Anne Barry
Appearances
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Which, by the way, the last time PayPal shared a rev number for Venmo was in 2021, and that was $900 million. PayPal has struggled to define itself in recent years and saw their market cap dwindle by 80% while it faced competition from the likes of Zelle, Apple Pay and Cash App.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
But now the company is saying that Venmo will move forward from peer-to-peer transactions to, quote, becoming the go-to money movement app with features like gig economy pay deposited into accounts. marketing a debit card for in-store purchases, and encouraging stores to use Pay with Venmo.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Now, Toby, I mean, this was a lot to take in, but what were your biggest takeaways from these PayPal announcements?
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
It's actually really interesting that there was a much bigger strategy that extended beyond Venmo. I actually went and I downloaded the 224 page investor presentation last night and I went through it. And the thing that was so captivating to me was the sheer size of opportunity that PayPal has completely failed to tap until now. So let me give you some of these numbers. I'm a data nerd.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
The offline payments market. still, right, is apparently a $200 billion opportunity of which PayPal in total has less than 1% share. The ads and commerce and credit revenue market is an $800 billion opportunity of which it has less than 1% share. So this investor presentation talked a huge amount about, for example, I got both a PayPal account and a Venmo account.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
I don't know if you've got both, Toby.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
They want you to be able to see both in the same place. And then you can customize and personalize and they'll push a bunch of ads to you and they'll tell you what subscriptions you've got. So this vision for a one stop shop was bigger. And I actually thought pretty interesting.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Including, by the way, going deeper into buy now, pay later. If you think about it, and to your point, the business opportunity is big. They're in about 20 million small and medium-sized businesses worldwide. Right now, a total of 430 million consumer and merchant accounts. Number one, the amount of data. Can you imagine the amount of data that these guys have had?
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
They've been around for a long time.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Even more so. Well, just one last note on that. Interestingly, the share price ticked down a little bit after it popped up and then came back down. So we're not sure if the market's buying it. We'll have to keep watching that share price.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
It's a lot like going on a road trip. Yes, your GPS tells you where to go, but it also saves you boatloads of time by helping you avoid wrong turns. Same with LinkedIn ads.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
You know, the thing that sprung to mind as you were speaking, Toby, was taxes, which seems a bit of a non sequitur, but I'll explain why I mean by that. The kinds of people who can afford to drop five million bucks on a visa are typically the kinds of people who want to go live in Monaco and not pay any taxes.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
So I do wonder a little bit about what this means for the overall package to try and attract these folks. I'm not completely sold that the national debt is going to be wiped out with this.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Moving on, Toby, let's talk about Home Depot, which is back on the winning side as it snaps its losing streak of eight straight quarters of declines with a 0.8%, just a little bit of growth last quarter. Now, many look at Home Depot as an indicator of how consumers feel about spending on housing more broadly and on financing big ticket purchases.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
High interest rates, of course, have dampened folks' ability to buy new homes and homeowners are reluctant to move when they've got a nice low mortgage that they locked in during the height of the pandemic. But this is a welcome positive sign for the home improvement industry. So, Toby...
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Given how upbeat Home Depot was in its forecast for 2025, are we going to see you now running on out there doing a little bit of a birthday purchase of a new apartment for yourself?
