Aurelia Butler

“Now is the time given all of the near-term economic challenges we have got, some of the longer-term complexities we’re dealing with as well … to have a proper look, an independent, external expert look, at our Reserve Bank,” Chalmers told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television. The RBA has come under scrutiny for undershooting its 2-3% inflation target for much of the last decade, and more recently giving forward guidance during COVID-19 that rates were not expected to rise until at least 2024. In a bid to tame surging inflation, the RBA has instead raised interest rates for three months in a row, taking them to 1.35%, and a further hike is expected in August. “The breadth and depth of the expertise and experience on the RBA board is of interest to me, the inflation targeting regime, its objectives and mandates, its governance, the way it sets itself up,” Chalmers said. Canadian central banker Carolyn Wilkins, Australian National University economics professor Renee Fry-McKibbin and former Treasury official Gordon de Brouwer will conduct the independent review, media reports said, citing Chalmers.Chalmers told ABC he had “three absolutely top-shelf high-calibre people” to lead the review.”(They will) make sure that we have got the best set of arrangements and if there’s a better way to do it, let’s hear about it,” he said. More

Senator Todd Young, the Indiana Republican who has been leading the negotiations for his party, told reporters Tuesday that lawmakers are discussing a one-year extension to a tax break for R&D costs that expired at the end of 2021. The addition, which is still being debated, would let companies deduct research expenses in the year they’re incurred, rather than a multi-annual period.The addition would be a boon to technology, pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies with lots of R&D expenses, including Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc.’s Google, Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), and Ford Motor (NYSE:F) Co. Without the change, companies starting this year will have to spread out the writeoffs for their domestic expenses over five years and the foreign costs over 15 years.Corporations seeking the change say it’s critical to pass the tax break soon, because they’re currently incurring research costs that aren’t eligible for preferential tax treatment. The measure has support from a broad swath of senators, including Democrats Mark Warner of Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, and Republican Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. The extension of the tax break passed the House last year as part of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan.Other Vehicle“I support it,” Tester said Tuesday. “We just need the votes.”The attempts to add the R&D tax break — valued at an estimated $2 billion, according to Young — may yet fall short, as lawmakers continue to squabble over last-minute additions. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is pushing for a vote as soon as this week.Young is also pushing to add provisions that would establish a directorate for technology and innovation within the National Science Foundation to support basic and applied research and bolster education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Those further measures were included in a draft of the bill that was circulating Tuesday afternoon that didn’t include the tax break.The overall legislation is a scaled-down version of a more expansive bill intended to make the US more competitive with China in technology and advanced manufacturing. That legislation has been hung up for months in negotiations between the House and Senate over how to merge their different versions. If the R&D tax break is left out, it’s still likely to be considered by the Senate this year. Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, said it’s “not impossible” for it to be included in the semiconductor package, but more likely to be in a subsequent vehicle — such as a government funding bill later this year.“There’s bipartisan support for that. However, I think that gets done in the year-end bill,” John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said. “I think that gets fixed one way or the other.”©2022 Bloomberg L.P. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that prescription drug cost controls and an Obamacare fix are the components Democrats will seek for now in a fast-track domestic policy bill. “The two things we want to do in reconciliation, that we’re going to do in reconciliation, are prescription drugs and a two-year extension of ACA,” Schumer told reporters.”ACA” refers to the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.Democrats are seeking to keep in place increased financial assistance for people who qualify for subsidized health insurance under ACA. The premium relief was offered as part of the American Rescue Plan enacted in 2021, but is set to expire this year, which would result in stark premium increases for millions of people unless Congress acts.The prescription drug plan would allow Medicare, the government’s health plan for senior citizens and the disabled, to negotiate lower prices.”Reconciliation” refers to an exclusive number of bills that can move through the Senate with a simple majority of support in the 100-member chamber, instead of the 60 votes usually needed.So far, Schumer has failed to win the backing of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin for a major climate change initiative and tax increases on some corporations as part of such legislation. Without every one of his 50 Democratic caucus members, Schumer does not have the votes to pass bills given solid Republican opposition. More