White House Blames Trump Tax Cuts for Helping 2023 Deficit Surge

Viktoria Dendrinou
Wed, October 11, 2023 



(Bloomberg) -- The White House has blamed President Donald Trump’s tax cuts for contributing to a surge in the US budget deficit this year, laying down political battle lines as Republicans call for sweeping spending cuts to reduce government borrowing.

In a blog post days before the expected release of full 2023 fiscal year budget data, the White House Council of Economic Advisers said Wednesday that a reduction in revenues from capital gains taxes has played a notable role in the widening deficit. For the 11 months through August, the deficit has soared more than 60%, to $1.52 trillion.

“The level of the deficit and of revenues this year is unusual given the strength of the economy, a development that we expect is related to the revenue-reducing impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” the CEA said in its post. Trump signed that legislation in 2017, after it was passed by a Republican Congress.

A surging stock market prior to 2022 effectively masked the impact of the Trump tax cuts, because they juiced capital gains revenues, according to the CEA’s analysis. Last year’s tax take in particular was boosted by capital-gains realizations that were “historically high,” the post said.

More broadly, evidence is now mounting that Trump’s tax cuts have caused a major reshaping of the level of revenue to be expected from a given expansion of the economy, according to the CEA. While a stronger economy typically leads to higher incomes and stronger revenues, the passage of the tax reductions shifted this relationship, the CEA said.

Election Issue

“While deficits still tend to shrink as the unemployment rate falls, the deficit became higher for any given level of unemployment,” they wrote.

Trump’s package lowered individual and corporate tax rates. President Joe Biden sought unsuccessfully to boost many of those rates in signature legislation the past two years. Tax policy is likely to be a key feature of the 2024 election.

Bloomberg Businessweek

Deficit Rises to $1.7 Trillion in 2023: CBO

Michael Rainey
Tue, October 10, 2023 

The federal budget deficit totaled $1.7 trillion in fiscal year 2023, about $300 billion (23%) larger than the year before, according to a preliminary analysis released by the Congressional Budget Review on Tuesday.

The federal government received $4.4 trillion in revenues during the October 2022 to September 2023 period – $455 billion (9%) less than the year before. Outlays for the full fiscal year were $6.1 trillion, or $141 billion (2%) less than a year earlier.

As the CBO noted last month, the cancelation of the Biden administration’s plan to forgive billions of dollars in student loan debt distorted the data in both 2023 and 2022. If the recorded costs and savings for that plan – which never took effect – are excluded, the deficit in 2022 would shrink to about $900 billion, while the deficit in 2023 would increase to about $2 trillion.

“Thus, without the effects of debt cancellation (and excluding the effects of timing shifts), the deficit would have grown by nearly $1.1 trillion from 2022 to 2023,” CBO said.

The fiscal hawks at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said the latest CBO numbers highlight the need to bring the federal debt and deficit under control. “After declining in recent years due to the pandemic ending, the deficit is now back on the rise, totaling $1.7 trillion in 2023 and more than double last year’s when you exclude the President’s now-overturned student debt cancellation and timing shifts,” CRFB's president Maya MacGuineas said in a statement. “With deficits doubling, interest rates surging, major trust funds on course to be exhausted in a decade, and new security threats emerging – everything is telling us it’s time to address the debt.”

The U.S. Treasury will provide the final, official numbers for the 2023 budget later this week.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Microsoft (MSFT) May Contest IRS Claim of $28.9B in Back Taxes


Zacks Equity Research
Thu, October 12, 2023

Microsoft MSFT is facing a demand for $28.9 billion in back taxes from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which marks a significant escalation in one of the largest corporate tax disputes in recent times.

Per a recent 8-K filing by the company, along with back taxes, this demand encompassed penalties and interest for late payment. The core of this dispute centers on Microsoft's use of transfer pricing, a practice that has been criticized for allowing companies, particularly in the tech sector, to shift profits to low-tax countries, thereby reducing their tax obligations.

Microsoft disclosed over a decade ago that it conducted its software production and distribution through regional centers in countries like Singapore, Dublin and Puerto Rico. By doing so, it was able to manage its profits in a manner that reduced its overall tax burden. This approach of allocating profits to different locations, based on where a portion of the costs and assets are situated, is commonly employed by multinational tech corporations.

Microsoft has expressed its disagreement with IRS's latest tax demand. It has indicated its intention to contest the claims vigorously through IRS's administrative appeals office, a process that could span several years. If necessary, MSFT is willing to take the matter to court. Additionally, the company stated that it would not set aside any additional reserves to cover the tax claim.

Microsoft Corporation Price and Consensus




Microsoft Corporation Price and Consensus

Microsoft Corporation price-consensus-chart | Microsoft Corporation Quote

Microsoft Among Other Tech Giants Facing Tax Disputes


Governments have accused companies such as Apple AAPL, Amazon AMZN and Microsoft of shifting revenues through low or zero-tax jurisdictions in order to escape taxation in their main markets and maximize profits.

This spurred a major international agreement among 140 countries, brokered by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), that is designed to better share and regulate tax revenues of the giants. Recently, OECD published a draft agreement, implementing a major part of that deal with hopes of having it ratified by the end of 2023.

