Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Biden cancels more debt

US President Joe Biden announced that more than 150,000 student loan borrowers will have their debt forgiven under a program aimed at providing relief for Americans who had been making their payments for at least a decade and borrowed less than $12,000. The move, worth a total of $1.2 billion, will benefit those enrolled in the government’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan. Other income-driven repayment plans also forgive balances, but only after 20 or 25 years of repayment. The latest round pushes the total relief approved by the Biden administration to nearly $138 billion, benefiting 3.9 million borrowers. That number could grow as more people become eligible for forgiveness under the SAVE program, which has 6.9 million people enrolled. Yet the efforts fall short of Biden’s proposal for more sweeping student loan cancellation—as much as $20,000 in relief per borrower—that was struck down last year in a 6-3 decision by the US Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed supermajority. That plan was estimated to cost $400 billion. Biden on Wednesday vowed he would “pursue alternative paths for student debt relief for as many borrowers as possible.” —Natasha Solo-Lyons

Nvidia surged in late trading after delivering another eye-popping sales forecast, adding fresh momentum to a stock rally that already made it the world’s most valuable chipmaker. Revenue in the current period will be about $24 billion, the company said. Analysts had predicted $21.9 billion on average. The outlook extends a streak of Nvidia shattering expectations, thanks to insatiable demand for its artificial intelligence accelerators—highly prized chips that crunch data for AI models.

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin said recent economic data highlighted how price pressures in some sectors are still too high, despite improvement in the overall inflation picture. Government data released last week showed consumer prices for goods declined in January, but that was more than offset by rising prices for shelter and services, Barkin said.

As Russia’s war on Ukraine enters a third year, Vladimir Putin’s forces have shifted to the offensive and captured the eastern city of Avdiivka after months of fighting. In a conflict where momentum has ebbed and flowed, the mood is now noticeably darker in Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy changed his military leadership amid disputes over conscription of new soldiers and battlefield strategy. His troops are running low on ammunition and weapons as political infighting in Western capitals—especially in the US—holds up deliveries and aid.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

In the private equity world, limited partners have relied on a metric known as internal rate of return—a measure of gains on future cash flows—to determine whether to back an investment. That standard worked when cash was cheap. Now, investors are zeroing in on a different yardstick. So-called distributed to paid-in capital—the ratio of cash generated to what’s invested—has overtaken IRR as the most critical metric for investors. It’s been gaining traction in the aftermath of higher borrowing costs and a dearth of deals, which hindered the ability of buyout shops to exit investments and return money to investors. 

Company terminations increasingly targeting remote workers are changing the calculus on working from home. Since the pandemic, many professional workers have had leverage in the battle over office attendance, as the flexibility to skip commutes for more sleep or time with family took hold. But a cooling white-collar labor market is having a chilling effect as companies increasingly scale back WFH options.

The IRS is bringing the hammer down on the ultra-wealthy’s abuse of tax breaks on the use of corporate jets. The agency will begin three to four dozen new audits this spring to parse through situations where inappropriate deductions were made and where personal travel by jet wasn’t logged as income. While the cost of using a corporate aircraft is generally deductible for business purposes, some have blurred the lines between business and personal travel to get more in tax savings. 

Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers rose to a record Wednesday as the company said it’s optimistic about its prospects for a key selling season. Since mid-January, “we have seen a meaningful uptick in demand that has continued through this past weekend,” Chief Executive Officer Doug Yearley said in an earnings call. The builder lifted its outlook for home deliveries in its fiscal year. 

The Toll Brothers Twin Oaks housing community in San Ramon, California Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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• London’s iconic BT Tower in $347 million sale to MCR Hotels.
• Bloomberg Opinion: Don’t declare the death of the Yale model just yet.
• Notre Dame’s tiny namesake shows the plight of religious colleges.
• Car washes are taking over the US. Here’s why.

Imagine it’s 2030 and you’re heading to the airport to catch a flight. At the curb, you hop onto a Segway-like scooter that will serve as your personal airport vehicle. It scans data from your phone to determine your gate number and glides in and out of massive elevator banks—no escalators—to move between check-in and security floors. Along the way, a machine scans your face to verify your identity and directs you to an individual security tunnel where you self-screen your luggage. Within six years, architecture firm Gensler says it will install such a prototype at a major North American airport, including all of these features. Some wild stuff is coming even sooner. Here’s some more on five innovations you’ll be seeing before the year is over.

A rendering of the new terminal slated to open at Pittsburgh International Airport in 2025. Source: Gensler and HDR in association with Luis Vidal + Architects

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