"The federal government Sunday announced the failure of a second bank with deep ties to the tech industry -- as regulators rushed to try to stem the losses caused by last week's collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

""Manhattan-based Signature Bank -- a key financial institution for the cryptocurrency industry -- was shut down over a 'similar systemic risk exception,' according to a joint statement from the heads of the US Treasury, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

"Silicon and Signature depositors will be made whole, but the banks' shareholders and unsecured debtors will not be protected, officials said.

"The Federal Reserve said it will create a new Bank Term Funding Program to offer depository institutions loans of up to one year, backed by US Treasury securities and other assets, to help the banks.

"The feds said the steps they are taking 'will ensure that the U.S. banking system continues to perform its vital roles of protecting deposits and providing access to credit to households and businesses in a manner that promotes strong and sustainable economic growth.' ...

"A banking source in San Francisco called the developments 'good for depositors, but it is more regulation -- and it moves us closer to nationalizing banking.'"

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"If you're running a business, you know that 2023 is a fight. Many small businesses are already seeing a drop-off in demand as the global economy slows.

"Inflation is, and will remain, persistently high. A tight labor market is making it hard to find good talent. Well, here's some more bad news: The federal government is going to throw another punch in this fight, and it's going to land right in your face.

"That's because there are a group of regulations that will appear in 2023 that will make it harder for small businesses to stay in business.

"Worker classifications are changing: As I've written previously here, a new worker classification rule is looming from the Department of Labor (DOL) that will have a significant impact on how businesses of all sizes determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. The definition will include many factors, but the most important will be whether a worker is 'integral' to the business. This means that if an independent contractor is providing services that contribute to a company's making and delivering of products and services, that person may have to be classified as an employee, bringing the rights, benefits and additional taxes that come along with that classification. This rule will impact countless small and mid-sized businesses. ...

"Non-compete agreements are going away: Do your employment agreements have a clause that forbids an employee to work for a competitor within a certain geographical range if they leave your company? Although this practice has been abolished or curtailed in some states, others still allow the practice for non-hourly or highly-compensated employees. ...

"Businesses this year are getting pummeled by inflation, a looming recession, a tight labor market and much uncertainty. Do these additional regulatory punches help them grow, add jobs and invest? Or will it result in them cutting back on their number of employees and compensation? To ask is to answer."

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"The Federal Trade Commission's demand that Twitter reveal the names of journalists who were granted access to company records is being assailed as 'an outrageous attack on the First Amendments.'

"Matt Taibbi, the former Rolling Stone journalist, blasted his 'former colleagues in mainstream media' for failing to cover what is being billed as 'insane overreach' by FTC Chair Lina Khan.

"He wrote that the lack of media outrage was 'particularly infuriating' given that none of the journalists who published the 'Twitter Files' had 'asked for nor received access to private user data' whereas 'the Files themselves are full of instances of government agencies improperly asking for the same.'

"'Which journalists a company or its executives talks to is not remotely the government's business. This is an insane overreach,' according to Taibbi."

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"Attorney Gigi Sohn is withdrawing her nomination to the Federal Communications Commission, she announced Tuesday. ...

"Sohn made the announcement shortly after Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin came out against her nomination.

"'The FCC must remain above the toxic partisanship that Americans are sick and tired of, and Ms. Sohn has clearly shown she is not the person to do that. For those reasons, I cannot support her nomination to the FCC, and I urge the Biden Administration to put forth a nominee who can bring us together, not drive us apart,' Manchin said in a statement."

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"For years, the Department of Homeland Security has run a virtually unknown program gathering domestic intelligence, one of many revelations in a wide-ranging tranche of internal documents reviewed by POLITICO.

"Those documents also reveal that a significant number of employees in DHS's intelligence office have raised concerns that the work they are doing could be illegal.

"Under the domestic-intelligence program, officials are allowed to seek interviews with just about anyone in the United States. That includes people held in immigrant detention centers, local jails, and federal prison. DHS's intelligence professionals have to say they're conducting intelligence interviews, and they have to tell the people they seek to interview that their participation is voluntary. But the fact that they're allowed to go directly to incarcerated people -- circumventing their lawyers -- raises important civil liberties concerns, according to legal experts."