In 2019, a US appeals court sided with AMZN in a similar transfer pricing case brought by IRS. That case revolved around whether Amazon had undervalued its IP when it transferred it to a subsidiary in Luxembourg in 2005. The appeals court determined that Amazon's actions were consistent with the transfer pricing rules in place at the time. However, it might have been deemed non-compliant with later regulations introduced in 2009.

In the European Union, authorities in 2016 ordered Apple to pay 13 billion euros ($14 billion) in back taxes over similar accounting practices. Yet, Brussels lost an appeal to Apple and is awaiting the outcome of a further appeal.

Apart from the investigation of Microsoft's tax payments between 2004 and 2013, the company is also undergoing an audit by IRS for its tax returns from 2014 to 2017.

In recent years, Microsoft has taken steps to reconfigure some of its tax arrangements, partly due to changes in US tax laws aimed at encouraging tech companies to bring their intellectual property (IP) back to the United States.

In 2021, Microsoft shifted certain IP from Puerto Rico to the United States, which allowed it to claim a $3.3 billion tax benefit. It reflected the impact of Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income tax implemented during the Trump administration.

The disclosure of IRS notices comes just under two weeks before Microsoft plans to announce its financial results for fiscal 2024's first quarter.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MSFT’s first-quarter fiscal 2024 revenues is pegged at $54.42 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 8.57%. The consensus mark for earnings is pegged at $2.65 per share, suggesting a year-over-year increase of 12.77%.

Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 33.2% year to date compared with the Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s return of 33.7%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Microsoft is on the cusp of buying Activision Blizzard ATVI for $68.7 billion, ending its near two-year pursuit of the maker of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush. The deal is expected to close on Oct 13.

However, despite the merger, popular titles such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Diablo 4 might not be made immediately available on Xbox Game Pass this year. Activision Blizzard plans to start bringing its games to the subscription service from 2024.


Microsoft says US has asked for $28.9 billion in audit dispute

Stephen Nellis
Wed, October 11, 2023 

A man stands inside the Microsoft Experience Center in New York City

By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) -Microsoft said on Wednesday the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in September notified the company that it is seeking an additional tax payment of $28.9 billion, plus penalties and interest for tax years from 2004 to 2013.

Microsoft said the IRS notices relate to an ongoing dispute between the company and the U.S. tax authority, which is auditing how Microsoft allocated its profit among different countries and jurisdictions.

The Redmond, Washington-based company said it has since changed its practices so that "issues raised by the IRS are relevant to the past but not to our current practices," according to a Microsoft blog.

Microsoft said it believes that any taxes owed after the audit would be reduced by up to $10 billion based on tax laws passed by former President Donald Trump.

The company said it disagrees with the IRS's findings and plans to dispute them, first in an internal IRS proceeding and then later, if necessary, in courts.

The IRS told Reuters it is prevented by U.S. law from confirming or denying whether it is auditing any taxpayer.

(Reporting by Samrhitha Arunasalam in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San FranciscoEditing by Deepa Babington and Matthew Lewis)

The IRS says Microsoft may owe about $29 billion in back taxes. Microsoft disagrees

AP Finance
Wed, October 11, 2023

The Microsoft logo is pictured at the Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, Spain, on March 2, 2023. The Internal Revenue Service says Microsoft owes the U.S. Treasury $28.9 billion in back taxes, plus penalties and interest, the company revealed Wednesday, Oct. 11, in a securities filing.

 (AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra, File)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service says Microsoft owes the U.S. Treasury $28.9 billion in back taxes, plus penalties and interest, the company revealed Wednesday in a securities filing.

That figure, which Microsoft disputes, stems from a long-running IRS probe into how Microsoft allocated its profits among countries and jurisdictions in the years 2004 to 2013. Critics of that practice, known as transfer pricing, argue that companies frequently use it to minimize their tax burden by reporting lower profits in high-tax countries and higher profits in lower-tax jurisdictions.

Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, said it followed IRS rules and will appeal the decision within the agency, a process expected to take several years. The company’s shares dropped slightly in aftermarket trading.

The IRS began an audit of Microsoft in 2007 that the agency described in federal court documents last year as “one of the largest in the Service’s history." Microsoft says it was recently notified by the IRS that the audit has ended, starting a new process to resolve a dispute over how much is owed.

Part of the long-running IRS investigation centered on how Microsoft structured a manufacturing facility starting in 2005 in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. The IRS has said Microsoft hired accounting firm KPMG to set up a cost-sharing arrangement with the Puerto Rican affiliate that shifted taxable revenue out of the U.S.

The IRS has also looked at other affiliates, including one that involved retail sales in Asia, according to court documents.

A blog post Wednesday from David Goff, Microsoft's corporate vice president for worldwide tax and customs, said the company has changed its corporate structure and practices since the years covered by the audit. But he said it's not uncommon for large multinationals to use cost-sharing arrangements, and that because Microsoft's subsidiaries shared in the costs of developing some intellectual property, they were also entitled to related profits.

