Deficit
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FILE PHOTO: An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man helps kids cast his ballot at a polling station as Israelis vote in a parliamentary election, in Jerusalem April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo
April 10, 2019
By Steven Scheer and Ari Rabinovitch
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties did well in Israel’s national election and will likely bring hefty demands for more government payouts to coalition talks, making it harder for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to rein in a growing budget deficit.
Two religious parties, often political kingmakers in the past, were projected to win a combined 16 of 120 seats in parliament, three more than they have now. Their support is essential for Netanyahu should he opt to form a right-wing coalition, rather than seek a broader unity government with centrist rivals.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews, known as Haredim, make up about 10 percent of Israel’s population and, with their typically large families, that percentage is expected to swell.
They receive state benefits, stipends and military exemptions that allow many to devote time to religious studies rather than joining the workforce.
Just around half of Haredi men are employed, an issue long identified by economists as a drag on Israeli growth. At the same time, more than 70 percent of Haredi women work but their salaries are well below the average of non-Haredi women.
The two parties, United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Shas, pledge to try to keep or even build on the status quo, disregarding warnings from Israel’s central bank and groups like the International Monetary Fund of a future crisis without change.
“Having stronger power would mean that they would have stronger leverage for obtaining higher stipends for (seminary) students,” said Eitan Regev, an economist at the Israel Democracy Institute.
CUTS PUT MORE HAREDI IN WORK
He noted that when stipends were cut in a short-lived government without Haredi parties after the 2013 election, more men joined the workforce. Allowances were raised again two years later in a new government, halting the rise in numbers of employed Haredi, Regev said.
UTJ co-head Moshe Gafni said Netanyahu had called him since polls closed late on Tuesday to discuss a partnership.
Israel’s budget deficit is rising, forecast to reach nearly 4 percent of gross domestic product this year – well above the 2.9 percent target. Although ratings agencies Fitch and S&P said Israel was not at risk of a downgrade in the near term, austerity measures seem unavoidable.
The Bank of Israel has called for a combination of spending cuts and tax increases to keep the budget from spiraling out of control. After the new government is in place, discussions on the 2020 and possibly a dual 2020-2021 budget will begin.
“It will be very difficult to consolidate the budget,” said Leader Capital Markets chief economist Jonathan Katz, noting much depended on how much pressure Netanyahu will be able to withstand. “The big question is, ‘Will it be a macro story of billions of shekels, or hundreds of millions?’”
In the longer term, the parties could delay the integration of a chunk of the population into the workforce, something the Bank of Israel has singled out as a top economic priority.
A recent study by the central bank found that economic growth would slow if the issue is not addressed.
“Comprehensive and persistent policy in these areas will contribute to increasing the standard of living for all population segments and to reducing inequality in the economy,” it said in its 2018 review.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Source: OANN
An inmate is seen in the central penitentiary in Porto Alegre, Brazil August 28, 2018. Picture taken August 28, 2018. REUTERS/Diego Vara
April 10, 2019
By Gabriel Stargardter
PORTO ALEGRE (Reuters) – Before Brazilian prosecutors could conduct an inspection last year of the prison considered the country’s worst, its warden had to clear their visit with the jail’s de facto authorities: in-house prison gangs.
As Brazil’s incarcerated population has surged eight-fold in three decades to around 750,000 inmates, the world’s third-highest tally, its prison gangs have come to wield vast power that reaches far beyond the jailhouse walls.
New President Jair Bolsonaro’s vow to crack down on spiraling crime has put him on a collision course with the jail gangs. In a strategy detailed to Reuters for the first time, top security officials said they plan to isolate gang bosses, ramp up surveillance, build more lockups and deploy federal forces to beleaguered state prison systems.
Originally formed to protect inmates and advocate for better conditions, Brazil’s prison gangs are now involved in bank heists, drug trafficking and gun-running, with jailed kingpins presiding over their empires via smuggled cellphones.
Their spread has kindled a violent crime wave, turning Brazil into the world’s murder capital. With a record 64,000 people killed in 2017, the prison gangs, or “facções,” have become the country’s most pressing security concern, and a daunting foe for Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain.
“The solution to public security in Brazil depends on lots of things, and one of those is the prison system,” said Fabiano Bordignon, Bolsonaro’s appointment as head of the National Penitentiary Department.
