Aurelia Butler

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a $1.2 trillion budget bill to keep the U.S. government funded through a fiscal year that began six months ago and to avert a partial shutdown, according to a statement released by the White House.”The bipartisan funding bill I just signed keeps the government open, invests in the American people, and strengthens our economy and national security,” Biden said in the statement. More

NEW YORK (Reuters) – While the increase in interest rates engineered by the Federal Reserve over the last two years put a damper on the overall U.S. housing market, it took a sledge hammer to home flippers from small contractors to reality TV stars.Just ask Tarek El Moussa, star of HGTV’s “The Flipping El Moussas” and former co-host of the real estate and renovation focused channel’s mainstay, “Flip or Flop.” “How do I account for [interest rates]? I got my ass kicked last year. I lost a lot of money. And that’s just the reality of the business,” said El Moussa.Indeed, house flipping – or investing in, and often renovating, a single-family home with the intent to sell for a profit – has fallen from heights seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of Americans acting as investors in the housing market dived 38.85% between 2021 and 2023’s fourth quarter, according to property data provider ATTOM Data Solutions. Through the fourth quarter of 2023, the share of homes purchased by investors fell 11% on a year-over-year basis, a report from real estate and mortgage firm Redfin (NASDAQ:RDFN) said. Even so, housing investors spent $32.3 billion on homes in the U.S. in 2023, compared with $33.6 billion a year earlier, and flippers bought 26% of the lowest-priced homes during 2023’s fourth quarter, Redfin said.FRENETIC MARKET HGTV’s El Moussa bought 91 homes in 2021 – garnering him a $600,000 average monthly mortgage payment. Then mortgage rates surged, home sales in southern California plunged, and he found himself with inventory he could not offload.Home flipping does best in a frenetic “buyer’s market,” with prices rising amid increased transactions, said Chen Zhao, Redfin’s senior economist. After the Fed began hiking rates in March 2022 to lower inflation, buyers and sellers held off, creating gridlock in the housing market. Rates eventually reached a two-decade high near 8% in October, and the resulting market has presented investors with the same issue home-buyers face – limited inventory and lukewarm demand. Rates have eased somewhat: Freddie Mac said on Thursday the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.87%. Still, the current scene is a striking departure from the onset of the pandemic when sub-4% mortgage rates and heightened demand could promise a juicy profit.LOWER MARGINS, LABOR TROUBLESFor Elisa Covington, an investor based in the San Francisco Bay Area, a return on investment during 2021 often swung between 60% and 70%, she said, occasionally hitting 100%. “In 2021 and early 2022, my projects were getting much higher returns,” Covington said. “But this year the profit margin for most of my projects have been in line with my expectations” of 30% to 40%.Lack of homebuyer demand would make it easier on investors looking for single family homes, but reduced inventory has largely outweighed that, cutting into acquisition trends.Julio Martinez, co-owner and broker at JATS Properties in Los Angeles, said “2023 was kind of weird.” He acquired just six homes last year and even that was due to several of the properties being in foreclosure. If not for that, “we probably would’ve only done one or two.”Some construction companies say cooling home investment has cut into new business activity. Ghulam Mustafa, owner of New-York based Sahara Builders, said the decline in his firm’s full-gut renovation projects since the pandemic has caused a 40% decline in profit since 2021 through the end of 2023.Last year “was much slower than the pandemic,” Mustafa said.For contractors who don’t build new homes, steady project supply in the absence of gut-renovations is replaced by smaller-ticket refurbishing projects for existing home-owners, RedFin’s Zhao said.For house flippers, meanwhile, lower profits have reduced the labor they can hire for renovations, which can decelerate sales. JATS Properties’ Martinez had to let go of a full-time handyman, he said. In addition to property flipping, his family-owned company operates as brokers and property managers, so that labor loss meant less attention to home-flip projects.”We had to slow [workers] down on our projects, and lend them out to our clients,” said Martinez. “Typically we take first priority because they’re our employees. But when we don’t have the funds to cover our own projects, we have them work on our clients’ homes. It’s taking the burden of expense of those employees off our backs.”FADING STARSAmid the slow turnover, flippers are diversifying their activities.Martinez, who saw transaction volume in 2023 fall by half from 2021, began making property-secured loans to aspiring investors. And El Moussa, who needed to gird for losses he knew were coming from unsold flipper projects, shifted to buying home purchase contracts wholesale and selling to investors, deals that typically net smaller margins but are less risky than traditional flipping.”In order to get prepared for those losses that were coming, I stopped buying houses to flip and I only focused on wholesaling,” he said.The story has changed for the house flipper reality TV landscape as well.HGTV ad revenue slid from a four-year high of $42.7 million in 2021 to $32.6 million in 2023, according to data from iSpot.TV, a television ad measurement company, though it continues to hold dominant share in its market segment.Shows like The El Moussas have increasingly incorporated discussions on rates, slow turnover, and price acceleration in Southern California to keep viewers engaged, said Loren Ruch, head of home content at HGTV. Show development focus has turned to standalone secondary homes, for example a guest house, and multi-generational living.”People might not be spending huge amounts of money on design or renovation projects, so we’re also looking into a variety of shows that are more approachable price points that are maybe based on not doing as much demolition, but actually focusing on the space and the configuration,” said Ruch. