we were debating GM’s new logo and realized that all these car companies used blue logos (VW, BMW, Ford, Subaru, and Volvo). why not try to be different, huh GM? we hope this newsletter is different from the rest of your inbox. if not, please email us your suggestions!
big idea: $15 minimum wage suffers setback
the senate’s parliamentarian (their judge judy) ruled that dems can’t include the $15 minimum wage in the latest stimulus bill (because it isn’t exactly stimulus). their best chance of raising the wage is now because this bill only requires 51 votes (while most other bills need 60 #filibuster).
democrats seemingly did not prepare for this high probability eventuality. Joe has been saying for weeks that this maneuver was unlikely to succeed, and moderate dems have also said they don’t support a $15 wage in the proposed timeframe (a nonpartisan report found it would cost 1.4 million jobs while significantly reducing poverty).
dems have several options to ram this through. progressives are pushing to ignore the parliamentarian (or fire her, or end the filibuster). Bernie is floating the idea of taxing employers who pay their workers less than $15. they could also try to pass this as a separate bill (with 10 republican votes) by spreading the hike over a longer timeframe.
so, what’s our opinion on this mess? well, after three drafts and about four hours of debating, our team can’t agree on anything. progressives have a reasonable demand - Joe could easily order auntie Kamala to overrule the parliamentarian, but they’re ignoring his lifetime of upholding senate rules. moderates also have a good point - progressives should’ve had a better plan for passing their signature campaign promise, but in fairness dems do have control of DC.
story to watch: T-Mobile is winning the 5G war
two stories went unnoticed this week - first, AT&T spun off its TV subsidiaries at an enormous loss, and second, Verizon and AT&T spent big at a 5G spectrum auction
that’s a lot to unpack, but 5G is magical - with the right spectrum, it can be faster than your home wifi. 5G uses a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum (#fisixsflashback) that delivers faster internet speeds.
T-Mobile got all the spectrum they could use when they merged with Sprint (good riddance), so AT&T and Verizon have been playing catch-up. even after they both spent about $70 billion buying more spectrum this week, they’re still behind T-Mobile. if you don’t have enough spectrum, you can’t deliver those blazing speeds.
now back to AT&T spinning off their TV assets at a huge loss. AT&T is in a pickle, with mountains of debt (after buying said TV assets a few years ago at inflated prices) and in third place for number of customers, after Verizon & T-Mobile respectively.
so, we’re in the odd position of writing that T-Mobile is going to steal Verizon’s first place trophy. that’s a huge shift from just six years ago when T-Mobile was the runt of the industry. they’re in the best position technically and financially to own the future of 5G.
this week’s image: Baarack the sheep
(NBC) an Australian sheep finally got a haircut, which he’d been avoiding because of covid. the little guy had 78 pounds of wool weighing him down.
this week’s number: bitcoin mining consumes 121 terawatt-hours annually
the computer process to create new bitcoins uses 121 TWh annually, more energy than countries like argentina or new zealand use in a year. we could do an entire newsletter on bitcoinsanity, but suffice it to say bitcoins are incredibly energy inefficient (and volatile).
to make things worse, bitcoin is typically mined in coal-burning countries with fewer pollution regulations (and as reader S.M. told us, mined by a select few companies). as we move towards a carbon negative society, all economic activity must be ecologically scrutinized, regardless of how ‘revolutionary’ they may be.
what we’re reading: “Nothing to Envy”
a 336-page read by an LA Times journalist, this is a searing indictment of the north korean totalitarian regime, told from the perspective of normal citizens
based on interviews of scores of defectors, it examines just how absurd and wretched life is under the rule of the kims, from people picking and eating undigested corn from cow poop during famines, to meth being offered to houseguests as casually as tea
and, in case you missed it:
ford’s answer to the tesla model Y, the mach-e, continues being delivered to buyers despite the industry-wide chip shortage, with reader M.C. receiving hers last week
another tech company gives up on the healthcare sector, with IBM putting watson (its AI doctor & jeopardy winner) up for sale
Joe bombed Syrian targets in retaliation for an attack against ‘murican forces in iraq, a legally (not to mention morally) dubious action
canadians are complaining that their butter is too hard #firstworldproblems
the weekly rundown is produced by Yunus, Faisal, and Ahmed. learn more about us and email us your comments and feedback!
3 minimum wage fight, t-mobile & 5G