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
If I saw an ad for industrial equipment, for example, that wouldn't make much sense.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Historically, people would spend money when they were moving. I wonder if this is a sign people are saying, oh, rates are going to be staying high forever. We're not moving. I may as well renovate what I got.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
That's right, Toby. What a lot of them are pointing to is they're just not really clear what the legal landscape is. They're trying... whether they should or not. They're trying to stay away from the sort of ethical debate around this. And they're saying the legal landscape is what we're trying to figure out.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Luckily, LinkedIn ads make it so I'd actually never have to, Toby. I would never get targeted with something that doesn't match my industry or role.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Costco, by the way, also its shareholders rejected, has voted against a proposal to water down its DE&I initiative. So look, I think this is going to continue to be mixed. We'll have to see again what this legal language turns out to be.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Yeah. And I think people were really upset about it. And this feels like a good outcome. Do you remember, it also actually paved the way for a whole different debate around Uber drivers. The whole gig economy feels like it's still in flux. So this is one data point. I'm sure it'll keep changing.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Great show today. Toby, see you all tomorrow. Bye.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Yeah, this is an interesting one, Toby. And I thought about this. Basically, it feels as though the US is getting the Ukraine to set up what's essentially a sovereign wealth fund, except one in which the US owns, quote, the maximum financial interest allowed under American law. We don't know how much that is actually going to be. But I was listening to you.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
And one of the key things that struck me was the line that you had in there, which is there are no security guarantees. The US is not saying we're going to come to the Ukraine's rescue if something happens again. And I just wanted to flag something that happened on Monday, actually. The U.S.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
actually joined Russia to vote against the United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning, that would have condemned Russia's war against the Ukraine and said Russia is the aggressor. The U.S. did not join that, which was a really, really pivotal moment the day before this deal got signed. So the security situation here still, to me, remains in flux.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
And Party City, the party's over why all its doors are shutting down.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Yeah, and let's talk about what those rare earth minerals actually are. We're talking about graphite and we're talking about lithium, both of them really important for use in electric vehicle production. And we're also talking about titanium, which is the very lightweight metal used in the construction of things like planes and power stations.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
So when you bring it all together, you know, these are really highly sought after, particularly in the shift towards alternative technologies. So to your point, whether this is a play about China, whether it's a play about just meeting increasing demand, fascinating. For our next story, totally different note, Toby.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Party City, the one-stop celebration shop for everything from balloons to piñatas to Halloween costumes, is shutting its doors for good. Now, the company has filed for bankruptcy twice in the last two years, once in 2023 and then again this past December.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
And at the end of 2024, they finally made the call to close down all 800 of their locations for good, with their last day of operations being this Friday, February 28th. Now, as the party giant closes its doors, retailers like Five Below and Dollar Tree are eyeing up their real estate, looking to get major discounts. Party City isn't the only one.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Joanne Fabrics is another company closing all of its doors after filing for bankruptcy again in January, the second time within a year, with the retailer citing slowing consumer demand and struggles with inventory. Now, Toby, some are calling it a retail apocalypse, a little bit like an asteroid, for example, hitting the retail sector with the losses of the storefront.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
So Toby, before we start, the asteroid that was supposed to hit Earth in 2032 is absolutely not a threat anymore. Astronomers have said do not be concerned about the, quote, city killer flying space rock that was spotted in December and previously projected to have a 3% chance of hitting us.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
But what exactly is going on here? Why is this happening? Why is it happening now?
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
It's really interesting, Toby, as you talk about that. Do you remember everyone was talking about what's going to happen with physical stores? Are they just going to go away? Is this why malls feel like they're on the decline, right? So the fact that anyone is turning up and saying, I want to take over these locations, I found that sort of interesting.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
But after further observation, experts say we are no longer at risk, which basically means, Toby, we're going to have to sit through the release of yet another fast and furious movie. Are you so grateful that this has happened?
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Still need to keep looking out for this, Toby. It feels like Joanne's stores and Party City is not where it's going to end. Bloomberg reported that Forever 21 is rumored to file for bankruptcy next month. We saw the container store go under. It's since emerged. And we know that True Value Hardware also filed for bankruptcy.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Billabong and Quicksilver stores apparently now rumored to be thinking about disappearing. So, one, we've got to keep watching the graveyard of retail stores.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
It has been, but let's talk about this conflict of interest piece of it and how that could really influence how this issue is being solved. The FAA does in fact have a contract with Verizon that is designed to upgrade its information technology. So what's a little unclear to me at the moment, is this Dalek swooping in and displacing Verizon? Is this a new contract? Unclear.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
But this is what everyone feared, Toby, that Elon would get under the hood, would poke around, would see perhaps what the margins, what the pricing is on these and go and usurp some of these providers. Again, unclear that's happening here, but the optics of this are, I think, quite difficult.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
This news about Starlink and the FAA is coming hot off the back of news about the Delta plane flipping in Toronto, a near miss of a Southwest Airlines plane at Chicago Midway. Just this week, we had this terrible tragedy of the fatal crash of a military helicopter and a regional jet, as you mentioned, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Nobody wants conflict of interest.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Nobody wants an unelected institution sort of going around and looking at what's happening in terms of government spend. But nobody wants these tragedies happening either. And this to me is the essence of the conundrum that is Elon Musk and what's going on right now. And it's just really difficult to talk about.
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
Toby, something happened yesterday for the first time in four years. Can you guess what it was?
