Apr 20, 2017

Mnuchin backtracks again on his tax plan

Dan Primack, author of Pro Rata

Soeren Stache / AP

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin today said that the White House would unveil its comprehensive tax reform plan "very soon," just days after telling The Financial Times that releasing a plan by August's congressional recess would be "highly aggressive to not realistic."

What changed? President Trump gave a speech in between Mnuchin's conflicting statements, saying that the White House has "the concept of the plan" and that "we're going to be announcing it very soon."

Market reaction: U.S. markets jumped following Mnuchin's comments today. Then again, those same markets also rose after Mnuchin's prior statement, suggesting that the prospect of tax reform isn't really driving trades in the first place.

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Dan Primack, author of Pro Rata
Updated 1 hour ago - Economy & Business

Winter coronavirus threat spurs new surge of startup activity

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

U.S. coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are surging, with cold weather arriving before even the best-case scenario for a widely distributed vaccine. Now we're also beginning to see an increase in coronavirus-related startup funding, focused on both testing and pharma.

Driving the news: Gauss, a Silicon Valley computer vision startup focused on health care, tells Axios that it's raised $10 million to accelerate development and commercialization of an at-home rapid antigen test for COVID-19.

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Axios
Updated 2 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

  1. Politics: Axios-Ipsos poll: Federal response has only gotten worse — The swing states where the pandemic is raging.
  2. Health: Hospitals face a crush — 13 states set single-day case records last week.
  3. Business: Winter threat spurs new surge of startup activity.
  4. Media: Pandemic causes TV providers to lose the most subscribers ever.
  5. States: Nearly two dozen Minnesota cases traced to three Trump campaign events.
  6. World: Unrest in Italy as restrictions grow across Europe.
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Orion Rummler
2 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Ted Cruz defends GOP's expected return to prioritizing national debt

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told "Axios on HBO" on Monday that he wishes reining in the national debt was a higher priority for President Trump.

Why it matters: Trump pledged during the 2016 campaign to reduce the national debt and eliminate it entirely within eight years, though he also deemed himself "the king of debt" and said there were some priorities that required spending. In the fiscal year that ended in September, the deficit reached a record $3.1 trillion.

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