US Pushes Boeing to Plead Guilty in Fatal Crashes

 The U.S. Justice Department is pushing for Boeing to plead guilty to a criminal charge after finding the planemaker violated a settlement over fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people, two people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

The Justice Department is expected to formally offer the plea agreement to Boeing later in the day, the sources said.

Spokespeople for Boeing and the DOJ declined to comment.

U.S. Justice Department officials revealed their decision to victims' family members during a call earlier on Sunday. The plea deal would require Boeing to plead guilty to conspiring to defraud the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in connection with the fatal crashes, the sources said.

The agreement would also impose an independent monitor to audit Boeing's safety and compliance practices for three years, they said.

Justice Department officials plan to give Boeing until the end of the week to respond to the offer, which they initially will present as nonnegotiable, the sources said. Should Boeing refuse to plead guilty, prosecutors plan to take the company to trial, they said.

https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/boeing-crashes/2024/06/30/id/1170743/

Goldman Says Stress Test Fails to Reflect Evolution of Business

 Goldman Sachs Group said the Federal Reserve notified the firm of a Stress Capital Buffer of 6.4%, resulting in a Standardized Common Equity Tier 1 ratio requirement of 13.9%, which will become effective on Oct. 1.

"This increase does not seem to reflect the strategic evolution of our business and the continuous progress we've made to reduce our stress loss intensity, which the Federal Reserve had recognized in the last three tests," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David Solomon said in a statement. "We will engage with our regulator to better understand their determinations."

Goldman's capital plan includes boosting its quarterly dividend to $3 from $2.75 starting July 1

https://www.morningstar.com/news/dow-jones/2024062810167/goldman-says-stress-test-fails-to-reflect-evolution-of-business.

'Joe Biden's disastrous debate blamed on bad preparation, exhaustion'

 President Joe Biden's train-wreck debate with Republican opponent Donald Trump followed a series of decisions by his most senior advisers that critics now point to as wrong-headed, interviews with Democratic allies, donors and former and current aides show.

Trump, 78, repeated a series of well-worn, glaring falsehoods during the 90-minute debate on Thursday, including claims that he actually won the 2020 election.

Biden, 81, failed to refute them and his fumbling, halting performance has sparked calls from Democrats for him to end his quest for a second term and for "soul-searching" or resignations among top aides.

"My only request was make sure he's rested before the debate, but he was exhausted. He was unwell," said one person who said they appealed to Biden's top aides in the days before, to no avail. "What a bad decision to send him out looking sick and exhausted."

Others were even more pointed.

"It is my belief that he was over-coached, over-practiced. And I believe [senior aide] Anita Dunn... put him in a venue that was conducive for Trump and not for him,” said John Morgan, a Florida-based attorney and major Biden fundraiser.

Morgan suggested Dunn and other aides "be fired forever and never let back anywhere near the campaign."

Biden's debate strategy was signed off on by campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon, who helped him win in 2020 and was appointed in January to boost an uneven reelection campaign. Dunn, a longtime Biden aide and former Barack Obama campaign strategist, backed that strategy.

Confidence going into the event was high. Trump was convicted of falsifying documents by a jury in New York on May 31, while Biden held back-to-back visits in Europe.

To the surprise of some Biden aides, his stubbornly low poll numbers began to inch up nationally in the weeks that followed.

Advisers set up a rigorous debate prep calendar, with Biden sequestered at Camp David for six days.

An inner circle, some close to Biden for decades, were involved: Ron Klain, his first White House chief of staff, Dunn, former White House counsel and Dunn's husband Bob Bauer and long-time adviser Mike Donilon, as well as about a dozen other policy and political experts.

Biden's campaign said on Friday that no staff shake-up was under consideration. A spokesman for Dunn said multiple aides were involved in the preparation, and noted that Morgan was not there.

In an email to supporters Saturday, O'Malley Dillon said internal polls and focus groups showed no change in voters' opinions in battleground states after the debate. She warned "overblown media narratives" may drive "temporary dips in the polls," but said she was confident Biden would win in November.

FACTS AND ZINGERS

Biden's trips abroad, especially to France earlier this month, generated Republican social media clips poking fun at his age but, his team believed, it also showed him as a strong leader on an international stage.

White House aides who traveled with the president were in a good mood as he headed to Camp David on June 21. They believed Biden was going into the debate with the most precious political asset: momentum, the wind at his back.

