Internal | July 18th, 2024

GOOD MORNING

Here's everything you need to know today: If you asked us to bet our last $5K on who would be the clarion voice on Silicon Valley's newfound bromance with former President Trump, we would have lost it all by not betting on Mark Cuban. In a midday Wednesday tweet, Cuban —ever the contrarian— suggests that Sand Hill Road's MAGA shift isn't about Trump’s charm or his policies: It's all about Bitcoin, baby!

According to Cuban, and we don’t hate on his thinking, It's not that Trump is a crypto crusader (because, let's face it, he's not), but rather his potential changes at the SEC could make life easier for the crypto bros. But that's just the tip of Cuban’s iceberg. The real kicker would be Trump’s economic cocktail of lower taxes and tariffs that could spark inflation. Combine that with a dash of global uncertainty and a sprinkle of doubts about the U.S. dollar's future as the world's reserve currency, and voilà—you've got the perfect recipe for a Bitcoin boom.

We couldn’t have Beautiful Mind’ed this better ourselves.

Let’s dive into more detail below.

BREAKING NEWS
Want to see a sentence that was true in 2016 and then again today?

It seems Donald Trump is open to nominating JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as his Treasury Secretary should he win the presidential election, again. And just like 8 years ago, we peg Trump’s chances of convincing “America’s Banker” to join his administration at roughly 0%.

Why wouldn’t the nation’s most outspoken financial figure want a gig that lets him put his beliefs into action? Because like the other J.D. that Trump has brought into his oversized gold tent, this one wants to be POTUS.

WHAT HAPPENED
In an interview with Bloomberg, Trump offered one of his stream-of-consciousness thought chains that included the “revelation” he is mulling over making Dimon his Treasury Secretary.

“I have a lot of respect for Jamie Dimon,” Trump told Bloomberg.

Well, that makes sense. Dimon has been CEO of JPMorgan for almost two decades, and in that time he has guided America’s largest bank through the 2008 financial crisis, the pandemic, and — to be frank — Trump’s four years in the White House after Jamie turned down the Treasury nomination in 2016.

In fact, when Dimon had emergency heart surgery in early March 2020, it caused a shudder down the spine of Wall Street when Trump and his team attempted to roll out its nearly $1 trillion Paycheck Protection Program with Jamie lying in bed and not in the Oval Office telling Trump how it was, like, actually going to work.

Obviously, JPMorgan is not commenting on Trump’s musings because, at this point, Dimon is JPMorgan. The neverending speculation over who will succeed Dimon in JPM’s corner office has become Wall Street’s longest-running soap opera, but until Jamie completes his shiny new JPM HQ mega-tower on Park Avenue, it’s very unlikely that he will ever step aside… and let CFO Jennifer Piepszak take over (we all know it’s gonna be her, you guys).

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BREAKING NEWS
No cap, this Zynny is hitting after that bougie night at the club.

Do we have your attention now? Good, because Phillip Morris International (PMI) recently announced a new $600 million initiative to launch a Zyn facility in Aurora, Colo. creating over 500 jobs. Philip Morris first entered the "nicotine-free" pouch market after acquiring Swedish Match in late 2022.

Coming upon that headline, the eerily prophetic quote from Rust Cohle, played by Matthew McConaughey in the only good series of True Detective (you know it's true!), came to mind, "Time is a flat circle."

This Nietzschian concept of eternal recurrence came to mind because of PMI, who has been involved in several significant legal cases over the years. So what are these masterminds of disregard for public health up to? Why now? And with their history, why isn't anyone seeing the likely long-term effects?

WHAT HAPPENED
If it sounds like we're suspicious of Phillip Morris and the slew of other products on the market right now offering Americans a quick fix for a bigger problem, it's because we are.

Why? For one, Zyn looks to be Phillip Morris's new golden goose. In 2023, PMI reported shipping approximately 350 million cans of Zyn, reflecting a 62% increase compared to the previous year.

PMI's future project includes a "state of the art" facility for Zyn pouches, promising a $550 million annual impact and providing an additional 1,000 "indirect" jobs and positions. Officials also project they will create about 5,000 construction jobs.

That's all well and good, but reading quotes like "PMI and its U.S. affiliates are accelerating their mission to move adults who smoke away from cigarettes in the U.S. by investing in new U.S. manufacturing capacity to meet the increasing demand for nicotine options that are scientifically substantiated as better alternatives," from PMI Americas President and U.S. CEO Stacey Kennedy left us all a little "shook."

Contradicting PMI's stated mission to transition smokers away from cigarettes is data suggesting users often consume multiple nicotine products concurrently. According to Statista, in 2022, 84% of regular nicotine pouch users in the U.S. also regularly used combustible tobacco products. Furthermore, 64% used vaped tobacco products, and 52% used smokeless tobacco products.

This multi-product usage pattern raises questions about whether PMI's new products are truly helping people quit smoking or simply diversifying nicotine consumption methods to keep their profits rolling in.

Even better for PMI is that the product markets itself with "Zyn influencers" and other lovers of the "6 MillyMilly lip pillow" by posting funny videos on TikTok and Instagram that get millions of views daily.

Tory Spindle, an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, emphasizes that these nicotine-free pouches "really highlight flavors, and all of the pouches have catchy one-syllable names. It almost seems like they're trying to make them come off more like a gum rather than an actual nicotine product."

But don't worry. Philip Morris said that "Zyn's marketing is directed toward legal-age nicotine users who are 21+," while the FDA announced in April 2024 the issuance of 119 warning letters to brick-and-mortar retailers that engaged in the underage sale of ZYN between October 2023 and February 2024.

As the saying goes, kids will be kids.

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BREAKING NEWS
We’re not saying that Tesla is a beta, but based on how the EV market is behaving, it’s certainly no longer the alpha.

The so-called "real" car companies – you know, those dinosaurs with decades of experience – are finally getting their act together and eating into Tesla's market share as Elon Musk plows deeper into his public persona as the Tony Stark of anti-wokeness, inherently politicizing the car company that has become inextricable from his persona.

Legacy car manufacturers around the globe have been consistently rolling out EV models that don't require an eccentric billionaire's Twitter endorsements to generate sales, and the once-dominant Tesla is starting to feel the heat, and it’s getting even hotter.

WHAT HAPPENED
In the last few days, two rather established auto giants have announced plans that are designed to squeeze Tesla’s business model.

In an unlikely but intriguing partnership, Mercedes-Benz and Starbucks are joining forces to install fast electric vehicle chargers at 100 Starbucks locations along Interstate 5, from Canada to Mexico. The luxuriously caffeinated waiting areas reportedly feature 400kW charging speeds and are part of the German auto company’s $1 billion initiative to establish 2,000 new EV charging hubs globally.

Meanwhile, Cadillac is obliterating the aesthetic line between the EV and normcore versions of its Escalade SUV line. Cadillac will roll out its first fully EV Escalade later this year but in a signal of what’s to come its gas-powered 2025 model is getting an electric-inspired facelift with vertically positioned headlights influenced by the Cadillac Lyriq and Celestiq, and a dashboard screen that would make a tweaker crypto trader jealous. When the EV Escalade does roll onto the sales floor, it might look like a fraternal twin.

Combined, these latest developments are squeezing Tesla from two sides. Mercedes charging stations will make Tesla’s Supercharging dominance much less dominant and Escalades all looking like EVs could snuff out Tesla’s SUV plans (and don’t come at us with the CyberTruck, have you seen one of those things in real life?). 

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