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[ad_1] Agnipath Protest Live News, Agneepath Scheme Protests Latest Updates: The protests over Centre’s ‘Agnipath’ continued on Friday morning for a third consecutive day with agitators setting two coaches of a passenger train on fire in Bihar. The coaches of the Jammu Tawi Express train were set on fire at Mohiuddinagar station of Hajipur-Barauni railway line. On Thursday, protesters set trains on fire, attacked public and police vehicles as they demanded rollback of the new recruitment scheme for the defence forces. As the violence spiralled, the government raised the upper age limit to 23 years from 21 years for recruitment under the scheme for the year 2022, without making a reference to the turmoil. From Bihar’s Ara to Haryana’s Palwal, from Agra in Uttar Pradesh to Gwalior and Indore in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, hundreds of young aspirants for jobs in the armed forces took to streets, pouring their anger on public and private property. Bihar bore the brunt of the violence with trains set ablaze, window panes of buses smashed and passersby, including a ruling BJP MLA, pelted with stones on Thursday, the second day of the protest against the scheme which envisages a short four-year term for soldiers in the three armed forces entailing no gratuity or pension upon retirement. [ad_2] Source link

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[ad_1] The Job The benefits of working with a global mandate is that you get a macro view of consumer priorities and trends across geographies. While India itself is also diverse in terms of preferences regarding products, occasions for buying, etc., there are some human truths which I have seen to be global in nature. More and more consumers are getting more conscious about sustainability, impact on environment and that itself is a strong wake call for brands to “walk the talk”, not just create campaigns around it. The importance of purpose is higher than ever before. The Weekdays A typical day would include meetings with different internal and external stakeholders like sales, customer service, D2C team, agencies, etc. I always look forward to working towards creating a new solution to solve a business or consumer problem. I am an avid reader and usually take some time out during the day to keep myself abreast of the latest campaigns and innovations done across industries not just in India but globally. The Weekend Weekend is a very hectic affair where I need to keep a balance between family time and personal pursuits. I have two small children who are very energetic and want me to spend maximum time with them.During my personal ‘me time’, I like consuming OTT content and reading books. I have recently started watching Ozark and am already hooked on it. The Toys My favourite gadgets would be my phone and my Kindle. Music, office, and content on the go! The Logos Two of my favourite brands are Feviquik and Fevicol. They have created their permanent space in the consumer mindscape and are very profitable brands for many decades. Other brands that I admire are Decathalon and Ikea. Their consumer experience across touchpoints is fabulous and they are true examples of category killers. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] I’m raising my fifth recession red flag today based on the Census Bureau‘s May housing starts data. Housing starts showed a miss on the estimate but positive revisions. Housing starts came in at 1.549 million and housing permits came in at  1.695 million. Housing completion data did grow to 1.465 million and more of the backlogged homes are finished. However, considering Wednesday’s builder confidence index and mortgage rates over 6%, it’s time to raise the fifth recession red flag, since the builders will have a tough time growing housing starts with rates this high.  The data from the NAHB/Wells Fargo builder’s survey is always crucial because it is forward-looking, and it takes the reality of today’s market into the equation. However, the most current one doesn’t account for the higher rates we have today. From NAHB: From Census: Housing Permits Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,695,000.  This is 7.0 percent below the revised April rate of 1,823,000, but is 0.2 percent above the May 2021 rate of 1,691,000.  Single‐family authorizations in May were at a rate of 1,048,000; this is 5.5 percent below the revised April figure of 1,109,000.  Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 592,000 in May Housing permits aren’t collapsing by any means, but the permits data is backward-looking. As rates rise, this will impact the builders more as they try to find buyers for current homes in cancellation. Then, they need to manage what they can or can’t sell. From Census: Housing Starts Privately‐owned housing starts in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,549,000.  This is 14.4 percent (±8.9 percent) below the revised April estimate of 1,810,000 and is 3.5 percent (±10.7 percent)* below the May 2021 rate of 1,605,000.  Single‐family housing starts in May were at a rate of 1,051,000; this is 9.2 percent (±11.0 percent)* below the revised April figure of 1,157,000. The May rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 469,000.While this data line isn’t crashing, the ability to grow from these levels is limited with rising mortgage rates. The story in the future is how many current homes builders can sell and when they will feel comfortable building more single-family homes. Multifamily construction is different than single-family homes. In some sense, taking away potential homebuyers fuels rental demand and keeps current renters in their homes for longer. From Census: Housing Completions Privately‐owned housing completions in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,465,000.  