WeWork co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann is under scrutiny based on a Wall Street Journal report that he's "cashed out more than $700 million from the company ahead of its IPO through a mix of stock sales and debt."
Behind the scenes: A source tells Axios that around $300 million was in the form of stock sales, most recently via an October 2017 tender offer from WeWork investor SoftBank. The remainder was loans.
"Thomas 'the Chin' Friedman, a weak and pathetic sort of guy, writes columns for The New York Times in between rounds of his favorite game, golf. Two weeks ago, while speaking to a friend on his cell phone, I unfortunately ended up speaking to Friedman. ... Really Nasty to me in his average I.Q. Columns, kissed my a.. on the call. Phony!"
The big picture: Friedman's piece, published on Tuesday, calls Trump a "racist, divisive, climate-change-denying, woman-abusing jerk" and argues that the Democratic Party should promote its "pro-growth," business-friendly sensibilities in order to defeat him in 2020.
The Fed's regional manufacturing indexes are bouncing back in July after an awful June swoon, none more so than the Philadelphia region, which rose to 21.8 from a 0.3 reading in June.
Why it matters: It was the highest result in a year for the survey.
Rarely has the U.S. and global economy been under such self-inflicted pressure, weighed down by a frenzy of deficit spending, attacks on trading partners, and a broadside to the fundamental system of business.
Why it matters: So far at least,global stock markets have seemed to shrug off the relentless jostling of the financial system, mostly by President Trump, with all three major U.S. exchanges rising again on Thursday. But experts tell Axios that investors ultimately will price in a costlier assessment of his "America First" policies.
When it comes to political ads on Facebook, President Trump is still outspending all of his Democratic rivals by millions of dollars. But he's avoiding many of the issues that they're focused on to instead spend heavily on immigration messaging.
Why it matters: Trump knows that in order to win again in 2020, he needs to target two populations: older, white voters and Hispanic voters and the way he targets Facebook advertising by topic reflects that approach.
CNN has determined the schedule for the second round of 2020 Democratic debates, which will take place July 30-31 in Detroit.
Details: A live, random drawing during a "special edition" of Anderson Cooper 360 kicked off the debate lineup on Thursday. CNN said that both nights will have at least 2 top-tier candidates. Each candidate's podium position on debate night will be based on public polling, per CNN.
