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ABUJA (Reuters) – Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger will have a six-month grace period after their scheduled exit from West Africa’s main political and economic group next month during which the ECOWAS bloc will try to persuade them to stay, the bloc’s leaders agreed on Sunday. The summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was seen as a chance to address the impending withdrawal of the three countries on Jan. 29, a year after they jointly announced they would leave in a reversal of decades of regional integration.ECOWAS has so far failed in its goal to push them to reconsider, while the three countries in the insurgency-torn central Sahel region have set up their own alliance, sought ever-closer alignment in defence and other areas and mooted abandoning the West African currency union.While Jan. 29 remains the official withdrawal date, the effective date for their departure has been extended to July 29 – a transition period during which mediators from the bloc will seek “to bring the three member countries back to ECOWAS without prejudice,” commission president Oumar Touray said at the end of the summit. On Saturday, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso reaffirmed their decision to leave as irreversible and jointly declared that their territories would remain visa-free for all ECOWAS citizens post-exit.This move could be an effort to address warnings that their departure threatens the bloc’s freedom of movement and its common market of 400 million people.Their withdrawal would cap a tumultuous period for the Sahel, where a string of coups since 2020 has swept military authorities to power who have fostered closer ties with Russia at the expense of former colonial ruler France, and other one-time allies from the region and elsewhere. More

PARIS (Reuters) -When veteran centrist Francois Bayrou, France’s new prime minister, was education minister in the 1990s, his plan to increase subsidies for private schools led to nationwide protests. He quickly caved in and would stay in the post for four more years.Three decades later, he will face a different force in the shape of a fractured and fractious parliament where one of his earliest tasks – as President Emmanuel Macron’s fourth prime minister of the year – will be to pass a budget for 2025.First, he must name a government which, like that of his predecessor Michel Barnier, will have minority support in parliament and be vulnerable to attack from far-right and left-wing opponents.The ouster of Barnier and his cabinet – the first time France’s parliament had voted to remove a government since 1962 – seemed to stun even those behind the move. For now, there is cross-party support for emergency legislation to ensure government funding does not dry up – but then the hard work on a budget for next year will begin. “The difficulties remain the same as under Michel Barnier,” Arnaud Benedetti, a professor at the Sorbonne university, told Reuters. “At least, a motion of no-confidence doesn’t seem likely in the very short-term.” A Macron aide said Bayrou was the “most consensual candidate able to bring people together.” Socialists said he represented more of the same. DEBT A ‘MORAL PROBLEM’A career politician, Bayrou, 73, was the torch-bearer of centrism until Macron reshaped the political landscape in 2017, dynamiting the traditional mainstream parties in a campaign Bayrou decisively rallied behind. Bayrou has in the past talked tough on the risks posed by France’s rising debt pile. He did so again on Friday, saying the country’s debt was a “moral problem” as much as a financial one. “I hear your warning on the seriousness of the situation and I agree,” he told Barnier.But he has placed a high value on keeping the peace, whether with the unions, lawmakers or the myriad of powerful vested interests in France. “I like to repair,” he told La Tribune Dimanche in his first interview over the weekend.Keeping the peace in a National Assembly dominated by three warring factions will be nigh-on impossible, however. Lawmakers’ pushback over the 2025 budget bill led to Barnier’s downfall and left-wing leaders say they may try to topple Bayrou should he also use special constitutional powers to ram through the budget without a vote in parliament.”Bringing onboard demands from opposition parties may be fiscally costly and the degree of fiscal consolidation may be limited next year as a result,” said JP Morgan’s Raphael Brun-Aguerre in a note. That was the same conclusion ratings agency Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) drew on Saturday, cutting France’s rating by one notch, saying the fall of Barnier’s government had reduced the chances of significant improvement in French public finances.FAR-RIGHT’S BUDGET RED LINES ENDURE Through the week Macron held talks with party chiefs spanning the centre-right Republicans to the Communists. He appealed to all ‘Republican forces’ to unite but opted to resist Socialist Party calls to appoint a premier from within their ranks, unwilling to risk unwinding reforms that liberalised the euro zone’s second-largest economy and placed the pension system on a more financially sound footing. Even so, the president’s 2023 pension reform will remain in his opponents’ crosshairs. “Our red lines remain,” Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally told reporters shortly after Bayrou was named. Those red lines include indexing pensions to inflation throughout 2025.One opinion poll this week showed that 35%-38% of voters intended to support Bardella’s boss, Marine Le Pen, in the next presidential election due in 2027 – a level not seen before for the far-right leader and putting her in the lead.Furthermore, even if Bayrou’s political opponents do not get in the way, the challenges for his future government will be immense.It will need to reduce the budget deficit from a projected 6.1% for 2024 whilst keeping protest-prone trade unions at bay, increasing military spending for Ukraine and finding ways to support an ailing industrial sector. Barnier had promised to bring the deficit down with tax rises for the wealthy and for big companies, as well as a curbs on the planned rise in pension payments. But these measures fell by the wayside when his government was toppled.Former finance minister Bruno Le Maire, who has been grilled by lawmakers investigating his role in France’s failure to curb its deficit, gave a scathing indictment of parliament.”This assembly taxes, spends, censors,” he said. “It has long lost any sense of economic and budget realities.” More

