A substantial 26% of cyber incidents in businesses over the last two years have been found to be the result of intentional security protocol violations by employees. This figure closely rivals the 20% attributed to external hacking attempts.

The findings come from Kaspersky’s latest study, which explained that, contrary to prevailing beliefs that human error is the primary cause of cybersecurity incidents, the reality is more nuanced. 

Seeking insights from IT security professionals in SMEs and enterprises globally, the research aimed to understand the diverse impact of various individuals on a company’s cybersecurity posture. 

It discovered that intentional policy violations by employees, spanning both IT and non-IT staff, played a significant role in cyber incidents. Notably, IT security officers, other IT professionals and non-IT colleagues were identified as sources of breaches, contributing to 13%, 12% and 4% of incidents, respectively.

Examining individual employee behavior, the study revealed that 22% of incidents resulted from the deliberate use of weak passwords or failing to change them promptly. Additionally, 18% were linked to staff visiting unsecured websites, while 25% occurred due to neglecting system software or application updates.

Unsolicited services or devices were identified as significant contributors to intentional policy violations, with 14% of companies experiencing incidents due to unauthorized systems for data sharing. Particularly concerning was the finding that 20% of malicious actions were committed by employees for personal gain, with the financial services sector notably reporting 34% of such incidents.

Highlighting the necessity of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy, Alexey Vovk, who leads information security at Kaspersky, emphasized the significance of fostering a culture of cybersecurity within companies.

“As the numbers are alarming, it is necessary to create a cybersecurity culture in an organization from the get-go by developing and enforcing security policies, as well as raising cybersecurity awareness among employees,” Vovk explained. 

“Thus, the staff will approach the rules more responsibly and clearly understand the possible consequences of their violations.”

Source : Info Security

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The Albanese government’s cyber security policy aims to make Australian citizens, businesses and government agencies harder targets as they face what minister Clare O’Neil describes as “the fastest growing threat that we face as a nation”.

The policy, to be released on Wednesday by O’Neil, who is Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Cyber Security, is also designed to enable victims to bounce back faster from attacks that can’t be prevented.

A modest $586.9 million has been announced for the “action plan”, which runs to 2030. This is on top of the commitment to $2.3 billion for existing initiatives out to 2030.

Of the extra money, the largest slice is $290.8 million for support for small and medium-sized businesses, building public awareness, fighting cyber crime, breaking the ransomware business model, and strengthening the security of Australians’ identities.

Some $143.6 million will be invested in strengthening the defences of critical infrastructure and improving government cyber security.

Among the initiatives on critical infrastructure, telecommunication providers would be aligned to the same standards as other critical infrastructure entities by moving the security regulation of the sector from the Telecommunications Act to the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act. The policy says this is “commensurate with the criticality and risk profile of the sector”.

There will also be funding for establishing consumer standards for smart devices and software; building a threat sharing platform for the health sector; professionalising the cyber workforce and accelerating the cyber industry, and investing in regional co-operation and leadership in cyber governance forums internationally.

The government wants Australia to be “a world leader” in cyber security by 2030.

The policy sets three time “horizons”. In 2023-25, the foundations will be strengthened. addressing critical gaps and building better protections.

In 2026-28, the cyber industry would be further scaled up and a diverse cyber workforce would be grown. In 2029-30, “ We will advance the global frontier of cyber security. We will lead the development of emerging cyber technologies.”

O’Neil says in a press release: “Australia is a wealthy country and a fast adopter of new technologies, which makes us an attractive target for cyber criminals. Millions of Australians have had their data stolen and released online in the past year.

“Cyber also presents major opportunities for Australia – the global cyber industry is growing rapidly, and it is here to stay.”

Delivering the cyber strategy would require close collaboration between government and industry, O’Neil said.

Darren Goldie, who was recently appointed by O’Neil as National Cyber Security Coordinator, won’t be around for the policy release. He has been recalled to the Defence Department, in relation to a workforce complaint.

Source : The Conversation

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It was 1989. D.C. had recently been dubbed the murder capital of the United States, and the crack wars were raging.

Then-D.C. Mayor Marion Barry (D) and council members were called before Congress to testify about what was going on in the nation’s capital, and they came bearing news. The city had just passed an anti-loitering law that allowed police to establish“illegal drug zones,” had set a curfew for juveniles and beefed up pretrial detention.

