Why Rome is looking like the next Detroit - (www.cnbc.com) Rome
could be about to follow in the footsteps of bankrupt Detroit, after the
country's new government scrapped a measure that would have helped with the
Italian capital's budget deficit. Italy's central government – under new Prime
Minister Matteo Renzi – announced on Wednesday it would be dropping a bailout
package designed to help plug city's gnawing €816 million ($1.17 billion)
budget gap. The move could bring Rome one step closer to a Detroit-style
default. Rome's mayor Ignazio Marino responded to the move by saying "In
March there won't be money to pay 25,000 city employees, to pay for fuel for
the buses, to keep the nurseries open, to collect rubbish or to organise that
canonisation of the two popes, an event of a planetary scale" the Italian
news agency ANSA reported on Thursday.
Mt.Gox files for bankruptcy protection - (www.cnbc.com) Major
bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox has lost nearly all the virtual
currency held
in its systems and has filed for bankruptcy protection at a Tokyo district
court, lawyers for the company told a press conference Friday. A lawyer for the
embattled Japan-based company announced at a news conference at the court that
the exchange was filing for Chapter 11-style protection and stated that Mt.Gox
had outstanding debts of about 6.5 billion Japanese yen ($63.6 million), the Dow
Jones news agency reported. Its customers have been unable to withdraw their
bitcoins and convert them into U.S. dollars since the beginning of February.
The exchange blamed the problem on a critical loophole — known as
"transaction malleability" — in the cryptocurrency that it said
leaves all exchanges open to hacking.
Want the uninsured? Forget the ER. Ask the tax
man - (www.cnbc.com) Willie
Sutton famously said he robbed banks "because that's where the money
is." And if Obamacare boosters want to get the uninsured to sign up—in
great numbers—they might want to go "where the uninsured are." A new
study suggests that place may be their tax preparer's office. The analysis
urges government officials to "seriously explore" partnering with tax
preparers to enroll people without health insurance in Obamacare plans, arguing
preparers "could help most uninsured get covered" since they're
already preparing returns for millions of them. That partnership could
"secure a good mix of health participants, which would help promote a
balanced risk pool and marketplace stability," said the Urban Institute
paper, prepared with assistance from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The
analysis points out that 18.9 million uninsured people who qualify for Medicaid
or Obamacare subsidies "will file a tax return next year, most with
assistance from professional tax preparers."
Detroit
Bankruptcy Prods Cities to Target Pensions: Muni Credit - (www.bloomberg.com) Local
officials in at least 10 states are trying to cut pensions of municipal
workers, or eliminate defined-benefit plans, pointing to Detroit as a symbol of the peril of growing
retirement costs. From New York to California, mayors and county officials are
asking legislatures, courts or voters to allow the changes as a way to maintain
government services as pensions consume a larger portion of budgets. The
pressure may help extend a rally in municipal debt of issuers such as cities
and school districts after the securities trailed the $3.7 trillion municipal
market for the past five years. Elected officials are intensifying efforts to
trim benefits even as local economies and tax revenue recover more than four years after the
longest recession since the 1930s.
Cyprus
faces fresh bailout uncertainty after privatization vote - (www.bloomberg.com) Cyprus
re-submitted a controversial privatization law to parliament on Friday in a
last-ditch attempt to win support from fractious lawmakers threatening to
derail its international bailout program. The island's opposition-dominated
parliament threw out a proposed roadmap for the sale of state assets on
Thursday. The 'No' vote raises the risk the island will be plunged back into
fiscal turmoil just a year after the 10 billion euro lifeline from the European
Union and IMF pulled it back from the brink of default. Parliament will review
the amended privatization motion on Tuesday, one day before a deadline by
lenders to approve the plan expires. Under that plan, Cyprus must privatize its
ports, telecoms and electricity companies to raise up to 1.4 billion and pay
down debt by 2018. Centre and left wing parties rejected the privatization
scheme.
No comments:
Post a Comment