Good morning. Yesterday was a roller coaster for Matty, our Chicago-based writer. Things started with a bang when the DNC announced it would hold its 2024 convention in Chicago and she realized she could trick visitors into paying a "Wilco Towers tax." Then, Michael Jordan's signed Air Jordan 13s from the '98 NBA Finals became the most expensive sneakers ever sold, going for $2.2 million at auction. But things took a turn when Walmart announced it was closing half of its stores in Chicago, leaving just four remaining. Walmart said it was taking the step because—and this is a wild stat—its Chicago stores have not made any money, collectively, in the nearly 17 years they have been in the city. —Neal Freyman, Sam Klebanov, Matty Merritt, Abby Rubenstein | | | |  | Nasdaq | 12,031.88 | | | | | S&P | 4,108.94 | | |  | Dow | 33,684.79 | | | | | 10-Year | 3.428% | | | | | Bitcoin | $30,053.33 | | | | | Ethereum | $1,890.83 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 3:00am ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Stocks ran on a treadmill yesterday as investors waited for the high-stakes inflation report to drop this morning. Major cryptocurrencies have emerged as the biggest winners of 2023 so far, and Bitcoin topped $30,000 for the first time in 10 months.
- Dueling economic visions: Depending on who you ask, the economy is doing just fine…or it's about to slow down dramatically. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said yesterday that "the US economy is obviously performing exceptionally well." But that's not obvious at all to the IMF, which predicted weak global growth this year and gave its gloomiest five-year economic forecast since 1990.
| | | | Francis Scialabba President Biden flew to Belfast, Northern Ireland, yesterday on a trip that, conveniently for a business newsletter, perfectly captures travel trends right now. First, this is a "bleisure" visit—the industry's term for merging a business trip with leisure activities (which has boomed during the Covid WFH era). - While he's on the clock, Biden will mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, which mostly ended the decades-long conflict called The Troubles.
- But he'll also throw up the OOO message to visit County Mayo and County Louth in the Republic of Ireland, where his family lived before immigrating to the US.
The other trend that Biden's Ireland trip highlights? That the skies over the Atlantic are more packed than I-95 in Northern Virginia. Whether it's to manifest a White Lotus Sicilian adventure or protest at Credit Suisse's headquarters in Zurich, the number of Americans planning to travel to Europe this summer has skyrocketed. Kayak reported that searches for European travel are 77% higher than last year, and Hopper said that of its US-based customers browsing international destinations, 37% are searching for flights to Europe. Surging interest in transatlantic flights is a California-in-1849-level gold rush opportunity for airlines, and they're scrambling to increase capacity to meet demand. - Yesterday, JetBlue announced a new route to Amsterdam from JFK that will begin in the late summer.
- United has tacked on nearly 25 international routes to this summer's schedule, including additional flights to Barcelona, Berlin, and Naples. The airline will be flying almost two dozen flights daily from the US to London Heathrow.
- Croatia's Pula Airport is even considering lengthening its runway to accommodate bigger planes that fly across the Atlantic. Currently, the country only has two transatlantic flights.
Meeting this Eurotrip moment is crucial for the US' biggest airlines, which derived between 11% and 20% of their total passenger revenue last year from transatlantic travel, per Reuters. Passport PSA: If you plan on flying to Europe but don't have a passport yet, file your paperwork ASAP because there's a long line. In March, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that demand for passports was 30%–40% above last year's levels, which broke a record with 22 million passports issued.—NF | | Michael Swensen/Getty Images  Louisville shooting latest: The AR-15-style rifle used in the killing of five people at a bank in Louisville, KY, on Monday was bought legally by the gunman, who was an employee at the bank and targeted his co-workers, police said. According to Kentucky state law, the firearm will eventually be auctioned off to the public, a practice criticized by Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg. In Tennessee, which recently experienced a school shooting, the Republican governor sought to strengthen background checks on firearm purchases through an executive order.
