Author: CensorBiz

Afghanistan’s former president, Hamid Karzai, joined the Taliban rulers Sunday in urging the United States to review its decision to allow half of the roughly $7 billion in his country’s foreign frozen assets to be reserved for families of victims of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“The people of Afghanistan share the pain of the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives in the tragedy of September 11. We commiserate with them,” Karzai told a news conference in Kabul.

However, the “Afghan people are as much victims as those families who lost their lives,” Karzai said. “Withholding money or seizing money from the people of Afghanistan in that name is unjust and unfair and an atrocity against the Afghan people.”

Da Afghanistan Bank, that country’s central bank, had funds on deposit at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The money has been frozen since August, when the U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized control of the country.

Critics say the U.S. freezing of Afghan funds has worsened an already bad humanitarian situation in the conflict-torn country and pushed its foreign-aid dependent economy to the brink of collapse.

On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order calling on banks to set aside $3.5 billion of the frozen assets in a trust fund slated for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. The remaining funds, $3.5 billion, would stay in the United States to finance payments from lawsuits by U.S. victims of terrorism that are still working their way through the courts.

“I ask the U.S. courts to do the opposite, to return the Afghan money back to the Afghan people. This money does not belong to any government. Much of this money was collected during my time in office. This is the property of the Afghan people,” Karzai said.

Karzai served as president for 13 years starting December 2001, shortly after the U.S.-led foreign military invasion ousted the then-Taliban government from power for harboring al-Qaida planners of the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States.

Washington and the global community at large have not recognized the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

U.S. officials have said Biden’s executive order also “is designed to provide a path for the funds to reach the people of Afghanistan, while keeping them out of the hands of the Taliban’s malicious actors.”

Taliban authorities condemned the unilateral U.S. move, saying it “shows the lowest level of morality and humanity of a country and a nation.”

Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban permanent representative-designate to the United Nations, on Sunday reiterated his government’s call for Washington to release the Afghan funds, saying using them for any other purpose was unacceptable.

“It is only used for implementation of monetary policy, facilitation of trade and boosting financial system of the country,” Shaheen argued.

“It is never intended to be used for any other purpose rather than that. Its freezing or disbursement unilaterally for any other purpose is injustice and not acceptable to the people of Afghanistan,” the senior Taliban official wrote on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi traveled to Doha on Sunday for meetings with representatives of European Union, Gulf countries, and foreign diplomatic missions to Afghanistan operating out of the capital of Qatar after the fall of Kabul to the Islamist group last summer. Taliban sources said Muttaqi would also raise in the meetings Biden’s controversial order on frozen Afghan funds.

Protesters gathered in the Afghan capital Saturday, asking for financial compensation for the tens of thousands of Afghans killed during the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

The U.S. withdrawal last August ended the nearly 20-year war. but United Nations and other international relief groups say Afghanistan faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, which stems from more than four decades of conflict and natural calamities.

More than half of the country’s poverty-stricken population, or an estimated 24 million Afghans, face an acute food shortage and some one million children under age 5 could die from hunger by the end of this year, according to U.N. estimates following the U.S. withdrawal from the country.
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A new report found that Cambodia had 2.8 million loans for 3.6 million households, totaling $11.8 billion, with an average “microloan” size of $4,280, higher than the annual income of 95% of Cambodian households.
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Several senior members of President Joe Biden’s administration led the charge Thursday for a significant practical expansion of the nationwide use of electric vehicles.

The federal government is “teaming up with states and the private sector to build a nationwide network of EV chargers by 2030 to help create jobs, fight the climate change crisis, and ensure that this game-changing technology is affordable and accessible for every American,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg outside the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

In the largest investment of its kind, the Biden administration is to distribute $5 billion to begin building up to a half million roadside rapid charging stations across the country for electric cars and trucks.

To rid EV drivers of “range anxiety,” there will be a “seamless network” of charging stations along the nation’s highways, said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

“Most of them will have more than one [charging] port associated with them,” Granholm added.

“The future is electric, and this administration is moving toward it at lightning speed,” she said.

“Soon we’ll be rolling out an additional two and a half billion [dollars] for a new grant program with even more funding for chargers at the community level across the country,” Buttigieg announced.

Most EVs are hampered from driving long distances by the gap between charging stations and the time it takes to recharge their batteries, which have limited range. Most new electric cars can travel about 500 kilometers or less between charging stops, although some models with ranges beyond 800 kilometers are set to come on the market in the next several years.

The federal money being distributed will “help states create a network of EV charging stations along designated Alternative Fuel Corridors, particularly along the Interstate Highway System,” according to the Transportation Department.

It is estimated that nearly $40 billion will need to be spent to build public charging stations to reach the goal of 100% EV sales in the United States by 2035.

Some analysts see a bumpy road toward Biden’s clean energy destination.

“EVs do not necessarily generate lower carbon emissions than gasoline-powered vehicles,” said Jeff Miron, vice president of research at the Cato Institute, a public policy think tank. “The energy needed to charge batteries comes from somewhere, and in some parts of the country, that source tends to be coal, which generates even more carbon than gasoline,” he told VOA.

“Building charging stations will lower the cost of using EVs, which might encourage more driving,” added Miron, who is also a senior lecturer in economics at Harvard University. “More generally, unless an anti-carbon policy raises the price of using carbon-based fuels, it is unlikely to be the most efficient way to reduce carbon emissions.”