Goff also said that the $28.9 billion sought by the IRS could be reduced by up to $10 billion because of taxes paid as a result of a 2017 tax law signed by then-President Donald Trump.

Microsoft Plans to Contest IRS Claim It Owes $28.9 Billion in Back Taxes

Jackie Davalos
Wed, October 11, 2023 


(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. will appeal a decision by the US Internal Revenue Service that the software maker owes at least $28.9 billion in taxes related to how it allocated income and expenses among global subsidiaries from 2004 to 2013.

The company said Wednesday in a regulatory filing that it disagreed with the “notices of proposed adjustment” to its federal tax filings and will appeal the decision.

The dispute centers on a 2012 IRS audit into transfer pricing, a method used by companies to shift profits to tax havens and avoid the US corporate tax rate. At the time, Microsoft had been moving billions of dollars in profits to such jurisdictions as Puerto Rico, a US territory that levies a much lower corporate rate.

The company has changed its corporate structure and practices since the years covered by the audit, so the issues raised by the IRS aren’t relevant to the way income is recorded currently, Daniel Goff, a Microsoft vice president, said in a blog post.

Goff wrote that Microsoft has been working with the IRS for almost a decade to address questions about how the company allocates income and expenses for tax purposes. The Redmond, Washington-based company said the proposed additional tax bill of $28.9 billion doesn’t include taxes paid under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which could reduce the tally by as much as $10 billion.

“We strongly believe we have acted in accordance with IRS rules and regulations and that our position is supported by case law,” Goff said in the post. “We welcome the IRS’s conclusion of its audit phase which will provide us with the opportunity to work through these issues at IRS Appeals, a separate division of the IRS charged with resolving tax disputes.”

Microsoft shares were little changed in extended trading after closing at $332.42 in New York.

US, Venezuela Near Deal on Sanctions Relief for Steps Toward Fair Elections

Jennifer Jacobs, Andreina Itriago Acosta and Eric Martin
Tue, October 10, 2023


(Bloomberg) -- The US and Venezuela are close to reaching an understanding that would bring limited sanctions relief in exchange for steps to ensure fair elections in the Latin American country next year, according to people familiar with the matter.

As part of the informal deal, the US would be willing to lift some oil and banking sanctions on Venezuela once Caracas announces measures to hold its presidential elections in a more democratic fashion, the people said. Those steps would include removing a ban on all opposition candidates to run for office.

Once those conditions are met, the US would be open to lifting penalties on both Venezuela’s central bank and the state-owned development bank, giving the administration of President Nicolas Maduro a path to reengage with financial institutions to recover at least $3 billion held in accounts in Europe, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the fragile discussions.

Sanctions relief being considered by President Joe Biden’s administration would also extend to members of Maduro’s entourage, the people said, though it’s not expected to include prominent financiers such as Alex Saab, a top Maduro ally who has been imprisoned in the US since 2021.

Venezuela’s Information Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a step that could pave the way for relief from US sanctions, Venezuelan government representatives are expected to reach an agreement with opposition leaders on the election, the people said. They intend to close the agreement ahead of the Oct. 22 opposition primary elections, according to the people.

Ending the ban on opposition candidates, including frontrunner Maria Corina Machado, would clear the way for them to run in the 2024 election, according to the people. Candidates must still request removal of the restriction to Venezuela’s Supreme Court, a requirement that delayed the agreement for months as it’s seen as key to giving Machado a chance to win the vote.

Maduro has also agreed not to interfere with the opposition primaries later this month and to invite international observers to oversee the general election, as well as to release dozens of political prisoners from detention centers, which was a crucial point for Washington, according to one of the people.

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said that the US is ready to provide sanctions relief once Venezuela moves toward restoring democracy and holding fair elections. So far, the spokesperson said, Venezuela hasn’t taken those steps.

Maduro has sought for years to end US sanctions on the feeble Venezuelan economy to guarantee his regime the financing it needs to keep operations afloat. His government is in dire need of cash to potentially launch his third presidential campaign ahead of the 2024 vote.

At odds since socialist leader Hugo Chavez took power more than two decades ago, the US and Venezuela have showed recent signs of rapprochement.

This month, the Biden administration said it would resume repatriation flights of Venezuelan migrants who enter the US illegally, with Caracas saying it would accept the return of its citizens for the first time in years.

Maduro, for his part, cleared the way for the recently appointed Venezuelan electoral body to register new voters ahead of next year’s elections.

Lifting sanctions imposed by the US under President Donald Trump in 2019 would be the result of months of direct and closely held talks between officials from both countries in different venues, stretching from Europe to the Mideast.

As part of the deal, talks in Mexico between Maduro’s government and the opposition could resume as a way to ensure implementation of any agreement and make sure the parties fulfill their commitments, according to the people familiar with the negotiation.

Even so, negotiations are ongoing and have previously failed to yield an agreement, making US officials skeptical of any outcome and wanting to see Maduro move first before any commitments, according to two of the people.

--With assistance from Nicolle Yapur and Fabiola Zerpa.

California's 'right to repair' bill is now California's 'right to repair' law

Governor Newsom signed the legislation Tuesday, capping a multi-year campaign for its passage.