Morning Brew Daily
RIP Party City & FAA Gets a Starlink Makeover?
I still can't do that. I still can't do that. That's really big news. And you've completely overshadowed what I was going to say. It was, no, PayPal had an investor day, which I know was going to be your second guess. It was a pretty big deal, Toby. The company is in the midst of a turnaround with new leadership, and it shared a vision to get Venmo on track to $2 billion in revenue by 2027.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Welcome to Winners of the Weekend, the segment where Toby and I share two stories highlighting people or companies that had almost as good of a weekend as Neil hopefully is while on vacation. But before we do that, there's a winner of the day, and that is Toby. Hey, Toby, it's your birthday. Happy, happy birthday.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
What are you going to do to celebrate?
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
All right, we're going to bring in cake for you every week because it's going to be the week of Toby's birthday. For our first winner, though, let's talk now about the winner of Germany's election. That's Friedrich Merz, the centre-right conservative candidate. His alliance won. That was expected. And they did clock in with about 29% of the vote.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
In second place was the far-right alternative for Germany with about 20%. Now, this election is going to have a large impact potentially on Germany's economy, which has been struggling for the last five few years. Soaring energy prices have impacted manufacturing since Russia invaded the Ukraine back in 2022.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
And that coupled with the rising cost of living, increasing migration and green energy regulations have caused public and businesses to pause, leading to the call for reforms in the policies that Friedrich Merz and his party have run on.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Of course, I was actually just in London, back in my hometown, and I did see a KFC, which is a delicious place, but a long way from Kentucky, Toby.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Now, one of the first items the new government will address is the country's debt break, which is a rule enacted in 2009 that actually limits government borrowing by controlling the budget deficit to cap it at 0.35% of the country's gross GDP, massively below other places like the US, for example.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Now, the winner, Friedrich Merz, prefers to retain the debt break and wants to instead reduce social benefits and downsize government employment, also supporting tax cuts and social spending. So, Toby, Germany's economy is certainly in a precarious situation right now. As reading over the weekend, it's technically been in recession for the last two years.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
So we're going to have to see how these new policies will impact their standing as a country and on the global stage. But when you saw this news here, what was your first reaction?
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
If you're not careful, your B2B ads can wind up in front of some truly bizarre people, and that means mistakes like accidentally serving ads for, quote, cloud servers to servers at Nando's.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
It's a very similar policy to what we're hearing in other places. And when I was looking at these results come in, one thing that really struck me is I wonder if there is another winner here. And is that other winner Elon Musk? Do you remember this election? He was going all in on AFD, which came in at number two.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Is this just another example of where the omnipresent Elon can really move mountains?
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
I feel like this is a reaction to the NFL where everyone seems to have a beard right now.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
I know. And Taylor Swift, right? Taylor Swift's boyfriend is all about the beard.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
No more spraying and praying and no more Americanized three-piece tender combos near Piccadilly. If you're interested in testing out LinkedIn ads, LinkedIn will give you $100 credit on your next campaign. Just go to LinkedIn.com slash MBD. That's LinkedIn.com slash MBD. Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads.
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Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
It's all about the mojo, whatever gets people on and off the field.
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Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
This is going to be a big one. Have you got your NVIDIA watch party attendance lined up?
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Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
shake the market even if we're not you know lining up at bars to do a watch party these days well before deep seek do you remember everyone was talking about nvidia sort of going all in on quantum computing i'm really curious to see this go around do they double down on that narrative and say look don't worry about what's going on with the regular chips let's see what's going on quantum because not everyone bought that so we'll see how that changes
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
I thought the treading on eggshells thing was a reference to avian flu and the egg shortage. Was that intentional?
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Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
I caught it. Are you impressed that I caught it?
