Good morning and congrats to the Bengals and Rams on making it to the Super Bowl. If you're looking for a convo starter that's not NFL overtime rules, here's this dumb but also kind of fun thing I saw on Reddit yesterday: Discover your dragon name. - Last two letters of your first name
- Middle two letters of your last name
- First two letters of your mother's name
- Last letter of your father's name
My dragon name is Alymelh. Doesn't exactly inspire terror but don't hate it. —Neal Freyman, henceforth known as Alymelh | | | |  | Nasdaq | 13,770.57 | | | | | S&P | 4,431.85 | | | | | Dow | 34,725.47 | | |  | 10-Year | 1.771% | | | | | Bitcoin | $37,939.43 | | | | | Moderna | $159.47 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 7:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Stocks will hope to find their sea legs this week after being tossed and turned during a period of high volatility. Biotech companies in particular are feeling queasy. The sector is off to its worst start to a year since 2016 and Moderna is the worst performer in the S&P 500.
- Geopolitics: The US Senate is preparing to unleash "the mother of all sanctions" on Russia should it decide to invade Ukraine, lawmakers said this weekend. NJ Senator Bob Menendez said negotiations on a final package were "on the one-yard line" and will target Russian sovereign debt, Russian banks, and other entities in order to cripple Russia's economy.
| | Toru Yamanaka/AFP via Getty Images Not on Spotify, though. After Young and other artists removed their content from the platform over its distribution of Covid-19 misinformation, Spotify responded yesterday with a number of steps intended to calm the growing storm. - It's adding a label to any podcast episode that discusses Covid-19, and providing a link to its Covid information hub.
- It's also publishing its previously hidden misinformation policies. What are they? Spotify said it will ban content that "promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm or poses a direct threat to public health." That includes claims that Covid-19 is a hoax and the idea that Covid vaccines are designed to cause death.
"We have had rules in place for many years but admittedly, we haven't been transparent around the policies that guide our content more broadly," Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote in a blog post. How we got here Last week, Neil Young asked Spotify to remove his music largely due to its deal with ultra-popular podcaster Joe Rogan, who's been skeptical of Covid vaccines and has hosted guests who've pushed Covid conspiracy theories. A small but growing number of artists followed his lead. - Legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell pulled her music from Spotify "in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities."
- Bruce Springsteen guitarist Nils Lofgren joined the artist boycott, and bestselling author Brené Brown said she's not releasing any podcasts "until further notice."
- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who've inked a $25 million podcast deal with the platform, have been "expressing concerns" to Spotify about Covid misinformation on the platform, according to a spokesperson.
Zoom out: Spotify wants to be known as a "neutral platform" that allows a variety of ideas to run freely without censorship. But as observers like Hunter Walk have pointed out, the company's relationship with Joe Rogan doesn't really fit this narrative. When Spotify struck its exclusive deal with Rogan, it decided to treat Rogan as a strategic business partner rather than any random podcaster who throws their content on the platform. So it's not clear whether Spotify's recent changes will silence its critics—Rogan, for one, isn't going anywhere. None of his podcast episodes have violated Spotify's Covid misinformation rules, a spokesperson said. | | NFL On Saturday afternoon, ESPN reporter Adam Schefter fired off a tweet that made everyone in New England put down their snow shovels: Tom Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champ and best quarterback ever, would retire after 22 seasons in the NFL. Schefter cited unnamed sources. But as everyone was reminiscing about Brady's stupefying career, people closest to the quarterback said this wasn't a done deal. - Brady's agent Don Yee said, "Tom will be the only person to express his plans with complete accuracy." (AKA, we want to control the narrative.)
- The report was also dismissed by Tom Brady—okay, his dad Tom Brady, Sr.—who told reporters that his son hadn't made up his mind yet.
Should Brady retire this year, he'll have plenty to keep him busy: The man has been quietly developing a business empire. A quick tour… - Wellness: The age-defying Brady co-founded a wellness company, TB12 Sports, with his "body coach" Alex Guerrero in 2013.
- Apparel: Brady launched a clothing line called Brady Brand, which sells "technical apparel for training and living," earlier this month.
