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Presented by ExxonMobil: Delivered daily by 8 a.m., Morning Money examines the latest news in finance politics and policy. | | | | | |  | | By Ben White and Aubree Eliza Weaver | Presented by |  | | Editor’s Note: Morning Money is a free version of POLITICO Pro Financial Services' morning newsletter, which is delivered to our s each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day’s biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro. | | | The everything rally strikes back — MM noted widespread fears across Wall Street and Washington about the massive rally in multiple speculative assets fueled in large measure by easy Fed policy. But after a down week, Wall Street roared back with its biggest rally in nine months despite new fears of a Covid variant spreading rapidly in New York City that could weaken vaccine effectiveness. Meme stocks popped back up again with GameStop up nearly 20 percent on the day for no apparent reason other than … pure speculation. Our Monday story generated a ton of email reaction with many concurring that some of these assets — from SPACs to meme stocks to real estate and tech — could suffer big falls in the next few months if Covid doesn’t get wiped out or if it DOES and inflation surges. But not all agreed that there is little that can be done . Americans for Financial Reform senior policy analyst Andrew Park: “There is no shortage of ideas for slowing the SPAC mania. The question is whether we have the will to curb a business run by already very wealthy people. “We should, at a minimum, require that sponsors and underwriters are liable for the rosy projections they make during marketing. If an investment vehicle is truly SPAC-tacular, why not? Also, let’s enhance disclosures to make clear that investors are paying to ensure sponsors get 20 percent of the shares for free and the underwriter gets 5 percent.” More here. First in MM: Raj Date to head new payments trade — Raj Date, former deputy director of the CFPB and now a venture investor, will serve as founding director of a new trade association for payments companies to be called the “Payments Leadership Council.” The trade will include top executives of companies like American Express, Discover Financial Services, FIS, Fiserv, Global Payments, Mastercard and Visa. Date tells MM he hopes the group can help figure out “ways in which payment systems can enable a shared, prosperous economy and financial inclusion.” GOOD TUESDAY MORNING — Email me on bwhite@politico.com and follow me on Twitter @morningmoneyben . Email Aubree Eliza Weaver on aweaver@politico.com and follow her on Twitter @AubreeEWeaver. | | | | A message from ExxonMobil: As part of our ongoing commitment to help mitigate the risks of climate change, we plan to further reduce emissions in our operations by 2025. Our plans are expected to reduce our absolute upstream greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 30%, compared to 2016 levels. Learn more about the details of our plan to reduce our emissions. | | | | | | Senate Banking holds a confirmation hearing at 10 a.m. for Gary Gensler to be SEC chair and Rohit Chopra to be director of the CFPB … President Biden offers remarks on Covid-19 at 4:15 p.m. as the J&J single dose vaccine rolls out … FIRST IN MM II: NEW ABA ADS — Per release going out this a.m. from the American Bankers Assoc.: “The American Bankers Association has launched a radio advertising campaign airing on 60 stations in 14 states and the District of Columbia encouraging small businesses that still need help weathering the pandemic to reach out to local banks and apply for a forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loan.” Check the ads out here after 7 a.m. FIRST LOOK III: RACE AND COVID IMPACT — A new Peterson Institute for International Economics piece out this morning “finds that while higher unemployment rates for Black and Latinx workers last year followed a historical pattern, another pattern was not repeated: Generally, the unemployment rate increases more for Black workers than for white workers during a recession. “Yet between February and April last year, the unemployment rate for Black workers increased 10.7 percentage points—slightly less than the 11.1 percentage point increase for white workers. The increase last year for Latinx workers (14.5 percentage points) exceeded that for white workers by about the historically typical amount.” BIDEN AND BERNIE RELATIONSHIP LOOKS GOOD (FOR NOW) — Our Sam Stein: “As Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) fought to include a minimum wage increase inside Democrats’ coronavirus relief package, he made sure to keep the White House in the loop. … And as the administration prepared a video of … Biden backing an effort by Amazon workers to unionize in Alabama, the White House made sure members of Sanders’ team knew about it too. “The collaboration has paid off. In the hours after the video’s release, Bernie World heaped praise on Biden. And as Sanders explored different options for getting a minimum wage hike into the final bill — only for his Plan B to fall apart on Sunday — there was no massive blow up or notable friction between the senator’s office and the White House.” AND BIDEN NOW NEEDS A BI-PARTISAN DEAL — Our Burgess Everett and Marianne LeVine: “Just a few days ago, Democrats were preparing to leave Republicans behind on a minimum wage hike. Now the GOP might be their only shot at raising the wage this Congress. “The ruling against including a $15 minimum wage in this month’s coronavirus relief bill … dealt a major blow to Democrats and … Biden’s agenda. But that decision was also clarifying: With Democrats holding only 50 Senate seats and divided over gutting the filibuster, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer probably needs 10 Republicans now on any successful deal to raise the minimum wage.” CUOMO IN HIDING AMIDST GROWING SCANDAL — Our Madina Touré: “New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo remained in hiding … as the state attorney general formally announced an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment — and some of the state’s top Democrats began to wonder just how long the three-term governor can hold on. … “By evening, Cuomo was facing a new claim: A woman whom he had not previously met said the governor made unwanted advances toward her at a wedding reception in 2019 … Already, the accusations by his former aides in recent days had become the single greatest threat to his