Once again, it’s been a great week in numbers, from stellar earnings reports from Tesla, Apple, Facebook and Amazon to warnings from American companies that prices of everyday products will skyrocket.
U.S. President Joe Biden wants to raise capital gains tax to fund his American family plan and start closing down inequality, while in Brazil, a small coastal town’s efforts to strengthen the social safety net make it a prominent success story during the pandemic coronavirus that is currently spreading in the country.
Meanwhile, we see a widening gap between the economic rebounds of different nations. The US economic recovery is accelerating thanks to massive vaccines and many stimuli, while Europe recorded negative growth in the first quarter. And save a thought for young people in Mexico applying for jobs.
We have other stories you’ll want to know, so let’s delve into the numbers that mattered this week.
39.6 percent
This is the highest tax rate U.S. President Joe Biden wants to slap long-term capital gains on more than $ 1 million in households. It is almost double the current base rate.
The difference between income taxes, which is how most Americans make their money, and capital gains (how many rich people grow their personal fortunes) has long been criticized by critics as a driving force. of inequality.
But will the increase in capital gains tax reduce the divide between the poor and those who do not have the nation?
At Jazeera’s Ben Piven has the short answer.
42,000
This is the number of people in the Brazilian city of Marica who receive mumbucas, a virtual currency created by the oil-rich coastal city before the pandemic as a form of universal basic income (UBI).
The mumbacas and other measures aimed at strengthening Marica’s social safety net have made the city socialist an outstanding success story during the pandemic, as reported by Monica Yanakiew of Al Jazeera, while most of Brazil fights the virus, which has cost at least 400,000 lives and thrown more than 25 million into poverty.
6.4 percent
That’s how much the American economy grew during the first three months of this year, on an annual basis, as the acceleration of coronavirus vaccination and a ton of stimulus money attracted latent consumers from hibernation.
From January to March this year, Americans went shopping buying cars and trucks and eating at restaurants and bars. But as companies prepare to cater to invigorated consumers, it is causing bottlenecks in supply chains and causing price rises. The US Federal Reserve is not bothered by inflation at the moment. Patricia Sabga, managing business editor of Al Jazeera explains why here.
One
Saudi Arabia is in talks to sell one percent of its state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco to a world-leading energy company, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), announced earlier this week.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia attends a ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia [File: Bandar Algaloud via Reuters]Aramco raised $ 25.6 billion in its initial public offering (IPO) debut in 2019. The Crown Prince is increasingly relying on the world’s largest oil company to help fund its Vision 2030 economic diversification and development plan. , which has faced obstacles in recent years.
11
That’s how many missions it will take complete a space station for which China on Thursday launched an unmanned module from its Wenchang space launch center on the southern island of Hainan.
Tianhe, also known as “Sky Harmony”, contains the main homes for three crew members at the Chinese Permanent Space Station.
The plan is to complete the space station that will orbit the Earth at an altitude of 340 km to 450 km (211-280 miles) by the end of 2022, Chinese media reported this week.
People observe from a beach the Y2 Long March-5B rocket, which carries the central module of the Chinese space station Tianhe, takes off from the Wenchang space launch center in Hainan province, China. [File: China Daily via Reuters]1 in 6
One in six young people aged 18 to 29 in Latin America and the Caribbean have left work since the pandemic began, according to a recent study by Canadian charity Cuso.
“Young people were the first to lose their jobs,” said Andrea Olmos, who lives in downtown Mexico City at Al Jazeera’s Ann Deslandes.
According to the Mexican Social Security Institute, more than half of all job losses in Mexico during the ten months ending December 2020 were suffered by young people under the age of 29. Like Ann Deslandes from Al Jazeera explainThe loss of pandemic jobs combined with other systemic hurdles has left many young people in Mexico desperately looking for work.