Biden had flown to France, back to the United States, to Italy, and to the West Coast, among other travels, over a 14-day period before taking just a few days to rest at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

He was dragging, according to several people who observed him during this period.

As Biden and his aides settled in at Camp David six days before the debate, aides figured he had a lot to accomplish, more than his opponent. Trump could just complain about the present administration - and Biden would need the facts and some zingers at his fingertips.

They expected Trump would be far more disciplined and prepared than he had been in 2020 and believed that they would need to counter a string of rapid-fire lies.

In lengthy prep sessions, they peppered Biden with details, then followed them up with mock debates.

Critics say now that the preparation should have focused on the bigger vision he needs to sell to the country, and that Biden had insufficient rest headed into the debate.

Run down, Biden would also catch a small cold, White House aides said, as he has regularly during his term after long stretches of time zone-bending work.

The result, critics say, was candidate Biden at his worst: He appeared on stage with his face wan, his hair straggly at his collar and his voice hoarse. He was frequently incoherent.

"I've never seen him perform that way before," said Michael LaRosa, former special assistant to President Biden and press secretary for first lady Jill Biden.

"He can run circles around most people on matters of complex policy," LaRosa said. "This was always going to be a matter of presentation and cosmetics, and superficial judgments that were going to be made about his performance. And he wasn't able to clear the bar."

NEW DEBATE FORUM

Earlier this year, some Biden aides discussed whether he should debate Trump at all, arguing that it could give Trump a broad public platform that would disadvantage Biden.

Then Biden himself, in an April interview with shock jock Howard Stern, delivered a decision on debating Trump that was a surprise to some advisers. "I am, somewhere," he said.

The triumphant memory of his State of the Union address in March fresh in their minds, Biden's team geared up to debate but took radical steps to control the terms.

They decided to reject three long-scheduled presidential debates in September and October organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates, still smarting over the group's handling of the 2020 debates.

Trump repeatedly violated the rules of what would be a chaotic first debate in 2020, showing up despite having tested positive for COVID-19, and talking over Biden relentlessly.

His team tried to set the contest on their own terms, with what they saw as a more pliant host in CNN. No audience cheering Trump's invective. Networks and moderators inclined to challenge Trump. No Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A mute button.

The day after the debate, Biden bounced back with a forceful speech in North Carolina, and a pledge to keep going. Many donors and Democrats are rallying around him.

But the damage has been done.

Asked on Sunday whether the Democratic Party was discussing a new 2024 candidate, Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin told MSNBC: "There are very honest and serious and rigorous conversations taking place at every level of our party, because it is a political party and we have differences in point of view."

Raskin added: "Whether he's the candidate or someone else is the candidate, he's going to be the keynote speaker at our convention."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/joe-bidens-disastrous-debate-blamed-225112309.html

IRS, Treasury Announce New Crypto Tax Reporting Rule For Brokers

 by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published a final rule on Friday that requires cryptocurrency brokers to report details of digital asset transactions to the tax agency.

The final regulations announced today will require brokers to report gross proceeds on the sale of digital assets beginning in 2026 for all sales in 2025,” the Treasury said in a June 28 press release.

“Brokers will be required to also report information on the tax basis for certain digital assets beginning in 2027 for sales in 2026.” Tax basis refers to the original purchase price of digital assets and is used to determine taxes owed following its sale.

The new rule does not change tax requirements for taxpayers. It is only directed at brokers for reporting on crypto transactions.

Normal taxpayers engaged in digital asset transactions have always owed taxes on the sale or exchange of digital assets. Earlier, they had to rely on expensive third-party services to calculate their gains or losses to pay taxes, the Treasury stated. But under the new rule, the brokers will send this information to taxpayers.

“By implementing the law’s reporting requirements, these final regulations will help taxpayers more easily pay taxes owed under current law, while reducing tax evasion by wealthy investors,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Aviva Aron-Dine in the press release.

Various organizations had previously raised concerns about the rule when it was proposed last year. In comments submitted by Cboe Global Markets, the organization pointed out that while the rule requires “brokers” to file information returns and provide payee statements related to digital asset transactions done by customers, “we are concerned about the overly broad definition of broker.”

The rule defined a broker as including certain digital asset trading platforms, payment processors, and hosted wallet providers.

