Pandemic Financial News

Federal prosecutors in Tennessee say two tax preparers submitted $65 million in false claims for refunds under programs designed to help businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic

Canada may need to set aside a historically conservative risk appetite to avoid stifling digital innovation in the regulated banking system, including crypto assets, the country’s top financial services regulator said Wednesday.

The number of deals and their value are both below pre-pandemic levels. In the U.S. deal values fell 23 per cent in 2023 from just before the pandemic, while the number of deals slumped 20 per cent. The current year is on track for and even deeper slump, according to Dealogic, as per a report on AP. That could change thanks to the Federal Reserve loosening its interest rate policy and returning President Donald Trump vowing to slash regulations. Trump's planned cuts to the Federal Trade Commission could also mean less staff scrutinizing antitrust concerns.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. If US economic growth is so good, then why does the Fed need to cut interest rates? That was essentially the question put to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell recently after a speech in Dallas. It would be more constructive to examine the premise—why is growth so good?—and ask what the Fed and others can do to keep it that way.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Between 2016 and 2020, there was no rise in home prices due to the slowdown. It was only after the pandemic that sales picked up, as did prices.

The holiday shopping season is about to reach full speed with Black Friday, which kicks off the post-Thanksgiving retail rush later this week

FDs) after the death of the prime earner, who, in many cases, was the sole account holder. The bill to change the law allowing banks to let a depositor specify multiple nominees and their shares for easier distribution of funds later is expected to come up during the winter session of the Parliament which begins today. The Bill, which was introduced in the last session, has been listed again. Under the proposed amendment, banks would allow up to four nominees (against the current practice of one). This could be either 'simultaneous nomination', where the percentage shares of different nominees are stated in the nomination form, or 'successive nomination', where there is one actual nominee at any given time and on whose death another nominee becomes effective.

Keir Starmer said his government would be setting out «radical reforms» in soon to tackle the UK's rising outlays on benefits. «Make no mistake, we will get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society,» the prime minister said in an op-ed in the Mail on Sunday newspaper. Starmer's Labour is under pressure to balance the country's spending and boost growth after returning from over a decade out of power. The first set of indicators following its inaugural budget saw private enterprise stagnate and consumer retail spending fall.

Donald Trump has big plans for the economy

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated a critic of COVID-19 health measures to lead the Food and Drug Administration

Uddhav Thackeray, who played the bold gambit of taking on the ally BJP in 2019 and forged an unlikely alliance with the Congress and NCP, was on Saturday left struggling to make sense of his party's rout in the Maharashtra assembly elections. Thackeray, whose Shiv Sena (UBT) won only 20 out of the 95 seats it contested, admitted that he could not understand how the electorate which had inflicted a drubbing on the ruling BJP-led alliance in the Lok Sabha elections only five months ago changed its mind.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. There is a clear formula for running a winning airline in 2024. It’s paying off most for the biggest carriers.

Atlantic City’s casinos saw their operating profits decline by nearly 14% in the third quarter of this year

Delta and United Airlines have become the most profitable U.S. airlines by targeting premium customers while also winning a significant share of budget travelers

China is going to expand visa-free entry to citizens of nine more countries as it seeks to boost tourism and business travel to help revive a sluggish economy

Professor Chris Dyeshares that bird flu should be the one people are most concerned about out of the hundreds of diseases simmering out there, as quoted in a report by The US Sun. A leading epidemiologist has warned that a disastrous bird flu outbreak could be imminent. A Canadian teen tested positive this month for a mutated strain of the highly dangerous H5N1 virus, which may be more contagious to people.

equity exposure of the household (HH) sector despite a surge in equity mcap. India's mcap hit 146% of GDP in the quarter ended June 2024. In its July bulletin, RBI published its first- ever quarterly estimates of the financial wealth of HHs, including their holdings in the equity market. A month later, Sebi released a 'Working Paper on Household Savings through Indian Securities Market'. Taking cues from these estimates, gross financial assets (GFAs) estimates, and outstanding liabilities of the HH sector, along with their equity exposure, were made. RBI's estimates up to FY23 were updated to Q1 FY25, incorporating additional information from Sebi's paper, which found:

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The U.S. could face a sharp rise in borrowing costs and turmoil in financial markets as soon as next year if government debt continues to pile up rapidly, according to insurance giant Swiss Re’s group chief economist.

BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra on Thursday hit back at Rahul Gandhi after the Congress leader demanded a probe into allegations against Gautam Adani and SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch. Patra dismissed Gandhi’s statements, claiming they were a repetition of past tactics to level unfounded allegations against BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

UK borrowing – which is the difference between public sector spending and income – was £17.4bn last month, the second highest October borrowing since monthly records began in January 1993, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. The previous October high was set in 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic when levels hit £18.2bn. Hike in energy prices pushes inflation above BoE target at 2.3% in October This was also an increase on September's value, when the government borrowed £16.6bn. Last month's figures came in £1.5bn higher than the £15.1bn borrowing f...

Narendra Modi met with the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, for a bilateral discussion in Georgetown, Guyana. The meeting, held during PM Modi's visit to Guyana, is part of India's ongoing engagement with Caribbean nations to strengthen ties and foster cooperation. India and the Commonwealth of Dominica have enjoyed traditionally cordial bilateral relations since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1981. While Dominica does not maintain a diplomatic mission in India, it is concurrently accredited to India's mission in Port of Spain.