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🐭Disney Raises Streaming Costs; Password Crackdown
🎼Leader of The Band Robbie Robertson Dead
🎢Stocks Try Again
🏠Mortgages Hit 23 Year High
⛽️Gas Prices Pump Higher
🚨TRUMP: Next Indictment in Atlanta
⛱️Why You Should Take That August Vacation
🐭Disney Raises Streaming Costs; Password Crackdown
The Mouse needs more cheese, so Disney+ streaming prices are going way up!
Disney reported fiscal third quarter earnings after the bell and the number Disney+ subscribers missed estimates in the quarter, causing shares to slide 2% in after-hours trading.
Disney CEO Bob Iger says Disney+ streaming prices will rise for the second time in less than a year, increasing the monthly cost of its ad-free plan $3 to $13.99 in October. Hulu, which Disney owns a majority stake in, will also increase the monthly cost of its ad-free subscription $3 to $17.99.
Iger acknowledged that the price hikes are intended to steer consumers toward cheaper ad-supported versions of these services, whose subscription prices are not changing.The advertising market for streaming is “picking up,” he said, noting that it’s healthier than traditional TV ads.
Netflix, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Peacock have all raised prices this year in a drive toward profitability. And as Iger announced Wednesday for Disney, password-sharing crackdowns are also ahead.
🎼Robbie Robertson Dead
Robbie Robertson, the Band's guitarist and primary songwriter who wrote "Up on Cripple Creek," "The Weight," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,"and many other classics, died Wednesday.
In a statement, Robertson’s manager of 34 years, Jared Levine, said “Robbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death, including his wife, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her partner Nicholas, and his children Alexandra, Sebastian, Delphine, and Delphine’s partner Kenny. He is also survived by his grandchildren Angelica, Donovan, Dominic, Gabriel and Seraphina.
Robertson recently completed his fourteenth film music project with frequent collaborator Martin Scorsese, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon.’ In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to support a new Woodland Cultural Center.”
Robbie Roberson was 80.
🎢Stocks Try Again
Stocks higher this morning ahead of the latest Consumer Price Report.
Dow closed down 191 points, Nasdaq pulled back by 1.17%.
GisermanGroup.com Client Mario Veneroso, of Kingsview Wealth Management tells Fox Business stocks are following up on a bang-up first half of the year:
It comes as the creator of ChatGPT is calling for heavy regulation on artificial intelligence technologies. “My worst fear is that we, the technology industry, cause significant harm to the world,” OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said. “If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong.”
Elon Musk launched his long-teased artificial intelligence startup xAI on Wednesday after warning about AI’s potential for “civilizational destruction,” arguing that a race among companies such as Google and Microsoft to develop the technology should be halted to allow time for drafting regulation for the sector.
⚽️Oh Come On: Trump Politicizes Soccer
When the U.S. lost to Sweden in the Women’s World Cup on Sunday, many American were disappointed, but for Donald Trump, it was an opportunity to bash the team and President.
The loss was “fully emblematic of what is happening to the our once great Nation under Crooked Joe Biden,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “Many of our players were openly hostile to America — No other country behaved in such a manner, or even close,” he added. “WOKE EQUALS FAILURE. Nice shot Megan, the USA is going to Hell!!! MAGA.”
The taunt was an extension of a longstanding feud between Trump and Megan Rapinoe, the retiring soccer star who once refused to visit the Trump White House, and whose missed penalty kickcontributed to the team’s loss.
Oh come on!
🚨TRUMP: Next Indictment in Atlanta
Indictment #4 Ahead?: The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office in Atlanta is increasing security and closing streets around the Courthouse this week due to the possible indictment against former President Trump. Pryor Street SW between MLK Jr. Drive and Mitchell Street will close to general traffic starting 5 a.m. Monday through Aug. 18th.
Trump spent the weekend taunting the prosecutor for prior week’s indictment via his Truth Social network::
Trump plead not guilty to all four counts at his arraignment in federal court in Washington. It comes as the former President has now been indicted three times, this latest in connection with his efforts to cling to power after his defeat in the 2020 election.
“He’s scared $hitless,” former White House chief of staff John Kelly told the Washington Post.
Get this: For all the MAGA outrage, only a handful of Trump supporters turned out to protest the latest charges against the former president.
