Daily News 9/23/14
September 23, 2014
Tuesday – September 23
The Treasury Department announced on Monday that it will begin cracking down on “tax inversions.” This would target U.S. companies that are looking to move their headquarters overseas by purchasing a foreign company and switching citizenship to that country in an effort to avoid paying U.S. taxes. Just recently, President Obama called the tax inversion moves, unpatriotic, while some high ranking Democrats have introduced legislation to curb inversions.
Government sponsored entity Fannie Mae released its September 2014 Economic and Housing Outlook on Tuesday, revealing that a recent rebound in business investment has bolstered expectations for solid economic growth during the remainder of 2014. Fannie Mae predicts that Gross Domestic Product should move to 3% for the second half of the year, which was inline with its previous forecast and above the 2% recorded in the first half. In housing, the firm said that recent housing activity isn’t quite as positive, having shown only lukewarm growth since a promising start to the third quarter.
A recent survey reveals that 22% of workers laid off in the past five years have yet to find employment. Some 54% of laid off workers said they received unemployment benefits once they were let go, but 83% of those who lost their jobs said they ran out of benefits before they found jobs. In 2010, there were 6.6 million Americans unemployed, which has since fallen to 3 million.