Good morning. You're never gonna believe this, but…the Brew has a new newsletter. And this time, we're coming for you, corporate finance professionals. Introducing: CFO Brew, a twice-weekly newsletter that will scratch your itch for digestible analysis on budgets, blockchain, inflation, GDP, and everything else that corporate finance pros need to know. Subscribe here. —Neal Freyman | | | |  | Nasdaq | 11,635.31 | | | | | S&P | 3,899.38 | | | | | Dow | 31,338.15 | | |  | 10-Year | 3.084% | | | | | Bitcoin | $20,947.88 | | | | | Oil | $104.71 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 7:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: How well can you read financial statements? Might be a good time to brush up, because earnings season returns near the end of this week. While analysts think that companies are actually in decent financial shape given *gestures at everything*, they'll be laser-focused on whether profits have held up in the face of skyrocketing costs.
| | | | AFP via Getty Images Protesters in Sri Lanka threw one of the most bizarre pool parties ever this weekend when they stormed the compound of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and frolicked in his swimming pool. Because it's difficult to govern effectively when your home has been occupied by irate citizens, both Rajapaksa and the country's prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said they would soon resign. It's the climax of an economic crisis that's caused crippling shortages of fuel, medicine, and food—in Rajapaksa's words, Sri Lanka is a "bankrupt country." Things didn't have to go this way for Sri Lanka An island nation of 22 million people off the southeastern coast of India, Sri Lanka was considered a model of a lower-income country that was moving up the ranks. It had fostered a large and growing middle class after opening up its economy to foreign investment in the '70s, and its economy soon outranked many of its peers in the region on a per capita basis. Many people were living quite comfortably. But a series of policy errors and some forces out of the government's control (such as the pandemic) have depleted Sri Lanka's foreign reserves and plunged the economy into a state of collapse. A few of those blunders: - In April 2021 President Rajapaksa forced all 2 million farmers in the country to shift to organic farming methods by banning the importation and use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. That catastrophic decision forced the country to import $450 million worth of rice and crippled production of a key export: tea.
- Rajapaksa cut taxes in late 2019, right before Covid shut down the country's critical tourism sector. With government revenues dwindling, Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt for the first time ever in May.
Where we stand now: India has helped out its neighbor with $3.5 billions of loans this year, but Sri Lanka's best hope for a turnaround is a bailout from the IMF. True to form, leaders dillydallied on negotiations with the IMF this spring until it was too late for them to hold onto power. | | | Security questions like "What was the make of your first car?" aren't exactly what we'd call a foolproof authentication method for protecting your precious crypto. Meet Arculus, the crypto wallet that keeps your private keys safe and secure with 3-factor authentication. Arculus was created based on 20+ years of experience developing leading-edge, secure payment technologies, giving you the power to protect your financial future. Arculus isn't like other cold-storage solutions. The app offers an easy-to-use interface and *doesn't* make you toggle between screens or push tiny buttons on a USB drive. Just tap the card to the back of your mobile device with your Arculus Wallet app to enable transactions and get instant, secure access to your crypto.
Protect your crypto here. | | Mike Coppola/VF17/Getty Images for VF  The "Uber Files": Under former CEO Travis Kalanick, Uber treated laws more like recommendations and secretly courted the support of politicians as it embarked on its quest for world ride-sharing domination, according to a trove of 124,000 documents leaked to the Guardian and shared with other media outlets. One particularly juicy revelation: French President Emmanuel Macron, back when he was economy minister, allegedly bent over backward to help Uber grow in Paris by arranging a secret deal with ministers who opposed its expansion. In response to the leak, Uber emphasized that it's a changed company since Dara Khosrowshahi took over as CEO in 2017.
 Arizona bans filming of police activity at close range. A new law signed by Gov. Doug Ducey last week makes it illegal for people to film law enforcement activity in certain circumstances, with the stated goal of protecting police officers as they've come under more scrutiny. First Amendment advocates such as the ACLU and media companies have pushed back on the law, calling it unconstitutional and weighing legal action. Experts say a case on whether people have a right to record the police could weave its way up to the Supreme Court.