This is 9.1 percent (±22.6 percent)* above the revised April estimate of 1,343,000 and is 9.3 percent (±19.0 percent)* above the May 2021 rate of 1,340,000.  Single‐family housing completions in May were at a rate of 1,043,000; this is 2.8 percent (±13.6 percent)* above the revised April rate of 1,015,000. The May rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 417,000. Housing completions have been one of the worst stories for the housing market. The ability to finish houses has taken forever; thus, now the completion data is picking up to say hello to the falling housing starts. Historically, housing completions move with housing starts and permits data. However, supply shortages have created delays in completing homes in a timely matter. As you can see below, housing completion data hasn’t done much for many years, unlike 2002-2005. But, this data line should grow a tad more while they finish up homes that they do have buyers for. The builder’s confidence is falling, new home sales are falling, housing starts and permits are falling, while rates keep increasing. The trend is your friend until rates fall or the builders discount enough to get some buyers. One thing to note, new home sales hasn’t had a credit boom, so we are working from levels that are not that far off from historical lows. We are already below the 2000 recession levels. The 5th recession red flag My recession model is a progression model; it’s created to show you when we’re going into a recession and out of recession. It’s not created for glory-hound recession callers that time-stamp a date on their recession call. At this point in 2022, we don’t see recessionary data as of yet. We have never had an active recession where employment, sales and production levels were positive. It doesn’t exist. We created many jobs in the first half of 2022 and while jobs are a lagging indicator, the other data was positive. So, a recession isn’t just two negative GDP quarters like some people believe. Traditionally, housing starts, permits and new home sales fade into a recession. As we can see, the Federal Reserve is hiking rates to impact demand, don’t make it any more complicated than that. Back in 2018, housing starts and new home sales got hit, but we only had three recession red flags back then, plus 2020 was coming. It’s a much different backdrop now, so I’m raising the 5th recession flag. What is left — the sixth recession red flag — is the leading economic index. When this falls for four to six months, then I can go on recession watch. That is an entirely different conversation at that point. During the housing bubble years, all six flags came up in 2006, so it was sometime before the job loss recession happened.  Each economic cycle is unique, and we have to adjust to new live variables. If mortgage rates fall back, this will be a stabilizer for the housing market. Until then, we will take every housing data line and the economic data one week at a time. The post Housing starts data raises 5th recession red flag appeared first on HousingWire. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Back in 2020, we shared 50 Easy & Cheap Family Dinner Ideas. Recently, I asked on my Facebook Page if people had any other ideas for go-to cheap dinner ideas to make when money is tight. Here are 15 more ideas: 1. Sheetpan Dinner There are so many variations on sheetpan dinners you can do using whatever you have on hand. If you have some kind of rope sausage, some kind of potatoes, and then some kind of veggies like carrots or peppers or onions, you can make a delicious sheetpan dinner. Check out the details on how to make it here. 2. Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese This is always a great stand-by lunch or dinner. Open up a few cans of tomato soup (or make your own) and then use whatever cheese and bread you have on hand to make grilled cheese sandwiches. 3. Dollar Tree Pizza Becky submitted this idea. She said: “We buy pizza crusts from Dollar Tree, a jar of pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni, and whatever other toppings we want. It has become a cheap favorite!” (Psst! You can also make your own delicious homemade pizza crust in just minutes! And for a fun variation, try Upside Down Pizza.) 4. Seasoned Beans & Rice On our Facebook Page, Sharon shared some tips for how they make seasoned beans and rice for an easy and inexpensive meal: “We make rice and beans with bullion and seasoning of choice. We just add carrots, celery, onion, or scraps of meat (if available). Buying in bulk and using dry beans rather than canned is incredibly inexpensive. I get the largest bags of rice and beans I can find then put them in 5 gallon buckets with Gamma Seal lids to keep them for long periods. These are also excellent to have on hand in case of emergency and provides inexpensive meals as needed.” 5. Fettucine Alfredo “If we’re already tired of the other cheap dinners (hot dogs, red beans & rice, or tacos),” Melissa commented on our Facebook Page, “We do Fettuccine Alfredo (we make our Alfredo sauce using this easy recipe and it’s cheap and tastes better than the jarred). We serve it with salad and a $1 garlic bread loaf we get from our grocery store.” Here’s a recipe for Healthy Fettuccine Alfredo. 