Andrew Tarantola
·Senior Editor
Tue, October 10, 2023 

ASSOCIATED PRESS


California became just the third state in the nation to pass a "right to repair" consumer protection law on Tuesday, following Minnesota and New York, when Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 244. The California Right to Repair bill had originally been introduced in 2019. It passed, nearly unanimously, through the state legislature in September.

“This is a victory for consumers and the planet, and it just makes sense,” Jenn Engstrom, state director of CALPIRG, told iFixit (which was also one of SB244's co-sponsors). “Right now, we mine the planet’s precious minerals, use them to make amazing phones and other electronics, ship these products across the world, and then toss them away after just a few years’ use ... We should make stuff that lasts and be able to fix our stuff when it breaks, and now thanks to years of advocacy, Californians will finally be able to, with the Right to Repair.”


Turns out Google isn't offering seven years of replacement parts and software updates to the Pixel 8 out of the goodness of its un-beating corporate heart. The new law directly stipulates that all electronics and appliances costing $50 or more, and sold within the state after July 1, 2021 (yup, two years ago), will be covered under the legislation once it goes into effect next year, on July 1, 2024.

For gear and gadgets that cost between $50 and $99, device makers will have to stock replacement parts and tools, and maintain documentation for three years. Anything over $100 in value gets covered for the full seven-year term. Companies that fail to do so will be fined $1,000 per day on the first violation, $2,000 a day for the second and $5,000 per day per violation thereafter.

There are, of course, carve outs and exceptions to the rules. No, your PS5 is not covered. Not even that new skinny one. None of the game consoles are, neither are alarm systems or heavy industrial equipment that "vitally affects the general economy of the state, the public interest, and the public welfare."

“I’m thrilled that the Governor has signed the Right to Repair Act into law," State Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman, one of the bill's co-sponsors, said. "As I’ve said all along, I’m so grateful to the advocates fueling this movement with us for the past six years, and the manufacturers that have come along to support Californians’ Right to Repair. This is a common sense bill that will help small repair shops, give choice to consumers, and protect the environment.”

The bill even received support from Apple, of all companies. The tech giant famous for its "walled garden" product ecosystem had railed against the idea when it was previously proposed in Nebraska, claiming the state would become "a mecca for hackers." However, the company changed its tune when SB 244 was being debated, writing a letter of support reportedly stating, "We support 'SB 244' because it includes requirements that protect individual users' safety and security as well as product manufacturers' intellectual property."

IMF Caught Off Guard as China Strikes Sri Lanka Debt Deal

Bloomberg News
Wed, October 11, 2023


(Bloomberg) -- China reached a tentative debt agreement with Sri Lanka, front-running separate talks the International Monetary Fund and other creditors are holding with the South Asian nation and catching them by surprise.

The deal between Export-Import Bank of China and Sri Lanka was reached late last month, China’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, without providing details of the pact.

The IMF, Paris Club members including Japan, and other lenders like India are expected to hold talks this week in Morocco on a debt restructuring plan. China, which isn’t part of that official group even though it’s one of Sri Lanka’s biggest creditors, has been pursuing bilateral negotiations with the South Asian nation instead.

Peter Breuer, senior mission chief for Sri Lanka at the IMF, said while it was aware discussions were taking place with creditors, “we have not yet been informed about any specific agreements.” The multilateral lender would need to “assess the entire package of agreements in its totality to assess consistency with IMF debt targets,” he said.

Officials from two creditor nations, who asked not to be identified, said they weren’t informed about the terms and details of the China deal.

The preliminary pact is not expected to change efforts by the official creditor committee to try to reach a debt deal in Marrakech, which would include safeguards to prevent favorable payment terms to China, one of the people said.

An Indian official involved in the debt discussions said New Delhi has been pushing for equal and fair treatment in the restructuring plan, and hopes that all creditors are transparent in their approach.

Sri Lanka owes about 40% of its bilateral debt to China and 16% to India, according to estimates from the IMF. Reaching a deal quickly with its creditors will allow Sri Lanka to keep tapping funds from its $3 billion bailout program with the multilateral lender.

Sri Lanka’s central bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe and Junior Finance Minister Shehan Semasinghe are in Marrakech this week at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings. Semasinghe met with Robert Kaproth, deputy assistant secretary for the US Treasury, he said in a post on social media platform X, with the two discussing the IMF program and the debt restructuring process.

The official creditors committee was aiming to sign a memorandum of understanding with Sri Lanka at the Marrakech meeting without the participation of China, Bloomberg News reported last month. While nothing has been finalized yet, an announcement on that deal during the meetings this week is looking increasingly unlikely, according to people familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified..

The Exim Bank deal comes a week before China hosts its third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, a flagship program by President Xi Jinping that has faced criticism for burdening developing nations like Sri Lanka with debt.

--With assistance from Anusha Ondaatjie, Ruchi Bhatia, Ramsey Al-Rikabi and Toru Fujioka.

(Updates with status of official creditor deal in penultimate paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

U.S. State Regulators Intervene in Coinbase’s Unregistered Securities Case

Jack Schickler
Wed, October 11, 2023 


Coinbase is fighting a potentially existential case from federal regulators who argue it operated an unregistered securities exchange.


