Good morning. Two years ago today, the WHO declared Covid-19 a global pandemic and Morning Brew began a "remote work test," completely oblivious to the fact that we'd never step into our FiDi office again. It's pretty mind-blowing to reflect on how perceptions of remote work have been upended. The Brew now has employees living in DC, Los Angeles, wherever Matty lives, Boston, Atlanta, Bozeman, and more. That would have been unthinkable in February 2020. If you want to come work with us, no matter where you live, make sure to check out our 29(!) open positions here. —Neal Freyman, Matty Merritt, Max Knoblauch
| | | |  | Nasdaq | 13,129.96 | | | | | S&P | 4,259.52 | | | | | Dow | 33,174.07 | | |  | 10-Year | 1.994% | | | | | Bitcoin | $39,368.04 | | | | | Rivian | $41.16 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Wednesday's surge was no more than a blip, as stocks sank yet again yesterday following failed peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials. For the Rivian investors reading this, all we have to say is…TGIF. The EV startup has lost about $117 billion in market cap in the last four months due to concerns around its production capabilities.
- Government: The Senate approved a $1.5 trillion spending bill that will fund the government for the current fiscal year and provide $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine.
| | Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images Americans are about to face a period of inflation as long and as tedious as The Batman. US consumer prices soared 7.9% from a year earlier in February, the government reported yesterday. That's pretty much in line with expectations, but still another 40-year high. Virtually every type of consumer good you can name—veggies, rent, airfares—all got more expensive from January to February. While that's worrisome, it's even grimmer when you look into the crystal ball: Prices could only jump higher from here due to the war in Ukraine. That's because war and inflation have historically been attached at the hip. As the WSJ's Greg Ip wrote, war has been a "reliable precursor to inflation" due to factors like 1) constraining a country's production capacity 2) disrupting supply chains and 3) increased government spending. Not all of those factors are in play for the US in this case. But Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the subsequent sanctions on Russia by the West, has only exacerbated supply shortages that were just beginning to rebound from the Covid shock. - Average gas prices hit a record high of $4.32 per gallon yesterday because of the spiking cost of oil. That's a 62-cent increase from the beginning of the war on Feb. 24.
- Commodity prices, from wheat to nickel, have soared to all-time highs as supplies from Russia and Ukraine dry up from global markets. You don't buy wheat or nickel directly, but those price jumps will filter through the economy and eventually take a bite out of your wallet.
Looking ahead…while economists were hoping that inflation would be peaking right about now, the conflict in Ukraine means it's "pretty much a mathematical certainty" that prices will only jump higher from here, per Axios's Neil Irwin. Next week, the Fed is virtually guaranteed to raise interest rates in order to keep inflation from spiraling into something even more nefarious.—NF | | The Sandlot/20th Century Fox via Giphy  Play ball. We're getting 162 games of baseball this season, folks. After a 99-day lockout (the second-longest work stoppage in MLB history) players agreed to a new labor deal with the league. Some changes include: an expanded postseason with 12 teams, the NL adopting the designated hitter, and advertising coming to player uniforms. Opening Day is set for April 7.
 Chelsea's feeling extra blue. The iconic Premier League soccer club is in chaos after the British government slapped sanctions on its owner, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. Chelsea can still keep playing games, but it's banned from selling new tickets, slinging merch, or signing players to new contracts under the new rules. The sanctions also complicate Abramovich's plans to sell the team, which he's said he intends to do on account of the war.
 The Census miscalculates. The US Census Bureau said it considerably undercounted the number of Hispanic, Black, and Native American people living in the US, and overcounted the number of white and Asian residents. The Census has a poor track record of counting racial minorities, and it concluded that undercount rates for 2020 were not statistically different from the previous tally in 2010. The total count of the US population is 323.2 million, up 5% from 2010.