To tap the funds, the 50 states must submit an EV Infrastructure Deployment Plan by August 1, with approvals from the federal government to come by the end of the following month.

The federal guidance requests that states explain how they will deliver projects with at least 40% of the benefits going to disadvantaged communities.

The Biden White House has an initiative named “Justice40,” which calls for a minimum of 40% of the federal funds for climate mitigation and clean energy to go to disadvantaged areas.

The initial $5 billion in funds for the public charging stations comes from the $1 trillion infrastructure law. The investment is seen as a significant contribution toward the president’s stated goal of cutting carbon emissions caused by transportation and ensuring half of new cars are electric by 2030.

“We will have to expand both the transmission grid as well as the sources of clean energy that we add to it in order to get to the president’s goal,” acknowledged Granholm.
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A trucker-led protest of coronavirus vaccine mandates that is blocking traffic at a key bridge linking the United States and Canada picked up urgency as it threatens to dampen business activity in both countries.

The protesters, who are demanding an end to Canada’s coronavirus restrictions, have blockaded the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit, Michigan, in the U.S. and Windsor, Ontario, Canada, bringing central Ottawa to a halt. The blockade prevented traffic from entering Canada Wednesday, but U.S.-bound traffic continued.

Trucks transport about 25% of all trade between the two countries across the bridge, much of which is linked to the automobile sector.

Canadian authorities have said they are increasingly concerned about the economic effects of the protest, which is inspiring similar protests in France, Australia and New Zealand.

“Blockages, illegal demonstrations are unacceptable, and are negatively impacting businesses and manufacturers,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned as he addressed the House of Commons Wednesday.

While the mayor of Canada’s capital city, Ottawa, declared a state of emergency Wednesday because of demonstrations there, police warned in a statement that protesters “must immediately cease further unlawful activity or you may face charges.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday the Biden administration was in close contact with Canadian officials and voiced concern the blockade could also affect the U.S. economy as it “poses a risk to supply chains, to the auto industry.”

Ford Motor Company spokesman Said Deep said Thursday the blockade has forced the automaker to reduce operations at its Ontario province plants in Oakville and Windsor, according to The New York Times.

On Wednesday, Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin said the company will not be able to manufacture anything at three Canadian plants for the rest of this week because of the blockade.

Shortages due to the blockade also forced General Motors to cancel the second shift of the day Wednesday at a factory near Lansing, Michigan, in the U.S. GM spokesman Dan Flores said Wednesday the factory was expected to reopen on Thursday.

The blockade, which began nearly two weeks ago, has prompted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to issue a warning that a convoy of truckers could begin protests as early as this weekend in Los Angeles, California, the site of the National Football League’s Super Bowl, according to multiple reports.

CNN reports that DHS issued a bulletin to U.S. law enforcement agencies informing them the convoy would probably begin protests in California as early as mid-February and make their way across the U.S. to Washington as late as mid-March.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press, and Reuters.
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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen Thursday announced a more than $172 billion investment plan for Africa, as part of the European Union’s Global Gateway infrastructure initiative.

Von der Leyen made the announcement at a news conference in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, as she spoke to reporters alongside President Macky Sall. Von der Leyen is in the West African nation to prepare for an EU–African Union summit scheduled for next week.

Senegal currently holds the rotating presidency of the AU.

In her comments, Von der Leyen said the funds for Africa represent the first regional package to be implemented as part of the Global Gateway investment initiative, first announced late last year. The Global Gateway seeks to invest up to $340 billion for public and private infrastructure projects around the world by 2027.

Seen as a response to China’s Belt and Road initiative, the investment scheme will draw on private sector investments as well as funding from EU institutions and member countries.

In a release on its website, the EU says the package will include more than $488 million for COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine rollouts; roughly $1.7 billion toward strengthening health security architecture, pharmaceutical systems and manufacturing, and improving access to health care, along with nearly $70 million for sexual and reproductive health and rights infrastructure.

Von der Leyen said investments such as these and others “will be at the heart” of discussions at next week’s EU-AU summit, “because they are the means of our shared ambition.”

She said, “In this area Europe is the most reliable partner for Africa and by far the most important.”

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse.
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Sting has sold his songwriting catalog — including solo works as well as hits with The Police like “Roxanne” — to Universal Music Group, the company said Thursday, the industry’s latest such blockbuster transaction.

The company did not disclose financial terms of the deal, but U.S. media estimated it was worth some $250 million. It covers Sting’s entire body of songwriting work, including songs written for The Police.

Sting’s sale reunites his publishing catalog with his recorded music rights, which are already controlled by Universal, according to the company’s statement.

Universal now stands to receive all future income related to Sting’s song copyrights and songwriter royalties, for hits including “Every Breath You Take” and “Fields of Gold.”

In a statement, the 70-year-old British-born artist said he is “delighted” for Universal’s publishing division to manage his catalog, saying “it is absolutely essential to me that my career’s body of work have a home where it is valued and respected — not only to connect with longtime fans in new ways but also to introduce my songs to new audiences, musicians and generations.”

It’s the latest high-profile deal of the recent music rights purchasing rush, which has seen artists including Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen sell off their catalogs for astronomical sums.

The trend is driven in large part by the anticipated stability of streaming growth combined with low interest rates and dependable earning projections for time-tested hits.

It’s also useful for artists focused on estate planning, and those whose touring income has been stymied by the pandemic.

