Searching for smart, safe news you can TRUST?

Support safe, smart, REAL journalism. Sign up for our Axios AM & PM newsletters and get smarter, faster.

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Searching for smart, safe news you can TRUST?

Support safe, smart, REAL journalism. Sign up for our Axios AM & PM newsletters and get smarter, faster.

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Denver news in your inbox

Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Des Moines news in your inbox

Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Minneapolis-St. Paul news in your inbox

Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Minneapolis-St. Paul

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Tampa-St. Petersburg news in your inbox

Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa-St. Petersburg

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Trump defends wishing Ghislaine Maxwell "good luck" in prison

President Trump referred repeatedly during an "Axios on HBO" interview to Jeffrey Epstein's death in prison custody, citing it when asked about his prior comments wishing Ghislaine Maxwell good luck in the criminal justice system.

Why it matters: Maxwell has been charged with multiple counts of allegedly helping Epstein sexually abuse minor girls. She was arrested in New Hampshire in early July.

  • Epstein took his own life while in law enforcement custody last August. The cause of death was suicide by hanging, per official autopsy results.

"Her friend or boyfriend was either killed or committed suicide in jail," Trump told Axios' Jonathan Swan in the "Axios on HBO" interview last week.

  • "She's now in jail. Yeah, I wish her well. I'd wish you well. I'd wish a lot of people well. Good luck. Let them prove somebody was guilty."
  • "Her boyfriend died in jail and people are still trying to figure out how did it happen. Was it suicide? Was he killed?"

Go deeper

Dan Primack, author of Pro Rata
Oct 12, 2020 - Economy & Business

Leon Black to investors: "I deeply regret" Epstein involvement

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Wall Street billionaire Leon Black expressed remorse for his personal business and philanthropic relationship with Jeffrey Epstein on Monday in a letter sent to investors and obtained by Axios.

Driving the news: Black's letter follows a bombshell New York Times report that revealed that ties between Black, co-founder and CEO of Apollo Global Management, and Epstein were deeper than previously disclosed, including upward of $75 million changing hands.

Go deeper (<1 min. read)Arrow
Axios
Oct 12, 2020 - Podcasts

Jeffrey Epstein's money trail

Jeffrey Epstein died more than a year ago, but the investigation into how he made his money is heating up. The latest is a New York Times report that private equity titan Leon Black might have paid Epstein to up $75 million over the years, which is much more than was previously disclosed.

Axios Re:Cap goes deeper with Matthew Goldstein, a New York Times business reporter who co-authored today's story.

Felix Salmon, author of Capital
Updated 8 mins ago - Economy & Business

How central banks can save the world

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

The trillion-dollar gap between actual GDP and potential GDP is a gap made up of misery, unemployment, and unfulfilled promise. It's also a gap that can be eradicated — if central banks embrace unconventional monetary policy.

  • That's the message from Eric Lonergan and Megan Greene, two economists who reject the idea that central banks have hit a "lower bound" on interest rates. In fact, they reject the idea that "interest rates" are a singular thing at all, and they fullthroatedly reject the idea — most recently put forward by New York Fed president Bill Dudley — that the Fed is "out of firepower."

Why it matters: If Lonergan and Greene are right, then central banks have effectively unlimited ammunition in their fight to increase inflation and employment. They are limited only by political will.

Go deeper (1 min. read)Arrow