A Red Wine Shortage & Salad for dinner 🥦
This Week in Review: Tariffs and Inflation rock the economy | A Red wine shortage coming up | Gen Z admits to binging Netflix | OpenAI locks in highest-ever funding led by Softbank | Fitness brands
Quick Bites:
Trade 🌍 : President Donald Trump has threatened to place a 200% tariff on all wine and spirits coming from the EU.
Trump's threat came after the European Union announced 50% tariffs on American whiskey
Speaking of.. If we even have 1 glass we text everyone we've ever made eye contact w that we miss them, so we take particular offense to the fact that all of our exes were alcoholics w liver damage who get blackout snozzled every night and we never hear from them????? 🤬
PS. A 100% valid reason for drinking wine for breakfast: There are fewer calories in a glass of Chardonnay than there are in a banana. FACTS
"This cycle of tit-for-tat retaliation must end now!"
-said spiritsEurope, an industry trade group.
In France, sales were already slumping, while major producers in Italy- which sends roughly a quarter of its wine exports to the US- have seen American shipments freeze.
American restaurateurs are also preparing themselves for the potential impact.
Key Highlights, reported by Reuters:
-The EU's proposed tariff was unveiled as a response to the Trump administration’s tariffs on steel and aluminium
-Italy, France and Spain are among the top 5 exporters of wine to the United States
-Alcohol is shaping up to be a key friction point in the brewing trade war
-Many of the EU's proposed countermeasures, (worth $28.31 billion), would apply to products with little more than symbolic value, such as toothpaste and bathrobes.
-But the proposed 50% duty on US whiskey would be a significant hit for the industry, which has seen exports grow steadily since the US lifted tariffs Trump imposed during his 2017-2021 term in office.
-The S&P 500 ended 10% below last month's record high
-Canada has also announced countermeasures to Trump's metals tariffs and has taken the dispute to the World Trade Organization
-However, talks between US and Canada failed to reach a breakthrough
-Trump said his alcohol tariffs would help domestic producers. But US importers said it would lead to lost sales, layoffs and shuttered businesses
Our Thoughts💡: Meanwhile, us to our mom tonight:
We're eating salad for dinner. Well, it's fruit salad. Actually, it's mostly grapes. Ok, its all grapes. Fermented grapes. Fine, it's wine. We've got wine for dinner.
PS. It's National Sangria Day soon, or as we like to call it Tuesday 🍷
Entertainment 📺 : Gen Z admits to TV binging during work.
Many Gen Z employees stream TV shows and movies while working from home and often lie to their bosses about it, Axios reports.
Umm working from home is like telecommuting to hell but hey, atleast you can enjoy TV show reruns while doing it
💡Netflix: You want to watch a 10-hour movie on a Monday afternoon?
💡Us: No, absolutely not. We're working from home, are you insane?
💡Netflix: What if we break it up into hour-long episodes and you watch them all in one sitting? 💡Us: You son of a b*tch, now you sound reasonable. We're IN
Key Highlights, reported by Axios:
-84% of younger remote workers engage in this habit, according to the survey
-48% admitted to lying to their managers about it
-52% say they don't want to return to the office because they'll miss streaming during the workday
-54% use streaming as background noise for other daily tasks, including work
-Viewers are spending more on streaming and paid TV subscriptions combined in a month ($129) than they are on clothes ($109)
-73% say they prefer to watch original content over franchises/remakes
More streaming behaviors:
When people need a mental break, they are most likely to reach for streaming (59%), followed by listening to music (50%) and scrolling social media (38%).
Our Thoughts💡: We know working from home can be isolating so we've come up with a new favorite thing to do with our work colleagues each morning:
Everyone has to share a boring fact about themselves (way too much pressure to share an interesting fact).
Today we shared that we don't like mayo on sandwiches. One colleague puts both socks on before putting on shoes. Another eats a pound of turkey each day.
Wild times.
Fitness 💪 : Fitness brand 'Lululemon' shares tumble due to stiff competition and already-weak consumer confidence.
The company claimed that consumers were spending less due to increased concerns about inflation and the economy.
No sh*t Lululemon, Nike, Adidas etc are struggling..
The new Rich Fitness Girl Starter Pack:
Can't wait to get her IV drips at the farmers market, a Green Juice from Pressed and an Iced Oat Milk Latte from Starbucks. Cipriani for when she feels fancy.
Dress code is Alo Yoga with Birkenstocks and The Row Marlo Tote bag
PS. She THRIVES on her Hot Pilates membership
"We started this year with several compelling new product launches, but we also believe the dynamic macro environment has contributed to a more cautious consumer"
-CEO Calvin McDonald said during a post-earnings call this past Thursday.
"Lululemon has felt some impact from the rising competition in the industry"
The luxury athleisure brand faces intense competition from brands like Hoka and Alo Yoga which have become a viral sensation globally.
Celebrity influencers like Hailey Bieber, Kylie Jenner and Bella Hadid, who might be in the US but have massive global reach, have played a key roles in growing Alo's popularity across the world.
AI 🤖: OpenAI has closed a record-breaking $40 billion funding round.
This is the "most ever raised by a private technology company."
At this point, OpenAI’s funding rounds are like iOS updates- one drops every other week and no one knows what actually changed📱🤖
Key Highlights, reported by CNBC:
-The valuation puts OpenAI just behind SpaceX at $350 billion and even with TikTok parent ByteDance among the world’s most richly valued private companies
-The funding was led by SoftBank Group
-The round boosts the ChatGPT maker's valuation to $300 billion
-The funding was led by Japan’s Softbank, and is joined by a syndicate of other backers, including core investor Microsoft
-Other investors include Coatue, Altimeter and Thrive
-OpenAI will initially receive $10 billion and the remaining $30 billion by the end of 2025
-However, funding may be reduced by up to $10 billion if the AI developer fails to convert to a for-profit entity by December 31
-The generative AI market is predicted to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade
Umm this point, ChatGPT might be our only friend who replies and is pre-seed funded
Our Thoughts💡:
Meanwhile, we been making coffee at home instead of getting Starbucks the past two months which according to economists should've ATLEAST made us millionaires by now so can someone tell us wtf is going on ???????🤯🤯🤯
PS. Being an adult is realizing that $100 is little money to have, but a lot to owe
Quicker Bites:
Gold surges to record high, topping $3,100, as investors flock to the precious metal as a safe haven.
Myanmar earthquake survivors without food, shelter as death toll climbs.
SpaceX to launch its 1st crewed space mission over the North and South Poles.
Not getting enough deep sleep raises your risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Trump accuses Zelensky of backing out of proposed minerals deal.
Trump says reciprocal tariffs will impact all countries.