Welcome to Axis ProRata, a podcast that takes just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech business and politics.

I'm Dan Pramak. On today's show, Amazon raises its minimum wage and one major way that the 2018 tech boom is like the 2000 tech boom, you know, right before it crashed.

But first, the blue wave. So today we are exactly five weeks away from the midterm elections, and Democrats are feeling the sort of confidence

they haven't felt in the past two years, or more specifically, around 8 p.m. Eastern time on

November 8th, 2016. So they only need 23 seats to flip the House, and they believe

they've got it, as they've largely outraised their GOP rivals, had better primaries turnout,

and have also a pretty sizable advantage in these generic Democrat versus Republican polls.

The Senate map is more challenging, based on the relatively large number of Democratic

incumbents up, particularly in states Trump one, but that could flip two.

And why it all matters is obviously far more than bragging rights and better Capitol Hill offices.

The entirety of President Trump's agenda hangs in the balance on everything from immigration to taxes, to regulation, to judges.

And that doesn't even touch on the

possibility of impeachment, which could threaten Trump's very job. But for his part, Trump continues

to predict a red wave, not a blue one, with Republicans believing that the Kavanaugh fight and

this week's NAFTA win could energize those same hidden voters that swung the balance in 2016.

In 15 seconds, we'll go deeper

on all things midterms with Axios political reporter Alexei McCamond. But first, this.

There is more news out there than ever before, but these days, it's harder than ever to find it

and to know what to trust. Axios AM takes the effort out of getting smart by synthesizing

the 10 stories that will drive the day

and telling you why they matter.

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