Thai Exports Soar By Most in Three Years Ahead of US Tariffs

Thailand's exports surged the most since early 2022 as companies rushed to stockpile goods while the Trump administration's planned tariffs are still on hold.
Shipments jumped 18.4% to a record $31 billion in May, Commerce Minister Pichai Naripthaphan told reporters in Bangkok on Wednesday. That was the biggest gain in exports since March 2022 and the fifth straight month of double-digit gains.

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Boston Globe

an hour ago

• Boston Globe

As federal cuts loom, rental housing vouchers across Mass. are being put on hold

Why? A combination of stagnating federal funding over the years and soaring rents in this state have caught up with the Section 8 program, to the point that many housing authorities can no longer afford to pay for the vouchers they distribute to low-income tenants. Together, they've effectively frozen the nation's largest housing assistance program in one of the And that's at the current funding trajectory, before deep federal cuts that have been proposed by the Trump Administration, which local housing officials have said Advertisement 'We have reached a critical point with Section 8,' said Ben Stone, executive director of the Brookline Housing Authority. 'The math of the program — which has historically been the most reliable form of housing assistance — is not working how it used to.' The 80-year-old program supports millions of renters nationwide, allowing tenants to pay around 30 percent of their income toward rent on market-rate apartments, with the voucher making up the difference. In Massachusetts, where Section 8 is the state's largest source of subsidized housing, some 93,000 households use them to help pay the rent each month. Advertisement But many of the housing authorities that administer Section 8 here have run into a problem recently: Federal funding for the program has remained relatively flat, while market rents — and by extension rents for Section 8 apartments — have shot up. Even when the federal government maintains the same level of funding or modestly increases it year over year, rents in Massachusetts have increased faster than the rate of funding growth. That has pushed many housing authorities into a budget shortfall, meaning they cannot fully pay for all of the services they provide. The Boston Housing Authority, for instance, is projecting to be short by about $26 million, or three weeks worth of funding, at the end of the year. 'With federal vouchers, you have to run just to stand still,' said BHA administrator Kenzie Bok. 'The federal government needs to increase funding every year just to maintain the same amount of vouchers, and now we have reached a point where the funding isn't keeping up anymore.' Kenzie Bok, the administrator of the Boston Housing Authority. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff Even the state housing department, which distributes roughly 23,000 Section 8 vouchers, had to stop issuing vouchers late last year due to funding constraints and closed its waitlist to new applicants, a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities said. It is also rolling back other benefits it had been providing, including reducing the amount of rent the government will pay for Section 8 rents, meaning more costs may be passed on to voucher holders. Some housing authorities, including the BHA, are taking other cost-saving measures, including Advertisement The state has run into the same issue with the That means that almost no one on any waitlist is being awarded a housing voucher in Massachusetts right now. 'We have folks who have been on the waitlist for 13 years, and now we have to tell people that they have to keep waiting,' said Sarah Scott, director of Leased Housing at Metro Housing Boston, a nonprofit agency that administers housing assistance programs. 'It is especially difficult because there isn't a timeline we could give people. All the programs we rely on are pulling back.' It's a difficult shift for programs that are in massive demand. While 580,000 households qualify for housing subsidies in Massachusetts, according to a 2022 report by state affordable housing groups, there's only enough funding for about 250,000 to receive them. Massachusetts has one of the highest rates of housing assistance in the country, according to a recent analysis by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Related : That, of course, is before any potential cuts come into play. In its budget plan proposed last month, the Trump Administration outlined deep cuts to several major housing programs, including Section 8 and public housing, which combined would see funding slashed by 40 percent. Advertisement If that comes to pass, a state spokesperson said, it would result in an $800 million hole in the state's budget for housing assistance, which would, in turn, force the state to take vouchers away from some low-income families who use them. 'It will be devastating if President Trump's proposed cuts to these federal programs move forward because the state cannot backfill federal funding shortfalls,' state Housing Secretary Ed Augustus said in a statement. 'These cuts will only make housing even more expensive and difficult to access in Massachusetts and across the country.' In its budget plan proposed last month, the Trump administration outlined deep cuts to several major housing programs, including Section 8 and public housing, which combined would see funding slashed by 40 percent. Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg Worry about what might come is why some housing authorities in Massachusetts, including the Newton Housing Authority, are pausing vouchers. Preemptive cutbacks, said Scott at Metro Housing, are a way to save money and keep as many current voucher holders on the programs as possible. And it's not just vouchers that are at risk. Michael Lara, executive director of the Newton Housing Authority, said that his agency is concerned about cuts to the federal public housing budget, which is a separate program that maintains The Trump administration has also proposed eliminating several programs that fund supportive housing for formerly homeless people and street outreach services, including money the City of Boston uses to pay for apartment leases on private market units it rents to house people off the street. Also at risk: Funds for wraparound services at supportive housing sites, said Lyndia Downie, executive director of Pine Street Inn. Pine Street and other nonprofits have spent decades developing a supportive housing model that includes on-site health, counseling, and case management services at apartment complexes designed for formerly homeless people. The model is more likely to keep people from becoming homeless again, but it relies heavily on federal funding, and the proposed funding cuts may result directly in rising homelessness in the city, said Downie. Advertisement It's just this type of supportive housing program that has helped Osborne Walker turn his life around. Walker spent five years on the street in Boston after a traumatic brain injury and amid tumult in his family. Eventually, he said, he stopped feeling like a human being when he was homeless. Having a home at Pine Street's 'This place is saving me,' said Walker. 'I lost myself for a while there. I'm starting to feel like a person again.' Andrew Brinker can be reached at

