What You Need To Know For July 18th

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Former President Trump did a very telling interview with Bloomberg: Several economic topics were covered in this sit-down:

• Jerome Powell won’t have much time left should Trump take the Oval Office again. Trump said he would let Powell, whose term ends in May 2026, “serve it out if I thought he was doing the right thing”. Of course, Trump cant “fire” a Fed Chair - he has to wait for the Chair’s term to end and then can nominate a replacement. Trump also warned Powell to “not lower rates before the election”, clearly wanting all the rate cuts for himself…

• Meanwhile, Trump is no longer against banning TikTok, noting that it’s important for companies like Meta to have competition

• Trump is also evaluating lowering the corporate tax rate to as low as 15%

• Trump also made a comment wondering whether the U.S. should defend Taiwan from a potential China invasion

Did you know that J.D. Vance was a Venture Capitalist? The Republican VP candidate spent most of the late 2010s as a VC. He was a Principal at Peter Thiel’s firm Mithril Capital from 2016-2017, later joining investment firm Revolution in 2017, and then co-founding Narya Capital in 2019 with $93 million in backing from Thiel, Eric Schmidt (former CEO of Google), and Marc Andreessen of a16z. Venture Capitalists all across X (who have probably met him like once) celebrated Vance’s nomination with glee.

The Golden Age of Private Credit continues: Blue Owl is continuing to beef up their private credit offering by acquiring $10 Billion AUM peer Atalaya for $450 million ($350 million equity, $100mm cash). There’s an option for an additional $350mm earnout depending on performance. With Blue Owl on an acquisition hot streak lately, it shows that the “Golden Age” in Private Credit may be about consolidation.

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