Browsing: Business

Joe Biden signed a spending bill worth $1.7 trillion on Thursday that will fund the federal government through September 2023, the end of the federal budget year. Just before Christmas, the Democratic-controlled House passed the bill 225-201, mostly along party lines. The House vote came a day after the Senate, also led by Democrats, approved the bill by a vote of 68-29. A total of $772.5 billion will be spent on domestic initiatives as part of the funding bill, an increase of approximately 6%. A total of $858 billion will be spent on defense programs, an increase of approximately 10%.…

Due to the continued decline in Tesla shares, Elon Musk is no longer the world’s richest person. According to a report by S3 Partners, astute investors bet $15 billion that Tesla’s shares would fall this year. Elon Musk’s company has lost almost 70 percent of its value since November 2021. New research shows that short sellers made $15 billion this year betting that Tesla shares would fall, as about $800 billion was wiped off the company’s value. According to S3 Partners, bets against Tesla shares proved to be the most profitable in 2022, with shorts against Amazon shares making a…

Logan Paul, a YouTuber-turned-boxer, purchased a NFT for $623,000 from the Azuki collection. There has been a massive downturn in the crypto market and the NFT niche in particular, resulting in a significant decline in the value of many assets. Logan Paul acknowledged that the price of his NFT had fallen sharply, confirming that it is essentially worthless. Logan Paul’s Azuki Collection NFT is now worth only $10, according to The Wall Street Silver Twitter account. This is another example of a case where crypto assets can lose their value very quickly and abruptly. NFTs are non-fungible tokens that can…

An energy technology pioneer, Form Energy, with the backing of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson has revealed the site of the first factory to manufacture ‘iron-air’ batteries for long-term wind and solar energy storage. In Weirton, West Virginia, Form Energy says it will build a $760m debut plant using its technology that stores massive amounts of renewable energy for days at a time. Over the past few years, Form Energy has attracted an array of high-profile investors, including Microsoft billionaire Gates, Amazon tycoon Bezos and Virgin founder Branson, as well as steel giant ArcelorMittal. The company claims its…

The market was awash with predictions predicting new record highs for bitcoin in 2022, from Tim Draper to top crypto executives. Others were less optimistic, and some correctly predicted bitcoin would sink below $20,000, even as low as $10,000. However, the failure of stablecoin terraUSD, liquidity concerns within the crypto industry, and the dramatic collapse of the FTX exchange shocked investors and sent ripples throughout the market. Investors have been faced with rising interest rates, which have put pressure on risk assets such as stocks and cryptocurrencies. Since reaching an all-time high of nearly $69,000 in November 2021, bitcoin has…

Amazon Inc’s cloud computing division was awarded a $723.9 million enterprise software license contract by the United States Navy. With the deal, the Navy will be able to access Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) commercial cloud environment, Professional Services, and training and certification courses. As part of the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract, the Pentagon awarded $9 billion in cloud computing contracts to Alphabet, Google, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Corp and Oracle Corp. It is expected that the work will be performed for at least five years, beginning in December this year and ending in 2028.

After the Communist Party loosened anti-virus rules as it tried to reverse a deepening economic slump, a surge of COVID-19 cases was reported in schools and businesses across China on Friday. While official data show a decline in new cases, many people no longer have to go through mandatory testing after the government ended it on Wednesday. It was part of a dramatic shift to gradually lift “zero COVID” restrictions that have confined millions to their homes and sparked protests and resignation demands for President Xi Jinping. After promising to reduce their cost and disruption, Xi’s government began loosening controls…

A prominent Turkish businessman has been sanctioned by the Biden administration for violating U.S. restrictions on the sale of Iranian oil, the Associated Press reports. Several companies controlled by Sitki Ayan and his family and associates were penalized by the Treasury Department for facilitating the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars of Iranian oil. Treasury said Ayan’s companies have laundered proceeds for both the Guard and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, both of which are designated as “foreign terrorist organizations” by the U.S. In addition, any assets Ayan or the targeted companies might have in U.S. jurisdictions were frozen, and Americans…

As the global energy crisis spurs new policies aimed at cutting reliance on fossil fuels, global government spending on clean energy has risen by more than $500 billion since March, according to the IEA. With this increase, governments have allocated $1 billion to clean energy investment since the COVID-19 pandemic started. IEA’s Government Energy Spending Tracker, which includes 1600 government financial measures passed by 67 countries since March 2020, shows that government energy spending has reached $215 billion. Based on today’s policy settings, this government spending will mobilize substantial flows of private investment that will reach over USD2 trillion by…

The UAE issued Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 on the Taxation of Corporations and Businesses (the “Corporate Tax Law”). From 1 June 2023, businesses will be subject to UAE Corporate Tax (“Corporate Tax”). The UAE’s corporate tax regime imposes a standard rate of 9 percent on taxable profits exceeding AED375,000. To support small businesses and start-ups, profits up to and including that threshold will be taxed at 0 percent. According to the Ministry of Finance (the “Ministry”), the Federal Decree-Law on Corporations and Businesses is a critical step towards establishing an integrated tax system that supports the UAE’s strategic…