If that feels a little like déjà vu, it’s because Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is recycling the same ideas more than 30 years later, as the District confronts a violent crime problem that has drawn comparisons to the city’s bloodiest era, even though today’s underlying causes bear less similarity.

Most recently, the mayor unveiled a proposal to revive those “anti-loitering” and “drug-free zones,” which would allow police to cordon off temporary zones for five days where anyone congregating to use, buy or sell drugs can be arrested if they don’t leave. The proposal is a throwback to a ’90s-era approach to cracking down on then-prolific open-air drug markets, a problem that has not been front-and-center in D.C. for years. Now, however, at a time when the major drivers of violent crime are not tied to drugs as they once were, Bowser may encounter some resistance to resurrecting the policy — primarily because of its history of drawing legal challenges and racial profiling concerns.

The 1989 iteration of the law was struck down in court as unconstitutional. The 1996 version that replaced it — and which Bowser’s proposal would revive — was never challenged in court but was repealed by the D.C. Council in 2014 when the attorney general’s office raised concerns that it ran afoul of the Constitution. Bowser herself, then a council member, voted for the repeal.

In rolling out the policy, Bowser and top officials expressed confidence it was legally sound and said it addressed what she described as a troubling “emerging trend”:plain-view drug dealing and use, visible in some of the District’s busiest corridors such as Chinatown and H Street. Bowser has acknowledged the problem is nowhere near what it once was, saying officials believe there are fewer than 10 such “open-air drug markets” today, compared with an estimated 60 in 2002. Still, Bowser’s top public safety officials, including acting Police Chief Pamela A. Smith, believe those problems can spill into violence or create other dangers. They declined to identify suspected locations.

“We want to blunt a trend we see in open-air drug dealing that we have pretty much squelched in this city” in all but a few areas, Bowser said, “and we don’t want that activity to proliferate.”

Council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), who chairs the public safety committee, welcomed Bowser’s proposal, noting that she has heard concerns across the city about hot spots for drug dealing or criminal activity, fearing police don’t have adequate tools to disrupt them. “This trend cannot continue without intervention,” she said.

But skepticism is already simmering. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) threw cold water on the idea in an interview last week, doubting its relevance to D.C.’s violent-crime spike, driven by carjackings and homicides. He said he supported the idea of drug-free zones — and prostitution-free zones — more than a decade ago, but, citing the 2014 concerns from the attorney general’s office and the American Civil Liberties Union, hequestioned whether Bowser’s proposal would hold up to legal scrutiny.

“I don’t oppose [anti-loitering statutes]. They’re just unconstitutional,” he said — an unsettled question that could drive debate within the council.

Pinto said she would hold a hearing on the legislation on Nov. 29.

Community, business concerns

Bowser’s proposal to revive the anti-loitering drug zones is a key facet of her Addressing Crime Trends Now Act, which would also target “organized retail theft” and roll back various provisions of D.C.’s major police reform legislation, passed after George Floyd’s murder. Bowser has also called on the council to pass her May “Safer Stronger” legislation, which would permanently expand pretrial detention for juveniles and adults charged with violent crimes and enhance gun penalties, among other things.

In recent years, cracking down on drug-dealing or drug-related loitering had not made up a significant part of city leaders’ crime strategy — but they’ve pointed to growing concernsabout these issues among residents, raised in community meetings and in online neighborhood forums. Chinatown offers one example.

In its 2023 report on the Gallery Place-Chinatown corridor, the DowntownDC Business Improvement District cited “visible drug sales” as a “complex challenge,” along with a growing number of homeless people and panhandlers, and called for “stronger police presence to disrupt drug sales activities.” (The DowntownDC BID did not respond to a request for comment.) During an August community meeting, a representative for Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Wizards and Capitals, decried the “open-air drug transactions” outside of Capital One Arena, and residents have described feeling on edge due to both petty crime and serious violence.

Howard Marks, vice president of the condo board for the Residences at Gallery Place, right next to the Metro station, said he and his neighbors were “totally thrilled” after Bowserunveiled the plan to revive anti-loitering drug free zones.

Marks had moved into his condo building in 2014, back when “there was a certain rhythm” to the neighborhood, he said,a sense of safety and ease on vibrant streets. The offices were filled. Since-shuttered Bed Bath & Beyond was busy with shoppers right downstairs. “Then covid hit, and everything changed,” Marks said.