Bordignon, in an interview, said Brazil’s roughly 1,500 jails need about 350,000 more spaces to house prisoners. He plans to use a 1.5 billion reais ($396 million) federal prison fund to help state governments build between 10,000 and 20,000 spaces this year.
By the end of Bolsonaro’s term in 2022, Bordignon hopes to lower the deficit by up to 140,000 spaces. But with each new space costing an average of 50,000 reais, he knows he needs more money: “We’re not going to be able to solve everything in four years,” he said.
Still, authorities must “retake control” of Brazil’s jails, he added, since “in a good number of them, the state has no control.”
BRAZIL’S WORST
Nowhere is that reality starker than the Central Prison in the southern city of Porto Alegre. Inaugurated in 1959, it is Brazil’s largest lockup, and, according to a 2015 congressional report, also its worst.
When investigators from the National Council of the Public Ministry came to inspect the prison last year, its warden told them he had to first okay it with gang leaders, according to the investigators’ report.
The prison has a capacity of 1,824 people, but when Reuters visited, officials said there were nearly 5,000 inmates from at least eight different gangs stuffed into its moldy galleys – more than the entire prison population of Norway.
Internally, the prison is controlled by the facções, whose members live in rancid, densely packed cellblocks that armed guards only enter in riot gear. In one gang-controlled wing, some 300 inmates lived in a space designed for 200, with many sleeping in the corridor.
Roughly 30 percent of the jail’s population is more-or-less illiterate, and dozens of prisoners suffer from tuberculosis and syphilis, officials in the jail’s educational and medical wings said. In the exercise yard, which inmates share with rats and cockroaches, raw sewage gurgles out of broken pipes.
The gangs offer protection from rape and rival crews, but it comes at a steep price. Inmates here must buy their food from their bosses, who even control inmates’ intimate visits.
During Reuters’ tour, a gang boss smoked impassively as inmates filed in and out of a foul corridor, where they snuggled with girlfriends, wives or prostitutes on stained mattresses. Every so often, the boss called out a prisoner’s name to indicate his time was up.
Herique Junior Da Rocha Machado cast his lot with the prison’s 780 working inmates, who cook, clean and wash. The orange-clad workers are housed apart from the facções, but are reviled for collaborating with their jailers.
“If you don’t go into the workers wing, you go in with the facções. Then, when you return to the street, you end up falling back into crime,” said Machado, who was jailed for his role in a kidnapping. “The situation only deteriorates.”
FRESH LEGISLATION
Elected in October on a law-and-order platform to end years of graft and rising violence, Bolsonaro and his government must now pit their tough talk against the gangs.
To restore order, Bolsonaro has tapped Justice Minister Sergio Moro, a former judge who made his name jailing scores of Brazil’s political and business elite in the sweeping “Car Wash” corruption investigation.
In February, Moro unveiled his signature crime-fighting bill, which includes proposals to toughen prison sentences and isolate gang leaders in maximum-security lockups.
Moro’s proposal faces an uncertain future in Congress, where Bolsonaro is struggling to marshal a stable coalition.
Even if Moro’s bill flounders, Bordignon said the government plans to make it harder for cell phones to enter prisons, toughen recruitment of guards and launch a ranking system to help the federal government focus resources on failing jails.
He also expressed willingness during the interview to dispatch federal forces to states losing control of their prisons.
In January, Bolsonaro’s government sent federal agents to calm the northeastern state of Ceará, which suffered a wave of coordinated gang attacks after state authorities announced plans to toughen prison conditions.
The following month, the government struck another blow against the gangs by moving several leaders of Sao Paulo’s powerful First Capital Command (PCC), including top kingpin Marcos Willians Camacho, or “Marcola,” into federal jails.
Reuters visited the federal jail in Brasilia where Marcola and several other PCC leaders are being held.
Opened late last year at a cost of 45 million reais ($12 million) and modeled after a famous U.S. supermax prison in Colorado, the Brasilia jail has 208 individual cells, with 12 extra-secure ones for inmates such as Marcola.
High-risk prisoners are locked up for 22 hours each day, exercising for two hours in a small yard adjacent to their cell. Intimate visits are prohibited, and authorities recently put a stop to physical contact between inmates and their relatives or lawyers. Conversations now occur via telephone, with inmates separated from visitors by a hard plastic window.