🗓️Trump’s Trial Date ‘Dance Card’ is filling up:
August 28:Federal Court DC Hearing
Oct. 2: New York civil fraud trial
Jan. 15: Second E. Jean Carroll civil defamation trial, NY
March 25: Manhattan hush-money trial
May 20: Federal classified documents trial in Florida
The latest indictment by a federal grand jury led by prosecutor Jack Smith in Washington charges Trump was responsible for efforts to reverse his defeat at the polls, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s claims of having won the election, said the indictment, were “false, and the defendant knew they were false. But the defendant (Trump) repeated and widely disseminated them anyway — to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, to create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and to erode public faith in the administration of the election.”
It comes as Federal prosecutors have added major accusations to another indictment charging Donald Trump with mishandling classified documents after he left office, saying he told a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago that he wanted security camera footage there to be deleted.
The accusations were revealed in a superseding indictment that named the maintenance worker, Carlos De Oliveira, as a new defendant in the case.
The charges broaden a sweeping indictment brought by a Florida grand jury in June alleging the former president held on to sensitive military secrets he knew he shouldn’t have retained access to, shared them with others and directed his staff to help him evade authorities’ efforts to get them back.
Turns out, Mom and Pop contributions to Trump’s PAC funded more than $40 million of legal costs in the first half of 2023 to defend the former president, his advisers and others. Investigators say that may be illegal since the contributions were aimed for Trump’s 2024 campaign.
🏠Mortgages Hit 23 Year High
The 30-Year fixed-rate mortgage has reached 7.39%, the highest rate since November 2000. Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home dropped 3% for the week and were 27% lower than the same week one year ago. Home costs grew by 0.8% in June, pushing prices to record levels in 60% of the nation’s major housing markets, according to Black Knight.
SitusAMC’s Tim Rood, a GisermanGroup.com client breaks it all down to Fox’s Neil Cavuto:
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Demand for homes around the country continues to outpace supply, despite a rapid rise in borrowing costs.
Rood, on Scripps News says Housing is the Cinderella Story of the Year:
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⛽️Gas Prices Pump Higher
Gas prices hit $3.82, according to the AAA, with the price of the crude oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate hovering at around $80 per barrel over the last week.
The increase in national average gas prices stems partly from hot weather, which is exacerbated by climate change, with AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross saying: “Last month’s extreme heat played a role in the recent spike in gas prices due to some refineries pulling back.”
🔥Maui Wildfire
Wildfires burning across Maui, killing at least 36.
Fast-moving blazes prompted thousands to evacuate the Hawaiian island, forced some residents to flee by swimming into the Pacific Ocean and reduced a historic town to ashes. The state has become more vulnerable to disastrous wildfires because climate change has reduced rainfall.
👧Billion Dollar Barbie
Barbie topped more than $1 billion in estimated global box-office receipts as of this weekend, according to research firm Comscore. It is now the first U.S. film directed by one woman to reach the billion-dollar mark.
Movies haven’t taken in this much since before Covid!
“Barbenheimer” remains red-hot at the box office.
The combined force of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” has led to more than $1.15 billion in global ticket sales since July 21st.
💉Employers Squeezed By Costs of Weight-Loss Drugs
So many people have turned to drugs used for weight loss that some employers are cutting off insurance coverage to head off climbing bills.
Use of drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy has exploded as word has spread about their weight-loss benefits. Demand has risen so high so fast that Novo Nordisk, the maker of the drugs, hasn’t been able to manufacture enough, while analysts have been revising multibillion-dollar sales estimates upward.
The cost of the drugs can run as much as $1,350 a month for a patient, have quickly leapt into the tens of millions of dollars for insurance plans. The outlays are straining the finances of some plans, including those funded by employers.
Meantime the makers of the drugs, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, are being sued for failure to adequately warn patients about the possible risk of severe stomach problems associated with Ozempic and Mounjaro.
⛱️Take That August Vacation
Offices are emptying out this week.
Even President Biden is at the beach for the week and Congress is out until September.
Company vacation calendars show more workers are checking out, and for longer stretches, this summer. The number of employees logging vacation days climbed 11% in June compared with the same month in 2022 and 20% compared with June 2021, according to Gusto, which tracks time-off requests from workers at more than 300,000 small and midsize businesses.
Some companies are even pushing their staff to take more time off this summer, in some cases by giving them no choice.
