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    Factbox-US finalizes more than $6.1 billion funding for Micron under CHIPS Act

    Below is a list of the large awards made so far under the CHIPS and Science Act: POLAR SEMICONDUCTORPolar Semiconductor, owned by Sanken Electric and Allegro (WA:ALEP) MicroSystems, said it would receive as much as $123 million in direct funding. It plans to invest about $525 million over the next two years to double the production capacity of its Bloomingdale, Minnesota facility.TEXAS INSTRUMENTS Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) will receive as much as $1.6 billion in direct funding to support the construction of three new domestic facilities.MICRON The U.S. Department of Commerce has finalized a subsidy of more than $6.1 billion for the memory chip maker to support the construction of several domestic semiconductor facilities.SAMSUNG The South Korean electronics giant will be provided up to $6.4 billion to expand its facilities in Texas under a preliminary memorandum of terms signed in April.TSMC The U.S. Commerce Department finalized a $6.6 billion government subsidy in November for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s U.S. unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona.INTELThe U.S. Commerce Department said in November it was finalizing a $7.86 billion government subsidy for Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), down from $8.5 billion announced in March after the California-based chips maker won a separate $3 billion award from the Pentagon.GLOBALFOUNDRIESIn November, the U.S. finalized a $1.5 billion government subsidy for the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker to build a semiconductor production facility in Malta, New York and expand existing operations there and in Burlington (NYSE:BURL), Vermont.MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY The company will get $162 million in government grants, it was announced in January, allowing the company to triple production of mature-node semiconductor chips and microcontroller units at two U.S. factories. More

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    Can robots replace humans in monetary policy?

    $75 per monthComplete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.What’s included Global news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print edition More

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    Government debt glut could rock markets in 2025, BIS says

    LONDON (Reuters) – The threat of soaring government debt supply destabilising financial markets has intensified, the world’s top central banking advisory body said on Tuesday, as it urged policymakers to act swiftly to prevent economic damage. Claudio Borio, head of the Bank for International Settlements’ monetary and economic department, said he was on alert for a government debt glut causing bond market ructions that could spill over into other assets. And while markets have not yet suffered so-called “bond vigilante” attacks, where debt investors send state borrowing costs sharply higher to force nations away from fiscal profligacy, policymakers should not wait for this to happen, he said. “Financial markets are beginning to realise they will have to absorb these growing volumes of government debt,” he said as the BIS published its latest quarterly report. “It takes time for policymakers to adjust policies and if they wait for markets to wake up, it’s going to be too late.” Large government budget deficits suggest that sovereign debt could rise by a third by 2028 to approach $130 trillion, according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF) financial services trade group. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed tax cuts are expected to swell the nation’s $36 trillion debt pile by almost $8 trillion, while the UK’s new Labour government in its October budget raised previous five-year borrowing estimates by about 142 billion pounds ($181.55 billion). Bond fund PIMCO said on Monday it plans to diversify its government bond exposure by buying outside the United States, where its outlook on long-term government debt is bearish due to a deteriorating fiscal profile. The BIS report also cited political turmoil over France’s budget deficit and expansionary policy in Japan as reasons for “the re-emergence of fiscal concerns.” The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury, which influences price movements in sovereign, corporate and household debt worldwide, has risen by about 56 basis points (bps) since September, to around 4.22%. Traders widely anticipate a Federal Reserve rate cut this month but the BIS report said there was a supply-demand imbalance in the Treasury market, with dealers holding record amounts of unsold U.S. government debt on their books. With U.S. Treasury investors facing the twin perils of debt oversupply and stimulus spending boosting inflation, there were “more reasons to be worried now” than when the BIS cautioned about sovereign debt earlier this year, Borio said. The depth and liquidity of the $28 trillion Treasury market could insulate it from a sudden sharp rise in debt yields for some time, Borio said.”But it does mean that once (warning signs) show up, the impact on the global economy is bigger,” he added. Elsewhere in its report, the BIS noted increasing uncertainty about where global interest rates would settle as major central banks embark on cuts but the global economy remains resilient, buoyed by strong U.S. growth. Global credit conditions remain “unusually accommodative,” the report noted, and U.S. bank lending standards have loosened after the Nov. 5 election while Wall Street stocks rallied. The BIS noted that higher volatility in currency markets had reduced the incentive for traders to rebuild their positions following a sharp unwind in August of so-called carry traders that sparked ructions across world markets.($1 = 0.7822 pounds) More