career and an inescapable subject for New York’s political class.” DETAILS ON THE LATEST ACCUSER form NYT’s Matt Flegenheimer and Jesse McKinley CUOMO BACKERS BACK AWAY — CNBC’s Brian Schwartz: “Key financial backers of … Cuomo are pausing and reevaluating their support for the New York governor … Several of these people declined to be identified out of fear of retribution from the governor, who will be the subject of an independent state investigation. Cuomo is running for a fourth term in next year’s election.” | | | |   | | | | | | S&P 500 SEES BEST DAY SINCE JUNE— AP’s Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga: “Wall Street kicked off March with a broad rally Monday that sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 600 points higher and gave the S&P 500 its best day in nine months. “The S&P 500 climbed 2.4 percent, clawing back nearly all of its losses from last week. More than 90 percent of the stocks in the benchmark index rose, with technology, financial and industrial companies powering a big share of the S&P 500′s gains. Small company stocks also had a strong showing as they continue to outpace the broader market this year.” GAMESTOP SURGES MORE THAN 18 PERCENT — Reuters’ Sinéad Carew and Lewis Krauskopf: “GameStop and other “meme stocks” mounted a late — day rally on Monday, with shares of the video game retailer climbing nearly 32 percent at one point on little apparent news. "Shares of the videogame retailer, along with other stocks favored by retail investors congregating in online forums such as Reddit’s popular WallStreetBets, have roared back in recent sessions after a wild ride in which they soared in late January and tumbled early last month.” | | | | A message from ExxonMobil: We’ve announced plans to reduce the intensity of our emissions, which we expect to reduce our absolute upstream greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 30%, compared to 2016 levels. Similarly, absolute flaring and methane emissions are expected to decrease by 40-50%. Through continued application of operational efficiencies and deployment of lower-emission technologies, such as carbon capture, our plans drive meaningful near-term emission reductions and are consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Learn more about the details of our plan to reduce our emissions. | | | | | | MILLIONS OF TENANTS FALL FURTHER BEHIND ON RENT WHILE AWAITING COVID AID — WSJ’s Andrew Ackerman and Will Parker: “Tenants who are behind on their rent are still waiting for $25 billion in assistance that Congress appropriated in December, as millions of households and landlords fall deeper into debt. Many states are still determining how to distribute money they have received from the Treasury Department to help an estimated 13 million renters. Meanwhile, Congress is poised to appropriate another $20 billion in rental assistance.” COVID DIDN’T BRING THE FINANCIAL ROUT THAT MANY STATES FEARED — NYT’s Mary Williams Walsh: “As it turns out, new data shows that a year after the pandemic wrought economic devastation around the country, forcing states to revise their revenue forecasts and prepare for the worst, for many the worst didn’t come. One big reason: $600 — a — week federal supplements that allowed people to keep spending — and states to keep collecting sales tax revenue — even when they were jobless, along with the usual state unemployment benefits.” ONE YEAR INTO THE PANDEMIC, SKY BEGINS TO CLEAR OVER U.S. ECONOMY — Reuters’ Ann Saphir and Howard Schneider: “Despite the U.S. economy’s near miss with a depression last year and an ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has brought travel to a virtual halt, Jeff Hurst, the chief executive of vacation rental firm VRBO, sees a boom on the horizon. IS INFLATION A RISK? NOT NOW, BUT SOME SEE DANGER AHEAD — WSJ’s Greg Ip: “Inflation is near a decade low and well below the 2 percent level the Federal Reserve targets as ideal. The usual conditions for rising inflation — tight job markets and public expectations of rising prices — are glaringly absent. “Yet anxiety about inflation is at a fever pitch, among economists and in markets, where long-term interest rates have been grinding higher since President Biden unveiled plans for huge new fiscal stimulus.” | | | | DON'T MISS "THE RECAST": Power dynamics are changing. "Influence" is changing. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that all politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. "The Recast" is our new, twice-weekly newsletter that breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics, policy, and power in America. And POLITICO is recasting how we report on this crucial intersection, bringing you fresh insights, scoops and dispatches from across the country, and new voices that challenge "business as usual." Don't miss out on this important new newsletter, SUBSCRIBE NOW. Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | | | | JAMIE DIMON ON SPACS AND MORE — JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon joined Bloomberg TV to talk about the U.S. economy, Covid, SPACs and more. On SPACs: “Clearly there’s a lot of hype. There are a lot of sponsors that you shouldn’t be doing business with. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do them, and it doesn’t mean there aren’t some good ones.” BPI ON PPP — Via new post from the Bank Policy Institute: “[T]he renewed PPP places increased emphasis on number of business establishments served, especially for historically underserved groups—those with more limited access to credit historically.” WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Chuck Nadd, a major in the U.S. Army and a student at Harvard Business School, and Shannon Nadd recently welcomed John Henry Scott Nadd, who joins Mary Margaret (4) and Peter (3) | | | | JOIN WEDNESDAY FOR A PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW WITH NRCC CHAIR TOM EMMER : House Republicans surprised many observers in November flipping 15 seats and defeating several Democratic freshmen who delivered the House majority in 2018. Then the Jan. 6 insurrection set off an internal battle within the GOP, including among top House leaders. Join Playbook co-author Rachael Bade for a conversation with Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, to discuss his strategy for the 2022 midterm elections, President Donald Trump's role in the party, and the continued fallout from the assault on the Capitol. REGISTER HERE | | | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
