Axios

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos made a surprise appearance at an editorial meeting with senior newsroom staffers on Thursday, reigniting tensions around pending layoffs at the company, sources told Axios.

Why it matters: Bezos was heralded at The Post as an innovator whose deep pockets and investments in technology helped the paper move towards a digital future. Amid broader business and cultural challenges at the company, his presence is being regarded differently.

After a period in which elected governments and central banks were all rowing in the same direction during the pandemic, we are entering a new era.

• That is what some leading policymakers and academics are saying on the sidelines and stages of the World Economic Forum.

After months of absorbing inflation with a degree of aplomb, consumers may be starting to balk at price increases on basic products like those made by conglomerate Procter & Gamble.

Why it matters: Facing higher commodity costs and wages, companies are walking a tightrope with pricing strategies, trying to maximize profits without turning away customers.

Crypto lender Nexo has entered into a consent agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to pay a $45 million fine for offering an unregistered security in the U.S., in its "Earn Interest Product."

Why it matters: It's the latest in a string of actions by the agency that indicates any program where users deposit assets to earn interest in exchange for letting others borrow them must be registered as a security.

Wall Street had mixed reactions to Netflix's fourth-quarter earnings report Thursday, after the company said it added more subscribers than expected, but missed earnings estimates.

Why it matters: Investors were also reacting to a huge shakeup in the company's leadership team, with co-founder and longtime leader Reed Hastings stepping down as co-CEO and moving into an executive chairman role.

Maine on Thursday joined North Carolina and Wisconsin this month in barring state employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices.

The big picture: The three are the latest states to do so, joining more than 20 others, including Texas, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina and South Dakota, after the FBI warned of possible threats to national security posed by the Chinese-owned social media platform.

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings is stepping down as co-CEO of the streaming giant, and is moving into a new role as executive chairman, the company announced Thursday.

Why it matters: Hastings has led the company for 25 years, and has been the chief architect behind some of its most critical transition points — most notably, its transition from DVDs to streaming.

Amazon is discontinuing its AmazonSmile program, which directed 0.5% of sales on certain purchases to customer's preferred nonprofits throughout the world.

Driving the news: The company told customers in an email that the initiative "has not grown to create the impact that we had originally hoped" and that with more than 1 million organizations eligible for funding, "our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin."

The U.S. has reached its $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, the Treasury Department announced on Thursday, with no obvious deal in sight.

Why it matters: The U.S. government runs on a deficit, so the Treasury Department will start "extraordinary measures" to avoid defaulting on government bonds.

With Digital Currency Group's Genesis crypto lending unit said to be on the brink of a bankruptcy filing, a group of folks reassessed the risk associated with one stablecoin in the mix: the U.S. dollar-pegged Gemini Dollar.

Driving the news: Members of MakerDAO, a decentralized finance protocol that holds roughly 85% of Gemini Dollar's (GUSD) market capitalization, just voted by the narrowest of margins to maintain its holdings.

The private equity secondaries market is out of balance, with significantly more supply than demand. But the gap is beginning to shrink.

Driving the news: Blackstone announced that it's raised $22.2 billion for its ninth global PE secondaries fund. That's a record-breaker, and twice what it raised for a predecessor fund in 2011.

Isabel Lara serves as chief communications officer for NPR and offers comms support to its network of over 1,000 member stations nationwide.

Why it matters: Lara is responsible for shaping a narrative as the public radio entity adapts to the ever-changing media landscape.

Southwest Airlines is scrambling to resuscitate its reputation after the recent operational failures that affected roughly 1 million holiday travelers.

Why it matters: Communications weren't the problem, but they're a key part of Southwest's solution.

The percentage of American workers who are members of a union fell to a new low in 2022 despite the total number of unionized workers increasing.

Driving the news: 10.1% of workers were unionized in 2022, down from 10.3% in 2021 and a high of 20.1% in 1983, the first year the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported comparable figures.

White House and congressional Republicans are drawing battle lines in the fraught and perilous debt ceiling debate — with each side becoming more entrenched in their refusal to negotiate with the other.

Driving the news: The U.S. is expected to hit its borrowing limit on Thursday, meaning the Treasury will resort to "extraordinary measures" to stave off a potential default.

Looking to ignite a conversation? Set the topic to gas stoves, and sparks will fly.

What's happening: Axios Markets readers offered a diverse array of takes after we asked them to weigh in on gas stoves, which have been linked to respiratory problems and climate impacts.

Facing an uncertain economic outlook, bankers are clustering around the same, somewhat mealy-mouthed word to describe their expectations for 2023: "mild."

The big picture: The economy is in a very strange place right now.

Forget crypto and blockchain: The tech conversation at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos is all about the rise of artificial intelligence, particularly the text-generator ChatGPT.

Why it matters: Tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT and image generators like Stable Diffusion and Dall-E have been in the works for years — but even the tech experts in the Davos crowd are shocked at just how fast they have matured.

An American businesswoman was sentenced to two years in prison Wednesday for illegally lobbying the former Trump administration to drop an investigation into a multibillion-dollar Malaysian embezzlement scheme and to return a dissident to China, per AP.

Driving the news: Nickie Mali Lum Davis pleaded guilty in 2020 to aiding and abetting the violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act following her failed lobbying campaign attempts that sought to persuade the Trump administration to drop the probe into Malaysian state fund 1MDB and fugitive businessman Jho Low in exchange for millions of dollars.

Top Chinese officials told Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen they are optimistic China can return to normal economic growth and avoid a crisis in its property sector, according to a Treasury official.

Why it matters: China’s economy is somewhat of a black box. The Biden administration — not to mention every investor with a Bloomberg Terminal — is eager to gain a better understanding.