#fiscal issues

Italy shows goodwill to EU with last-minute tax changes

Bartender in Siena, Italy, August 5, 2020 (Unsplash/Gabriella Clare Marino) Italy’s new right-wing government has backed away from a plan to let shops refuse card payments under €60. The country’s previous government, led by former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, required companies to accept all card payments in an attempt to fight tax evasion. Businesses that refused were fined €30 per…

Dutch spend €16 billion to offset higher costs of living

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte answers questions from members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, July 5, 2016 (European Parliament) The Dutch government is due to unveil €16 billion in new spending (2 percent of GDP) to help low- and middle-income earners pay record-high electricity and grocery bills. Prime Minister Mark Rutte and leaders of the four ruling parties agreed a package of…

Why Congress let Biden's child benefits lapse

Skyline of Washington DC with the United States Capitol in the distance, September 28, 2017 (Ted Eytan) A year ago, I wrote that the child benefits Joe Biden snuck into his $1.9 trillion coronavirus recovery program might outlive the pandemic. Once American parents had accustomed to receiving monthly cheques of $250 or $300 per child, I figured it would be hard for Congress to let the program…

Foreign journalists thought this Dutch finance minister would be different: Kaag disappoints her liberal well-wishers

Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, leads then-Dutch trade and international development minister Sigrid Kaag up the stairs of the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam for a conference on mental health in humanitarian crises, October 7, 2019 (MFA/Martijn Beekman) When the pro-European Sigrid Kaag became the Netherlands’ finance minister in January, hopes were…

America's $1 trillion infrastructure bill, explained

The sun sets over the San Francisco Bay, California, September 29, 2015 (Thomas Hawk) The United States Senate is expected to pass a $1 trillion infrastructure bill this week with funding for everything from broadband Internet to road safety. The bill, which is believed to have the support of enough Republicans to overcome a forty-senator filibuster, falls short of the $2 trillion President Joe…

Child benefits could outlive Biden's COVID-19 stimulus

Former American vice president Joe Biden campaigns in Des Moines, Iowa, July 4, 2019 (Gage Skidmore) The United States Senate has approved President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus recovery plan, more than twice the size of Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus. With the exception of a $15 hourly minimum wage, the soon-to-be-law includes nearly all the provisions Biden had called for, including…

Biden plans $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue program

Workers drape a flag from the facade of the United States Capitol in Washington DC for Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony, January 9 (Victoria Pickering) Joe Biden is planning to ask Congress for $1.9 trillion in the first weeks of his presidency to cope with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Matthew Yglesias and Punchbowl News, a new Capitol Hill-focused newsletter,…

Dutch king announces borrowing, investments to weather COVID-19

King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands reads out his annual speech from the throne in the Grote Kerk in The Hague, September 15 (Rijksoverheid)

The Netherlands’ ruling center-right coalition unveiled an expansionary budget on Tuesday, when King Willem-Alexander read out his annual speech from the throne setting out the government’s priorities for the next fiscal year.

Whereas the Dutch…