TECH TODAY

Throwing forks (and maybe knives too) Wordpress Vs WP Engine drama continues. Matt Mullenweg Co-Founder of Wordpress and CEO of Automaticc said that he’s not worried the drama between the two will cause a fork but said he would welcome it.

Tech Crunch Disrupt 2024 live blog updates.

Google CEO says 25%+ of code is now generated by AI

HEADLINE NEWS 👀

Freight Rates Are On The Rise 🚛 

Two large freight carriers in recent earnings reporting said they are seeing rate increases in what has been a weak freight market. XPO the nations largest LTL carrier and Werner Enterprises on of the nations largest truckload carrier reported strategic rate increases and see more rate increases to follow this year.

U.S. Economy Humming Along

Consumer spending helped the economy grow at a healthy 2.8% for the period July to September according to the Commerce Department report released on Wednesday. Consumer spending was up nearly 1% from the April-June period which accounts for 70% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The Commerce Department report said business investment fell significantly on reduced investment in housing and commercial real estate. The bright spot on business reporting showed a soaring increase in investment on equipment.

Tech Giants Drag Markets Lower

Meta Platforms, parent of Facebook, and Microsoft took an 🪓 to the market cutting the NASDAQ 2.8% and sending the DJIA down 📉 378 points or 0.9% Thursday. Investors had expiring expected expectations that Microsoft Azure could grow in line with analysts’ expectations (surprise). Investors didn’t take to well to the news Meta would ramp up spending next year on further development of AI.

Two more of the Magnificent Seven contributed to the onslaught. Apple was down 2% while Amazon dropped 3.4% on the day before they were to report earnings after hours.

🚕 Your Cybercab has arrived.

Elon Musk, entrepreneur extraordinaire and Tesla founder, unveiled the much-awaited robotaxi aka Robocab on a Warner Bros studios Hollywood backlot.

Musk called his vision of the vehicle “a fun, exciting future” in an “age of abundance” for self-driving cars. The pedal free electric car is also void of a steering wheel.

The Robovan a larger EV designed to carry a larger passenger payload was also introduced at the event.

Musk is known to over promise and under deliver on timelines he sets when discussing delivery of Tesla and SpaceX products.

 The event was livestream to millions on Musk’s owned social platform X.com.

TD BANK ROBBERS UNMASKED 🔫

Emily Blunt the heroine in 2015’s Sicario even knew to stay clear of the guns, violence, and fear delivered by the heavy hand of drug cartels.

TD Bank was clobbered with $3 billion in penalties for allowing money laundering to go unchecked with 90% of bank transactions going unchecked between January 2018 and April 2024. Yikes 😳

The U.S. Justice and Treasury Departments in recent years fear the drug cartels, who do not limit criminal behavior to only drugs, are using the U.S. Banking System to launder ill-gotten gains. Flush with cash from the sale of Fentanyl and other drugs the cartels have helped propel an epidemic killing more than 112,000 people in 2023.  

TD Bank’s Chief Executive Officer Bharat Masrani announced the settlement on Thursday said “There were serious failures of our U.S. AML program” (well no shit, Sherlock). Masrani concluded that it is a “sad day in our history” while stating TD Bank has “taken full responsibility for the significant failures”. In a September announcement Masrani said he will step down as CEO in April 2025. 

Today’s $3 billion dollar settlement follows last year’s agreement to pay $1.2 billion to settle the banks part in R. Allen Stanford’s Ponzi scheme a massive investment fraud for which he was convicted in 2012.  

“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer” Michael Corleone

TD Bank is owned by Toronto-Dominion Bank Canada’s second largest bank with $1.97 Trillion in assets. Toronto- Dominion Bank also owns brokerages TD Ameritrade, and Charles Schwab.

Skip-a-dee-do-dah!

Disney is looking for lightening in a bottle charging a whopping $400 for its line-cutting Lightening Lane Premier Pass. Disneyland and Disneyworld will offer a Lightning Multi Day Pass as an add on to the entry ticket and a Lightning Single Pass purchased after entry for two highly desired attractions. Learn more at Disney

Mickey and Minnie are getting new parents 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

Disney announced James Gorman its next Chairman who will take over on January 2, 2025 and the company said it would name a new CEO to replace Bob Iger in early 2026.

THE GRIND FACTORY ⚙️ 

Actionable business knowledge and skill development for founders and entrepreneurs.

Learning how to manage cash flow is a critical business skill. The No. 1 fear of all Small Business owners is running out of cash. Small Business failure statistics say 82% of businesses fail as a result of cash flow issues according to U.S. Chamber of Commerce and SCORE.

Learning how to read a cash flow statement is one of the critical business skills all entrepreneurs should master to insure the business has sufficient cash for operations. While accounting isn’t the most exciting topic, sorry you pocket protector carrying types, The Grind has uncovered a high level way to learn this skill. And its FREE!

Learn how to read a cash flow statement for free from Harvard Business School

WEALTH FACTOR

“You Like To Think Big”?

Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank has been known to think big and place big bets like in Uber, Nvidia, Alibaba, Door Dash, WeWork, and ByteDance (TikTok). Son said it will require “200 Million chips” to build out AI with a cumulative CAPEX cost of 💰$9 Trillion which he suggests is “reasonable”. Son concluded that $9 Trillion per annum will be generated with a 50% net profit and four new GAFA companies will have split the bulk of it taking in $1 Trillion in profits. Talk about a 🔥🔥🔥 chat❗️

PIC OF THE DAY

REAL ESTATE CORNER

High real estate prices combined with high borrowing rates are anticipated to keep sales down at their lowest rate since 1995. “Home sales are stuck at low levels,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Americans are really not moving.”

UNIQUELY INTERESTING

💡 Epiphany Moments

On longevity: Mental stimulation is essential to maintain cognizant function (and reduce risk of dementia). Keep the brain active through activities like socializing with family and friends (try meeting new friends) reading, puzzles (love or hate the NYT crossword) and learning new skills. You are worth every bit of the effort.

 🍎 One Smart Apple

Moore’s Law may not be any more. The concept of Moore’s Law is that a micro chip’s capacity doubles every year. Now MIT Technology Review says chip manufactures “are turning to smaller, more modular “chiplets” that are designed for specific functions” and linked together to build entire systems. Chiplets will help reduce chip and thereby system costs.