“Once the office workers left to work from home, the streets were virtually empty, and — if I can use the word without offending anyone — miscreants suddenly became larger than life,” he said.

Drug deals seemed commonplace right beneath the historic Chinatown arch, and sometimes he smelled marijuana as he walked to and from home. Fare evaders hopped the gates and loitered at the top of the Metro station escalators. Reckless e-scooter riders whizzed past, contributing to a “sense of chaos” that took over, he said.

But there’s little police can do about loitering unless they’re catching a drug dealer red-handed, and by the mid-2010s, D.C. moved away from plainclothes street officers going after small-time dealers on the corner to focus more on big-time drug operations.

In a statement, Paris Lewbel, a police spokesman, said drug-relatedinvestigations “are difficult cases to make, and too often don’t provide immediate or lasting relief to our communities because only a few people are arrested and may be quickly back on the street.”

Bringing back drug-free zones, he said, would “help disperse and interrupt this activity and help neighborhoods and businesses reclaim and clean up public space.”

Legal troubles

In its many variations, the anti-loitering approach has a long history of trial and error. Go back far enough and, even in the middle of a world war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the time to veto a 1941 D.C. “vagrancy” statute — a Jim Crow-era specialty often targeting Black people and poor people — over fears police couldn’t be trusted not to misuse it. A more tailored D.C. “narcotics vagrancy” law was struck down in federal court in 1968. And year after year, especially in the 1980s as drug-related crime became a more urgent problem, the D.C. Council kept trying to bring it back.

D.C. Housing Authority Police Chief Joel Maupin remembers when Barry and the council enacted a new anti-loitering law targeting “illegal drug zones” in 1989. Then a street officer for D.C. police patrolling Southeast’s 7th district, Maupin made one of the first arrests under the law.

“That was during the time when PCP was frequent in the streets, and crack cocaine was very prevalent,” Maupin said. “So drug-free zones, during that time frame, it was very much needed. … There was a lot of violence associated with crack cocaine. Now violence is most associated with anything or everything, it appears.”

According to a December 2021 report that studied the underlying causes of homicides in D.C., about 15 percent of the 274 killings where circumstances were known were tied to drug disputes or drug robberies — a different picture from the 60 percent tied to drugs in 1988, and 41 percent in 1990.

Still, even then, Maupin said he did not recall the law being frequently used, in part because “it didn’t last very long,” he said. Days before Barry’s own arrest on crack cocaine possession charges, in January 1990, a D.C. judge struck down the “Illegal Drug Zone” emergency act as unconstitutional. The problem, the court found, was that even though the intent was to squash suspected drug users or dealers, the law was so broad that it could apply to innocent people doing anything — evenmerely existing — in the targeted zone.

The council apparently learned from that case, and sought to draft a narrower law in 1996 — the version Bowser is seeking to revive in nearly identical fashion. Its champion, former council member Bill Lightfoot (I-At Large), says his legislation was also spurred by concerns from the community, like citizen patrol groups who had expressed unease about the proliferation of prostitution and open-air drug markets.

“Public safety has to be the priority. The rights of criminals have some bearing, but the role of government is to protect citizens,” said Lightfoot, who remains a close adviser to Bowser. “We were dealing with a crack cocaine epidemic, we had been named the murder capital … and [the council] took an attitude toward violent crime that it was not going to be tolerated.”

Under both the 1996 law and Bowser’s proposal, police would issue notices to residents in and around an established zone, stating that for up to five days, it would be unlawful to congregate “for the purposes of participating in the use, purchase, or sale of illegal drugs.” Police could only arrest people they “reasonably believe” are involved in drug activity if they ignore orders to disperse.

But in 2014, as the council debated whether to repeal the measure,the attorney general’s office cited due process concerns with the law. Andrew Fois, then the deputy attorney general, wrote in a letter that the law failed to sufficiently consider a person’s intent to engage in illegal activity among the elements of the crime. On Oct. 27, D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb (D) said on the Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi that he was reviewing those due process concerns now, though his office had not reached an opinion as of Friday.

Arthur Spitzer, senior legal counsel at the ACLU, said that in his view, the primary concern is about how police would make arrests. “Reasonable belief” that someone is engaged in drug activity is up for interpretation, he said, even if Bowser’s bill lists various criteria like “operating as a lookout” or exchanging “small packages.” It could allowpolice to make arrests under a lower standard than probable cause, which Spitzer said raises a red flag and spells legal trouble.

