A Government Shutdown Looms & Fast Food Tests Surge Pricing
February 28, 2024
Hello, readers – happy Wednesday! Today, we’re talking about Ukraine, the U.S. budget, Japan’s birthrate, union workers in Nigeria, immigration, IVF, and surge pricing at fast food restaurants.
This past week, we shared a story about how Neuralink’s first human patient is doing and asked our readers if they would volunteer for the Neuralink chip. Here are the results of that survey.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker
A New Outlook For Ukraine?
As the situation in Ukraine looks increasingly dire, French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested a controversial plan to reverse the tides of the Russia-Ukraine war – sending European troops into the conflict. “Nothing should be ruled out,” he told the press following a summit of European leaders on Monday. “We will do anything we can to prevent Russia from winning this war.”
His colleagues scrambled to walk back the fighting words. One NATO official told CNN that the military alliance had “no plans” to get more involved in the conflict, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz clarified that participants at the summit were “unanimous” in their opposition to putting boots on the ground in Ukraine.
While European leaders are hesitant to get their hands dirty in Ukraine, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen seems interested in dipping her hands into the roughly $300 billion in Russian Central Bank assets that the West has frozen outside of Russia’s borders. “It is necessary and urgent for our coalition to find a way to unlock the value of these immobilized assets to support Ukraine’s continued resistance and long-term reconstruction,” Yellen said. “I believe there is a strong international law, economic, and moral case for moving forward. This would be a decisive response to Russia’s unprecedented threat to global stability.”
Congress’ Short-Term Spending Bill Addiction
Somehow, the federal budget crisis that began last fall is finally coming to an end. Whether that end is pretty or not will be determined in the next few days, as the federal government faces the looming threat of a partial shutdown at the end of the week. House Republicans are still pushing partisan policy mandates, which are almost guaranteed to be shut down by the Democrat-held Senate.
The partial shutdown means funding for about a quarter of the federal government runs out on March 1. The Departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Energy will be affected if lawmakers can’t pass a spending bill by Friday, while other departments including Justice, Labor, and Health and Human Services will see their budgets run out by March 8.
At the moment, lawmakers seem to have their sights set on passing yet another short-term spending bill to kick the can down the road. At this point, we’re almost halfway through the fiscal year thanks to Congress’ obsession with short-term solutions, but legislators at least seem optimistic they’ll be able to avoid a shutdown for this week.
Stocks Go Up, But Birthrate Goes Down
- According to government data released on Tuesday, Japan’s demographic troubles continued to get worse in 2023. Data from last year shows that the number of births in Japan dropped 5.1% from 2022 to a record low for the country. Love was also not in the air last year, as the number of marriages in Japan fell by 5.9% to 489,281, marking the first time that marriages have dipped below 500,000 in 90 years.
- Japan’s government says it will begin to take “unprecedented steps” to deal with the population decline. First steps will include expanding state childcare services and raising wages to help younger workers provide for their families. “The declining birthrate is in a critical situation,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi. “The next six years or so until 2030, when the number of young people will rapidly decline, will be the last chance to reverse the trend.”
Striking In Subsahara
- While love might not be in the air in Japan, there’s certainly a collective action bug going around elsewhere. Nigerian government employees and union workers are joining South Korean junior doctors and European farmers by demonstrating their frustrations with their country’s status quo – in this case, runaway inflation and other economic issues – by going on strike.
- Those economic struggles are the result of new policies enacted by President Bola Tinubu, who was elected last year. The government has done away with fuel subsidies and unifying exchange rates, leading to rampant devaluation of the naira, 30% inflation, and a doubling of gas prices nationwide.
- “Things are getting out of hand,” said one shop owner. “Prices keep soaring, the aid the government said it would dole out has not been provided.” Unions say that the government has failed to implement the monthly stipends it promised workers, and promises to provide public transportation to offset gas prices have not materialized.