Three new legal filings lend support to the SEC case, arguing it has the power to take on crypto.

Coinbase’s legal fight over the status of crypto met a new hurdle Tuesday, as U.S. state authorities and legal experts joined a campaign by federal securities regulators to argue the company unlawfully operated an unregistered exchange.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s action against one of the country’s biggest crypto exchanges has been seen as existential for the future of crypto, with the sector accusing the agency of regulating by enforcement in the absence of new laws from the U.S. Congress.

Now, three new amicus briefs, which allow parties who are interested but not directly affected by the case to aid the court’s reasoning, argue crypto is neither significant nor special, and that the SEC can take on digital assets under existing law.

While Coinbase has sought to argue the SEC is exceeding its powers, the regulator’s legal position is neither novel nor remarkable, argued the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA).

“The SEC’s theory in this case is consistent with the agency’s longstanding public position” and “well within the bounds of established law,” said the filing by NASAA, a century-old body whose 68 members include securities regulators from all 50 U.S. states, adding that digital assets shouldn’t get special treatment.

“There is no practical economic use case identified or widely adopted for the vast majority of digital assets, other than speculation,” the filing said. “While they receive outsized attention from the media and regulators because they are aggressively marketed and fertile ground for fraud, that attention belies the very limited size and significance of this ‘industry’ in the context of the broader U.S. economy.”

A further brief filed by two academic administrative lawyers argued Coinbase was misguided in invoking a legal doctrine that prevents government agencies from making economically significant interventions without clear congressional authority.

“The major questions doctrine simply is irrelevant to this action,” because the Coinbase case concerns enforcement against a particular company rather than quasi-legislative rulemaking, said the filing by Todd Phillips of Georgia State University and Beau Baumann of Yale Law School. “Far from asserting new power to regulate the ‘national economy,’ the SEC brought a specific complaint in federal court.”

The Supreme Court recently broadened the major questions doctrine when it struck down President Joe Biden’s cancellation of student debt – but deploying it for crypto would be “absurd,” creating a different definition of securities for cases brought by private litigants rather than government agencies, the pair said.

Those pro-government filings were buttressed by the New Finance Institute, a public benefit corporation that operates two blogs on finance and financial empowerment, and which argued Congress intended investor protection measures to have a scope broader than merely capital-raising transactions.

“The purchasing of crypto tokens should not be characterized as investments due to the lack of cash flow generation (a long-established prerequisite for any true investment),” the NFI filing said. “Such purchases are still investment contracts, however, because the buying public is denied the full and fair disclosure that they are not investing.”

The SEC earlier this year took cases against a number of crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, Binance and Bittrex, arguing the native coins for blockchains such as Solana [SOL], Cardano [ADA], Polygon [MATIC] resembled conventional financial instruments.

Those have been flanked by state actions from the likes of Alabama, California and New Jersey. Coinbase has sought to have the federal case tossed, arguing crypto lies outside of the SEC’s jurisdiction.

GOLD BUGS

Global central banks are hoarding gold like never before as they seek to reduce 'overconcentration' of dollar reserves

Anil Varma
Tue, October 10, 2023

Gold bars.Filograph/Getty Images

Global central banks have been buying record amounts of gold as they seek to diversify reserves away from the dollar.

"We expect central banks to continue their role as net purchasers of gold," according to the head of gold strategy at State Street.

The trend appears to be part of the broader de-dollarization drive, led by countries including China and Russia.

Global central banks have been snapping up record amounts of gold since the start of 2022 - a trend that should continue as countries look to move away from an "overconcentration" of reserves in the dollar, according to State Street Global Advisors.

Monetary authorities across nations made net purchases of 387 metric tons of the yellow metal in the first half of 2023, after buying an unprecedented 1,083 tons the whole of last year, the world's fourth-largest asset manager said in a recent note.

In addition to reserve diversification, the trend is also driven by central banks' desire to strengthen balance sheets and increase liquidity without adding credit risk, according to the firm.

"The reasons driving central bank gold purchases — to diversify their reserves, improve their balance sheets, and gain liquidity from an asset without credit risk — likely won't change given today's increasing economic and geopolitical risks," Maxwell Gold, head of gold strategy at State Street, wrote in the note.

"Therefore, as we look ahead, we expect central banks to continue their role as net purchasers of gold," he added.

De-dollarization

The trend appears to be part of a broader international movement - known as de-dollarization - to reduce reliance on the dollar in trade and investment, after the US leveraged the greenback's supremacy to impose economic sanctions on some countries. China and Russia have led the anti-dollar drive, which also saw the BRICS group of nations weigh the prospect of a shared currency.

"In recent years, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) payments system has been used to impose sanctions, both on Iran in 2015 and on Russia in 2022 — a tactic some have described as "weaponization,"" Gold wrote.

"If a government perceives international sanctions as a real threat, then switching from US dollar assets to an anonymous counter like gold becomes extremely attractive, particularly in scenarios of multi-lateral sanctions by several reserve currency nations," he added.

