⚡ Axios AM: Millennials' big score

Plus: First-of-it-kind star system | Saturday, July 30, 2022

Open in app View in browser   Presented By PhRMA   Axios AM By Mike Allen · Jul 30, 2022 Happy Saturday. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,492 words ... 5½ mins. Edited by Justin Green. ⚡ Situational awareness: White House communications director Kate Bedingfield, who three weeks ago said she planned to leave, reversed herself on what was to be her last day — and now will stay. "The work is too important and too energizing and I have a lot of gas left in the tank," she said in an email to colleagues.     1 big thing: How millennials made $5 trillion in 2 years Data: Federal Reserve. Chart: Kavya Beheraj/Axios Millennials are twice as rich as they were before the pandemic, Axios chief financial correspondent Felix Salmon writes. Why it matters: The recession arrived when millennials — anybody born between 1981 and 1996 (roughly ages 26-41) — were feeling burned out and doomed. Student loans were stretching as far as the eye can see. Millennial wealth was just a fraction of what previous generations had managed to accumulate at the same age. The pandemic changed everything. Student loans payments were paused, government stimulus checks started pouring in, the stock market soared, and house prices spiked. What's happening: One of the key reasons millennials saw their wealth rise so quickly during the pandemic is that they started their home-buying spurt just in time. Between 2016 and 2022, millennial homeownership soared from 36% to more than 51%. 🧠 How it works: Recent first-time homebuyers tend to be the most leveraged, magnifying returns in up markets. If you put down a 10% down payment, and your house goes up in value by 50%, then the equity you have in your home goes up six times. Share this story.     2. Sinema may change Manchin deal Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Stefani Reynolds, Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is none too pleased with how Senate Majority Leader Schumer foisted the surprise climate and deficit-reduction package on her — and she's reserving the right to force changes. Why it matters: Sinema has leverage and she knows it, Axios' Hans Nichols reports. Any change — like knocking out the $14 billion provision on carried interest — could cause the fragile deal to collapse. Between the lines: Sinema's posture is causing something between angst and fear in the Democratic caucus, as senators wait for her verdict on the deal announced Thursday by Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). Sinema has given no assurances to colleagues that she'll vote along party lines in the so-called "vote-a-rama" for the $740 billion bill next week, according to people familiar with the matter. The process allows lawmakers to offer an unlimited number of amendments, as long as they are ruled germane by the Senate parliamentarian. Senators — and reporters — expect a late night. Republicans, steaming mad that Democrats have a chance to send a $280 billion China competition package and a massive climate and health care bill to President Biden, will use the vote-a-rama to force vulnerable Democrats to take politically difficult votes. The intrigue: Schumer made a calculated decision to negotiate a package with Manchin in secrecy. He assumed that all his other members, including Sinema, would support the deal. Sinema took a printout of the 725-page bill back to Arizona yesterday. Between the lines: Schumer and Manchin inserted the language on taxing carried interest as regular income, which would raise approximately $14 billion, knowing Sinema had never agreed to it. That move blindsided Sinema. Now the private equity industry, which has contributed heavily to Sinema, hopes she'll knock the provision out. 🔭 Zoom out: While Schumer and Manchin have a well-documented and tumultuous relationship — replete with private fence-mending Italian dinners — Schumer and Sinema don't regularly engage. The Schumer-Sinema relationship took a big hit in February when Schumer declined to endorse her 2024 re-election when asked by CNN. She didn't attend her party's caucus meeting on Thursday. Share this story.     3. 🇻🇦Pope says he'll slow down Pope Francis sat in a wheelchair as he spoke to journalists today aboard the papal flight from Canada to Italy. Photo: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Pool via AP ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) —Pope Francis said today that his advancing age and difficulty walking have ushered in a new, slower phase of his papacy. He repeated that he would be ready to resign one day if serious health problems prohibited him from running the Church. "I don't think I can continue doing trips with the same rhythm as before," he said in an airplane wheelchair, answering reporters' questions as he returned to Rome from a week-long trip to Canada. "I think that at my age and with this limitation, I have to preserve myself a bit in order to be able to serve the Church, or decide to step aside." Francis, 85, has been using a wheelchair, a cane or a walker for the past few months because of knee pain caused by a fracture and inflamed ligament. On following in the footsteps of Pope Benedict, who in 2013 became the first pope in 600 years to resign instead of rule for life, the pope said: "There can be a change of popes — there is no problem with that." "The door is open. It is one of the normal options."     