hardship."

McHugh said her sister was injured in a horse riding accident as a teen, and the family has been fighting for supports for a long time.

Since reserves are under federal jurisdiction, she said, it is up to Indigenous Services Canada to step up and establish stable and equitable funding for the creation of comprehensive and culturally appropriate programs, supports and services to meet the needs of the Blackfoot Nations.

McHugh said Siksika council raised the issue in a private meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last June.

"It's a long time coming. A very, very long time coming," McHugh said.

"Every government has failed our people with developmental disabilities on the reserves. My sister was hurt when she was 14. She's 42 now. That's almost 30 years and the governments have changed out many times."

Blood Tribe Coun. Tony Delaney said it's a matter of fairness and what's best for those with disabilities, without taking them away from their families or culture.

"These are I believe our most vulnerable people. And at times they don't have a voice and we want to be that voice for all of them," Delaney said.

"When they turn 18, they pretty much have to leave the reserve and move into surrounding towns to be able to get the services that every Albertan gets. We could do a lot better taking care of our own."

Indigenous Services Canada said it was unaware of the complaint.

"The department takes allegations of discrimination very seriously. As details are received by the department, ISC will take the time to carefully review," spokeswoman Megan MacLean said in an email.

"Supporting the health and well-being of First Nations communities and individuals is a top priority for Indigenous Services Canada. We remain committed to working with all partners in addressing gaps and improving access to the supports and services that people need."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2022.

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press

Reactions: US Sept CPI fortifies hawkish case in Fed inflation battle
Reuters

People shop at a 99 Cents retail store in the Bronx borough of 

New York City, U.S., July 13, 2022. 

REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

NEW YORK, Oct 13 (Reuters) - U.S consumer prices increased more than expected in September and underlying inflation pressures continued to build up, reinforcing expectations that the Federal Reserve will deliver a fourth 75-basis points interest rate hike next month.

The consumer price index rose 0.4% last month after gaining 0.1% in August, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the CPI climbing 0.2%.

In the 12 months through September, the CPI increased 8.2% after rising 8.3% in August. The annual CPI peaked at 9.1% in June, which was the biggest advance since November 1981. read more read more

MARKET REACTION:

STOCKS: S&P 500 futures turned sharply lower, and were down 2.0%

BONDS: The yield on 10-year Treasury notes rose to a 14-year high and was up 12.4 basis points at 4.026%; The two-year U.S. Treasury yield, surged to a 15-year high and was up 18.3 basis points at 4.470%.

FOREX: The dollar index turned 0.44% higher

ALAN LANCZ, PRESIDENT, ALAN B. LANCZ & ASSOCIATES, TOLEDO, OHIO

"CPI was disappointing. Investors were hoping to get a little control on inflation, and obviously the market's reacting in that capacity.

"With these CPI numbers we're almost back to that end of the second-quarter mid-summer sentiment that maybe we haven't seen the worst, and that maybe it's not something that could be temporary."

MACE M. MCCAIN, PRESIDENT, MANAGING DIRECTOR, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, FROST INVESTMENT ADVISORS, LLC

"CPI came in much higher than expectations, both the headline number and the core, and that's disappointing. We would have hoped to see some moderation in inflation and we're not seeing that at this point. There's just nothing to dissuade the Fed from their path."

“Monetary policy works with the lag and so they may be getting ahead of themselves. But certainly with the sentiment we've been hearing from the Fed governors, I don't think that there's anything that's going to dissuade them at this point from continuing their path."

IAN LYNGEN, HEAD OF US RATES STRATEGY, BMO CAPITAL MARKETS

"Ahead of the data the market was well bid with 10-year yields dropping below 3.85% as headlines surrounding the potential reversal of some aspect of the UK's fiscal plan hit the tapes. The price response in reaction to the data has more than erased that rally and from here we'll be watching for a break of 4% to put a larger downtrade to 4.103% as next support. We're on board with a larger flattening, and while there is sure to be chatter on the potential for a 100 bp hike, this print cements 75 bp in Nov with the more relevant question whether Dec and Feb's hikes will be upsized

KEN POLCARI, MANAGING PARTNER, KACE CAPITAL ADVISORS, BOCA RATON, FLORIDA

“Not good, hello – market collapsing. I’m not surprised – why is anyone surprised? It is not responding, it is clear the Fed put us in this position they should’ve been more aggressive months ago but they weren’t and now they are going to be forced out probably in December to probably go another 75 basis points. Because the November CPI and PPI, now that oil is up 22% this month, next month that is going to be reflected in that number so CPI, PPI is going to rear its ugly head even higher next month.”