| | Francis Scialabba On this day in 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic and Johnny Knoxville turned 49. And while we definitely have some unanswered questions about Jackass Forever, the two-year anniversary of the official start of the pandemic has people wondering when exactly it will be over, what that would look like, and who gets to decide. TL;DR: It's complicated. In the US…there are two big dates to note: March 25, the day Hawaii—the only remaining state with an indoor mask mandate—lifts its mask requirements and April 18, when the CDC's loosened guidance for mask mandates on public transportation is expected to take effect. These moves would mean virtually all Covid restrictions would be lifted, marking the unofficial end of the pandemic in the states. Globally…the WHO has been meeting every three months to decide whether or not to continue calling Covid a "pandemic." The group is expected to keep the label through April—and most likely June as well—and with it, a number of programs that directly help low-income countries. But if the WHO removes the label, then projects like Covax to help vaccinate low-income nations and pledges from drug companies to leave patents off Covid drugs could disappear. Zoom out: Harvard epidemiologist Caroline Buckee told Science that the ultimate decision to end the pandemic would come down to "an opinion-based consensus" from within the the WHO.—MM | | | It's possible, folks: Taxes actually can be a simple process. Wait, did we just use "taxes" and "simple" in the same sentence? Did we just make history? Before anyone races off to the record books, full credit really goes to TaxAct. With TaxAct's Xpert Assist feature, you can file your taxes online and get free advice from tax experts and CPAs in real time, for all returns. TaxAct backs up every return with their $100K Accuracy Guarantee—because these tax aficionados know their stuff. They also provide excellent security, free access to prior-year returns, and an Import PDF feature. Oh, and your maximum refund is guaranteed. Told ya: easy as pie. Get started with TaxAct here. | | Illustration: Francis Scialabba Sources: Beeple One year ago today, an NFT titled EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS by Mike Winkelmann—the artist known as Beeple—sold at Christie's for $69 million. The sale, which remains the largest ever for an NFT, was a watershed moment for the digital assets that have exploded in popularity (and notoriety). A new NFT report released yesterday by NonFungible.com explores the market in the year when "stacking apes" became a phrase meaning something other than balancing orangutans on top of one another. - NFT sales hit $17.7 billion in 2021, a 200x increase from 2020's $82.5 million.
- The average NFT price shot up from $49.18 in 2020 to $807.52 in 2021, a more than 1,500% increase.
- Speculate much? NFTs were owned for an average of 48 days in 2021, a nosedive from 2020's 156 days.
Although 2021 was a boom year for NFTs, they've fallen into a bit of a bear market (or a deflating bubble, pick your poison). February 2022 sales dropped 40% from January, and sales in the past week were down about 29% from the week prior. Meanwhile, Beeple has a physical showing at a Manhattan gallery, although those works will also be sold as NFTs. For more on NFTs: Read our July interview with Beeple, or take a deeper dive into the unpredictability of the NFT market.—MK | | Justin Setterfield/Getty Images Stat: For the vast majority of people in England, Covid-19 is now less lethal than the flu, according to a Financial Times analysis of health data. That's due to Omicron being less severe than Delta and a high degree of immunity from previous infection and vaccines. Quote: "Bro does not live like a billionaire. Bro lives at times below the poverty line. To the point where I was like, can we not live in a very insecure $40,000 house? Where the neighbors, like, film us, and there's no security, and I'm eating peanut butter for eight days in a row?" The pop star Grimes spoke to Vanity Fair about how living with the world's richest man, Elon Musk, didn't really feel like it. She also revealed that the two had a second child together, named Y (their first is named X). Read: An elite sport plagued by sex abuse is turning on itself. (Bloomberg) | | - Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are winding down their business in Russia, becoming the first major US banks to pull out of the country. Disney is also pausing its operations in Russia.
- Victims of the opioid crisis were able to directly confront members of the Sackler family (which owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma) for the first time yesterday in a virtual hearing.
- Amazon stock had its second best day of 2022 (up more than 5%) following its Wednesday announcement of a stock split and a plan to buy back shares.
- Ryan Coogler, the director of Black Panther, was detained by police at a Bank of America in January after they mistook him for a robber, according to a new police report. Coogler said, "This situation should never have happened," but, "we have moved on."
| | How to get the most out of a gas tank: Here's some advice from Consumer Reports, and here's some perhaps less reliable advice from Shaq. A master at work: Watch Mr. Beast explain how he became successful on YouTube. Do we smell a budding investment opportunity? Global cannabis company Flora Growth continues to sow the seeds of their investment potential with their recent acquisition of JustCBD—a company with audited 2020 earnings of $28M and an EBITDA of $7M. Get the details and invest here.* Party like it's 1366. When you clink a chalice of Stella Artois with your best mates, you carry on a tradition that goes back more than 600 years. Just, y'know, without the codpieces or corsets. Cheers to the good life—The Life Artois.* *This is sponsored advertising content. | | | How many total miles are there in the US National Highway System? Try a rough estimate and see if you can get close. | | These days, everyone is an entrepreneur, whether you like it or not. So step up your business-building IQ with Founder's Journal, a bite-sized podcast hosted by Morning Brew's co-founder and executive chairman Alex Lieberman. These episodes will get you hooked: This editorial content is supported by Attentive. | | | ✤ A Note From Stella Artois Disclaimer: Always Enjoy Responsibly. © 2022 Stella Artois® Beer, Brewed in the U.S.A., Stella Artois, St. Louis, MO. | | | Written by Neal Freyman, Max Knoblauch, and Matty Merritt Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. WANT MORE BREW? Industry news, with a sense of humor → - Emerging Tech Brew: AI, crypto, space, autonomous vehicles, and more
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