What I Wrote Last Week
What I Learned After 9 Years With FNBO
Business
Meta settles social media addiction case with California, other states for $16.7 billion. This headline settlement amount will be distributed in annual installments over the next 10 years. So essentially $1.8 billion every year. Given that Meta made $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit in 2025, this annual settlement payout is about 1% and 3.5% of revenue and profit respectively. It’s not trivial, but Meta reduced regulatory risks with an inexpensive fine. Regardless, as a parent, I welcome the changes made to limit the use of social media by minors. On a side note, this serves as a great example of why we need local and federal governments to hold powerful corporations accountabe. Individuals do not have the means to do so. In order for governments to keep corporations across the country and industries in check, they need resources. It’s always fair to question lawmakers’ effectiveness, but just vaguely asking for a smaller government may not be the answer.
Lululemon Is At War With Itself. Lululemon’s founder chairman burned through 4 CEOs since relinquishing the title and already undermined the 5th before she even takes the position in a few months. Without Covid and the inflated demand for exercise outfit due to stay-at-home order, I wonder where Lululemon would have been. What the company needs is a powerful activist investor that can keep the chairman in check and probably toss him out for good too. It’s a classic example of how the power struggle at the board level can ruin a company.
New brands flock to Target’s post-Ulta beauty section. Retail is a fascinating industry. Everyone wants to create a reason for consumers to visit. Walmart has affordable groceries, Aldi has a great assortment of private label and cheap groceries and Costco has Kirkland and cheap gas. Target has been on decline since the pandemic. Target Beauty Studio seems to be a good way to lure Target’s biggest audience – women – back into stores.
Flagstar picks cloud-native core to replace legacy patchwork. “Core consolidation is expected to generate $40 million to $45 million in annualized cost savings for the bank, Flagstar CFO Lee Smith said. Core systems handle essential back-end functions like account management and deposit and loan processing. Real-time posting, product configuration not requiring coding, “clean” API access to data and the ability to scale as the bank grows were essential capabilities, said Chief Technology Officer Jason Pope. Real-time transaction processing eliminates end-of-day batch reconciliations that most banks are beholden to, so it offers a competitive advantage, Pope noted. “Getting rid of that batch window is not a technical footnote. When your system of record is real-time and there’s a single, authoritative version of that truth, everything downstream can change,” Pope said. That includes better fraud decisions and artificial intelligence capabilities, and closer to real-time liquidity and risk reporting, due to more current data.”
Other Stuff I Find Interesting And So May You
This Rural Village in Spain is Welcoming Digital Nomads With Open Arms. Rural villages in Spain face a real challenge: there may come a day when there is nobody to maintain the local cultures. Programs like Rooral can be helpful by getting nomads to experience what’s like to live a real Spanish life. However, I doubt such programs can leave a marked impact. There are not a lot of nomads and even fewer who are fond of rural life, instead of urban experience in cities like Madrid or Barcelona. The return-to-office trend is definitely not helping either.
Trump administration proposes more than $100K fee for H-1B visas. I’d expect the backlash and the potential legal challenges would prompt the administration to either withdraw the plan or clarify that the worst possible scenario would not happen. At worst, the proposal would become a rule and if there is a change in leadership in 2028, it will be repealed. Regardless, this is the life of legal and highly educated immigrants in the US. Increasingly difficult. Unimaginably uncertain. Constantly nerve-wrecking. And the US itself would not even gain anything substantial. Whatever revenue from this scheme is too small to matter. This country is THE place to be for talent from every corner of the globe. They come here to work, contribute and build a better life. To achieve the American Dream. The US flourishes with innovation and entrepreneurship. This rule threatens to upend that model. And other countries would chomp at the bit to recruit the talents that the US turns away.
Inside Afghanistan’s Secret Schools for Girls. It’s mind-blowing that girls in Afghanistan have to risk arrest to be educated in secret so that they may have a shot at a better life. Gender discrimination is awful enough. Depriving girls of basic rights such as access to education is egregious. Reading this kind of stories puts things in perspective. Here in the US, no matter how bad things can get, at least girls do not go through what their counterparts in Afghanistan have to every day.
‘Paella is just for lunch’ and other unwritten rules for visiting Spain. European lifestyle puts more focus on social connections and life than American lifestyle. The point of travel is to see the world and what other ways of life are about.
Bangkok Is Trying a New Way to Get People Off the Streets. “Shutana’s story offers a glimpse at Bangkok’s first serious attempt to tackle homelessness through a version of Housing First, a model that provides people with stable accommodation without first requiring them to find work, overcome addiction or seek treatment for a mental health disorder. Once housed, they receive support such as skills training and healthcare. Bangkok has adapted the model to Thailand’s realities. Rather than relying on extensive state-funded services, it delivers much of its support through partner organizations and volunteers. Given the country’s large informal workforce and limited welfare system, the program puts particular emphasis on helping residents find work. Entry requirements are minimal: Residents must be at least 18 and capable of caring for themselves. Accommodation is free for the first two months; those who stay longer and have regular jobs are asked to deposit 50 baht ($1.50) a day into a savings account, building a financial cushion for when they return to independent living. “The goal here is to provide a place for transition, where people who have experienced setbacks can recover and prepare for the next chapter of their lives,” says Sanon Wangsrangboon, a deputy Bangkok governor who oversees the program. “Our priority is helping people reintegrate into society and start over.”
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Minh Quang Duong 
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