Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 💰 Red/blue tax divide
• 🏆 Oscars viewership down
• 👶 Gaming the fertility lottery

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.88-minute read (1,033 words).

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"Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well."

–Voltaire (1694-1778)

As America has grown more polarized along political lines, so too have the tax codes in both red- and blue-leaning states, especially when it comes to high earners.

Dozens of states have rewritten their income-tax systems in opposite directions over the past several years, with Republicans prioritizing lower rates for high-earners and all residents, while Democrats seek to raise taxes on the highest income brackets.

Let’s break it down

On the blue side of the map, the strategy has been clear: raise taxes on the highest earners to fund services and close budget gaps, especially following recent federal funding cuts.

• Washington’s governor is poised to sign a legislature-approved bill imposing a new 9.9% tax on income over $1 million.
• New York lawmakers, including NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, are pushing for increased taxes on incomes above $1 million, though Gov. Kathy Hochul opposes the move.
• Rhode Island and Colorado are considering new or expanded taxes on top earners.

On the flip side: Among Republican-led states, the focus is different: cut, flatten, or eliminate state income taxes, especially for high earners.

• Mississippi and Oklahoma are on paths to eliminate income taxes entirely.
• South Carolina is aiming to drop its top rate to 1.99%.
• Missouri voters may soon decide whether to phase out income taxes altogether, potentially replacing them with expanded sales taxes.

Overall, 23 mostly GOP-led states have lowered their top income-tax rates since 2021.

The arguments

Republicans are betting that lower taxes will make their state more attractive to prospective newcomers—including high-earning individuals and businesses—in an increasingly mobile economy. They also caution that higher rates carry the risk of losing wealthier, job-creating residents to more attractive states, citing the recent exodus of billionaires and corporations from California and Delaware to tax-friendly states like Texas and Florida.

Meanwhile…Democrats argue that higher taxes don’t need to come at the expense of growth, and can help bolster state economies by paying for strong schools, roads, healthcare, and other essentials. They also point to places like Kansas, where deep tax cuts in the early 2010s led to budget shortfalls and a credit downgrade, as a warning against lower rates.

Big picture: On a federal level, the tax rate for America’s top income bracket stood at 60%+ from the early 1930s through 1981, when it was cut to 50% (and lowered to 38.5% a few years later). Today, the top federal tax rate stands at 37%.

📊 Flash poll: If you were in charge of your state’s tax policy, which of the following would you choose for high-income earners and big corporations?

• Higher tax rates for top earners
• Lower tax rates for top earners
• Try to find a middle ground

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Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

🗣️🤖 S&P 500 executives have said the word “AI” nearly 5,000 times on earnings calls in Q1 2026 alone, ranking above the word “earnings” by 1,250+ mentions.

💥 More than $1 billion has been wagered on Iran strikes and regime change on prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket since the bombing began, per Axios.

🏆 Viewership for this year’s Oscars ceremony fell 9% this year to reach its lowest point since 2022, at 17.9 million viewers.

🏛️ The federal government’s workforce shrank by 10.3% last year—or a net loss of ~238,000 employees—due to significantly higher layoffs (+81%) and lower hiring (-56%) compared to 2024.

🎶💰 Spotify paid out $100,000+ in royalties to 13,800+ artists last year, up ~10% from 2024. That includes 1,500+ artists who received $1+ million, and the 80 top artists who earned $10+ million.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🚕 Uber to invest up to $1.25 billion in EV-maker Rivian as part of deal to deploy up to 50,000 robotaxis through 2031.
• 🪙 Precious and industrial metals fall across the board in trading yesterday, including gold (-6%), silver (-8%), copper (-2%) and palladium (-5.5%).
• 🏦 Federal Reserve proposes loosening capital requirements for big US banks; changes would cumulatively let largest banks hold 2.4% less capital, or ~$20 billion less, on average.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🤖 The late Val Kilmer to appear in upcoming movie As Deep as the Grave using an AI likeness, after his estate approves digital replication; Kilmer was cast five years prior to his 2025 death, but had been too sick to make it to set.
• 🏀 March Madness: The first round tipped off yesterday, as #12 High Point upset #5 Wisconsin and #1 Duke came back late to beat #16 Siena; action continues with 16 games today and eight apiece over the weekend.
• 🎥🧸 Hugely popular Labubu dolls to star in upcoming movie from Sony Pictures, with Wonka and Paddington director Paul King at the helm.

PFAS (Forever Chemicals) can be in clean-tasting water, and studies link PFAS exposure to cancer. Most people assume someone is testing their water, but utilities aren’t testing your tap for PFAS.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• ⚛️ US/Canadian scientist duo receive 2025 Turing Award, aka Nobel Prize of computer science, for their role in establishing foundations of quantum encryption.
• 🐍 Molecule found in pythons that allows them to go months without eating after a massive meal may hold the key to a new class of obesity drugs, research shows.
• 🪐💧 Mars likely experienced multiple phases of water flowing over and shaping its surface, opening the window of opportunity for life to have emerged, new study suggests.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 💥 Iran war: President Trump says he’s “not putting troops anywhere” and defends $200 billion spending request to pay for the war in Iran; Israel pledges to hold off on future strikes targeting Iran’s South Pars gas field at Trump's request.
• 🏛️ Joe Kent, former top US counterterrorism official who resigned this week citing misgivings about the Iran war, has been under FBI investigation for months on suspicion he leaked classified info, per multiple reports.
• ✈️ FAA issues new rule requiring air traffic controllers to use radar to separate airplane and helicopter traffic near major airports; it follows last year’s deadly mid-air collision between a helicopter and jet near Washington, D.C.

👆 Death Valley National Park is kicking off spring with its first superbloom in a decade. One of the hottest places on Earth received record rainfall this winter, creating perfect conditions for wildflowers to explode across Death Valley—though the bloom won’t last long, and is already starting to fade.

🤔 Did you know? Cleopatra lived closer in time to the introduction of the iPhone (2007) than the ancient Egyptian pyramids being built (~2560 B.C.E.), having ruled over Egypt around 30 BCE.

📰 Worth a read: Is AI helping prospective parents game the fertility lottery?

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• Romance costs less than it used to
• Is America headed for a ghost town era?
• The disturbing rise of the ‘Alpine Divorce’

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How well did you pay attention this week? Find out here.

1. A gym charges a $30/month fee plus $4 per class. If you attend 8 classes in a month, how much do you pay in total?
2. You have 3/5 of a pizza left. You eat 2/3 of what remains. How much of the whole pizza did you eat?
3. What’s the square root of 144 plus 5?

👆🦭 Reggae is a 33-year-old harbor seal at the New England Aquarium who's recently gone viral for his obsession with a rubber ducky. 

1. $62
2. 2/5
3. 17

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Disclaimer: *Gemini-branded credit products are issued by WebBank. See Rates & Fees. Some exclusions apply to instant rewards. This is not investment or financial advice. Crypto involves risk including the complete loss of value of the underlying assets. Past performance of crypto does not guarantee future results.