“They are too late to the game and it is not working because inflation is becoming entrenched so I don’t think it is working right now."

ARTHUR LAFFER JR., PRESIDENT, LAFFER TENGLER INVESTMENTS, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

"Those are high numbers. The Fed's definitely raising by 75 bps next month and I would not be surprised if it's 50 bps or 75 bps again in December."

"Basically this quarter is the start of a recession even though it may not show up in numbers until the first quarter. All you have to do is look at housing stocks to know it's coming. With a 3.5% unemployment rate, there's no way the Fed is going to stop raising rates until after the end of the year."

"Anybody who says (Fed could) pivot is wishful thinking right now. The Fed has got to get a handle on inflation right now. Soft landing is also becoming wishful thinking the more they raise rates. We're going to have a really soft, maybe even negative fourth quarter."

"A lot of what central bankers worry about is legacy, for better or for worse. No one wants to be Arthur Burns and everyone wants to be Paul Volker and J. Powell probably has the same feeling that he would much rather suffer through a year or two of pain by slowing the economy and getting inflation under control than not. I think he's going to err on the side of overraising rates and slowing the economy more than he probably would otherwise do because he doesn't want a rerun of 1970s inflation. They are worried about liquidity but look what it's cost the yen because of the BoJ and when the BoE intervened."

BRIAN JACOBSEN, SENIOR INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, ALLSPRING GLOBAL INVESTMENTS, MENOMONEE FALLS, WISCONSIN

“That inflation report certainly sucked the enthusiasm out of the room. We expected deflation in durables and nondurables, which we got. It’s mostly shelter that is pushing inflation higher and that’s a horribly lagging indicator based on how it’s calculated by the BLS. Perhaps instead of talking about core inflation the Fed will talk about “super core” where it excludes food, energy, and shelter.”

ROBERT PAVLIK, SENIOR PORTFOLIO MANAGER, DAKOTA WEALTH, FAIRFIELD, CONNECTICUT

"Data came in hotter than expected and that's a bit of a disappointment for the overall market. It's saying that inflation is still not under control. The Federal Reserve will most likely continue with their pace of rate increases. There is no pivot in the near-term future which the market had been hoping for."

RYAN DETRICK, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, CARSON GROUP, OMAHA

“This is a yet another disappointing sign that inflation continues to stay stubbornly high. Thus opening the door for the Fed to continue its extreme hawkish stance. This follows on the heels of the producer level inflation that we saw just yesterday, that came in hotter than expected, showing the overall inflation backdrop continues to disappoint to the upside.”

“The hopes for a pivot are on pause. There are still two more CPI prints before the December meeting with the Fed, but for now, the pivot is on pause. We have to continue to wait to see inflation start to come back down faster, which unfortunately, the data is not showing right now.”

“The data is confirming that the overall backdrop of prices is staying higher across the board, which is a disappointment and suggests the Fed will have plenty of runway to remain hawkish. And the market doesn't like that.”

“October historically is quite volatile, leading up to that reputation. Now we turn our focus to earnings season - how strong is corporate America and the consumer. Inflation is a clear worry, but now the next worry is what does the economy look like? And what all corporate America has to say about these continued higher prices and how much it's impacting potential consumption. That's why this earnings season will be very important to get those clues.”

Iraqi parliament elects Abdul Latif Rashid as new president

Election breaks months-long political deadlock and came hours after rockets struck areas near Baghdad’s Green Zone.

Rashid attends the parliamentary session to elect a new head of state [

Iraqi parliament media office handout via Reuters]

Published On 13 Oct 202213 Oct 2022
|

Lawmakers in Iraq have elected Kurdish politician Abdul Latif Rashid as the country’s new president, paving the way for the formation of a new government and ending a year of deadlock, even as rockets landed near the parliament building.