- Crypto: Brady and his wife, Gisele Bündchen, have taken an equity stake in the fast-growing crypto platform FTX. He also co-founded an NFT company, Autograph, which recently raised $170 million.
- Content: In 2020, Brady launched the content company 199 Productions—a reference to his selection as the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL draft.
Looking ahead…Yee said we should hear from Brady about his future "soon." | | More than 95,000 people lost a collective $770 million due to fraud on social media last year, a new FTC report found. That represents 25% of all reported losses to fraud in 2021 and a breathtaking 18x increase over social media scam losses in 2017. Driving the surge, you will be unsurprised to hear, are scams promoting bogus cryptocurrencies (like that Squid Game crypto whose developers made off with $3.4 million). In fact, investment-related scams were the most prevalent type of fraud on social media, accounting for 37% of all losses. Romance scams (24%) were No. 2, and online shopping scams (14%) won the bronze medal. - For all you youngsters who want to pin this on tech-illiterate boomers, think again: People ages 18–39 were more than twice as likely as older adults to lose money from a social media scam, the FTC said.
- Another crazy stat: Of the scammed people who identified a social media platform associated with undelivered goods, nearly 9 out of 10 named Facebook or Instagram.
Bottom line: Social media is a "gold mine" for fraudsters because of the ease of developing a fake persona and the ability to use platforms' advertising tools to target a specific audience, per the FTC. | | | Investing can feel like staring down a long hallway in an abandoned motel—anything could be behind those doors. Stable, long-term gains. A risky stock. A creepy clown with bags of money. Then there's Fundrise, which feels like the opposite of all that terrifying uncertainty. Fundrise feels like magical double doors that open to the best of investing, above which is a neon sign blinking four, glorious words:  Private Market Real Estate
Known for consistent performance and traditionally high returns, big institutions turn to real estate to build long-term wealth even in volatile times. Now Fundrise, America's largest direct-to-investor real estate investment platform, provides you with access to that same asset class. With minimums as low as $10, Fundrise gives everyday investors an incredibly easy way to build a portfolio of powerful real estate created for stable, long-term success. So let Fundrise get the door for you. You can join the community of 210,000 investors and start adding diversification to your portfolio today. | | Scott Eisen/Getty Images Stat: Boston just had one of its snowiest days ever on Saturday. Logan International Airport received 23.6 inches of snow in 24 hours, which tied a record from 2003. Central Park in New York got 8.3 inches, Islip, Long Island, got 24.7, and other parts of Eastern MA got more than 30. Quote: "We are super-spreaders of freedom." Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People's Party in Canada, spoke at a protest over vaccine mandates that paralyzed downtown Ottawa this weekend. It was a mostly peaceful event, but police are launching several criminal investigations into the desecration of monuments and threatening behavior toward city workers. Swastika flags were also viewed in the crowd. Read: The promise of DAOs, the latest craze in crypto. (The New Yorker) | | Richard Heathcote/Getty Images The Olympics: The Beijing Olympics are set to begin Friday under a cloud of geopolitical controversy, tight Covid controls, and quiet sponsors. Still, can't wait to watch these superhuman athletes do their thing. Earnings: 77% of companies have beaten earnings estimates so far this reporting period, and heavyweights like Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and GM will hope to continue the momentum this week. Jobs report: The employment picture for January drops Friday morning, but with Omicron forcing so many Americans to call out sick that month, no one's quite sure what to expect of the data. Economists polled by Dow Jones are estimating the economy added 200,000 jobs last month. Everything else: - The Lunar New Year is tomorrow.
- Amazon workers at an Alabama warehouse will vote (again) on whether to form a union.
- Groundhog Day is Wednesday, which calls for another viewing of the all-time great flick.
- Jackass Forever is finally coming out Friday. Here's a profile of Wee Man to tide you over.
| | - Rafael Nadal won the Australian Open, breaking the record for most men's Grand Slam singles titles with 21.
- Ultrafast grocery delivery services are racking up huge losses as they battle for customers in NYC.
- T-Mobile said it will fire corporate employees who aren't vaccinated by April 2.
- One bettor turned a $20 site credit into a $579,020 payout with a long-shot parlay on the NFL games yesterday.
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