Gold buying is only one aspect of de-dollarization - several countries are also seeking to boost the role of their own currencies in cross-border transactions. China and India have initiated trade arrangements to be settled in their respective tenders, while Indonesia recently formed a National Task Force to widen the use of local currency transactions with partner countries.

De-dollarization is an "irreversible process" that's gaining momentum, Russian president Vladimir Putin said in a video address at the BRICS summit in August.

While some experts perceive the anti-greenback efforts as a growing threat to the US currency, others have dismissed the movement as a nothingburger.

https://poestories.com/read/goldbug

CRYPTOLOGY IN THE GOLD BUG

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/edgar-allan-poes-the-gold-bug-1843/

U$A

More than half of employees with children are considering changing jobs to get better childcare benefits

Paige McGlauflin, Joseph Abrams
Tue, October 10, 2023 

athima tongloom—Getty Images


Good morning!

Pandemic-era childcare subsidies expired on Sept. 30, affecting over 200,000 childcare providers nationwide that depend on those funds to pay their workers. Without the support, over 70,000 centers are at risk of closure, forcing the parents of over 3.2 million children—and their employers—to bear the brunt of finding alternative solutions for childcare.

Even before the subsidies expired, working parents’ capacity to juggle employment and childcare needs was stretched thin. In a survey of more than 1,080 U.S. working adults from Catalyst, a nonprofit supporting women in the workplace, more than half of employees with children say they have considered leaving their organization because of a lack of childcare benefits.

“These numbers are stark, and we would not be surprised to see them rise given the reality that working parents now face without childcare subsidies,” says Erin Souza-Rezendes, vice president of global communications at Catalyst. “This is a critical workplace issue that we've yet to solve, and employers definitely have a role to play.”

Women, in particular, are concerned about how the worsening strain of caregiving needs will influence their careers, with 67% of women concerned it will negatively impact their careers, compared to 52% of men. Forty-four percent of women also say they will likely need to change jobs to balance childcare with work demands, compared to 32% of men. This impact is more pronounced among parents of color: half of Black and Latinx working parents say they need to change jobs, compared to 34% of white parents. And 35% of women say they will likely have to stop working to manage their childcare needs.

There's also the affordability issue. Fifty-five percent of all employees say they could not afford childcare without financial assistance or employer subsidies. And workers want these benefits: 75% say they would use childcare benefits, like on-site childcare or backup childcare, if their employers provided them, while 70% of working parents say they are more likely to choose an employer that offers childcare benefits over one that does not. Another 59% say they would utilize other caregiving benefits, like eldercare support, if offered.

To be sure, not all employers can afford to provide such benefits, but they can ease the burden of caregiving with offerings like emergency paid time off for children or elder care, financial subsidies, flexible spending accounts, flexible or hybrid work options, and employee discounts for childcare.

“If you're offering these things, you will be an employer of choice. You should communicate those things clearly and repeatedly to your employees so they know that you're committed to this and realize how critical the intersection of childcare at work is,” says Souza-Rezendes.

Paige McGlauflin
paige.mcglauflin@fortune.com
@paidion

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

CVS CEO says pharmacist burnout led to a walkout: ‘We are at the same level of demand as we were in 2021’ for COVID shots

Erin Prater
Tue, October 10, 2023 

Fortune


Pandemic burnout and “unprecedented demand” for updated COVID-19 boosters led to the recent walkout of CVS pharmacists in the Kansas City area, CEO Karen Lynch said Monday.

“I think you have to look at the entire environment,” she noted at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, referencing recent strikes by the United Auto Workers and Kaiser employees. “There’s just a lot of unrest in health care.”

Pharmacists in at least a dozen Kansas City–area CVS pharmacies walked out or didn’t show up for work for three days in late September, citing stressful and unsafe working conditions. In response, the company sent its chief pharmacy officer to the area with promises to fill open positions and increase staffing levels.

It was just one of the latest examples nationwide of workers fed up and taking action. But unlike employees in recent strikes at automakers or in Hollywood, the pharmacists weren’t demanding raises or more vacation—they simply wanted more colleagues to help them.

CVS rival Walgreens is also experiencing pharmacy staff walkouts, which began Monday and were planned to last through Wednesday. Increasing demands, like administering COVID vaccines, with insufficient staff is making it impossible to do their jobs and could put customer safety in jeopardy, employees told CNN.

This fall, drugstores are facing more challenges than usual. Customers not only expect to fill prescriptions, but to potentially receive COVID-19, flu, and pneumonia vaccines, in addition to a new RSV shot for those 60 and older.

The federal government is no longer offering free COVID jabs for everyone, meaning insurance will have to be run for many customers receiving one. And ongoing drug shortages are keeping pharmacy workers on the phone for longer than usual.
Unexpected demand for new COVID boosters?

Making matters more difficult, CVS pharmacies are experiencing “the same level of demand that we were in 2021” for COVID shots, Lynch said Monday at the Fortune conference, held in Laguna Niguel, Calif. Coronavirus vaccines became widely available to the public for the first time that year.

“Some days we’re doing more per day than we were back then,” she said. “There’s been incredible demand.”

