Reform | Common News Update

Jan252021 by adminNo Comments

Biden has promised to reform Social Security — some changes could come as soon as this year

Finance

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about his administration's plans to fight the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic during a COVID-19 response event at the White House in Washington, January 21, 2021.Jonathan Ernst | ReutersNewly elected President Joe Biden has a tall list of priorities in his first days in office, with stemming the pandemic chief among them.But experts expect one issue he promised to deal with during his campaign, Social Security reform, could also become a focal point as soon as this year.Millions of Americans count on Social Security benefits to provide income when they are retired or disabled, or when loved ones pass away.The program's funds have been running low. The latest official estimate from the Social Security Administration shows that just 79% of promised ben...

Nov82020 by adminNo Comments

Sunak plots listings reform to aid City’s quest to lure tech giants

Business

Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, is plotting an overhaul of the UK's public company listings regime in a bid to lure more technology "unicorns" to London.Sky News has learnt that Mr Sunak is preparing to announce a review aimed at helping the City compete more robustly with New York's vast capital markets in a post-Brexit era. City sources said that Lord Hill, Britain's former commissioner to the EU and a non-executive director of the Treasury, was this weekend being lined up to lead the review. Image: Lord Hill, the UK's former commissioner to the EU, is being lined up to lead the review One banker suggested that the chancellor could announce the plan as soon as next week, with the Financial Services Bill scheduled to have its second rea...

Jun52020 by adminNo Comments

Good news for small businesses as Senate passes PPP reform bill

Finance

Business owners who received a forgivable loan through the Paycheck Protection Program are likely getting more leeway on how to spend those funds. The Senate passed legislation Wednesday night that restructures how entrepreneurs can use loans issued through a new federal relief program for small businesses ailing from the economic contagion unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic. Many business owners have called on Congress to update the Paycheck Protection Program as they struggle to meet its terms and fear they may be forced to take on debt even as their businesses haven't fully recovered.The bill, the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020, now heads to President Donald Trump's desk for his signature. The House passed the legislation last week. The ...

Oct152019 by adminNo Comments

Facebook’s libra coin a catalyst for reform, Swedish central bank chief says

Finance

Facebook's proposed cryptocurrency libra has served as an incentive for global central banks to reform and reflect the digital age, the head of Sweden's central bank has said."It has been an incredibly important catalytic event to sort of shake the tree when libra showed up out of the blue, and that forced us to think hard about what we do," Stefan Ingves, governor of the Riksbank, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday."Part of my job is to produce a good/service called the Swedish krona which is convenient to use for Swedish citizens, and if I'm good at that in a technical sense then I don't have a problem," Ingves said. "But if I were to start issuing 20-kilo copper coins the way we did in 1668, then we soon would be out of business."The Riksbank has been exploring the potential iss...

Aug272018 by adminNo Comments

The time is now for IRS reform: Senators

Finance

Central to Americans' confidence in our government is their confidence in our tax-collection system. Unfortunately, the Internal Revenue Service has not always earned that trust, undermining this system of voluntary compliance and taxpayer engagement. Fortunately, this has been a bipartisan issue in the past, and we believe a bipartisan proposal exists to once again solve the problem and make the agency more responsive and accountable to taxpayers. Based on recent testimony before a congressional committee, IRS technology is outdated and the Taxpayer Advocate estimates that only 29 percent of the telephone calls to the IRS are answered. ...