Companies have acquired a number of major catalogs including from David Bowie’s estate, Stevie Nicks, Paul Simon, Motley Crue, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Shakira.
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U.S. consumer prices surged at an annual pace of 7.5% in January, the fastest increase in four decades, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Americans are facing higher costs for autos, household furniture and appliances, according to the government. While some of those purchases can be delayed, U.S. household budgets are being squeezed by something everyone needs — food — with consumers facing higher prices for meat, eggs, citrus fruit and now produce as well. Gasoline prices for motorists also remain high in the U.S.

The inflationary surge is being fueled by coronavirus-related supply-and-demand issues.

Consumers seem willing to buy goods after the coronavirus curbed personal spending, but now manufacturers have been unable in some cases to make enough of their products and at the same time face a shortage of shippers and truckers to get their goods into stores and showrooms.

“The price pressures on households just don’t end,” Greg McBride, the chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com, said in a statement. “Not only have home prices jumped 20% in the past year, but now many rents are too, rising 0.5% in the past month alone. Nothing squeezes household budgets more than the outsized increases we’re currently seeing on costs for shelter and housing.”

The U.S. economy is sharply increasing, recovering from the pandemic at a faster pace than economists once projected, advancing by 5.7% in 2021, the fastest full-year gain since 1984.

The U.S., with the world’s biggest economy, added 467,000 more jobs in January, while its unemployment rate ticked up to 4% as more unemployed people looked for work. Businesses added a record 6.4 million jobs last year.

The inflation reading for January included a once-a-year revision that affects seasonally adjusted data for the past five years, with the Labor Department also updating the list of goods included in the calculation, to reflect consumer buying habits in recent years.

Economists are predicting that, over time, inflationary pressures will ease. But policymakers at the Federal Reserve, the country’s central bank, are signaling they will start increasing their benchmark interest next month to tamp down inflation and keep the U.S. economy from overheating. The Fed normally tries to set policies allowing for a 2% annual inflation rate, far less than the current jump in prices.

An increase in the Fed’s key interest rate will likely, over time, boost borrowing costs for consumers and businesses as well, helping to keep inflation in check.

New claims for jobless benefits fell in the United States last week, the Labor Department also reported Thursday, as many employers hung on to the workers they have and searched for more.

The agency said 223,000 unemployed workers filed for compensation, down 16,000 from the revised figure of the week before. The new total was in line with the claim figures from recent weeks as the U.S. economy continues to recover from the havoc inflicted on it by the advance of the coronavirus pandemic that swept into the country nearly two years ago.

Many employers are looking for more workers, despite about 6.5 million workers remaining unemployed in the U.S.

At the end of December, there were 10.9 million job openings in the U.S., but the skills of available workers often do not match what employers want, or the job openings are not where the unemployed live. In addition, many of the available jobs are low-wage service positions that the jobless shun.

 
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A blockade of the bridge between Canada and Detroit by protesters demanding an end to Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions forced the shutdown Wednesday of a Ford plant and began to have broader implications for the North American auto industry.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, stood firm against an easing of Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions in the face of mounting pressure during recent weeks by protests against the restrictions and against Trudeau himself.

The protest by people mostly in pickups entered its third day at the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. Traffic was prevented from entering Canada, while U.S.-bound traffic was still moving.

The bridge carries 25% of all trade between the two countries, and Canadian authorities expressed increasing worry about the economic effects.

Ford said late Wednesday that parts shortages forced it to shut down its engine plant in Windsor and to run an assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, on a reduced schedule.

Shortages caused by the blockade also forced General Motors to cancel the second shift of the day at its midsize-SUV factory near Lansing, Michigan. Spokesperson Dan Flores said it was expected to restart Thursday and no additional impact was expected for the time being.

Later Wednesday, Toyota spokesperson Scott Vazin said the company will not be able to manufacture anything at three Canadian plants for the rest of this week because of parts shortages. A statement attributed the problem to supply chain, weather and pandemic-related challenges, but the shutdowns came just days after the blockade began Monday.

A growing number of Canadian provinces have moved to lift some of their precautions as the omicron surge levels off, but Trudeau defended the measures the federal government is responsible for, including the one that has angered many truck drivers: a rule that took effect Jan. 15 requiring truckers entering Canada to be fully vaccinated.

“The reality is that vaccine mandates, and the fact that Canadians stepped up to get vaccinated to almost 90%, ensured that this pandemic didn’t hit as hard here in Canada as elsewhere in the world,” Trudeau said in Parliament.

About 90% of truckers in Canada are vaccinated, and trucker associations and many big-rig operators have denounced the protests. The U.S. has the same vaccination rule for truckers entering the country, so it would make little difference if Trudeau lifted the restriction.

Protesters have also been blocking the border crossing at Coutts, Alberta, for a week and a half, with about 50 trucks remaining there Wednesday. And more than 400 trucks have paralyzed downtown Ottawa, Canada’s capital, in a protest that began late last month.

While protesters have been calling for Trudeau’s removal, most of the restrictive measures around the country have been put in place by provincial governments. Those include requirements that people show proof-of-vaccination “passports” to enter restaurants, gyms, movie theaters and sporting events.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia announced plans this week to roll back some or all of their precautions. Alberta, Canada’s most conservative province, dropped its vaccine passport immediately and plans to get rid of mask requirements at the end of the month.

Alberta opposition leader Rachel Notley accused the province’s premier, Jason Kenney, of allowing an “illegal blockade to dictate public health measures.”

