Good morning and Shana Tova to all our Jewish readers celebrating Rosh Hashanah tonight. Wishing you a sweet and healthy New Year. 

TAXES

Garden State Governor Prunes Millionaire Incomes

Yesterday’s news out of Trenton had Snooki, Springsteen, and Tony Soprano speed-dialing their accountants: New Jersey officials agreed on a “millionaires tax” as part of the state’s next budget. 

The details: It's a budget plan that would feel at home in Sherwood Forest. New Jerseyans earning over $1 million would be taxed at 10.75% (currently the rate for those earning > $5 million), up from 8.97%. Most of the revenue generated would be funneled into annual rebates of up to $500 for families making less than $150,000.

This is a hard-fought win for Gov. Phil Murphy

He first vowed to raise taxes on the wealthy when he took office three years ago...but ran headlong into opposition, including from within his own party (Democrat).

• What changed? A little heckraiser known as Covid-19. Over 16,000 New Jerseyans have died from the virus, and more than 1.5 million have filed for unemployment benefits since Murphy implemented a lockdown. 

Now NJ leaders are saying middle-class residents have suffered so much from the pandemic, it’s only fair to ask the wealthy to chip in a bit more. 

Zoom out: The pandemic is crippling many state budgets. High unemployment, diminished tax revenues, and battered tourism and oil markets could snatch $200 billion from state purses by June 2021, per the Urban Institute. 

• New Jersey has tried to gin up some cash by taxing financial transactions...to which the NYSE said, “We leave the party the second that guy shows up.” 

And that's exactly the problem, say Republicans and biz leaders 

They argue the steeper tax will send New Jersey’s rich scattering to the four corners of South Beach. “Governor Murphy’s plan to raise taxes is a gift for the Florida economy and a nightmare for New Jersey,” said Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick. 

Bottom line: When the economy goes south, states don't hesitate to raise taxes. At least 10 states raised taxes in the years following the Great Recession to shore up their finances, per the NYT.

SOCIAL MEDIA

The Deal That Keeps on Dealing

For a short-form video app, the TikTok deal is moving about as briskly as a Ken Burns documentary. 

When we last wrote about the political/business/tech saga, Chinese TikTok owner ByteDance had agreed to tap U.S. tech giant Oracle as TikTok’s “trusted tech partner,” but it wasn’t clear whether that would satisfy President Trump’s national security concerns. 

The latest: According to a new term sheet sent by the Treasury Department to ByteDance Wednesday night, U.S. investors, including Oracle and Walmart, will reportedly own at least 60% of TikTok’s U.S. operations. 

• President Trump said this week he wasn’t comfortable with any deal in which ByteDance maintained majority ownership.

One more thing. The company will get a new name—TikTok Global—and go public in about a year, per reports.

The situation is what journalists call “highly fluid,” and could change as soon as you finish breakfast. President Trump is expected to announce a decision imminently. 

PHARMA

Moderna Says You Can Read Its Diary

Pharma company diary = clinical trial protocols. Yesterday, biotech Moderna unveiled the details for how it's running its late-stage Covid-19 vaccine trial. Pharma companies usually keep those in a Gringotts vault so the competition can’t play copycat...but these times are different.

• Moderna said it’s aiming to satisfy 1) researchers who complain about a lack of transparency and 2) the general public, which is getting conflicting reports about vaccine timelines from the country's health officials.  

So when are we getting some of that sweet, sweet genetic material that provokes an immune response? Moderna’s CEO Stephane Bancel said the company will know if its vaccine works in November. 

• Pfizer, which also has a late-stage vaccine in development, is about a month ahead: It expects to have conclusive info on its vaccine by the end of October.
• AstraZeneca’s late-stage trial is on hold in the U.S. after a patient became ill, though it has resumed in the UK.

Bottom line: Moderna also released its blueprints to encourage others to do the same, and it worked. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech unveiled their details yesterday, and AstraZeneca pledged to. 

SPONSORED BY THE MOTLEY FOOL

The Stock Market =/= The Economy

Readers of this newsletter—and people with friends who have Twitter bios like Market Mark and The Fiduciary Bunch—know that the stock market has been on a mostly upward trajectory as of late. 

