Andrew here. We\u2019ve got a fascinating scoop on talks to potentially expand so-called Trump accounts. But before we get there, some breaking news: A report by Axios on Wednesday that the U.S. and Iran were closing in on efforts to end the war has led to a more than 10 percent decline in oil prices and a jump in stock futures.<\/p>\n
Scoop: Treasury weighs adding stock to Trump accounts<\/p>\n
So-called Trump accounts, the Trump administration\u2019s new investment accounts<\/a> for millions of American children, have already been funded with billions of dollars from philanthropic gifts. Now, there is talk about making the program even bigger \u2014 and potentially more complicated.<\/p>\n White House and Treasury Department officials have held internal conversations about expanding what can go into the accounts, formally known as Section 530A accounts, DealBook understands.<\/p>\n Under discussion: letting the world\u2019s wealthiest individuals donate shares in their companies. Trump accounts, which can start receiving contributions on July 4, are restricted to cash investments in diversified index funds. Stock donations aren\u2019t allowed.<\/p>\n The push is being led by Brad Gerstner, the founder of Altimeter Capital who spearheaded what became the 530A account program. Gerstner, who got a shout-out<\/a> during the State of the Union address in February, has discussed the potential change with administration officials.<\/p>\n The idea is to tap the unrealized wealth of moguls like Elon Musk or Jensen Huang. If the rules are changed, Musk would be free to donate shares of Tesla or SpaceX, or Huang of Nvidia could give stock in the chipmaker he runs, directly to Trump accounts.<\/p>\n Among the potential benefits:<\/p>\n Instead of slow-and-steady returns from index funds, children could own exposure to high-growth mega-stocks \u2014 and hopefully huge upside \u2014 for years.<\/p>\n Donors could offload billions of dollars\u2019 worth of hugely valuable stock without realizing capital gains, and also receive a full charitable deduction for the stock\u2019s fair market value. It further minimizes their tax liability while also providing philanthropy.<\/p>\n There\u2019s growing buzz for Trump accounts among potential donors. Based on chatter this year at the Milken Institute Global Conference, many of the wealthiest Americans and companies are planning to give.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a fulfillment of the hopes of Michael and Susan Dell, who pledged to donate $6.25 billion to the initiative<\/a> in December.<\/p>\n But the idea has prompted debate within the Treasury Department, DealBook understands. Restricting Trump accounts to diversified index funds is meant to protect children from wild market swings.<\/p>\n It would require an amendment \u2014 possibly through legislation \u2014 to change the statute, which was part of the major domestic policy bill that passed last year. (There\u2019s a question about whether new Treasury Department guidance or an executive order could work instead.)<\/p>\n The biggest questions about allowing direct stock donations to 530A accounts:<\/p>\n Will the highest-flying stocks of today still be up decades from now?<\/p>\n And would this turn Trump accounts into a huge holding pen for tech moguls\u2019 stock \u2014 which might lock up billions of dollars\u2019 worth of shares that can\u2019t be sold for years?<\/p>\n A Treasury spokesperson declined to comment.<\/p>\n HERE\u2019S WHAT\u2019S HAPPENING <\/p>\n Oil prices plunge and stocks rise on peace hopes. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, fell to around $98 a barrel, while U.S. stock futures gained after Axios reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources, that the White House believed it was close to reaching a framework agreement with Iran<\/a> to end the war. President Trump said last night that Washington would pause \u201cfor a short period of time<\/a>\u201d an effort to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz, citing \u201cprogress\u201d in negotiations. Worth noting: Mike Wirth, the C.E.O. of Chevron, said \u201ceconomies are going to have to slow<\/a>\u201d because of war-related disruptions to oil supplies.