Rashid replaced fellow Iraqi Kurd Barham Saleh as head of state after the two-round vote in parliament on Thursday, winning more than 160 votes against 99 for Saleh, an assembly official said. Saleh reportedly walked out of the parliament building as the votes were tallied.

Shia politician Mohammed Shia al-Sudani was quickly named prime minister-designate, assuming the task of reconciling feuding Shia factions and forming a government after a year of deadlock. Al-Sudani replaces caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi.

In Iraq’s power-sharing system, the presidency is reserved for Kurdish groups to nominate while the premiership falls under Shia blocs. The speaker of parliament is a Sunni.

Reporting from Baghdad, Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed said the election of Rashid signals that “this chapter of rivalry has been concluded in the Iraqi parliament,” while noting that forming a government could still be an uphill battle.

“It remains to be seen what reactions could unfold in the streets given the fact that this has not been easy,” Abdelwahed said. “This process has taken a long time and it has included violence between supporters of rival political parties.”

The 52-year-old Sudani, who has the backing of the pro-Iranian Coordination Framework, will now have 30 days to form a government, a daunting task that will require winning over those affiliated with influential Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr.

The most recent political deadlock began after al-Sadr emerged as the biggest winner in an October 2021 parliamentary vote, but failed to rally enough support to form a government. Al-Sadr in August announced what he called his “final withdrawal” from politics, sparking protests that killed at least 30.

In July, when al-Sudani was first proposed for the role, protesters backed by al-Sadr also stormed parliament. The standoff has seen both sides set up protest camps in the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses many government buildings.

Iraq had already made three failed attempts this year to elect a new head of state.

The presidency was also fiercely contested between Iraq’s Kurdish region’s two main parties – the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) which nominated Rashid, and its traditional rival, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Rashid’s election raises concerns about escalating tensions between the KDP and PUK, who fought a civil war in the 1990s.

Rocket attacks ahead of vote

In advance of the much-anticipated session, at least nine rockets targeted the parliament building inside the Green Zone, wounding at least five people.

The attack was swiftly condemned by the US and UK ambassadors to the country, with UK envoy Mark Bryson-Richardson tweeting the “violence has no part in the political process and state institutions must be allowed to operate.”

It was not the first time rocket attacks have targeted the parliament building as lawmakers prepared to attend a session.

On September 28, three rockets targeted the Green Zone as a session was convened to renew confidence in parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi.

Both Rashid and al-Sudani have long histories in Iraqi politics.

Rashid was the minister of water resources from 2003 to 2010 and has since served as a presidential adviser. He hails form Sulaimaniyah, a major city in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, and speaks Kurdish, Arabic and English.

Al-Sudani rose to prominence within the Shia political leadership following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In 2010, he launched his political career in Baghdad, rising within the government of prime minister Nuri al-Maliki and becoming the minister of human rights, then social affairs, and then of industry.

Both Rashid and al-Sudani are seen as close to al-Maliki, a longtime foe of al-Sadr.

KEEP READINGl
Thousands of Iraqis gather to mark 2019 anti-government protest
Rockets hit Baghdad for second day as Iraq unrest escalates
13 dead in Iranian attacks on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

UK Rwanda deportation policy for asylum seekers is 'inherently unlawful and unfair'Deportation flights are grounded while the legal cases are fought


The legal battle is playing out at the High Court. AP

Simon Rushton
Oct 13, 2022

Plans to deport some asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda are “inherently unlawful and unfair”, the High Court has been told.

Charlotte Kilroy KC, representing the charity Asylum Aid, told judges it was bringing a “systemic challenge” against the home secretary over the decision-making process for sending people to east Africa.

Asylum seekers could have their claims processed in as little as three weeks after arrival in a process that is “seriously unfair”, Ms Kilroy said.

Far-right collector of fascist memorabilia elected Italian Senate speaker

Ignazio La Russa, of Brothers of Italy party, showed off collection in 2018 newspaper interview; like leader Giorgia Meloni he is ambiguous about party’s neo-fascist roots

By AGENCIES

Today, 7:31 pm


Italian far-right party Fratelli d'Italia's (Brothers of Italy) Ignazio La Russa addresses the Italian Senate after he was elected its new president, in Rome on October 13, 2022. (Andreas Solaro/AFP)

ROME, Italy — Ignazio La Russa, who was elected speaker of the Italian senate Thursday, is a veteran of the far-right who collects fascist memorabilia as a hobby.

