Have you or one of your employees received an alarming text message about unemployment insurance benefits from what seems to be your state workforce agency? You’re not alone. Identity thieves are targeting millions of people nationwide with scam phishing texts aimed at stealing personal information, unemployment benefits, or both. The phishing texts try to dupe the recipient to click a link to “make necessary corrections” to their unemployment insurance (UI) claim, “verify” their personal information, or “reactivate” their UI benefits account. The...

Read more

The implications of savings accumulated during the pandemic for the global economic outlook The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to the accumulation of a large stock of household savings across advanced economies, significantly above what has historically been observed. Owing to their large size, the savings accumulated since early 2020 have the potential to shape the post-pandemic recovery. The central question is whether households will spend heavily once pandemic-related restrictions are lifted and consumer confidence returns, or whether other motives...

Read more

The role of sectoral developments for wage growth in the euro area since the start of the pandemic The economic consequences of and policy responses to the pandemic pose challenges for interpreting wage developments. Aggregate wage growth is mostly assessed in terms of compensation per employee or compensation per hour worked. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a substantial divergence between compensation per employee and compensation per hour. The high number of workers on job retention schemes played a decisive...

Read more

Assessing Progress as the Economy Moves from Reopening to Recovery, Governor Lael Brainard at "Rebuilding the Post-Pandemic Economy" 2021 Annual Meeting of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, Aspen, Colorado | The economy is reopening, consumer spending is strong, and hundreds of thousands of workers are finding jobs in the hard-hit leisure and hospitality sector each month. Pent-up demand has outstripped capacity in some sectors, as businesses that had pared back to survive the pandemic are encountering bottlenecks as they rehire...

Read more

For the first time since the creation of the Innovation Fund, the European Union is investing €118 million into 32 small innovative projects located in 14 EU Member States, Iceland and Norway. The grants will support projects aiming to bring low-carbon technologies to the market in energy intensive industries, hydrogen, energy storage and renewable energy. In addition to these grants, 15 projects located in 10 EU Member States and Norway will benefit from project development assistance worth up to €4.4...

Read more

2020 was a year of extremes. Travel all but ceased for a period. Oil prices wildly fluctuated. Trade in medical products reached new heights. Household spending shifted to consumer goods rather than services and savings ballooned as people stayed home amid a global shutdown. 'If not for the crisis, global current account balances would have continued to decline.' Exceptional policy support prevented a global economic depression, even as the pandemic took a heavy toll on lives and livelihoods. The global reaction,...

Read more

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, has today issued a Public Statement on the prospectus disclosure and investor protection issues raised by special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). Prospectus disclosure The statement, in view of both the complexity and the diversity of SPAC transactions, sets out ESMA’s expectations on how issuers should satisfy the specific disclosure requirements of the Prospectus Regulation to enhance the comprehensibility and comparability of SPAC prospectuses. This should help to ensure that national competent...

Read more

History moves in uneven steps. Just as the telegraph erased time and distance in the 19th century, today’s innovations in digital money may bring significant changes in the way we lead our lives. The shift to electronic payments and social interactions brought on by the pandemic may cause similarly rapid and widespread transformations. 'The challenges are significant, and so is the potential reward. But policy action must begin immediately.' But we must look beyond the dazzle of technology and the alluring image...

Read more

New data, released today, underlines the importance of the two-pillar plan being advanced by over 130 members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS to reform international taxation rules and ensure that multinational enterprises pay a fair share of tax wherever they operate. The data, released in the OECD's annual Corporate Tax Statistics publication, shows the importance of the corporate tax as a source of government revenues, while also pointing to evidence of continuing base erosion and profit shifting behaviours. Under the two-pillar solution to...

Read more