Business

From Hyatt to Holiday Inn, America’s free hotel breakfast is facing a K-shaped economic threat. Airlines manage to unbundle everything, even in the premium class. Just ask Delta about it. Now, it seems like hotel chains are heading that way. We already have breakfast broken out as a line time at a lot of hotels, including premium brands. Taking it away from middle or lower brands may be challenging, but don’t underestimate the power of capitalism.

Lunar New Year gives luxury brands a chance to win back big spenders in China. Chinese consumers are no longer accepting mediorce quality just because some goods are from the West. They now demand goods personalized for them. That’s why Western brands find it extremely tough to compete in China. Chinese firms are formidable and understand the local consumers whose standard is increasingly high. Western companies either adapt and compete or get left behind.

Starbucks needs you to buy an afternoon refresher. Starbucks already showed positive signs of its turnaround story, but to meet the lofty premium valuation, compared to its peers, Starbucks must figure out how to boost sales after the morning rush.

The Legal Weed Business Is Booming. Bank Access Isn’t. “Despite those billions of dollars in annual sales, the thousands of operators in the 40 states where weed is legal in some form are stuck in a financial predicament: Marijuana remains illegal on the federal level. Banks that answer to regulators in Washington—rather than state authorities—have to play by federal rules, which prohibit them from handling money made from illegal substances or lending to the companies associated with them. Working with a dispensary, weed brand or cannabis grower could expose banks to money laundering charges or, in the worst case, jeopardize their federal banking charter. Credit cards aren’t allowed at all; payment processors such as Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. have eschewed the industry to avoid compliance risk. Wilson estimates that the $63 the average customer spends per visit could easily be 15% to 20% higher if the Greenpoint dispensary were allowed to accept credit cards. “

Other Stuff I Find Interesting

Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post. Of course, this post is more of an opinion and less of a scientific paper. However, it does have a point. If the owner of the Post cared about its duty and journalistic integrity, he would have done things differently. I am not saying Jeff should run it like a charity and keep pouring money into the paper without a sound business model. But at least he could have brought the vigor, the financial backing at first and the managerial discipline he built at Amazon to the paper. He did not.

America’s Future Is African. The author has an interesting theory that the future of the US is going to rely on African immigrants. The theory has some meat on it, but I doubt it will be true. First of all, Africans have an easier access to Europe than to the US. The US faces a declining fertility rate, but the problem is not even close to being as critical as the one Europe faces. Additionally, the US’ pluralism will not stop anytime soon, despite the increasing hostility towards immigration. Why? Because we need talents. Much as the US is shooting itself in the foot, it’s still THE destination for talented labor. Will the US welcome and benefit from African immigrants? Absolutely. Will its future depend on them? I don’t think so.

Supreme Court strikes down Trump tariffs, rebuking president’s signature economic policy. Whether you like the decision or not, what the Supreme Court had to say stands and will determine what happens next, unless Congress enacts a different law. What is interesting to me is the dissenting argument from Judge Kavanaugh. He argued against the majority ruling saying that the refund process would be a mess. Well, it is a mess of a flawed decision in the first place. Should we not correct a wrong simply because the remediation process is not convenient? Unbelievable.

Inflation Is Down, But Americans Still Feel an Affordability Squeeze. Persistent inflation and a horrible job market are what ordinary Americans have to deal with nowadays. The stock market and the GDP print do not reflect that.

What’s behind your eye-popping power bill? We broke it down, region by region. An interesting breakdown of electricity bills in each major region of the country and why each is higher or lower than the country’s average. I did not know that the Midwest was a success story of renewable energy, specifically wind power.

Child’s Play. It’s incredible what people could do when they put their mind to it and just execute. No fear, all agency. It makes me wonder how agentic I am since I can’t imagine I could do what Roy, Eric or Donald Boat in this story did.

Stats

Singapore offers $792,000 in rewards for a gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympic.

The memory semiconductor industry is projected to hit $800 – $850 billion in revenue in 2027