But, legal concerns aside, Spitzer questioned whether the approach will really make the impact leaders are hoping for.

“Designating a zone is just going to drive the market a couple streets over, and what good does that do, really?” he said. “It makes the people on this block happier for a while, but makes people on the next block suffer the same problems.”

While officials won’t say exactly where the open-air drug markets are today, recently, the U.S. attorney’s office secured guilty pleas from six men tied to one operating around a Shell gas station on South Capitol Street SE.

While naming drugs of concern, Smith said that opioids and fentanyl topped the list. And while the use and possession of marijuana is legal in the District — though not to smoke in public or to buy or sell — Bowser said that the city’s inability to tax and regulate the drug has also contributed to violence, a problem prosecutors described as happening at the gas station.

Bowser and Lindsey Appiah, deputy mayor of public safety and justice, have brushed aside legal concerns, noting that the former law never was actually challenged in the 18 years it was on the books. A similar anti-loitering drug-free zone law was struck down by a federal judge in Annapolis in 2001 — but Bowser said this week that this did not concern her, and Appiah said she was not familiar with the case.

Appiah cited a policy briefing from the Sentencing Project as part of the research she reviewed that led her to believe the District’s policy is sound. The brief was about school-related drug-free zones, however — and according to the Sentencing Project, it has nothing to do with Bowser’s proposal.

“Not even relevant,” acting director Kara Gotsch said.

Gotsch said itwas puzzling to hear Appiah cite her organization, which does not endorse Bowser’s proposal and which asked the Bowser administration to not cite them again. (Appiah insisted the briefingwas relevant when asked about Gotsch’s objection.) It was more puzzling, Gotsch said, to see the Bowser administration seeking to revive the law so many years after it was repealed.

“Arresting more people for loitering because they might be involved in drug use or possess drugs is not how we solve our drug problem,” Gotsch said, noting concerns about racially disproportionate enforcement as well.

While it’s not yet clear where drug-free zones would be set up if Bowser’s proposal were to pass, some lawmakers have started to poke around. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) asked Maupin at a D.C. Housing Authority hearing whether public housing complexes might be targeted, as they were back when the law first came into use in ’89. Maupin said there had not yet been discussions.

“Unfortunately,” Parker said, “we’re coming full circle having to think about implementing that again.”

Source : The Washington Post

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DULUTH — The city’s police department has reached an agreement with community activists on a draft policy that could eliminate many minor traffic and pedestrian stops.

The Duluth Branch of the NAACP on Friday called it an “amazing victory” in a years-long effort to reform police practices and end “pretextual stops.”

“This language states that an equipment violation can only occur when there is a direct threat to public safety,” said Jamey Sharp, co-chair of the Criminal Justice Committee. “This means you cannot be pulled over for a license plate light that is out. That is not a direct threat to public safety. Or a small object hanging from your mirror that is not obstructing your view. Or when you are walking home from the grocery store with a bag in your hand. That is the language that we’re very excited about within this policy.”

The agreement comes less than three months after a racial bias audit found “statistically significant racial and ethnic disparities in vehicle stops as compared to a residential population benchmark.”

The report also concluded that people of color are more likely to be stopped for equipment violations or suspicious activity, more likely to be searched and more likely to receive harsher penalties.

Under the draft policy, officers would be required to articulate the public safety reason for any equipment-related stops. They also would need to limit it to “the original legal basis for the stop, unless the officer develops reasonable articulate suspicion or probable cause of criminal activity that would justify extending the duration or expanding the scope of the stop.”

And while officers are allowed to rely on their training, experience and expertise, the language specifically forbids expansion of stops based on “a mere hunch, whim or solely on generalized characteristics such as the person’s age, gender, race, homeless circumstance or presence in a high-crime location.”

“A pretextual stop, in my definition, is a tax on the poor,” said Classie Dudley, president of the Duluth NAACP. “It’s really when somebody has expired tabs or a broken windshield. That is not a public safety violation, They’re getting pulled over, ticketed and fined. People who already can’t afford to fix their cars now are having to pay a fine on top of that. And those fines can escalate to getting your license suspended, jail time and more.”

