Federal regulators moved this week to “ease oversight of Wall Street firms by scaling back two major mechanisms that were imposed to scrutinize big financial companies in the wake of the financial crisis.” The Federal Reserve said yesterday that it will drop the pass/fail grading  on a portion of its annual stress test, and the Financial Stability Oversight Council announced that it would drop its Too Big To Fail labeling – NYTimes and WSJ

The Feds also announced plans to “scrap their proposal for revising Volcker Rule restrictions on banks’ trading” after their first draft drew “vigorous criticism from banks, who said it would make the often-criticized rule even more burdensome than the existing version” – Bloomberg

To take him at his word, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is pivoting away from the very public sharing that’s been at the core of his social media site and towards “private and encrypted communications, in which users message mostly smaller groups of people they know” – NYTimes and WSJ and NewYorker and Law360

The United States reported that its trade deficit in goods has boomed to a staggering $891.3 billion—the highest level in history—as “the United States imported a record number of products, including from China” – NYTimes

Marketplace walks us through the Federal Reserve’s latest edition of the Beige Book, a “collection of anecdotes about the U.S. economy collected by the staff at all of the different Federal Reserve banks” – Marketplace

As expected, Huawei has filed suit against the United States in Texas federal court, arguing that the National Defense Authorization Act for 2019 unfairly singles it out “in violation of several constitutional provisions, like due process.” Many legal experts think it’ll be an uphill battle for China’s biggest smartphone maker – Law360 and Bloomberg and NYTimes and WSJ

Elon Musk’s affordable Model 3 and forthcoming Model Y announcements in recent weeks haven’t been enough to make up for recent revelations that the company expects a Q1 loss and will be shuttering all but a few physical stores and galleries – NYTimes

The NCUA is asking a NY federal judge to exclude it from the $590 million in settlements reached with Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, and HSBC “over allegations the banks schemed to manipulate Libor for short-term loans,” despite its tardiness in submitting a formal opt-out notice – Law360

Amazon has announced that it will close all of its 87 U.S. pop-up stores that it’s operated in a range of locations in 21 states, “ending the retailer’s yearslong experiment with these small shops as the company tinkers with an evolving bricks-and-mortar strategy” – WSJ and Bloomberg

We were blessed a few weeks ago with a dynamite 25th anniversary Minnesota state high school girls hockey tournament. Now it’s the boys’ turn, as they take the ice for the 75th edition of the best high school tourney in the country. And Doc is here to help us ring it in – Vimeo