<\/p>\n The U.S. will review more artificial intelligence models for national security concerns. Google, Microsoft and Elon Musk\u2019s xAI agreed to let a government agency<\/a> examine their new models before they are released publicly, as Washington grows more anxious about an A.I.-driven cybersecurity threat<\/a>. Separately, China\u2019s DeepSeek is reportedly in talks to raise money at a $45 billion valuation<\/a>.<\/p>\n The A.I. stock rally mints another trillion-dollar company. Shares in Samsung Electronics soared 13 percent on Wednesday<\/a> in South Korea, pushing its market capitalization over $1 trillion. Robust demand for processors and memory chips, especially among A.I. giants, has bolstered the chipmakers\u2019 fortunes.<\/p>\n Lawmakers press credit bureaus on \u201cbuy now, pay later\u201d <\/p>\n Four Senate Democrats sent a letter on Tuesday to TransUnion, Equifax and Experian, the largest U.S. credit reporting agencies, demanding information on how they incorporate \u201cbuy now, pay later\u201d loans into consumer credit reports, Niko Gallogly is first to report.<\/p>\n This action came after an inquiry by Democratic senators<\/a> in November into the loan practices of several buy now, pay later lenders, including Affirm, Klarna, PayPal and Block.<\/p>\n The consumer picture has grown more worrisome. In a recent survey by LendingTree<\/a>, 47 percent of pay-later borrowers said they had paid late on one of their loans during the previous year, up 13 percentage points from two years ago.<\/p>\n Those numbers have raised concerns among the lawmakers, who want to understand how pay-later borrowing may be affecting consumers\u2019 credit scores.<\/p>\n Take a step back: Pay-later borrowing surged during the coronavirus pandemic as online shopping became more popular while consumers grappled with financial uncertainty and inflation.<\/p>\n Since 2021, pay-later spending has grown roughly 20 percent a year, reaching an estimated $70 billion in transactions last year, according to a report<\/a> published by a Richmond Fed employee.<\/p>\n Not all pay-later lenders handle their data the same way. Affirm is the only major lender that shares all of its loan data<\/a> with U.S. credit reporting agencies. Because that data is not shared with other lenders, it does not affect Affirm customers\u2019 credit scores, a policy the company said it would not change until all other lenders reported their loans.<\/p>\n Others, including Block and Klarna, don\u2019t share consumer data with credit reporting agencies out of concern that the loans won\u2019t be classified fairly.<\/p>\n \u201cBlock will not furnish Afterpay data until scoring models can reliably reflect modern financial behavior and produce clear consumer benefit,\u201d Amanda Anderson, Block\u2019s global head of public policy, said in response<\/a> to the November inquiry. (Afterpay is Block\u2019s pay-later service.)<\/p>\n Another concern for lenders: competition. Credit reporting agencies sell lenders\u2019 customer data to other lenders. By reporting their consumer data, pay-later lenders risk having rivals poach their best customers, Benedict Guttman-Kenney, an assistant professor of finance at Rice University, told DealBook.<\/p>\n Ensuring that credit scoring fairly classifies pay-later loans is a \u201ctechnical problem\u201d that\u2019s solvable, Guttman-Kenney said. Persuading lenders to share their data \u201cis a more fundamental problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben & Jerry\u2019s co-founder takes on Magnum <\/p>\n Ben Cohen no longer runs the company that bears his name, but he isn\u2019t willing to walk away from it.<\/p>\n The 75-year-old is waging a campaign to \u201cFree Ben & Jerry\u2019s\u201d from its owner \u2014 the Magnum Ice Cream Company, which was spun out of Unilever last year \u2014 after Magnum removed members of its independent board and clamped down on the company\u2019s political activism.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re turning up the heat,\u201d Cohen told Niko Gallogly.<\/p>\n What\u2019s next: NorthStar Asset Management, an activist investment firm aligned with Cohen, plans to press Magnum\u2019s management tomorrow at the company\u2019s annual shareholder meeting. Its concerns include the board removals and a desire for greater clarity on Ben & Jerry\u2019s stand-alone financial performance.<\/p>\n Cohen said he would call for a boycott of Magnum products if the company did not agree to sell Ben & Jerry\u2019s to an investor group that Cohen said would offer a fair price.