|
Presented by Sallie Mae®: Delivered daily by 8 a.m., Morning Money examines the latest news in finance politics and policy. | | | | |  | | By Sam Sutton | Presented by Sallie Mae® | 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 5:15 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. MIAMI — Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has bet his political future on being a cheerleader for the industries that purport to hold the keys to, well, the future. Whether it’s crypto, artificial intelligence, quantum computing or plain vanilla financial services, the 45-year-old South Florida Republican and possible presidential candidate believes that going full tilt on a pro-business agenda — even if it yields some major bummers — will leave him and his constituents better situated than his peers in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. “I'm really big into signals,” he told your MM host in an interview from his city hall office on Thursday. “When New York won [Amazon’s] HQ2 prize and said, ‘No, thank you,’ it wasn't necessarily about the 50,000 jobs that they lost, right? It was about the signal.” “What was New York telling the world at that time? ‘If you’re a high-market cap company and you want to give out high-paying jobs, we don’t want you,’” he added. As Suarez has made clear, Miami will take all comers. While that’s attracted major investment firms like Blackstone Group, Thoma Bravo and Ken Griffin’s Citadel — which announced the relocation of its headquarters last year – it’s also drawn in volatile startups that are susceptible to any cooldown in credit or capital markets. With interest rates rising and the threat of a recession growing, some of Suarez’s loud-and-proud bets could come at political risk. Suarez does not it see it that way. “Would I do anything differently? You know, I was thinking about it this morning. I was like, you know, did Warren Buffett hit on every single company he invested in? And I would think that even though he’s probably one of most successful investors in the history of time, he probably didn't.” he said. “So do you always get it right? The answer is no.” Read more from POLITICO’s Q&A with Suarez — including his thoughts on the economy and a 2024 campaign — here. IT’S FRIDAY — Re-upping Zach, let us know if you’re going to be in Los Angeles in the week after next for Milken. We’ll also accept any recommendations on taco or burrito spots. More importantly, send tips, gossip and suggestions to Sam at ssutton@politico.com and Zach at zwarmbrodt@politico.com.
| | A message from Sallie Mae®: The current federal student loan system too often fails the very people it was designed to help—those who truly need the most financial support. Students, families and taxpayers deserve a better, more transparent system that works as it was originally intended and protects against overborrowing. Learn more about solutions to reform the federal student loan program. | | | | | The Financial Stability Oversight Council meets at 11:15 a.m. … Fed Gov Lisa Cook speaks at 4:35 p.m. Debt ceiling dissension — Our Nicholas Wu and Adam Cancryn: “President Joe Biden immediately rejected Kevin McCarthy‘s opening debt-limit proposal, but it prompted movement elsewhere: A growing number of House Democrats want party leaders to restart negotiations … “‘They’ve got to do it soon,’ Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), a close White House ally, said of a Biden-McCarthy sitdown, adding that while she believes there will ultimately be a clean debt-ceiling increase, the administration ‘can’t keep waiting.’” — Reuters’s Richard Cowan: “Several House Republicans on Thursday either raised concerns about the proposal or acknowledged a tough battle ahead on a bill that is unlikely to win Democratic support. U.S. Representative Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska, told reporters he supports the legislation but said if the vote were held on Thursday it might not pass, as some in the caucus are ‘struggling’ with it.” What’s at stake — Our Josh Siegel and Kelsey Tamborino: “House Republicans’ proposal for averting a breach of the federal debt limit seeks to relitigate one of the most consequential congressional debates of last year — by taking an ax to President Joe Biden’s signature climate law. The White House’s counterargument: Gutting the law would wipe out tens of thousands of jobs that the law is creating in Republican-held states.” Polarity — Bloomberg’s Christopher Condon and Viktoria Dendrinou: “Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the Biden administration was prepared to accept economic costs as it sought to protect US national security interests from threats posed by China, even as she appealed to Beijing to cooperate on shared global concerns.”
