GOVERNMENT

Biden's Next Act

In the most anticipated primetime TV event in...well, four days, President Biden addressed the one-year anniversary of the pandemic.

After lamenting the toll Covid-19 has taken—including nearly 528,000 American lives—Biden said he’s putting the country on “war footing” to get Covid under control. “This is not the time to let up,” he said, calling on Americans to do their part, be safe, and get vaccinated. 

The president expects to hit his goal of 100 million shots in 100 days over a month ahead of schedule, which means one very important update to your calendar: Biden directed states to open eligibility to all adults by May 1.

It was a nightcap to an already historic day. Hours before, President Biden signed his $1.9 trillion Covid relief package into law, marking the first major achievement of his administration. The bill sends $1,400 direct payments, $300/week in added unemployment benefits, and a flurry of other poverty reduction programs to a fed up but hopeful nation.

Zoom out: Across its pandemic relief programs, the government has taken the garlic-lovers’ approach: always err on the side of more. This stimulus bill, when combined with December's aid package, accounts for 14% of pre-Covid GDP. 

So what's next?

If the $1.9 trillion Covid bill is the splint to fix a broken bone, the next item on Biden's agenda will be the workout regimen that turns the US economy into a chiseled Olympic athlete.

Two themes are starting to emerge.

1. Infrastructure: During his campaign, Biden proposed $2 trillion in spending on climate change and infrastructure. That bill could climb to $4 trillion when you consider all the things Democrats want to tackle with it: roads, bridges, transit, water systems, housing, broadband, power, and more.

• But it'll have to be bipartisan. Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat who holds lots of power in the 50–50 Senate, told Axios he'd block any infrastructure plan if Republicans weren't included.

2. China: Some reports say Senate Democrats are cooking up a bill that would counter China's rising economic influence. This proposal would include measures such as building 5G networks, addressing the US' reliance on China for critical goods like PPE, and investing in regional tech hubs. A China-related bill is also likely to attract at least some Republican support. 

Looking ahead...with Biden and Co. taking a victory lap touting the Covid relief bill, don’t expect any big, new plans for at least a few weeks.

IPO

Coupang Gives That Bell a Rang

Yesterday, the South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang became the largest foreign company to make its US trading debut since Alibaba went public in 2014. It went off with a bang: Shares finished the day 70% higher, giving the company a market value of $108.9 billion. It was the largest US IPO of the year.

The backstory: Founded by a Harvard Business School dropout, Coupang is often compared to Amazon for offering snappy next-day deliveries. 

• Like, really snappy. According to the company, over 70% of South Korea lives within seven miles of a Coupang logistics center. 

Zoom out: South Korea has the highest rate of e-commerce adoption in the world, with nearly two-fifths of all purchases occurring online. That level of penetration helps explain Coupang's hefty valuation, despite its relatively modest 19.2% slice of the Korean market.

Bottom line: With Coupang exploding out of the gate, the biggest winner of the day might have been SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. The Japanese tech conglomerate's Vision Fund owns 35% of Coupang, which translated to a roughly $33 billion paper gain after yesterday's IPO. 

FOOD

The Price Is Not Right

In February, global food prices rose 2.4% for their ninth straight month of increases. While there's never a good time for food to get more expensive, one year into a crushing pandemic definitely counts as worst-case. 

Adjusted for inflation, prices are at their highest point since 2014. Cereals/grains, vegetable oil, and sugar have especially spiked in recent months (see the chart above from GZERO Media, whose geopolitics newsletter is a favorite among Brew writers).

Over the short-term, consumers in wealthier countries typically remain insulated from price increases. But if prices stay inflated, that Aldi receipt may start resembling a Whole Foods haul as companies pass down costs by raising prices, shrinking portions, and cutting back on promotions. 

• General Mills and Conagra, the parent of brands including Chef Boyardee, have floated price hikes for 2021. 

