US: Yellen To Speak On Transatlantic Alliance

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is set to deliver remarks shortly to the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management on the topic of 'the importance of the transatlantic alliance for people in the U.S., Europe, and around the world.' Livestream can be found here. 

• Some sections of Yellen's remarks have been trailed early. Regarding sanctions on Russia and utilising windfall profits from Moscow's frozen assets to fund Ukraine, Yellen is to say "It’s [...] critical that we ensure Ukraine has the support it needs[...]. That’s why I believe it’s vital and urgent that we collectively find a way forward to unlock the value of Russian sovereign assets immobilized in our jurisdictions for the benefit of Ukraine."
• Reuters reports, "the U.S. has proposed a plan to pull forward the interest on [Russian] assets to back a bond or a loan that would provide Ukraine perhaps $50 billion in the near term[...]. The plan comes with some controversy, because it would require Western powers to hold the assets for around 20 years..."
• Aside from security issues, the WSJ is reportingthat Yellen has come out strongly against the prospect of a global 'billionaires tax' proposed by this year's G20 president, Brazil. The upcoming G7 fin mins meeting is set to discuss a global wealth tax, but Yellen states “We believe in progressive taxation. But the notion of some common global arrangement for taxing billionaires with proceeds redistributed in some way—we’re not supportive of a process to try to achieve that,”