Forbes

an hour ago

• Forbes

Judge Sides With Universities, Blocks NSF's 15% Indirect Cost Cap

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from implementing a 15% cap on indirect ... More research costs funded by NSF. A federal judge has granted summary judgment in favor of several universities and higher education organizations that had sued the National Science Foundation over its attempt to limit the reimbursement of indirect costs associated with research grants funded by the agency. In her 52-page ruling on Friday, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani vacated NSF's recently announced policy of capping its indirect cost payments at a standard rate of 15%, declaring it 'invalid, arbitrary and capricious, and contrary to law.' She also ordered NSF to provide written notice of her decision 'to all funding recipients affected by the 15% Indirect Cost Rate' within 72 hours. The decision represents the latest legal setback for the Trump administration, which has tried — so far unsuccessfully — to impose the 15% cap on grants funded by other federal agencies. U.S. judges have previously blocked similar funding caps at the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy, and last week a similar suit was brought against the Department of Defense over its move to impose a 15% cap. A judge issued a temporary restraining order against the DOD cap one day after that suit was filed. The NSF lawsuit was filed on May 5th in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts by 13 research universities and three higher education organizations: the Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education, and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The 13 plaintiff schools were Arizona State University, Brown University, the University of California, California Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Chicago, Cornell University, the University of Illinois, MIT, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University. At issue was a May 2 'policy notice' in which NSF indicated it was capping its indirect cost reimbursement rate at 15% for all new grants and cooperative agreements awarded to university investigators rather than paying a negotiated rate for these support costs as had been its past practice. The negotiated rates typically have exceeded 50% for the plaintiff universities, according to the lawsuit. Indirect costs — also known as facilities and administrative costs — refer to the costs of conducting research that are not attributable to any one investigation. They include items like large-scale computer systems, maintenance of equipment, facility upgrades, the operation of labs, depreciation, employment of support staff, accounting, research compliance, legal expenses, and the salaries of key administrators in charge of an institution's research enterprise. The plaintiffs contended that NSF's policy was unlawful for several reasons, including violations of federal regulations and the Administrative Procedure Act. They argued that 'the Rate Cap Policy exceeds NSF's statutory authority by reimposing, in more severe form, a categorical cap on indirect costs that Congress specifically eliminated in 1965 and has declined to reenact ever since." The government had argued that the policy was necessary to control costs, reduce administrative burdens on institutions and increase the amount of federal funds that could be used to support direct research costs. And it contended that it was legally permitted to set the flat 15% rate. In the end, the judge agreed with the plaintiffs' multiple claims about the illegality of the administration's actions. The government had agreed to voluntarily stay implementation of the 15% cap until June 20, the same day on which Judge Talwani handed down her ruling.

