Know someone who would like this newsletter? Forward it to them.
The World
The universe of Democratic senators concerned about raising the corporate tax rate to 28% is broader than Sen. Joe Manchin, and the rate will likely land at 25%. Increasing the rate from 21% to 25% would raise about $600 billion over 15 years. Biden’s plan to increase the rate U.S. multinationals pay on their foreign earnings from 10.5% to 21% is less controversial and stands a better chance of remaining intact in the final legislation. That would raise an additional $700 billion. But corporate lobbying groups are preparing for a long-term battle over both rates. (Axios)
Consumers around the world have stockpiled an extra $5.4tn of savings since the pandemic began and are becoming increasingly confident about the economic outlook, paving the way for a strong rebound in spending as businesses reopen. Households around the globe accumulated the excess — defined as the additional savings compared with the 2019 spending pattern and equating to more than 6% of global gross domestic product — by the end of the first quarter of this year. (Financial Times)
The nationwide pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine is likely to be lifted Friday, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci said that he expected federal health officials would decide the vaccine’s future in the U.S. by the end of this week and that he did not anticipate its use would be canceled outright. Meanwhile, half of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine and about a third are fully vaccinated. (Washington Post, Axios)
British scientists launched a trial which will deliberately expose participants who have already had COVID-19 to the coronavirus again to examine immune responses and see if people get reinfected. (Reuters)
Ontario announced sweeping new police powers to enforce an extended stay-at-home order, the latest sign that officials in Canada’s most populous province have lost control of the rapidly spreading coronavirus. Ontario hospitals are canceling surgeries, transferring patients and preparing to ration care as they face a variant surge that is putting the most pressure on the healthcare system in recent history. “It’s really the battle of a lifetime,” said Anthony Dale, head of the Ontario Hospital Association. (The Guardian, Wall Street Journal)
Allies of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny unveiled plans for what they hope will be the largest protests in modern Russian history on Wednesday as Washington warned Russia it would pay a price if he died in jail from his hunger-strike. Yaroslav Ashikhmin, a cardiologist, said that the results of blood tests provided by Navalny’s family indicated he was at risk of heart and kidney failure. “[He] could die at any moment,” he said. (Reuters, The Times)
Russia and Britain are both sending warships to the Black Sea as tensions between Moscow and Ukraine simmer following dueling diplomat expulsions over the weekend. Moscow deployed two warships through the Bosphorus on Saturday and is sending additional smaller ships from its Caspian and Baltic fleets all aimed at bolstering its presence in the Black Sea. (Politico EU)
More than half of people across the UK think Scotland should be allowed a second independence referendum within five years if the Scottish National party wins a majority in elections on May 6. The survey is likely to increase pressure on UK prime minister Boris Johnson to rethink his refusal to allow any rerun of the 2014 referendum in which Scots rejected independence by 55-45%. (Financial Times)
Cancer vaccine shows durable immune effects: A recent study showed that personalized cancer vaccines designed to fight melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, maintain their effects on the immune system years after inoculation — another step in efforts to harness the immune system as an ally in the fight against cancers of all kinds. (Harvard Gazette)
These technologies could hold back business travel indefinitely: Delta’s CEO has projected that business travel will be back to 70% of its pre-pandemic level by 2023. But that other 30% might take far longer to recoup, now that the definition of “necessary travel” has changed. The rise of Zoom studios and FaceTime tours—not to mention specially designed robots—suggest a new reality for business-to-business dealings even in the most hands-on of industries: manufacturing. Thanks to cloud-based collaborative tools of every description—not just Zoom—the pandemic has led to a reset in office culture, from in-person to remote or hybrid. Surprisingly, there’s also been a reset for workers that almost no one thought could do their jobs remotely, including field service engineers and emergency medical personnel. While these changes explain trends within the post-pandemic workplace, they also demonstrate a new way forward for relationships between businesses. Many examples come from the most hands-on industry of all: manufacturing. (Wall Street Journal)
Economy
