Harvard & Boba Tea 🍭
This Week in Review ☕️: Getting into an Ivy League becomes harder | Inflation hits Businesses globally | McDonalds shuts down for the week | Big companies start the firing squad | Elons next project |
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Quick Bites:
Higher Education🗞: An Ivy League education will now cost you $90,000 a year as the cost of tuition rises rapidly at elite US colleges.
That's $4180 per month for TEN years after graduation at 7% interest.
Umm.. NO THANKS 🙏
Truth be told, universities like Harvard have both the fat endowments to face the pushback plus enough preppy high school seniors lining to enter those hallowed halls next year.
Also, 80% would be legacies that can afford to spend the extra bucks. They're probably spending the year managing their family fund, which given the S&P right now, would be crushing it +10% in April itself
Key Highlights, according to Bloomberg:
💡Inflation has been a key factor
💡Yale University, in particular, has jumped $10,000 every four years during the last decade. From $70,000 in 2019, it totaled more than $80,000 by 2022
💡These prices are well above what the average American household earns
💡The costs of running these schools also increased 5.2% last year, the most since the turn of the century
Cost of attendance (including tuition, room, board and fees) at other Ivy League schools:
💡University of Pennsylvania: $84,570
💡Cornell: $84,568
💡Dartmouth: $84,300
Personally, we're most worried about UPenn. Between Philly's obscene crime rate and graduating our brain-dead ex-President, they have a tough road ahead.
Despite half of the students receiving some form of financial aid, the sky-high prices are fueling discussions of what a college ranking obsession is actually worth.
Our Thoughts💡: Parents spend hundreds of thousands of dollars prepping their kids to get into an Ivy.
Meanwhile, our neighbor's kid just got into Harvard after being waitlisted at NYU, Sarah Lawrence, USC and UCLA.
Stop prepping folks. Accept the unknown.
Big Tech💻: Elon Musk wants Twitter to have digital banking, in a step towards his goal to make Twitter worth $250 billion.
He recently announced to employees that he wants the platform to be a financial hub for users to send each other money and gain interest on deposits through an app, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The idea stems from Musk’s first startup, X.com, which eventually became known as PayPal.
From where we sit, to hit a $250bn valuation, Elon will have to generate $10-$20bn in profits every quarter.
Guess the dude's gonna have to make his coffee and avo toast at home 🥑
Background💡: After purchasing Twitter for $44bn last year, Musk had tweeted "Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app"
Musk didn't elaborate further like most of his bizarre tweets, but its clear the Tony Stark wannabe has his eyes on building a multi-purpose app that offers "everything", including banking.
A good example is China's WeChat, which Musk is openly a fan of.
Our Thoughts💡: While there is no super-app in the West yet, a quick look at Elon's endeavors might change your mind:
💡Smokes weed on Youtube publicly and SpaceX gets a $3bn contract to to go the moon for it
💡Space joy rides for the filthy rich
💡Self-driving vehicles
💡Underground trains
💡Owns a James Bond car
💡Amber Heard for an ex
💡A son named X Æ A-XII
💡A daughter named Exa Dark Sideræl
Seems like there's little this man cannot do. Y'all ready for a micro-blogging platform to be your next online bank?
Food x Business🍟: McDonald's shuts offices and prepares layoff notices.
Ok now THIS is scary. When McD shuts down, We know we lowkey McF*cked
One of the world's largest fast-food chains, will temporarily close all its offices in the US this week as it prepares to inform its corporate employees about a fresh round of layoffs, the Wall Street Journal reported today.
It's unclear how many employees will be fired.
Let's be honest, eating McDonald's has become a rite of passage: can't help but pull over for a Double Cheeseburger every time we cross those iconic "M"-shaped arches.
Sure it's not a dollar anymore but at $3- it's a solid bargain for a whole lot of American cheese, ketchup, mayo and meat stuffed in a bun.
Which, tbh, is fantastic news for anyone who loves their quarter pounder but still has an obesity wish
The layoffs are indicative of a bleak economic outlook.
Job cuts are rising as companies face economic uncertainty and soaring inflation. Several tech giants-including Google, Disney and Amazon- have scaled back significantly.
Indians are among those who have been hit the hardest by the mass layoffs in US tech companies.
Hundreds of workers, living in the US on temporary visas, have been left jobless with very little time to find a new one, WSJ reports.
Culture🍵: Taiwanese Bubble Tea is blowing up.
In the last 2 years, bubble tea has surged in popularity around the world. Tapioca pearls- the soft, chewy balls the drink is known for, are now America's top food import from Taiwan, Bloomberg reports.
Analysts estimate the US bubble tea market will hit over $2bn in 10 years.
Y'all so late. We been sipping raspberry bobas in NYC since 2010🍓
Key Highlights:
💡This trend has primarily been fueled by TikTok and Korean entertainment
💡The segment for black tea is expected to have the biggest share of the market, followed by green tea
💡Gen Z is driving the demand for Bubble Tea Milk, as evidenced by South Asia spending $3.7 billion on launching ‘milk tea’ and similar drinks in 2021
💡94% of 20-29 year olds bought boba tea in the last three months, according to a recent survey
💡In 2022, the US imported some $30 million kilograms of tapioca from Taiwan, per Bloomberg
Background💡: Taiwan is a country full of innovation, with a long history of contributing to global food culture.
Here are 3 food-related inventions unknown to many people, but are actually Taiwanese:
💡Instant Noodles: Momofoku Ando, the man credited for inventing Instant Noodles, was actually born in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period.
i.e Instant noodles are NOT Japanese, contrary to popular belief
💡Fried Chicken: Taiwan deserves a special place in the fried chicken hall of fame as it has made the dish a staple dinner item.
Dipped in batter and deep-fried, Taiwanese fried chicken has been translated into Kentucky Fried Chicken, Popcorn chicken and Chicken Milanese in restaurants across the world.
💡Shaved Ice Cream: Shaved ice mountains have become all the rage among those with a sweet tooth. Big blocks of flavored ice that are shaved by a machine into ribbony sheets or a fine snow-like powder.
The traditional Taiwanese version is served with red-bean stuffed tapioca shaved ice.
Quicker Bites:
Indicted Trump arrives in New York for his day in court.
After indictment, Trump campaign raises over $4mn in 24 hours.
Florida Senate passes 6-week abortion ban.
'I'm still alive': Pope Francis leaves hospital after bronchitis treatment.
Former Arkansas Governor. Hutchinson joins 2024 Presidential race.
Bangkok's 'Le Du' wins Best Restaurant in Asia.