Morning Brew - ☕️ So rich

US net worth surged to record levels...
September 24, 2021 View Online | Sign Up

Daily Brew

Vanguard

Good morning and TGIF: Thank God it's fall.

Matty Merritt, Sherry Qin, Neal Freyman

MARKETS

Nasdaq

15,052.24

S&P

4,448.98

Dow

34,764.82

10-Year

1.435%

Bitcoin

$44,623.06

Salesforce

$277.86

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

  • Markets: Stocks caught a second wind during the back half of the week, ripping higher for the second straight day with the Evergrande crisis not yet materializing and the Fed offering soothing words after its meeting Wednesday. Salesforce got a bump after hiking its revenue forecast.
  • Covid: Boosters are ready for liftoff. Advisers to the CDC recommended that the US administer Pfizer booster shots to people 65 and older, people ages 50–64 with underlying health conditions, and nursing home residents, as long as it’s been at least 6 months since their second Pfizer dose. Next, the CDC will need to endorse the plan, and qualifying Americans could receive booster shots soon after.

TECH

Proposed EU Rule Has Apple All Charged Up

USB-C cord wrapping around apple logo like a boa constrictor

Francis Scialabba

We’re not the only ones singing the praises of the far-superior USB-C cord. The European Commission (EC) proposed a rule yesterday that would require small tech gadgets like phones, tablets, and headphones to have the same, standardized chargers. This small change would have huge ramifications for device makers.

The proposal aims to cut down on e-waste and all the perfectly good charging cables European citizens throw out every year, which the commission estimates is over 11,000 tons worth. If the law is passed (and there’s a very good chance it will be), electronics manufacturers will have two years to make all new devices USB-C compatible so consumers won’t need to buy a new charger with every new device.

  • The EU has been trying to cut down the number of cords in its citizens’ junk drawers since 2009, when there were 30+ different chargers to choose from. It’s slimmed down since then to three popular options.

Tim Cook says get your grubby hands off my ports

The company most affected by the ruling by far would be Apple, the tech company that notoriously does not play well with other devices. While some newer iPad versions have USB-C ports, iPhones still use Apple’s Lightning charger. It could cost the company up to $1 billion to change course.

  • In 2018, 21% of all smartphones sold in the EU had a Lightning port.

Apple released a statement arguing that this rule would stifle innovation and hurt consumers. In the past, Apple has objected to common charger mandates, saying they would create even more waste when everyone dumps their different cords to replace them with the new one.

Big picture: Apple and the EU have been getting along about as well as dairy and a Gen Z’s stomach. Among its other antitrust battles, Apple has been accused by the EU of violating competition laws. —MM

        

AVIATION

Unruly Airplane Passengers Get More Ruly

Scene from the movie Airplane

Giphy

The FAA released fresh numbers yesterday showing that while the problem of unruly passengers on flights remains historically high, it’s on a gradual descent.

The agency has recorded 4,385 unruly passenger incidents this year—more than 70% of which involve masks. And so far in 2021, it’s handed out $1.1 million in fines. But FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said the zero-tolerance policy the agency introduced in January is working: Unruly passenger incidents have fallen 50% from early 2021.

The backstory: Routine flights have devolved into daycare centers during the pandemic, with passengers increasingly lashing out over safety policies like mask mandates. In some extreme cases, exasperated flight attendants have resorted to duct taping the most disobedient passengers to their seats.

  • What they have done: Airlines including Southwest and American have banned alcohol sales on flights until 2022.

Zoom out: Aviation reps testified on Capitol Hill yesterday as lawmakers put more pressure on the industry to make flying less miserable for everyone. —NF

        

WEALTH

That's a Big Bank Account You Got There

household wealth

Francis Scialabba

The net worth of US households rose to a record $141.7 trillion in the second quarter, up 19.6% from a year ago, the Fed reported yesterday.