But, to be frank, why? The economy is having one of its most difficult years of all time with high unemployment, large intervention by the U.S. Federal Reserve, and even diminished corporate profits. 

The answer is simple, and complicated: The stock market is not the economy.

To make sense of all this nonsense, we’ve put together an article with The Motley Fool to understand why this is true—and how you can create an investment strategy that can weather most storms. 

So if you’ve wondered why there’s been so much market boom surrounded by so much doom and gloom, take a read of our article right here. 

CLEAN TECH

Amazon Writes Some Green Checks

If you find yourself thinking, “I’m not ready to lose Miami. What are some cool startups working to tackle climate change?” then keep your eye on the Climate Pledge Fund, Amazon’s $2 billion initiative to invest in companies doing exactly that. Yesterday, the Climate Pledge Fund announced its first five investments: 

1. Redwood Materials was founded in 2017 by Tesla’s former CTO, JB Straubel. It’s a recycling company, but not the kind that wants your used Sprite cans. Redwood is focused on making sure ingredients from e-waste (batteries, computers, power tools, etc.) get pumped back into the supply chain.
2. Rivian is an electric automaker with a special “skateboard” platform. Amazon has ordered 100,000 of its vans to deliver packages starting next year.
3. CarbonCure Technologies developed a technology that allows concrete producers (!) to use recycled carbon dioxide.
4. Pachama verifies the forest carbon captured in carbon capture programs.
5. Turntide Technologies makes ultra-high-efficiency motors that reduce energy use. 

Zoom out: Facing pressure to reduce its massive carbon footprint, Amazon aims to be carbon neutral by 2040.

QUIZ

The Last Quiz of the Summer

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew's Weekly News Quiz has been compared to when a drop of water trickles out of your ear after you've been swimming in the ocean. 

It's that satisfying. Ace the news quiz. 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• New York City delayed its in-person school district reopening again over safety concerns.
• Major U.S. airline execs met with White House officials to ask for more federal aid ahead of impending staffing cuts. 
• Facebook is putting more restrictions on some political debate among employees.
• Healthcare workers account for 14% of coronavirus cases reported to the WHO, the organization said yesterday.
• Former President Barack Obama will release a new memoir in November after the election. It’ll be the first of two volumes published by Penguin Random House.
• Furniture retailer Herman Miller posted earnings as elegant as an oak desk and shares shot up more than 33%.

SPONSORED BY THE MOTLEY FOOL

This investing expert has invested a lot of time researching this stock. Cofounder of The Motley Fool, Tom Gardner, has found a stock he’s so excited about that he’s already recommended it three times. He thinks it has the potential to be one of the biggest business stocks of all time, and his prior investments in Netflix and Nvidia are just two of the reasons why you should probably listen. To get in on this insight, join Motley Fool Stock Advisor today.

BREW'S BETS

Follow Friday:

• Humans: Follow Eric Sin for brand design tips on TikTok and browse the NYT’s Taylor Lorenz’s curated list of top tweeters. 
• Non-humans: Bot Sentinel on Twitter calls out questionable accounts, or you can intentionally follow robot influencers Lil Miquela and Shudu on Instagram. 

Marketing 101: It's the marketing syllabus you've always dreamed of—a Brew-curated list of the best marketing case studies, viral videos, free courses, and more. Perfect for anyone looking to learn more about the industry but would rather skip the boring, outdated articles. Check it out. 

FROM THE CREW

When life gives you lemons...try a different business model.

This spring, the pandemic threw a curveball to small businesses across the U.S. But many business leaders didn't buckle; instead, they took action to overhaul their companies and serve their local communities. We can learn a lot from their stories. 

So we're hosting an event

Join Morning Brew's Samir Sheth and three panelists, Heather Atkinson from Salesforce, Brian Taylor from Harlem Doggie Day Spa, and Sam Eitzen, co-founder and CEO of Snapbar and Keep Your City Smiling, for a conversation on how to successfully pivot a business during a pandemic and a recession.

When is it? Next Thursday at 1pm ET. Register here.

FRIDAY PUZZLE

Think of a common two-word phrase for something you experience in a desert. Rearrange the letters to get a single word for something you should do in the desert as a result.

FRIDAY PUZZLE ANSWER

Dry heat --> hydrate

Thanks for the great puzzle, NPR.