Who's Ganging Up on Big Tech?

Good Tuesday morning. (Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.)

Tech skeptics speak out

From President Trump to Yelp to the owner of a small noodle shop in Harlem, plenty of people have become openly critical of tech giants like Facebook and Google, Jack Nicas and Karen Weise of the NYT report.

? “Obviously there is something going on in terms of monopoly,” President Trump told CNBC yesterday.

? “The dozens of companies who have been quietly venting in Silicon Valley can begin to form a single-file line around the D.O.J.,” said Luther Lowe, the policy chief at Yelp.

? “As a small business, it’s like David versus Goliath,” said Andrew Ding, the owner of the Handpulled Noodle in New York, who is angry about Google ads for delivery services that are placed next to search listings for his restaurant.

The increasing dissent comes as U.S. and European regulators step up scrutiny of potential antitrust violations by tech giants. The F.T.C. is looking at Amazon and Facebook, while the Department of Justice is examining Apple and Google.

Big Tech has its defenders. The WSJ editorial board argues that free offerings from Facebook and Google provide valuable services to consumers that outweigh harm to competitors. And John Thornhill of the FT writes that growing competition among tech giants should ease concerns about monopolies.

But the government looks poised to adopt a “hipster antitrust” policy (yes, that’s a thing, according to the American Bar Association), according to Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president. That’s where the government looks beyond consumer prices to companies’ overall behavior — and lets regulators take more action on potentially harmful behavior.

After Mexico fight, Trump resumes battling China

President Trump argued yesterday that he had won an immigration standoff with Mexico by brandishing the threat of tariffs. Seemingly filled with confidence, he has now returned to his clash with Beijing.

“The China deal’s going to work out,” Mr. Trump told CNBC. “You know why? Because of tariffs.”

Mr. Trump said he was prepared to place 25 percent tariffs on another $300 billion of Chinese goods — and would impose them immediately if he didn’t get to meet with President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit meeting in Japan this month.

As proof he could win, he pointed to the recent settlement with Mexico. “If we didn’t have tariffs, we wouldn’t have made a deal,” he told CNBC. “We got everything we wanted.”

But it isn’t clear that’s the case. Much of what Mexico said it would do had been discussed over the past several months, and the country’s top diplomat denied Mr. Trump’s claim that a secret pact on immigration was in place.

Many remain worried. A top official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce argued yesterday that levies don’t make for good trade policy.

More: Prolonged trade battles could prompt research analysts to cut their corporate earnings forecasts — and that could lead to more market turmoil. And House Democrats still aren’t ready to back the new Nafta pact.

Trump wants the Fed to act like China’s central bank

President Trump again attacked the Fed over interest rates yesterday, lamenting that the U.S. central bank wasn’t subservient to him, as China’s is to President Xi Jinping.

“The head of the Fed in China is President Xi,” Mr. Trump told CNBC yesterday, asserting that “he can do whatever he wants.”

Mr. Trump has been trying to browbeat the Fed into lowering interest rates ever since the central bank raised them last year, and he has called on the Fed to take other actions to stimulate the U.S. economy. He said the bank had been “very destructive.”

He also bemoaned the Fed’s current personnel. Thirteen of the 17 officials deciding the central bank’s policies weren’t picked by him. “They’re not my people,” he told CNBC. (All four governors he nominated voted to raise interest rates last year.)

Jay Powell, the Fed chairman, remains in a tight spot. Given the slowing economy and the uncertainty of Mr. Trump’s trade wars, Mr. Powell and other officials may have no choice but to lower rates. But doing so risks making the Fed look like it bowed to political pressure — which, unlike its Chinese counterpart, it isn’t supposed to do.

More: Though markets expect the Fed to cut rates this year, Goldman Sachs’s chief economist thinks otherwise. And a Morgan Stanley strategist argues that a rate cut this summer may not be enough to stave off a recession.

Europe’s banking watchdog is worried about dirty money

The European Banking Authority has been given a mandate to fight money-laundering scandals across the Continent. But it doesn’t have the tools needed to succeed, its new C.E.O., José Manuel Campa, told the FT.

The E.B.A. was given its remit after the huge Danske Bank scandal. Hundreds of billions of euros of dirty money from Russia is believed to have flowed through the lender.

Yesterday brought another reminder of the problem, as Deutsche Bank acknowledged lapses in its money-laundering checks. (The German bank — already under fire for not doing enough to curb financial crimes — said it did not find any instances of dirty money transactions that occurred because of the faulty screening.)

Mr. Campa said the regulator’s mission was too narrow, focused mostly on collecting data and then handing off to individual countries’ banking authorities. “I don’t think the mandate that the E.B.A. has received is the mandate that will solve that problem,” he told the FT.

Bigger, better steps to fight the scandals require legislation, Mr. Campa argued — and that will be tough to pass. Why? Here’s what Olivier Guersent, a top financial official at the European Commission, said last week: “No one really wants their neighbor to look at what they are cooking in their kitchen.”

Elizabeth Warren’s plan to remake the U.S. economy

The Massachusetts senator has stood out among the 23 Democratic presidential candidates by unveiling reams of policy proposals. Together, her plans would move the American economy in a much more liberal direction, Tom Kaplan and Jim Tankersley of the NYT report.

