America is the world's biggest business. And its shareholders — U.S. taxpayers — should be panicked about their investment, the legendary Mary Meeker, longtime Silicon Valley and Wall Street analyst, tells Axios' Courtenay Brown.

• Why it matters: "USA Inc.," as Meeker calls it, has more at stake than any single corporation. America's worsening fiscal position could limit its ability to respond to economic or geopolitical threats.

Reprising an inquiry from 2011, Meeker — founder of the venture capital firm BOND in San Francisco — examined the financials of the U.S. the way she would analyze those of a public company.

• "Beneath the surface, financial 'results' — treating the government as if it were a corporation — conceal a buildup in structural weakness that can jeopardize our country's standing in the world," Meeker, who made her name during the dotcom boom, writes with Alexander Krey in a new report first seen by Axios.
• The report, "USA Inc.," doesn't mention Elon Musk's DOGE. But Meeker says that improving the government's "operating efficiency" would ease spending, as originally proposed in her 2011 report.

📊 By the numbers: If the government (by any method) reverted to the slower headcount growth trend seen from 1988 to 2009, that would imply 840,000 fewer workers in the next five years, according to Meeker's updated analysis.

• That would save more than $1.3 trillion over the coming decade.
• "USA Inc. could also focus intensively on local private company outsourcing, where state and local governments are finding real productivity gains," Meeker says.

🔭 Zoom out: Meeker believed a 450-slide document published in 2011 would be her "one and done" alert on America's fiscal state. Warnings in the 2010s about higher borrowing costs are now the nation's reality.

• "Even as USA Inc.'s debt was rising for decades, plunging interest rates were keeping the cost of supporting it relatively steady," Meeker writes.
• Now interest payments are swallowing government revenue, with spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security set to explode.

Explore the 26-page report ... Share this story.

Moscow is reveling in the Oval Office blowup between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Trump, Axios' Avery Lotz writes.

🇷🇺 Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said yesterday that America's "rapidly changing" foreign policy "largely coincides with our vision."

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov praised Trump for his "common sense."
• A spokesperson for Russia's foreign ministry said it was a "miracle of restraint" that Trump and Vice President Vance didn't hit Zelensky.
• Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia's security council, crowed that "the insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office."

🗯️ Trump said on Truth Social last night:

"We should spend less time worrying about Putin, and more time worrying about migrant rape gangs, drug lords, murderers, and people from mental institutions entering our Country - So that we don't end up like Europe!"

☕ Across the pond in London, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer rallied European counterparts to throw their full weight behind Ukraine.

• He said the U.K. will work with other European nations to develop a plan to end the war, supported by a "coalition of the willing," and present it to Trump, who Starmer says still wants a "lasting peace."

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In an Axios AM Executive Briefing special report out later today, we give you a behind-the-scenes tour of the interconnected MAGA media ecosystem, which is bigger, broader and more influential than most outsiders realize.

• Why it matters: Political, business and marketing leaders who don't fully understand this reality can miss how public policies and cultural (and business) perceptions are being formed — or forced — in this new era.

The report — for paid Executive Briefing subscribers — results from months of research and conversations by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Tal Axelrod, who joined Axios after covering the MAGAverse on the campaign trail.

🔎 Inside the report: President Trump's MAGA media army is much better positioned to influence politics, culture and public perceptions than mainstream TV networks or newspapers.

• Individual MAGA stars command large, loyal audiences who aren't just news consumers — they're partisans ready to be activated.

💡 We interviewed dozens of people — including Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson and top White House officials — to illuminate the depth and breadth of MAGA.

• Your subscription includes a 3,500-word report; a Zoom briefing by Jim, Mike and a special MAGA expert guest; and three months of briefings on related topics.

Subscribe here.

President Trump sparked a $300+ billion rally in the global crypto market yesterday with two social media posts listing the digital currencies a U.S. strategic reserve would embrace, Axios Crypto author Brady Dale writes.

• Why it matters: Trump's posts almost instantly reversed a weeks-long global sell-off that had threatened to dent his image as the "crypto president."

🪙 Zoom in: "A U.S. Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

• He listed XRP, Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) as three coins that would be included in a reserve.
• In a second post, Trump added "I also love Bitcoin and Ethereum!" and said those coins (BTC and ETH) would be in the reserve too.

🔮 What's next: On Friday, Trump will speak at the first-ever White House Crypto Summit.

• Keep reading.

Crashing a car is like crashing a computer these days — and the result is a higher share of vehicles being totaled, Axios' Nathan Bomey writes.

• Why it matters: When cars, pickups and SUVs are deemed a total loss, it leads to higher replacement costs and higher insurance premiums for everyone else.