Forbes

2 hours ago

• Forbes

Owner Of Reebok, Brooks Brothers, Dockers Expects Brisk Growth, Hiring In Asia

Authentic Brands Group Chairman and CEO Jamie Salter traveled to Shanghai to open the company's ... More Asia-Pacific regional headquarters earlier this month. Canadian businessman Jamie Salter first arrived in China in the 1980s in the early part of the country's reform era. 'They were just building the highways. I would stop and go to McDonald's and get a bunch of burgers' because there were so few restaurants with Western-style food, Salter recalled in an interview in Shanghai last week with Forbes China, the Chinese-language edition of Forbes. Since then, factories along the roadways have been replaced by condos and apartments, and 'you have every name-brand restaurant and all these fancy hotels,' he said. Salter's career, which started in the sporting goods business, has taken off, too. The New York-based brand licensing business he founded in 2010 and chairs, Authentic Brands Group, has expanded into what it calls 'a multifaceted lifestyle, sports, entertainment and digital platform' for world-renowned names, such as Reebok, Shaquille O'Neal, Brooks Brothers and others. Authentic's portfolio generates more than $32 billion in global annual retail sales, according to company figures. Shareholders in the privately held business include CVC, Brookfield, GIC, Temasek and General Atlantic. Salter, 62, was back in Shanghai earlier this month to announce that the city had become Authentic's new headquarters for an Asia-Pacific region that he expects will be a big source of new revenue in the coming years. 'I always said that I truly believe that the Asia-Pacific -- and specifically China -- will be the biggest consumer market in the world. And I still believe that to this day,' Salter said. The region currently accounts for nearly 15% of Authentic's business yet 'should be almost as big as the United States, (which) represents roughly 60% of our total turnover,' he said. 'So the upside in the Asia-Pacific is probably 5x of what we are doing today over the next three to five years.' Optimism about the Asia-Pacific's economic outlook is underscored by recent International Monetary Fund forecasts. Growth for the Asia region is projected to be 3.9% in 2025, double its prediction of an 1.8% gain in U.S. GDP this year. Salter picked Shanghai as its regional hub because 'we think it's sort of the capital of where all the business is going be done,' comparable in clout to the role of New York. 'To me, Shanghai's New York City. That's the way I think about it. I've been coming here for a long time. I used to spend a lot of time in Hong Kong. I actually went to Shanghai every year. I just got busier, and there were more people to see. I found myself not running back to Hong Kong to do the business. I was doing all the business in Shanghai.' Salter is particularly upbeat about China in part because of improvements in the quality of goods made in the country. 'What I'm really excited about is (that) the product continues to just get better and better. It's far superior, actually, to the product that is sold in America today' and similar to Europe, he said. Looking ahead, Authentic's overall approach to business in Asian markets won't differ much from elsewhere. 'Think global, act local -- that's really important,' Salter said. Japan, South Korea, China and the Philippines are 'all very different as far as the cultures go,' including their social media influencers, he observed. Success requires 'making sure that we understand those cultures and invest in each region, in order to make sure we're making the right product for the consumer and to make sure that we have the right marketing behind that.' 'And that means that you need people,' Salter noted. In the U.S., Authentic has an 'asset light' business model with 400 employees. In the Asia-Pacific, however, it currently has only 60, 'so you're going to see the headcount go up dramatically in Asia-Pacific compared to other markets. We'll be adding a lot of people over here.' Levi Strauss last month announced plans to sell Dockers to Authentic Brands Group in a deal worth up ... More to $391 million. 'We believe that Dockers is a very underutilized brand,' Authentic Chairman and CEO Jamie Salter told Forbes China. (Photo by) Salter expressed optimism about the future of the Dockers brand recently purchased by Authentic from Levi Strauss for $311 million. With about 44% of Dockers' business coming from the U.S., the larger share of revenue is already from international customers, he said. Levi's, best-known from its denim business, didn't want to introduce denim pants to the Dockers brand; Authentic believes it can grow that segment globally. 'We believe that Dockers is a very underutilized brand,' he said. Salter also was upbeat about the Asia-Pacific potential of Sports Illustrated, a media Authentic purchased from Meredith Corp. for $110 million in 2019. Sports Illustrated has since expanded beyond media through SI Tickets, a fan-first ticketing platform, and SI Resorts, marketed as destination for active lifestyles and sports enthusiasts. 'There are markets that we truly believe it will expand quite well -- Japan, because it's got a very big sports franchise business out there, Korea and of course, China,' he said. Forbes China licensee Yingli Investment is an affiliate of Advanced Regent, the Greater China licensee of Sports Illustrated. Advanced Regent launched the brand in China last year.