Zoom out: The pandemic pushed an additional 13+ million Americans into food insecurity, but the situation is even worse in the world's poorest countries. In the past, spikes in food prices have contributed to social unrest (think 2011's Arab Spring).

SPONSORED BY THE ASCENT

Don’t FOMO Over Refinancing

So you own a home, eh? Excuse us while we cry in our studio apartment for a moment.

Ahem, great, now that that’s out of the way, we think you should know about something happening to those historically-low mortgage rates you’ve seen recently—they’re beginning to creep back up.

That means when it comes to refinancing today, don’t let FOMO creep in.

The experts are saying now’s the time to jumpstart your refinance plans, and we’re saying this lender has a few extra perks that’ll make it worth your while.

They provide: instant loan estimates, no commissions, access to a dedicated loan officer, and a fast closing timeline—just to name a few.

Get in now so you can potentially save thousands before these low rates continue to rise—it just might be the most fearless thing you’ve done since moving out of your studio apartment.

Score a $150 discount on closing costs when you refinance today.

GRAB BAG

Key Performance Indicators

Stat: An NFT (non-fungible token) of a collage by the digital artist known as Beeple sold for $69.3 million at Christie's yesterday. The single JPG file is the most expensive NFT ever sold at auction by far and makes Beeple "among the top three most valuable living artists," per Christie's. His response on Twitter? The same as everyone else's: "holy f***."

Quote: "The main problem with moving to Florida is that you have to live in Florida."

Jason Mudrick, founder of investment firm Mudrick Capital Management, told Bloomberg that financiers who recently ditched Manhattan for Miami are starting to realize that no amount of sunshine can replace 4am chicken over rice.

Read: The lost year: What the pandemic cost teenagers. (ProPublica)

QUIZ

Her Majesty, the Quiz

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew's Weekly News Quiz has been compared to selling an NFT of your dumb tweet.

It's that satisfying. Ace the quiz.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Grab, the South Asian ride-hailing startup, is in talks to go public via SPAC at a valuation of up to $40 billion, per the WSJ. That’d be the largest SPAC deal by far.
• The NHL and ESPN-owner Disney agreed to a seven-year broadcasting deal worth $2.8 billion. Hoping this means the best sports theme music ever is coming back.
• Roblox momentum continued yesterday after Ark Invest's Cathie Wood bought in. Shares closed up 6.3%.
• Nike is linking executive compensation to diversity targets for the first time. 
• Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine blocked 94% of asymptomatic infections, according to a new study from Israel.
• Take a deep breath, it’s going to be okay: Netflix is testing a feature that would block password sharing, per GammaWire.

BREW'S BETS

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Follow Friday: We don't talk about the National Park Service Instagram's beautiful images and hilarious captions enough. Plus, find penguin and baby sea otter livestreams on the Kansas City Zoo's and Marine Mammal Rescue's YouTube channels.

GPOAT update: The first day of voting for the Greatest Product of All Time tournament is in the books, and what a day it was. #13 Monopoly scored a major upset over #4 Harry Potter, and #15 Bluetooth took #2 Google Maps down to the wire. The first round concludes today with matchups in the Innovators and Simply Make Life Better regions. Head to our Twitter account to vote—the polls open at 9am ET.

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FROM THE CREW

Making Things Right

In yesterday's story on the 10th anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown, we didn't make it clear that 22,000 people died or went missing specifically as a result of a massive earthquake and tsunami, not the subsequent nuclear accident. The meltdown of three nuclear reactors didn't cause a single death or any known cases of radiation sickness. 

GAMES

Friday Puzzle

Saw this puzzle from a guy who saw this puzzle from a friend.

If you can't read writing that small (we can't), here's the puzzle typed out: Can you open the lock using these clues?

• 682: One digit is right and in its place
• 614: One digit is right but in the wrong place
• 206: Two digits are right but both are in the wrong place
• 738: All digits are wrong
• 380: One digit is right but in the wrong place

ANSWER

042

✤ A Note From eToro

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