The New Rich are into Sneakers & Butter Chicken 🥘

This Week in Review☕️: "Reality Show": World reacts to Trump-Biden debate | NYC dominates the food scene | People are over Zoom calls | Cars and Watches over Stocks and bonds | Flip-Flops popularity |

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Quick Bites:

Politics 🌍 : 'A Reality Show': World reacts to Biden-Trump debate.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump had a face-off in a high-stakes debate in Atlanta last week, their 1st showdown of the 2024 election cycle.

Overall:

💡Biden: presented himself as old, weak and destructed (Give him one of those Starbucks lemonades maybe)

💡Trump: told one lie after another (Pathological lying is NO joke guys. One former President was so brain damaged that he thought he won an election in 2020 that he lost by 7 MILLION votes 🤯)

Long story short💡: Just because you may think Alfred is too old to take care of the Batcave, you don't replace him with the Joker 👋

PS. We can’t believe that in a country of 300 million people, these two are the best candidates to run the country. Somebody check the back. America is DOOMED chile 🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨

International reaction to debate, reported by BBC:

💡Russia: calls Biden 'a total failure', he fails to appear in 'proper physical shape' and appears to have 'frightened his voters'

💡China: brands it 'a reality show'. Trump was “frequently mangling his sentences” and Biden “often makes verbal slip-ups”

💡India: highlighted a "shaky" performance by Biden and "aggression" by Trump in their coverage of the debate

💡Israel: Mr Biden looked “weak” and "Trump is now seen as a candidate whose victory in the presidential elections is almost certain"

Our Thoughts💡: We're not surprised tbh. We can barely put together a sentence by 9 pm 😴

So we're WILDY keen to see how two scornful stressed-out elderly citizens will continue to do so in the upcoming debates 👴

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Food 🍛 : Indian restaurants are Wall Street's new hotspots, Bloomberg Pursuits reports.

As of this year, New York is leading London in the quality Indian food department.

Umm..wearing white underwear after eating Butter chicken? We too like to live dangerously 😈

PS. If there is a new pandemic on the horizon, put the vaccine in pav and the whole of Mumbai will be vaccinated before noon 👇🏻

The new joints making rounds in New York are "Semma", "Masalawala & Sons", "Bungalow" and "Kanyakumari."

Meanwhile, London is still being dominated by the old-timers like Dishoom, Gymkhanna, Trisna and Tamarind.

There is a reason for New York dominating the Indian food scene in comparison to other major cities:

💡New York is known for its diverse and global culinary scene

💡NYC is home to a large and diverse population, including a significant number of Indian immigrants

💡Spices like turmeric and ginger, which have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, appeals to health-conscious consumers

💡For many New Yorkers, especially those with South Asian heritage, Indian food provides a sense of comfort and nostalgia

Our Thoughts: Personally, we feel bad for people who have gone through their entire life without eating Gulab Jamun 🤤

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Work Culture 💻 : What does it mean if you're zoning out of a Zoom meeting?

According to Harvard Business Review, new research shows that participants who turn their cameras off during Zoom are more likely to leave their employer.

Based on 40 million meetings in 2022 and 2023, analytics firm Vyopta found that workers who left their jobs within a year had their cameras on just 18% of the time.

Guys, we're gonna be honest. The 10 minutes before a Zoom call are the effing WORST 😭

You gotta reread the instructions, recheck your schedule 30 times to make sure you have the right start time, panic about logging on too soon and then have an awkward laugh with the 1-3 other people there too 😬😬😬

Key Highlights, according to Harvard Business Review:

💻The share of workers who mute themselves for entire meetings climbed to 7.2% last year, from 4.8% in 2022

💡The numbers of virtual meetings attended weekly dropped

💡Participation has also dropped, including turning the camera off as people are getting Zoom fatigue

Our Thoughts💡: We were just on a Zoom call that ended automagically after 40 minutes because the host was on a free tier. This is the single greatest advancement to meeting productivity in history we have ever seen. Would pay $$$ for this extra feature 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Meanwhile, our iPhone notifications be like:

💡Landlord: Your rent is 3 months overdue
💡CNN: Hurricane kills 100 and uproots families
💡Chipotle: Guac rocks!
💡BOSS: YOU HAVE AN HOUR-LONG ZOOM MEETING IN 3 MINUTES

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Wealth 💰 : The new rich are choosing sneakers and cars over stocks and bonds, Bloomberg reports.

