Good morning. Andrew here. We’ve got a fascinating scoop on talks to potentially expand so-called Trump accounts. But before we get there, some breaking news: A report by Axios today that the U.S. and Iran were closing in on efforts to end the war has led to a more than 10 percent decline in oil prices and a jump in stock futures. (Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here.)
Scoop: Treasury weighs adding stock to Trump accountsSo-called Trump accounts, the Trump administration’s new investment accounts for millions of American children, have already been funded with billions of dollars from philanthropic gifts. Now, there is talk about making the program even bigger — and potentially more complicated. White House and Treasury Department officials have held internal conversations about expanding what can go into the accounts, formally known as Section 530A accounts, DealBook understands. Under discussion: letting the world’s wealthiest individuals donate shares in their companies. Trump accounts, which can start receiving contributions on July 4, are restricted to cash investments in diversified index funds. Stock donations aren’t allowed. The push is being led by Brad Gerstner, the founder of Altimeter Capital who spearheaded what became the 530A account program. Gerstner, who got a shout-out during the State of the Union address in February, has discussed the potential change with administration officials. The idea is to tap the unrealized wealth of moguls like Elon Musk or Jensen Huang. If the rules are changed, Musk would be free to donate shares of Tesla or SpaceX, or Huang of Nvidia could give stock in the chipmaker he runs, directly to Trump accounts. Among the potential benefits:
There’s growing buzz for Trump accounts among potential donors. Based on chatter this year at the Milken Institute Global Conference, many of the wealthiest Americans and companies are planning to give. It’s a fulfillment of the hopes of Michael and Susan Dell, who pledged to donate $6.25 billion to the initiative in December. But the idea has prompted debate within the Treasury Department, DealBook understands. Restricting Trump accounts to diversified index funds is meant to protect children from wild market swings. It would require an amendment — possibly through legislation — to change the statute, which was part of the major domestic policy bill that passed last year. (There’s a question about whether new Treasury Department guidance or an executive order could work instead.) The biggest questions about allowing direct stock donations to 530A accounts:
A Treasury spokesperson declined to comment.
Oil prices plunge and stocks rise on peace hopes. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, fell to around $98 a barrel, while U.S. stock futures gained after Axios reported today, citing unnamed sources, that the White House believed it was close to reaching a framework agreement with Iran to end the war. President Trump said last night that Washington would pause “for a short period of time” an effort to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz, citing “progress” in negotiations. Worth noting: Mike Wirth, the C.E.O. of Chevron, said “economies are going to have to slow” because of war-related disruptions to oil supplies. The U.S. will review more artificial intelligence models for national security concerns. Google, Microsoft and Elon Musk’s xAI agreed to let a government agency examine their new models before they are released publicly, as Washington grows more anxious about an A.I.-driven cybersecurity threat. Separately, China’s DeepSeek is reportedly in talks to raise money at a $45 billion valuation. The A.I. stock rally mints another trillion-dollar company. Shares in Samsung Electronics soared 13 percent today in South Korea, pushing its market capitalization over $1 trillion. Robust demand for processors and memory chips, especially among A.I. giants, has bolstered the chipmakers’ fortunes.