<\/p>\n The history: Cohen and Jerry Greenfield started Ben & Jerry\u2019s in 1978, took it public in 1984, and sold it to Unilever in 2000. The sale arranged for Ben & Jerry\u2019s to maintain an independent board, partly to protect its corporate activism.<\/p>\n Years later that arrangement began to break down:<\/p>\n In 2022, Ben & Jerry\u2019s sued Unilever<\/a> when it sold the distribution rights for the brand in Israel to a local firm after Ben & Jerry\u2019s said it would stop selling ice cream in Israeli-occupied territories.<\/p>\n In 2024, Ben & Jerry\u2019s sued Unilever<\/a> in a New York federal court, claiming its leadership had tried to censor its social activism on Gaza and Palestinians.<\/p>\n Also in 2024, Unilever announced that it would spin off its ice cream brands, including Ben & Jerry\u2019s. And it has removed Dave Stever<\/a>, Ben & Jerry\u2019s C.E.O., and members of the independent board.<\/p>\n Last week, Ben & Jerry\u2019s sought, among other things, a permanent injunction to reinstate the board members.<\/p>\n Cohen is trying something highly unusual.\u201cI can\u2019t think of any similar cases,\u201d Farzad Mukhi, a managing director at the M.&A. advisory firm Kroll, told DealBook.<\/p>\n An outspoken economist joins the creator economy <\/p>\n Justin Wolfers was a well-known economist before President Trump returned to the White House last year. But Wolfers, a University of Michigan professor with a strong Australian accent and talent for one-liners, has become a regular on cable-TV known for his crisp, and often withering, assessments of Trump\u2019s trade policy.<\/p>\n Now he\u2019s joining the creator economy.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Wolfers, 53, announced that he has founded Platypus Economics<\/a>, an independent media start-up that aims to reach a mainstream audience on YouTube, Substack and other platforms, Brian O\u2019Keefe is first to report.<\/p>\n Wolfers is funding the business himself. He\u2019s using income from the highly successful introductory economics textbook he wrote with his life partner, Betsey Stevenson, a professor at Michigan and a member of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration.<\/p>\n Wolfers is teaming up with Initial Digital, the digital media division of the Initial Group, an entertainment company backed by the investment firm TPG.<\/p>\n Formerly called Silver Tribe Media, Initial Digital was acquired by the Initial Group in December. Its client and project list leans heavily toward sports, such as Peyton Manning\u2019s Omaha Productions and the sports-talk maestro Colin Cowherd.<\/p>\n Initial Digital had been looking to diversify its roster. Wolfers joked to DealBook that he was joining the company\u2019s \u201cnerd division.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than give up equity, Wolfers is paying Initial Digital an undisclosed monthly fee plus a cut of ad sales for its services, which include providing creative guidance and optimizing his social channels.<\/p>\n After decades of climbing the academic ladder, Wolfers said he was excited to switch gears. \u201cMy tribe does not like a microphone, and almost no words of serious economic analysis are said in front of a video camera,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But YouTube is where people are today. \u201cSo if what you want to do is teach the world economics, that\u2019s where you have to go,\u201d he added<\/p>\n THE SPEED READ <\/p>\n Deals<\/p>\n Lupa Systems, James Murdoch\u2019s company, is said to be in talks to buy big parts of Vox Media<\/a>, potentially putting the Murdoch scion in the U.S. news business. (NYT)<\/p>\n Sorry, junior bankers: Anthropic introduced artificial intelligence agents to help financial firms<\/a> create pitch decks and more. (Bloomberg)<\/p>\n Politics, policy and regulation<\/p>\n Best of the rest<\/p>\n Ken Griffin of Citadel said his firm would \u201cdouble down\u201d on Miami<\/a> after Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York featured the billionaire\u2019s Central Park penthouse in a video promoting a proposed pied-\u00e0-terre tax. (WSJ)<\/p>\n A market for the future, according to Larry Fink of BlackRock: derivatives tied to computing power<\/a>. (Bloomberg)<\/p>\n