When asked for details on booster uptake Tuesday, CVS declined to provide additional information. So did Kroger, which said it wasn’t yet ready to release numbers. Fortune reached out to other major pharmacy chains, which did not immediately respond.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also did not respond to Fortune’s inquiry Tuesday about uptake rates for the new boosters, tailored to the XBB.1.5 strain of Omicron that dominated the world late last year into early 2023. The agency stopped publishing vaccine uptake data online in May, when the U.S. COVID public health emergency ended.

But uptake for the new boosters was predicted to be low—perhaps even worse than last year, with both the federal and global health emergencies officially over. Only 17% of U.S. residents received the bivalent booster tailored to Omicron, which became widely available last year just after Labor Day.

Pfizer expects less than a quarter of the U.S. population—just 24%—will receive a COVID shot this year, chief financial officer David Denton said at a conference last month, Reuters recently reported.

Polling by Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan group that performs health policy research and polling, led to similar predictions. Nearly a quarter of Americans will “definitely” get the new COVID booster, while an additional quarter will “probably” get it, according to a telephone poll of a nationally representative sample of nearly 1,300 U.S. adults last month.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Gen Z and millennials, are i feeling like the American Dream that was sold to them is also fictitious.

Chloe Berger
Wed, October 11, 2023

Lourdes Balduque—Getty Images

Part of growing up is realizing that some stories you were told as a kid aren’t real. Fairies typically lose traction by age seven, unicorns turn to fabled legends, and Santa is eventually revealed to be a fraud (apologies to our readers if any of the above is news). But the truth for some things don’t come to light until you’re older—at least for Gen Z and millennials, who are increasingly feeling like the American Dream that was sold to them is also fictitious.

Nearly three-quarters (74%) of millennials and 65% of Gen Zers believe they’re “starting further behind financially” than other generations when they were their age, according to a poll of 2,000 adults conducted for USA Today by the Harris Poll. Mostly everyone else agrees; two-thirds of those surveyed thought young adults are facing hardships that other generations didn’t have to tackle. If the American Dream was ever a reality for some, it’s certainly not one that millennials and Gen Z feels they've experienced.

“They're telling us they can't buy into that American Dream the way that their parents and grandparents thought about it—because it's not attainable,” Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema told USA Today, adding that there’s “an entire generation that feels like they're coming of age in sort of this fractured, divisive world.”

The American Dream is baked into the nation’s promise to its citizens. Popularized in the 1930s by historian James Truslow Adams, it's synonymous with the bootstraps myth and idea that the U.S. is a land of equal economic opportunity and mobility. But, as researchers point out, not everyone starts out at an even playing field depending on their race, gender, and class. And in an economy marked by high inflation, rising wealth inequality, and a shrinking middle class, the American Dream is getting harder to come by. It’s largely not the economy millennials’ and Gen Z’s parents had to deal with at their age (although boomers did live through the Great Inflation of the 1970s), leaving younger generations to swap the white picket fence for an alternative living style or a rented apartment (which is expensive enough itself).

The older cohorts of both generations graduated into ill-timed recessions—the financial crisis and the more short-lived coronavirus recession, respectively—and many of them are also shouldering massive student debt. Housing, one the hallmarks of the American Dream and building wealth, has become an especially elusive Carmen Sandiego figure for them in an overpriced market. After saving up and gaining some financial ground during the early pandemic, some millennials finally entered the housing market only to find themselves priced out by baby boomers who were able to offer all-cash bids. Finding an affordable house can feel like such a maze that 18% of millennials and 12% of Gen Zers think they’ll never own a house, per RedFin.

The USA Today and Harris poll isn’t the first finding of its kind. Nearly half of Americans reported that maintaining a standard of living these days is more difficult than it was for their parents in one study from last year. Even those who are faring well recognize the plight in an economy where a $100,000 salary doesn’t go as far as it once did. SoFi’s CEO said that a worker making low six figures “really struggles to live the American Dream.” And JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon called the dream “frayed,” asserting that the country needs to start paying better wages and addressing the skills gap to ever survive on its last legs.

Under such economic constraints, some young adults find themselves living at home or depending on their parents for financial assistance; many are worried that boomers’ actions will negatively influence their financial future, although a highly anticipated wealth transfer might provide some light at the end of the tunnel. But it might be too late for the American Dream.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Gen Z just saw the worst war in Israel in 50 years break out all over the internet, but they were raised on ‘disturbing images’

Paige Hagy
Tue, October 10, 2023 

Getty Images


The “disturbing images” warning is one that Gen Z, the first fully digital native cohort, is used to encountering on their lingua franca: social media posts. On Saturday, the Islamic militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, resulting in the worst war the region has seen in 50 years. In three days, more than 1,500 people have died on both sides, and graphic, difficult-to-watch videos have blanketed the internet—from Israeli civilians being captured, tortured, and killed by Hamas militants, to Palestinian civilians screaming in grief, and people on both sides attending to their dead and injured among the rubble.

