The week in business: Crypto lawsuits, the wit of Charlie Munger

A collection of our best posts of the week in business news

By Quartz Intelligence Newsroom3 min readUpdated December 2, 2023

The folksy wit of Charlie Munger in 8 memorable quotes

Charlie Munger, the longtime vice chair of Berkshire Hathaway $BRK.B, died this week at 99. Once described by Bill Gates as “the broadest thinker I have ever encountered,” Munger seemed largely content to let his friend and business partner Warren Buffett absorb the spotlight at Berkshire’s annual shareholder gatherings in Omaha, where he was famous for saying “I have nothing to add” after Buffett fielded question after question from investors. Read More

What do Cristiano Ronaldo, Gisele Bündchen, and Larry David have in common? Lawsuits for endorsing crypto

Cristiano Ronaldo’s partnership with Binance isn’t quite the easy win he’d hoped for.

The Portuguese football star partnered with the crypto exchange in November 2022 and released “CR7” non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which he claimed were “going to change the game and take football to the next level.” Now, he’s facing legal action for promoting the teetering brand. Read More

Virgin Atlantic successfully flew the first long-haul flight using 100% alternative fuel

Virgin Atlantic landed the world’s first long-haul flight of a passenger plane powered entirely by alternative fuel. The Boeing $BA 787, which took off from London’s Heathrow Airport and landed at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, ran on so-called sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Made from a blend of sources, including crops, household waste, and cooking oil, SAF could pave the way for more flights that don’t use fossil fuels. Read More

AI poses less of a threat to jobs than it does to wages

In the era of artificial intelligence, job prospects are bright—even if the pay isn’t great.

In 16 European countries, the employment share of sectors exposed to AI increased, with low- and medium-skill jobs largely unaffected and highly skilled positions even getting a boost, European Central Bank (ECB) research published this week shows. Read More

Meta $META’s spokesperson is a wanted man in Russia

Andy Stone, press secretary for Facebook parent Meta, has been put on Russia’s criminal wanted list, the country’s state-owned news agency reported this week. Read More

Before it makes a splash on the stock exchange, Shein has to walk through some regulatory fire

Shein is making moves behind the scenes for its highly anticipated public debut, which could happen as soon as 2024. The Chinese-founded fast-fashion retailer has confidentially filed to go public in the US, CNBC reported this week. Read More

Nelson Peltz isn’t done asking for a seat at the Disney $DIS boardroom table

Disney shareholder Nelson Peltz isn’t backing off after all.

The 81-year-old activist investor, who tried and failed to bag a sit on Disney’s board at the start of this year, came back in October with a vengeance—and four times the stake his Trian Fund Management had in February—to demand a seat at the table. Read More

How ✨ became the unofficial AI emoji

Next time you shuffle your Spotify $SPOT playlist or jump on a Zoom $ZM or Google $GOOGL video call, see whether you notice this: ✨. Or perhaps you have an eagle eye and have noticed it already, and are curious about what clicking on that button will do. Or maybe you’ve blindly clicked on it before without thinking twice about what the ✨ means, or why tech companies are using it to communicate the presence of artificial intelligence. Read More

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