Apr 27, 2017

Mnuchin won't comment on carried interest for private equity

Dan Primack

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin was asked last night by Fox News' Tucker Carlson about why the White House tax principles did not include any mention of closing the carried interest loophole -- something that President Trump had mentioned regularly on the campaign trail.

Mnuchin replied that Trump remains committed to closing the loophole for hedge fund managers, but repeatedly avoided adding private equity fund managers into the mix:

Steve Mnuchin on the carried interest loophole for hedge funds: pic.twitter.com/R2sdt6YQE2 — Axios (@axios) April 27, 2017

Takeaway: Carried interest taxation may not matter if the White House gets Congressional approval for its plan to tax pass-through entities at 15%. In that case, changing carried interest taxation for hedge fund managers would be largely cosmetic. But it's hard to imagine Congress going along with a plan so ripe for abuse, so the real takeaway here is that hedge fund managers should be concerned about losing their loophole, but everyone else (private equity, venture capital, real estate, etc.) can sleep soundly.

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Axios

China tries to contain coronavirus, as Apple warns of earnings impact

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's NHC; Note: China refers to mainland China and the Diamond Princess is the cruise ship offshore Yokohama, Japan. Map: Danielle Alberti/Axios

As China pushes to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus — placing around 780 million people under travel restrictions, per CNN — the economic repercussions continue to be felt globally as companies like Apple warn of the impact from the lack of manufacturing and consumer demand in China.

The big picture: COVID-19 has now killed at least 1,775 people and infected more than 70,000 others, mostly in mainland China. There are some signs that new cases are growing at a slower rate now, although the World Health Organization said Monday it's "too early to tell" if this will continue.

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Ina Fried

Apple will miss quarterly earnings estimates due to coronavirus

Apple CEO Tim Cook

Apple issued a rare earnings warning on Monday, saying it would not meet quarterly revenue expectations due to the impact of the coronavirus, which will limit iPhone production and limit product demand in China.

Why it matters: Lots of companies rely on China for production, but unlike most U.S. tech companies, Apple also gets a significant chunk of its revenue from sales in China.

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Orion Rummler

America's dwindling executions

The Trump administration wants to reboot federal executions, pointing to a 16-year lapse, but Pew Research reports the government has only executed three people since 1963.

The big picture: Nearly all executions in the U.S. are done by states. Even those have been steadily dropping for two decades, per the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) — marking a downward trend for all executions in the country.

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