With nearly three-quarters of the wealthy younger generation saying stocks alone can’t deliver above-average returns, many are gravitating towards alternative investments.

They say luck happens when preparation meets opportunity. Wrong. Getting lucky snapping up the latest Nike kicks happens when you use the right cookies, a powerful sneaker bot and the eye of a HAWK 👁️

Fire up that credit card guys 💰

Almost 94% of Gen Z and Millennial investors are interested in investing in collectible items such as rare watches and cars, according to a new survey by Bank of America.

Investors under 44 have also found to have high-risk tolerance across strategies. Gen Z is also favor of crypto-heavy portfolios, Bloomberg.

Key Highlights: 

💡Limited-edition Collaborations: Brands like Nike and Adidas release limited-edition shoes and collaborate with celebrities and designers. These limited runs create high demand and resale value

💡Sneaker Culture: The rise of sneaker culture has turned certain shoes into status symbols 

💡Influence of Social Media: Social media influencers and celebrities often showcase limited-edition products, increasing their perceived value

💡Appreciation Over Time: This is especially true for vintage and exotic cars

💡Cultural Significance: Clothing, automobiles and wines that have a significant cultural or historical background (e.g., featured in movies, owned by celebrities) can gain substantial value

💡Passion Investments: Many people have a passion for these materialistic items and are willing to invest significant sums for the enjoyment of owning them

Our Thoughts💡: Umm we're all for this obsession..

But our wife just spent $130 on Birkenstocks to look like she attended the Last Supper 🙄🙄🙄

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Fashion🩴: The return of the Flip-Flop. 

"Havainas", the famous Brazilian brand that’s made $20 rubber flip-flops for over 60 years, gets a massive upgrade as it collaborates with Italian luxury label Dolce & Gabbana, Business of Fashion reports.

The collection features basic Havaianas’ flip-flops done in Dolce's classic prints, including leopard, zebra and bright florals.

Umm ladies, please for the love of god, do NOT wear flip-flops if your feet look like you could swoop out of the sky and snatch up your dinner from a lake.

THANKS 🙏🏻

Key Highlights, reported by BoF:

💡Havainas x Dolce & Gabbana are priced at $138; over 6 times higher than a standard pair of the flip flops

💡Being sold at luxury retailers like Selfridges and Galeries Lafayette in Paris, as well as online on both brands’ websites

💡The brand, which saw its Q1 profits increase nearly 9% this year, is doubling down to attract more customers

💡D&G is its 3rd collaboration this year. It's 1st one was Brazilian-born fashion label "FarmRio" in March and lifestyle label "Maison Kitsune" in April.

Love it or hate it, there's definitely a market for "comfy". The more basic and rubbery the shoe, the more we want em'.. especially in the summer!

We no longer need to hide our Havainas for alone time or lounging in our backyard! Ugly is BACK with a bang 🩴🩴🙄

PS. According to our company policy, flip flops are totally acceptable as part of our Work-from-Home attire 💯

The flip-flop’s current popularity is also a factor of social media and how platforms like TikTok dominate the conversation, BoF reports.

With trends like “mob wife” and “coastal grandmother” going viral, influencers are bringing back leopard prints and influencing buying decisions.

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Quicker Bites:

• Boeing to buy Spirit Airlines in $4.7 billion deal.

• First Lady Jill Biden is on the cover of American Vogue this month.

• Meta accused of breaking EU law with its ‘Pay or Consent’ model.

• ‘Hurricane Beryl’ devastates Grenada.

• Supreme Court favors Trump; says he has some immunity in Jan 6 case.

• China’s young people are ‘revenge saving’.

• Alarmingly high E. Coli levels discovered in River Thames in London.

• Drug prices have risen almost 40% over the last decade, CNBC.

• Macron set to lose big in upcoming French elections.

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