«Платити, навіть якщо не подаєш газ – це обов’язок за контрактом. Якщо не буде оплати, виглядає так, що має бути новий арбітраж», – заявив Юрій Вітренко
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US president presents plan to counter inflation, criticizes Republican opponents’ plan as ‘backwards’
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The Senate confirmed economist Lisa Cook on Tuesday to serve on the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, making her the first Black woman to do so in the institution’s 108-year history. 

Her approval was on a narrow, party-line vote of 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the decisive vote. 

Senate Republicans argued that she is unqualified for the position, saying she doesn’t have sufficient experience with interest rate policy. They also said her testimony before the Senate Banking Committee suggested she wasn’t sufficiently committed to fighting inflation, which is running at four-decade highs. 

Cook has a doctorate in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been a professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State since 2005. She was also a staff economist on the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 to 2012 and was an adviser to President Joe Biden’s transition team on the Fed and bank regulatory policy. 

Some of her most well-known research has focused on the impact of lynchings and racial violence on African American innovation. 

Cook is only the second of Biden’s five nominees for the Fed to win Senate confirmation. His Fed choices have faced an unusual level of partisan opposition, given the Fed’s history as an independent agency that seeks to remain above politics. 

Some critics charge, however, that the Fed has contributed to the increased scrutiny by addressing a broader range of issues in recent years, such as the role of climate change on financial stability and racial disparities in employment. 

Biden called on the Senate early Tuesday to approve his nominees as the Fed seeks to combat inflation. 

“I will never interfere with the Fed,” Biden said. “The Fed should do its job and will do its job, I’m convinced.” 

Fed Chair Jerome Powell is currently serving in a temporary capacity after his term ended in February. He was approved by the Senate Banking Committee by a nearly unanimous vote in March. 

Fed governor Lael Brainard was confirmed two weeks ago for the Fed’s influential vice chair position by a 52-43 vote. 

Philip Jefferson, an economics professor and dean at Davidson College in North Carolina, also has been nominated by Biden for a governor slot and was approved unanimously by the Finance Committee. He would be the fourth Black man to serve on the Fed’s board. 

Biden has also nominated Michael Barr, a former Treasury Department official, to be Fed’s top banking regulator, after a previous choice, Sarah Bloom Raskin, faced opposition from West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. 

Cook, Jefferson, and Barr would join Brainard as Democratic appointees to the Fed. Yet most economists expect the Fed will continue on its path of steep rate hikes this year. 
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«Газпрому» було запропоновано перенести відповідні обсяги транзиту на фізичну точку з’єднання «Суджа», яка знаходиться на контрольованій Україною території»
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Серед іншого, йдеться про завезення пального з країн Перської затоки
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Економіка України скоротиться майже на третину цього року через масштабне вторгнення Росії, кажуть в ЄБРР
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«Трохи раніше експомічницю Балицького Галину Данильченко росіяни призначили «мером Мелітополя»
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Wall Street is tumbling toward its lowest point in more than a year on Monday as renewed worries about China’s economy pile on top of markets already battered by rising interest rates. 

The S&P 500 was 2.3% lower in afternoon trading after coming off its fifth straight losing week, its longest such streak in more than a decade. It joined a worldwide swoon for markets. Not only did stocks fall across Europe and much of Asia, but so did everything from old-economy crude oil to new-economy bitcoin. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 374 points, or 1.1%, at 32,520, as of 3:16 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 3.4% lower as tech-oriented stocks again took the brunt of the sell-off. Monday’s sharp drop leaves the S&P 500, Wall Street’s main measure of health, down roughly 16% from its record set early this year. 

Most of this year’s damage has been the result of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive flip away from doing everything it can to prop up financial markets and the economy. The central bank has already pulled its key short-term interest rate off its record low of near zero, where it sat for nearly all of the pandemic. Last week, it signaled additional increases of double the usual amount may hit in upcoming months, in hopes of stamping out the high inflation sweeping the economy. 

The moves by design will slow the economy by making it more expensive to borrow. The risk is the Fed could cause a recession if it moves too far or too quickly. In the meantime, higher rates discourage investors from paying very high prices for investments, because investors can get more than before from owning super-safe Treasury bonds instead. 

That’s helped cause a roughly 29% tumble for bitcoin since April’s start, for example. It dropped 10.8% Monday, according to Coindesk. Worries about the world’s second-largest economy added to the gloom Monday. Analysts cited comments over the weekend by a Chinese official warning of a grave situation for jobs, as the country hopes to halt the spread of COVID-19. 

Authorities in Shanghai have again tightened restrictions, amid citizen complaints that it feels endless, just as the city was emerging from a month of strict lockdowns after an outbreak. 

The fear is that China’s strict anti-COVID policies will add more disruptions to worldwide trade and supply chains, while dragging on its economy, which for years was a main driver of global growth. 

In the past, Wall Street has been able to remain steady despite similar pressures because of the strong profit growth that companies were producing. 

But this most recent earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies has yielded less enthusiasm. Companies overall are reporting bigger profits for the latest quarter than expected, as is usually the case. But discouraging signs for future growth have been plentiful. 

The number of companies citing “weak demand” in their conference calls following earnings reports jumped to the highest level since the second quarter of 2020, strategist Savita Subramanian wrote in a BofA Global Research report. Tech earnings are also lagging, she said. 

The tech sector is the largest in the S&P 500 by market value, giving it additional weight for the market’s movements. Many tech-oriented companies saw profits boom through the pandemic as people looked for new ways to work and entertain themselves while locked down at home. But slowdowns in their profit growth leave their stocks vulnerable after their prices shot so high on expectations of continued gains. 

The higher interest rates engineered by the Fed are also hitting their stock prices particularly hard because they’re seen as some of the market’s most expensive. The Nasdaq composite’s loss of roughly 25% for 2022 so far is much sharper than that for other indexes. 

Electric automaker Rivian Automotive slumped 19.1% Monday as restrictions expired that prevented some big investors from selling their shares following its stock market debut six months ago. It’s lost more than three quarters of its value so far this year. 

The yield on the 10-year Treasury has shot to its highest level since 2018 as inflation and expectations for Fed action rose. It moderated Monday, dipping to 3.07% from 3.12% late Friday. But it’s still more than double the 1.51% level where it started the year. 

In Asian stock markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 2.5%, and South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.3%. Stocks in Shanghai inched up 0.1%. 

In Europe, France’s CAC 40 fell 2.8%, and Germany’s DAX lost 2.1%. London’s FTSE 100 slid 2.3%. 

Apart from concerns about inflation and coronavirus restrictions, the war in Ukraine is still a major cause for uncertainty. More than 60 people were feared dead after a Russian bomb flattened a school being used as a shelter, Ukrainian officials said. Moscow’s forces pressed their attack on defenders inside Mariupol’s steel plant in an apparent race to capture the city ahead of Russia’s Victory Day holiday Monday. 

Even the energy sector, a star performer in recent weeks, was under pressure on Monday. Benchmark U.S. crude fell 6.1% to settle at $103.09 per barrel, though it’s still up about 40% this year. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 5.7% to settle at $105.94 a barrel. 

 
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Поміж іншого, на проведення посівної вплинула погода, бо цьогорічна весна виявилась холоднішою, ніж минулого року
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Ukrainian officials say farmland used for planting spring crops could more than halved this year because of the war.
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«Канада є однією із головних країн щодо фінансової підтримки», –вважає віцепрем’єрка
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When you think about places to get some rest, airplanes don’t normally come to mind. Aerotel is trying to change all that. Romain Chanson reports for VOA from northern South Africa, in this piece narrated by Carol Guensburg.
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