| | | | | |  | | By Ben White and Aubree Eliza Weaver | Presented by |  | | Editor's Note: Morning Money is a free version of POLITICO Pro Financial Services' morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro. | | | Welcome to the Biden era — Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. becomes the 46th president of the United States around noon today in an inaugural that will look vastly different from any other in American history. His predecessor, who has never acknowledged the legitimacy of Biden's convincing win, will not attend, but instead jet off to Florida to eventually attempt to keep the Republican party in his angry, populist thrall. That story — the path of the GOP over the next four years — will unfold just beneath the main narrative that now confronts us: Whether Biden can unite the nation, defeat a pandemic that has taken over 400,000 American lives and deliver on promises to reignite the economy and fight economic inequality that has accelerated during the pandemic and hit women and minority groups especially hard. The tasks are enormous. The first and most gravely important is the distribution and adoption of Covid-19 vaccines as rapidly as humanly possible. Everything else depends on this. Wall Street doesn't crash — Worth pausing to note that while the outgoing president promised that if Biden won (and Democrats took the Senate) the stock market would crash and go to zero and retirement plans would get wiped out. Instead, the Dow and S&P 500 are up around 13 percent since Election Day. The reasons: Hope for up to $2 trillion in further stimulus and a more robust and coordinated effort to vaccinate enough Americans to reopen big parts of the American economy. Biden's first moves — The new president will begin with a series of executive orders, memos and letters including a "100-day challenge" asking Americans to use their masks for 100 days to help fight Covid and issuing an executive order on masks and social distancing on federal property. He will also move to reverse the outgoing administration's efforts to withdraw from the World Health Organization. On the economic front , Biden plans to ask the CDC to extend the national eviction moratorium until at least March 31. He will also ask the Department of Education to extend the pause on student loan payments on federal student loans until at least Sept. 30. He also plans orders and directives to stop border wall construction, roll back the "Muslim ban" and take other actions to reverse the previous administration's actions on climate including by re-joining the Paris Agreement. (More below.) GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING — Praying for a safe and orderly inaugural. See if you can tell what word is NOT in today's column. First to identify it in my email wins ... a virtual high five. Email me at bwhite@politico.com and follow me on Twitter @morningmoneyben. Email Aubree Eliza Weaver at aweaver@politico.com and follow her on Twitter @AubreeEWeaver. | | | | A message from ExxonMobil: As part of our ongoing commitment to help mitigate the risks of climate change, we've announced plans to further reduce emissions in our operations by 2025. Through continued application of operational efficiencies, ongoing development and deployment of lower-emission technologies and other measures, our plans drive meaningful near-term emission reductions and are consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Learn more about our plan to reduce our emissions. | | | | | | BIDEN'S NARROW PATH TO AN INFRASTRUCTURE DREAM — Our Tanya Snyder: "Biden wants to enact a mammoth infrastructure plan that would juice the economy, boost hiring and fight climate change, an enormously ambitious effort he's pitched as a cornerstone of his presidency. Achieving even a fraction of it will require Biden to secure new funding streams or expand debt-fueled spending, potentially upend the way infrastructure policy typically works and ensure hundreds of Democratic lawmakers in a closely divided Congress remain in lockstep, with no room for error. "Biden's progressive plan could find itself in the same graveyard as years of failed efforts to give infrastructure a massive cash injection. Americans and their elected officials overwhelmingly support the idea of repairing bridges, reducing traffic congestion and fixing other broken infrastructure in their communities." CONFIRMATON HEARINGS … GET KINDA NORMAL — Our Marianne LeVine and Andrew Desiderio: "Senate Republicans are ready to move on from the chaos of [the outgoing president] and revert to the ideological battle lines and policy disputes that previously characterized Washington. "Throughout a series of five back-to-back Cabinet confirmation hearings on Tuesday, Senate Republicans displayed a return-to-normal posture — staking out traditional conservative arguments and outlining their disagreements with the incoming Biden administration, but largely through a respectful back-and-forth with nominees." WARREN'S THREAT TO PRIVATE EQUITY — Our Zachary Warmbrodt: "Private equity firms went all out for … Biden in the 2020 election, giving his campaign six times more money than they donated to [the outgoing president] … That's not going to do them much good with progressive Democrats in Congress. "Democratic lawmakers are poised to crack down on the industry, which they say threatens both the economy and workers through its debt-laden takeovers of companies in industries from health care to food, sometimes followed by painful restructuring and mass layoffs. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), private equity's biggest foe in Washington, will push for a sweeping set of reforms intended to stop what she calls 'Wall Street looting.'" YELLEN CRUISES — Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen cruised through her nomination hearing and is set for overwhelming conformation. Via Cap Alpha's Ian Katz: "Yellen had her confirmation hearing … and it went even more smoothly than we expected. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who will chair the committee when the Democrats take over, said he hopes to get Yellen a vote on the Senate floor Thursday. "That may be ambitious, since committee members have until close of business Wednesday to submit follow-up questions to Yellen in writing, and then can wait for her to respond … The Republicans sought to put Yellen on notice about potential tax increases and deficit spending, but didn't waste much energy trying to derail her." Cowen's Jaret Seiberg : "Yellen easily survived her confirmation hearing … We expect she will be confirmed shortly. Yellen did not speak much about financial or housing policy, though she called for a bipartisan solution to Fannie and Freddie and expressed concern about hedge fund leverage and mutual funds that invest in illiquid assets. Also suggested corporate tax hike would be in 2022." | | | |   | | | CARSON'S LAST MOVE — Via our Katy O'Donnell: "HUD Secretary Ben Carson is making one last stab at 'YIMBY-ism,' [Yes In My Backyard] releasing a 137-page report on scaling back regulations that increase the cost of housing on his way out the door today. "Carson had spoken in taskforce meetings of the need to get past the 'not in my backyard' mindset that can drive exclusionary zoning and prevent the development of affordable housing, according to people who attended council meetings. But he appeared to abandon that position over the summer as [the outgoing president] made protecting the suburbs a campaign issue. Carson's decision to release the report today is a kind of parting shot to White House officials who wanted to block it." KUDLOW SPEAKS OUT — Washington Examiner's Nihal Krishan: "Top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said [the outgoing president] went too far in encouraging his supporters to overturn the results of the election, causing the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol earlier this month. 