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The World
Members of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed deeply skeptical of the legality of the Biden administration’s plan to wipe out more than $400 billion in student debt because of the coronavirus pandemic. During the first of two arguments on the program, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. indicated that the administration had violated separation-of-powers principles by acting without sufficiently explicit congressional authorization to undertake one of the most ambitious and expensive executive actions in the nation’s history. The chief justice, joined by other members of the court’s six-member conservative majority, invoked the “major questions doctrine,” which requires that government initiatives with major political and economic consequences be clearly authorized by Congress. (New York Times)
Student Debt Is Up 2,807% Since Some Supreme Court Justices Graduated: College graduates in 1970 had an average of $1,070 in student debt. Today that number is over $31,000. (Bloomberg)
Finland NATO vote: nation may join before Sweden. Finland began building a planned 200-kilometre fence along its border with Russia before a parliamentary vote tomorrow that is expected to speed up its attempt to join NATO. MPs started debating legislation on accepting the terms of NATO membership today, with Finland looking set to forge ahead on its own and join the western military alliance rather than wait for Sweden. The debate coincided with a visit to Helsinki by Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary-general, who said membership for Finland and Sweden was a “top priority”. (The Times)
Hungary’s Viktor Orbán plays spoilsport on NATO accession for Finland, Sweden: Hungarian parliament set to open debate on Nordic countries’ bid to join military alliance. (Politico EU)
Switzerland Becomes Stumbling Block for Western Military Aid to Ukraine: Alpine nation’s reluctance to authorize transfers of ammunition to Kyiv is frustrating Ukraine’s Western partners. (Wall Street Journal)
Inside the secret talks that broke Brexit deadlock on Northern Ireland: When Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the Brexit deal that reset Britain’s broken relationship with the EU on Monday, it was the culmination of almost four months of diplomacy that began on the shores of the Red Sea and ended in the shadow of Windsor Castle. Von der Leyen, European Commission president, called the UK prime minister “Dear Rishi” as the pair launched the “Windsor framework”, the agreement which aims to end the bitter dispute over Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trade regime. Relations had been far more confrontational with Boris Johnson, the UK former prime minister who negotiated the Northern Ireland protocol with the EU in 2019 and who has spent the last three years trying to scrap it. “There was no trust in him here,” recalled one EU official. But when von der Leyen met Sunak at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on November 7 2022, less than a fortnight into the British leader’s premiership, something clicked. “They both realized they were serious people who could do this together,” said one British official. (Financial Times)
Tea and a Photo-Op Put King Charles in Crosshairs: King Charles’s meeting with an E.U. leader on the day a Northern Ireland trade deal was announced drew angry recriminations from critics who viewed it as an improper foray into British politics. (New York Times)
Nigeria's ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu has an unassailable lead in a disputed presidential election held over the weekend, a Reuters tally of provisional results from all 36 states and the federal capital Abuja showed. Tinubu's potential victory extends the APC's grip on power in Africa's top oil producer and most populous nation, though he inherits a litany of problems from Buhari. (Reuters)
Winter storms likely to bring Los Angeles its longest cold snap in almost 20 years: LA is on track to experience its longest cold snap in almost 20 years this week as another winter storm blasts the region with heavy and low-elevation snow, strong winds and significant rain. If forecasts hold, Wednesday will be the eighth day in a row that downtown L.A. hasn’t topped 60 degrees — a chilly streak not seen in the city since 2005, (Los Angeles Times)
Snow blankets Mallorca, Spanish island best known for sun year-round. (Washington Post)
How Environmentally Conscious Investing Became a Target of Conservatives: It’s been a widely accepted trend in financial circles for nearly two decades. But suddenly, Republicans have launched an assault on a philosophy that says that companies should be concerned with not just profits but also how their businesses affect the environment and society. More than $18 trillion is held in investment funds that follow the investing principle known as E.S.G. — shorthand for prioritizing environmental, social and governance factors — a strategy that has been adopted by major corporations around the globe. The rancor escalated as Republicans in Congress used their new majority in the House to vote by a margin of 216 to 204 to repeal a Department of Labor rule that allows retirement funds to consider climate change and other factors when choosing companies in which to invest. In the Senate, Republicans are lining up behind a similar effort that has been joined by Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia. (New York Times)
Economy
