Japan approves $490B stimulus as pandemic’s effects linger
Japan’s government agreed Friday to spend $490 billion on stimulus measures, a move by its prime minister to boost an economy battered by coronavirus restrictions and by a supply chain crunch that has affected the country’s largest manufacturers. The stimulus package, Japan’s largest to date, accounts for about 10% of the country’s economic output, officials said. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday that it could increase economic output about 5.6%. The package includes aid to struggling businesses and hospitals, money for strengthening semiconductor supply chains, and programs to encourage domestic tourism and investment in a nationwide university endowment fund.
Ford moves to ensure supply of chips, guide design
With increasingly sophisticated cars devouring more and more computing power, a shortage of semiconductors has vexed automakers and disrupted production around the world. Ford Motor moved Thursday to address that challenge, announcing a collaboration that could give the company more control over both the supply and the design of its chips — the brains needed to control engines, transmissions, brakes, infotainment systems and more. Ford said in a statement that it had signed a nonbinding agreement with U.S.-based semiconductor supplier GlobalFoundries to collaborate on developing chips for Ford vehicles, and that the companies would explore expanding domestic chip production.
New tax could deter companies from buying back their stock
Corporate America has been feeding a stock buyback boom for decades, with companies spending trillions of dollars to repurchase their shares without paying any taxes on those transactions. That could soon change. In President Joe Biden’s roughly $2 trillion Build Back Better Act, which passed the House on Friday but faces a tough fight in the Senate, Democrats have proposed a 1% tax on stock buybacks. Although it may not seem like much, the tax is a way to raise as much as $124 billion over 10 years, according to government estimates, and could help pay for the social spending and climate package.
Onetime Hoffa ally poised to become next Teamsters president
Sean O’Brien was a rising star in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 2017 when the union’s longtime president, James P. Hoffa, effectively cast him aside. But that move appears to have set O’Brien, a fourth-generation Teamster and head of a Boston local, on a course to succeed Hoffa as the union’s president and one of the most powerful labor leaders in the country. According to a tally reported late Thursday, O’Brien won about two-thirds of the votes cast in a race against the Hoffa-endorsed candidate, Steve Vairma, another vice president. He will assume the presidency in March.
State Attorneys General open inquiry into Instagram’s impact on teens
A bipartisan group of state attorneys general said Thursday they had opened an investigation into Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, for promoting its social media app Instagram while knowing of mental and emotional harms caused by the service. At least 11 states are involved in the investigation. The move comes after a trove of documents, called the Facebook Papers, from a former employee — Frances Haugen, the whistleblower — detailed research inside the social media company that suggested teenagers suffered body image issues when using Instagram.
Minimum tax plan aims at US corporate giants
At least 70 of the largest U.S. companies would pay more in taxes under a new minimum tax that Democrats are proposing as a way to pay for the spending bill moving through Congress, according to an analysis released Thursday by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. The report offers a first look at which companies could face higher tax bills under the proposal, which calls for enacting a 15% minimum tax on companies that report more than $1 billion in profit to shareholders. The plan is included as a source of revenue in President Joe Biden’s $1.85 trillion social policy and climate bill.
By wire sources