Aug 19, 2024

Yama No Is So Fat...

…when she lies around the house, she lies around the house. Of course, Yama No is a gourmet Japanese cow's milk cheese milk made in Hokkaido. Not the prelude to a nasty body-shaming insult to your mother, which would be a shockingly rude way to start the week! Unforgivable! Still, I'm afraid sharp cheese puns are mandatory here at Cheddquarters, and so I had to follow through because it sounded sorta similar, however dreadful I felt about doing so. Forgive me?

A rude awakening of another kind might be in order soon because last week marked the best week on the stock market since November, bolstered further by a report on Friday showing U.S. consumers are feeling better than expected about the economy. Yay! Of course, that followed a nasty week where concerns about unemployment sent the markets into a tailspin. Boo!

Who knows what might happen next?

Oh, yes. We do. This week, the market's focus shifts to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will give a speech which he has used in the past to drop leaden hints about big policy announcements that may follow in September. The Fed has said its upcoming moves will focus on what data and reports say, and data and reports say: 1. Inflation is slowing and 2. There's a risk of a recession unless Powell cuts interest rates. Now, analysts will be watching to see whether he hints at a 0.25% interest rate cut in September (which is what he's going to hint at), or a 0.50% cut (which he isn't going to hint at; your mom told me…no, she didn't! She didn't! Stop this madness!), with the hopes of giving the economy a "shot in the arm."

Today's Cheddlines:

Yama, No!

—Matt Davis, N2K Chedditor

P.S. We've got footage of the Northern Lights shot from space on our 'gram.

Quote of the Day

"Consumers are still pretty glum overall by historical standards, but sentiment is on an improving trend.'' — Carl Weinberg

Read the story

1. Kamalanomics: $6k Tax Break for Having a Kid, $25k Credit for First Time Homeowners

Vice President Kamala Harris used a North Carolina speech to promote her economic policy late last week, paying tribute to her predecessor but also trying to outline fresh new plans, aiming to sway the polls in her direction in November.

Harris says she intends to offer downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers, expansion of child and earned income tax credits, and reduced health insurance premiums through the Affordable Care Act. Yay!

There's a catch to all these promises, of course. To see them come to fruition enough people would have to vote for her in November. Boo!

And. Congress would have to approve the plans, which Harris's rival, Donald Trump, branded "socialist." So, I guess if you really want them, then you'll have to not only vote for Harris, but also, swing both the house and senate in her direction. Can America do that? I gotta say, I'm skeptical. So, this is probably more of an aspirational agenda like the time you asked your parents for a PlayStation, and they instead took you for a night at Chuck E Cheese. Remember? Oh, you've blocked it out?

Harris also didn't say how she'd fund the proposals. Trump has sought to position himself as the better economic manager in comparison to Harris, but some polls have shown voters trust Harris more than him on it. Other polls have leant the other way. Voters do also trust Harris more, generally, according to a poll out Friday, saying she scores better on measures of "honesty" and "discipline" than Trump. Purely objectively that could perhaps be because she doesn't have any felony convictions for paying off porn stars. But…her emails! (That was about Hillary, Matt, and brace yourself for a slew of emails in response to this story, telling you to wind in your 'woke politics'—Ed.) Read More

2. Starbucks CEO Gets Venti-Sized Pay Package

I used to work for Starbucks. Correction: they were called The Seattle Coffee Company at the time in London. Then Starbucks bought them out and took over (and good for them). I had a good time working for about eight quid an hour, is only sliiiiightly less than the new CEO, Brian Niccol, will be earning. One thing the experience taught me was that it helps to have connections in the media if you want to start a career there, and at the time, I didn't have any, so I made an awful lot of cappuccinos. But I digress.

Niccol, former turnaround master at Chipotle Mexican Grill, could earn up to $113 million in a deal four times larger than that of his predecessor, Laxman Narasimhan, who was CEO for just 17 months and watched the company's stock slide.

Niccol, who has led Chipotle since 2018, was granted a $10m sign-on bonus and $75m in extra stock options to compensate for the shares he'll lose from leaving Chipotle. His annual salary at Starbucks will be $1.6m, with the opportunity to earn $23m in share-based bonuses and a nearly $3.6m cash bonus depending on performance, potentially totaling $113.2m.

Basically, he's incentivized to perform, and markets reacted positively to his hiring. Starbucks' market capitalization saw a $20 billion increase following the announcement, suggesting significant confidence in his ability to deliver value well beyond the cost of his package.

The board also hired Niccol without going through a recruitment consultancy, and, frankly, I'm surprised I haven't seen more recruitment consultants ranting to the media about the possible stupidity of doing so or — at the very least — complaining that they didn't get a cut of the monster deal.