Duluth police spokeswoman Mattie Hjelseth stressed that the policy is still a draft and “will serve as a framework for community conversations.” The department has been working the NAACP, Citizen Review Board, racial bias audit team and others to implement changes recommended by the audit released in August.

A community conversation is scheduled for 7 p.m. Nov. 14 at the American Indian Community Housing Organization, 202 W. Second St.

“We look forward to this conversation with the community and members of DPD as we work together to create a safer Duluth for all,” Chief Mike Ceynowa said in a statement. “We are hopeful that this exercise around policy creation will help continue to build trust between the community and the Duluth Police Department.”

NAACP leaders, however, said they engaged in a back-and-forth draft process and have received assurances that the department plans to implement the new policy by Jan. 1.

Sharp said they would have preferred more specific language around the types of stops that are forbidden, but “largely, we are happy with it.”

“We did, ultimately, accept this draft as we believe it is important to complete this project before the political tides shift,” he said. “Also, the completion of this project, more importantly, will ultimately serve as harm reduction, which is direly needed to combat the racially disparate traffic and pedestrian stop rates that have plagued this community for years.”

Dudley added that the NAACP stands ready to enforce the policy through monitoring, data analysis and public outreach efforts.

Source : Duluth News Tribune

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Professor Dame Juliet Gerrard has quietly released a new report which examines the context within which gangs exist in New Zealand.

It was requested last year by former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, “to support a policy agenda to reduce gang harm in our communities”.

The government has long been under pressure to control gang crime, with opposition parties accusing Labour of being soft on crime.

The report concludes there is no quick way of reducing gang harm.

Reducing harm, the report said, would require tackling the underlying and unsolved societal issues, including inequity, intergenerational trauma, housing and family violence.

“All of which serve to narrow the choices of those in our society who experience complex and inter-connected stressors,” it said.

While the report makes no specific recommendations, it does suggest introducing policies on family harm, youth offending and drug harm reduction.

The report said a public health approach “does not come at the expense of enforcement” but stressed “we can’t and won’t arrest ourselves out of the “gang problem”.

Legislative and police efforts to address gangs might deliver immediate outcomes, the report said, but longer-term interventions would be required to “build the society that we want in the long term.”

Enforcement serves a purpose but is not the only solution, it added.

“The evidence indicates that interventions such as ‘scared-straight’ or boot camp approaches are ineffective. And a ‘zero tolerance’ style of policing builds distrust in the communities that police are tasked to serve.

“It creates alienation and dislocation from communities and risks fuelling gang membership and increasing gang dislocation and isolation.

“We know that targeted enforcement efforts run the risk of strengthening internal gang cohesion, reinforcing anti‐social attitudes, and simply displacing offending elsewhere rather than addressing the problem at its root,” the report said.

The report suggested greater focus on prevention – which could include targeted programmes or poverty reduction and increased access to healthcare – to limit the number of young people joining gangs.

It said a young person having strong ties with their family, school and community would also reduce the chance of them being involved in a gang.

Investment to ensure young people “enjoy” those strong ties “offers the most hope of diminishing gang harm in the long term.”

The report said preventing young people from joining gangs was likely more cost effective than trying to facilitate disengagement.

Political parties respond

Minister of Police Ginny Andersen said the government welcomed the report.

“It identifies that there are no quick fixes when it comes to gangs and the underlying social issues that drive gang membership and activity.”

Andersen said government action was focused on both stopping the harm that gangs do as well as well as creating opportunities to ensure people do not enter gangs in the first place.

“Our investments have seen nearly 700 additional police working on, and an additional $94 million invested in, tackling gangs and organised crime.

“This is showing results with nearly 40,000 charges laid and over 400 firearms seized through Operation Cobalt.”

The National Party doubled down on its tough-on-gangs rhetoric, its police spokesperson Mark Mitchell saying he disagreed with the report.

“I would call on the gang leaders to stand up and recognise the fact that the gang culture has a very negative effect on not only the communities that they’re in but their own members, their families and their children. “

David Seymour Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver

ACT Party leader David Seymour dismissed the report as little more than a doorstop – of no comfort to victims.

“They’re attempting to claim that if only the authorities are nice to gangs and treat them as friends they’ll start being nice back.

“Thankfully for them Labour has subjected New Zealanders to a real world experiment. They don’t improve their behaviour, in fact they get worse.”

