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| Presented By Facebook |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen ·Aug 11, 2021 |
| 🐪 Happy Wednesday! Smart Brevity™ count: 1,189 words ... 4½ minutes. Edited by Zachary Basu. 🚨 Bulletin: At 3:58 a.m., Senate Democrats passed their $3.5 trillion budget resolution — 50-49, with no Republican votes — in a key step toward President Biden's expansion of family, health and environment programs. Final approval this fall looks certain. |
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| 1 big thing: Taliban speed stuns Biden administration |
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| Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Saul Loeb/AFP, Farshad Usyan/AFP and Javeed Tanveer/AFP via Getty Images |
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| The Taliban has stunned even seasoned military and national security officials in the U.S. government with the speed of its conquests over the past week. - President Biden isn't budging: He's resolved to get out by Aug. 31, no matter what, people briefed on his thinking tell Axios' Jonathan Swan, Zachary Basu and Glen Johnson.
Biden may not see much of a pause between his total withdrawal from Afghanistan and the country's total collapse into a bloody civil war. - "I do not regret my decision," Biden told reporters yesterday.
- Biden explained: "Look, we spent over a trillion dollars over 20 years. We trained and equipped with modern equipment over 300,000 Afghan forces. ... They've got to fight for themselves."
The Taliban has toppled nine of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals in less than a week, and now controls an estimated 65%+ of the country. (See a map.) - The Taliban is striking with impressive speed and coordination, a senior Biden official grudgingly acknowledged. Afghans and international security are scrambling to manage the mayhem.
White House officials have privately reassured themselves by noting that polls show an overwhelming majority of Americans support withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. |
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| 2. Part 2: What Biden is thinking with Taliban on a tear |
| The Taliban flag flies in the main square of Kunduz, one of the country's largest cities, after fighters seized the strategically important provincial capital. Photo: Abdullah Sahil/AP Senior U.S. officials privately express little confidence in the Afghan security forces, Axios can report. - These officials say military incompetence, disorganization and poor communications skills render them unable to adequately coordinate U.S. air support to protect territory from the Taliban.
A former senior U.S. intelligence officer with extensive experience in the region, who remains in touch with his former colleagues, tells Axios they're despondent — and have accepted that Biden is "dug in" and that resistance is "futile." - Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, at a press conference on Monday, said of the Afghan security forces: "[I]t's their country to defend now; this is their struggle."
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Axios he discussed the situation in Afghanistan on Monday with Secretary of State Tony Blinken, and there's "no chance" Biden changes his troop withdrawal strategy. - The committee's chairman, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), told Axios he respects Biden but disagrees vehemently with the plan. "He doesn't want to have an endless war; I get that," Menendez said. "But I always thought that a contingency would have stemmed the tide. ... The president has to consider whether what's happening is what he envisioned."
- Still, many Democrats support the withdrawal. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told Axios: "We need to be able as a nation to pivot to other contests that matter more than Afghanistan. ... This is proof positive that Afghanistan is beyond saving."
The intrigue: A Biden State Department spokesperson told Axios that Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy, is in Doha, where the Taliban has its political office, to "press the Taliban to stop their military offensive and to negotiate a political settlement." - "If the Taliban continue down this path," the spokesperson added, "they will be an international pariah."
Asked about that, the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Axios: "We have never yielded to any foreign pressure tactics before and we do not plan to capitulate any time soon either." - Alayna Treene and Margaret Talev contributed reporting.
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| 3. Profits soar despite cost squeeze |
 Data: FactSet. Chart: Axios Visuals America's biggest companies are hitting record profit margins despite rising costs for supplies and labor, Axios Markets editor Sam Ro writes. - Why it matters: Raw materials inflation and wage hikes have had almost no noticeable effect on corporate earnings. But analysts warn it may just be a matter of time before those costs catch up with margins.
S&P 500 companies are reporting an average net profit margin of 13% in Q2, according to FactSet data through Friday. - That's the highest profit margin since FactSet began tracking the metric in 2008.
Between the lines: Small businesses have had a harder time absorbing and passing along increased costs. Share this story. |
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| A message from Facebook |
| Internet regulations are as outdated as dial-up |
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| Facebook supports updated regulations, including four areas where lawmakers can make quick progress: - Reforming Section 230.
- Preventing foreign interference in our elections.
- Passing federal privacy law.
- Setting rules that allow people to safely transfer data between services.
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| 4. Crypto gets captured |
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| Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios |
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| Cryptocurrency is beloved by people who want to transact outside the reach of government. But it's gotten mainstream enough that politicians and regulators want control, Axios' Felix Salmon reports. - Why it matters: A more regulated system would help solve problems like the difficulty of buying a home using the proceeds of crypto sales. But regulation would defeat much of the original dream of cryptocurrency — a store of value untouched by government.
What's happening: As crypto assets grew to be worth well over $1 trillion, investors and financiers increasingly wanted to get involved. - They've been aggressively pushing for regulatory clarity, and often see their expensive compliance departments as a comparative advantage, differentiating them from the early true believers.
What's next: SEC chair Gary Gensler — who taught a course on cryptocurrencies at MIT — gave an important speech last week laying out a maximalist vision for how his agency can regulate crypto. The bottom line: Cryptocurrency's future may be as an integral part of the existing financial system, regulated just as much as any other financial product. |
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| 5. 🏗️ Biden's $1 trillion win |
| Photo: Senate TV via Reuters Above, Vice President Harris presides as the Senate votes 69-30 — with 19 Republican "aye"s — to pass President Biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan. - Quote of the day ... President Biden said after the vote: "After years and years and years of 'Infrastructure Week,' we're on the cusp of an infrastructure decade."
Now the infrastructure bill goes to the House. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced members will return from recess Aug. 23. Read Hoyer's letter. - Go deeper: Breakdown of infrastructure spending.
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| 6. Cuomo considered feel-good ads in final days |
| Desperate to head off impeachment, advisers to Gov. Andrew Cuomo considered person-on-the-street TV ads featuring New Yorkers who thought he was doing a great job, the N.Y. Times reports (subscription). - The ads never ran and Cuomo resigned yesterday, effective in 14 days.
Cuomo confidants told The Times that until the end, he seemed to "evince a certain daredevil's thrill in sizing up the long political odds — and fancying himself the rare breed capable of surmounting them." - "When the only friend you have is the one looking you back in the mirror," a recent adviser said, "you're screwed."
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| 7. 📊 White population declines |
| For the first time in the history of the U.S. census, the number of white people is expected to show a decline — a benchmark that's coming eight years earlier than projected, the WashPost reports. - Why it matters: The opioid epidemic, and lower-than-anticipated birthrates among millennials after the Great Recession, accelerated the white population decline, Brookings' William Frey told The Post.
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| 8. ⚽ 1 foot thing: Paris welcomes Messi |
| Photo: Aurelien Meunier/PSG via Getty Images Above, Lionel Messi, 34, undergoes medical tests in Paris before signing his $41 million-a-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain last night. Photo: Thiago Prudencio/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Meanwhile, in Barcelona ... Workers ripped down Messi's photo from outside the team's Camp Nou stadium. |
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| A message from Facebook |
| Why Facebook supports the DETER Act |
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| Communication around elections has changed a lot in the last 25 years — the last time comprehensive internet regulations were passed. That's why Facebook supports updated internet regulations — like the DETER Act, to help protect election integrity against foreign interference. |
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| 📬 Please invite your friends, family, colleagues to sign up here for Axios AM and Axios PM. |
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