“The federal penitentiaries are the most effective tool today to combat organized crime in Brazil,” said Marcelo Stona, director of operations for the National Penitentiary Department.
NEW JAILS, SAME PROBLEMS
Nonetheless, Brazil has just five federal jails, all built since 2006, with capacity for just over 1,000 inmates – about 0.1 percent of the current prison population.
Like Porto Alegre’s Central prison, the vast majority of Brazil’s jails are run by financially stretched state governments, often with patchy results. Overcrowded cell blocks are policed by underpaid guards and deadly riots are common.
At least 56 inmates were killed in the northern city of Manaus in 2017, when members of rival prison gangs began slaughtering each other. Many were decapitated and dismembered.
Brazil’s states have made efforts to build modern, “gang-free” jails, but they, too, are proving vulnerable.
Unveiled in 2016, the Canoas jail is just over 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Porto Alegre’s Central Prison, but feels a world away. The Rio Grande do Sul state government hand-picks inmates to preserve the jail’s integrity. Signal-blockers prevent cellphone use. Eight-man cells, opened remotely from the floor above, minimize the risks of guards being corrupted.
Yet despite those efforts, two prisoners died here in suspicious circumstances in the second half of 2018, and local officials have become alarmed as other overcrowded state prisons send their gang-affiliated inmates to fill up Canoas’ vacancies.
“If we keep doing more of the same … we’re going to lose everything,” said state prosecutor Alexander Guterres Thomé, who regularly inspects the Canoas jail. “You see that (the gangs) are starting to organize themselves in there. They want to enter, create chaos and take control.”
($1 = 3.87 reais)
(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Brad Haynes and Paul Thomasch)
Source: OANN
Apr 9, 2019; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki (41) dunks the basketball during the second half against the Phoenix Suns at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
April 10, 2019
In the final home game of a legendary career, Dirk Nowitzki gave an exuberant sellout crowd one final show with a season-high 30 points in the Dallas Mavericks’ 120-109 win against the visiting Phoenix Suns on Tuesday.
Nowitzki, 40, announced after the game that he would retire following the Mavericks’ season finale Wednesday at San Antonio.
The 7-footer, who entered the league in the lockout-shortened 1999 season and revolutionized the power forward position, scored 10 points in the opening seven minutes and had 19 points on a season-high 18 shot attempts in the first half to power Dallas to a 68-38 halftime lead.
Suns veteran Jamal Crawford wasn’t going to let Nowitzki totally steal the stage. He put in seven 3-pointers in posting a season-high 51 points. At age 39, he became the oldest player ever to reach 50 in an NBA game.
Heat 122, 76ers 99
Dwyane Wade, playing the final home game of his NBA career, scored 30 points to lead Miami over Philadelphia.
Wade made 10 of 23 shots, including 4 of 10 on attempts from beyond the arc. It was his second-highest scoring game of the season. But it was a bittersweet night for the Heat, who were eliminated from playoff contention earlier in the evening when the Detroit Pistons rallied from a 22-point deficit to defeat the Memphis Grizzlies.
Philadelphia, which has already clinched the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, rested two of its stars: Joel Embiid, who was listed as having a knee injury, and JJ Redick (back).
Warriors 112, Pelicans 103
DeMarcus Cousins had 21 points and 12 rebounds against his former team as visiting Golden State defeated New Orleans.
After clinching home-court advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs on Sunday, the Warriors had Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala and Andrew Bogut among their inactive players. Stephen Curry left for game after scoring five points in nine minutes in what the Warriors called “a precaution” after he sustained a mild foot sprain.
Jahlil Okafor scored 30 points to lead the short-handed Pelicans, who dressed just eight players and finished the season 33-49.
Raptors 120, Timberwolves 100
Kawhi Leonard scored 20 points as visiting Toronto completed its regular-season schedule with a victory over Minnesota.
The Raptors (58-24) secured the second-best record in the Eastern Conference with the win, behind only the Milwaukee Bucks (60-21), who play their final game Wednesday.
Fred VanVleet added 16 points for the Raptors, Chris Boucher added career bests with 15 points and 13 rebounds, and Pascal Siakam and Norman Powell each scored 10 points. Gorgui Dieng and Andrew Wiggins each scored 16 points for the Timberwolves.
Jazz 118, Nuggets 108
Donovan Mitchell matched his career best of 46 points, and Utah posted a victory over Denver in Salt Lake City.