 Novak Djokovic won his seventh Wimbledon championship. The Serbian tennis legend defeated a rambunctious Nick Kyrgios in four sets for his 21st major title, which puts him one ahead of Roger Federer and one behind Rafael Nadal for the most major championship wins in men's tennis history. On the women's side, Moscow-born Elena Rybakina became the first player representing Kazakhstan to win a Grand Slam tournament.
| | Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Because a) it's the middle of the summer and b) there's a Disney Adult lurking inside of all of us, the Brew is going to use one story slot per day this week to explore the magical, perplexing, and extremely weird theme park industry—from catching up with Dippin' Dots to interviews with roller coaster designers about the secrets of their craft. Best of all, there are no height requirements to read our articles. Today, we're kicking things off by asking the question: Should Netflix build a theme park? Given the cultural impact of Stranger Things, it seems a bit odd that adoring fans can't visit Hawkins IRL as they can Diagon Alley or Oga's Cantina. We explore whether Netflix building a theme park might make sense strategically, and chart the growing role of IP in theme parks in general. Read it here. | | The Grizzly Giant tree in Yosemite National Park in 2018. David Mcnew/AFP via Getty Images Stat: A growing wildfire in Yosemite National Park is threatening a grove of 500+ magnificent giant sequoia trees, one of which (named Grizzy Giant) is 3,000 years old. In the past two years, lightning-sparked wildfires have destroyed up to 20% of the estimated 75,000 large sequoias, per the AP. They're the biggest trees in the world by volume. Quote: "My baby girl is right here. She is a person." Texas resident Brandy Bottone was traveling in the HOV lane when she was stopped by police and asked if there was anyone else in the car (you need at least two people to drive in that lane). 34 weeks into her pregnancy, she said that her baby girl was. After the officer gave her a ticket, Bottone told the Dallas Morning News that she'll be fighting it in court in what experts say will be a unique legal case. Bottone is arguing that Texas can't have it both ways: The state's penal code considers a fetus a person, but its transportation code does not. Read: American cities need to grow up. (The Atlantic) | | NASA/Desiree Stover Space pics: NASA will release the first full-color images taken by the revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope tomorrow, which will include photos of two nebulae and two galaxy clusters. Inflation data: The consumer price index (CPI) will drop on Wednesday, which means we'll have to dig deep for synonyms for "soaring" or "red-hot" to describe the increase in prices. The rate of price growth could be even higher than it was last month, primarily driven by energy. Prime Day: Amazon is holding its annual summer sales extravaganza tomorrow and Wednesday, but analysts expect less of a feeding frenzy for products given inflation's toll on American finances. As we've come to expect by now, other retailers such as Target, Walmart, and Best Buy are holding concurrent sales events. Everything else: - The Jan. 6 committee will hold its next hearing tomorrow. Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon is now willing to testify before the committee.
- The Emmy nominations come out tomorrow.
- Bastille Day is Thursday.
| | Dive back into the week: That's one upstanding dog: Meet Dexter, a Brittany spaniel in Ouray, Colorado, that walks a little differently than most canines. Get your piece of this $580m pie: Piestro's robotic pizza kiosks have $580m in preorders from brands like 800 Degrees Pizza, and they're opening up investment opportunities to you. Invest before the campaign closes July 28.* Eye makeup that'll have everyone asking where you get your falsies: With over 20k five-star reviews, this mascara makes your lashes look as long as salon extensions while nourishing them with every use. Get 15% off your entire order here.* *This is sponsored advertising content. | | - Twitter has assembled a high-powered legal team in preparation for suing Elon Musk to make him complete his agreement to buy the company. A lawsuit is expected to drop early this week, per Bloomberg.
- Thor: Love and Thunder scored the third-biggest opening weekend of the year, bringing in $143 million at the domestic box office.
- Former President Trump called Elon Musk a "bulls— artist" for apparently lying to Trump about voting for him. About the fraught Twitter deal, Trump said Elon's "got himself a mess."
- President Biden defended his decision to travel to Saudi Arabia this week against critics who said it legitimizes a regime that violates human rights.
- Rogers Communications said its services were back up and running after a widespread outage caused chaos in Canada on Friday.
| | Join Morning Brew to hear about the business topics shaping your life right now. On Business Casual, host Nora Ali peels back the professional jargon to bring you convos with fascinating biz leaders you know, and some you may not know yet. Episodes drop every Monday and Thursday. Check out some recent popular episodes: This editorial content is supported by Real Vision. | | Turntable: Don't let all those hours you played Boggle as a kid go to waste—see how many words you can find in today's Turntable jumble. Play it here. Population trivia To celebrate World Population Day today, here's a quiz on…the world's population. The current population of the Earth is nearly 8 billion people. Can you guess the Earth's population in the following years? - 10,000 BCE
- 0
- 1700
- 1960
- 1999
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| | 1. 4 million 2. 190 million 3. 600 million 4. 3 billion 5. 6 billion Here's a complete breakdown. | | | Written by Neal Freyman Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. WANT MORE BREW? Industry news, with a sense of humor → Accelerate Your Career with our Courses → | ADVERTISE // CAREERS // SHOP // FAQ
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