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Oh, you know, I think it's an open field. I don't. I think Conan's going to do great. Jimmy Kimmel's not hosting this year, which I was sad to see. He's done a good job.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
see any of the other nominees but it's it's one of these things where i'm really curious to see how the streamers do right that they have absolutely swept the board the other one i'm watching is a24 which seems to have won like every award for every movie it's done over the last couple of years so sort of looking at those two there you have it that is all the time we have for today and thanks again for jumping on and excited for a great week of shows ahead let's roll these credits emily milliron is our executive producer raymond liu is our producer
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Great show today, Toby, and we'll see each other tomorrow.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
So much going on. This is straight out of the Elon playbook. He did this over at X. It was then called Twitter. He drop shipped in and said, this is now happening. He's done this at Tesla. He's done that at the rest of his companies. I don't think he knows any different. And it's really difficult because it's been a successful strategy elsewhere.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
And I'm Anne Barry.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
The big body of folks I'm waiting to hear from, Toby, I'd love to know what you think about this, is actually the unions. If you think about this, this is a completely different shift in anything that the federal government has ever seen before. And the unions who are, in theory, supposed to be representing unions you know, this body of workers.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
It'll be very interesting to see what they have to say, not just in terms of legal advice, not just in terms of the interpretation of what's going on, not just in terms of what the agencies are saying, but what the unions actually advise people to do. I think it's going to be really critical here.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
And the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, with Berkshire Hathaway's annual newsletter out, letting us answer the question, what would Warren do?
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Let's talk about Berkshire Hathaway. So for our next story, Warren Buffett shared his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway investors on Saturday and shared that the holding company's earnings saw an incredible 71% surge in Q4 and that their cash stockpile grew to a record-breaking $334 billion. The reason? Well, it was the insurance part of their portfolio, mostly Geico, that saw a large rebound.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Insurance underwriting had a 302% jump from the year earlier to $3.4 billion. Berkshire also did warn that the Southern California wildfires will lead to an estimated pre-tax loss of about $1.3 billion. That's hitting 2025 numbers, though not next year.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Berkshire Hathaway Toby is known to hold on to large amounts of cash for flexibility in future investments, but that current number of $334 billion is raising some eyebrows. In his letter, Warren Buffett said, despite what some commentators currently view as an extraordinary cash position at Berkshire, the great majority of your money remains in equities.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Buffett went on to say, shareholders can rest assured that we will forever deploy a substantial majority of their money in equities. Buffett also touted Berkshire's record $26.8 billion tax payment and told the government to, quote, spend it wisely. The surge in earnings reflects the strength of Berkshire's core businesses rebounding.
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Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Well, the cash pile certainly gives them that flexibility for a big move. Toby, there was a lot in that Oracle of Omaha's annual letter. I've got it printed out in front of me, actually, because there was so much to go through.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
And he actually said, look, we've got less cash than we've got public equities. And don't forget the other thing about Berkshire Hathaway is they own 100% of businesses too. Those are basically privately held businesses. You can't go buy in the stock market.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
A couple of things that really struck me here, Toby, did you see that line in the shareholder letter saying 53% of our investments, our companies had earnings down? And actually, I went back and looked at exactly how they broke it out. But for their insurance investments and frankly, their energy, they would have been down.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
The other warning he gave to Uncle Sam is we need a stable currency. He specifically called out just make sure that there is a sort of steady Eddie temperament in government and we need a stable currency to be able to succeed. And I thought that was so interesting, Toby, in the context of one of the biggest takeaways for me from this letter.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Warren Buffett went out of his way to say we are investing in Japan.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
See that?
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Well, I'm breaking down the market news for Morning Brew at a franchise called Brew Markets. You'll find us on Instagram, on X, on YouTube right now. And also we have a fabulous daily newsletter coming out at the end of day. Also hosting After Earnings, which is our conversations with CEOs and CFOs at your favorite public companies. So keeping really busy.
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Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
Huge shakeup. And I've got to tell you, everyone I speak to at the moment, Toby, seems to be using a GLP-1 from every age group, from every demographic. And I just, I think I've almost not really realised the ubiquity of this. So the fact that the affordable version, the accessible version is likely, is actually going to go away.
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Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
I think it's got enormous repercussions, not just for the people using it, but also let's take a little bit of a look at what's been going on with other businesses impacted, like the snack industry. Everyone was talking about how the snack industry is going to be changed by GLP-1. I don't know how that's going to change.
Morning Brew Daily
Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
I think it's a bit of a cautionary tale, too. By the way, HIMS and HERS are out. I think their earnings are out today. So we're really going to find out what their plan B is. And sort of on that point, the big learning for me is there are actually a lot of companies and industry subsectors that have hitched their wagon to GLP-1s.