🧮 By the numbers: The share of vehicles deemed totaled in collisions hit an all-time high of 27% in 2023, according to LexisNexis Risk Solutions data compiled for Axios.

• That's up from 19% in 2018.

Vehicles are stuffed with electronics these days. And even if they don't need to be replaced or repaired after a crash, the electronics need to be fixed.

• Pandemic-era trends accelerated the percentage of vehicles that are declared a total loss: The cost of replacement parts spiked. The amount of time needed to get repairs increased, which also increased the amount of time that insurers had to provide loaners. The cost of loaners soared.

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Francis Collins — the former NIH director who led the agency during the COVID pandemic — unexpectedly retired from the federal government, saying that employees of the institution "deserve the utmost respect and support of all Americans," Axios' Adriel Bettelheim writes.

• Why it matters: The noted geneticist's departure comes amid research funding cuts and terminations of probationary workers that have raised concern about an exodus of scientific and technical talent at federal agencies.

Collins issued a statement referencing a time when "investment in medical research was seen as a high priority and a nonpolitical bipartisan effort":

"I will continue to devote my life in other ways to seeking knowledge and enhancing health, to healing disease and reducing suffering, and to doing what I can to bring together our fractured communities around the shared values of love, truth, goodness and faith."

Collins stepped down as NIH director in 2021 after serving in the role for 12 years under three presidents. He returned to his lab to pursue projects that included understanding causes and prevention for Type 2 diabetes.

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The role of trailblazing Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham was inexplicably cut from the 1976 Watergate movie, "All the President's Men," which had a splashy D.C. premiere at the Kennedy Center.

• Forty-nine years later, Graham got her Kennedy Center honors with last night's Washington premiere of "Becoming Katharine Graham," a documentary now streaming on Prime Video.

Why it matters: The filmmakers — George, Teddy and Peter Kunhardt — say they wanted to tell "the story of a painfully shy woman's accidental rise to power and how it changed history."

• After her husband's death in 1963, "Kay evolved from a 'doormat wife' into a legendary newspaper publisher. Nixon's nemesis during Watergate, she fought for truth, broke barriers in a sexist world, and won a Pulitzer Prize, inspiring generations with her courage and resilience."

Graham, who died in 2001 at age 84, in 1972 became the first woman who was CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

• "Becoming Katharine Graham" had the support of Don Graham, who succeeded his mother as publisher of The Post, and investor Warren Buffett, who was a longtime board member of The Washington Post Co.

Among those at last night's Kennedy Center bash were Warren Buffett ... Washington Post icons Bob Woodward, Don Graham, Lally Weymouth and Sally Quinn ... Elsa Walsh ... actor Bill Murray ... Bill Gates ... David Rubenstein ... Bobby Kotick ... former Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Evan Ryan ... former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao ... Devon Spurgeon ... Becky Quick of CNBC's Squawk Box ... and Judy Woodruff of "PBS News Hour."

Life lesson: In a rare interview, Warren Buffett — the "Oracle of Omaha," 94, who was one of Graham's closest friends — told CBS News' Norah O'Donnell on "Sunday Morning": "If I was a young girl, I'd want to hear [Graham's] story. It would change my self-image."

• "She was one of a kind, and she was terrified of the job," Buffett said. "[S]he'd been told all her life that she wasn't [allowed] ... [H]er mother told her: 'Nobody's interested in listening to you.' And so, all of a sudden, here she is, and she had an all-male board that was waiting for her, and all they wanted was her to stay home and cash the dividend checks."

Buffett, who's a character in the film, added: "Nixon didn't scare her at all."

• Watch the trailer ... Watch Buffett interview.

"Anora" — a low-budget dramedy about a New York sex worker — became the big winner at the Oscars last night with five awards, including Best Picture, Axios' Maxwell Millington writes from the Dolby Theater in L.A.

• Why it matters: The movie's budget — just $6 million — was one of the smallest ever for a Best Picture winner when adjusted for inflation. "Anora" grossed nearly $41 million worldwide.

Mikey Madison, 25, won Best Actress for playing the film's main character, who spontaneously marries the son of a Russian oligarch.

• Adrien Brody won Best Actor for his role in "The Brutalist."

👀 Making movie history: "Anora" director Sean Baker's four wins — Original Screenplay, Film Editing, Directing and Best Picture — tied Walt Disney's 1953 record for most Oscars in one night.

• But Disney won for four different films. Baker became the first person to win four Oscars in one night for the same movie. (L.A. Times)

Go deeper: Big night for indie movies ... What you didn't see on TV ... Full list of winners.