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Trump considers a huge tax cut for the rich

The president is working out how to bypass Congress in order to give the rich a $100 billion tax break.

How would he do it? By taking inflation into account in calculating capital gains tax liabilities. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary, said that his department was investigating whether it could do that without congressional approval.

More than 97 percent of the benefits of such a change would go to the top 10 percent of income-earners in the U.S., according to independent analyses, and nearly two-thirds to the top 0.1 percent.

Advocates say it would unleash a wave of asset sales, boosting the economy. But the Congressional Research Service said in a July report that on its own, such a proposal probably wouldn’t affect economic growth either way: “The additional debt incurred by indexing capital gains to inflation would most likely offset any stimulus that the smaller tax burden provided to the economy.”

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Today’s DealBook Briefing was written by Andrew Ross Sorkin in New York, and Jamie Condliffe and Amie Tsang in London.

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Les Moonves stays at CBS (for now)

The board of CBS decided to keep its chief executive in place, ending speculation that the sexual misconduct accusations against him would bring immediate consequences. There will be an investigation by an outside law firm.

Edmund Lee of the NYT was surprised:

The lack of action by CBS was striking at a time when some media companies have swiftly removed prominent employees who were accused of misconduct. CBS fired the anchor Charlie Rose a day after allegations were made against him, and NBC acted quickly to fire Matt Lauer of “Today” after he, too, was accused of inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment.

The CBS board is opening itself up to criticism, and many commentators think that Mr. Moonves will ultimately lose his position. At the very least, he has questions to answer. Among them: What was he thinking?

More #MeToo news: High-flying lawyers can reportedly switch jobs with ease after being accused of sexual harassment.

How to fix social media? Lawmakers have ideas

On both sides of the Atlantic, lawmakers are jump-starting policy conversations about privacy, misinformation and big tech companies. The office of Senator Mark Warner of Virginia published a paper suggesting ways to curb the impact of the misuse of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. In Britain, the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee published a similar report.

The suggestions range from forcing tech firms to undergo digital audits, to making them liable for failing to take down illegal or damaging content and fake accounts. Mr. Warner’s office also pushed the idea of America adopting E.U.-style privacy rules.

All this is a long way from law — some of the ideas are technically challenging, others only roughly sketched, and most would take a while to enact. But it is a sign that the outrage expressed in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal is likely to have real policy consequences.

More tech problems: Facebook needs to work out how to target ads with less data. And the so-called FAANG stocks look headed for correction territory.

When fewer players means more competition

Many people feared that letting T-Mobile and Sprint merge would push up prices. After all, it would mean AT&T and Verizon had one fewer competitor. But could the deal actually create more meaningful competition?

As Andrew explains in his latest column, the premise of the merger is that it allows America’s two weakest telcos to build a meaningful 5G network, something neither could do alone. To make good on that investment, they’ll then need to steal customers from AT&T and Verizon — probably by cutting prices.

More from Andrew on how that could play out:

Of course, it is possible that a price war could end with the three companies deciding to “rationalize” their pricing just the way the large airlines have. That is not a trivial issue. But many industries with three strong players — especially an industry that requires significant capital costs — turn out more competitive.

Uber is scrapping its self-driving 18-wheelers

The ride-hailing company will stop developing driverless trucks, and focus on cars. It’s part of a reshuffle in the company’s autonomous vehicle efforts after one of its test cars struck and killed a pedestrian.

Trucks have caused Uber headaches. It got into the business by buying Otto, the start-up that became the center of a trade-secrets fight with Waymo.

But scrapping the project carries risks. Trucks are expected to go driverless commercially before cars: Highway driving is easier to automate, and haulage companies could afford a big upfront investment. So Uber may be putting back the day when it can make money from robotic vehicles.

Revolving door

Troy Carter, head of creative services at Spotify, is leaving the company. (Variety)

Dave Morton, who was Seagate’s C.F.O., has joined Tesla as chief accounting officer. (Bloomberg)

Ralf Brandstätter has been appointed chief operating officer of the VW brand, a new role created after Herbert Diess, the former head of the brand, became Volkswagen’s overall C.E.O. (FT)

The speed read

Deals

■ General Electric is looking to sell parts of its digital unit. (WSJ)

■ SoftBank’s Vision Fund reportedly walked away from talks to invest in Cadre, a real-estate start-up partly owned by Jared Kushner. (Bloomberg)

■ Vivendi hopes to sell half of Universal Music Group. (WSJ)

Politics and policy

■ The Supreme Court has given the Securities and Exchange Commission a difficult choice: Work faster or get Congress to change the law. (NYT)

■ State officials are rushing to prevent blueprints for 3D-printed guns from going online. (NYT)

■ The complexities of Brexit are becoming clearer — and more alarming. (NYT)

■ Paul Manafort’s trial starts today. Russia will be looming over proceedings. (NYT)

Tech

■ Tesla is said to be considering its first big factory in Europe. (WSJ)

■ Samsung’s profits have declined for the first time in seven quarters. (FT)

■ Darpa is spending $1.5 billion to reboot American chip technology. (MIT Technology Review)

■ Robotic hands are teaching themselves how to hold objects — successfully. (NYT)

Best of the rest

■ How companies are passing President Trump’s tariffs on to their customers. (DealBook)

■ The trade war is starting to show up in China’s official statistics. (WSJ)

■ American Express quietly raised foreign-exchange rates to boost its revenues. (WSJ)

■ Do companies hire rainmakers or a firm? A spat at Perella Weinberg Partners highlights the problems that arise when deal makers leave mid-deal. (FT)

■ Why an inverted yield curve might not mean a recession. (WSJ)

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

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