Call it ‘Fun-Flation’
This summer consumers are splurging on through-the-roof airfare, expensive concert tickets, soaring hotel prices and pricey meals.
Some call the phenomenon “revenge spending,” the zeal to indulge in experiences now that Covid lockdowns are far in the past. It helps that many still have pandemic savings to draw on, or have seen their wages surge in the past year.
We’ll probably pay for it down the road, but what the heck —have fun!
See you at the beach!
🔥CannaBIZ Cash Only
Mastercard moving to block cannabis purchases using its debit cards.
The payments giant told banks to bar such transactions, citing the illegality of marijuana on a federal level. It’s a further blow to the cannabis industry.
Many weed businesses placing ATM’s in their stores to smoke Mastercard’s move.
It’s a trying time for all of us.
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McConnell Freezes Mid-Sentence
Republican Leader, Senator Mitch McConnell froze mid-sentence during an appearance at his weekly news conference in the Capitol on Wednesday and was briefly escorted away from the microphones to recover.
The situation was just the latest reminder of the advanced age and frail condition of the top Republican in the Senate, raising questions about his future and that of his party.
McConnell returned 12-minutes later to take reporters questions, saying he was ‘just fine.’
McConnell, who became the longest-serving Senate leader in history at the beginning of the year, has moved more slowly and struggled with hearing loss since he fell at a Washington hotel sustaining a concussion. His allies have rejected any suggestion that his abilities have declined, saying he remains in charge in private sessions. They expressed confidence again on Wednesday.
🧑⚖️What’s the Deal With Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden’s former business partner insisted in testimony to Congress Monday that President Joe Biden was never directly involved in their financial dealings, though Hunter would often put his famous father on speakerphone to impress clients and business associates.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee conducted a more than-five hour interview with Devon Archer as part of its expanding congressional inquiry into the Biden family businesses as the GOP explores a potential impeachment inquiry into the president.
Hunter Biden earlier pleaded not guilty to tax charge, in a stunning reversal after a judge said she wasn’t yet prepared to accept a deal he had reached with prosecutors to plead guilty.
Lawyers for the President son at first clashed with prosecutors over a dispute about the potential for future charges. After a break in which the two sides clarified their agreement, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika said she needed more information before deciding whether to sign off on it.
💸The Taxman Cometh No Longer
The IRS is immediately ending the practice of sending agents to make surprise visits to homes and businesses to collect unpaid taxes. It comes amid political backlash and increasing threats to IRS agents.
It also coincides with increased scrutiny of the tax collection agency, which has faced criticism from Republicans over perceptions of political bias and from taxpayers who claim that IRS tactics are overly aggressive.
📺Pee-wee Herman Dead
Paul Reubens, better know as Pee-wee Herman, died of cancer Sunday at 70. He became a fixture of film and children’s TV in the 1980s and committed to the quirky alter ego even in interviews. Despite a scandal that briefly hurt his career in the 1990s, his red bow tie and distinctive laugh remained symbols of childlike whimsy.
🎤Taylor Swift Economics
Wherever she goes Taylor Swift’s fans are following, bringing big bucks to cities hosting her concerts
The Eras Tour, which started in March and ends in the U.S. on Aug. 9, is on track to become the biggest in concert his-tory, potentially grossing $1 billion. It’s filling football stadiums that hold more than 70,000 people, and Swift is often staying in town for several days, giving local businesses time to soak up the Swiftie money.
Her fans have been filling hotels, packing restaurants and crowding bars during Swift’s 20-city tour which has helped them recover from the economic toll of the pandemic by bringing back tourists.
👅Sympathy For The Devil: #Jagger Turns 80
And so we give you our favorite Stones Song:
“X” Marks Twitter
Twitter overnight began rebranding itself as X, replacing its longtime logo with a stylized symbol that was projected onto its San Francisco headquarters.
The move underscored Elon Musk’s ambition to make the social network a key part of his longtime goal of creating an “everything app.” But it is also another risky gamble to reinvent a business that has struggled since he paid $44 billion for it last year.
Musk and the chief executive he brought aboard just a month ago to run Twitter say the social media network will ditch the bird logo, rebrand the platform with the name ‘X’ and move quickly into payments, banking and commerce.
Shares of Facebook parent Meta down after It hit a 52 week high.
New data from Similarweb finds that app engagement with Threads has decreased by roughly 75% since its peak on July 7, two days after it officially launched , half the original users have disappeared.
