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Good morning,

Cookie Monster is getting into this year’s hottest economic debate. Shrinkflation is when companies reduce the quantity of their product to cut costs, but hit consumers with the same prices—which President Biden addressed in his Super Bowl slot.

• The White House reacted to the Cookie Monster post above, responding, “C is for consumers getting ripped off.”

• Cookie Monster’s solution to Shrinkflation: “Guess me going to have to eat double da cookies!”

Ok, he might not be an economist, but now 🍪 me want a cookie!

Mosheh, Jill, & Lauren

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🗳 TRUMP SOLIDIFIES LEAD & OTHER SUPER TUESDAY TAKEAWAYS

Former President Donald Trump nearly made a clean sweep yesterday with wins in at least 12 states on Super Tuesday—the primary day with the most delegates up for grabs. Nikki Haley blocked him from total domination, with a victory in Vermont. It was her second overall win after beating Trump in the DC primary over the weekend. Reality Check: VT accounted for only 17 of the 850 delegates up for grabs Tuesday.

President Biden dominated all the Democratic state races, but previously unknown candidate Jason Palmer, an entrepreneur based in Baltimore, beat him in the caucuses in the U.S. territory of American Samoa, where a total of 91 votes were cast. (Palmer 51-Biden 40)

Also notable, several states saw a slightly more significant “uncommitted” vote than in past years in the Democratic primary. After 13% of Michigan Democrats voted that way last week, we saw nearly 20% of Minnesotans and 12% of North Carolina voters cast an “uncommitted” vote. It is one way for Democrats to register discontent with the president.

Bottom Line: American Samoa, Vermont and uncommitted votes aside, Super Tuesday results further solidified that we are set for a repeat of 2020: Biden vs. Trump. Both men will officially win enough delegates to lock in the nominations within the next two weeks. Though, it appears both have some work to do to motivate more voters in their parties to show up for them in November.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR TRUMP
Trump ignored Haley in his remarks last night, instead focusing on criticizing Biden, and calling for GOP “unity” in the race to defeat him. His takeover of the Republican National Committee takes place this month, opening more funds for his campaign. It is not clear what Haley does next, though she has now made history as the first woman GOP candidate to win a primary.

RACES TO NOTE
There were more than just presidential politics on the primary ballots across the nation.

• CA Senate: Rep. Adam Schiff (D) and Steve Garvey (R) were the top two vote-getters in a very large primary race, meaning they will face off in the fall. Given how blue the state is, it is pretty certain that Schiff will win former Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D) seat.

• TX Senate: Voters decided Rep. Colin Allred (a congressman, lawyer and former football player) will compete for the Democrats against Sen. Ted Cruz (R) in November.

  • Last election, Cruz beat Beto O’Rourke by 3 percentage points for reelection. Allred is more moderate than Beto, and the party has high hopes he can unseat Cruz in the fall.

• NC Governor: Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Democratic North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein won their parties’ nomination.

  • The race is expected to be close between the two. No matter who wins, it will be a historic race with either the first Jewish or Black leader of the state.

🤳 META GLOBAL SOCIAL MEDIA OUTAGE

Many of us got an unplanned social media detox yesterday as Meta’s social media apps were down for a couple of hours, impacting users around the world

REFRESH, REFRESH
Starting around 10 am ET, and lasting for about two hours, users reported outages on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, didn’t seem to be as impacted.

• Users in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Mexico were among those who reported issues.

• The company has around 3.2 billion daily active users across its platforms—nearly ½ the population on planet Earth.

Coming on Super Tuesday, US officials said, “We are not aware of any specific election nexus or any specific malicious cyber activity.”

• The cause is still not clear. A Meta spokesperson said (on X), “Earlier today, a technical issue caused people to have difficulty accessing some of our services. We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”

WHY OUTAGES HAPPEN
While there are real fears of cyber-threats, sometimes outages happen because of technical glitches.

• AT&T blamed their outage last week on a coding error, saying the “outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack.”

• Back in 2021, Meta had a six hour outage caused by initial networking issues.

💳 WHITE HOUSE CAPS CREDIT CARD LATE FEES AT $8

The Biden administration finalized a new rule yesterday to cap all credit card late fees at $8, about a quarter of the average late fee of $32 per month. The move, which was first announced last year, has sparked criticism from the banking industry.

