🙏 Hurricane Milton could cost $175B

Today’s market performance 🏆️

S&P 500: +0.71% 📈
Nasdaq 100: +0.80% 📈
Dow 30: +1.03% 📈
Russell 2000: +0.26% 📈

In partnership with

FROM OUR FRIENDS @ COMPARECREDIT

Top Card Offering 0% Interest until Nearly 2026

This credit card gives more cash back than any other card in the category & will match all the cash back you earned at the end of your first year.

Learn More

TOP STORY
🙏 Hurricane Milton could cost $175B

In the coming days, Florida will be hit with a “once-in-a-century” storm, Hurricane Milton.

• Despite its grandfatherly name, Hurricane Milton is expected to wreak havoc on thousands of homes and businesses in the Tampa region, potentially putting many lives at risk.

• As you can imagine, this is a very difficult time for Florida and the U.S., with damage estimated to range from $50 billion to a mind-boggling $175 billion, according to Wall Street analysts.

It's crazy that Wall Street estimates exist for everything, even hurricane damage.

But what's even crazier is that less than two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene devastated the same region, causing $11 billion in damage.

But $175 billion is a lot more than $11 billion, why so much?

First, cause Milton is a Category 4, maybe even Category 5 hurricane.

For those who aren’t hurricane experts or native Floridians, that means winds of at least 130-157 mph, severe storm surges, widespread power outages, and significant damage to homes and infrastructure.

Second, the storm is expected to hit densely populated areas like Tampa, increasing the risk of widespread destruction.

We’ll have to wait and see how it unfolds, but this doesn’t look good.

Praying for Florida 🙏

RESTAURANTS
🥩 McDonald’s is going after the Meat mafia

Earlier this week, McDonald’s announced that it was suing the "U.S. meat industry's Big Four: Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef Packing Company, along with their subsidiaries."

What’s the beef? McDonald’s claims that the meat giants limited the beef supply to inflate prices, which (ingeniously) created a monopoly where direct purchasers, like McDonald’s, were forced to buy at high prices.

Sounds like good business to me, lol. But maybe not to the companies stuck paying the high prices.

And it‘s been going on for a while.

According to McDonald’s, this scheme has been ongoing since January 2015, with nearly a decade of this "meat mafia" causing trouble (yes, I coined the phrase).

But although it sounds a bit far-fetched, maybe even a bit like paranoia, it isn’t the first time this kind of suit has been brought to court.

• In 2021, Tyson agreed to pay $221.5 million after facing class-action claims that allegedly purposely inflated chicken prices.

• And in 2022, JBS agreed to a $52.5 million settlement in a similar beef price-fixing lawsuit. 

The usual defense is that these big players must raise prices because of supply and demand, inflation, and other factors outside their control. 

Let’s see who takes home the bacon this time around.

WORD OF THE DAY

TECHNOLOGY
💔 The DOJ wants to break up Google

Earlier this week, we learned that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering breaking up Google because — you guessed it — they believe Google holds a monopoly in the search market.

I swear I'm having deja vu.

Google is just getting too big for its own good, even though in our last edition, we made it pretty clear that Google actually has more competition than ever before.

I guess the DOJ just doesn’t read the Daily Munch. Morons. So, I’m forced to bite: what do they want Google to do?

The DOJ kindly laid out a few ways Google can make search more fair:

• Break up Google’s products like Chrome, Play, and Android from its search business.

• Prohibit exclusive agreements with companies like Apple and Samsung for default search engine placement.

• Implement a “choice screen” to allow users to select from different search engines.

• Share Google’s search data and AI features with competitors.

These potential solutions would end “Google’s control of distribution today” and ensure “Google cannot control tomorrow's distribution.”

It sounds dystopian as hell. 

As you’d expect, Google plans to fight the DOJ’s recommendations, calling them "radical" and warning that they could hurt consumers and businesses more than anyone else.

What’s the most likely outcome? According to CNBC, the court may require Google to end exclusive deals with Apple and allow users to try other search engines. 

A total breakup, though? That is not going to happen.