Axios Re:Cap

Affirm, a “buy now pay later” company led by PayPal co-founder and former CEO Max Levchin, went public today at a valuation of nearly $15 billion – and then saw its share price more than double. Dan goes deeper with Levchin to discuss the IPO, the future of fintech and the role of payments processors.

Social media platform Parler is currently offline after being booted from Amazon's cloud hosting service. The move came just days after Parler was also removed from the Apple and Android app stores for allegedly violating terms of service related to violent threats on its platform. Dan digs into what happened at Parler, including the latest news that much of its content and metadata were scraped and publicly posted, with New York Times cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth.

Bitcoin exchange and digital wallet company Bakkt announced plans to go public via a SPAC, in a marriage of two of Wall Street's hottest trends. Dan speaks with new Bakkt CEO Gavin Michael to discuss the company, the deal and if this move will codify cryptocurrencies as part of mainstream American finance.

As the pandemic strengthens, America's labor market weakens, based on the latest monthly jobs report that showed a loss of 140,000 nonfarm payrolls. Dan discusses the numbers, what they really mean and where things could go next with Axios business reporters Courtenay Brown and Felix Salmon.

Much of what happened yesterday on Capitol Hill was not only predictable, but explicitly planned on Internet message boards where the MAGA movement gets the most darkly conspiratorial. Dan digs into what led to yesterday's insurrection and what comes next with NBC News' Ben Collins, who covers online disinformation, and Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights attorney Arusha Gordon, who is leading a lawsuit against the Proud Boys.

America's vaccination rollout is going much slower than expected, with only around 5 million vaccinations to date. Meanwhile, COVID-19 is causing record hospitalizations and deaths, with much of the country's economic and educational engine stuck in neutral. Dan digs into what's gone wrong and what happens next with STAT News senior reporter Helen Branswell.

Congress on Wednesday will be asked to certify state electors, thus setting the stage for Joe Biden's inauguration as the country's 46th president on Jan. 20. But, like so many things in the Trump era, it won't be business as usual, as large groups of House and Senate Republicans say they will object to electors from at least four states. Dan discusses the process and the precedent with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee who will lead her party's response to objections on the Senate floor.

Plus, Atlanta Journal-Constitution political reporter Greg Bluestein joins to discuss Georgia's senate runoff elections.

President Trump and his allies have continued to baselessly rail against Dominion Voting Systems, whose machines will be used tomorrow in the Georgia runoff elections that will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.

Axios Re:Cap speaks with Dominion founder and CEO John Poulos about the controversies, the death threats and the "imminent" lawsuit his company plans to file.

In August, Dan dug into middle class myths and realities with Jim Tankersley, a New York Times economics reporter and author of the book "The Riches of This Land." In many ways, it’s the story of why so many in the middle class were already on the edge before the pandemic began.

2020 was the year special purpose acquisition companies — SPACS — went mainstream. We revisit the rise of SPACs via Dan’s July conversation with Wall Street titan Bill Ackman, who was ahead of his time in 2012 when he used a SPAC to bring Burger King public.