6. Pork Tenderloin Claudine shared this idea: “Pork tenderloins are really cheap where I live, so I’ll put a pork tenderloin in the crockpot with BBQ sauce (I’ll either make my own with what I have in my pantry, or buy a bottle of BBQ sauce if it’s on a good sale). When it’s cooked, I’ll shred it and use it to make enough for two meals’ worth of BBQ pulled pork sandwiches for our family. We serve it along with some slaw and homemade fries (Russet potatoes are cheap where I live, so always have some on hand).“ 7. Egg Roll in a Bowl This is such a versatile meal idea — and can be made very quickly, too. You can substitute for whatever veggies and meat you have on hand. 8. French Toast Casserole When eggs are on sale or marked down, French Toast Casserole is a simple and filling recipe we love to make. Best of all, you can put it together a day ahead of time or the morning of, so that you just need to pop it in the oven at dinner time. We usually serve it with fruit and maybe some sausage or bacon, if I have some in the freezer from a recent sale. 9. Bean Burritos Use tortillas (or make your own) and fill them with refried beans (or make your own) or black beans and then onions and taco seasoning (or make your own) or salsa. Top with cheese and heat up for a quick and filling dinner. Here’s a simple recipe that we’ve used and loved. 10. Ground Turkey, Potatoes, and Veggies Ashley suggested this idea: “Brown some ground turkey with diced sweet potato and frozen corn! It’s so good and easy to make a big batch. Plus, it’s very affordable.” We often do something similar, only we use ground beef with diced potatoes and either peas, corn, or green beans to make a sort of hash. 11. Have a Leftover Buffet We do this almost every week for a very quick and frugal dinner. Just pull out whatever odds and ends you have left in the fridge and pantry, set it out buffet style, and let everyone make up their own plates with whatever they’d like to eat! 12. Frittata When eggs are on sale or marked down, Frittata is another very easy and adaptable idea. Here’s a recipe we’ve used and loved. Sharon also shared how they make frittata: “We use a dozen eggs and add in whatever cheese and leftover ingredients from the fridge. This is a great way to use up our small amounts of shredded cheese, bits of green onions, mushrooms, maybe bell peppers, last dredges of bacon pieces and sometimes that one leftover breakfast sausage. We also use the opportunity to toss in some leftovers. I have used leftover taco meat, chopped up pork loin, shredded beef, pulled pork, and even a chopped up leftover hamburger patty. Just mix it all together with a splash of milk, add salt and pepper, then bake at 350 for 45-60 min.” 13. Mac & Cheese with Chicken or Beef Lyra commented with this tip: “Last night I made mac and cheese with chicken. I diced up a small onion and sauted it. I then added 2 cups of chopped rotisserie chicken and seasoned it with salt, pepper, and minced garlic. I added in a box of mac and cheese that I made by following package directions. I just added the mac and cheese to the chicken and onion and stirred together.” Tip: We also like to add ground beef or pork to a few boxes of mac and cheese

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[ad_1] By Somit Dasgupta In May, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) announced fresh regulations for renewable energy certificates (RECs), including doing away with the ceiling and floor price of RECs, making the certificates valid till redemption (as against 1,095 days earlier), allowing traders also to deal in RECs at mutually agreed prices (as against only electricity exchanges earlier), introducing the concept of ‘multiplier’ to deal with technologies that are at a rudimentary stages and/or are expensive, and allowing obligated entities to hold RECs beyond their Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO). RECs were introduced in 2011 to help resource-deficit states to meet their RPO. States having less renewable resource potential can buy RECs to the extent they fall short of their RPO. Each generator is issued one REC after generating 1Mwh of renewable power and, till now, there were separate RECs for solar and non-solar power. This will now be replaced by ‘multipliers’. RECs have been facing a number of operational issues, and some matters are being litigated. We are examining only solar RECs in this piece. The accompanying graphic indicates that RECs have been a buyers’ market, and, year after year, ‘sell’ bids outnumber the ‘buy’ bids. Some parity between ‘sell’ and ‘buy’ bids seems to have set in from 2020, though it is too early to say whether this will continue. This has led to very low REC price; from a high of Rs 12.2 per unit (2013) it fell to Rs 1 per unit (2017). The primary reason is RPO targets are not enforced by the regulatory commissions. The report of the Standing Committee for the ministry of new and renewable energy (2020-21) mentions that in 2019-20, about 19 states met less than 50% of their RPO and only four achieved more than 100%. Given the low price of RECs vis-à-vis the lowest solar auction price for the year, some of the obligated entities may actually prefer to buy RECs instead of renewable power. This, in a way, hampers the setting up of more renewable generating capacity. The government is