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A $1.2 trillion government funding bill passed by Congress will allow the U.S. to lend up to $21 billion to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) trust to help the world’s poorest countries, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Saturday.Yellen said the funding would make the United States the largest supporter of the IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT), which provides zero-interest rate loans to support low-income countries as they work to stabilize their economies, boost growth and improve debt sustainability.Congress approved the bill with a Senate vote after midnight, avoiding a government shutdown. The IMF spending will make good on a promise President Joe Biden made over two years ago with other leaders from the Group of 20 large economies to provide $100 billion to support low-income and vulnerable countries recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and struggling with macroeconomic risks.The PRGT is the IMF’s main vehicle for providing zero-interest loans to low-income countries to support their economic programs and help leverage additional financing from donors, development institutions, and the private sector.Since the beginning of the pandemic, the IMF says it has supported more than 50 low-income countries with some $30 billion in interest-free loans via the PRGT, reducing instability in poor countries from Haiti to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nepal.The IMF expects demand for PRGT lending to reach nearly $40 billion this year, more than four times the historical average. “Today’s development marks a key milestone in the United States meeting its commitment to provide support to low-income countries that are still bearing economic scarring from the pandemic, while responding to high debt vulnerabilities, climate risks, and spillovers from Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Yellen said in a statement first reported by Reuters.Kevin Gallagher, director of Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center, said the long-delayed U.S. funding came “just in nick of time, given exorbitant interest rates in poorer countries, especially in Africa,” that have hit low-income countries hard, compounding already high debt burdens.He noted that Congress had refused to approve Treasury’s plans to loan some of the funds to the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust, set up to provide funding for countries to work on climate change and other challenges.Yellen said the funding for the IMF reflected Washington’s ongoing support for the institution and the unique role it plays in the international monetary system through its policy advice, capacity development and lending and focus on good governance, robust economic reforms and necessary adjustment.”I look forward to continuing our partnership with the IMF to support the needs of low-income countries,” Yellen said. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed a $1.2 trillion budget bill, keeping the government funded through a fiscal year that began six months ago and sending it to President Joe Biden to sign into law and avert a partial shutdown.The vote on passage was 74-24.Key federal agencies including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State and Treasury, which houses the Internal Revenue Service, will remain funded through Sept. 30 after the bill was passed in the Democratic-majority Senate.But the measure did not include funding for mostly military aid to Ukraine, Taiwan or Israel, which are included in a different Senate-passed bill that the Republican-led House of Representatives has ignored.Senate leaders spent hours on Friday negotiating a number of amendments to the budget bill that ultimately were defeated. The delay pushed passage beyond a Friday midnight deadline.But the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a statement saying agencies would not be ordered to shut, expressing confidence that the Senate would promptly pass the bill, which it did.While Congress got the job done, deep partisan divides were on display again, as well as bitter disagreement within the House’s narrow and fractious Republican majority. Conservative firebrand Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene threatened to force a vote to remove Speaker Mike Johnson, a fellow Republican, for allowing the measure to pass.The 1,012-page bill provides $886 billion in funding for the Defense Department, including a raise for U.S. troops. Biden, a Democrat, has indicated he will sign it.Johnson, as he has done more than 60 times since succeeding his ousted predecessor Kevin McCarthy in October, relied on a parliamentary maneuver on Friday to bypass hardliners within his own party, allowing the measure to pass by a 286-134 vote that had substantially more Democratic support than Republican.For most of the past six months, the government was funded with four short-term stopgap measures, a sign of the repeated brinkmanship that ratings agencies have warned could hurt the creditworthiness of a federal government that has nearly $34.6 trillion in debt.”This legislation is truly a national security bill — 70% of the funding in this package is for our national defense, including investments that strengthen our military readiness and industrial base, provide pay and benefit increases for our brave servicemembers and support our closest allies,” said Republican Senator Susan Collins, one of the main negotiators. Opponents cast