Despite Alberta’s plans to scrap its measures, the protest there continued.

“We’ve got guys here — they’ve lost everything due to these mandates, and they’re not giving up, and they’re willing to stand their ground and keep going until this is done,” said protester John Vanreeuwyk, a feedlot operator from Coaldale, Alberta.

“Until Trudeau moves,” he said, “we don’t move.”

As for the Ambassador Bridge blockade, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said police had not removed people for fear of inflaming the situation. But he added: “We’re not going to let this happen for a prolonged period of time.”

The demonstration involved 50-74 vehicles and about 100 protesters, police said. Some of the protesters say they are willing to die for their cause, according to the mayor.

“I’ll be brutally honest: You are trying to have a rational conversation, and not everyone on the ground is a rational actor,” Dilkens said. “Police are doing what is right by taking a moderate approach, trying to sensibly work through this situation where everyone can walk away, nobody gets hurt, and the bridge can open.”

To avoid the blockade and get into Canada, truckers in the Detroit area had to drive 70 miles north to Port Huron, Michigan, and cross the Blue Water Bridge, where there was a 4½-hour delay leaving the U.S.

At a news conference in Ottawa that excluded mainstream news organizations, Benjamin Dichter, one of the protest organizers, said: “I think the government and the media are drastically underestimating the resolve and patience of truckers.”

“Drop the mandates. Drop the passports,” he said.

The “freedom truck convoy” has been promoted by Fox News personalities and attracted support from many U.S. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump.

Pandemic restrictions have been far stricter in Canada than in the U.S., but Canadians have largely supported them. Canada’s COVID-19 death rate is one-third that of the U.S.  
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President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced that an Australian company that makes chargers for electric vehicles will build a manufacturing facility in Tennessee, while reiterating his commitment to make the U.S. government’s fleet of cars electric. 

The new plant will produce up to 30,000 electric vehicle chargers per year and create 500 local jobs, according to Biden and the Brisbane-based company, Tritium. State officials said production is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2022. 

Biden touted “an American manufacturing comeback.” Tritium’s chargers will “use American parts, American iron, American steel,” and will be installed by union workers, Biden said. He said the federal government’s fleet of 600,000 vehicles will “end up being electric vehicles.” 

“The benefits are going to ripple through thousands of miles in every direction and these jobs will multiply,” Biden said, adding the manufacturing plants will lead to a growth in steel mills, small parts suppliers and construction sites throughout the country. 

Tritium CEO Jane Hunter appeared alongside Biden at the White House and said Biden’s policies “have contributed to enormous demand” for Tritium products in the United States. This “directly led us to pivot and change our global manufacturing strategy.” 

Biden also announced that this week, the White House will roll out a state-by-state allocation of $5 billion in funding for electric vehicle chargers. He used the speech to highlight contributions by U.S. companies involved in manufacturing electric vehicles including Tesla, a company Biden has refrained from naming in the past. 

Biden has made rebuilding American manufacturing a key of his economic agenda, including pushing for billions of dollars of public and private investments in the electric vehicle industry. The bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last year provided money for a sprawling network of electric vehicle charging stations across the country. 

Biden has said electric cars will be more climate-friendly and affordable for American families, and the White House has set a target of half the vehicles sold in the United States to be electric or plug-in hybrids by 2030. 

The Tritium announcement is the latest in recent weeks by major companies announcing investments in U.S. manufacturing and jobs, including Intel, General Motors and Boeing. More than $200 billion in investments in domestic manufacturing of semiconductors, electric vehicles, aircraft, and batteries have been announced since 2021. 

 
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The United States posted its largest ever full-year trade deficit in the 12 months ending in December, according to data released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday, signaling continued strong economic growth and vibrant consumer demand as the country emerges from the recession induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In calendar year 2021, the U.S. imported goods and services worth $859.1 billion more than it exported, a 27% increase over the gap in 2020 and the largest single-year figure since the government began tracking the measure in 1960. The next-closest was in 2006, when the deficit hit $763.53 billion. 

In the month of December alone, the U.S. imported $80.7 billion more than it exported, just shy of the one-month record of $80.8 billion set in September. The country’s total imports in December amounted to $308.9 billion, as compared with $228.1 billion in exports. 

A sign of economic health 

Although a trade deficit is often cast in negative terms, economists usually see it as a sign of economic strength, indicating a net flow of investment into the country. 

“Whenever the U.S. economy is doing well, the deficit gets worse,” Joseph Francois, an economist and the managing director of the World Trade Institute at the University of Bern, Switzerland, told VOA.  

A strong U.S. economy attracts foreign investment, helping to create new jobs and driving up consumption, much of which is targeted at goods manufactured overseas, Francois said.  

“You’ve got more investment coming in, because people want to put more money in the U.S. economy when it’s doing better,” Francois said. “And the result is the trade deficit looks worse, especially for merchandise. So in a sense, when the economy is doing what it is doing now – creating lots of jobs and recovering from the COVID recession – you’re going to see an increase in the deficit relative to the baseline that we had before.” 

Francois also pushed back against the common misconception that a trade deficit in the U.S. somehow translates into fewer jobs for American workers.  

“The idea that somehow, if the deficit is big, you’re losing jobs just runs counter to the facts,” he said. “When the economy does better, the deficit gets bigger. Again, keep in mind, you want more investment. That’s what generates jobs. And you can’t have net investment unless you’ve got a trade deficit.” 