More than half, or 53%, of Gen X parents fear that their kids will need financial support into adulthood, according to a U.S. Bank survey.
That’s compared with 37% of all parents, per the data.
Gen X is facing unique challenges that can heighten these concerns.

Financial planning. Budgeting. Expense tracking. Profit and loss analysis. Data analysis. Spreadsheet software. Productivity. Efficiency. Financial literacy. Personal finance. Business finance.
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As Adinah Caro-Greene maps out her financial future, there’s a variable that may have held less weight for previous generations: her child.
The employee benefits broker said she’s seen how rising education, housing and health-care costs have created economic challenges for her Gen Z son and his peers. Part of the Bay Area resident’s long-term financial goals is to fully pay off a rental property that he can inherit and potentially live in.

“It’s uniquely hard for kids now,” said Caro-Greene, 45. “Seeing how hard it is for my son’s generation has motivated me to do what I can.”
Caro-Greene isn’t alone. A majority — or 53% — of Gen X parents who are worried their child may need financial support well into adulthood, according to a U.S. Bank survey of around 2,500 adults released earlier this year. That’s compared with just 37% of parents across all generations.

Gen X is a “sandwich” generation, facing the financial pressures of simultaneously supporting parents in retirement and kids as they come of age. Most Americans are grappling with the runaway inflation that followed the pandemic, but parents in this age group are uniquely focused on whether their kin will ever be able to make it without monetary aid.

A ‘worried’ generation

Gen Xers have grown up amid less-than-ideal economic conditions, which can bolster feelings of uncertainty, said Tom Thiegs, family wealth coach at U.S. Bank’s Ascent Private Capital Management. Notably, he pointed out that they’ve witnessed four of the five largest stock market crashes in history within their lifetimes.
They were among the first to mainly utilize 401K plans for retirement rather than pensions, he said. Now, this group is also questioning if Social Security and Medicare will stay around long enough for them to reap the benefits of systems they helped support throughout their adult lives, Thiegs said.

Clients Thiegs talks to are “worried,” but not to the extent that they’re “paralyzed,” he said, explaining that these clients have been through economic downturns before. Instead, he’s noticed a mindset among Gen X of being ready to roll with any unexpected punches.
“It’s not just all doom and gloom for Gen X,” he said. “There’s also this understanding that we’ll be able to figure it out.”
Gen X parents aren’t necessarily concerned that they’ll be in the hook for their kids’ poor financial choices. In fact, the U.S. Bank survey found 79% said their children are able to “successfully” manage their finances.
Instead, this economic stress stems from factors outside of parents’ or children’s control, Thiegs said. Beyond rising prices for everyday needs like groceries, he pointed to higher housing costs as a factor that’s left Gen Z in a more financially precarious position.

