Desensitized Millennials, Merkel, Metaverse 🎁

Facebook plans to lose $10 billion on expanding Meta this year alone, and much more “for the next several years.”

Because this has always been the endgame. 

Meta is Zuckerberg’s way of giving governments the solace of company revamp into fairness while simultaneously deflecting people’s angst. Meta is the temporary newness that will distract the world long enough for Zuckerberg to acquire more of the world.

The day after Facebook announced the name change, the company illustrated how it will spend some of the $10 billion: a deal to buy Within, the company co-founded by VR pioneer Chris Milk, and many more such VR startups. Those deals were already raising eyebrows before Facebook formally announced that they represented the future of the company.

Meta will rule the virtual lives of 7 billion people in next decade.

After 16 years in power, it’s time for Angela Merkel’s historic exit from German politics. Under her leadership, the country has gone from ‘sick man of Europe’ to an economic powerhouse. Here’s a pictorial view on how has Europe’s largest economy fared under her.

Germany’s economy has grown by 34% since the start of Merkel’s tenure in 2005.

Unemployment fell by more than 3 million. Merkel's government has extensively promoted short-time work schemes designed to avoid mass layoffs during downturns, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, by offering firms subsidies to keep workers on the payroll - a plan that saved close to 500,000 jobs during the 2009 crisis. The IMF called it the "gold standard" of employment programmes.

Merkel is regularly ranked Germany’s most popular politician. In August 2021, her approval was highest among older Baby Boomers (57%), followed by Gen-Xers at 53%. 

However, Germany has been slow to embrace digitalization. Four out of 10 companies still use fax machines frequently for internal and external communication. This is despite the fact that the country ranks 34th out of 38 industrialised economies for fast internet connections, as per data from OECD.

Looks like inflation is not impeding when it comes to millennials. 

According to survey by CreditCards.com 56% of millennials are willing to go into debt this holiday season, compared with 30% of baby boomers or 41% of U.S. adults overall. The average holiday spending for millennial parents this season is $1,178. 

Analysts at Bloomberg believe millennials have become so desensitised to difficult financial situations at this point, that they are willing to stay in them or push themselves further into debt back just for the instant gratification of shopping something new.

It’s kind of like YOLO. They don’t just care.

Because millennials graduated in the worst financial crisis to hit the U.S. since the Great Depression, they have more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding student loan debt. Child care is super expensive and there’s a lot of concern about people not being able to afford their first homes as millennials. They’re just trying to make themselves happy amidst bad situations that they don’t see an end to anytime soon. This is true for 29% of millennials, as per the same study.

Morgan Stanley is giving its rich customers the change to invest in hot startups. The company’s private share platform is expected to go live next year. But the platform is not open to just any customer. 

Price of admission to the platform is $20 million in assets. 

The firm is building an a-la-cart menu of startup offerings for its wealthiest clients. Shares of private companies are a hot ticket on Wall Street. Since 2002, value of privately-held shares has grown twice as fast as the combines value of listed companies - according to McKinsey and Co. Holding shares of unicorns is considered great fodder for wealth generation and many people now want to invest in companies they regularly use and believe in.