My favorite Sesame Street character and the White House are in agreement about shrinkflation, Hope writes.
What they're saying: "C is for consumers getting ripped off. President Biden is calling on companies to put a stop to shrinkflation," the White House posted while quoting Cookie Monster, who said —
"Me hate shrinkflation! Me cookies are getting smaller. 😔"
The intrigue: Not everyone's happy about the blue monster's commentary.
"I'm shocked," Frank Oz, who worked with creator Jim Henson, wrote on X. "Muppets need to live in their own pure world."
"We're sad that it's come to this with someone whom we've deeply admired — someone who inspired us to aim higher, then told us we would fail, started a competitor, and then sued us when we started making meaningful progress towards OpenAI's mission without him."
— OpenAI's response to Elon Musk's lawsuit against the company
A trial unfolding this week in the U.K. centers on the biggest open question in the cryptocurrency world: who is Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto?
Why it matters: Almost no one believes the man currently in court claiming to be Satoshi really is Bitcoin's anonymous founder. But there are some compelling theories for who Satoshi really is — and who might control the 1.1 million bitcoin in known Satoshi wallets.
Steven Mnuchin, the former Treasury Secretary, has led a $1 billion cash injection into New York Community Bancorp at a price of $2 per share.
Why it matters: The investment is designed to ensure "a strong balance sheet and liquidity position" for the bank, per Sandro DiNello, who has been CEO for less than a week and who is now handing over the leadership reins to former OCC head Joseph Otting.
Why it matters: Two months after the incident, safety investigators still have not determined who is responsible or how it occurred, as the company's safety culture is reportedly unstable.
The first rule for any troubled bank looking for new investment is to make sure it has a deal before the news leaks. That's a lesson beleaguered New York Community Bancorp learned the hard way on Wednesday.
Why it matters: A WSJ article posted just before noon said that NYCB was "seeking to raise equity capital in a bid to shore up confidence."
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers on Wednesday that the central bank expects to cut interest rates "at some point this year," but not until policymakers have gained confidence the war on inflation is won.
Why it matters: The Fed is assessing the risk of lowering interest rates too soon, which might reignite inflation. Keeping borrowing costs too high may do unnecessary damage to the economy, which has avoided a recession so far.
Unions are wielding influence far from the picket line, flexing their muscles in various ways across a range of industries.
Why it matters: Labor has more leverage over companies these days thanks to relatively high public approval, a tight labor market, and election-year politics.