Meantime, TikTok is taking on Twitter and Threads with a new feature that lets users add text posts. “With text posts, we’re expanding the boundaries of content creation for everyone on TikTok, giving the written creativity we’ve seen in comments, captions, and videos a dedicated space to shine,” the company said in announcing the new feature.
It’s a trying time for all of us.
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🇹🇩Beware: Kissinger’s China Diplomacy
Henry Kissinger again trying his hand at Chinese diplomacy. The surprise visit of the 100-year-old former US secretary of state comes as relations between the two superpowers have been spiraling downwards for months.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping welcomed Richard Nixon’s secretary of state to Beijing lavishing gratitude on the 100-year-old for his role in normalizing diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China half a century ago.
China’s enthusiastic reception for Kissinger is the latest example of how Beijing is reaching outside official diplomatic channels to broaden the reach of its message and try to influence Washington’s thinking.
China expert GisermanGroup Client Brandon Daniels, CEO of Exiger says beware:“In the last couple of months, China has amped up intimidation tactics by: threatening Taiwan blockades, throttling exports of chip-manufacturing materials to the U.S. and substantially increasing their draconian states secrets laws to allow for unrestrained seizure or corporate data on Chinese soil; and hacking U.S. government officials, these are not the motions of progress.”
According to a readout from the Chinese defense ministry, Li Shangfu, who met with Kissinger, said “friendly communication” between China and the US had been “destroyed” because “some people in the United States did not meet China halfway”. Kissinger said he was a “friend of China”, according to the readout.
“Neither the United States nor China can afford to treat the other as an adversary. If the two countries go to war, it will not lead to any meaningful results for the two peoples,” the Chinese statement reported Kissinger as saying.
⏰TikTok Ban
China-based TikTok has filed suit seeking to block Montana’s ban on the app.
The Biden administration is demanding TikTok’s Chinese-owners sell their stakes in the video-sharing app or face a full U.S. ban.
Matt Hayden Former Cybersecurity Czar at the Department of Homeland Security and a GisermanGroup.com client on Scripps News says TikTok is dangerous:
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🪙Bitcoin Rises
Bitcoin near its highest level in a year, around $30k.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued Coinbase, alleging the U.S.’s largest crypto platform violated rules that require it to register as an exchange and be overseen by the federal agency.
It comes after the S.E.C. accused Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, of mishandling customer funds..
Exiger’s Samar Pratt, a GisermanGroup Client, on FinTechTV says Crypto had recently gained a foothold at BNY Mellon:
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🥵It’s So HOT Electric Power Grid Threats
How hot is it?
Extreme heat has blanketed other parts of the West and South, with temperatures soaring above 110 degrees in Phoenix for more than 20 consecutive days
The punishing heat wave is pushing electricity demand to record levels but the power grid has held up.
Arizona Public Service, which provides electricity for much of the state, saw a record 8,191 megawatts of electricity demand on July 15. The company offered customers en-ergy-saving tips to reduce costs and support grid reliability.
The heat wave is testing the aging electric grid, which is being asked to deliver more power for running air conditioners without much of a break for routine maintenance. A forecast from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit that monitors the health of the bulk power system, says large portions of the U.S. could face blackouts this summer.
The National Energy Assistance Directors Association estimates home energy bills will rise 11.7% to an average of $578 this summer, up from $517 last summer.
Even the hottest place on Earth, California’s Death Valley, could reach rare highs, with 130 degrees possible. It has only happened a handful of times, one of which isthe all-time global record high temperature of 134 degrees.
North of Philadelphia, emergency crews are still searching for a 9-month-old boy and his 2-year-old sister after flash floods hit.
🎥Actors Strike
Tens of thousands of Hollywood Television and Movie Actors are on Strike
SAG-AFTRA’s national board of directors voted unanimously to approve a strike action, widening the scope of labor unrest in an entertainment industry that is already facing numerous headwinds.
Media titan Barry Diller delivered a devastating forecast for Hollywood, if the writers and actors’ strikes are not resolved soon.
Appearing on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday, Diller — the head of the media conglomerate IAC, who previously served as CEO for Paramount and 20th Century Fox — weighed in on the state of the industry amid the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes. Diller called the current challenges facing the industry a “perfect storm.”