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    Brazil’s Lula rushed to Sao Paulo for brain surgery, stable in ICU

    SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was rushed to Sao Paulo overnight for emergency surgery to drain a bleed on his brain linked to a fall in October and he will remain in hospital for a couple more days, the government said on Tuesday.The 79-year-old Lula is “well” and being monitored in the intensive care unit after the successful operation, a medical note published by the government said. Doctors will hold a press conference at 9 a.m. local time (1200 GMT) to provide details.Presidential spokesperson Paulo Pimenta said in a radio interview that Lula would likely remain in the ICU for another 48 hours, with contact limited to his medical team.”He is stable, conscious and calm,” Pimenta said.There have been increasing health concerns about the aging president, a standard bearer of the Latin American left who is halfway through his third non-consecutive term. Weak results for his Workers Party in this year’s municipal elections underscored the lack of a clear leftist successor if he chooses not to run for re-election in 2026.Lula has curtailed travel in recent months while doctors monitored his recovery from trauma to the back of his head when he fell at home in late October, requiring stitches.During talks with congressional leaders on Monday evening, Lula complained of a worsening headache and ended the meeting so he could go to a hospital in Brasilia, according to a presidential aide who spoke on condition of anonymity.An MRI scan detected an intracranial hemorrhage, and Lula was transferred to Sao Paulo for surgery at the Sirio Libanes Hospital.As anesthesia wore off early on Tuesday, Lula woke up and then went back to sleep, according to the presidential aide.Vice President Geraldo Alckmin canceled plans in Sao Paulo on Tuesday to return to the capital Brasilia, his aide said, where he will assume Lula’s agenda, including a visit from Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.Pimenta said Lula may not need to formally transfer the powers of the president to Alckmin.Tests in early November showed Lula’s condition was stable and he remained active, recently traveling to Montevideo to discuss a Mercosur trade deal.The president’s injury had forced him to cancel a trip to Russia for a summit of the BRICS group of major emerging markets being held in Kazan, following medical advice to temporarily avoid long-haul flights. More

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    BIS warns politicians to rein in spending or risk market turbulence

    $75 per monthComplete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.What’s included Global news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print edition More

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    FirstFT: Man charged with murder of healthcare executive

    $75 per monthComplete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.What’s included Global news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print edition More

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    China Everbright Group former chairman jailed 12 years for corruption, bribery

    BEIJING (Reuters) – China Everbright (OTC:CHFFF) Group’s former chairman Tang Shuangning was sentenced to 12 years in prison for corruption, bribery, and abusing his position for personal gains, state broadcaster CCTV said on Tuesday.Tang was arrested on suspicion of taking bribes in January, in an intensified campaign aimed at weeding out corrupt officials in the financial sector. More

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    Biden to warn against another Trump tax cut, hail his own economic successes

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will warn against further tax cuts for the wealthy and a reprise of Republican “trickle-down economics” during Donald Trump’s second term in what could be his final speech on the economy on Tuesday, a White House official said.Biden will argue in the speech, which comes a month after bruising election defeats for the Democrats driven by voters’ concerns about inflation, that his push to boost investments in infrastructure, manufacturing and neglected communities averted a bigger economic crisis and laid the groundwork for continued economic growth, the official said.Enacting another major tax cut benefiting rich Americans and cutting government old age and health insurance programs would threaten those gains, Biden will argue, while acknowledging that it will take years to see the full impact of his efforts.In his remarks at the Brookings Institution, Biden plans to highlight the creation of 16 million jobs, the most in any single presidential term, the lowest average unemployment of any administration in 50 years and the smallest racial wealth gap in 20 years, the official said.The speech echoes the message Biden pushed throughout his aborted 2024 election campaign and continued by Vice President Kamala Harris after he dropped out, although neither official was able to win over voters scarred by high food and housing prices.Despite the strength of major economic indicators and a drop in inflation from a peak of 9% more than two years ago to 2.4%, voters punished the Democrats and handed the Republicans the White House and control of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.Investment banks expect Trump’s return to the White House to fuel a dealmaking revival that could boost investment banking income to $316 billion globally next year, a jump of about 5.7% on 2024, but economists warn that the Republican’s pledge to impose high tariffs could reignite inflation while further tax cuts could swell the already high U.S. deficit. More