The Green Party’s justice spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman said successive governments had stoked fear over gangs for votes.

“People are very naturally fearful of crime, in particular violent crime, and it’s always easier to tell them it’s a simple solution. The tough on crime rhetoric has been that simple solution.”

Ghahraman added it would take political willpower to adopt an approach that actually works.

“When will the politicians have the courage and the integrity to say to the public, actually we have the solutions, they’re a bit more complicated and you know what they take to resource.”

‘This isn’t an either or situation’

Dame Juliet told Morning Report a focus on prevention would accompany police action on criminal offending.

“We definitely need to tackle organised crime – the question is which specific legislation you might use to do that,” she said.

History suggested using existing laws was more effective rather than gang-specific laws. A zero-tolerance approach risked fuelling gang membership in the long term.

“A focus on criminal offending rather than the jackets they are wearing is thought to be more successful by lots of experts.”

Gangs were a global issue but New Zealand was unusual with gang members often family members as well. For children born into a gang or the mother of a child getting out of that environment could be hard but there were interventions to get in early to break that cycle.

“Understanding those family dynamics can guide some successful interventions to support people to make better choices than joining a gang.

“If you think about a child excluded from school, and is on a path to joining a gang, wrapping round interventions with that young person to support them into making better choices, open up more possibilities than they’re seeing in their present life, is something that can accompany the police-type approaches.

“This isn’t an either or situation – these are to accompany short-term law enforcement approaches that focus on criminal offending itself.”

Source: RNZ News

The post New Zealand Can’t Arrest Its Way Out of the Gang Problem, Science Chief Warns appeared first on Policy Print.

“The saga over the raising of the U.S. debt ceiling has been brewing for some time. Regardless of what bill that the U.S. Congress adopts eventually, the global economy has already been significantly impacted,” Wichai Kinchong Choi, senior vice president of leading Thai bank Kasikornbank, said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

U.S. President Joe Biden signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 into law on Saturday to avoid a historic default on government debt.

The bipartisan act suspends the public debt limit through Jan. 1, 2025 and increases the limit to the actual debt level on Jan. 2, 2025.

Since 1945, the United States has raised its debt ceiling 103 times.

The periodic U.S. debt crisis typically features the Republicans and Democrats bickering for their self-interests, which causes concerns and unease in markets, said Choi.

“It’s clear that the intense partisanship is increasingly politicizing the issue,” he said.

Although the U.S. Congress has agreed on the bill to raise the debt ceiling at the last minute to avoid a debacle, the measures taken by the U.S. government in response to the crisis have, to some extent, already indicated signs of deterioration in the country’s fiscal position and difficulties in revitalizing its economy, said Choi.

According to the banker, raising the debt limit is but a short-term fix. The root cause lies in the severe U.S. fiscal imbalance and budget deficit coupled with the reliance on the U.S. dollar hegemony to implement ultra-loose monetary policies in the face of economic crises.

The U.S. government bonds have long been considered a safe asset, but investors’ confidence has been affected by the repeated debt crises which erode the creditworthiness of the U.S. government and the value of dollar assets like Treasury Bonds, said Choi, pointing out that some agencies in Thailand have advised investors to consider selling dollars, Treasury Bonds, and U.S. tech stocks to mitigate investment risks.

He opined that the U.S. debt crisis further exposes the harm of dollar hegemony. In recent years, many businesses in countries like Thailand have begun to adopt “de-dollarization” methods in international trade due to the fluctuations of the greenback, the slump in the U.S. economy as well as potential political risk.

Following the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, the United States and the West have implemented sweeping financial sanctions against Russia, excluding Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system.

The weaponization of the dollar has compelled countries to seek a reduction in their dependence on the currency and establish a financial settlement system that is efficient, low-risk, and not subject to the whims of the U.S. financial system, said Choi.

“The U.S. debt crisis has made people wary of the U.S. dollar and Treasury Bonds. Such awareness has prompted many countries to begin reassessment. The current situation requires governments to develop a risk management system that caters to themselves and choose effective risk mitigation tools,” he concluded. 

The post U.S. Debt Crisis Reveals Flaws in U.S. Politics, Fiscal Policy, Says Thai Banker appeared first on Policy Print.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, lowered the seven-day reverse repo rate for the first time since last August from 2 percent to 1.9 percent on Tuesday when injecting funds into the financial system through open market operations.

