The aftermath

It’s been a big 24 hours for Donald Trump and the Republican Party. It started last night, when President Joe Biden stepped out onto the debate stage in Atlanta and promptly fumbled his answers and much of his performance while failing (along with the moderators) to fact-check a long list of falsehoods by Trump. Though the Republican is just three years younger than the 81-year-old Biden, the latter’s halting display turbocharged concerns about his age, a fact that resonated through the morning on Friday as Democrats floated the names of potential replacements. But by Friday afternoon, Biden was on another stage—this time at a rally in North Carolina. Much more animated and on point than the night before, the Democrat sought to own up to the limitations of age while refocusing the conversation on Trump and what he warns is the existential threat he poses to America. Biden also made clear that he isn’t going anywhere. Meanwhile in Washington, the Supreme Court was handing down a series of huge, and in some cases historic, victories for the GOP, Trump and his followers. The biggest of all from the Republican-appointee controlled court killed off one of the most important precedents of the late 20th century when it comes to how government functions—with tectonic consequences for the country. —David E. Rovella

The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of underlying US inflation decelerated in May, yet again bolstering the case for lower interest rates later this year. At the same time, household spending rebounded after a pullback in April and incomes showed solid growth, offering some hope that price pressures can be tamed without lasting damage to consumers.

Fresh meme-stock mania took center stage on Wall Street this week just as the world’s biggest equity market closed out another blistering quarter. Yet behind the scenes, softening economic growth is testing bullish investor convictions, while fueling big divides between the strong and the weak across Corporate America. Dispiriting trends that have been visible for months now—alongside the frenzy for megacap tech stocks and private credit–are on display. Companies with dicey balance sheets have underperformed anew, and equal-weighted stock benchmarks—where disruptive AI market leaders have the same weighting as industrial bellwethers—have lagged yet again.

To see the stress mounting again on Wall Street’s junior bankers, just look a half-rung higher, at staffers. Not staff, as in employees, but staffers, the unheralded deputy managers who dole out assignments to trainees. When investment bankers or clients want something done, staffers find underlings for the drudgery. That’s getting trickier as banks exit a slump in deals with thinner headcount and big ambitions for landing new mandates. Trainees and staffers alike are now feeling the strain.

North Israel is a series of ghost towns—abandoned houses and scorched forests from Hezbollah missiles. Parts of south Lebanon have been hit so hard by Israeli bombs that they’ve been reduced to rubble. Tens of thousands of residents have been driven from homes on both sides. A steady, if ugly, tit-for-tat between Israel and Hezbollah since the Gaza war began has been shifting into something more alarming. Both sides say they don’t want war, but one may be coming anyway.

Jefferies Financial Group is said to be hiring Birger Berendes, one of Bank of America’s most-prominent rainmakers in Europe, as well as Citigroup’s Michael Borch to help bolster its dealmaking business in the region. Berendes is set to join Jefferies as continental European head of mergers and acquisitions. He has been with Bank of America since 2014 and led corporate defense and activist engagement across EMEA.

Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square set the initial public offering price of its US closed-end vehicle at $50 per share, as the billionaire’s firm moves ahead with what could be the largest ever closed-end fund in the US. The vehicle, known as Pershing Square USA Ltd., didn’t mention the number of shares to be sold, nor timing of the offering, in a filing Friday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Pershing Square USA is seeking to raise $25 billion from retail investors, Bloomberg News reported.

For all the money that’s poured into Argentina’s giant lithium deposits, the country has seen just one new mine come on stream in almost a decade. That’s about to change. Four new projects will finally begin to churn out lithium in the weeks and months ahead, according to a yet-to-be released federal government timeline seen by Bloomberg News. That will almost double production capacity in Argentina, whose growth potential has long drawn the attention of battery makers around the world.

The pandemic hit when Maxine Williams was 23 years old—a time that was supposed to usher in her prime dating years. Instead, she found herself at home, swiping on apps like Hinge and Bumble to no avail. When the world finally opened up again in 2022, Williams thought that meeting someone in real life would be easy. But the dating landscape her parents grew up with—and the people in it—had drastically changed. “Because of social media and dating apps, our generation has been spoon-fed in a lot of ways when it comes to meeting people,” Williams said. “We’re realizing dating apps aren’t it, but there’s also a bit of shyness when it comes to, ‘OK, I deleted the app, but how do I even approach someone in person?’” The answer, as anyone who lived back in the 1990s can tell you, is simple.

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