G.O.P. Again Cedes Power on Tariffs to Avoid Crossing Trump
House Republicans extended a maneuver they engineered earlier in the year that effectively strips Congress of the power to disapprove of President Trump’s tariffs.
Enhanced Games athletes can dope to compete for US$1 million prizes. But at what cost to sport?
Olympic swimmer Ben Proud has become the first British athlete to join the Enhanced Games – a controversial new event that allows athletes from all over the world to compete using performance-enhancing drugs. The prize money on offer can hit US$1 million (£730,000). But the swimmer, who won a silver medal at last year’s Paris Olympics, has sparked sharp criticism from sporting bodies after announcing he would be taking part.
Council tax is an unfair mess – here’s a system that could work better
r.nagy/ShutterstockEconomists have argued for years that council tax in the UK was rushed in and badly thought out. After the poll tax fiasco of the early 1990s, a substitute was urgent. The answer was council tax, but this was almost as unfit for purpose as the poll tax it replaced.
Fed, under pressure to cut rates, tries to balance labor market and inflation – while avoiding dreaded stagflation
Interest rates are a tricky balancing act, as Fed Chair Jerome Powell knows well. AP Photo/Alex BrandonThe Federal Reserve is in a nearly impossible spot right now.
NY AG Letitia James charged with mortgage fraud – a crime seldom prosecuted and rarely resulting in prison
Go directly to jail? Not quite. Sergey Chayko/Getty Images PlusWith the indictment on Oct.
US women narrowed the pay gap with men by having fewer kids
Women typically earn less than men per hour that they work. MoMo Productions/DigitalVision via Getty ImagesWomen in the U.S. typically earned 85% as much as men for every hour they spent working in 2024. However, working women are faring much better than their moms and grandmothers did 40 years ago.
Historical American Political Finance Data at the National Archives
INET’s new data archive of historical political finance records at the National Archives assembles all campaign finance reports filed by political parties and presidential candidates up to 1974, the year before the Federal Election Commission was established.
Central bank money as a catalyst for fungibility: the case of stablecoins
To ensure that means of payments are readily interchangeable at face value – i.e. fungible – for retail payments, three elements are required: (1) settlement finality; (2) interoperability; and (3) seamless convertibility of the means of payment into the “ultimate” or quasi-ultimate means of payment.
Mortgage loan rates and the defaults of variable rate mortgages
Using a granular database of variable rate euro area loans and analysing their defaults between 2014 and 2019, we show that the effect of interest rate changes on mortgage defaults is highly non-linear. First, we find that the risk associated with higher contemporaneous interest rates is concentrated among borrowers who got the loan at ultra-low interest rates, their default probability being 2.6 times higher than our sample average.
Mortgage loan rates and the defaults of variable rate mortgages
Using a granular database of variable rate euro area loans and analysing their defaults between 2014 and 2019, we show that the effect of interest rate changes on mortgage defaults is highly non-linear. First, we find that the risk associated with higher contemporaneous interest rates is concentrated among borrowers who got the loan at ultra-low interest rates, their default probability being 2.6 times higher than our sample average.
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