Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said that given current signs of a very strong labor market, the U.S. central bank is moving closer to a decision to begin gradually raising interest rates. In December, U.S. central bankers forecast that rates would rise three times this year and accelerated the pace of tapering their asset purchases to…
WASHINGTON- President Joe Biden on Friday announced the nominations of three people for the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, including Sarah Bloom Raskin, a former Fed and Treasury official, for the top regulatory slot and Lisa Cook, who would be the first Black woman to serve on the Fed's board. Biden also nominated Phillip Jefferson, an economist, dean of…
MONDAY, Jan. 17, 2022– U.S. insurers are paying millions of dollars a year to cover the cost of ivermectin for COVID-19 patients despite a lack of proof the anti-parasitic drug is effective against the virus, a new study finds. Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization say ivermectin pills— typically used to treat parasitic…
—A retired San Jose Police officer who owns a security business pleaded no contest to insurance fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, and worker exploitation and is expected to be sentenced to three years in jail, prosecutors said Friday. Robert Foster, who retired from the San Jose Police Department after he was charged in the case in July 2020, owns Atlas Private…
Federal Reserve Board governor Lael Brainard probably faces a clear path to becoming the Federal Reserve's second-in-command. Biden decided, though, to renominate Powell as Fed chair and tap Brainard for a more elevated spot on the board, a position that requires additional Senate approval. Republicans are particularly fixated on Brainard's attention to…
When Pedro Peña lost his job as a restaurant cook at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, he applied for Medicaid to replace his job-based insurance. But the Miami resident was repeatedly turned down for public health insurance because Florida is among the dozen states that have not expanded Medicaid to low-income adults. Shirley Dominguez, one of the…
The U.S. insurance industry recorded net premiums of $1.28 trillion in 2020, with life/annuity insurers accounting for 49%, according to the data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Moreover, there were 5,929 insurance companies in the U.S. in 2020, including 843 life/annuities and 995 health companies. Let’s take a look at the ten biggest life insurance […]
One of the problems that has affected life insurance companies in recent years is the low sales of one of their "star" products: life annuities. This was strongly reflected in 2021, since according to figures from the Financial Market Commission, last year the sector marketed a total of 11,527 of these policies, which meant a 16% drop compared to 2020, which had…
The states experiencing the highest inflation in the country are in the Mountain West: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. While the data is only for price trends, the gap highlights the large differences in the U.S. and the difficulties the Federal Reserve faces in controlling inflation. Consumer prices in the U.S. soared last…
Lawrence Rudolph A Pennsylvania dentist and big-game hunter killed his wife during a 2016 African hunting expedition to collect millions in life insurance money, federal authorities claim. Dr. Lawrence P. Rudolph, 67, was taken into custody last month and charged with one count of mail fraud, but federal prosecutors laid out an elaborate scheme claiming Lawrence intentionally…
At the start of a crucial midterm election year, the top political concerns of citizens in the United States are shifting and seem to indicate that Democrats face considerable difficulty in maintaining their control of Congress. A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Public Affairs Research Center reveals that pandemic management, once an issue strongly…
The scariest story I read over the holidays had nothing to do with winter wildfires, the COVID-flu combo or the threat of Russia invading Ukraine. It was Christopher Leonard's superb profile in Politico of Thomas Hoenig, a retired central banker. Mr. Hoenig made a name for himself after the financial crisis of 2008, as one of the top members of the Federal Reserve…
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell appears before lawmakers Tuesday morning for a Senate confirmation hearing teeing up his second term as chair, and he's expected to win enough support to secure another four years running the central bank. Just about everything else swirling around the economy is much less certain. Powell's appearance on Capitol Hill…
The Federal Reserve is on track to raise interest rates in March, economists say, as strong wage growth and falling unemployment reduce analysts' focus on monthly job creation. Figures released Friday showed a sharp slowdown in the number of new jobs in December. Stephen Juneau, an economist at Bank of America, said, "Although the payrolls number was a little weaker,…
“I needed the extra income,” said Durham, who is 67.“ Trying to live off of Social Security is just not an option. As costs rise, some seniors have turned to gig driver apps like Uber or Lyft to afford life in Tampa Bay. Florida, home to not one but three Fountains of Youth, has long been a magnet for older adults.
Stock markets fell sharply and yields on some major government bonds touched their highest level in years on Thursday after the Federal Reserve signaled the possibility of a faster-than-expected U.S. interest rate hike and the withdrawal of stimulus. Both Asian and European stock markets plunged after the Nasdaq lost more than 3% on Wall Street the day…
The White House is strongly considering nominating Sarah Bloom Raskin to become the Fed's top banking regulator, and Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson as Fed governors, according to people familiar with the decision-making progress. The nominees would complete Biden's roster to the Fed's seven-seat board, while appealing to Democrats who have pushed for…
The $44 billion insured losses from Covid-19 so far equal the third-largest catastrophe loss after Hurricane Katrina and the Sept. 11 attacks, insurance broker Howden said Tuesday. However, initial projections of more than $100 billion in insured losses from Covid-19 now appear "unlikely," Howden said in a report on reinsurance renewals.
CMS has pulled a controversial Trump-era model that would have tied Medicare Part B drug reimbursements to prices paid by countries overseas.