As Citigroup moves to shed most of its consumer banking operations across Asia, it is planning to scale up what it sees as a more-lucrative endeavor: serving the rising number of wealthy entrepreneurs and their businesses in the region. The New York-based bank intends to recruit 1,100 private bankers and relationship managers as well as 1,200 technical and operational staffers in Hong Kong and Singapore, as part of a plan to grow assets under management for clients in Asia to $450 billion by 2025, according to Peter Babej, CEO of Citi Asia Pacific. (Wall Street Journal)
HSBC CEO Noel Quinn has abolished the entire executive floor of its Canary Wharf skyscraper in east London, as the bank becomes the latest to drive through sweeping changes to post-pandemic working practices. Top managers have been booted out of their 42nd-floor private offices, which have been turned into client meeting rooms and collaborative spaces. Executives — the CEO included — now hot desk on an open-plan floor two stories below. (Financial Times)
Supreme Court weights merit of Goldman Sachs ethics statements: Justices consider whether generic commitments to integrity can be deemed false in the face of alleged conflicts of interest. Between 2006 and 2010, Goldman assured investors with statements about its measures to ensure integrity. The case is the latest in a series in which the court has calibrated the standards and burdens of proof between plaintiff shareholders and defendant corporations in big-dollar class actions. But the tenor the argument suggested that the court was leaning toward a minor clarification rather than a major revision of class-action procedures. (Wall Street Journal)
A group of investors managing $11 trillion in assets has called on banks to set tougher emissions targets ahead of a meeting of world leaders aimed at accelerating efforts to fight climate change. The group, which includes Pimco, the world's biggest bond investor, and Britain's biggest asset manager, Legal & General Investment Management, said they wanted lenders to set 'enhanced' pledges to decarbonise their lending books. (Reuters)
Technology
Facebook plans to go after Clubhouse — and podcasts — with a suite of new audio products. The announcements are coming today, but some products won’t show up for a while. Facebook’s audio plans include: (Recode)
An audio-only version of Rooms, a videoconferencing product it launched a year ago.
A Clubhouse-like product that will let groups of people listen to and interact with speakers on a virtual “stage.”
A product that will let Facebook users record brief voice messages and post them in their newsfeeds.
A podcast discovery product that will be connected with Spotify.
Audio-chat app Clubhouse closed a new Series C round of financing, the company said during its weekly town hall, without disclosing the amount raised. A source familiar with the matter confirmed the new financing would value the company at $4 billion. The social media app said the new round of financing was led by Andrew Chen of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz with major investors like DST Global, Tiger Global and Elad Gil. (Reuters)
Clubhouse offered rationale: “While we’ve quadrupled the size of our team this year, stabilized our infrastructure, launched Payments in beta to help creators monetize, and readied Android for launch, there is so much more to do as we work to bring Clubhouse to more people around the world. It’s no secret that our servers have struggled a bit these past few months, and that our growth has outpaced the early discovery algorithms our small team originally built.” (Clubhouse)
‘These Guys Are Very Different’: Inside Andreessen Horowitz’s Rise: The VC firm's financial performance is catching up to its powerful public image, thanks to contrarian bets and its operating structure modeled after a Hollywood agency. Now Marc Andreessen is trying to get bigger, faster in a quest to be the J.P. Morgan of venture capital. (The Information)
Apple Music told artists it pays a penny per stream. The disclosure, made in a letter to artists and publishers, reflects music-streaming services’ increasing efforts to show they are artist-friendly. Apple’s move can be seen as a riposte to Spotify, which last month shared some details of how it pays the music industry for streams on its platform. Apple’s penny-per-stream payment structure is roughly double what Spotify pays music-rights holders per stream. Spotify pays an average of about one-third to one-half penny per stream, though its larger user base generates many more streams. Apple’s payments come out of monthly subscription revenue from users. (Wall Street Journal)
Smart Links
UK stocks climb to highest level since February 2020. (Financial Times)
Fatal Tesla crash in Texas believed to be driverless. (Wall Street Journal)
Top European clubs agree to Super League that would rival Champions League. (Sports Illustrated)
Bitcoin tumbles from recent high as cryptocurrencies take weekend hit. (CNBC)
2.5 billion Tyrannosaurus rex once walked the earth. (Science)
The New York power lunch is back, with new rules. (Wall Street Journal)
Millennials, not Gen Zers, are driving the recent physical and digital collectibles boom. (Morning Consult)