August 2023
30Aug

Ghana Restructures $4 Billion in Latest Domestic Debt Exchange

Ghana agreed to terms to swap about $4 billion of domestic debt, taking another step toward meeting its obligations under an International Monetary Fund bailout. The results imply Ghana achieved about 95% target under the latest three debt exchange deals. The country’s Eurobond maturing in 2032 declined by 0.2 cents on Wednesday to 43.7 cents on the dollar. Notes maturing in 2051 dropped by a similar amount to 42 cents on the dollar. Pension funds agreed to exchange 29.6 billion cedis ($2.6...

August 30, 2023
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June 2023
09Jun

A Complaint Template for Legal Challenges to the Validity of the Statutory ‘Debt Ceiling’

By Robert C. Hockett The Statutory ‘Debt Ceiling’ appearing at 31 USC 3101(b), rooted in the Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917 aimed at expanding Treasury financing options during the First World War, is not valid in any application that would occasion default on U.S. sovereign debt, other contractual obligations, or Social Security or Veterans’ pension obligations. There are at least seven mutually reinforcing legal grounds for so saying. These include preemption of such application of the Ceiling by the...

June 9, 2023
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02Jun

US. Senate passes debt ceiling agreement; bill heads to Biden

With only days before a projected U.S. default, the Senate in a 63-36 vote on Thursday passed a bill to suspend the debt ceiling, sending the measure to President Joe Biden for signature. The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 will suspend the debt ceiling until January 2025 and cap federal spending for at least two years. The Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday estimated the bill will cut the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next decade. The measure was passed...

June 2, 2023
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01Jun

Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences

In the roughly 250 years since the Industrial Revolution the world’s population, like its wealth, has exploded. Before the end of this century, however, the number of people on the planet could shrink for the first time since the Black Death. The root cause is not a surge in deaths, but a slump in births. Across much of the world the fertility rate, the average number of births per woman, is collapsing. Although the trend may be familiar, its...

June 1, 2023
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May 2023
16May

What the debt ceiling standoff could mean for your retirement plans

President Biden is expected to meet with congressional leaders on Tuesday about the debt ceiling, with just about two weeks until the country could run out of money to pay its bills. Economists and administration officials have warned that a potential default on the national debt — for the first in U.S. history — would amount to financial disaster, wreaking havoc on the domestic economy and rattling global markets, too. "Our economy would fall into a significant recession," Biden told reporters...

May 16, 2023
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15May

US. Debt-ceiling apocalypse could offer opportunities as well, observers say

The ongoing debt-ceiling standoff between Democrats and Republicans could result in buying opportunities for institutional investors as long as widespread faith that the two sides will eventually do whatever is necessary to avoid a U.S. debt default proves well-founded. If not, all bets are off. For now, even as the "X-date" where the government won't be able to cover all of its Treasury bonds and bills coming due approaches— as early as June by some estimates — most market participants say...

May 15, 2023
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12May

Canada. British Columbia Investment Management hits pause on China deals

British Columbia's public pension manager has paused direct investments in China, the latest institutional investor to rethink its exposure to the world's second-largest economy due to geopolitical risks. A senior executive from British Columbia Investment Management revealed the policy during testimony this week to a Canadian parliamentary committee. Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has made a similar move, suspending new investments in private assets in China, Bloomberg reported in January. BCI still has Chinese investments, mostly through public markets and index funds,...

May 12, 2023
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09May

Belgium’s recovery plan blocked by pension reform stalemate

Belgium still has not made progress on the thorny pension reform issue even though it would unlock much-needed EU funds under the country’s recovery plan. On Monday, the government decided to increase its borrowing by €408 million to implement the Federal pillar of the recovery plan, Belgian news media La Libre reported. However, while the European Union paid Belgium €770 million of the €850 million of the first tranche in advance, the country was forced to postpone its first formal payment...

May 9, 2023
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05May

Developments in the Economics of Aging (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report)

By David A. Wise  The number of Americans eligible to receive Social Security benefits will increase from forty-five million to nearly eighty million in the next twenty years. Retirement systems must therefore adapt to meet the demands of the largest aging population in our nation’s history. In Developments in the Economics of Aging, David A. Wise and a distinguished group of analysts examine the economic issues that will confront policy makers as they seek to design policies to protect the...

May 5, 2023
Aging, Books, Books,
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April 2023
04Apr

U.K. extends pensions funds’ clearing obligation exemption for 2 more years

His Majesty's Treasury said it will exempt U.K. pension funds from the clearing obligation for an additional two years. Under the European Union's European Markets Infrastructure Regulation pension funds in Europe have until June 18 before they are obligated to clear derivatives. Under the rules of EMIR, all counterparties trading in the European Union are required to post cash, rather than bonds, as the collateral to clear derivatives' exposures. This could mean they have to liquidate otherwise long-term fixed-income investments if...

April 4, 2023
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