Rudy Gobert added 20 points and 10 rebounds as Utah notched its ninth straight home win against Denver. Utah locked up the No. 5 seed for the Western Conference playoffs.
Malik Beasley scored 25 points on 9-of-13 shooting for the Nuggets, who have lost four of their past six games and are a half-game ahead of Houston after the Rockets fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday.
Trail Blazers 104, Lakers 101
Instead of quietly sneaking into the offseason after losing its season finale to playoff-bound Portland, Los Angeles made some noise when Magic Johnson announced his resignation as president of basketball operations for the team.
The game still meant something for Portland, though, and the Trail Blazers clinched home-court advantage in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs when Maurice Harkless made a 3-pointer at the buzzer for a win. The Trail Blazers can overtake the Rockets on a tiebreaker to finish third in the West with a win against the visiting Sacramento Kings on Wednesday.
Harkless, who left the previous game with left hip tightness, finished with 26 points. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 32 points and eight assists for the Lakers, who finished with 37 wins — two more than last season.
Thunder 112, Rockets 111
Russell Westbrook scored 29 points, but it was Paul George’s corner 3-pointer with 1.8 seconds left that sent Oklahoma City to a home win over Houston.
Oklahoma City trailed by 14 early in the fourth quarter and by four in the final minute before Westbrook’s and George’s heroics.
James Harden made his first 12 free throws in the game but with less than 10 seconds left and Houston on top 111-109, he missed one, giving the Thunder a chance to tie or take the lead. Westbrook barreled up the court, briefly handing the ball off to Steven Adams near midcourt before getting the ball and firing it to George in the corner for what proved to be the game-winner.
Celtics 116, Wizards 100
Terry Rozier led seven Boston players in double figures with 21 points as his team closed out the regular season with a win over host Washington.
The Celtics rallied from a 13-point, third-quarter deficit for their sixth win in eight games. Boston, which played without Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, Marcus Morris, Aron Baynes and Gordon Hayward, will be the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Semi Ojeleye, Brad Wanamaker and RJ Hunter had 17 points apiece for Boston, which outscored Washington 27-15 in the fourth quarter. Tomas Satoransky led the Wizards with 19 points, and Bradley Beal scored 16 points in 16 minutes. Beal became the first person in franchise history to finish a season averaging at least 25 points, five rebounds and five assists per game.
Pistons 100, Grizzlies 93
Andre Drummond scored 20 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, and Detroit came back from a 22-point deficit to defeat visiting Memphis.
Despite winning, the Pistons were unable to clinch the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Charlotte Hornets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers and remain one game behind Detroit heading into Wednesday night’s final regular-season games. The Pistons finish against the Knicks at New York while the Hornets host the Orlando Magic.
The Pistons, who trailed by 22 in the second quarter, climbed all the way back and took an 85-83 lead on Ish Smith’s jumper just moments after his 3-pointer tied the score at 83-all. Smith finished with 22 points off the bench, and Luke Kennard added 15 for Detroit.
Hornets 124, Cavaliers 97
Kemba Walker and Jeremy Lamb scored 23 points apiece, and Charlotte kept its playoff hopes alive with a victory over host Cleveland.
The Hornets led by 12 points in the first half and then pushed the lead all the way to 27 in the fourth quarter, winning their fourth straight and eighth in their past 11 games. They hit a season-high 22 3-pointers on 44 attempts and shot 57.7 percent from the field.
Miles Bridges and Dwayne Bacon added 18 points apiece for the Hornets. Frank Kaminsky scored 14 and Devonte Graham had 10. Collin Sexton led the Cavs with 18 points.
Knicks 96, Bulls 86
Dennis Smith Jr. scored 25 points and Kevin Knox and Luke Kornet each notched double-doubles to lead New York past host Chicago.
Knox had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Kornet chipped in 12 points and 13 rebounds and Damyean Dotson added 12 points for the Knicks (17-64), who are already assured of the NBA’s worst record this season. They can do no worse than tie the franchise record for fewest wins in a regular season, set in 2014-15.
The Bulls closed the home portion of their schedule with a 9-32 record, setting a franchise record for home futility. The 2000-01 team held the previous club standard for fewest home victories with 10.