the bill as too expensive.”It’s reckless. It leads to inflation. It’s a direct vote to steal your paycheck,” said Senator Rand Paul, part of a band of Republicans who generally oppose most spending bills.The last partial federal government shutdown occurred during Donald Trump’s presidency, from Dec. 22, 2018 until Jan. 25, 2019. The record-long interruption in government services came as the Republican insisted on money to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and was unable to broker a deal with Democrats.GREENE LASHES OUTThe new budget bill passed the House with 185 Democratic and 101 Republican votes, which led Greene, a hardline conservative, to introduce her measure to oust Johnson.That move had echoes of October, when a small band of hardliners engineered a vote that removed McCarthy for relying on Democrats to pass a stopgap measure to avert another partial government shutdown. They had been angry at McCarthy since June, when he agreed with Biden on the outlines of the fiscal 2024 spending that were passed on Friday.McCarthy’s ouster brought the House to a halt for three weeks as Republicans struggled to agree on a new leader, an experience many in the party said they did not want to repeat as the November election draws nearer.And Greene said she would not push for an immediate vote on her move to force Johnson out.”I filed a motion to vacate today. But it’s more of a warning than a pink slip,” the Georgia Republican told reporters.Indeed, some Democrats said on Friday that they would vote to keep Johnson, if he were to call a vote on a $95 billion security assistance package already approved by the Senate for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.That measure is unlikely to come up anytime soon, as lawmakers will now leave Washington for a two-week break.Pockets of Republican opposition to more funding for Ukraine have led to fears that Russia could seriously erode Kyiv’s ability to continue defending itself.Life is unlikely to become easier for Johnson anytime soon, with the looming departure of two members of his caucus – Ken Buck and Mike Gallagher – set to whittle his majority to a mere 217-213 in a month’s time. At that point, Johnson could afford to lose only one vote from his party on any measure that Democrats unite to oppose. More

The Senate was quickly working its way through a series of proposed amendments – all of which were expected to fail – before casting votes on passing the bill, which was approved on Friday in the House of Representatives. If successful, as expected, the Senate would dispatch the 1,012-page bill that includes funding for the Defense, Homeland Security and other federal agencies to President Joe Biden for signing into law.After a long day of negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans over amendments that could be offered, the Senate failed to meet the Friday midnight deadline for approving the massive bill. Temporary funding was expiring at that deadline.But the White House Office of Management and Budget promptly announced that it would cease plans for shutting federal agencies given its confidence in the Senate’s ability to approve the full funding for about two-thirds of government programs for the rest of the fiscal year, ending on Sept. 30.Earlier this month Congress approved funding for the other one-third of discretionary programs. More

TOKYO (Reuters) – On an overcast day in Tokyo this week, three dozen men and women strolled through a botanical garden in groups of four, making awkward conversation as they searched for clues to a mystery-solving game – and a potential partner for life.They are participants in one of the many matchmaking events the government of Japan’s capital has been hosting for years in an attempt, so far unsuccessful, to reverse declines in marriages and births.Having organised parties and offered dating and fashion advice, the metropolis of 14 million now hopes for a broader reach and better results by releasing an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered dating app as early as this spring.The app will ask matrimonial hopefuls more than 100 questions, such as “What kind of person can you not stand?” and “Are you comfortable sharing your feelings?”. It will suggest matches using big data gleaned from responses from 150,000 couples.Tokyo plans to vet users through online interviews and require a certificate proving their single status in a process that Kaori Shiratori, a 56-year-old civil servant who won the lottery to the event at the botanical garden, found reassuring.”I’d like to try the new app,” she said, before leaving the Vernal Equinox Day function without a match. “I tried to work up the courage to talk to this one man I thought was attractive, but everyone rushed to him so I had no chance.”A 32-year-old who asked to be identified only by his last name, Fujita, said he used to hesitate to look for a partner because he was a part-time worker. After securing a stable job at a nursing home, he is now keen to find someone to spend time with, mountain climbing and visiting temples.”I can trust the app if it’s overseen by Tokyo because I think they would more carefully handle personal information,” he said.With a population set to start shrinking from 2030, Tokyo will nearly double to 335 million yen ($2.2 million) its budget for marriage-support services in the fiscal year starting next month. The capital joins nearby governments such as in Saitama and Ibaraki prefectures in offering matchmaking app services.Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government has also identified Japan’s sagging birthrate – the national population has been falling since its 2008 peak – as a top problem requiring action this decade.Nearly one-third of Tokyo men in their 50s have never been married, while data gathered by Recruit Holdings shows 46% of men and 30% of women in their 20s in Japan have never dated. “We’re trying to create an easy entry point for those wanting to marry but who don’t know where to go or are afraid to start,” said Tokyo government official Asako Suyama, who leads the city’s marriage-support services.The new app, which will be available for those residing, working or studying in Tokyo, will also require proof of income.($1 = 151.5700 yen)(This story has been refiled to remove an extraneous word from paragraph 3) More

