Zoom, Doom, and Digital Pound

🌞Buongiorno🌞

Lots of key speeches yesterday that got ignored (not by us) + will Apple become the next big bank? 

Let’s jump in— 

Politics💈

US president Joe Biden extended Republicans a hand while drawing his battle lines. His first State of the Union speech to a divided Congress mentioned the areas where the parties could come together or fight over in the next two years. (POLITICO)

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Technology 🦾

Zoom announced layoffs and executive pay cuts. The software company is eliminating 1,300 roles as CEO Eric Yuan slashed his salary by 98%. (CNN)

Autonomous Note 🧿: Zoom, once the darling of pandemic era stocks, now sits down -95% from its pandemic high. It is appearing that Zoom was a one-hit-wonder that came to the right place (our homes, computers) at the right time (pandemic era)

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Microsoft launched an AI update to Bing. The search engine has been integrated with the technology behind ChatGPT as the tech giant takes on Google’s market dominance (GIZMODO)

🧿: We're all over the A.I. wars. Incoming special edition focused on this on Telegram ⚠️

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Apple has expanded its test of an integrated buy-now-pay-later service within its financial products. Retail employees now have access to the feature. (BBG)

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Macro 🌎

Turkey Earthquake: The toll rose as rescuers faced shortages of trucks, fuel and time. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey visited the area near the epicenter. (NYT)

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Chinese consumers are hoarding cash. (WSJ)

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Digital Assets ⚡️

The Bank of England has officially thrown its hat in the digital currency ring. 

Officials at the U.K. central bank and U.K. government put forward a consultation document that laid out the planks by which a digital pound might one day be issued. (The Block)🧿: Our research team has always felt that blockchain is a perfect tool for governments, especially those aiming to gain more control and information from their currency networks. Blockchain based technologies have the potential to provide decentralized anonymous and private transactions, but they also have the ability to provide centralized authority to build networks with transparency, surveillance, and a speed that we've never seen before.    

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Meme Digestif ☕️

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