–Field Level Media
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO – Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan (C) applauses as he is observes the fly-past by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) JF-17 Thunder fighter jet during the Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad, Pakistan March 23, 2019. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
April 10, 2019
By James Mackenzie and Martin Howell
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s push to curb armed militant groups in the wake of a standoff with India that brought the nuclear-armed neighbors close to war reflected an urgent need for stability to meet growing economic challenges, Prime Minister Imran Khan said.
Facing a financial crisis and heavy pressure to take on militant groups to avoid sanctions from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money laundering and terror finance watchdog, Khan said Pakistan was acting in its own interests.
“Everyone now knows that what is happening in Pakistan has never happened (before),” Khan told a group of foreign journalists at his office in Islamabad on Tuesday, outlining a push to bring the more than 30,000 madrasas across Pakistan under government control and rehabilitate thousands of former militants.
“We have decided, this country has decided, for the future of the country – forget outside pressure – we will not allow armed militias to operate,” he said.
The comments underline a push by Pakistan to improve its image after years of accusations that its security services have exploited militant groups as proxies against neighbors, including India and Afghanistan.
Islamabad has consistently denied the accusations and said Pakistan has suffered more from militant violence than any other country, with tens of thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in economic damage over recent decades.
But Khan, a former cricket star, implicitly accepted the role played by Pakistan in fostering and steering militant groups that grew out of the U.S.-backed mujahideen fighting Soviet forces in neighboring Afghanistan in the 1980s.
“We should never have allowed them to exist once jihad was over,” he said, rejecting suggestions that he could face opposition from the powerful military and the ISI, Pakistan’s main intelligence agency.
“Today, we have the total support of the Pakistan army and intelligence services in dismantling them,” Khan said. “What use has ISI of them any more? These groups were created for the Afghan jihad.”
BROKEN PROMISES
Pakistan’s critics, including India, have dismissed Khan’s promises of a crackdown, saying similar pledges have been repeatedly made by previous governments only to be quietly dropped once attention shifted.
They point to Pakistan’s continued failure to arrest Masood Azhar, leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the group which claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 attack in Pulwama district of Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 paramilitary police.
Khan said Pakistan was constrained by the need to build a legal case that would stand up in court but said Azhar had been driven underground and was “ineffective” and unwell.
“More important than him is the set-up and that is being dismantled,” he said.
Although Khan insisted that the actions against militant groups were being undertaken for Pakistan’s own benefits, his government, which came to power last August, faces severe economic headwinds that have made international support vital.
In discussions with the International Monetary Fund over what would be its 13th bailout since the 1980s, Pakistan is struggling to stay off the FATF blacklist, which would bring heavy economic penalties.
“We can’t afford to be blacklisted, that would mean sanctions,” Khan said.
With a currency that has lost more than a quarter of its value over the past year, a yawning current account deficit and galloping inflation running at over nine percent, Pakistan is in desperate need of a respite to get its economy on track.
Elected on a platform of tackling the endemic corruption that has helped cripple Pakistan’s economy, Khan said his top priority was to take 100 million people, or around half the population, out of poverty.
“You can only do this if there is stability in Pakistan.”
(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Nick Macfie and Michael Perry)
Source: OANN
Apr 5, 2019; San Francisco, CA, USA; Tampa Bay Rays right fielder Austin Meadows (17) catches a fly ball during the third inning against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
April 9, 2019
Austin Meadows had a career-high four hits, including a two-run home run, and drove in four runs, and the visiting Tampa Bay Rays continued to match their best start in team history with a 10-5 win against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday afternoon.
Avisail Garcia had three hits and Brandon Lowe had two, each hitting solo home runs for the Rays, who improved to 9-3 while clinching their fourth consecutive series to start the season.
Rays starter Charlie Morton (2-0) went five innings, allowing two runs, three hits, striking out seven and walking three.
The Rays built a 4-0 lead after two innings, the same as they did in a 5-1 win against the White Sox in the series opener on Monday.
Meadows scored on a sacrifice fly by Lowe in the first for a 1-0 lead. The Rays have outscored their opponents 14-1 in the first inning this season.
Garcia, who played the past 5 1/2 seasons with the White Sox before signing a free-agent contract with the Rays in January, homered with one out in the second inning to make it 2-0. Willy Adames then walked and Meadows lifted a low breaking ball over the fence in right for his third home run of the season and a 4-0 lead.