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Iceland plans to prioritise food security over financial gain, planting corn and curbing bitcoin miners as the island state strives for more self-sufficiency in a hostile world.Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir told the Financial Times that recent protests by farmers in Europe and disruptions to trade meant the Nordic nation needed to reduce its reliance on imports.“It’s not exactly easy to be a farmer in Iceland. It’s not exactly great fields. You know, we have glaciers covering a large part of the country,” she said. “But it’s an important part of our strategy for security and safety in this world.”The Left-Green politician’s push on food security is coupled with an attempt to rein in energy-hungry bitcoin miners who have turned the island into a data-centre haven. Precious renewable electricity should be reallocated from data centres to housing and other industries, Jakobsdóttir added, saying her priority was the energy needs of Iceland’s 375,000 citizens.“Bitcoin is an issue worldwide . . . but data centres in Iceland use a significant share of our green energy,” she said. A new proposal to boost wind power would “prioritise” green industries to achieve carbon neutrality. “Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, which use a lot of our energy, are not part of that mission,” she said.Cheap and plentiful hydroelectric power has enticed energy-intensive data centres and bitcoin miners to the Arctic territory. Dozens of bitcoin groups consume 120MW of electricity, more than the country’s households, according to research firm Luxor.But shortages of electricity over the winter forced Icelandic fish-processing plants to turn to oil and diesel generators for their energy needs, something that Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, Iceland’s environment minister, described as “unacceptable”.Jakobsdóttir’s comments come amid concerns about food security in Europe as big agricultural exporters such as France and the Netherlands try to find ways to balance food production with the need to meet the EU’s stringent climate goals.The Dutch government has been closing farms so that The Hague can meet EU-imposed targets on reducing emissions. Ireland has floated similar proposals that would force farmers to cull 200,000 cattle.Iceland, where limited daylight and freezing temperatures make crop growing difficult, is introducing a new farm-funding system to boost production.Jakobsdóttir said: “One of the things that we are starting is to grow corn in Iceland, which hasn’t been done systematically, even though it’s possible.”Iceland produces most of the animal products it consumes, but only 1 per cent of its cereals and 43 per cent of vegetables. Only about a fifth of the country is used for agricultural production, according to the World Bank.Jakobsdóttir said the country was “very much reliant on imported corn” but “it’s also important to grow something ourselves” because of supply chain disruption. “We see a greater trend for isolationism in the world.” More

Polls are open in the first round of voting from 7:00 a.m. (0600 GMT) until 10:00 p.m. (2100 GMT). A run-off between the top two candidates is due on April 6 if no one wins a majority this weekend.Fico’s ally Peter Pellegrini, 48, has been a frontrunner in the race to replace President Zuzana Caputova, 50, who is a fierce opponent to Fico, although she is not seeking a new term.Fico returned to power in an election last September after winning over voters with pledges to halt military aid to Ukraine in its fight against a Russian invasion, keep up spending to help people hit by price surges, and end chaotic governance seen during a previous opposition-led administration.Pellegrini, a former prime minister and member of Fico’s leftist, ruling SMER party and now the head of junior coalition partner HLAS, is hoping to duplicate that success.Among the list of candidates, he is facing Ivan Korcok, 59, a pro-EU former foreign minister who wants to prevent the government from gaining the president’s seat.While Slovak presidents do not wield many executive powers, they have a role in appointments in government and other offices and can shape public debate as the liberal Caputova has often done.Voters in the past have often rejected giving ruling parties both the government and presidential offices. Caputova won the last presidential election in 2019, riding an anti-corruption wave aimed at Fico’s party, which was in power then.Fico, a four-time prime minister, has shifted Slovak policy quickly, most visibly by ending state military supplies to Ukraine – while still allowing commercial supply deals – and having dialogue with Moscow even as the EU wants to isolate the Russian regime.Pellegrini, like Fico, has said the conflict in Ukraine does not have a military solution and supports peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow, something that Korcok, like other critics, call capitulation when parts of Ukraine are occupied.Fico’s coalition government has also pushed through criminal law changes that critics say weaken the fight against corruption. Caputova, as president, has challenged the changes at the Constitutional Court.The government has also shut a special prosecution unit in a move the European Commision said this week it regretted.The government is now planning changes that will give it more control over public broadcaster RTVS, raising concern among media groups and advocates. Korcok has criticised the government’s push for more power. More