The White House unveiled its 2023 budget to start the week, a document that outlines the Administration’s economic agenda for the year ahead. Among other proposals, the budget proposes “a new tax on American households worth more than $100 million, which would require that they pay a rate of at least 20 percent on their income as well as unrealized gains in the value of their liquid assets, such as stocks, which can accumulate value for years but are taxed only when they are sold.” White House estimates suggest such a tax, if implemented, “would raise about $360 billion in revenue over a decade” despite applying only “to the top one-hundredth of 1 percent of American households” - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and Law360

FedEx founder Fred Smith is stepping aside as CEO as of June 1. Smith will had the reins over to current company COO Raj Subramaniam (a 30-year FedEx vet) and will assume the position of Executive Board Chair - WSJ and MarketWatch and NYTimes

A disastrous start to the year for the bond market, made worse by the recent yield curve inversion, is prompting plenty of economy watchers to start dropping “recession” into their forecasts—this despite admitted uncertainty, including whether the inversion is more a reaction to inflation than it is to an impending economic downturn - NYTimes and MarketWatch and WSJ and Bloomberg

PC company HP Inc. has agreed to acquire workplace communications products-maker Poly for a reported $1.7 billion. The deal, which is expected to close by the end of 2022, “would help [HP] grow its hybrid-office offerings” - WSJ and Bloomberg

E-car powerhouse Tesla said on Monday that it “would request shareholder approval at its annual meeting for an increase in the number of [its] shares . . . to enable a stock split, though it didn’t specify when such a split would take place or what the ratio of shares would be.” Markets welcomed the news, with Tesla stock up nearly 8% to start the week  - WSJ and MarketWatch and Bloomberg

Add brewing giants Heineken and Carlsberg to the growing list of international companies pulling out of Russia over its invasion of Ukraine - NYTimes

We’re learning more about the defense effort for former Goldman managing director Roger Ng in his effort to escape FCPA and money-laundering convictions related to the massive 1MDB fraud in Malaysia – Law360

CFPB Director Rohit Chopra is on the record as of Monday with the view that banks and other financial institutions that break the same law multiple times should face much harsher penalties than are currently being assessed. In a speech before Penn Law, Chopra said “his fellow regulators should be willing to revoke some of the operating licenses and special government privileges of repeat offenders, consequences that could force the companies to quickly sell off some of their businesses if they lost permission to operate them” - NYTimes

The House Oversight Committee has opened a probe into Credit Suisse’s “compliance with sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” The investigation comes on the heels of recent reports that the Swiss bank “instructed investors in a recent debt deal to destroy and erase information related to its dealings with rich clients” - WSJ

Saturn is losing its rings. But don’t worry. Even by Minnesota standards, this is going to be one loooooong goodbye - TheAtlantic

Stay safe,

MDR