Trump Backs Powell

Cyber Snack

Read time: 2 min 25 sec

With only 23 days till 2025, 2024 isn’t getting any less crazy. President-elect Trump confirmed Jerome Powell will remain as Fed chair until 2026, easing market concerns about the Fed’s independence. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift's Eras Tour became the highest-grossing tour of all time, contributing significantly to economic recovery. In tech, Google and Meta launched groundbreaking AI models, further advancing the industry.

Let’s dive in.

Top Story

Trump Keeps Powell

What's Happening? Jerome Powell will remain Fed chair until his term ends in 2026, as confirmed by President-elect Trump in an NBC News interview. Despite past tensions, Trump stated he wouldn't force Powell out, suggesting a continuation of Powell's role as the US's chief economic policymaker. This comes after Trump's criticisms during his first term and his comments on potentially influencing Fed decisions, which had previously unsettled markets.

Meaning? Trump's decision to keep Powell could reassure markets about the Federal Reserve’s independence, which is crucial for economic stability. However, their relationship remains uncertain, especially after Trump's 2019 comment calling Powell a bigger U.S. adversary than Xi Jinping. Trump's economic agenda includes imposing 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods (potentially raising prices by 2-3%), 10% tariffs on China, extending $1.5 trillion in tax cuts, and possibly raising the minimum wage to $15. He also plans to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and challenge birthright citizenship, though these policies could face legal and economic challenges.

Business Insights

The End of an Era

What's Happening? Even though I'm (definitely) not a Taylor Swift fan, her Eras Tour, spanning nearly two years across five continents, was undeniably impressive both culturally and financially. It concluded in Vancouver, cementing its status as a cultural phenomenon on par with Beatlemania or Woodstock.

The Details:

• The tour has become the highest-grossing of all time, earning over $1 billion in its first leg in 2023 and an estimated total of $2.2 billion by the end, according to Pollstar.

• Fans traveled an average of 338 miles to attend a show, with U.S. fans spending an average of $1,300 on tickets, outfits, and other expenses.

• Merchandise sales amounted to approximately $440 million.

• The "Eras Tour" movie grossed over $261 million worldwide, setting a record for concert films.

• The "Eras Tour Book" sold 814,000 print copies in its first week, the highest for 2024.

• Swift's tour significantly contributed to economic recovery post-Covid, adding $4.3 billion to the U.S. GDP in 2023. In Sweden, her performances in Stockholm led to unexpectedly higher inflation rates in May.

Tech Pulse

Google and Meta launch bold new AI Models

Google’s Gemini reclaims Top spot: Google DeepMind's gemini-exp-1206 has reclaimed the top spot on the Chatbot Arena, outstripping OpenAI's models. It's freely accessible via Google AI Studio and Gemini API, unlike pricier competitors. This model, celebrating Gemini's anniversary, can process video, not just images, with a 2M token window. This zero-cost, high-performance approach contrasts sharply with OpenAI's $200/month top-tier pricing, making advanced AI more accessible.

Meta launches Llama 3.3: Meta's new Llama 3.3 70B model rivals the performance of its 405B predecessor while being faster and 10x cheaper at $0.10/$0.40 per million tokens. It boasts a 128k token context window and outperforms GPT-4o, Gemini Pro 1.5, and Nova Pro. With Meta AI's 600M monthly users, it's set to become the world's top AI assistant, with Llama 4 on the horizon from their $10B data center.

Other Headlines

🗡️ Zuck's Safety: Meta reportedly spent $23.4 million in 2023, more than any other U.S. public company, on security for Zuckerberg.

🦾 AI Predictions: Google CEO announces that he thinks AI development is finally slowing down.

⏰ Times ticking for TikTok: Federal appeals court upholds law requiring sale or ban of TikTok in the US

😥 Bad News for Billionaires: Billionaires underperform the S&P 500

☕ Coffee in < 30 seconds: Starbucks says goal is for customers to get coffee in less than 30 seconds

💸 Robinhood bet’s big: Robinhood’s new hot tech bet - the desktop computer

Thanks for reading.

Until next time!

Thomas & the ONUE team 🚀