By Walt Hickey

Bobbled

Funko, the company that makes bobbleheads of pop cultural entities both popular and obscure, reported losing $154.1 million in 2023 as the business soured. Overall sales were down from $1.3 billion in 2022 to $1.1 billion in 2023, which is, I will be the first to concede, a lot of money made selling bobbleheads. Though Funko is in decline in the United States, sales were up a bit in Europe. The company puts the blame on one wholesaler in particular, and has been pushing direct-to-consumer sales as the salvation of the company. The percentage of the memorabilia company’s sales that were DTC hit 26 percent as of the fourth quarter of last year.

Milton Griepp, ICv2

Yeezy

Adidas still had €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) worth of Yeezy shoes when it dropped Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, following antisemitic remarks by the artist. This was a bit of a pickle — do they dispose of the shoes? Sell them? Sell them and donate the proceeds? — that they in fact solved by just selling the shoes and donating of a portion of the profits. Well, after two batches of releases last year, the company moved €750 million worth of the sneakers, earning a profit of €300 million, of which €140 million was donated to the Anti-Defamation League and the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change. This year, the company expects to make €250 million in sales of the rest of the Yeezy shoes.

The Associated Press

Direct File

The IRS has launched its Direct File service, a shot across the bow of the colossal tax prep apps that reap billions every tax season preparing tax returns for citizens with pretty vanilla income streams. The U.S. is rare in that it makes taxpayers prepare their own returns rather than the feds simply sending citizens a bill, which means many people who don’t really have all that complicated a situation still need to pay for tax prep. The new Direct File system is under experimentation this year in 12 states, and 19 million taxpayers could be eligible to just do their taxes with the IRS at no cost. The pilot program has already seen 20,000 people participate, and it’s expected that participation will increase to 100,000 filers in the next few weeks.

Adriana Morga and Fatima Hussein, The Associated Press

Vancouver

The Squamish First Nation has reserve land in the heart of Vancouver, and is using its authority over the land to build large, dense, affordable urban housing in a city that has otherwise been highly restrictive when it comes to new construction. Sen̓áḵw is an 11-tower, 6,000-apartment development over 10 acres of land that will allow lots of working people to afford housing in an otherwise pricey and low-vacancy city. Many NIMBYs in the beachfront neighborhood next to the reserve are seething about the development. It’s not even the only one being organized by Indigenous tribes in Vancouver; the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations are planning a 12-tower project on the west side.

Michelle Cyca, Maclean’s

Formula

The FTC has released a report on the 2022 supply disruptions that hit infant formula, and it lays out things that contributed to the issues as well as recommendations for policymakers to ensure it doesn’t happen again. One salient point is the consolidation in the formula industry: In 2021, Abbott controlled 40 percent of the U.S. infant formula market, Mead Johnson controlled 31 percent, Nestlé/Gerber controlled 17 percent and Perrigo controlled 11 percent, with just 1 percent of the market not controlled by the big four. When Abbott had to shut down a plant in Sturgis, Michigan, in early 2022, it sent a shockwave through the business, dropping its share of the market from 40 percent to 27 percent practically overnight. Among suggested solutions is reducing the timeline of regulatory review to bring new formula products to market, as well as creating a new office to specifically oversee infant formula and other critical foods at the FDA.

Federal Trade Commission

Corinth

The harbor of Corinth was the largest port in ancient Greece, and a recent discovery has made the already ancient harbor — believed to have been in operation 2,600 years ago — even older, pushing back evidence of its earliest usage another five centuries. Lead pollution in the port has been dated to as early as 1381 BCE, or 3,405 years ago, which would situate the earliest known evidence of port usage back to the Bronze Age. This shows that the port of Corinth was in use continuously for 2,600 years, from the 13th century BCE through the 13th century CE.

J. Besl, Hakai Magazine

Reforestation

A new study found that efforts to reforest the eastern United States have cooled it down. European settlers had cleared forests that existed for thousands of years, by the early 20th century reducing them to 10 percent of their former size. That land clearing slowed down as we moved away from a timber and farmland economy, and over the course of the 20th century millions of acres of forests returned. The new study estimates that air temperatures on hot days are 1 degree Celsius cooler in reforested areas than in those areas nearby that were not reforested, and that the surface temperature of the tree canopy was reduced by 1 to 2 degrees Celsius.

Jude Coleman, Scientific American

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