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Here’s what you need to know
ESPN Bet is here. Penn Entertainment, which will operate the sportsbook app, paid $1.5 billion for the rights to the sports network’s name.
Climate change is costing the US economy $150 billion a year. The quadrennial National Climate Assessment was released yesterday, and included a new economic impact section.
German train drivers are going on strike. The GDL union called for a 20-hour strike later this week as workers seek higher wages to counter inflation.
Paris has too many SUVs. Mayor Anne Hidalgo is asking voters if they’d be interested in an SUV-specific parking fee ahead of the upcoming Olympics.
Place your Fed bets
US inflation held steady from September last month, signaling that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hiking campaign is finally over.
But what about the cuts? Some analysts say that the first Fed meeting of 2024, in March, will see rates start to come down, with the benchmark rate falling to 2% by 2025. Mortgage rates, though, might not ease until the second half of next year. Others have rosier views, seeing the whole US economy picking up to an expansion of 2.6% next year.
Grete Suarez looks into who’s saying what, but don’t treat it as a foregone conclusion. The most important driver of how we spend, after all, is not what analysts say, but how consumers feel.
One big number: 36%
The share of Safari search ad revenue Google gives Apple, according to one expert witness, who blurted it out in court
University of Chicago professor Kevin Murphy let slip a key number while testifying in Google’s defense on Monday, according to Bloomberg. Google lawyer John Schmidtlein “visibly cringed.” The search giant is two months into a major antitrust trial—the largest since Microsoft’s in 1998. Quartz’s Ananya Bhattacharya explores the fine line between being transparent in the courtroom and protecting trade secrets.
Who’s selling their shares?
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, for one. He’s raising eyebrows with a plan to sell $140 million worth of his bank shares starting next year for “financial diversification and tax-planning purposes.”
The announcement came as a surprise, considering Dimon has long held a hardline approach to keeping his bank stocks, even as far back as his Travelers’ days, when former mentor Sandy Weill made management take a “blood oath” not to sell unless they left.
But Dimon’s not alone. Here are other bank execs who have done the same.
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Surprising discoveries
Men now have their lowest life expectancy since 1996. The widening gap between men and women has been expanded by covid and drug overdoses, which are more likely in men.
Cats’ wide spectrum of eye colors began with the introduction of one other pigment long ago. An ocelot-like ancestor most likely had beautiful brown eyes—and then there was a lovely onslaught of gray.
Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup is essentially just a version of canned béchamel sauce. That’s why it’s such a staple in American recipes of yore.
NCIS is more popular on Netflix than its most-watched original show, Wednesday. The long-running crime drama makes bank for every network or streamer it touches.
A book club took 28 years to read Finnegans Wake. The surprising discovery is that they finished the James Joyce book at all.
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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, Joyce study guides, and cream of mushroom bans to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Susan Howson