Axios

The benefits of high interest rates are fading for the nation's biggest banks as depositors increasingly moved funds to higher-interest-bearing accounts last quarter.

Why it matters: A trio of banks turned in strong first quarter earnings Friday, but warned that the profit growth they've been enjoying from higher rates is starting to fade.

McDonald's restaurants in California have brought back the fan-favorite breakfast bagel after a four-year hiatus in what it calls a plan to offset the impact of the fast-food workers' wage hike.

Why it matters: McDonald's, which posted revenues of $6.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, said the experiment is meant to help California locations drive sales and increase profits as they adjust to the state's new $20 an hour minimum wage law.

NEW YORK CITY - Greenhouse co-founder and president Jon Stross says he does not consider getting help from AI to write resumes or cover letters for prospective employers "to be a problem."

Why it matters: The implementation of AI across industries is on the rise and is changing the way people approach the workforce.

Axios' senior business reporter Hope King and global technology correspondent Ryan Heath moderated the event, which was sponsored by Autodesk.

Stross thinks using AI can be beneficial for those who use English as a second language.

For e-commerce platform Etsy, implementing an AI sales assistant for their ​​92 million active buyers is "going to be amazing," says CEO Josh Silverman.

• How it works: He says buyers will answer a few questions and the AI sales assistant will be able to suggest the "perfect" product based on those answers.
• Yes, but: The initial test run of the AI sales assistants ended up annoying customers, but Silverman thinks it'll take time for customers to get used to it.

In a separate interview, Reshma Saujani, the founder and CEO of Moms First and the founder of Girls Who Code, says the lack of child care and paid leave support in the U.S. makes it "so damn hard to be a mother and a worker. And we have to fix that."

• When it comes to accessing New York's paid leave benefits specifically, she says, "The problem is the government sucks at customer service. So when I go on the website, I can't figure out: 'Am I eligible? How much money will I get? What's the deal?' And I give up. Most poor women give up."
• This led Saujani to spearhead the new platform PaidLeave.ai, which helps New York residents navigate their paid leave benefits.

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In a View from the Top conversation, Autodesk president and CEO Andrew Anagnost says "there's no doubt" AI is going to change the way people work over the next five to ten years.

• He says there's a "capacity problem" in industries where there's not enough "money, material, or people," and that AI can help with this problem.

Why were central banks so slow to respond to the inflation shock? The U.K. wants to answer that question — and it enlisted former Fed chair Ben Bernanke to examine its forecasting failure.

Driving the news: The results of Bernanke's review — released Friday — are 12 recommendations to the Bank of England to improve inflation forecasting during periods of extreme uncertainty.

One of the peculiar obsessions in U.S. fiscal policymaking is the "score." That is, what will a particular tax or spending bill, in the judgment of Congress' impartial bean-counters, mean for deficits and GDP over the next 10 years?

Why it matters: Three former Biden administration officials argue that the conventions of legislative scorekeeping are at best too narrow, and at worst stand in the way of sensible policymaking.

Last month, the big law firm DLA Piper quietly cut the amount of parental leave it offers non-partner lawyers by six weeks.

Why it matters: Businesses almost never cut these benefits — indeed employers, especially law firms, have consistently expanded the amount of time off given to new parents for more than a decade.

The classic investment portfolio of 60% stocks and 40% bonds is doing very well at the moment — it's risen 17% in the past year.

Why it matters: After more than a decade when interest rates were at or near zero, bonds provide real income again — without the volatility inherent to stocks. What's more, the capital losses involved when rates rise are now well in the past.

Nearly 40% of renters are worried they'll never be able to buy a home, up from 27% last summer, per Redfin survey results about to be released.

Why it matters: Affordability and optimism are hitting all-time lows.

New business applications filed since the start of 2021 reached 17.2 million in the U.S. as of March, Isabel Casillas Guzman, head of the Small Business Administration, told Axios in an exclusive interview on Thursday.

Why it matters: It's the highest-ever level under any presidential term, according to the SBA.

Hiring platform Greenhouse doesn't "have some magic AI" that judges applicants, Jon Stross, the company's co-founder and president, tells Axios.

Why it matters: Being among the first to apply to a job, being relevant to the role and having an internal referral all help to make an applicant stand out, he says.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has filed a notice of his intent to appeal his conviction and sentence with the court of the Southern District of New York.

The big picture: In perhaps the most closely watched trial in the history of the still young cryptocurrency industry, the 32-year old executive was found guilty on all seven charges against him in November, and then sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Crypto venture capitalists appear to be getting their groove back, investing $2.5 billion globally in startups this past quarter, per PitchBook.

Why it matters: Startups need cash to make new things and live another day, and the recent crypto winter hit hard — forcing many to cut headcount and projects.

The sun stole eyeballs Monday.

• New data shows just how much less attention people gave to their phones during the solar eclipse's path of totality.

Between the lines: Advertising click-through rates dropped 14% on the day and a little more in regions that experienced full totality, according to data from intelligence platform Tracer shared first with Axios.

Context: Christmas last year, Dec. 20–25, saw a drop of 20% in CTR.

• The Fourth of July saw the same 14% drop as the eclipse.

Wednesday's elevated U.S. inflation reading made interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve look more distant. The Fed's counterparts across the Atlantic were unfazed.

Why it matters: The European Central Bank now looks poised to kick off the global interest rate-cutting cycle among major economies. It strongly hinted Thursday that this could happen in June — which would likely front-run the Fed in a huge policy pivot.

Apple is making a big change to its repair process starting this fall that will see more used parts in select iPhones, the tech giant announced Thursday.

Why it matters: The move is a major victory for the "Right to Repair" movement, which Apple had vociferously opposed, that should make it easier and cheaper for consumers to fix their phones.

Uniswap Labs was served with a notice Wednesday that it would likely be sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), according to a blog post from the company.

Why it matters: An enforcement action would continue the SEC's slow march against top cryptocurrency companies. Previous lawsuits against major U.S.-based crypto firms have hit Ripple Labs, Coinbase, Kraken, Bittrex and others.

Here's what's new on Max, Hulu, Prime Video, Netflix, Apple TV+ and Paramount+.

What we're watching: A new documentary about the controversial fast fashion brand Brandy Melville, a time-traveling rom-com staring Lucy Boynton and a show based on the popular "Fallout" video game series.

The European Central Bank kept borrowing costs at a record-high on Thursday, but new language in a statement released with the decision sent the strongest signal yet that rate cuts are coming soon.

Why it matters: Inflation across the European Union has come down notably in recent months, a divergence from the U.S. where price pressures have intensified.

The Biden administration is preparing to give a "sharper scalpel" to the government committee that reviews foreign investments into the U.S., administration officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: The potential influence of companies based outside the U.S. — like China's ByteDance, which owns TikTok — is one of the emerging themes in the presidential election. It's also a matter of bipartisan concern.

International Monetary Fund officials think a bill proposed by New York State legislators to change the sovereign debt restructuring process could actually "prolong and complicate" it, an IMF spokesperson tells Axios.

Why it matters: The IMF is a linchpin in the global system for restructuring the debt of countries in financial distress.

It's been nearly a decade since hedge fund Elliott Management's 15-year battle royal with the government of Argentina — and advocates, investors and legislators are still trying to prevent a repeat.

What they're saying: "There are bad actors in this field," says New York State Senator Gustavo Rivera, who has introduced legislation to combat so-called predatory sovereign lenders who he compares to "Goodfellas" types: "F-you, pay me."