Biden administration touts economic improvement 

A spokesperson for the National Security Council told VOA the White House sees the trade figures released Tuesday as part of a larger positive story about the direction of the U.S. economy, while at the same time pointing to efforts to increase exports. 

“Over the course of 2021, our exports also recovered from the pandemic-induced decline of 2020,” the spokesperson said. “For example, during President Biden’s first 11 months in office, American agricultural exports reached a record $160 billion, generating an estimated $342 billion in total economic output and supporting more than 1.2 million jobs here in the United States.” 

The NSC spokesperson also mentioned the Biden administration’s efforts to sell more U.S. goods abroad, noting agreements with the United Kingdom and the European Union on the sale of civilian aircraft and a broader agreement on steel and aluminum. 

“That being said, the trade deficit does not determine American prosperity or American influence in the world,” the spokesperson said. “In fact, the recent rise in the deficit is primarily a sign of the strength of the economic recovery and the efforts the administration has made to resolve supply chain disruptions.” 

Deficit with China remains largest  

China remains the single largest source of the U.S. trade deficit, accounting for $355.3 billion of the total deficit in 2021, or 41% of the total. That figure was up from $310.3 billion in 2020, but reflected a lower percentage of the total deficit. 

The next-largest single-country trade deficit posted by the U.S. in 2021 was with Mexico, which exported $108.2 billion more in goods and services to the U.S. than it imported, a decline from a deficit of $113.7 billion in 2020. 

The U.S. also ran a net deficit with the countries of the European Union, importing $219.6 billion more in goods and services than it exported, an increase of 19.1% over 2020. However, the net deficit with the EU reflected roughly the same percentage of the total trade deficit, about 26%, as it had a year earlier. 

Trade tensions with China persist 

U.S. officials remain frustrated by the fact that China has not yet complied with the obligations it undertook in the so-called Phase One trade deal negotiated by the Trump administration in January 2020. The deal was an effort to lower tensions in the trade war that erupted between the two nations during Trump’s term in office. 

Under the deal, the Chinese government had promised to increase its imports from the U.S. by $200 billion over and above its pre-2020 levels. 

An analysis released by the Peterson Institute for International Economics on Tuesday pointed out that since then, China’s purchases of U.S. goods have fallen far short of those promises. 

“In the end, China bought only 57 percent of the US exports it had committed to purchase under the agreement, not even enough to reach its import levels from before the trade war,” the analysis found. “Put differently, China bought none of the additional $200 billion of exports Trump’s deal had promised.” 

In a press conference at the White House on Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the Biden administration had, through the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, “expressed our concerns” about the issue. “It is on China to show that it can follow through on its commitment,” Psaki said. 

Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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In a surprising burst of hiring, America’s employers added a robust 467,000 jobs last month, a sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of a wave of omicron infections. 

The government’s report Friday also drastically revised up its estimate of job gains for November and December by a combined 709,000. It also said the unemployment rate ticked up from 3.9% to a still-low 4%, mainly because more people began looking for work and not all of them found jobs right away. 

The strong hiring growth for January, which defied expectations for only a slight gain, demonstrated the eagerness of many employers to hire even as the pandemic raged. Businesses appear to have regarded the omicron wave as having, at most, a temporary impact on the economy and remain confident about their longer-term prospects. 

“Employers have assumed that omicron would be painful but short term, so they haven’t changed their hiring plans,” said Mathieu Stevenson, the CEO of Snagajob, a job listings site focused on hourly workers. “Demand from employers is as strong as ever.” 

January’s hiring gain and sharp upward revisions to previous months mean that the United States has 1.1 million more jobs than government data had indicated only a month ago. The solid hiring, along with steady wage gains, are boosting consumer spending, which has collided with snarled supply chains to accelerate inflation to a four-decade high. 

Adjusted for price increases, Americans’ paychecks on average don’t go as far as they did a year ago, even though many workers have received raises. Many households, especially lower-income families, are struggling to afford necessities like gas, food, rent and child care. 

Those trends will give the Federal Reserve more leeway to raise interest rates, perhaps even faster than it had planned, to cool inflation. The Fed has indicated that it will begin raising rates in March, and it could do so again at its next meeting in May. Faster rate hikes could reduce borrowing and spending and possibly weaken the economy. 

Stocks initially fell on the expectation that the Fed will tighten credit more quickly, before share prices recovered in early afternoon. But the yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped nearly one-tenth of a percentage point, to 1.91%, a sign that investors anticipate higher borrowing costs. 

Across the economy, most industries hired workers last month, including retailers, which added more than 61,000 jobs, and restaurants and hotels, which gained 131,000. Shipping and warehousing firms added 54,000. Many companies in those industries likely held onto some of the workers they had hired over the winter holidays, economists said, rather than laying them all off. 

Omicron did leave some fingerprints on the report: The percentage of Americans who were working from home rose to more than 15%, up from 11% in December. And the number of people out sick last month soared to 3.6 million, up from fewer than 2 million in the previous January and about triple the pre-pandemic level. This forced many companies, from restaurants to retailers to manufacturers, to reduce their hours or even close because of staff shortages. 

Among the workers who were out sick was Perla Hernandez, whose entire family of eight contracted COVID last month. Hernandez and her husband and 20-year old daughter all missed work, a major blow to the family’s finances. 

