Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is bringing lawmakers back into a special session on a tax cut after his plan to phase out income taxes failed to pass during a session last fall. The session, set to begin Jan. 29, will take up a 0.25% personal income tax reduction. “With record-breaking savings and a strong economic
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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday signed into law a bill permitting municipalities in the state to sell bonds of up to 20 years to finance the purchase of fire engines and other public safety equipment. Previously, they could only sell bonds of up to 10 years to pay for such equipment. The bill
Cities and states have joined a chorus of critics urging federal regulators to revise or halt proposed capital requirements for large banks dubbed the Basel III endgame. In a letter filed Tuesday ahead of the Jan. 16 public comment deadline, the Government Finance Officers Association joined with six other municipal market industry groups in laying
The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy’s Center for Municipal Finance is joining forces with Investortools, a fixed income software and data company, to make more data on the municipal finance sector available to academics. It’s the first step in an expansion of the center’s resources as it looks to become the premier
New York City Mayor Eric Adams released a balanced $109.4 billion preliminary budget for fiscal 2025 that keeps a near-record level of reserves. The city faced a $7.1 billion budget gap due to the growing migrant crisis, declining federal COVID-19 stimulus funding, rising expenses from labor contracts and slowing tax revenue growth. The Adams administration implemented a citywide hiring freeze
A home is constructed at a housing development on June 21, 2023 in Lemont, Illinois. Scott Olson | Getty Images Homebuilder sentiment improved in January, jumping 7 points to 44 on the National Association of Home Builders monthly index. Anything below 50 is still considered negative, but the index has now moved 10 points higher
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK inflation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. December’s unexpected rise in UK inflation is a setback for those who had hoped the Bank of England was already entering the home straight of its long journey to restore price stability. The figures, showing
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the War in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The European parliament has threatened legal action against Ursula von der Leyen’s decision to unfreeze part of Hungary’s EU funding in order to secure Viktor Orbán’s support for Ukraine. In a heated debate on
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. It is a rare politician who takes on a complex problem that offers little electoral dividend just ahead of an election they expect to lose. This reality is troubling Labour strategists who fear that Conservatives
The state of Wisconsin is embarking on a flurry of debt-related activity as the year begins, with a cash defeasance and three refunding deals that may include tenders on the table in the first quarter. The defeasance was made possible by the state’s 2023-25 biennial budget, which included $400 million to pay down outstanding general
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Saudi Aramco is beefing up its global venture capital arm with a $4bn cash injection as part of a wider push to diversify the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy. The extra money for Aramco Ventures would more
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Every leader has their blind spots. In Joe Biden’s case, his seeming indifference to Palestinians could prove costly. Ten thousand Palestinian children have been killed in the past 100 days, according to Save the Children.
Prospective home buyers visit a home for sale during an Open House in a neighborhood in Clarksburg, Maryland on September 3, 2023. Homeownership feels increasingly out of reach for younger generations of Americans, who are squeezed by student debt and childcare costs in an era of slower economic growth. The pressures come as President Joe
Gilts go up. Gilts go down. But in financial market lingo, gilts are ‘risk-free’ sterling bonds. That’s because governments with their own currency — like Britain’s — can literally make up new IOUs to repay bonds. As the Reserve Bank of Australia explains: The expression ‘risk free’ is used because governments are not expected to
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. European stocks and bonds fell after European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde signalled that interest rates would come down in summer rather than spring and UK inflation rose unexpectedly for the first time in 10
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK inflation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. UK inflation unexpectedly accelerated in December raising questions over how soon the Bank of England will start cutting interest rates. Consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 4 per cent in December, up from
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Investment firms are raising billions of dollars to buy stakes in venture capital-backed technology start-ups, as a long drought in acquisitions and initial public offerings forces early investors to offload their stock at discounts. The
Frenetic negotiations are under way in Argentina’s opposition-dominated congress as libertarian president Javier Milei seeks to push through his ambitious reform agenda while lashing out at lawmakers with key swing votes. Milei, whose party holds only a tiny minority of seats in the legislature, has moved at unprecedented speed to capitalise on what analysts predict
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The writer is chief market strategist for Europe, Middle East and Africa at JPMorgan Asset Management Markets are still parsing the implications of the early Christmas present delivered by Jay Powell during his December press
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. No one likes to be dumped. Not even a mighty global brand like PepsiCo, it seems. Last week the US drinks and snacks maker insisted that it had not been pulled from the shelves of
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. From our earthly porch, the cosmos seems prettily jewelled with stars and galaxies. Zoom out, however, and it should become an odyssey of omnidirectional dullness: an endless dark expanse in which galaxies shrink to pale