Niccol's overall compensation is roughly 10,000 times that of the median Starbucks employee, which I think is why the French first invented a thing called "the guillotine." He also benefits from the flexibility of working remotely from Newport Beach, California, where he had moved to work for Chipotle. The moral of this story, I think, is maybe don't work for Starbucks, unless you're the boss? Or maybe that capitalism is totally working as it should? I'm a bit lost at this point when it comes to moralizing, I must confess. Perhaps I need a cup of craft-brewed, small-batch, locally-owned coffee...or a Frappuccino. Probably both. Read More

From @cheddar

Ever wondered what the Northern Lights look like from space? 🌌✨

Well, wonder no more!

Check out this mesmerizing footage of the aurora borealis captured by NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick from the International Space Station.

Follow @cheddar on Instagram!

3. Is My Social Security Number Safe?

A lawsuit claims hackers have accessed the personal information, including Social Security numbers, of "billions of individuals" through a breach at National Public Data (NPD), a background check company.

The breach, alleged to have occurred around April 2024, was supposedly perpetrated by a hacker group named USDoD. They extracted unencrypted personal data, including full names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and phone numbers of approximately 2.7 billion records, though this number may represent multiple entries for some individuals. Despite the breach, it's unclear if NPD has notified affected people. The lawsuit indicates that many may still be unaware that their sensitive information has been compromised and are at risk of identity theft and other financial harms.

To protect against possible identity theft and financial fraud, security experts recommend placing credit freezes with the major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) —as if you're going to do that. They also recommend using two-factor authentication for accounts and changing your password from "Password1." Still, I'm sure it's FINE. Read More

You Need 2 Know About This Box!

Meet the Sunset Box, a quarterly subscription service sending home, wellness, and travel goodies straight to your doorstep, curated by editors at mag Sunset, the Western-lifestyle magazine that just so happens to be a sister company of ours.

Since you clearly have good taste (you're an N2K subscriber, after all), we think you'll love this box. Use code CHEDDAR15 for 15% off your subscription.

Gimme the Box!

Note: Sadly does not contain any cheese.

4. US Consumer Sentiment Rises on Democratic Happiness With Harris

A surge in optimism by Democrats over the prospects of Vice President Kamala Harris lifted U.S. consumer sentiment slightly this month. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index edged up to 67.8 after coming in at 66.4 in July.

The spirits of Democrats and political independents rose, while Republicans' sentiment fell. The survey found that 41% of consumers considered Harris the better candidate for the economy, versus the 38% who chose Republican nominee Donald Trump. Before he dropped out of the race, President Joe Biden trailed on that metric.

Joanne Hsu, the university's Director of Consumer Surveys, said she expects the index to bounce with changing poll results as the election nears. She said consumers on both sides of the partisan divide say their economic outlook "depends on who's going to win the election."

The Michigan index has rebounded after bottoming out at 50 in June 2022 when inflation hit a four-decade high. But it remains well below healthy levels, regularly registering in the 90s before the pandemic.

"Consumers are still pretty glum overall by historical standards, but sentiment is on an improving trend,'' economist Carl Weinberg said.

Despite their relatively sour mood, American consumers have kept spending anyway, bolstering hopes that the economy can avoid a recession. Keep drinking that Kool-Aid, America. Whatever it takes to avoid the grizzly bears! Read More

5. So There's Water on Mars

A new world awaits in the off-world colonies. Or, as Arnold famously yelled in Total Recall, it might be time to "get your a** to Mars!" That's because data from NASA's InSight mission, which concluded in 2022, has uncovered evidence of a vast underground water reservoir deep beneath Mars' surface.

Scientists estimate that the trapped water in the Martian crust could potentially fill oceans, covering the entire surface of Mars about one mile deep. The groundwater lies between seven and 12 miles under the surface, posing significant challenges for future astronauts who might try to access it. But not if your name is Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course. I'm sure he has a plan already!

The discovery promotes new insights into the geological history of Mars and offers a new potential location to search for life on the planet. Mars likely had a warm and wet environment billions of years ago, evidenced by ancient lakes and other water-altered formations before it lost its atmosphere 3 billion years ago. The whereabouts of Mars' "lost" water has puzzled scientists, with some hypothesizing that it became ice, was absorbed by minerals, or sank into deep aquifers. The new study suggests water trickled down into the planet's crust, which sounds a lot less exciting in comparison.

Of course, the discovery has far-reaching implications for our understanding of Mars' habitability, potentially supporting life as we know it. We'd be surprised if Elon Musk isn't now drawing up plans for a vast, humanoid-powered colony on the planet with him at the center as Queen Bee, if he isn't already running one on the dark side of the planet or contemplating a move to Arrakis for the "spice." Can someone now write some new science fiction, please? I feel like we're getting ahead of all the existing stuff and it's only 2024. Cheers. Read More