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Federal Staffers Must Justify Jobs or Be Fired? & Ozempic Shortage is Over
And the question I ask is, have they taken the lesson from Berkshire Hathaway and diversified? What else they got going on? So I just think this one is really going to shake up the sector.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
If you're going to play the odds, Toby, you've got to live with the consequences. One thing that also broke, Bloomberg News reporting last week that Mr. Beast might be moving from creating content to actually trying to buy a content distribution channel. He was rumored to be participating in a bid to buy TikTok.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
Wouldn't be the first business titan to go buy a media platform. Speaking of which, let's move on to our dog of the week, which is Tesla. It has been a tough one for the EV carmaker. Over the past week, Tesla has faced several challenges that's impacted its stock performance and public perception, which has sort of become related.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
The stocks declined about 28% year-to-date and neared a three-month low of just over $280. Now, there is concern from investors over CEO Elon Musk's political involvement, particularly his leadership role in the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, under the Trump administration.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
So investors have been concerned not only about the time he is spending not running Tesla, but also that this association has led to increased scrutiny. And it has polarized consumer opinions with a morning consult survey indicating that 49% of Americans now hold negative views of Musk.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
Additionally, Tesla is facing intensified competition in the Chinese electric vehicle market and has introduced a refreshed Model Y SUV, despite which Tesla stock has declined because there have been concerns about falling sales in Europe and other markets. All these factors have contributed to that decline in Tesla stock price. down nearly 40% from its December peak.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
By the way, wiping almost $137 billion from Elon Musk's own wealth. So, Toby, when you listen to all of this, and there is a lot going on, where next for Tesla?
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
Not clear yet, actually, what's going to happen with EV and public policy, because we've had these subsidies for folks to be able to go and buy electric vehicles. Europe actually cut those, which was one of the drivers for why sales fell over there. Don't know if the same thing would happen here. You'd think there'd be some sort of reflection of that.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
I'm so excited for this. I saw this. I was so excited, first of all, to see all those ladies in space. Women in STEM love it. But also, when you look at this lineup, Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, I am dying to know what their astronaut suits look like. I want to know who's designing the space costumes for this all-star lineup.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
They're going to be listening to Morning Brew Daily as they get launched on up there. Moving on now, let's talk about Target and Warby Parker, Toby, teaming up to bring some trendy new shades to the retailer. The partnership will feature five shopping shops in stores located in Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Ohio.
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Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
I was just going to say, B2B advertising is kind of like trying to find your friend in a crowd of a music festival. Sure, you can just yell their name into the void, hoping they hear you, or you could text them and actually track them down.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
By integrating Warby Parker's expertise, Target aims to enhance its eyewear offerings and attract new customers seeking quality and convenience. Warby Parker, otherwise the e-commerce play, stock was up 6% at one point yesterday. Toby, do you need some new glasses? Because I know a spot or I can lend you my Warby Parker.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
Not the first general merchandiser to try to get a niche player to have a shop and shop inside them. You know, Sephora launched in Coles. That was to try to get beauty enthusiasts to go into the struggling general merchandising brand. Interesting to me, Toby, is a lot of these stores have tried to get services, you know, not just products.
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Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
And Warby Parker does have a sort of service element to it, which I thought was sort of an interesting part of this proposition.
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Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
You know, it's interesting. There are a lot of headlines that came out. Japan fell to a record low last year. And I actually wanted to go and find out where the U.S. ranked for fertility. Of all places, I found it on the CIA's website. U.S. ranked 133 for the fertility rate last year. South Korea at number 226, 226. And the lowest was Taiwan.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
And without LinkedIn ads, your B2B campaign is confused, too. You're basically shouting into the abyss, hoping the right person stumbles across your ad.
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Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
Moving on to our last story of our Friday, Toby, I hope you've got the popcorn ready because the 97th Academy Awards are approaching this weekend with the Oscar race, one of the more unpredictable ones in recent memory. The Best Picture category includes movies like Enora, Conclave and The Substance, vying for top honours.
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Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
The Best Actress race, pretty thrilling, close battle between Demi Moore for The Substance and Mickey Madison for Enora. Now, Conan O'Brien will be hosting the show for the first time. Toby was not available. to bring his comedic touch to the ceremony, which has made some adjustments in light of recent challenges, including, of course, the wildfires in Los Angeles.
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Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
Now, many nominated films are already available on streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu, which means we can watch them in advance. And the show is set to air on Sunday night on ABC, which is definitely hoping for a ratings rebound. So, Toby, if you're not hosting, are you watching and who do you want to win?