Hernandez, 42, who lives in the San Jose, California, area, missed six days from her job as a Burger King cook and janitor. Because she has no paid sick leave, the paycheck she receives every two weeks amounted to just $230. 

About one-fifth of U.S. workers receive no sick pay, and the proportion is far higher among lower-paid service workers. Only 33% of workers who are at the bottom 10% of the pay scale receive paid sick leave, compared with 95% of employees in the top 10%. 

“Thank God that we already had paid the rent for January,” she said through an interpreter. “We had to go to a food bank.” 

Hernandez said she earns $15.45 an hour, after having received a 45-cent raise six months ago. But she and her colleagues, including managers, have been working especially long hours because the restaurant has had difficulty hiring. 

Daniel Zhao, senior economist at the employment website Glassdoor, said the healthy hiring — not only for January but also for November and December — is a sign that last month’s gains weren’t merely a blip. 

“This is an actual trend, and job growth was faster than we realized,” Zhao said. 

A greater proportion of Americans are also now working or looking for work, the report showed, a trend that makes it easier for companies to find workers. It suggests that concerns about long-term labor shortages may have been overblown, at least in some industries. 

“There are workers out there — it’s just taking time to integrate them back into the labor force,” Zhao said. 

Grady Cope, the CEO of Reata Engineering and Machine Works, said nine of his 43 staffers were out sick last month — the most he can remember in nearly 30 years of running the company. 

But Cope’s company, which makes parts for airplane and medical device manufacturers, also has the biggest order backlog it’s ever had. He wants to add at least eight employees, including machinists, assemblers and engineers. Last month, he raised pay 18%, far more than the usual 3%-4% increases. His company is based near Denver, where rents and other costs are rising fast. 

“People have to have wages so they can support themselves and raise families,” he said. 

Still, Cope has been increasing his own prices to offset his workers’ higher pay. The competition for workers, he said, is the toughest he’s ever seen. In October, four of his workers quit. Only one gave notice. 

“That’s never happened in 28 years,” he said. 

The overall outlook for the job market remains bright, with openings near a record high, the pace of layoffs down and the unemployment rate having already reached a healthy level. The nation gained more jobs last year, adjusted for the size of the workforce, than in any year since 1978. Much of that improvement represented a rebound from record job losses in 2020 that were driven by the pandemic recession. 

 
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Norway’s central bank, Norges Bank, announced Friday it has appointed NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to take over as its next governor after his term leading the military alliance ends later this year.

The central bank announced the appointment in a statement on its website, saying Stoltenberg had been appointed by Norway’s King Harald V. 

Stoltenberg will take over from current Norges Bank Governor Øystein Olsen, who is retiring later this month after holding the position since Jan. 1, 2011.

The 62-year-old Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, also served as finance minister from 1996 to 2000. He had previously said if he got the central bank governor position, he wouldn’t be able to start before leaving his NATO job on Oct. 1.

The central bank statement said it hopes Stoltenberg can start in his new role by Dec. 1. Until then, Norges Bank Deputy Governor Ida Wolden Bache will run the bank in an interim capacity beginning March 1.

In a statement, Norway’s current finance minister, Trygve Slagsvold, said he had been “concerned with identifying the best central bank governor for Norway, and I’m convinced that this is Jens Stoltenberg.”

The appointment ends speculation that Stoltenberg would stay on at NATO, and the search for a successor must now begin ahead of a meeting of member nation leaders in June this year.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

 
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The same technology companies that helped drag the U.S. stock market back from the depths of the pandemic recession in 2021 led the market into a sharp plunge on Thursday after Meta Platforms, the company that owns Facebook, revealed that user growth on its marquee product has hit a plateau, and revenue from advertising has fallen off sharply.

Meta was not the only U.S. tech company to suffer on Thursday. Snap Inc., the owner of Snapchat; Pinterest, Twitter, PayPal, Spotify and Amazon all suffered sharp sell-offs during trading.

U.S. tech stocks are facing a variety of major challenges right now, including a possible economic slowdown, changes to privacy rules, increased regulatory pressure and competitive challenges that have pushed users — especially young people — to new platforms such as TikTok.

Every major U.S. stock index was down significantly on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling by 1.45%, the S&P 500 down 2.44%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq down 3.74%.

Meta’s Facebook struggles

Although the pain was spread broadly across the tech sector Thursday, it was the travails of Facebook that captured much of the public’s attention. The company’s shares, which were trading at $323 when the markets closed Wednesday, opened on Thursday at $242.48 and never recovered, closing at $237.76.

The 27% decline in the company’s share value translated into a loss of more than $230 billion in market value, an utterly unprecedented one-day loss for a single firm.

The share price began its tumble after the company announced for the first time ever that its total number of monthly users had not risen in the fourth quarter of 2021. Additionally, in its key North American market, Facebook saw monthly users decline slightly.

The stagnant user figures raised concerns about the company’s ability to grow even as more bad news poured in from its advertising business, which generates the overwhelming majority of the company’s profits.

Last year, Apple changed the privacy setting on its iPhones and other devices, requiring apps, including Facebook, to get each user’s explicit permission to track their activity on the internet. Prior to that change, Facebook had made extensive use of tracking software to deliver targeted advertising to its users — something its advertising clients were willing to pay a significant premium for.

Since Apple instituted the change, the majority of users have declined to allow Facebook to track their browsing, greatly diminishing the company’s ability to target advertisements. On Thursday, Meta Chief Financial Officer David Wehner told investors the company expects the changes to cost it $10 billion in advertising revenue in 2022.

