President Biden's newly released budget proposal would increase defense spending to $885 billion and non-defense spending to more than $1 trillion.
Why it matters: The proposal is dead on arrival with the GOP in control of the House, but it serves as a messaging device that Biden will take into his expected 2024 re-election campaign.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed Thursday it is investigating a fatal crash in California last month involving a Tesla vehicle.
The big picture: The probe into the Tesla Model S car that's suspected of having its automated driving system in effect when it crashed into the Contra Costa County fire truck is part of a larger NHTSA investigation into the Autopilot system's role in car accidents.
A lawsuit against a cryptocurrency exchange by New York State looks a lot more like a referendum on the world's second biggest blockchain, Ethereum.
Why it matters: Ether has a nearly $200 billion market capitalization and something like 400,000 daily users. Its popularity was partly driven by the fact that entrepreneurs had become convinced that the coin had become exempt from securities regulations.
Silicon Valley Bank, long one of the most popular financial institutions among tech and life sciences startups, saw its shares fall more than 60% on Thursday, wiping out a whopping $9.4 billion in market value.
Driving the news: Several top venture capital firms, including Coatue and Founders Fund, have suggested to some portfolio companies that they strongly consider pulling money out of SVB, as concerns grow over the bank's stability.
Another Norfolk Southern train derailed in Alabama on Thursday morning, the company confirmed in a statement to Axios.
Driving the news: This isthe third such incident since early February. A derailment of a two-mile long freight train in East Palestine, Ohio that was carrying hazardous chemicals has put a spotlight on the company and left residents of East Palestine concerned about the safety of their air and water.
The Biden administration envisions inflation receding rapidly over the coming two years, amid slower growth and higher unemployment. At least, that's the economic vision contained in forecasts underlying the president's budget proposal.
It implies a bumpy couple of years for the economy heading into a competitive reelection campaign.
The budget is a political document with no chance of being implemented as is. But it shows the White House's priorities, as fiscal negotiations with House Republicans play out over the next two years.
The plan would bring annual deficits to about 5% of GDP, versus the 6% forecast under the Congressional Budget Office's outlook.
By the numbers: In a table of economic assumptions, the Biden team assumes GDP will grow only 0.4% this year, with the jobless rate rising to 4.3% and 4.6% in 2024. (It was 3.4% in January.)
Growth returns to roughly its trend rate of 2.1% in 2024.
As forecast, the slowdown is enough to bring inflation down to 4.3% in 2023 and 2.4% in 2024, implying price pressures will pretty much normalize when voters go to the polls in November 2024.
Historically, a jobless jump as large as the one the White House assumes has only occurred during recessions.
Yes, but: That amounts to a sunnier forecast than the CBO's version released last month. It envisions unemployment jumping even higher, to 4.7% this year and 4.9% next, with inflation coming down more slowly.
And the CBO estimates the consumer price index will clock in at 3% in 2024.
Between the lines: The big near-term question is how much pain it will take to bring inflation back down.
The administration's view, as reflected in the new numbers, is that it will take a year of anemic growth in 2023 and a jobless rate well above its current levels, yet still low by historical standards.
Further out, the administration also sees lower trend interest rates than the CBO does, which in turn improves the U.S. fiscal outlook. The administration assumes that 10-year Treasury yields will stabilize at 3.4% later in the decade, compared with 3.8% in the CBO forecasts.
That difference could amount to billions in interest costs over time, and raise questions about whether the 2010s' low rate, low-inflation norms will return later this decade.
Of note: The economic assumptions were finalized in November of last year, so events since then may have changed the outlook, the administration noted.
The bottom line: The Biden administration is braced for a rough 2023 but expects the world to look much better, with lower prices and solid growth, in 2024.
In the age of social media, companies, brands and public figures are just one viral TikTok or tweet away from a full-fledged public relations crisis.
Why it matters: If communicators hope to regain control of the message and re-establish trust, their crisis management playbooks must now include strategies to combat misinformation and disinformation online.
The Federal Reserve's top bank cop Michael Barr on Thursday said banks should be "careful and cautious" in dealings with cryptocurrency assets and the broader crypto sector — the latest sign of the Fed's increasingly wary stance on crypto-related activities within the banking sector.
Why it matters: The recent meltdown in the cryptocurrency sector has had limited spillover to the banks regulated by the Federal Reserve, but the central bank has warned that crypto could one day pose risks to the wider financial system.
Silicon Valley Bank said it will launch $1.25 billion common stock sale, plus another $500 million of depository shares, and said private equity firm General Atlantic is buying $500 million of common stock in a separate transaction.
Why it matters: SVB is something of an avatar for the health of U.S. tech and life sciences startups, and right now it's calling for a doctor.
A big drop in construction job openings in January shows the tightrope Fed officials face as they try to calibrate plans for more rate hikes.
Driving the news: The number of construction job openings plunged by 240,000, or nearly 50%, to 248,000 in January compared to December, according to government data out Wednesday.
At least once a week at the Texas airport where Dorian Johnson works, one of his coworkers quits. "It's constant," he says.
Why it matters: Poor working conditions and low pay for airport service workers, like cleaners, wheelchair agents, and baggage and ticket handlers, are an increasingly urgent problem — it's led to high turnover, especially in the current tight job market.
Driving the news: White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing Wednesday that she agreed with the Capitol Police chief and a "wide range of bipartisan lawmakers" who have "condemned this false depiction of the unprecedented violent attack" on the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.
The Biden administration is set to propose a series of tax increases for wealthy Americans and large corporations,Bloomberg first reported and Axios has confirmed.
Driving the news: The new budget request to Congress, which is to be released on Thursday, includes a 25% minimum tax on the richest 0.01% of Americans.