contemplating amending the Act to impose stringent penalties if RPOs are not complied with, to the extent of a fine of `1 for every unit not fulfilled. As of now, the Act does not mention anything about penalty. This brings us to the energy saving certificates (ESCerts), arising from the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme implemented by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency. Under PAT, large, energy-intensive industries are given targets for reduction of specific energy consumption, based on a three-year cycle. Targets have been laid down for seven PAT cycles beginning 2012. Any unit which saves more than its target is issued a certificate, and each certificate represents 1 million tonne of oil equivalent (mtoe). All units which fall short of the target have to buy the ESCerts from the exchange. Data is available for PAT 1 and PAT 2, and the targets have been over-achieved by about 29% in the first and about 16% in the second cycles. Critics say that the targets were not ambitious. Consequently, there were more sellers than buyers of ESCerts, giving rise to a buyers’ market. The price of an ESCert fell from Rs 1,200 to Rs 200. The divergence between the sellers and buyers of ESCerts, however, varied across sectors. Per PAT 1 data, this was the highest for paper & pulp (only sellers), but was more balanced for chlor-alkali and thermal power, meaning more realistic targets in these two industries. Proponents believe the difference between the number of buyers and sellers has come down in PAT 2 vis-à-vis PAT 1, implying low-hanging fruits of PAT 1 have been consumed and that things are going to get tougher in the subsequent cycles. In PAT 1, for every buyer, there were 2.7 sellers; in PAT 2, this fell to 1.5 sellers for every buyer. The cost of the certificates has to be linked with the marginal cost the industry must pay to move to a more energy-efficient technology. If the price of ESCerts is low, units not meeting their targets will be happy to keep buying ESCerts, defeating the entire purpose. In conclusion, the two well-intentioned schemes could not really achieve their potential. While the REC lost out because RPO were not enforced, ESCerts became ineffective due to the fact that the targets laid down were not challenging enough. (The author is Senior Visiting Fellow, ICRIER, and former member (Economic & Commercial), CEA) [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Fannie Mae lowered its projections of mortgage originations and home sales for 2022 as mortgage rates continue to climb. Fannie Mae’s Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) Group revised its projected mortgage origination volume to $2.6 trillion in 2022 and $2.2 trillion in 2023. In May, Fannie Mae dropped its mortgage origination volume projection for 2022 to $2.7 trillion and $2.25 trillion for 2023, down from the respective $2.8 trillion and $2.41 trillion projected the previous month.  The GSE’s projections for refinance originations this year remain at $797 billion, unchanged from last month. Fannie Mae estimates that with rates at 5.23%, per the agency’s 30-year fixed rate survey reading, less than 2% of all outstanding loan balances have a refinance rate incentive of at least 50 basis points. Since that reading, rates have climbed on conventional mortgages north of 6%. In 2023, Fannie expects refinance originations to go up by $24 billion or 4.8% of the entire originations volume as mortgage rates are predicted to stabilize that year. Higher mortgage rates are the housing market’s “primary constraint,” the agency said in a statement Thursday. Total home sales are expected to fall 13.5% to 5.96 million units in 2022, sliding down even further from its 11.1% projected decline in May. About 5.29 million homes are expected to sell in 2023, down from the prior forecast of 5.42 million.  Consumers are feeling the sudden rise in interest rates as employment growth slows and stock market valuations fall, said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s senior vice president and chief economist. “Nowhere is this more evident than in housing affordability measures, with the prospective monthly payment on a typical new mortgage climbing dramatically.” Existing home sales dropped 2.4% in April from March to 5.61 million, according to Realtor.com. A total of 591,000 new homes were sold in April, falling 16.6% from the previous month, the lowest level in two years.  Regarding the overall economy, Fannie Mae marginally downgraded the GDP forecast for 2022 to 1.2%, from the 1.3% projected in May. While the agency raised the second quarter GDP to 2.5%, the GDP for 2022 is offset by a slower growth forecast in the latter half of the year as inflation continues to eat into real incomes and effects of higher interest rates.  “Our view continues to be that the magnitude of response required of monetary and fiscal tightening to return inflation to the Federal Reserve’s target will likely result in a recession, which we currently expect will be modest and occur next year,” Duncan said.  The post Fannie Mae cuts 2022 industry forecast (again) appeared first on HousingWire. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] The post Limiting Beliefs Hold You Back from Financial Independence appeared first on Millennial Money. Financial independence begins with an abundance mindset. You’re not going to achieve your goals without believing in yourself and your ability to grow and save money. But what happens when you don’t believe that or you find yourself struggling to save money? You might have something called a limiting belief stopping you from achieving your full potential.  