Stellar Recap | Aug 27 - Sep 2
SEP. 3, 2023
👋 Hello there,
Welcome to another edition of the Stellar Recap, a weekly newsletter where I share interesting content you may have missed over the week. This issue features 70 bullets.
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📊 Business, Economics & Personal Finance
France is about to destroy ~80M gal of surplus wine (🔒WP), which will cost $216M, because higher production costs and shrinking demand have made it difficult for French wineries to sell their wine for a profit. The average French citizen currently drinks about 40L of wine per year, compared to 136 L in 1926.
Companies like Adidas, Adobe, IBM, and Salesforce, are “quiet cutting” workers (🔒WSJ), which means they’re reassigning employees as part of corporate restructurings. Reassigments can be a way to fill jobs vital to future plans and/or a way to avoid paying for severance packages or months of unemployment benefits.
Mentions of “retail shrink” (aka missing inventory) during company earnings rose 304% YoY in Q2 (🔒Bloomberg).
Billions of dollars in Covid-relief funds will run out next month and one study estimated that this could lead to the closure of 70K childcare programs in the US that are currently serving 3.2M children.
New business openings on Yelp from Jan. through Jul. 2023 surpassed openings from the same time period last year by ~25%, thanks partly to a surge in travel and social gatherings.
Manufacturing company 3M agreed to a $6B settlement to resolve claims that its earplugs led to hearing damage for US Veterans and service members (🔒Reuters). ~240K plaintiffs are eligible for payouts, making it is the largest single mass tort in US history.
The living wage for single workers is ~$112.4K in Hawaii, the highest in the US. To calculate the living wage, GOBankingRates estimated the min. amount a single person would need to follow the 50/30/20 budget - 50% of income to cover necessities (e.g., housing; utilities), 30% for discretionary spending, and 20% for savings or investments.
X Corp.,previously known as Twitter, is facing 2.2K arbitration cases with ex-employees. The filing fees could cost the company $3.5M alone ($1.6K-$2K/per case). Ex-employees accused X Corp. of failing to pay promised severance packages and delaying their arbitration cases by failing to pay filing fees.
Mastercard and Visa are planning to increase fees that many merchants pay when they accept customers’ credit cards (🔒WSJ). This could amount to an additional $502M annual fees. US merchants paid ~$93B in these fees last year, up from $33B in 2012. I’m sure merchants will pass these costs on to consumers by increasing prices.
According to data from Blind, an anonymous forum for tech employees, Google and Meta pay entry-level software engineers $179K-$184K, which was higher than Amazon ($159K), Apple ($142K), and Microsoft ($141K-$153K).
Finance firm Citadel received 69K applications for its 11-week summer internship (🔒Bloomberg), which pays interns $19K/mo. and houses them in 5-star hotels. Fewer than 1% of applicants were selected.
More than 1 in 10 McFlurry machines at a McDonald’s chain was out of service last week. These $18K machines are copyrighted, so franchise owners have to call a certified technician which costs $1400/hr. If a non-approved handyperson is used, the ice cream machine’s warranty is revoked. Now, 3rd-party repair services are calling in lawmakers to change these copyright laws.
Brazil surpassed the US as the #1 global exporter of corn (🔒Bloomberg). The US was #1 for 50+ yrs.
The Caribbean island Anguilla has made ~$30M so far this year (🔒Bloomberg) because its country-level domain address is .ai. Domain registrations brought in $7.4M in 2021, which was about 2.5% of the country’s GDP.
A new forecast suggests that US wage growth will decline by an annual rate of 3% by 2025. The recent uptick “largely reflects the pass-through of higher inflation and does not reflect labor market imbalances.”
🧘 Health
Half the global population is expected to be nearsighted by 2050 (🔒WSJ) and part of the reason is because children between ages 5-16 are not being exposed to enough sunlight. The International Myopia Institute recommends children spend 80-120 minutes (in at least 15 min. increments) in daylight every day.
A study of gene new therapies for 36 rare and 4 common conditions found that the median time between genetic target discovery and drug approval was 25 years.
The blood thinner Eliquis, made by Bristol Myers Squibb and taken by 3.7M Medicare enrollees, cost Medicare $16.5B between Jun. 2022 and May 2023.