India GDP outpaces China despite a slowdown to 4.4% last quarter. The South Asian nation is growing at a 7% annual clip versus rival China's 3%. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Foreign investment in China slumps to 18-year low. (Nikkei Asia Review)
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon all but admitted defeat on the bank’s once-grand plans for expansive Main Street offerings. Speaking at the bank’s second-ever investor day, Mr. Solomon said Goldman was “considering strategic alternatives” for its consumer platforms business. That unit includes the specialty lender GreenSky and credit-card partnerships with Apple Inc. and General Motors Co. Mr. Solomon didn’t offer details. Consumer platforms doesn’t include Goldman’s consumer bank Marcus, which is best known for its mass-market savings accounts. Mr. Solomon praised the consumer deposits business. “We’ve significantly narrowed our ambitions for our consumer strategy,” he said. (Wall Street Journal)
Washington state held its first carbon-allowance auction, marking a key step forward in a statewide program that will impose a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and make it more expensive for companies to emit carbon pollution. Washington’s cap-and-invest program was established under the Climate Commitment Act, signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee in 2021. The program imposes a statewide limit, or cap, on greenhouse gas emissions. It also requires businesses to purchase pollution allowances that will become increasingly costly and act as an incentive for businesses to curb emissions. (CNBC)
US bid to cut China dependence by bringing jobs home and shifting supply chains is ineffective, analysts say. Bilateral trade has continued at a high level overall, especially in computers and farm equipment, despite tariffs begun in 2018, report finds. Of the relatively few export manufacturing sectors witnessing a significant shift away from China, most have moved to Southeast Asia. (South China Morning Post)
Stripe has cut the valuation for its multi-billion-dollar fundraising by about 10% to around $50 billion, according to two people familiar with the situation, underlining the challenges that Stripe has faced in completing the fundraising. While Stripe is still expected to complete the funding round, it is now setting the per-share price at about $20, down from about $23 a share, these people said. The earlier per-share price translated to a valuation of $55 billion, which was already a huge discount to the valuation of $95 billion at which Stripe last raised money, in early 2021. (The Information)
Yield curve inversion deepens: The yield on the rate-sensitive 2-year Treasury note hit a 16-year high as investors assess data that points to a resilient US economy despite high borrowing costs. The 2-year yield reached 4.82% on Tuesday, its highest point since July 2007, months before the Great Recession began at the end of the same year. (Financial Times)
Technology
Chipmakers must agree not to expand capacity in China for a decade if they are to receive money from a $39bn US federal fund designed to build a leading-edge US semiconductor industry, according to new commerce department rules. The department on Tuesday called for applications for funds from the Chips Act passed by Congress last year, as it launched a landmark industrial policy programme designed to counter China. (Financial Times)
Amazon Employees Will Be Able to Use Stock as Collateral for Home Loans: A new Better[dot]com product, Equity Unlocker, will allow employees to pledge stock for loans for down payments, the companies said, rather than having to sell the stock to raise cash. To protect itself from a continued slide in Amazon’s stock price, Better[dot]com will charge a higher rate on the mortgages of employees pledging stock—between 0.25 and 2.5 percentage points above the market rate, depending on how the down payment is structured, the company said. (Wall Street Journal)
India imposed by far the highest number of internet shutdowns in the world in 2022, internet advocacy watchdog Access Now said, as the country topped the list for the fifth successive year. Out of 187 internet shutdowns globally recorded by Access Now, 84 took place in India, including 49 in Indian- administered Kashmir, the New York-based digital rights advocacy group said in a report. (Reuters)
The EU narrows its long-running Apple antitrust probe, dropping an IAP charge to focus on denying apps from being able to tell users about subscription options. (Financial Times)
Microsoft is releasing a big update to Windows 11 that adds the company’s new AI-powered Bing search to the taskbar. The new Windows 11 update will offer quick access to the new Bing chat feature alongside a bunch of new features. Windows 11 is also getting improvements to widgets, a better touch mode, a screen recording feature, tabs inside Notepad, and more. The new Bing integration is a surprise addition that Microsoft hasn’t been testing with its Windows Insiders. A new Bing icon will appear within the search box in the taskbar, with Microsoft highlighting the new chat answers experience in the search flyout. While chat answers won’t be available directly within the search flyout, Windows 11 users will be able to quickly start a Bing chat in Edge from here — providing they have access to the Bing preview. (The Verge)
Smart Links
General Motors cuts 500 salaried employees. (CNBC)
US Postal Service to Buy 9,250 Electric Vehicles From Ford. (Bloomberg)
Visa, Mastercard pause crypto push in wake of industry meltdown - sources. (Reuters)
Twitter to Scale Back NYC Office Space as Musk Cuts Costs. (Bloomberg)
Novavax raises doubts about ability to remain in business. (Reuters)