“You had Covid, which sent people home to watch streaming television and killed theaters,” Diller said. “You’ve had the results of huge investments in streaming which have produced all these losses for all these companies that are now kind of retrenching. So at this moment, it’s kind of a perfect storm.”
📺ABC For Sale?
Disney CEO Bob Iger has opened the door to selling the company’s traditional TV assets.
Disney owns a portfolio of TV networks, broadcast stations, the ABC network, and cable TV channels like ESPN.
Disney is going to be “expansive” in its thinking about the traditional TV business, leaving the door open to a possible sale of the networks. “They may not be core to Disney,” Iger said on CNBC, adding the creativity that has come from those networks has been key for Disney.
It comes as the linear TV business struggles during the media industry’s transition to streaming and digital offerings.
🕊️Meta Stock @ 52 Week Hi as Musk-Zuckerberg War Gets Elon Musk-owned Twitter, meanwhile, had about 107 million users on July 14, according to Similarweb, which tracks usage only on the social media platform’s Android app.
Elon Musk is letting the personal insults fly as the social media feud with Mark Zuckerberg heats up.
Musk Tweets:
“Zuck is a cuck,” the Twitter chief writes on Twitter…he goes on:
“I propose a literal dick measuring contest.”
Zuckerberg says his new sight ‘Threads’ hit 100 million sign-ups less than a week after launching, but usage is way down from the peak.
Twitter’s lawyer wrote a letter to Meta accusing the company of “systematic” and “unlawful misappropriation” of trade secrets following the launch of Threads.
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🏛️Newsom, Kennedy In?
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s rising media profile in recent weeks has renewed speculation over his Democratic presidential aspirations.
He’s made appearances on the national media with NBC’s “Today” show and Fox News’s “Hannity,” raising renewed interest in his political future.
Some of that national spotlight has been used to go after Republican Presidential candidate Rob DeSantis over several dozen migrants who were flown to California.
Meantime, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist with a celebrated Democratic lineage has emerged with unexpected strength in early polls even as he spreads conspiracy theories and consorts with right-wing figures and billionaire donors.
Kennedy’s support from Democrats, as high as 20% in some surveys, serves as a bracing reminder of voters’ appetite for a Biden alternative.
💻U.S. Government Hacked
Several U.S. government agencies, including the Energy Department, have been hacked, and a Russian group is demanding ransom.
The data-stealing cyberattack exploitEd a software bug that had already compro-mised major businesses in the U.K. and elsewhere is blamed. So far none of the information has shown up on the dark web or elsewhere.
📺Tucker’s Twitter Show
Fox News notified Tucker Carlson's lawyers that the former prime-time anchor violated his contract with the network when he launched his own Twitter show on Tuesday, according to a copy of a letter obtained by Axios.
A breach of contract claim sets Fox News up to explore potential legal action against Carlson. Carlson’s lawyers told Axios that any legal action by Fox would violate his First Amendment rights.
🏓PickleBall Coming To YOUR Mall
Pickleball is coming to your local mall, replacing shuttered Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy and Sears stores.
It’s an effort to fill vacant spaces and draw in customers to shop.
Consumers are craving fun, social experiences after years of limited gatherings during the pandemic, and they have shifted their spending from goods to experiences like theaters, arcades and amusement parks.
Malls are responding to these trends by turning to a wider range of tenants and activities to draw traffic, real estate investment firm JLL said in a report this week that malls are drawing on the huge PickleBall crowds and building courts.
🍀Americans Spend More On Weed Than On Beer & Chocolate Combined
U.S Legal sales of marijuana and marijuana products -- like edibles -- reached an estimated $30 billion in 2022, according to a report from MJBizDaily.
That total is more than Americans spent on chocolate and craft beer combined, -- $20 billion and $7.9 billion, respectively.
And get this — legal sales are still vastly outweighed by illicit ones – Whitney Economics estimates that legal transactions constituted just 25% of total cannabis market in 2021.
💻They Want Your Password
Warning-New Scams to steal your passwords.
If you've had a password hacked recently, you aren't alone. The volume of password attacks has soared to an estimated 921 attacks every second. That's a 74% rise in one year, according to the latest Microsoft Digital Defense Report.
Exiger's Robert Kolasky with more on Bloomberg & CBS:
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GisermanGroup.com will design a campaign to get you and your business in front of the public.
GisermanGroup.com gets YOU noticed, contact us now