Lawmakers press credit bureaus on “buy now, pay later”Four Senate Democrats sent a letter yesterday to TransUnion, Equifax and Experian, the largest U.S. credit reporting agencies, demanding information on how they incorporate “buy now, pay later” loans into consumer credit reports, Niko Gallogly is first to report. This action came after an inquiry by Democratic senators in November into the loan practices of several buy now, pay later lenders, including Affirm, Klarna, PayPal and Block. The consumer picture has grown more worrisome. In a recent survey by LendingTree, 47 percent of pay-later borrowers said they had paid late on one of their loans during the previous year, up 13 percentage points from two years ago. Those numbers have raised concerns among the lawmakers, who want to understand how pay-later borrowing may be affecting consumers’ credit scores. Take a step back: Pay-later borrowing surged during the coronavirus pandemic as online shopping became more popular while consumers grappled with financial uncertainty and inflation. Since 2021, pay-later spending has grown roughly 20 percent a year, reaching an estimated $70 billion in transactions last year, according to a report published by a Richmond Fed employee. Not all pay-later lenders handle their data the same way. Affirm is the only major lender that shares all of its loan data with U.S. credit reporting agencies. Because that data is not shared with other lenders, it does not affect Affirm customers’ credit scores, a policy the company said it would not change until all other lenders reported their loans. Others, including Block and Klarna, don’t share consumer data with credit reporting agencies out of concern that the loans won’t be classified fairly. “Block will not furnish Afterpay data until scoring models can reliably reflect modern financial behavior and produce clear consumer benefit,” Amanda Anderson, Block’s global head of public policy, said in response to the November inquiry. (Afterpay is Block’s pay-later service.) Another concern for lenders: competition. Credit reporting agencies sell lenders’ customer data to other lenders. By reporting their consumer data, pay-later lenders risk having rivals poach their best customers, Benedict Guttman-Kenney, an assistant professor of finance at Rice University, told DealBook. Ensuring that credit scoring fairly classifies pay-later loans is a “technical problem” that’s solvable, Guttman-Kenney said. Persuading lenders to share their data “is a more fundamental problem.”
Ben & Jerry’s co-founder takes on MagnumBen Cohen no longer runs the company that bears his name, but he isn’t willing to walk away from it. The 75-year-old is waging a campaign to “Free Ben & Jerry’s” from its owner — the Magnum Ice Cream Company, which was spun out of Unilever last year — after Magnum removed members of its independent board and clamped down on the company’s political activism. “We’re turning up the heat,” Cohen told Niko Gallogly. What’s next: NorthStar Asset Management, an activist investment firm aligned with Cohen, plans to press Magnum’s management tomorrow at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. Its concerns include the board removals and a desire for greater clarity on Ben & Jerry’s stand-alone financial performance. Cohen said he would call for a boycott of Magnum products if the company did not agree to sell Ben & Jerry’s to an investor group that Cohen said would offer a fair price. The history: Cohen and Jerry Greenfield started Ben & Jerry’s in 1978, took it public in 1984, and sold it to Unilever in 2000. The sale arranged for Ben & Jerry’s to maintain an independent board, partly to protect its corporate activism. Years later that arrangement began to break down:
Cohen is trying something highly unusual.“I can’t think of any similar cases,” Farzad Mukhi, a managing director at the M.&A. advisory firm Kroll, told DealBook.
An outspoken economist joins the creator economyJustin Wolfers was a well-known economist before President Trump returned to the White House last year. But Wolfers, a University of Michigan professor with a strong Australian accent and talent for one-liners, has become a regular on cable-TV known for his crisp, and often withering, assessments of Trump’s trade policy. Now he’s joining the creator economy. Today, Wolfers, 53, announced that he has founded Platypus Economics, an independent media start-up that aims to reach a mainstream audience on YouTube, Substack and other platforms, Brian O’Keefe is first to report. Wolfers is funding the business himself. He’s using income from the highly successful introductory economics textbook he wrote with his life partner, Betsey Stevenson, a professor at Michigan and a member of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration. Wolfers is teaming up with Initial Digital, the digital media division of the Initial Group, an entertainment company backed by the investment firm TPG. Formerly called Silver Tribe Media, Initial Digital was acquired by the Initial Group in December. Its client and project list leans heavily toward sports, such as Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions and the sports-talk maestro Colin Cowherd. Initial Digital had been looking to diversify its roster. Wolfers joked to DealBook that he was joining the company’s “nerd division.” Rather than give up equity, Wolfers is paying Initial Digital an undisclosed monthly fee plus a cut of ad sales for its services, which include providing creative guidance and optimizing his social channels. After decades of climbing the academic ladder, Wolfers said he was excited to switch gears. “My tribe does not like a microphone, and almost no words of serious economic analysis are said in front of a video camera,” he said. We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times.
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