GOING AFTER THE BIG GUY
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) estimates that 45 million people in the US have faced late fees. Under this new policy, which is set to take effect June 1, Americans will see an average savings of $220 per year.

• The CFPB says the rule closes a loophole allowing banks to charge customers more in fees than the banks' collections costs.

  • Under the 2010 CARD Act, companies could charge no more than $25 for the first late payment, and $35 for subsequent late payments. The amounts have been automatically adjusted for inflation each year, thus ballooning to $30 and $41.

• The new rule: Now, there will be no more automatic annual inflation adjustments, and credit card companies cannot charge more than $8 per month for late fees unless they can prove higher fees justify their collections costs.

It comes as Biden is set to roll out more regulatory actions against “junk fees” and wants voters to see he’s doing something about the US cost of living. He also met with advisers on competition issues yesterday to look at other actions to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, groceries, and housing.

• 📢 We will likely hear about this new rule and other cost-cutting measures in his State of the Union tomorrow.

BANKS NOT HAPPY
Credit card late fees accounted for over $14 billion in revenue annually for “a handful of large banks.”

• What we can expect next: Banks to sue the CFPB. Banking lobbying groups said these lower fees will penalize paying customers.

  • Less cash-back perks: Last May, the lobbying groups warned that the policy would limit the perks offered by credit card companies to cardholders.

  • Interest rates: Companies might also raise interest rates, from which they profit, potentially negatively impacting those who pay on time but carry a balance.

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⏳ SPEED READ

🚨NATION

📌 Tensions flare in trial for father of Michigan school shooter (DETROIT FREE PRESS)

📌 San Diego man is first to be charged with smuggling greenhouse gasses (CBS NEWS)

📌 New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez hit with new obstruction of justice charges in bribery case (NBC NEWS)

📌 Rise in teachers quitting as Texas takes over Houston schools (GUARDIAN)

📌 Explosive fire at site used by vape suppliers kills 1 outside Detroit, sends debris a mile away (AP)

🌎 AROUND THE WORLD

📌 Gangs in Haiti try to seize control of main airport as thousands escape prisons: "Massacring people indiscriminately" (CBS NEWS)

📌 US says no troops heading to Haiti (GUARDIAN)

📌 President Biden says a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas is “in the hands” of the terror group (MO NEWS)

📌 International court issues arrest warrants for Russian officers over attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure (FOX NEWS)

📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH

📌 Diet drinks may boost risk of dangerous heart condition by 20%, study says (CNN)

📌 Leading US banks to leave ESG group (REUTERS)

📌 Bitcoin prices hit all-time high, soaring to nearly $69,000 (NBC NEWS)

📌 World on brink of fourth mass coral reef bleaching event, NOAA says (REUTERS)

📌 Target launches new paid membership program as company’s sales fell for the first time in 7 years (AP)

🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

📌 Singapore's exclusive deal with Taylor Swift not a hostile act towards neighbours, PM says (REUTERS)

📌 Dartmouth men's basketball team votes to unionize, shaking up college sports (NPR)

📌 Princess of Wales to appear in June for royal ceremony, first confirmed official duty since surgery (AP)

📌 Colin Firth’s wet Mr. Darcy shirt from ‘Pride and Prejudice’ among scores of costumes up for sale (CNN)

Mo News Podcast: A daily conversation about the news that matters.

🗓 ON THIS DAY: MARCH 6

• 1857: The US Supreme Court issued the Dred Scott decision, ruling 7-2 that Scott, a slave, was not an American citizen and therefore could not receive protections from the US government or courts.

  • The ruling was overturned by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution, which abolished slavery and declared all persons born in the US to be American citizens.

• 1912: Oreo sandwich cookies were first introduced by the National Biscuit Co., later becoming the world's top selling cookie.

• 1964: American boxer Cassius Clay took the name Muhammad Ali, which was given to him by the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad.

• 1981: Walter Cronkite is forced to retire by CBS and signs off for the last time as the anchor of the CBS Evening News.

• 1998: ‘The Big Lebowski’ premieres in theaters.

Book Amazing Hotels

The hotel booking platform where every trip helps pay for the next. Safara curates the world's best hotels and rewards you with cashback on every booking. From the former Resy team, backed by Sequoia Capital.

Sign up with this link to get $100 towards your first booking.