The suicide rate in Uruguay last year (23 per 100K people) was >2.6x the average of all Latin American countries (9 per 100K). To address the mental health crisis, the government is offering free antidepressants and opening 7 “social inclusion” community youth centers.
The EPA is weighing tighter controls over how much manganese can be in drinking water. The US allows concentrations of up to 300 µg/L, compared with 120 µg/L in Canada. The WHO recommends a max of 80 µg/L and the EU sets a limit of 50 µg/L. A 2021 study tested 5K+ public water systems and found manganese levels were above the EPA’s advisory level in 106 of them, with some areas having 6x the allowable level.
A new study found that patients treated by female surgeons have lower rates of adverse postoperative long-term outcomes (w/in 90 days to 1 yr) including death compared to similar patients treated by male surgeons.
ProPublica published data on inspection reports from 90K+ nursing homes in the US.
A new study suggests that children who suffer from allergy-related disorders (e.g., eczema; asthma; hay fever) may have a compromised gut microbiome. Several factors that can shape the infant microbiome include taking antibiotics and not being breast fed.
A ProPublica reporter spoke with 50+ insurance experts, lawyers, patients, physicians, and consumer advocates to try and create a guide for appealing health insurer denials but found an "impossible labyrinth" instead.
A new study found that the Omicron wave was particularly deadly for cancer patients. For example, the death rate was 38% higher for people with lymphoma, while there were 29% fewer deaths in the general population during the winter Omicron period (Jan. 2022) compared to the wild-type period (Jan. 2021).
Trader Joe’s issued its 6th food recall in just 2 mo. This time for its black bean tamales because they may contain milk allergens. Previous recalls included cookies that may contain rocks, metal in its multigrain crackers, and insects in its soup.
Minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures on US men increased 29% from 2000 to 2020 (the rate increased 114% among women over the same period). The most popular enhancement among men was botox, with demand increasing 182% over that same period.
🎓 Lifelong Learning
A showcase of unusual or interesting manuals.
Hurricane storms starting with the letter “I” are the most frequently retired. Of the 13 "I" storms that have been retired over the past 70 yrs, 7 occurred in the last 14 yrs (Ike, Igor, Irene, Ingrid, Irma, Ida, Ian). This is mostly just luck, because if it was related to the time of year, then "H" and "J" storm names should be retired at a high rate too and they're not.
🌴 Lifestyle & Travel
Data from AAA showed that domestic travel bookings for this holiday weekend are 4% higher than last year, while international bookings increased 44%. TSA projected that 14M passengers are flying through US airports this weekend, up 11% over last year. While Fri., was projected to be the busiest day in airports, flight schedules pick back up tomorrow and Tue. If you’re driving tomorrow, the best time to drive is after 7pm to avoid traffic.
The Dept. of Transportation is levying a $4.1M fine on American Airlines for keeping passengers waiting on board airplanes during hours-long delays from 2018-2021. It’s the largest civil penalty that the DoT has ever issued for this type of incident.
Bhutan cut its daily tourist fee of $200/day by half to lure more visitors.
Google Flights announced that the beginning of Oct is projected to be the best time to book a domestic Thanksgiving or mid-Dec. flight this year. For flights from the US to Europe, prices are only expected to increase with time, especially less than 72 days before the travel date.
Barcelona is the #1 best “workcation” city for remote and hybrid workers, according to IWG which compared 26 cities around the world.
Canada issued a travel advisory to the US, warning members of the LGBTQ+ community that some American states have enacted laws that may affect them.
🗳️ Politics, Security & International Affairs
A white man in his 20s fatally shot 3 Black Americans at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, FL, last weekend in what authorities described as a hate-motivated shooting.
In the 1976-2004 elections, presidential nominees routinely tapped into public campaign funds, which is subsidized by a checked box on tax returns for taxpayers opting $3 of their money into the fund. But since 2012, candidates stopped using it since they can raise way more money from rich donors and corporations. Consequently, the fund has grown to $445.6M.
An analysis of 1.1K complaints against 680 books across 62 Florida school districts covering 99% of public school students in the state found that 2 people were responsible for 600 of the complaints. >700 complaints came from 2 counties — Escambia in the western Panhandle and Clay near Jacksonville. Those 2 districts make up less than 3% of the state’s total public school enrollment.