More Mixed Nuts
- Russia bans gasoline exports for 6 months from March 1 (Reuters)
- Six-year Dutch trial ends in life sentence for cocaine cartel leader (Guardian)
- Hunt considers National Insurance cuts at Budget (BBC)
- After U.S. Strikes, Iran’s Proxies Scale Back Attacks on American Bases (NYT, $)
- Prominent Russian human rights activist Oleg Orlov gets 2 1/2 years in prison for criticizing war (AP)
Middle East Mixed Nuts
- Israel accused of deliberately starving Gaza civilians as war plans leave Netanyahu “increasingly isolated” (CBS)
- Qatar and Egypt ‘will help form new Palestinian technocratic government’ (Guardian)
- Israeli director receives death threats after officials call Berlin film festival ‘antisemitic’ (Guardian)
- Biden signals there could be a truce in Gaza soon but Israel and Hamas indicate no deal is imminent (AP)
- Israel and Hamas distance themselves from Biden’s optimism on Gaza ceasefire deal (CNN)
The Border Is Back On The Mind
- Gallup released a poll yesterday that revealed that Americans view immigration as the most important issue facing the country today, with the share of U.S. adults who rank “immigration” as the most important problem going from 20% last month to 28% this month. Immigration hasn’t ranked that high since 2019.
- Gallup said immigration is the only issue to see any significant increase since last month, though the pollsters noted that the survey was conducted when the Senate had reached an agreement about the border (which later died). Biden and Trump are set to make appearances at the border tomorrow.
IVF Fallout In Florida
- Florida lawmakers have postponed a “fetal personhood” bill after Alabama’s IVF ruling. Republican lawmakers were gathering support for the bill that, similar to Alabama’s, would have defined a fetus as an unborn child and allowed parents to collect financial damages should wrongful death occur. Alabama’s IVF providers have suspended services as they try to figure out how to move forward.
- Democratic Senators Tammy Duckworth and Patty Murray demanded yesterday that the Senate vote on their bill that would protect IVF on a federal level no matter what a state’s law says. “The ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court — effectively labeling women who undergo IVF as criminals and our doctors as killers — proves that we were right to be worried,” Duckworth said in a statement. The bill was first introduced in 2022.
More Nuts In America
- Alabama justice’s ties with far-right Christian movement raise concern (NPR)
- Tennessee House advances bill to ban reappointing lawmakers booted for behavior (NBC)
- Record-breaking warmth is making it feel like spring – and will trigger an unusual severe weather event (CNN)
- Taylor Swift endorsement ‘classified’, jokes Joe Biden on Seth Meyers (Guardian)
- Biden’s late-night talk show appearance draws pro-Palestinian protest (Politico)
- US Army is slashing thousands of jobs in major revamp to prepare for future wars (AP)
Would You Like Fries With Your Surge-Priced Baconator?
- If you’ve ever tried to catch an Uber or Lyft after a concert, you’ve probably seen that your ride costs a ridiculous amount thanks to something called “surge pricing.” Unfortunately for us, the genius MBAs pulling the strings at Wendy’s are looking to introduce that price scheme to your local fast-food joint.
- “Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing more enhanced features like dynamic pricing and daypart offerings, along with AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling,” said Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner during a conference call earlier this month. “As we continue to show the benefit of this technology in our company-operated restaurants, franchisee interest in digital menu boards should increase, further supporting sales and profit growth across the system.”
- The new system will see the company invest $20 million to install digital menus across all its U.S. locations, with an additional $10 million over the next two years set aside to support the changes worldwide. At least we have the next year to enjoy our non-AI-powered Baconators in peace.
More Loose Nuts
- US Coast Guard seizes more than $143 million worth of cocaine in the Pacific (CNN)
- ‘Beautiful’: Scientists unveil 240 million-year-old ‘Chinese dragon’ fossil (USA Today)
- Kids are using phones in class, even when it’s against the rules. Should schools ban them all day? (AP)
- ‘We’ve seen the culture change’: how one Australian work site increased its female workforce fivefold (Guardian)
- Rare copy of Mao’s Little Red Book expected to fetch more than £30,000 (Guardian)
- Gaganyaan: India names astronauts for maiden space flight (BBC)