Are Your Money Beliefs Holding You Back? Limiting beliefs are core beliefs that you have about yourself that are inherently negative. If you have limiting beliefs about money, it can impact your ability to grow and save money. Everyone has money beliefs. They stem from your home of origin, or from formative experiences in your life.  If your family was stressed about money growing up, you might feel like you can’t splurge on yourself. Alternatively, you might feel like you have to spend money while you have it because you might not get the choice to spend it later.  Money beliefs are very person specific and you might have them about very different things.  For example, in my house we only buy generic foods—except for cream of soup. I can afford name-brand food now, but I still buy generic, because it’s what we did in my house growing up. It’s a rather trivial belief that stems from a lack of money, but it governs my shopping and affects what foods I purchase. Not all money beliefs are bad though. Some are very helpful.  I grew up thinking I was a good saver, because my parents taught me how to save money with my allowance. We basically did the 50/30/20 split with money and so I grew up having a very healthy relationship with a savings account. Find Out What Your Money Beliefs Are Not sure what your money beliefs are? Some money beliefs will be easy to pinpoint; others more difficult.  Taking time to journal your feelings about money will help you figure out what money beliefs you have.  This exercise is emotional and will bring up things that you probably haven’t thought of in a while. So I suggest making a fun night of it. Settle in with your favorite beverage and snacks, curl up with your favorite pillow, put on some punk rock music (or whatever gets you going), and get to know your money beliefs.  Change Your Limiting Beliefs about Money Thankfully, even if you have limiting beliefs about money, you can change them. It takes time and thinking through mental roadblocks, but it’s the best thing about creating a financially independent lifestyle. When you have strong and positive beliefs about money, you’re able to frame your life in a positive way, and then the money starts to accumulate. Let’s take this limiting belief: “I can never save money because I’m bad with money.”  In this example, you’re making a negative statement about yourself that keeps you from learning a new behavior. To fix it, you need to think through the limiting belief and find where it stems from, and then address that problem. I used to believe this limiting belief about myself. It was because when I was a kid making $30 an hour (which I did y’all, I was bougie as a teenager), I spent all my money and never learned how to save. But just because I believe I’m bad with money and can’t save, doesn’t mean it’s true. I just need to flip the script on the limiting belief. I haven’t practiced saving, so it feels clumsy to me. But I can learn to be a better saver. Why Change Your Limiting Financial Beliefs? The short answer: You need to overcome your limiting beliefs in order to achieve financial independence. Otherwise, you might not have the mental resolve to make the hard choices like saving money.  Financial Independence is the ability to maintain your lifestyle without relying on a job. Some people use passive income through books, courses, blogs, and other side hustles to fund their lifestyle. Others focus on real estate to fund their endeavors. And still more invest in the stock market. What’s more common though is to have a combination of money funds to create a self-sufficient lifestyle. These multiple income streams create a makeshift salary that individuals draw on. Now I know what you might be thinking. Wow, that sounds like something for only rich people. I could never achieve something like that.  This is not a fact about yourself. Instead, it’s a limiting belief!  You are believing that you’re not capable. Probably because the task feels so daunting. And it is. Saving, investing, growing passive income, and scraping together money to achieve such a feat isn’t for the weak of heart. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. How to Reduce Your Limiting Beliefs What can you do to avoid slipping into these limiting thought patterns? The first big step is recognizing when these negative patterns occur. It might be helpful to talk this out with a friend or someone who specializes in correcting limiting beliefs.  A lot of emotions can come up around money and what you believe about money, so make sure that you’re in a good place emotionally before you dig into the root cause. Money scripts (your unconscious beliefs about money) are a huge part of changing this pattern. If you can break them, or change them, you’ll be able to progress in your money journey. Working with a financial coach or therapist can help you look at your money beliefs and develop better habits and patterns. Any self limiting belief can be changed if you’re committed to the process. Sometimes change is easy, like just deciding that you can be good with money. And sometimes, change is harder, and you need to work at finding evidence to contradict your limiting belief. Learn More: Why You Need an Abundance Mindset for Financial Independence How Overcoming a Scarcity Mindset Will Lead