Trouble with young users

Facebook has long struggled to attract younger users to its platform, and on Thursday, company officials admitted that the firm is finding it difficult to compete with TikTok, an app created by the Chinese firm ByteDance, which allows users to share brief videos.

In a call with investors, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company’s answer to TikTok, a service called Reels, is still being developed.

“Over time, we think that there is potential for a tremendous amount of overall engagement growth” he said. “We think it’s definitely the right thing to lean into this and push as hard to grow Reels as quickly as possible and not hold on the brakes at all, even though it may create some near-term slower growth than we would have wanted.”

Zuckerberg, who holds 55% of the voting shares of Meta, giving him de facto control of the company, saw his personal wealth fall by an estimated $24 billion as a result of Thursday’s market rout.

Economic headwinds

Over the past year, investors have consistently pushed the share prices of U.S. tech firms higher. Now, though, with the Federal Reserve preparing a series of interest rate increases meant to cool the U.S. economy and slow price inflation, investors appear to be reconsidering the prices they are willing to pay.

Investors typically judge the value of a stock based on its price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, which is determined by dividing the share price by the fraction of the company’s earnings represented by an individual share of stock.

When a company’s shares trade at a high P/E ratio that is usually because investors expect the underlying business to continue growing. However, that growth can be hampered by a slowdown in the broader economy, something many investors expect to see in the coming m

Political challenges

In addition to concerns about economic headwinds, the tech sector is facing a distinctly unfriendly regulatory environment in the U.S. Lawmakers in both parties have expressed their concern that big technology companies enjoy too much influence over areas like popular culture and political discourse but face too little accountability.

Facebook and its subsidiary, Instagram, were subjected to hostile congressional hearings last year, after a whistleblower revealed internal documents that showed the companies understood that their products could be harmful to some users but took little action to address the issue.

During the hearings, high-profile lawmakers, including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, called for Facebook to be broken up into multiple, smaller companies.

 
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Mali has failed to meet debt payments of some $40 million in treasury bonds, blaming sanctions imposed on the country’s military junta by West African bloc ECOWAS.

The Malian Economy and Finance Ministry released a statement on Tuesday saying that recently imposed sanctions have prevented them from paying debt on treasury bonds totaling almost $5 million.

UMOA-Titres, the agency that manages public securities in the West African CFA franc zone, issued three separate statements to investors this week stating that Mali has missed several payments totaling $40 million.

Both the Economic Community of West African States and the West African Economic and Monetary Union imposed sanctions on Mali last month after the country’s military junta, which seized power last year, postponed elections.

The sanctions froze Mali’s assets held by the Senegal-based Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO).

Modibo Mao Makalou is an economist and former economic advisor to the Malian presidency. Speaking from Bamako via messaging app, he said that because of the sanctions, not only will the Malian government be unable to pay the state’s debt, but it will also be unable to pay for internal operations.

“If the state does not manage to refinance itself, not only with regard to the expenses for staff, but also energy, communication expenses, expenses for missions, including military operations — this will prevent the state from functioning on a daily basis,” he said.

The Central Bank of West African States serves the eight countries in West Africa that share a common currency, the West African CFA franc.

Kobi Annan, a risk consultant based in Accra with Songhai Advisory, an economic and risk consultancy firm focused on sub-Saharan Africa, says that Mali has some reserves that will carry the country through the next few months.

He says making Mali default on the debt is exactly how the West African sanctions are designed to work, to put pressure on the transitional authorities.

“This would be fully expected; this is part of why it’s done that way, to make things more difficult for Mali,” said Annan. “If you default on debt or if you don’t pay back debt, then you are deemed a higher risk, meaning that borrowing when you are able to becomes more expensive.”

Annan and Makalou both assert that eventually, as the Malian government becomes less able to access or borrow money and as its reserves dwindle, social services are likely to be affected, bringing the effects of the financial sanctions against the state into the lives of ordinary Malians.

Mali’s transitional military government has widespread support from the Malian population. Since being sanctioned, the government has not proposed a new election timeline, but has expressed a willingness to continue dialogue with ECOWAS.

The ministry’s statement added that debts would be paid as soon as restrictions are lifted.
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The most recent COVID-19 cases in China have put even more stress on an already strained supply chain, causing delays in the shipping of everyday items to the United States. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee shows what one business is doing to alleviate the problem.
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New claims for jobless benefits fell in the United States last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, as many employers hung on to the workers they have and searched for more.

The agency said 238,000 unemployed workers filed for compensation, down 23,000 from the revised figure of the week before. The new total was in line with the claim figures from recent weeks as the U.S. economy, the world’s largest, continues to recover from the havoc inflicted on it by the advance of the coronavirus pandemic that swept into the country nearly two years ago.

Analysts now are awaiting the government’s release Friday of January’s employment picture in the U.S., the number of new jobs created last month and the unemployment rate, which was 3.9% in December.

The U.S. economy added a modest 199,000 new jobs in December, and analysts say January’s figure may not be much different, perhaps even smaller, as the number of new omicron variant coronavirus cases surged early in January and then waned, after the employment data was collected at mid-month.

Many employers are looking for more workers, despite about 6.9 million workers remaining unemployed in the U.S.  

At the end of November, there were 10.4 million job openings in the U.S., but the skills of available workers often do not match what employers want, or the job openings are not where the unemployed live. In addition, many of the available jobs are low-wage service positions that the jobless are shunning. 

