The Mirage of the FDIC’s $250,000 Limit

Happy Friday! It’s with a heavy heart we are announcing this will be the final edition of The Morning Dispatch.

New York’s city council is working to pass a law prohibiting workplace discrimination based on height and weight, so we are finally going to live out our collective dream and become the starting offensive line of the New York Jets. Aaron Rodgers has made an enormous mistake.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • The Pentagon said Thursday an Iranian-made drone had struck a coalition base in northeast Syria, killing a United States contractor and injuring five U.S. service members and another contractor. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the U.S. retaliated with “precision airstrikes” against facilities used by groups associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
  • In a move that brings Finland one step closer to NATO membership, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto signed a law Thursday that would allow the county to join the defensive alliance as soon as the two holdouts—Turkey and Hungary—have ratified its accession. Hungary’s parliament is slated to vote on Finland’s entry next week, and Turkey before the end of the parliamentary session on May 14. 
  • More than 1 million people took to the streets across France on Thursday, to protest the country’s recently passed pension reform, many turning violent. The Paris garbage collector union will continue its strike until at least next Monday, leaving thousands of tons of trash stranded on Paris sidewalks. French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed he won’t back down from the pension changes—which raise the retirement age for most workers from 62 to 64—and compared the riots to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
  • The Washington Post reported Thursday no additional activity is expected this week from the grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s alleged hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Meanwhile, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is leading the investigation, denied a request from three Republican House members to turn over details of the ongoing probe to their committees, labeling the demand “unlawful.”
  • The Federal Trade Commission proposed a rule on Thursday that would make it easier for consumers to cancel recurring subscriptions. The so-called “click-to-cancel” provision would require companies to allow customers to cancel a subscription in the same mode they originally signed up—online, rather than on the phone or in person, for instance. The proposal is now subject to public comment. 
  • Accenture, the global consulting firm, announced Thursday it will lay off approximately 19,000 people, or 2.6 percent of the firm’s total workforce. The cuts—which will primarily affect back-office workers rather than those in client-facing roles—will roll out over the next 18 months, with about half expected to be completed by the end of August.
  • The Department of Labor reported Thursday that initial jobless claims—a proxy for layoffs—decreased by 1,000 week-over-week to a seasonally-adjusted 191,000 claims last week, suggesting the labor market remains historically tight despite continued layoffs in the tech sector.

Checking in on the Banks

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young testify during a hearing before the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young testify during a hearing before the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“I can assure you, my friends, that it is safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than it is to keep it under the mattress.”

Ninety years after Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered those words in his first “Fireside Chat,” government officials are once again urging Americans to relax and trust the system. There’s evidence the rush to pull cash from small and mid-size banks after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has eased in recent days. Yet the upheaval of the past few weeks has some analysts and lawmakers suggesting reforms—chiefly, raising the $250,000 cap on deposit insurance.

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