Hey Snackers,
The only thing worse than forgetting your keys in a cab: forgetting your poodle. Uber's annual lost-and-found index includes everything from a unicycle to a single Gucci loafer to a bidet.
Stocks ticked down yesterday after the troubled First Republic Bank was offloaded to JPMorgan Chase in the second-largest bank failure in US history. Meanwhile, earnings season is marching on: over half of S&P 500 companies have reported, and 80% beat estimates.
While union membership is at a record low, US labor movements are gaining steam
May Day was yesterday… but worker momentum is just heating up. US labor unions have been making headlines as looming deadlines could lead to a power shift. Most pressing: the 11.5K film and TV writers represented by the Writers Guild of America are set to strike against studios today, barring an 11th-hour agreement. It’s not just your fave shows that could come to a halt: workers in other key industries are engaged in tense negotiations.
Taking off: yesterday 15K American Airlines pilots voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, though federal laws make it harder for airline unions to join walkouts.
Gearing up: UPS and 340K unionized delivery workers have kicked off contract negotiations for their July 31 deadline. Contracted Amazon drivers in California unionized last month, gaining a $30/hour wage.
Foaming: About 300 US Starbucks stores have voted to unionize so far. Last week, federal labor prosecutors alleged that the latte leader refused to negotiate fairly at 144 locations.
Big stories, low numbers… Despite splashy organizing efforts, US union membership was just 10% last year, the lowest rate on record. Still, Americans’ support of unions is nearly at a 60-year high, with over half seeing the decline of organized labor as negative. Meanwhile, with historically low unemployment and still-high inflation, workers’ wage expectations are rising, reaching $76K/year in March.
The power dynamic’s in flux… While the pandemic saw the employee/employer dynamic tilt in favor of workers in areas like remote work and wage hikes, layoffs and RTO plans have shifted power back toward the boardroom. But even in defeat, labor movements can bring about change: public criticism of a blocked nationwide rail strike in December led major rail companies to grant workers paid sick leave.
Argentina leans on the US dollar as the value of its national currency tanks
Inflation nation… As Argentina’s economic crisis deepens, its citizens are relying on the dolar blue, aka the US dollar. Inflation breached 100% last month for the first time in decades as prices doubled. To combat that, Argentina’s central bank jacked its interest rate by 10 percentage points, to 91%, last Thursday — tacking on to a massive 300-point lift the week before.
For context: The Fed has cranked the US’s rate to about 5% from zilch over the past year, in response to inflation that hit 9%.
Not enough: For Argentina, 20 to 30% inflation is typical, but triple digits means time to hit the panic button. However, aggressive rate hikes, along with price freezes and other scattershot attempts to cool prices, aren’t working.
Dollarization nation… Argentines trust the greenback to maintain its value more than the peso. The USD has become so prevalent in the country that some experts think its circulation there is second only to the US. Argentines trade pesos for American dollars at illegal swap hubs, where the exchange rate is often cranked to double the official rate.
- Paging Washington: One of Argentina’s presidential candidates, Javier Milei, wants to fully swap the national currency out for the USD and dissolve the country’s central bank. FYI: 11 countries, including Ecuador and Zimbabwe, use the USD as their currency.
The buck still has Superman status… Concerns about the US dollar being dethroned as the world’s “Superman Currency” may be overblown. Despite its value slipping this year, the USD is still relied on as the world’s go-to currency for international purchases (think: oil trades), accounting for 58% of global forex reserves. Meanwhile, other countries’ preference for the dollar can make their own currencies weaker.
Heard on the Block: "crypto whale"
🐋 When you're so big even your tiniest move makes a splash…
A "crypto whale" is a person or entity that holds so much cryptocurrency that they have the power to affect its price. Picture: selling large amounts of a token at once. Binance-owned CoinMarketCap said it'll launch a reality-TV show, "Killer Whales," which will feature entrepreneurs pitching web3 biz ideas to a panel of whales and investors. Picture: “Shark Tank” for crypto.
What else we’re Snackin’
JPMore: JPMorgan Chase took over First Republic Bank after the midsize lender became the third to fail since March. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of America’s largest bank, said "this part" of the banking crisis is over.
Sparkle: Prebiotic soda maker Olipop said it expects to double its sales this year to $200M and that Coke and Pepsi have approached it. The healthier-bev market's thriving as Americans increasingly ditch soda.
AIGuy: Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneer known as the "godfather of AI," quit his Google job and warned that the tech could have "scary" repercussions. AI regulation is emerging as companies race to incorporate bots.
Lawshoe: Adidas shareholders sued the shoemaker over its imploded partnership with Kanye West following the rapper’s antisemitic comments. Adidas lost $633M in Q4 after the un-Yeezy split.
BAInance: Binance said its CEO is the target of an AI-powered smear campaign that had ChatGPT claim he worked with a Chinese state oil company. Experts caution that AI could be used to spread misinfo.
Tuesday
Fed rate meeting
Earnings expected from Pfizer, BP, Marathon Petroleum, Marriott, and Molson Coors
Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Amazon, Google, Molson Coors, Starbucks, and Uber