Police arrested the suspect of a shooting that took place at UNC Chapel Hill that left a faculty member dead. The police initially detained the wrong person and media outlets showed coverage that included footage of the innocent person.
Due to rising political tension, China is taking back 3 pandas it loaned to the National Zoo in DC, which cost the zoo ~$1M/yr per panda. China loans at least 70 pandas to zoos around the world.
~1 in 3 US commercial pilots are Veterans and the FAA is investigating ~4.8K those pilots (🔒WP) for potentially falsifying medical documents to hide their VA disability status or to commit disability fraud. 60 pilots have been suspended so far because their disabilities pose “a…danger to aviation safety.”
France’s education minister banned students from wearing abayas, which is a type of full-body Muslim robe. Headscarves have been banned since 2004 in state-run schools.
Trump’s campaign announced that it raised $7.1M within the 2 days that his mugshot was taken in Georgia for his alleged efforts to overturn the state’s election results. A record $4.18M was raised on the first day. They raised ~$20M in the past 3 weeks, which is nearly half the amount raised over the first 7 mo. of Trump’s 2024 candidacy. Trump pleaded not guilty to the allegations, so the trial can and will be televised.
At least 74 people died in a 5-story building fire in Johannesburg, South Africa, last week. More than 50 people were injured. 200 families were affected by the fire in total.
~1 in 5 cars in Bolivia have been illegally smuggled into the country, mostly from Chile, where smugglers drive through the desert border into the landlocked country and sell the vehicles in 1 of 73 easy-to-find illegal markets.
⏩ Pop Culture, Art, Sports & Entertainment
Simone Biles won her 8th US Championship last Sun. At age 26, she is the oldest woman to win a national title since USA Gymnastics began organizing the event in 1963. She also broke the record she shared with Alfred Jochim, who won his 7th all-around gold medal in 1933.
Cameo, the site that lets you pay famous people to make videos, has seen a 137% surge in actor sign-ups since the Hollywood strike began. Actress and SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher is allowing fans to request videos in her distinctive nasal register for $1.5K/video.
Chess.com has agreed to reinstate the account of Hans Moke Niemann (🔒WSJ), without further litigation—meaning he won’t attempt to refile his dismissed federal lawsuit in a state court. Nieman was accused of cheating in over 100 games. Niemann’s $100M defamation lawsuit against Chess.com and other prominent figures in the game for these allegations was dismissed last Jun.
The University of Nebraska set a global record for attendance at a women’s sports event, after packing in ~92K people into the school’s football stadium for a volleyball game. The previous record was set at the 2022 Barcelona-Wolfsburg Champions League soccer match, which drew in 91.65K.
Adam Driver, star of the upcoming biopic Ferrari, said he wasn’t allowed to drive any Ferrarris while making the film. The cast of Ferrari was given a special exemption by the striking SAG-AFTRA union to promote the film in Venice (because it’s being distributed by an indie studio), and Driver used the opportunity to call out Netflix and Amazon for not agreeing to the actors’ contract demands.
The number of TV shows and movies available on streaming services increased by 39% to 2.7M in the last 2 yrs. Viewers may be overwhelmed with choices. New data showed that it takes viewers on average 10 min. to decide what to watch, which is 41% longer than the time it took in 2019.
🏡 Real Estate
The national average price for home insurance based on $250K in dwelling coverage increased this year to $1,428/yr (🔒WSJ), up 20% YoY. ~12% of US homeowners don’t have insurance but financial advisers warn that few people can afford the loss of an uninsured home. It’s particularly precarious due to the high price to rebuild or buy a home in many areas of the country.
Investors have banded together to buy 55K+ acres of land worth ~$800M in Solano County, CA—just a few hours outside of the SF Bay Area—with the intent to build a new city with “tens of thousands of new homes, a large solar energy farm, orchards with >1M new trees, and 10K+ acres of new parks and open space.” Investors include Sequoia Capital Chairman Michael Moritz, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon of a16z, Stripe co-founders Patrick Collison and John Collison, and Emerson Collective founder (and Steve Jobs’s widow), Laurene Powell Jobs.
A homebuyer on a $3K/mo budget can afford a $429K home with a 7.4% mortgage rate. That buyer has lost $71K in purchasing power since Aug. 2022, when they could have bought a $500K home with an average rate of about 5.5%.