Later the same day, the PBOC also announced a cut on the interest rates of its standing lending facility, with the overnight rate down by 10 basis points to 2.75 percent.

Dong Ximiao, chief researcher at Merchants Union Consumer Finance Company Limited, said the reverse repo rate cut has reflected market supply and demand for funds while signaling further counter-cyclical adjustment and efforts to stabilize the market.

“As an important variable of the macroeconomy, the central bank’s rate cut on open market operations would facilitate market confidence,” said Wang Qing, an analyst with Golden Credit Rating, noting that the move would further propel China’s economic recovery in the second half of 2023.

The cuts came ahead of the PBOC’s release of the medium-term lending facility (MLF) rate and loan prime rate (LPR) decisions, which are set for Thursday and next week, respectively.

In August 2022, when the PBOC last cut the reverse repo rate by 10 basis points, the MLF rate was brought down the same day, while the LPR, a market-based benchmark lending rate, was lowered a week later.

In a circular issued late Tuesday by four state organs, including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Chinese government said it will work to lower financing costs for business entities and increase loans to small and micro firms.

China’s mild inflation has also left room for policy rate adjustments, according to analysts. In the first five months of 2023, the country’s consumer price index (CPI), a major gauge of inflation, edged up 0.8 percent year on year.

The 10-basis-point reverse repo rate cut is a quite moderate move, according to Dong, who considered it conducive to striking a balance between multiple policy targets such as maintaining price and financial stabilities, supporting the real economy, and keeping the RMB exchange rate generally stable at an adaptive, balanced level.

Prior to this week’s rate cuts, China’s six state-owned commercial banks had moved to cut deposit rates by around 10 to 15 basis points, which will help replenish capital and boost their abilities to support the real economy.

PBOC Governor Yi Gang, during his inspection in Shanghai earlier this month, has pledged that the central bank will continue to precisely and effectively implement a prudent monetary policy while strengthening counter-cyclical adjustment, supporting the real economy, promoting employment and maintaining currency and financial stability.

The central bank will also better utilize monetary policy tools, maintain reasonably ample liquidity and keep the amount of currency and credit at an appropriate level and a steady pace, the governor said.  

The post China Steps up Counter-Cyclical Adjustment With Policy Rate Cuts appeared first on Policy Print.

The new government will safeguard the welfare society, ensure adequate services for all, and promote the balanced development of the national economy, said the government’s press release on Friday.

It will make adjustments to taxation, lowering personal income tax and increasing value-added tax on items such as pharmaceuticals, sports services, film screenings, etc, it said.

Regarding immigration, the government plans to significantly lower the refugee quota and raise the threshold for permanent residence permits, including requirements related to continuous residency and language proficiency.

The coalition government consists of the conservative National Coalition Party, the right-wing Finns Party, the Finnish Christian Democrats, and the Swedish People’s Party.

According to the cabinet position allocation plan, the new government will consist of a Prime Minister and 18 ministers, the same as the current one. 

The post Finland’s New Government Unveils Policy Program appeared first on Policy Print.

“When it comes to the region, our focus is on increasing economic ties with economic connectivity and transit at its core,” Muttaqi said while addressing a seminar here at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI), an Islamabad-based think tank.

He said there is significant regional interest in economic connectivity through Afghanistan, particularly connecting Central Asia to South Asia and beyond.

The acting foreign minister noted that the region is finally able to make its decades-long aspirations of joint economic prosperity a reality not only for Afghanistan but for the entire region.

Highlighting the economic situation of Afghanistan, Muttaqi said that the country has made good progress in agriculture, mineral, health, and other sectors, adding that efforts are now underway to attract domestic and foreign investment as well as create opportunities for the technical class to find employment in Afghanistan.

He further added that the end of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan ended the corruption, different militant groups and warring parties that were present in the country.

“We seek good relations with all our neighbors and we will not allow anyone to use the territory of Afghanistan against anyone else, and we will remain committed to this pledge in the future,” according to the acting foreign minister. 

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“I don’t agree at all. Not at all. I don’t know how or why he came to that conclusion,” Vieira said in response to a question from the press at the presidential residence Alvorada Palace, where Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva received Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday.

Speaking to journalists on Saturday, Lula said that the West is encouraging war by giving arms to Ukraine. “The United States needs to stop encouraging war and start talking about peace,” he said. 

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