Lowe hit a solo homer in the third to make it 5-0 before Chicago third baseman Yoan Moncada connected on a two-run blast in the bottom half of the inning to cut the deficit to 5-2.
White Sox starter Ervin Santana made his team debut, and the 36-year-old right-hander was aiming for the 150th win of his 15-year major league career. He lasted just 3 2/3 innings, however, allowing seven runs and seven hits with three walks and one strikeout.
The Rays chased Santana with two more runs in the fourth.
Michael Perez and Adames hit back-to-back doubles to make it 6-2, and Meadows then singled in Adames for a 7-2 lead.
The Rays scored another run on a wild pitch in the eighth before the White Sox added three runs in their half of the eighth.
–Field Level Media
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: People buy fruit and vegetables in a street market in Rome, Italy, August 11, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi
April 9, 2019
By Giuseppe Fonte and Gavin Jones
ROME (Reuters) – Italy on Tuesday cut its growth forecasts for this year and next while hiking the budget deficit and public debt, underscoring the economic woes faced by the populist ruling coalition.
Gross domestic product in the euro zone’s third largest economy will increase just 0.2 percent this year, the government said, cutting a projection of 1.0 percent it made in December.
The slowdown in growth hurts public finances, and the Treasury raised this year’s budget deficit target to 2.4 percent of GDP from a 2.04 percent goal fixed in December after a drawn-out tussle with the European Commission.
The new deficit target is the same as the one the Commission rejected last autumn as being too high and breaking EU rules.
Italy, whose public debt is proportionally the highest in the euro zone after Greece, is struggling to hold its finances in check while keeping costly promises made by the right-wing League and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.
Successive Italian governments have promised and failed to get the debt on a downward path since the 2008 financial crisis, and the latest forecast sees it rising this year to a new post-war high of 132.6 percent of GDP.
Unusually, no news conference was held after the cabinet signed off on the Treasury’s Economic and Financial Document (DEF), which forms an early framework for the 2020 budget.
However, the leaders of both ruling parties issued statements renewing a commitment to cut taxes.
“We will push on, getting the country going again, stimulating growth and helping families that really need it, without trumpeting false promises as has been done in the past,” said 5-Star chief Luigi Di Maio.
(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte; Writing by Gavin Jones; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Source: OANN
The net worth of the US comes in at negative $21.5 trillion.
This according to the Financial Report of the United States Government recently released by the Treasury Department.
The report is a summary of the financial condition of the United States. In a nutshell, it’s less than ideal.
Total net worth — the country’s assets minus its liabilities — is just one of many disturbing data points you will find in the report.
The US government owns $3.8 trillion in assets. The largest asset is $1.4 trillion in “net loans receivable.” These are primarily government-backed student loans totaling $1.08 trillion. In an article published by Sovereign Man, Simon Black it neatly into perspective.
“In other words, the government’s #1 asset is the debt owed to it by young people across America. That’s pretty sad.”
Prepare yourself to learn how truly uneducated college students are.
Meanwhile, the government’s liabilities total more than $25 trillion. This includes the national debt, accrued interest, and federal employee and veteran benefits.
When you include the government’s estimate of Social Security’s unfunded liabilities, the country’s net worth drops to negative $75 trillion. Black notes that this is roughly the size of the entire global economy.
It seems a bit of an understatement when the Treasury Department calls current US fiscal policy “not sustainable.”
“The long-term fiscal projections indicate that the government’s debt-to-GDP ratio will rise from 78 percent in 2018 to 530 percent over the 75-year projection period, and will continue to rise thereafter, if current policy is kept in place. The projections in this Financial Report show that current policy is not sustainable. These projections assume that current policy will continue indefinitely, and are, therefore, neither forecasts nor predictions. Nevertheless, policy changes must be enacted so that financial outcomes will be different than those projected.”
Keep in mind, the government uses a conservative debt to GDP ratio. Many analysts say the ratio already stands at 105%.
In fiscal 2018, Uncle Sam showed a net loss of $1.16 trillion. The federal government collected $3.4 trillion in tax revenue, but it spent over $4.5 trillion.
Nearly half of government spending went to Social Security and Medicare.
The government spent $523 billion paying interest on the national debt.
During fiscal year 2018, the budget deficit increased by 17.0% and gross cost increased by 4.4%.
For Fiscal Year 2018, the government reported $581 billion in equipment (mostly military), and about $500 billion in real estate.