| | | | GO INSIDE THE 2023 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is proud to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage, insider nuggets and unparalleled insights from the 2023 Global Conference, which will convene leaders in health, finance, politics, philanthropy and entertainment from April 30-May 3. This year’s theme, Advancing a Thriving World, will challenge and inspire attendees to lean into building an optimistic coalition capable of tackling the issues and inequities we collectively face. Don’t miss a thing — subscribe today for a front row seat. | | | | |
Remember Armstrong’s threats to move offshore? — Zach scoops: “Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in an interview Thursday that the company is planning to open a derivatives exchange in Bermuda, as the U.S.-based firm fends off a regulatory clash at home. Armstrong confirmed the move on the sidelines of a ‘crypto demo day’ on Capitol Hill, where he called for U.S. crypto policies that wouldn't push the industry offshore. Coinbase is in the middle of a campaign showcasing its expansion drive outside the U.S.”
The Sherrod Brown agenda — Our Katy O’Donnell: “Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown is calling for a regulatory review of loans by government-backed lenders to three crypto-friendly banks prior to their collapse last month.” — Our Eleanor Mueller: “The CEOs of the three biggest credit reporting firms will testify before the Senate Banking Committee next week, Chair Sherrod Brown said Thursday. The hearing will be the first time that the leaders have appeared before the committee ‘in a couple decades,’ according to Brown.” I’m sure this won’t come up in an oversight hearing — Also from Katy: “The CFPB said an employee forwarded the personal information of more than a quarter-million consumers to a personal email account, an incident that the bureau described as a ‘major’ breach.”
| | | | A message from Sallie Mae®:   | | | | | With tensions over the debt limit mounting, should big banks be doing more to cajole Congress and the White House into negotiating? “It's too early in the process to really insert the private companies’ thoughts into this,” Darrell Cronk, the chief investment officer of Wells Fargo’s wealth and investment management division, told MM on Thursday. If McCarthy is able to convince Republicans to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for the cuts he’s proposed, “markets would receive that positively,” Cronk said. “If the Republicans pass a bill raising the debt ceiling in the House, it's going to be very difficult for the Biden administration to — quote-unquote — ‘blame’ the Republicans for a technical default if that were to happen,” he said. “I think it will push them closer to the negotiation table — and make some concessions — and maybe get them off the idea that it has to be a clean debt ceiling raise.” If McCarthy fails, Cronk expects “Democrats [to] dig in even harder,” he said. “That would not be that would not be well received by the markets.”
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | | A DOJ record scratch — Wall Street can’t stop gabbing about a letter from Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler that some executives are reading as a veiled shot at the agency’s planned overhaul of U.S. stock trading. Problem is, the Justice Department’s antitrust division, led by Kanter, isn’t actually concerned. It’s fully behind the plans, in fact. A DOJ spokesperson said in a statement that the antitrust division even believes the plans could benefit competition in the market, as Gensler hopes they will. — Declan Harty Consider other options — Also from Declan: “Broker dealers and investment advisers should start weighing alternatives sooner when recommending products and strategies for their retail investor clients, SEC staff said Thursday.” GOP blasts Su — Our Nick Niedzwiadek and Daniella Diaz: “Senate Republicans hammered President Joe Biden's pick for labor secretary on everything from her meetings with union leaders to her activism as a college student in a confirmation hearing Thursday, with an eye toward peeling off enough moderate Democrats to sink her nomination.”
| | A message from Sallie Mae®: Students and families are borrowing more, and often too much, to pay for higher education. Of the $1.7 trillion outstanding student loan debt in 2022, $1.59 trillion—about 93%—is made and held by the federal government. Complicated applications, confusing financial aid offers and federal loan programs with virtually unlimited access to funds are contributing to this cycle of growing federal student loan debt. As a responsible private lender and education solutions provider, see how Sallie Mae is promoting meaningful reform in higher education financing. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