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"An old saying, attributed to Henry David Thoreau, maintains that you do not have to find a trout in your glass to know someone is watering down the milk. This week Americans found a veritable school of trout in their milk -- an unintentional demonstration by the Biden administration of why such a gathering of fish is often called a 'lie.'

"In the 17th release of the 'Twitter Files,' journalist Matt Taibbi disclosed that the U.S. government is funding a group that has supported the censorship of dissenting viewpoints on social media, including those of U.S. citizens. ...

"The latest Twitter Files release suggests the Biden administration may have seeded various groups to help it censor by surrogate. We still have no idea how extensive the federal funding and support for censorship has been. Right now, however, it is beginning to look like we have more trout than milk in our glasses."

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"Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) called on his Democratic colleagues on Thursday to negotiate with Republicans on spending cuts ahead of the country's summer deadline to raise the debt ceiling.

"The West Virginia senator, a centrist Democrat, argued that the United States needs to put itself on a fiscally sustainable path, a call that comes as Republicans push to roll back spending as part of any debt ceiling agreement. Democratic lawmakers have resisted the call for concessions, largely insisting on a clean increase and arguing that risking default would be devastating for the economy. Manchin, for his part, said today's spending levels are 'absolutely crippling.'

"'If you love your children, if you love this country, you'll stop the madness and start acting reasonably and responsibly to get our government's financial house in order. It's long past due. The partisan politics can waits,' he said in a floor speech.

"'There's always times to have arguments and disagreements. But the looming debt crisis cannot. It cannot basically have the disruption that we have and the discourse and political toxic atmosphere that we have here. We've got to come together for the sake of our great country,' he added.

"Manchin warned that the interest on the debt should be a grave cause for concern, stating that he does not believe addressing the annual deficits should be a partisan matter."

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"The world watched in disbelief and many Americans watched in disgust as President Joe Biden allowed a Chinese spy balloon to hover over our country for nearly a week.

"Biden's 'old friend' Xi Jinping is reportedly soon headed to Moscow to strengthen his relationship with war criminal Vladimir Putin.

"And the Department of Energy just concluded COVID likely came from a Chinese lab leak, but the White House pushed back, claiming there's no 'consensus.'

"China continues to challenge our country, and Biden continues to back down."

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"House Republicans are expecting bipartisan and bicameral support in passing legislation aimed at killing the Biden administration's proposal allowing private fiduciaries to consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in Americans' retirement plans, according to the lawmaker spearheading the effort.

"'Americans don't want their retirement politicized. They don't want politics as part of their retirement portfolio,' Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., said on 'Fox & Friends' Tuesday morning. 'They want financial performance; they want investment returns.'

"Barr claimed he's expecting the House Rules Committee to vote and approve the Congressional Review Act to stop Biden's ESG rule as early as today. That law lets Congress reject any federal rule if the House and Senate can pass a resolution that says Congress disapproves of it.

"The ESG rule implemented by the Department of Labor took effect in February and initially faced pushback from Republicans as being an effort to impose a social agenda on the more than 140 million Americans whose retirement plans are governed by standards set by the federal government.

"For decades, those standards have said investment decisions must be guided by the goal of maximizing the return on those investments. However, the rule from Biden's Labor Department said investment plan fiduciaries can consider companies that prioritize climate change and other social issues as they invest."

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"The cost of servicing America's national debt is expected to soar over the next 10 years to unprecedented levels, as net interest expense on the debt will cost more than $1.4 trillion annually in 2033 based on the latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

"The CBO's recently released budget and economic outlook for the next 10 years projects that the cost of servicing the national debt will more than double in that timeframe and the government will spend about $10.5 trillion on interest expenses alone over the coming decade. Spending on interest as compared to the size of the U.S. economy is also expected to rise from 2.4% of the gross domestic product in fiscal year (FY) 2023 to 3.6% of GDP in FY2033.

"In FY2022, American taxpayers spent $475 billion in interest expenses on the national debt -- a figure that is expected to rise to $640 billion in the current fiscal year, FY2023. As the federal government continues to run budget deficits and the debt level rises in the coming years, the amount spent on interest is projected to exceed $1 trillion for the first time in FY2029 and rise to $1.4 trillion in FY2033."

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