The bank of mom and dad

Caro-Greene said it’s common among parents she knows to give money to their young-adult children, especially given the high cost of living in the San Francisco area. It’s a particularly hard time, she said, because of what she charactized as a tough job market for those entering the white-collar workforce.
Expenses for even the youngest in corporate America can add up. A Savings.com survey published this year found parents that offer financial support to their kids were shelling out $1,384 a month on average. When looking just at Gen Z offspring, that figure shot up to $1,515.
That can lead to a question of how long, or to what extent, parents should be footing bills for their kids into adulthood, according to Marguerita Cheng, who is both a mother and certified financial planner. The answer is both simple and highly individual, she said.
“I would never tell you not to help your child,” said Cheng, CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth in Gaithersburg, Maryland. But, “it’s important to have boundaries or limitations to giving.”
Cheng said parents should avoid helping their child to the point that they, themselves, will deplete savings and struggle in retirement. She also said parents can try to remove the stigma around discussing money and shame around decisions like living at home after graduating college.
For those that do have the means to help out, she’s found clear guidelines can be a useful tool. For example, a parent might set a cap on how much money they will give a child who is moving, or distribute funds incrementally over a predetermined timeframe.
Given Gen X’s experiences, Thiegs has found the generation thinks differently about their dollars and how to use them. It’s an equation, he said, that increasingly includes children and other family members.
“They’ve broadened into a more holistic view of money,” Thiegs said. “It’s not just balancing your checkbook, but also understanding what, long term, do I want for my life.”

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SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s acting president, Han Duck-soo, moved on Sunday to reassure the country’s allies and calm financial markets a day after President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and suspended from his duties over a martial law attempt.Han spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden by phone, the White House and Han’s office said.”South Korea will carry out its foreign and security policies without disruption and strive to ensure the South Korea-U.S. alliance is maintained and developed steadfastly,” Han said, according to a statement from his office.In a further attempt to stabilise the Asian nation’s leadership, the main opposition party announced it would not seek to impeach Han for his involvement in Yoon’s Dec. 3 martial law decision.”Given that the prime minister has already been confirmed as acting president and considering that excessive impeachments could lead to confusion in national governance, we have decided not to proceed with impeachment procedures,” Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung told reporters.Prosecutors said Yoon did not appear on Sunday morning in response to a summons for questioning in a criminal investigation into his martial law decision, and they promised to issue another order, Yonhap news agency reported.Yoon and a number of senior officials face potential charges of insurrection, abuse of authority and obstructing people from exercising their rights.The prosecutors’ office did not answer phone calls seeking comment.Han, a longtime technocrat picked by the conservative Yoon as prime minister, was elevated to acting president in accordance with the constitution while Yoon’s case moves to the Constitutional Court.Demonstrators seeking Yoon’s ouster braved the cold to throng the streets outside the National Assembly building where he was impeached. The crowd was about 200,000, according to police, Yonhap said.Since Han’s role is only acting president, “I hope he will exercise the minimum power to operate the country stably, rather than actively be involved in state affairs,” said Jo Sung-woo, a 39-year-old Seoul resident.About 8.5 km (five miles) away, a much smaller number of Yoon supporters demonstrated in the central Seoul area.”I really can’t stand to see these illegal lawmakers who were elected by fraudulent elections making evil laws and now this huge opposition party is running wild on their own,” said Yim Joung-sook, 55.NORTH KOREAN THREATYoon’s surprise martial law declaration and the ensuing political crisis spooked markets and South Korea’s diplomatic partners, worried over the country’s ability to deter nuclear-armed North Korea.Biden told Han the ironclad U.S.-South Korea alliance remained unchanged and Washington would work with Seoul to further develop and strengthen the alliance as well as trilateral cooperation including neighbour Japan, Han’s office said.The White House said in a statement that the U.S. president “expressed his appreciation for the resiliency of democracy and the rule of law in the ROK,” using the abbreviation for the country’s formal name, the Republic of Korea.Han convened his cabinet and National Security Council shortly after Saturday’s impeachment vote and vowed to maintain military readiness to prevent any breach of national security.He spoke by phone with the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, expressing concern about the possibility North Korea could attempt military provocations, such as launching ballistic missiles or cyber attacks, Yonhap said, citing Han’s office.South Korea’s partners wanted to see a credible and constitutional temporary leadership put in place as soon as possible, said Philip Turner, a former New Zealand ambassador to South Korea.”They will be pleased to see Prime Minister Han take over as acting president,” he said. “He is capable, experienced and well respected in foreign capitals.”But even with an acting president in place, international partners face months of uncertainty before a new president can be elected and a new government established, Turner added.The Constitutional Court has up to six months to decide whether to remove or reinstate Yoon. If he is removed or resigns, a new elections will be held within 60 days.ECONOMIC FALLOUTSouth Korean shares rose for a fourth straight session on Friday on hopes that the political uncertainty would ease after the impeachment vote in parliament, which followed a failed vote a week earlier.Democratic Party leader Lee said the most pressing issue is a slump in consumption caused by insufficient domestic demand and the government’s reduction of its fiscal role.He called for a National Stability Council for Governance comprising the government and parliament to discuss finance, economy and public livelihoods. “It is necessary to promptly discuss a supplementary budget,” Lee said, adding that such a measure could support for small businesses and investments related to artificial intelligence and infrastructure to try to head off energy shortages.Parliament, controlled by Lee’s party, passed a 673.3 trillion won ($470.6 billion) 2025 budget bill on Tuesday that cut the government’s 677.4 trillion won proposal, without reaching agreement with Yoon’s People Power Party and the government.By law parliament cannot increase government budgets, and at the time the Democratic Party said a supplementary budget could be needed to address spending for people’s livelihoods.The party said its cuts were mostly in reserve funds for the government, interest costs and funds allocated to the presidential office, prosecutors and auditors for classified operations. The government accused parliament of delaying projects for small businesses with the cuts.Deadlock over budget issues was one of the justifications Yoon cited for imposing martial law.South Korea’s financial authorities vowed on Sunday to act as needed to stabilise markets while the finance minister said he would announce an economic policy plan by year’s end. More

