February 21, 2022 View Online | Sign Up | Shop

TOGETHER WITH

Good morning. This newsletter is dedicated to everyone who woke up

before you wanted to because you forgot to turn off your alarm clock for the
three-day weekend. Next opportunity for redemption: Memorial Day, 98 days
from now.

—Neal Freyman

MARKETS: YEAR-TO-DATE

Nasdaq 13,548.07 -13.40%

S&P 4,348.87 -8.76%

Dow 34,079.18 -6.22%

10-Year 1.928% +41.4 bps

Bitcoin $38,980.62 -15.82%

Gold $1,898.00 +3.68%

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 8:00pm ET. Here's what these
numbers mean.

Markets: The US stock market is closed for Presidents Day today, but
investors will certainly have the Monday Scaries due to unanswered
questions around inflation and the Russia–Ukraine crisis. One asset that’s
doing particularly well amid the tensions is gold, which is considered a
hedge against geopolitical conflicts. The metal’s price has increased in 12
of the last 15 trading sessions, and is hovering at levels not seen since last
June.

FOOD

Icahn wants to know how the sausage is made

Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for New York Times

Last Tuesday, HBO premiered a documentary on the life of Carl Icahn called
Icahn: The Restless Billionaire, and just a few days later he is proving them
correct.
The 86-year-old investor has nominated two directors to the McDonald’s
board in a bid to pressure the fast-food chain to improve its suppliers’
treatment of pigs.

This story begins a decade ago, when, after getting an earful from Icahn and
the Humane Society, McDonald’s announced that it would only buy pork from
suppliers that stopped using gestation crates (tiny stalls) to hold pregnant
pigs by 2022.

10 years later, Icahn is arguing that the company has both a) shifted the
goalposts and b) hasn’t moved fast enough.

McDonald’s suppliers only move pigs out of gestation crates once they’re
confirmed pregnant, which could be weeks into their 16-week
pregnancies, according to Icahn.
And McDonald’s says it can’t even supply 100% of its pork from pigs in
those conditions before 2024.

Icahn isn’t going about this in the typical way

Known as the OG “corporate raider,” Icahn popularized the strategy of activist
investing. How that usually works: He buys stakes in companies he thinks are
mismanaged, then uses that leverage to wage war on leadership. If Icahn
succeeds, then the changes he pushes for will cause the stock to jump. And,
with a net worth around $17 billion, he’s succeeded a decent amount.

But Icahn’s approach with McDonald’s is very different. He’s not arguing that
the company is undervalued because of incompetent leaders, just that it’s
being unethical. And he doesn’t expect to make any money from this.

Icahn only owns about 200 shares of McDonald’s (about $50,000 worth),
a negligible amount compared to his typical investments of hundreds of
millions of dollars.
“Animals are one of the things I feel really emotional about,” he told the
WSJ.

Big picture: McDonald’s said it would consider Icahn’s two nominees, but it
maintains that the industry can’t support fully eliminating gestation crates at
this point. It also suggested Icahn is a hypocrite for not pushing for similar
changes at meat company Viskase, of which he’s a majority owner.

WORLD

Tour de headlines

Ukrainian civilians use logs as guns during a military training course. Chris McGrath/Getty Images.

Biden sends a gCal invite: President Biden has agreed “in principle” to
meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin if Putin has not already invaded
Ukraine. The move, brokered by French President Emmanuel Macron, is a
last-ditch diplomatic effort to avert a war that US leaders say is imminent.

The occupation of Ottawa is over. Police cleared out the remaining

protesters and towed the trucks that had been blockading downtown Ottawa
for three weeks. Still, the demonstration, which galvanized conservative
voices across the world, could have lasting effects on Canadian politics.

Suisse Secrets. A whistleblower leaked data on more than 18,000 Credit

Suisse accounts, exposing how the Swiss bank had a list of shady clients,
including alleged human rights abusers, sanctioned businessmen, and
relatives of dictators. Credit Suisse denied any allegations of wrongdoing.

SPORTS

Why is Norway so dang good at the Winter

Olympics?

Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images

The 2022 Winter Olympics have come to a close, and once again Norway
topped the leaderboard, with 37 medals. Four years ago in Pyeongchang,
Norway crushed the competition with 39, and it boasts more total Winter
Olympics medals than any other country.

But more people live in New York City than in Norway. So what’s its secret?

First of all, Norway’s rich: With a per capita GDP of $67,389, it’s the seventh
wealthiest country in the world. Lots of money is necessary to succeed in
winter sports that require expensive gear, cutting-edge technology, and expert
training (in the US, a junior ski racing career can run $500,000).

Norway is also cold (good for winter sports, we hear) and has a strong culture
of skiing—70% of Norwegians own cross-country skis, according to a 2013
survey.