If Gen Z feels like they’ve seen it all, in some ways, they have. This generation, ages 11 to 26, has already lived through numerous historic events, ranging from a once-per-century pandemic, to the Jan. 6 insurrection—an event unseen for centuries in American politics. Then there’s the first major European ground war since World War II in Ukraine, not to mention market crashes in 2008 and 2020 that recall the Great Depression itself. As the first digitally native generation, Gen Z is experiencing it all through videos, images, and articles online, which is shaping their mental health, workplace attitudes, and financial habits in visible ways.

It’s no wonder, this Gen Z reporter notes, that 46% of young workers ages 18 to 26 say that they are regularly so distraught over what is happening in the news that they are unable to function at work, according to a 2023 Edelman report. By comparison, 38% of millennials, 24% of Gen Xers, and 19% of baby boomers and older generations say the same.

Everything about their behavior communicates that Gen Z is just not okay with it. This ranges from their widespread, hell-bent determination to find purpose in work and pushing their employers to have a social conscience, to a sense of despair over their own and the world’s future finances. They have largely given up on saving money and instead dish out for little “treats” as a way to cope with the larger absurdity of 21st-century life.

Consider the lifetime that was three years ago, as Gen Z emerged into young adulthood, when online videos of the murder of George Floyd shook the country in May 2020, resulting in a summer of violent Black Lives Matter protests and riots. A year later, people watched as armed right-wing extremists stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, following the election defeat of former President Donald Trump. Then there are school shootings, which have only increased in frequency since Columbine in 1999, with more students documenting the terror on their phones and sharing it online. One of them was the Parkland shooting of 2018, which tragically created the first spokespeople of the post-millennial generation.
Gen Z’s mental health

Gen Z has the worst reported mental health of any generation—45% of young people report having “excellent” or “very good” mental health, according to a 2018 report by the American Psychological Association.

One of the major sources of Gen Z’s distress, of course, is climate change. Nearly seven in 10 Gen Zers say they experience anxiety when viewing climate change content on social media, according to a 2021 Pew Research report. But they’re not just reading about the detrimental effects of human-caused global warming, they’re living through the consequences themselves.

This summer reached record-breaking temperatures, with July being the hottest month the planet has seen in over 100,000 years. As a result, Arizona experienced a monthlong heat wave with temperatures at or above 110 degrees every day. Deadly fires broke out across the Mediterranean; suffocating smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed New York City and the Northeast for days; and ice melt in the Arctic accelerated.

And extreme heat is likely here to stay—and get worse—unless countries can rapidly reduce their carbon emissions. That’s why Gen Z is more concerned with sustainability than any generation before them. Just look at Greta Thunberg: The 20-year-old has become one of the best-known environmental activists, famously speaking at the United Nations in 2019 with scathing words for world leaders:

"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones,” Thunberg said. “People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
Gen Z in the workplace

By 2030, Gen Z will account for nearly one-third of the U.S. workforce, but they’re already radically redefining the meaning of work.

Gen Zers want a sense of purpose, so they prioritize environmental, social, and governance (ESG) in the workplace, which encompasses sustainability and environmental impact, education and awareness for social issues, and diverse and inclusive boards and teams.

And it tracks: Roughly two-thirds of Gen Zers say they frequently speak about important societal issues while at work, according to the Edelman report. They’re also influencing their older coworkers when it comes to areas like work-life balance, fair pay, and employers’ involvement on social issues.
Gen Z’s financial stress

But don’t forget, Gen Zers have also lived through a global pandemic that shuttered the world for nearly two years, two recessions, and a mounting student debt crisis, leaving them with little savings but an abundance of financial despair.

Roughly 60% of Gen Zers say they are stressed about money this year more than last year, according to a Bankrate survey from July. It’s no surprise either—85% of Gen Zers say that they couldn’t afford one month’s expenses if they lost their job today.

And since young people are typically affected by inflation the most, as they are the most likely to work part-time or low-paying jobs, this economic climate may have left Gen Z with permanent “psychological scars,” one expert says.

“How can young people build careers or wealth if they don’t have jobs, and prices of goods and services continue to increase?” Dayo Abinusawa, founder of London’s Awa Business School and a former lecturer at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, previously told Fortune.

One Fidelity survey backs this argument: 45% of 18- to 35-year-olds “don't see a point in saving until things return to normal." Some Gen Zers have even adopted the mentality that “money isn’t real” and are justifying spending on items to “treat themselves” amid a bleak reality.
Why it matters

Of course, every generation has lived through era-defining historical events. Millennials remember the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Baby boomers lived through the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. But no other generation has been plugged into the world through the internet from such a young age like Gen Z.

Gen Z is already wielding their power in notable and sometimes comical ways. In June 2020, teenage TikTok users (with the help of K-pop fans) claimed to have sunk a Trump campaign rally by registering for thousands of tickets with no intention of actually attending. And last summer, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a then-19-year-old activist raised over $2 million in abortion funds by trolling Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.

It remains to be seen what they will do when Gen Z comes into decision-making positions in the workplace—perhaps they’ll channel their rage and cynicism effectively as some have already demonstrated—but Abinusawa warned that “a society where the young have little to no hope for the future is not a sustainable one.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com