HOW STATES ARE LEADING ON COVID — Please do check out POLITICO's new "Recovery Lab" project, which includes great reporting and analysis highlighting the most innovative ideas from all 50 states for promoting recovery from Covid-19. "Truly deep and terrific including Joanne Kenen anchoring a high-altitude story about fixing long-standing problems in the health care system before the next catastrophe – including public health, primary care, data, & mental health." MORE ON BARR AND THE OCC — The wonk-fight over who should become Comptroller of the Currency gets The Atlantic treatment via Ron Brownstein, who notes that Michael Barr's likely nomination "has become an unexpected flash point in the ongoing tussle between progressives and centrists over the direction of Biden's presidency … Barr is facing unexpectedly intense resistance from a younger generation of progressives." YELLEN ON STIMULUS — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to CNBC's Sara Eisen on whether the economy really needs $2 trillion more in stimulus: "I think it does. We have an unemployment rate that if properly measured in some sense, is really close to 10 percent. "In addition to over 9 million people unemployed, we have 4 million who've dropped out of the labor force, another 2 million who have seen reduced hours. So, we're digging out of a deep hole. Last year was the worst year for economic growth since World War II." WALL STREET PUSHES BAG ON OIL DIVESTMENT — Our Zachary Warmbrodt: "Wall Street executives signaled … that they will resist growing pressure to end financial support for fossil fuel producers and other carbon-intensive industries, setting up a clash with climate advocates pressing the Biden administration to crack down on the lending. "Senior leaders from Bank of America, BlackRock and other financial firms outlined their views at an event framed around new sustainability recommendations that a coalition of prominent industry groups released in a bid to shape the administration's climate policy." BIG TECH GOING BACK TO CONGRESS — Our John Hendel: "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have agreed to testify remotely next month at a House hearing on misinformation and disinformation — the latest in what has become a series of Capitol Hill grillings for major Silicon Valley executives. "The House Energy and Commerce Committee announced Thursday that the virtual hearing will occur March 25. The session comes weeks after the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which fueled a Democratic uproar over the amount of planning that transpired openly on both major and fringe online platforms" MORE ON BIDEN'S MINIMUM WAGE WALK BACK — Our Natasha Korecki and Christopher Cadelago: "When Joe Biden met with a group of mayors and governors last week he bluntly told them to get ready for a legislative defeat: his proposed minimum wage hike was unlikely to happen, he said, at least in the near term. "'I really want this in there but it just doesn't look like we can do it because of reconciliation,' Biden told the group, according to a person in the room. 'I'm not going to give up. But right now, we have to prepare for this not making it.' The comments, which were confirmed by two other people familiar with the conversation, were the furthest Biden has gone in conceding the coming axing of the $15-an-hour minimum wage provision" | 
No comments:
Post a Comment