Aurelia Butler

Hayashi added that a supplementary budget would be compiled after lower house elections to be held on Oct. 27.Ishiba said earlier this week that his administration’s economic policies will place the highest priority in “pulling Japan out of deflation,” including by boosting real wages and corporate capital expenditure.The fresh package of measures would include offering payouts to low-income households, Ishiba has said. More

Save over 65%$99 for your first yearFT newspaper delivered Monday-Saturday, plus FT Digital Edition delivered to your device Monday-Saturday.What’s included Weekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysis More

(Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration from implementing a plan to forgive student loan debt held by millions of Americans. The ruling by St. Louis-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp handed a victory to six Republican state attorneys general who challenged Biden’s plan. Schelp, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Biden administration from “mass canceling” student loans and forgiving principal or interest under the plan pending the outcome of the state’s lawsuit.Schelp ruled after another judge on Oct. 2 transferred the litigation from Georgia and removed that state from the case by finding it would not experience any legal harm under the debt relief plan. The state attorneys general have accused the U.S. Department of Education of overreaching its authority by proposing a regulation that instead should be addressed through legislation in Congress. The department proposed it in April after two previous plans were blocked by the courts. It would forgive $73 billion in student loan debt held by an estimated 27.6 million borrowers.Biden campaigned for president in 2020 with a pledge to bring debt relief to millions of Americans who turned to federal student loans to fund their costly higher education.The lawsuit was filed in Georgia, where U.S. District Judge J. Randal Hall in September issued a temporary block on the plan, though that expired on Oct. 3. Hall is the judge who moved the case to Missouri.Schelp on Thursday said he agreed with Hall that the relief program should be halted until courts have had a chance to decide whether it is legal. “Allowing Defendants to eliminate the student loan debt at issue here would prevent this Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court from reviewing this matter on the backend, allowing Defendants’ actions to evade review,” Schelp wrote.Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, in a statement called the ruling “yet another win for the American people.””The Court rightfully recognized Joe Biden and Kamala Harris cannot saddle working Americans with Ivy League debt,” Bailey said.The U.S. Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Under the proposed regulation, debt relief would be granted to: people who owe more than they first borrowed due to the interest that has accrued; those who have been paying off loans for at least 20 or 25 years, depending on the circumstances; and borrowers who were eligible for forgiveness under prior programs but never applied.The rule has not yet been finalized, a point the U.S. Justice Department made in arguing there was no final agency action for a judge to review in the first place.The states argued that the administration was laying the groundwork to immediately cancel loans once the rule became final before any challenger could sue to stop it. They said that upon publication of the regulation, the Education Department would be able to instruct loan servicers to immediately process the debt forgiveness.The attorneys general said such action would occur in the run-up to the Nov. 5 presidential election pitting Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, who is vice president under Biden, against Republican rival Trump, and that the administration would seek political credit for the policy.The White House has called the current student loan system broken and has said debt relief is necessary to ensure that borrowers are not financially burdened by their decision to seek higher education.Republicans counter that Biden’s student loan forgiveness approach amounts to an overreach of authority and an unfair benefit to college-educated borrowers while others receive no such relief. More

(Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets.What comes down must go up.And so it is with oil, whose rise on escalating fears over a deepening conflict in the Middle East is casting an increasingly dark shadow over world markets as the week draws to a close. Brent crude leaped more than 5% on Thursday for its biggest rise in a year, bringing the week-to-date gains to more than 8%. If oil holds steady on Friday, it will clock its biggest weekly rise since January last year. It’s true that oil’s rebound is coming from a low base and prices are back to where they were only a month ago, but world stocks and investors’ risk appetite are beginning to feel the heat. The oil price is still around 10% lower than it was a year ago and has been negative on a year-on-year basis since July, a dynamic that has highlighted the mounting disinflationary pressures around the world.But it was down nearly 30% year-on-year only a few weeks ago. If geopolitical tensions persist and oil continues to rise, investors may need to rethink their inflation outlooks. U.S. Treasury yields are rising and the yield curve is steepening, led by the long end, which suggests longer-term inflation worries may be creeping into investors’ minds. For Asia, the tailwinds from China’s stimulus bonanza last week appear to be fading in the face of growing headwinds from oil and risk aversion. Another notable consequence of escalating geopolitical tensions is the burst of safe-haven demand for the U.S. dollar. The dollar index on Thursday hit a six-week high, and is on track for its biggest weekly rise since April.Put the two together – higher Treasury yields and a stronger dollar – and it’s not a particularly attractive backdrop for Asian markets. Especially on a Friday, a day after the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index hit its highest level since January 2022.The Asian economic calendar on Friday is fairly light, with consumer inflation from the Philippines, retail sales data from Singapore, services purchasing managers index and manufacturing PMI reports from India and Hong Kong, respectively, as the main releases.Global events are likely to set the market tone on Friday.Investors in Asia may also be of a mind to play it safe ahead of the U.S. non-farm payrolls report for September out of Washington on Friday morning. This and the October data will go a long way to determining the size of the expected interest rate cut in early November.Rates futures market pricing is currently evenly split over a 25 or 50 basis point cut. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to Asian markets on Friday:- Philippines inflation (September)- India services PMI (September)- Singapore retail sales (August) More

WHY IT’S IMPORTANTThe Biden administration is eager to show that its policies are saving consumers money, bolstering a key theme of Vice President Kamala Harris’ run for the presidency — to help ease high living costs.The Treasury said that Direct File could save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in tax preparation fees during the 2025 tax filing season A pilot version of the program that started this year was funded out of the roughly $60 billion in supplemental modernization funding for the IRS approved in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act clean energy law.BY THE NUMBERSFor the 2024 filing season, which covered the 2023 tax year, more than 140,000 taxpayers in 12 states used the Direct File pilot program to file relatively simple tax returns with W-2 wage income and standard deductions.For the 24 states participating in the project next year, Direct File will allow tax returns with additional types of incomes, credits and deductions, expanding the pool of eligible users to over 30 million. But taxpayers who itemize their tax returns with mortgage interest and some other deductions will not be eligible to use the system yet.The Treasury estimates the average American taxpayer spends $270 and 13 hours filing their tax return.KEY QUOTE”By doubling the number of participating states and expanding eligibility, Direct File has the potential to save Americans tens of millions of dollars in filing fees in the upcoming filing season, advancing the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of reducing costs for American families,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. The Direct File system will be available next year in Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. More

(Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden said a supplemental aid package for people affected by Hurricane Helene “can’t wait” until after the Nov. 5 election.”People need help now,” Biden said. Congress is not scheduled to return to session until after the Nov. 5 election. More