Finance

Smart Buys for Inflation Fears in a Shifting Political Landscape

With the presidential election now behind us, it appears the U.S. economy has shifted from hopes of a “soft landing” to a surprising “no landing” scenario—and now seems to be taking off altogether. This week, stock markets reached new record highs, and the Federal Reserve responded by cutting interest rates once more.

These conditions are breathing new life into inflation-protected securities like TIPS, making them an increasingly attractive option. While the stock market responded enthusiastically to the Republicans’ sweeping victory, bond investors showed caution. Their main concern is that policies such as tax cuts, tariffs, and potential immigrant deportations could push inflation back up, which would affect bond values.

For investors, this climate underscores the importance of inflation-protected investments. The prospect of increased consumer demand, coupled with reduced labor supply due to deportation policies, may lead to rising prices. Tax cuts could add fuel to the inflationary fire by increasing disposable income and boosting spending.

TECH

Silicon Valley's Silence: Employee Activism Wanes After Trump’s Win

If any sector could be described as politically charged, it was the tech industry.

Early in Donald Trump’s first term, America’s tech giants strongly opposed his temporary travel ban affecting seven predominantly Muslim countries. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a personal post, recalling that his great-grandparents were immigrants and his in-laws were refugees. Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder and an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, hurried to San Francisco International Airport to protest the ban in person.

Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, also joined employees at a rally outside the company’s headquarters, where he addressed the crowd, saying, “Wow, thank you everyone for showing up today. It’s remarkable,” as cheers erupted.

CRYPTO

Jack Dorsey Scales Back Crypto Vision for Block Amid Industry Shifts

In the crypto-obsessed summer of 2021, when memecoins like dogecoin and Shiba Inu were soaring alongside bitcoin and ethereum, Square founder Jack Dorsey unveiled a new business unit for his payments company. The goal was to "make it easy to create non-custodial, permissionless, and decentralized financial services."

“Our primary focus is #Bitcoin,” Dorsey declared on Twitter, revealing the new unit would be called TBD.

Later that year, in December, Dorsey took it a step further by renaming Square Inc. to Block, a name he said reflected various aspects, including blockchain technology, the foundation of bitcoin. The Square Crypto business was rebranded as Spiral.

Fast forward three years, and Dorsey is scaling back his ambitions.

During Block's third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, CFO Amrita Ahuja announced that the company was “winding down our TBD efforts” after "recent decisions" regarding some emerging initiatives.

Block still holds a significant amount of bitcoin, with its holdings now valued at $630 million, and the company plans to continue investing in a bitcoin mining initiative and Bitkey, its bitcoin wallet. It will also maintain the ability for users to purchase bitcoin via Cash App.

This marks a notable shift in direction.

TBD was originally envisioned as Block's developer platform and was branded as Web5, with the mission of creating a more decentralized, secure, and private internet. Dorsey even declared in mid-2022 that Web5 “will likely be our most important contribution to the internet.”