A message from PhRMA Government price setting could mean fewer new medicines     Today, there are: 90 medicines in development for Alzheimer's disease. 26 for childhood diabetes. 119 for breast cancer. And the list goes on — but which diseases could go untreated if Congress passes government price setting? There is a better way to lower costs without risking new medicines.     4. Scientists find first-of-its-kind star system A star system like the one detailed in this story, with two sets of binary stars. Photo: NASA/ESA/STScI   Scientists have discovered a special, massive triple star system like nothing they've seen before, Axios Space author Miriam Kramer writes. Why it matters: By learning more about these types of star systems, astronomers are able to piece together a better idea of how stars and planets form throughout the universe. What they found: The system consists of two stars orbiting one another in a binary and the third orbiting the binary, according to a study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The two stars in the binary combined are 12 times larger than the Sun. The third star is 16 times the mass of the Sun. Read the statement ... Share this story.     5. 📚 Kushner book: Murdoch truce In Bedminster, N.J., yesterday, President Trump watches near the 16th tee on Day 1 of the LIV Golf Invitational at Trump National Golf Club. Photo: Chris Trotman/LIV Golf via Getty Images Jared Kushner recalls in his White House memoir, "Breaking History," out Aug, 23, that shortly after Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015, Rupert Murdoch tweeted, "When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his friends, let alone the whole country?" A few days later, the N.Y. Times published a front-page story on Murdoch's misgivings about Trump, with the headline: "Titans Clash as Trump's Run Fuels His Feud With Murdoch." "Trump called me," Kushner writes. "He'd clearly had enough. 'This guy's no good. And I'm going to tweet it.'" "Please, you're in a Republican primary," I said, hoping he wasn't about to post a negative tweet targeted at the most powerful man in conservative media. "You don't need to get on the wrong side of Rupert. Give me a couple of hours to fix it." I called Rupert and told him I had to see him. "Rupert, I think he could win," I said, as we sat in his office. "You guys agree on a lot of the issues. You want smaller government. You want lower taxes. You want stronger borders." "Rupert listened quizzically, like he couldn't imagine that Trump was actually serious about running," Kushner continued. The next day, he called me and said, "I've looked at this and maybe I was misjudging it. He actually does have a real following. It does seem like he's very popular, like he can really be a kingmaker in the Republican primary with the way he is playing it. What does Donald want?" "He wants to be president," I responded. "No, what does he really want?" he asked again. "Look, he doesn't need a nicer plane," I said. "He's got a beautiful plane. He doesn't need a nicer house. He doesn't need anything. He's tired of watching politicians screw up the country, and he thinks he could do a better job." "Interesting," Rupert said. We had a truce, for the time being. Between the lines: Kushner's Murdoch conversation began a symbiotic relationship that involved Fox News host Sean Hannity becoming an informal adviser to Trump. It reached its apotheosis when former Fox News executive Bill Shine joined the White House staff — and treated 1600 Pennsylvania as a TV set. Trump has always been obsessed with Rupert Murdoch. That obsession continues today as he sees the harsh editorials against Trump run in Murdoch's American newspaper jewels — The Wall Street Journal and New York Post. The Trump-Fox relationship changed forever on election night 2020, when Fox's Decision Desk was the first to call Arizona for Biden, enraging Trump and his aides. As Jonathan Swan reported in the Axios series "Off the Rails," late on election night, Trump told senior aides to call top Fox executives — including the Murdochs — to try to reverse the Arizona call. The entreaties fell on deaf ears. Murdoch declined to comment about Kushner's account. Share this story.     6. 🎰 1 winner in $1.28 billion jackpot A man bikes past a Mega Millions ad in New York City yesterday. Photo: John Smith/VIEWpress via Getty Images A ticket sold in Illinois is the sole winner of last night's $1.28 billion Mega Millions jackpot — the third-largest lottery prize in U.S. history, Axios' Kelly Tyko writes. Why it matters: The jackpot rolled 29 times since April. If no one had won last night, the prize had the potential to grow to $1.7 billion for Tuesday's drawing, which would have been the largest in U.S. history. Keep reading.     A message from PhRMA Patients lose when the government sets prices     Government price setting cripples innovation and has potentially devastating consequences for patients. Why it's important: There are 119 medicines in development for breast cancer, but price-setting policies can change that. Tell Congress to protect access to new medicines.   📬 Invite your friends to sign up here for their daily essentials — Axios AM, PM and Finish Line. Are you a fan of this email format? It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 300 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. 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