The 75-year-old co-founded the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party with Giorgia Meloni, whose victory in elections last month put her on course to become prime minister.

As speaker, La Russa now has the role of guiding legislation through parliament’s upper house, but is also expected to wield power behind the scenes.

Meloni hailed him as a “patriot, a servant of the state” who for her party “is an irreplaceable point of reference, a friend, a brother, an example for generations of activists and leaders.”

The senate opening ceremony was presided over by Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre, a 92-year-old senator-for-life. In an emotional address she noted that she was presiding over the Senate as Italy soon marks the 100th anniversary of the March on Rome, which brought Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini to power.

The Brothers of Italy party, which won the most votes in the September 25 elections and has its origins in a neo-fascist movement, is to head Italy’s first far-right-led government since the end of World War II.

Segre didn’t refer to the party by name in her speech, but she said Italian voters had expressed their will at the ballot box.

Brothers of Italy’s leader Giorgia Meloni casts her ballot to choose the Chamber president in the Italian lower Chamber on the opening session of the new parliament, October 13, 2022. (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)

La Russa has been a part of the nationalist Italian right since the end of the 1960s, when his long hair and beard prompted writer Umberto Eco to compare him to Rasputin.

But politics is also in his blood. His landowner father, Antonino La Russa, was a local official in Sicily for the National Fascist Party of dictator Benito Mussolini.

And after World War II, he was elected MP and then senator for its successor organization, the Italian Social Movement (MSI), set up by Mussolini’s followers.
‘Different view of history’

Ignazio La Russa, born on July 18, 1947, in Paterno, near Catania in Sicily, has Benito as a middle name.

He has defended the MSI, saying it was “the party of those who lost the war, but their great merit was to never think of terrorism or rebellion against the democratic choice.”

“Of course, they had a different view of history, but they built a party that could not be more democratic,” he told the Corriere della Sera newspaper earlier this year.

Holocaust survivor, Senator Liliana Segre chairs the opening session of the Italian Senate of the newly elected parliament, October 13, 2022. (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

The family moved to Milan when La Russa was 13, and he still lives in the northern city, the capital of the Lombardy region.

During his studies — he trained as a lawyer — La Russa was an activist with the MSI’s youth wing and at 38, became an MSI regional councilor in Lombardy.

From the early 1990s, he was in parliament first for the MSI, and when it was dissolved for its successor, National Alliance, then as part of a right-wing coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi.

La Russa served as defense minister during Berlusconi’s 2008-2011 government, where he is credited with persuading the then premier to take part in the war in Libya that ended the Kadhafi regime.

Heirs to Il Duce

While rejecting the autocratic nature of the Mussolini regime, La Russa — like Meloni — has maintained a level of ambiguity about his party’s neo-fascist roots.

When his brother Romano, head of security in the Lombardy region, drew criticism during the election campaign by giving the fascist salute at the funeral of a far-right activist, La Russa said it was a “serious mistake.”

Then on television a few days later, he asserted that “we are all heirs of Il Duce [Mussolini], in the sense that we are heirs of our fathers and our grandparents.”

He often uses humor to brush off criticism of his views. In February 2020, mocking social distancing rules recommended to protect against coronavirus, he urged on Twitter: “Do not shake hands with anyone, the infection is lethal.”

“Use the Roman salute, anti-virus and anti-microbial.” He later deleted the message.

In 2018, Corriere visited his Milan home and filmed his collection of fascist relics, which include statues and medals of Mussolini, photos and books on the black shirts and colonial Italy.

He is also a fan of American history, naming his three sons after Native American tribes or warriors: Antonino Geronimo, Lorenzo Cochis, and Leonardo Apache.

Party leader Meloni was herself a member of the youth branches of MSI and the National Alliance and founded Brothers of Italy in 2012, keeping the tricolor flame symbol of the MSI in her party logo.

During the campaign, amid Democratic warnings that she represented a danger to democracy, Meloni insisted that the Italian right had “handed fascism over to history for decades now,” and had condemned racial laws and the suppression of democracy.