? “She has called for splintering technology companies, like Amazon, that millions of consumers rely on in their daily lives.”

? “Ms. Warren would seek big tax increases on the wealthiest individuals and corporations, creating a new tax on household assets that exceed $50 million, as well as a new tax on corporate profits.”

? “Ms. Warren called for a $2 trillion federal investment in climate-friendly industries and suggested other steps like more actively managing the value of the dollar.”

? “By pushing out so many proposals so early, Ms. Warren has framed much of the debate in the Democratic primary race, aiding her own rise in the polls.”

? “But Ms. Warren has already drawn criticism from centrists and conservatives who say her plans — many calling for new regulations — would hurt business and the economy, stifle innovation and potentially harm the very workers they were intended to help.”

Are there too many aircraft over New York City?

A fatal helicopter crash in Manhattan yesterday raises the question of whether the city’s skies are too crowded, Patrick McGeehan of the NYT writes.

The helicopter crashed onto the roof of 787 Seventh Avenue, a skyscraper that houses the law firm Sidley Austin and offices for Citigroup and UBS, among others. The pilot, Tim McCormack, was killed.

It was the second helicopter crash in a month, and the latest of several fatal accidents in New York over two decades. Many of those crashes involved sightseeing tours.

Though the number of flights over the city was cut in half in 2016, there’s still plenty of traffic, including helicopter rides to airports by Blade and, soon, Uber.

“The city has to decide if the economic benefits or the ease of travel for people of means is worth the risk,” Adrian Benepe, a former city parks commissioner, told the NYT.

Revolving door

Vice Media has hired Jesse Angelo, the former publisher of the N.Y. Post, as president of global news and entertainment. Josh Tyrangiel, the head of its canceled HBO show, will leave the company.

Barclays has reportedly decided to give Stephen Dainton, its interim head of global markets, the position on a permanent basis.

Uber is reportedly planning to open a financial technology outpost in New York, with a goal of hiring several dozen programmers and product managers.

Hearst named Michael Sebastian, head of Esquire’s digital operations, as editor in chief of its print magazine as well.

The speed read

Deals

? President Trump appeared concerned about the antitrust implications of the proposed merger of United Technologies’ aerospace division and Raytheon, but it isn’t clear whether the Pentagon could block the deal. (Reuters, Bloomberg)

? Salesforce agreed to buy Tableau, a provider of data analytics software, for $15.3 billion. (NYT)

? The chairman of Hudson’s Bay Company, the struggling retailer that owns Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor, has offered $1.3 billion to take the company private. (Reuters)

? Apollo Global Management has agreed to buy the online photo sites Snapfish and Shutterfly, with plans to merge them. (WSJ)

? Readerlink, a book distributor, is reportedly planning a takeover bid for Barnes & Noble that would top the $638 million price agreed with Elliott Management. (WSJ)

? Workhorse, the struggling electric truck maker, raised $25 million from investors — but the company said the money would not be used to buy an idled G.M. plant in Ohio. (NYT)

Politics and policy

? The Energy Department banned its scientists from joining Chinese talent-recruitment programs, a bid to guard against intellectual-property theft. (WSJ)

? A bipartisan group of senators proposed tougher rules for lobbyists working on behalf of foreign governments. (WSJ)

? Nearly 200 U.S. executives signed an open letter defending access to abortion programs, after several states restricted access. (FT)

? Tens of thousands of pictures of travelers and license plates were stolen from Customs and Border Protection in a data breach. (NYT)

Fiat Chrysler-Renault-Nissan

? The collapse of the proposed merger with Renault puts Fiat Chrysler’s C.E.O., Mike Manley, in the hot seat to find a Plan B. (WSJ)

? Nissan’s C.E.O., Hiroto Saikawa, said that he wants to “stabilize and reinforce” his company’s alliance with Renault, despite rising tensions between the two. (FT, NYT)

Tech

? Tesla is struggling to turn around its fortunes after a rocky start to 2019. (NYT)

? YouTube’s C.E.O., Susan Wojcicki, apologized to the L.G.B.T.Q. community for hurt caused by videos with anti-gay slurs — but defended the company’s decision to leave them up. (NBC News)

? Huawei told the British Parliament that it isn’t a national security threat. (NYT)

? Amazon will shut down its food delivery business in the U.S., after ending the service in Britain last year. (GeekWire)

? President Trump said that the Chinese tech scene couldn’t compete with “our geniuses in Silicon Valley that walk around in undershirts.” (Business Insider)

Best of the rest

? Sales of illegal drugs on the dark web are still thriving, years after federal prosecutors took down the Silk Road site. (NYT)

? Risky lending is on the rise again. But this time, it’s not banks that are offering the money. (NYT)

? The opioid maker Insys Therapeutics filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday, days after settling a federal investigation into its marketing. (NYT)

? U.S. corporate cash piles dropped last year to $1.685 trillion, a three-year low, after the Trump tax cuts prompted companies to repatriate funds held overseas. (WSJ)

? Bryan Goldberg has specialized in buying struggling media companies. Resurrecting Gawker will be his biggest challenge yet. (Bloomberg)

Thanks for reading! We’ll see you tomorrow.

You can find live updates throughout the day at nytimes.com/dealbook.

We’d love your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [email protected].