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
But if your name is Todd, or if you're interested in better B2B targeting, consider testing out LinkedIn ad. LinkedIn will give you $100 credit on your next campaign. Just go to LinkedIn.com slash MBD. That's LinkedIn.com slash MBD. Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
I'm really looking to see how Conan O'Brien carries himself. Jimmy Kimmel's been nailing this for the last couple of years, so a little bit of a fresh talent.
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Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
Great show today, Toby. Have a great weekend all and everyone will see you back here on Monday.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
And also at a moment when we're getting a ton of economic data, you sort of touched on it, Toby, and we think about the domino effect here. You've got tariffs that impacts inflation, inflation that impacts interest rates, interest rates that impacts consumer confidence, consumer confidence also impacted by the labour market, all of that impacting the housing market. And guess what?
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
And I'm Anne Barry.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
Data on all of those coming out over the next week.
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Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
And Jeopardy, the 50-year-old TV show, does it still have the heat?
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
And to your point, the clarity, Toby, you said nebulous, which really captures a specific piece of this tariff conversation as well. It turns out China is going to have an additional 10% tariff. We had a tariffs on Chinese imports kick in already. Now another 10% coming also on that March 4th date.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
And it was interesting, you sort of saw in the markets yesterday, people going, hey, wait, there's more. So that sentiment piece really important. The inflation expectations coming out, let's just touch on that a little bit more. It got a little bit hotter, the key inflation metrics, the beginning of this year than people thought. And do you remember, Toby, the news breaking that
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
expectations were changing, that interest rates maybe weren't going to come down as quickly this year as expected, making it harder for people to buy new homes.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
There's one area that does not yet have clarity on tariffs exactly, and that is Europe. President Trump has come out saying he's planning to hit goods made in the European Union with tariffs of 25%. Unclear whether we're going to hear that as soon maybe as in the next couple of days, but it feels like something's coming. It's just a matter of how much and when.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
Good morning. It's Friday. You made it. And I encourage you all to start getting those neck muscles loose this morning because tonight you should be looking skyward. A rare celestial event is on display as all seven planets in our solar system, apart from Earth, will be visible. So Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, all visible tonight in what is called a planetary parade.
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Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
We'll keep watching, seeing how it all comes together. For our next story, Toby, what is streaming? Two of the most popular shows on TV, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, are shopping around their rights for their next big streaming deal, and they are including major media companies and tech businesses. So why would Netflix or Hulu possibly be a suitable home for both?
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
Well, it could be a way to access a younger audience. We have seen other traditionally broadcast television programs make their way to streamers, for example, WWE Raw on Netflix and Thursday Night Football on Amazon.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
Now, streaming rights for Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune would begin in September, and it could be up to three years as part of that deal, according to Sony, which owns both of these shows. The company that takes home the rights could air the episodes the day after they originally air on syndicated television, and then from September of 2028, they could have the same day rights to new shows. Toby,
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
It all sort of begs the question, how much will, whether it's the streamers or someone else, pay for this? So I went back and took a look. Netflix paid $5 billion for the rights for WWE Raw. And that debuted on Netflix at just under 5 million viewers. So to your point, just under 5 million viewers compared to 7 million for the game shows, $5 billion for Raw.
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Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
We don't know yet how much this is going to end up getting paid for, but big numbers, big numbers.
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Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
Toby, if someone wanted to see all the members of our solar system strutting their stuff, how should they go about doing that?
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
All right, I've just learned how you play quiz games right there. There's just so much insight into how Toby plays games. These are such national treasures, as you've talked about it, really part of the American culture. I'm from Britain originally, and I love watching Jeopardy. Love it. And Wheel of Fortune, too. It's something I've really embraced. I do wonder...
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
Jeopardy had a really long serving host, Alex Trebek, from 1984 to 2020. So lots of people will have grown up with him having hosted. And since then, there have been the sort of two co-hosts. I wonder for the streamers if they have to do something differently.
Morning Brew Daily
Is the World Ready for Trump Tariffs? & MrBeast Raises Funds After ‘Beast Games’
You know, not the first person in the celebrity world to do this. Do you remember Jessica Alba with Honest? We had George Clooney with Casamigos, Ryan Reynolds, Aviation Gin. And then, of course, the OG of influencers, the Kardashians, right, with their Empire Skims, Kylie Cosmetics, Good American. So this has been done before, but not, I don't think, at numbers this big right out of the gate.