My morning LGA-ORD/turkey day reads:
• This Year’s Thanksgiving Surprise: Half of the Guests Are Stoned: What started as a secret trip to smoke pot before dinner has mushroomed into a full-blown commercial holiday. Behold the ‘cousin walk.’ (Wall Street Journal)
• Crypto Crash Ruins Thanksgiving for Retail Traders Once Again Bitcoin enthusiasts are bracing for some awkward questions this holiday season. (Bloomberg)
• What Is Deinfluencing? Unpacking TikTok’s Unlikeliest Shopping Trend: Over this past year, however, more and more people began to think twice before buying what influencers were selling. Just note the hashtag #Deinfluencing, which now has over a billion views on TikTok. The user-led intervention, which sees an army of self-described deinfluencers discouraging their audiences from buying into overhyped stuff, represents a notable departure from the usual calls to “swipe up” and “buy now.” (Vogue)
• AI Slop Recipes Are Taking Over the Internet — And Thanksgiving Dinner: Food bloggers see traffic dip as home cooks turn to AI, inspired by impossible pictures. (Bloomberg free)
• Grim retail sales data fuels concerns about health of US economy: Consumer confidence drops to second-lowest level since pandemic as inflation lingers. (Financial Times) see also Late Car Payments Are Piling Up at Record Levels as More Drivers Face Delinquency: A record share of subprime borrowers are delinquent on car payments, according to new data from Fitch Ratings in a series that dates back to the ’90s. (Money)
• Streamflation intensifies as Netflix, Disney+, and others continue raising prices; Streaming costs keep climbing as platforms chase profit. The economics of streaming are shifting from expansion to monetization. Nearly every major platform – from Netflix to HBO Max and Apple TV – has raised its prices over the past year, marking one of the sharpest rounds of increases since the subscription model upended cable television. (Techspot)
• Brain has five ‘eras’, scientists say – with adult mode not starting until early 30s” Study suggests human brain development has four pivotal ‘turning points’ at around the ages of nine, 32, 66 and 83. (The Guardian)
• They retired from the government. Now they’re back, protecting forests Trump abandoned. Since the start of the year, the Forest Service has lost nearly 6,000 staffers through firings, resignations and retirements encouraged by the Trump administration, according to internal figures obtained by The Washington Post. By summer, some of the agency’s regions were missing three-quarters of their trail and recreation staff — and some forests and districts had none at all. (Washington Post)
• The COVID political backlash disappeared: Turns out the pandemic didn’t break the Democratic Party. (The Argument)
• Hollywood Is Reeling—and These Movies Have Never Been So Popular: The PG rating has become the king of the box office. The entertainment business now relies on kids dragging their parents to theaters. (Wall Street Journal)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Wilhelm Schmid, CEO of famed watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne, the Glashütte, German watchmaker, recorded live at the Audrain Newport Concours d’Elegance.
As Holidays Approach, There’s Little Cheer for Consumers
Source: Bloomberg
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