A record ~26% of US homebuyers were looking to move to a different part of the country in Jul. Las Vegas topped the list of most popular destinations for Redfin.com users for the 2nd month in a row. followed by Sacramento, Orlando, Tampa, and North-Port Sarasota, respectively.
Several Western US states are considering legislation to restrict foreign ownership of land, particularly agricultural land due to water usage issues that are exacerbating droughts for people who live there. Canada owns the most land with 1.66M acres, followed by the UK which has ~908.6K acres and the Netherlands which owns 571.4K acres.
In 2021, Maine had the greatest share of owner-occupied households at ~80%, while DC had the lowest at ~43%.
The average daily rate for short-term vacation rentals like Airbnbs in major cities in Florida have fallen, except in St. Petersburg.
🌎 Society
K12 students in the SE tend to return to school earlier than the rest of the country (the beginning of Aug.) while their peers in the NE tend to go back the latest (the beginning of Sep.).
A 5-yr-old from Seattle raised $16.5K for wildfire victims in Maui.
~7.3M US students have disabilities, which accounts for ~15% of all public school enrollment.
The share of Americans who say the ideal family consists of 2 children slipped to 51.7% in 2022 (🔒WSJ) from 62% in 1998. On average, people ideally want 2.5 children, which is up slightly from the 1990s but relatively unchanged over 50 yrs. This is lower than the US birth rate, suggesting something is preventing people from achieving their ideal family size (or people tend to change their mind or they’re stating a commonly reported number w/o really thinking about it or they think the question is about what other people want and not necessarily about themselves - ~10%+ do not personally intend to have children, which is not captured by these surveys).
A new study estimated that just 12% of Americans are responsible for consuming half of all the beef in America on a given day.
Most US adults sympathize with the union workers in the most recent labor disputes (i.e., UAW; SAG-AFTA).
The total fertility rate in South Korea slumped to 0.78 last year (🔒WSJ) from 0.81 in 2021. TFR is the expected number of children that a woman will have over her lifetime. A TFR this low indicates many women are going childless. S Korea has the lowest TFR in the world.
🧪 Science, Climate, Environment & Technology
Hurricane Idalia hit Florida’s Big Bend region as a Cat 3 storm last Wed. The storm rapidly intensified, going from a Cat 1 hurricane at 5am ET Tue. to a Cat 4 storm 24 hrs late. No storm of this magnitude has made a direct hit in this area since at least 1898. There was one confirmed death in Gainesville. The storm knocked out electricity for 453K+ people across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina on Wed. afternoon.
OpenAI said that employees from >80% of Fortune 500 companies use ChatGPT, which has prompted the company to launch an enterprise version.
An interactive map of the number of days since a US city broke a heat record.
A new study found that 80% of emperor penguin colonies at 5 large sites in the Antarctic (covering ~10K breeding pairs) experienced total breeding failure after the sea ice broke up before the start of the fledging period during the 2022 breeding sesason. It’s the 1st recorded incident of widespread breeding failure among the species. The discovery supports predictions that >90% of emperor penguin colonies will be quasi-extinct by the end of the century.
The Takahē – a large, flightless bird once thought extinct – was spotted in New Zealand for the first time ~100 yrs.
As of Aug. 26, ~330K hectares of forest have been burned in wildfires across Spain, France, Italy, and Greece this year. The total burned area is >1.7x the average level between 2006-2022.
Health authorities in Paris fumigated area for the first time to kill disease-carrying tiger mosquitoes, which have spread into parts of northern Europe due to climate change.
A new paper by the IMF found that “Climate vulnerability and underlying fragilities — namely conflict, heavy dependence on rainfed agriculture, and weak capacity and policy buffers — exacerbate each other, amplifying the negative impact on people and economies.” These nations suffer more severe and "persistent" GDP losses from climate shocks than other countries (🔒Reuters), partly due to agricultural vulnerabilities.
A new study suggests that ~99% of our hominin ancestors were wiped out ~930K yrs ago (🔒Science) based on DNA mutation rates applied to genetic data. The study suggests that the unknown human-like species was reduced to just ~1.3K breeding pairs.
Wishing you a good week
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