In a recent extensive report, TD Cowen analysts highlighted key themes heading into 2025, including the potential impact of AI on multiple levels.Among those is a significant boost to productivity, estimated at $2 trillion, which could emerge as AI reduces labor costs by more than 15%, “and potentially replacing up to 20% of worker tasks for 80% of the workforce in the U.S. alone,” according to the report.Investments in AI are accelerating, with TD Cowen projecting over $1 trillion in capital expenditures (capex) to fuel the next wave of advancements. The firm believes investors will be closely monitoring the evolution of tangible use cases, focused on commercialized products and supporting business models.The integration of AI into human activities is expected to unlock substantial productivity gains. A key focus lies in autonomous vehicle technologies.“The agentic AI innovation wave will extend to highly complex use cases that are directly integrated into daily human activities, such as in the emergence of autonomous vehicle capabilities delivered through a SaaS model,” the report states.Companies like Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Waymo are already spearheading these efforts. Waymo, for instance, has set a goal to become the “world’s most trusted driver” and has demonstrated a 73% reduction in injury-causing crashes compared to human drivers in similar conditions.Meanwhile, Tesla’s full self-driving (FSD) rollout in California and Texas is expected in 2025, and the electric vehicle (EV) giant has set a target for production of two million robocabs beginning in early 2026, aiming to exceed human driving capabilities in 2025.However, the impact of AI extends far beyond technology-focused industries, influencing virtually all sectors of the economy. In healthcare, for instance, AI is poised to revolutionize drug discovery and development. TD Cowen highlights its potential to cut research and development costs by as much as 70%.“We expect to see a continued high level of AI-enabled activity and investment in drug discovery, diagnostics, and related use cases across the healthcare industry.”Overall, the pace of AI adoption is accelerating faster than that of cloud technology, according to TD Cowen.“Advancements in generative AI appear to be moving on a logarithmic curve,” with generative AI increasingly driving its own evolution.This, the firm notes, differs from past computing cycles in which technology advanced on a more linear scale. More