Cboe pointed out that the definition covers “entities that are not best positioned to provide information for tax reporting purposes.” And by requiring these entities to comply with the new reporting requirements, the rule creates complications, it said.

For instance, “digital asset exchanges—like Cboe Digital—would have different and more onerous tax reporting obligations from those that exist for traditional securities exchanges.” The rule would also require exchanges “to report information that may be outright infeasible to provide.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce criticized the rule’s effective date which begins on Jan. 1, 2025. The chamber said the deadline does not provide enough time “for even the most sophisticated, well-resourced digital asset brokers” to develop and test systems required to implement the reporting rules.

Boosting Tax Compliance

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel praised the reporting requirements, noting that the regulations were finalized after reviewing thousands of public comments. The final rule addresses concerns raised by the public, he said. The regulations will help close the “tax gap” related to digital assets.

‘These regulations are an important part of the larger effort on high-income individual tax compliance. We need to make sure digital assets are not used to hide taxable income, and these final regulations will improve detection of noncompliance in the high-risk space of digital assets,” Mr. Werfel stated.

“Our work to address potential non-compliance in digital currency is another reason why it is so critical to fully fund IRS operations … These new assets expand the complexity of our tax system, and the technology and personnel necessary for the IRS to keep pace with these changes is resource intensive.”

The IRS pointed out that the new regulations were not applicable to brokers who do not take possession of the digital assets being exchanged. These brokers are also called decentralized or non-custodial brokers. The IRS and the Treasury intend to provide rules for these brokers in the future.

Meanwhile, current tax rules require Americans to report all cryptocurrency and digital asset incomes they made when filing taxes.

The IRS has placed a question related to these transactions on tax forms. For tax year 2023, the question was: “At any time during 2023, did you: (a) receive (as a reward, award, or payment for property or services); or (b) sell, exchange, or otherwise dispose of a digital asset (or a financial interest in a digital asset)?”

All taxpayers filing forms 1040, 1040-SR, 1040-NR, 1041, 1065, 1120, 1120 and 1120S must answer the question regardless of whether they conducted digital asset transactions or not.

https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/irs-treasury-announce-new-crypto-tax-reporting-rule-brokers

Boeing Agrees to Buy Spirit Aero for $4.7 Billion in Stock Deal

 

• The deal would reintegrate the planemaker’s largest supplier
• An announcement from the companies may come as soon as Monday

Boeing Co. agreed Sunday to purchase Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. for $37.25 per share in an all-stock deal that values the company at $4.7 billion, according to people with knowledge of the transaction.

The US planemaker also plans to assume about $3.5 billion of Spirit’s debt as part of the deal, which may be announced as soon as Monday, said the people, who asked not to be identified before the transaction is made public. Reuters reported the per-share price earlier Sunday. Representatives for the companies declined to comment.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-30/boeing-agrees-to-buy-spirit-aero-for-4-7-billion-in-stock-deal

Le Pen Mightier: Conservative National Rally Crushes Macron, Socialists 1st Round French Election

 As expected, Le Pen's conservative (or in the world's of the liberal media, "Far Right") National Rally (RN) party won the first round of France's parliamentary election on Sunday, exit polls showed, but the final result will depend on several days of horsetrading before next week's run-off.

The RN was seen winning around 34% of the vote, exit polls from Ipsos, Ifop, OpinionWay and Elabe showed. That was ahead of both far-left and centrist rivals, including President Emmanuel Macron's Together alliance, whose bloc was seen winning a paltry 20.5%-23%, a far cry from his crushing victory several years ago. The New Popular Front (NFP), a hastily assembled left-wing coalition, was projected to win around 29% of the vote, the exit polls showed.

The exit polls were in line with opinion polls ahead of the election, but provided little clarity on whether the anti-immigrant, eurosceptic RN will be able to form a government to "cohabit" with the pro-EU Macron after next Sunday's run-off.

The RN's chances of winning power next week will depend on the political dealmaking made by its rivals over the coming days. In the past, centre-right and centre-left parties have teamed up to keep the RN from power, but that dynamic, known as the "republican front," is less certain than ever.

If no candidate reaches 50% in the first round, the top two contenders automatically qualify for the second round, as well as all those with 12.5% of registered voters. In the run-off, whoever wins the most votes take the constituency.

According to Reuters, the high turnout on Sunday suggests France is heading for a record number of three-way run-offs. These generally benefit the RN much more than two-way contests, experts say.