  • Net worth = your assets (savings, stock holdings, real estate) – your liabilities (loans, credit card debt).

The unprecedented rise in net worth reflects two defining trends of the US economy in 2021: a surging stock market and a white-hot housing market. Of the $5.85 trillion increase in net worth, stocks accounted for $3.5 trillion, and real estate appreciation was responsible for $1.2 trillion.

  • Home equity percentage, or the portion of your home that is actually yours as you pay off a mortgage, rose to 67.7% in April, the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis.

We had a lot of help along the way. The government’s stimulus measures to counter the Covid-induced recession, such as enhanced unemployment benefits, fortified personal balance sheets with the strength of 10 million lentils.

Zoom out: Higher net worth also came with a big surge in IOUs. Household debt jumped 7.9% in Q2, a more rapid pace than in previous quarters, spurred by skyrocketing home prices and cheap borrowing costs. —SQ

        

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GRAB BAG

Key Performance Indicators

An auto assembly line in Germany

Sebastian Kahnert/picture alliance via Getty Images

Stat: The persistent global chip shortage will cost the auto industry $210 billion in revenue, according to consulting firm AlixPartners, nearly double its previous estimate. Automakers are estimated to lose 7.7 million units of production this year as factory shutdowns across Southeast Asia have delayed a return to supply chain normalcy.

Quote: “The worst time in the world we want to shut down the government is in the middle of a pandemic where we have 140,000 people a day getting infected and 2,000 people a day dying.”

Dr. Fauci is one of many prominent figures pressuring lawmakers to work out a deal to keep funding the government past next Thursday. The White House budget office told federal agencies yesterday to prepare for the first shutdown of the Covid era.

Read: The scientist and the AI-assisted, remote-control killing machine. (New York Times)

        

QUIZ

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

  • Twitter is allowing users to get tipped in bitcoin.
  • Nike cut its fiscal 2022 revenue expectations; it's struggling from major supply chain issues.
  • The Gilgamesh Tablet, one of the world’s oldest works of literature at 3,500 years old, was returned to Iraq. It had been smuggled out of the country and purchased by the retailer Hobby Lobby in 2014.
  • Nintendo announced that the Super Mario Bros. Animated Film movie is hitting theaters December 2022. It's-a me, Chris Pratt.
  • Golf’s Ryder Cup begins today in Wisconsin. GO USA.

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FROM THE CREW

Crypto Investing 101

Illustration for Crypto Crash Course

If you’re interested in dipping a toe into crypto but haven’t yet checked out our Crypto Crash Course, you definitely should. Here’s just a sampling of the content:

  • Everything you need to know about crypto wallets
  • Early crypto investors share their regrets, opportunities, and advice
  • How to choose a cryptocurrency (and a crypto platform)

You may even learn what the heck HODL stands for. Learn all about crypto investing here.

GAMES

Friday Puzzle

It’s nearly the weekend, but don’t turn your brain off quite yet—here’s a fun logic puzzle from the Guardian.

Wittgenstein has been murdered. The culprit is one of either Friedrich Nietzsche, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Karl Marx, or Ludwig Feuerbach. They make the following statements. You have been correctly informed that the guilty person always lies, and everyone else tells the truth.

Nietzsche: Salomé is the culprit.
Salomé
: Marx is innocent.
Feuerbach: Salomé’s statement is true.
Marx: Nietzsche’s statement is false.

Who killed Wittgenstein?

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ANSWER

Nietzsche.

From the Guardian: "If Nietzsche is telling the truth, then Salomé is the culprit and therefore a liar. Thus Marx is not innocent, meaning he is the culprit. We can’t have two culprits, since this is forbidden in the setting of the question, and so we are led to contradiction. Nietzsche must therefore be lying. If he is lying, then everyone else tells the truth, which they can without contradiction. Thus Nietzsche killed Wittgenstein."

       

Written by Neal Freyman, Matty Merritt, and Sherry Qin

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