But overall, the U.S. economy is surging, advancing by 5.7% in 2021, the fastest full-year gain since 1984, the Commerce Department reported last week. 

The sharp growth in the world’s biggest economy showed its resiliency, even as the U.S. struggled to cope last year with two new coronavirus variants that hobbled some industries, caused supply chain issues for consumer goods that at times left store shelves empty, and led to a 7% year-over-year surge in consumer prices that was the highest in four decades.

But for the year, a record 6.4 million jobs were created, and most of the jobs lost at the outset of the pandemic in early 2020 have been recovered.

Some economic analysts say that even if the January jobs number is weak, it may be a temporary setback because the number of new coronavirus cases has been dropping sharply in the U.S. to under 400,000 new cases a day, about half of what it was just weeks ago.

The country’s robust economy pushed Federal Reserve policymakers last week to announce they could boost their benchmark interest rate as early as March after keeping it near 0% since the coronavirus first swept into the United States in March 2020. 

The Fed could increase the rate several more times this year, which could have a broad effect on borrowing costs for consumers and businesses.
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The Treasury Department this week reported that the total national debt of the United States surpassed $30 trillion for the first time in history, an amount equal to nearly 130% of America’s yearly economic output, known as gross domestic product. The eye-popping figure makes the U.S. one of the most heavily indebted nations in the world. 

The federal debt has been high and rising for decades, but the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which involved massive infusions of cash into the U.S. economy, greatly accelerated its growth.  

At the end of 2019, prior to the pandemic, the national debt stood at $22.7 trillion. One year later, it had risen by an additional $5 trillion, to $27.7 trillion. Since then, the nation has added more than $2 trillion in further debt. 

A grim reminder 

While the $30 trillion figure, by itself, has no significant meaning, it may serve to focus attention on what some see as a major concern for the future health of the country. 

“Hitting the $30 trillion mark is a reminder of just how high our debt is and just how much we’ve been borrowing,” said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president and senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.  

“Debt held by the public, which is the measure we prefer to use, is about as large as the economy,” Goldwein told VOA. “In a decade, it’ll be larger than any time since World War II. Meanwhile, we have the highest inflation rate we’ve had in 40 years, and there doesn’t seem to be any sign that the borrowing is going to let up.” 

Different debtors 

The $30 trillion in outstanding debt is owed to a wide variety of creditors, including the federal government itself. 

According to the Treasury Department, as of January 31, $6.5 trillion of the national debt was classified as “intragovernmental holdings.” This includes Treasury securities held by various agencies of the federal government, most prominently the Social Security Administration, which maintains a trust fund to provide income to senior citizens. 

The far larger portion of the debt is classified as debt held by the public, which amounts to $23.5 trillion. The term “public” can be somewhat misleading because the category includes not just the debt instruments held by individual investors but also the debts held by the Federal Reserve, large investment funds and foreign governments. 

According to the Treasury Department, foreign governments hold about $7.7 trillion in U.S. debt, though no country holds more than 5% of the total. As of the end of November, the most recent data available, Japan was the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, with $1.3 trillion. China was the second-largest holder of U.S. debt, with $1.1 trillion, while the United Kingdom was in distant third place, with $622 billion. 

The cost of debt 

The cost of servicing the country’s outstanding debt has become a major part of the federal budget as the outstanding debt has grown. In 2021, the government made $562 billion in interest payments on outstanding debt. That is more than the annual budget of every individual federal agency except for the Treasury, the Department of Health and Human Services (which manages the Medicare and Medicaid government health insurance programs), and the Department of Defense. 

Surprisingly, during the early part of the pandemic, the federal government’s interest payments fell even as the debt increased, because of a broad decline in interest rates. 

However, with the Federal Reserve poised to begin raising interest rates in an attempt to ward off rising inflation, the rate the Treasury has to pay on newly issued debt will likely rise, meaning that the overall cost of servicing the federal debt will likely go up in the relatively near future. 

Comparison with other countries 

The United States’ ratio of debt to GDP, the measure most commonly used to gauge a country’s level of indebtedness, places it among the most indebted countries in the world. 

According to data gathered by the World Bank in October, the country with the world’s highest debt-to-GDP ratio is Japan, which carries debt equivalent to 257% of its economic output. Other developed economies with very high debt-to-GDP ratios include Greece, at 207%, and Italy, at 155%. 

With a ratio of 133%, the U.S. is the 12th most indebted country overall, and the fourth most indebted among the developed economies that make up the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD average is an 80% debt-to-GDP ratio. 

Both parties added to debt 

The national debt is the cumulative total of annual federal deficits. The U.S. has seen federal surpluses in just four of the past 50 years, from 1998 to 2001, encompassing the last three years of the administration of Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and the first year of the administration of George W. Bush, a Republican.  

In recent decades, both Democrats and Republicans have contributed to the rising levels of federal borrowing, with the debt increasing on a regular basis, regardless of which party controlled Congress and the White House. 

It’s a fact that causes some members of Congress to express frustration with their colleagues over a seeming lack of concern about the problem. 

“$30 trillion in debt is an obscene number, but what’s even more depressing is the fact that most politicians in both parties don’t really care,” Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, said in a statement. “Someone is going to have to pay that money when these politicians are long gone, and — spoiler alert — it won’t be paid by them but instead by our kids.” 

 
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