Owen discusses this breaking news about Bernie’s platform.
Source: InfoWars
Outside allies of President Donald Trump have launched a public campaign urging him to nominate former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach as his next secretary of Homeland Security.
That’s despite the uphill battle Kobach would certainly face getting confirmed by the Senate.
NumbersUSA, a group that seeks to reduce immigration rates, released a statement on Tuesday saying there is “no one more qualified” for the job and claiming Kobach has the support of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
Kobach also has the backing of other immigration hardliners, including conservative firebrand Ann Coulter, who supported Trump during the campaign but has since accused him of failing to make good on his promises. She tweeted that tapping Kobach would be “Trump’s 300th chance to prove he believed one thing he said during the campaign.”
Conservatives were also rallying Tuesday to defend Lee Francis Cissna, the director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, whose job is said to be in danger as part of an overhaul of DHS leadership currently underway.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, another group that advocates for lower rates of immigration, tweeted that, under Cissna’s leadership, “USCIS has issued a steady stream of policy changes and regulations that are firmly in line with President Trump’s immigration agenda” and that removing him “would be a huge mistake.”
NumbersUSA also praised Cissna, saying he “is exactly the type of leader @realDonaldTrump promised he would appoint. D.C. has a deficit of public servants of his knowledge, capability, and integrity.”
Kobach did not response to a request for comment Tuesday morning. But in an appearance on Fox News Channel Monday night that felt like an audition, Kobach called DHS the “biggest impediment” to the president’s policies.
He said that since Trump took office, leadership at the agency, “has been unwilling to execute many of the president’s plans.”
“There has been deliberate foot-dragging and I think that’s why you’re seeing the White House take the necessary steps to clean house at DHS and put people in, hopefully, who will quickly execute what the president orders,” he said.
Asked by host Tucker Carlson what he would do first if he were put in charge, he said he would deploy thousands of FEMA trailers to border cities or military bases in Texas and Arizona and set up “processing centers” to handle asylum claims, and prevent those living in the U.S. illegally from sending remittances home to Mexico, among other ideas.
The White House declined to comment on the push, with spokeswoman Sarah Sanders saying, “We do not have any personnel announcements at this time.”
Source: NewsMax America
FILE PHOTO: A logo of Groupe ADP (Aeroports de Paris) is seen during the company’s Investor day in Paris, France, April 5, 2019. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo
April 9, 2019
PARIS (Reuters) – France’s opposition Socialist Party on Tuesday said it had enough support in parliament to start the process of forcing a national referendum on the government’s plan to privatize airport operator ADP, a Socialist lawmaker said.
The next threshold that must be met for a referendum on the possible privatization of ADP is for a nationwide petition to garner 4.5 million signatories.
The sale of all or part of the state’s 50.6 percent stake in ADP is part of the government’s strategy to cut the budget deficit and finance a long-promised 10 billion euro ($11.3 billion) innovation fund.
In March, the National Assembly, where Macron’s En Marche party holds a strong majority, approved draft legislation for the possible privatization of ADP, lottery operator Francaise des Jeux and for a reduction in France’s stake in utility Engie.
The bill was then rejected by the opposition-led Senate and returns back to the lower house this week, where it will likely be definitively approved on Thursday.
While the government would welcome the financial windfall that would be generated by the sale of its ADP stake, the move is politically delicate. Many opposition lawmakers and voters disapprove of handing control of the strategic asset to the private sector.
Socialist member of parliament Boris Vallaud said that 197 lawmakers from both the right and left had given support to launching procedures for a referendum on the issue. Only 185 signatures were needed.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Leigh Thomas)
Source: OANN
A cashier checks Indian rupee notes inside a room at a fuel station in Ahmedabad, India, September 20, 2018. REUTERS/Amit Dave
April 9, 2019
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India has met the fiscal deficit target of 3.4 percent of gross domestic product in 2018/19 fiscal year ended March 31, by cuts in state spending and higher borrowings from small savings funds, a government source told reporters on Tuesday.
The government missed the tax collections target by over 1 trillion rupees ($14.41 billion), including about 500 billion rupees shortfall in income tax receipts, said the source, who requested anonymity.
The official declined to share further details about expenditure cuts in the fund allocations to different ministries.
(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed, Writing by Manoj Kumar, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
Source: OANN
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