Sure enough, the horsetrading began almost immediately on Sunday night. In a written statement to the press, Macron called on voters to rally behind candidates who are "clearly republican and democratic", which, based on his recent declarations, would exclude candidates from the RN and from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party. The problem, of course, is that Macron's party was crushed in the recent European parliamentary elections precisely because the people have had enough with "clearly republican and democratic" puppets of the World Economic Forum and want actual change.

LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said the second-placed NFP alliance will withdraw all its candidates who came third in the first round."Our guideline is simple and clear: not a single more vote for the National Rally," he said. It is, however, unlikely that many will care what the French socialists want: after all, last week the French socialist leftist alliance said it would raise the top marginal income tax rate to 90% if it were to take over the government.

Meanwhile, Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old RN party president, said he was ready to be prime minister - if his party wins an absolute majority. That's right, a 28 year old kid may soon be a prime minister of the 2nd largest European economy. He has ruled out trying to form a minority government and neither Macron nor the NFP will form an alliance with him.

"I will be a "cohabitation" Prime Minister, respectful of the constitution and of the office of President of the Republic, but uncompromising about the policies we will implement," he said.

While the RN is seen winning the most seats in the National Assembly, only one of the pollsters - Elabe - had the party winning an absolute majority of 289 seats in the run-off. Experts say that seat projections after first-round votes can be highly inaccurate, and especially so in this election.

Voter participation was high compared with previous parliamentary elections, illustrating the political fervour Macron aroused with his stunning decision to call a parliamentary vote after the RN trounced his party in European Parliament elections earlier this month.

His decision plunged France into political uncertainty, sent shockwaves around Europe and prompted a sell-off of French assets on financial markets.

A longtime pariah, the RN is now closer to power than it has ever been. Le Pen has sought to clean up the image of a party known for racism and antisemitism, a tactic that has worked amid voter anger at Macron, the high cost of living and growing concerns over immigration.

At 1500 GMT, turnout was nearly 60%, compared with 39.42% two years ago - the highest comparable turnout figures since the 1986 legislative vote, Ipsos France's research director Mathieu Gallard said.

In short, the people have had enough and they finally want to be heard.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/le-pen-mightier-macron-conservative-national-rally-crushes-macron-socialists-1st-round

Lawsuit claiming Meta hires foreign workers for lower pay instead of US citizens gets new life

 A US appeals court on Thursday revived a software engineer’s proposed class action claiming Meta Platforms refused to hire him because it preferred to give jobs to foreign workers who are paid less wages.

The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 ruling said that a Civil War-era law barring discrimination in contracts based on “alienage” extends to bias against US citizens.

The decision reverses a California federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit by Purushothaman Rajaram, a naturalized US citizen who says Meta passes over American workers for jobs in favor of cheaper visa recipients.

The decision reverses a California federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit by Purushothaman Rajaram, a naturalized US citizen who says Meta passes over American workers for jobs in favor of cheaper visa recipients.Askar – stock.adobe.com

Rajaram is seeking to represent a class that includes thousands of workers.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company in court filings has denied wrongdoing and said Rajaram failed to show that Meta intended to discriminate against U.S. workers.

Daniel Low, a lawyer for Rajaram, said that bias against U.S. citizens is a significant problem in the tech industry.

“We expect that this ruling will lead to more lawsuits seeking to end such discrimination,” Low said in an email.

The 9th Circuit had never before addressed whether the federal law, Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, provides protections from hiring discrimination for US citizens.

The only other appeals court that has, the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit, said the law did not apply to US citizens in a 1986 decision.

The split created by the 9th Circuit on Thursday raises the chances that the Supreme Court could hear the case if Meta appeals.

Conservative groups have increasingly cited Section 1981, which also bars race discrimination in contracts, in challenging companies’ diversity initiatives and the hiring of foreign visa workers.

Thursday’s decision could be a major boon to plaintiffs in a growing number of cases alleging bias against U.S. workers, at least in California and the eight other states covered by the 9th Circuit. Unlike Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal law banning workplace discrimination, Section 1981 does not cap the damages that plaintiffs can receive if they win lawsuits, and it does not require them to file complaints with government agencies before suing.

https://nypost.com/2024/06/27/business/lawsuit-claiming-meta-prefers-foreign-workers-over-us-citizens-revived-by-appeals-court/