But perhaps what sets Norway apart is its ability to create enthusiastic
athletes from a young age. Instead of locking children into high-stakes
competitions as youngsters, Norway invites them to dabble in a variety of
sports with only one goal: have fun. The government takes this so seriously
that it crafted a document called “Children’s Rights in Sport,” which states that
“children should receive a positive experience every time they participate in
sport.”

At the more than 12,000 athletic clubs across the country, championships
are not held until kids hit age 13.

Big picture: While Norway excels at winter sports, it also punches above its
weight in other athletic disciplines. Golfer Viktor Hovland and tennis player
Casper Ruud are both in the top 10 of their sports globally, while Magnus
Carlsen has been ranked No. 1 in chess since 2011. And yes, that’s an
athletic discipline.

TOGETHER WITH CHARMIN

Breaking news about, uh, poos

The TP kings over at Charmin have a surprise in their pipeline (ahem) coming
your way tomorrow. Why? Because there’s just no better day than 2/22/22
for the official sponsor of #2 to drop something BIG.

So, what’s the haps?

Well, we can’t give away the big splash just yet, but with tomorrow being the
iconic day of deuces, Charmin will be flushing out an event that’ll make you
proud of your natural bodily functions.

Follow Charmin on IG to be the first to see what they drop.

CALENDAR

The week ahead

Collage by Willem Dafriend, Elmo from Sesame Street/Sesame Workshop via Giphy

Prepare the hot cocoa: Pretty much everyone can justifiably complain about
the weather later this week. With arctic air moving in, more than 70% of
Americans in the Lower 48 states will experience below-freezing temps, and
over 15 million will see below-zero temps.

Trump’s back on social media: Truth Social, former President Trump’s

social media venture, could launch on the App Store today, per Reuters.
Trump’s been banned from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for about a year
for his role in stoking the Capitol riots last January.

Earnings: Home Depot, Macy’s, Virgin Galactic, Alibaba, and Moderna

highlight this week’s earnings slate as the Q4 reporting season draws to a
close.

Everything else:

AT&T is shutting down its 3G service tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a Twosday unlike any other: 2/22/22.

 Music releases: Kanye West drops Donda 2 on the Stem Player on
Tuesday, and Avril Lavigne’s new album comes out on Friday.

GRAB BAG

Key performance indicators

Tristan Fewings/Getty Images

Stat: 7.1% of US adults identify as LGBTQ, more than doubling from 3.5% in
2012, according to a new Gallup poll. Because so many youngsters identify
as LGBTQ (20.8% of Gen Zers), people who identify as LGBTQ could
comprise 10%–15% of the adult population “in the not too distant future,” the
poll’s author told Axios.

Quote: “Today, it’s a closed platform—but it could be an open platform and

part of the creator economy. What other apps would you put on it? Could it be
running an app store?”

Peloton’s new CEO Barry McCarthy asked some big questions (and
answered a bunch more) in a very candid interview with the NYT. McCarthy
wanted the job in part because Peloton already has the “hardest thing on the
planet to find”: product market fit.

Read: How Zillow’s homebuying scheme lost $881 million. (Full Stack
Economics)

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

Queen Elizabeth II tested positive for Covid. The 95-year-old monarch is

experiencing mild symptoms, Buckingham Palace said.

The Pittsburgh Steelers hired Brian Flores as a defensive assistant and

linebackers coach. Flores has sued the NFL over discriminatory hiring
practices.

Rents are reaching “insane” levels across the US.

OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, is investigating a “phishing

attack” that occurred over the weekend.

TOGETHER WITH CHARMIN

Tomorrow’s gonna be a BIG day for #2s: Oh, yes, that kind of #2. On
2/22/22 (fittingly a Tuesday) something big is goin’ down, courtesy of Charmin
—the #1 for your #2s. It’s a day of 2s you won’t soon forget, so follow
Charmin on Twitter to be the first to see what they do(o-doo).

BREW'S BETS

We get it, you have a Tesla: But what is the role of recycling in the new EV
era? Emerging Tech Brew will explore sustainability and electric vehicles in a
virtual event on 2/24 at 12pm ET. Register here.

Snapshot of humanity: This video of people on a train is mesmerizing.

Dive back into the week:

Shallow dive: Printing ceramic bowls

 Medium dive: Passing the ball

Deep dive: Google Slides is actually hilarious

Cannonball: How Apple could get to $1 trillion in revenue

GAMES

The puzzle section

Turntable: After a one-week vacation, your favorite word game is back and
has a whole new outlook on life. Play Turntable here.

Portrait gallery
On Presidents Day, we’re asking you to identify the US presidents from their
official portraits.

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ANSWER

1. Dwight D. Eisenhower

2. Theodore Roosevelt

3. Ulysses S. Grant

4. Harry S. Truman

5. John Adams
6. Andrew Jackson

Written by Neal Freyman

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