'I do believe he went too far with his rally,' Kudlow said during an interview with the Washington Examiner. He went too far. I agree. He should have stepped in sooner,' said Kudlow." TALKS CONTINUE ON FILIBUSTER — Our Burgess Everett: "Senate leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell have yet to strike an agreement on how to run an evenly split Senate. And McConnell is driving a hard bargain. "In a letter to colleagues, McConnell indicated he wants a commitment from Schumer (D-N.Y.) to preserve the legislative filibuster as part of their agreement governing the rules of the 50-50 Senate. He said while he is taking his cues from the last split Senate in 2001, he also believes 'we need to also address the threats to the legislative filibuster.'" MORE ON BIDEN'S EXECUTIVE ACTIONS — Our Tyler Pager: "Biden is planning to sign dozens of executive orders in his first days in office, as he aims to roll back some of [the outgoing administration's] signature policies on immigration and climate change while taking early action to address the coronavirus crisis. "After being sworn in on Wednesday, Biden will rescind the travel ban on several majority-Muslim countries, rejoin the Paris climate accords, extend limits on student loan payments and evictions instituted during the pandemic and issue a mask mandate on federal properties and for interstate travel. Incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain outlined the flurry of activity for Biden's first 10 days in office in a memo to senior staff on Saturday." | | | | A NEW YEAR, A NEW WASHINGTON, A NEW PLAYBOOK TEAM: Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri, Eugene Daniels and Rachael Bade take the reins of Playbook this week to set the agenda for the political day and days ahead; break news and make sense of it; and provide a steady dose of insider nuggets and intrigue for and about the power players in Washington. Delivered to your inbox twice a day, POLITICO Playbook keeps you up to speed with everything happening in the world of politics as a new administration enters the White House. Subscribe today to the unofficial guide for official Washington. | | | | | | | | WALL STREET'S MOMENTUM SWINGS BACK — AP's Stan Choe, Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga: "Wall Street kicked off a holiday-shortened week with broad gains for stocks Tuesday, as the market recovered most of its losses from last week. The S&P 500 gained 0.8 percent, pulling to within 1 percent of its record high set earlier this month. "About 60 percent of the companies in the benchmark index rose. Technology, communication services and health care stocks accounted for much of the rally, though energy sector companies notched the biggest gain. Treasury yields rose." LEADING BANKS WIDEN GULF WITH RIVALS — Bloomberg's Jennifer Surane: "Evidence is mounting that Wall Street's top investment banks spent the pandemic building up their leads. As the banner year for markets came to a close, JPMorgan Chase & Co. posted record profit in the fourth quarter, helped by a 20 percent increase in revenue from trading, a business where it already ranked No. 1 heading into the turmoil. "At rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc., second only to JPMorgan in dealmaking, a flurry of transactions helped send its quarterly profit soaring 135 percent. The results — from JPMorgan on Friday and Goldman on Tuesday — mirrored trends in many corners of industry and society during the shocks set off by Covid-19: The strong got stronger." And banks, forecasting an improved economy, are paring their rainy-day funds — WSJ's Emily Flitter: "The global pandemic ravaging American businesses and low-wage employees has barely lapped at the revenues and profits of the country's biggest banks. Now, banks are saying that the worst of the pandemic's potential to do them harm has passed." | | | | JOIN THURSDAY TO HEAR FROM SELECT MAYORS ACROSS THE U.S.: On Thursday, Jan. 21, The Fifty: America's Mayors will virtually convene select mayors from across the U.S. for back-to-back interviews during inauguration week to discuss bold ideas and policy proposals for their cities to move forward post-COVID-19. The mayors will also discuss their cities' needs from state and federal government to recover from the economic and public health crises and how they'd like to work with President Biden as he begins in the White House. This virtual program will feature an executive conversation between POLITICO CEO Patrick Steel and Microsoft's President of U.S. Regulated Industries Toni Townes-Whitley. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | ENGAGED — Sophie Mussafer, an investment banking associate at Goldman Sachs who works for Dina Powell McCormick, on Friday got engaged to Michael Griffin, who's on the acquisitions team at the Davis Companies. The couple met in 2019 at the 11th annual Boston Winter Ball, a charitable event that supports the Corey C. Griffin Foundation, a Boston-based nonprofit. TRANSITIONS — Alison Hawkins is now the head of external relations at Wells Fargo. She replaces Gigi Dixon, who is Wells Fargo's new head of diverse segments, representation and inclusion external engagement. | | | | A message from ExxonMobil: We're focused on reducing our emissions. It's something we're working on every day. Which is why we've announced plans to further reduce emissions in our operations by 2025. Our plans are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 30% for the Company's upstream business, compared to 2016 levels. Similarly, flaring and methane emissions are expected to decrease by 40-50%. Through continued application of operational efficiencies, ongoing development and deployment of lower-emission technologies, such as carbon capture, manufacturing efficiencies and advanced biofuels, and other measures, our plans drive meaningful near-term emission reductions and are consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Learn more about our plan to reduce our emissions. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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