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Axios AM
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By
Mike Allen
·Oct 06, 2021
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Happy Wednesday! Smart Brevity™ count: 1,176 words ... 4½ minutes. Edited by Zachary Basu.  Situational awareness: 1,400 workers at all of Kellogg's cereal plants in the U.S. went on strike after a bargaining impasse. Get the latest.
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1 big thing: South Dakota is the new Switzerland
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
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South Dakota has become one of the world's foremost tax havens — right up with the Cayman Islands, and ahead of old-fashioned Switzerland, Axios Capital author Felix Salmon writes. - That's a fascinating finding from the Pandora Papers leak of confidential financial information about the world's rich.
- "South Dakota offers
the best privacy and asset protection laws in the country, and possibly
in the world," Florida-based tax expert Harvey Bezozi told The Guardian as part of the blockbuster series.
Why it matters: Hundreds
of billions of dollars are sequestered in South Dakota trusts —
generating no taxes and remaining effectively off limits to anyone who
might have a legitimate claim on them. Why South Dakota does this: It generates financial-services jobs, and boosts the state's business bona fides. How it works:
South Dakota has no income tax, no inheritance tax and no capital gains
tax. But the state has gone even further: South Dakota allows for
extreme secrecy when law enforcement comes knocking, and protects assets
from being claimed by creditors, ex-spouses, or pretty much anybody else. - By setting up a trust,
the "settlor" — some billionaire — gives assets to a trustee in South
Dakota. The trustee invests the assets for a "beneficiary," often a
relative of the settlor. Neither the settlor nor beneficiary needs to
set foot in the Mount Rushmore State.
- All three parties — the settlor, the trustee and the beneficiary — can legally claim that the money isn't theirs.
How it happened:
South Dakota started carving out its position as the most laissez-faire
state for financial services in 1981, when it abolished upper limits
for credit-card interest rates. (That's why the credit card in your
wallet was likely issued in South Dakota.) - In 1983, South
Dakota became the first state to allow perpetual trusts — money that
can remain untouchable for centuries, with no one ever paying
inheritance tax on it.
- Since then, South Dakota has continued to pass laws making its trusts more attractive to the world's ultra-wealthy.
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2. Breaking: Progressives draw new lines
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Screenshot: MSNBC
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Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) — chair
of the House Progressive Caucus, and the big winner in last week's
showdown — has started the bidding on slimming down President Biden's
social-spending plans. - During an interview
with MSNBC's Ali Velshi, filling in for Rachel Maddow, she said the
caucus' must-haves include child care ... Medicare expansion ...
immigration ... housing ... climate change.
- "Those five priorities
... we need to include, but perhaps for [a] shorter number of years,"
she said. "I don't think we can choose and pick between child care
and climate change. I don't think we can choose between pre-K and
housing. These are all essential priorities."
 When Biden returned to
the White House from Michigan last night, he said Democrats may use a
carveout to the Senate's filibuster rule to raise the nation's debt
without GOP help.
- "Oh, I think that’s a real possibility," Biden said. Go deeper.
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3. Charted: American anxiety
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Data: CDC. Chart: Jacque Schrag/Axios The CDC tracks anxiety and depression, as reported in continual census surveys, Axios' Marisa Fernandez reports. - Symptoms have declined since last winter — but are still higher than before the pandemic.
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A message from JPMorgan Chase & Co.
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Economic opportunity begins with access to financial resources
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A general lack of local branches leaves unbanked people – currently
7.1M U.S. households – to rely on costly financial products like
check-cashing services and payday loans, which can leave them in debt.
To address this, JPMorgan Chase is opening more branches and hiring in underserved communities. See how.
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4. Renters' sticker shock
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Data: Dwellsy. Chart: Axios Visuals Rent prices are rising rapidly across the country, and the number of people seeking rental apartments has returned to pre-pandemic levels or higher, Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson writes from home-search websites. - Why it matters: As
COVID restrictions expire — including moratoriums on evictions — and
available housing dwindles, once-desperate landlords are back in the
catbird seat.
In a reversal of last year's trends, tenants are "facing sticker shock," The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription).
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5. Lawmakers float Facebook limits
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
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A whistleblower's sharp testimony — plus a global
service outage — raised critics' hopes that Congress will place new
restraints on Facebook, Axios' Scott Rosenberg and Margaret Harding
McGill write. - At a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing
yesterday, whistleblower Frances Haugen said: "Facebook's products harm
children, stoke division and weaken our democracy."
Haugen, a former Facebook product manager — and senators from both parties — zeroed in on legislative ideas: - The whistleblower
urged lawmakers to modify Section 230, which protects websites from
liability for content posted by their users, by "exempting decisions
about algorithms."
- She urged the creation of a new federal oversight body to regulate tech firms.
- Lawmakers discussed
the need for online privacy legislation, greater protection for
children online, and improving transparency into how Facebook's
algorithms work.
Mark Zuckerberg, in a long Facebook post last evening, called on Congress to settle some of the "tradeoffs between social equities": - "For example,
what is the right age for teens to be able to use internet services?
How should internet services verify people's ages? And how should
companies balance teens' privacy while giving parents visibility into
their activity?"
Tale of the tape: Facebook
says Zuckerberg has testified before Congress seven times in the past
four years ... Overall, Facebook execs have testified 30 times in four
years ... Facebook has responded to 4,500 questions, between testimony
and questions for the record.
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6. Biden's road warriors
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President Biden speaks yesterday in Howell, Mich. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images President Biden's Cabinet
and senior staff are fanning out to make his case that human
infrastructure — as well as hard infrastructure — are needed to grow the
economy for the middle class: - Vice President Harris travels to New Jersey on Friday.
- Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm talks to Marie Claire and will hold an Instagram Live conversation with young Latino leaders.
- Education Secretary Miguel Cardona travels to the Rio Grande Valley.
- HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge tours a revitalized community in Michigan.
- Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg makes virtual remarks in Chicago.
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7.  Snapchat will help you run
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Graphic: Snapchat
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Hoping to empower the next generation of officeholders, Snapchat this week launched a "Run for Office" tool designed to help its 13- to 24-year-old base "engage with democracy in an easy, native-to-mobile way": Powered
with information from BallotReady, this simple tool will help
Snapchatters explore hundreds of opportunities to run for local office
based on the issues they care most about — from City Neighborhood Board
and Township Council to School Board and State Representative. How to find it: Open Snapchat, then swipe down on the camera screen to access in-app games ("Minis"). Or search "Run for Office" in Snapchat.
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8.  1 tube thing: Two TV draws
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Tom Brady blows a kiss to fans in Foxborough, Mass., on Sunday night. Photo: Brian Fluharty/USA Today Sports via Reuters 26.7 million viewers
tuned in to see Tom Brady's return to New England, giving NBC its
biggest "Sunday Night Football" audience since 2015, AP's David Bauder reports. - Despite that competition, CBS'
"60 Minutes" reached 10.3 million people, its largest audience since
last January. Viewership was 12 million for the show's first part —
before the Bucs-Pats game started, and during the story on Facebook
whistleblower Frances Haugen.
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A message from JPMorgan Chase & Co.
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Gym owner pivots business mid-pandemic, with JPMorgan Chase’s help
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Aliyah is one of many entrepreneurs that receives
1:1 coaching, mentoring and technical assistance through her Chase
mentor and local community branch. Her business thrived, even when gyms
closed due to COVID-19.
See how Chase’s new Crenshaw Community Branch helps businesses, like Aliyah’s, grow. |
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