 Biden admin wants your thoughts on ChatGPT oversight. Taking the first step toward possible regulation, the Commerce Department asked for public input on how to make AI systems "legal, effective, ethical, safe, and otherwise trustworthy." The department is seeking feedback on what kind of audits or assessments should be required before companies bring out new AI tools. And it's not the only government warily eyeing the AI explosion: China proposed new rules to ensure generative AI sticks to "socialist values" hours after Alibaba rolled out its ChatGPT competitor.
 What a $300 million donation to Harvard will get you: your name on a grad school. The university is changing the name of its grad school to the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences after—you guessed it—hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin made a $300 million donation to Harvard University. Griffin has now given more than $500 million in total to Harvard, where he graduated in 1989 before making his billions and buying a $43.2 million copy of the Constitution at his son's request. Griffin's $150 million gift to Harvard in 2014 for financial aid remains the largest single donation for undergrad assistance, according to Bloomberg.
| | | Ever dreamed of a VR experience where you can walk, run, and jump freely, your only limitation being how much free time you have? Meet Omni One by Virtuix. This omnidirectional VR platform makes you feel like you're living out a sci-fi fantasy—a seamless virtual world of endless fun and adventure. And although there's a 35k+ person waitlist, Brew readers can skip the line by investing in Virtuix. Why invest? Besides being backed by Mark Cuban and other prominent investors, Virtuix is growing rapidly. Check the deets: - Virtuix sold $16m worth of product and has a database of 300k+ players.
- VR is one of the fastest-growing global industries, projected to hit $87b by 2030.
- Fortune, Forbes, TechCrunch, and Business Insider have all covered Virtuix's revolutionary tech.
Skip the waitlist and get a 30% discount (worth $780) on your own Omni One when you invest here. | | Francis Scialabba Substack is long-reads only no longer. The newsletter publishing platform launched a feature called Notes yesterday for sharing brief posts, links, images, and GIFs in a news feed layout that will feel familiar to Twitter users. That similarity is why Substack's move caused all sorts of Elon Musk drama even before its launch. A few days after the Notes announcement dropped earlier this month, Twitter began throttling Substack links on its platform (though it appears to have stopped now). While Substack links were being suppressed, disgruntled Musk fans questioned his commitment to being a "free speech absolutist," as he has claimed. So what's the point of Notes? Substack envisions its writers engaging readers with pithy posts on Notes, luring them to check out long-form content in a way similar to how Costco uses samples. Substack is touting its subscription-based business model as the biggest selling point: It hopes this will prevent Notes from becoming a gladiator ring for toxic dung-hurling, which can happen to platforms with ad-based revenue models that prioritize content virality. Substack's execs say Notes isn't intended to rival Twitter—which is true in the sense that Twitter "no longer exists," according to a recent court filing. It has merged with X Corp., a holding firm founded by Musk, and has stopped being an independent company.—SK | | Photo: Getty For the ultrarich, a fully customized Bugatti just isn't enough. Sometimes, you need to spend the most money on one of the smallest pieces of the car: the license plate. A vanity plate with the letter-number combo "P7" sold for $15 million at a charity auction in Dubai last weekend, making it the most expensive license plate in the world. The purchase wasn't a fluke: Vanity license plates are hot commodities worldwide, especially in areas with a lot of wealth to flaunt. Hong Kong, which along with the UAE is a notorious tax haven for the megawealthy, has seen 40,000 plates registered since it launched its vanity plate auction system in 2006. - In February, a plate with the single letter "R" sold for $3.2 million in Hong Kong, the second highest price in the city after a "W" plate went for $3.3 million in 2021.
But why "P7"? The plate was part of the "Most Noble Numbers" auction and was likely popular because it looks like it just has a "7" on it. But like caviar and Golden Gooses, we plebs may never understand exactly why something costs so dang much. Some plates have historically sold for a lot of $$$ because of cultural significance or simply because someone thought "EL0NMUSK" was the last thing you should see before you rear-end them.—MM | | | Master tax season with HR Brew. Tax season can be stressful for HR teams, but it doesn't have to be. With HR Brew's comprehensive tax guide, you can confront Tax Day with confidence. Our report provides expert tips and insights to help you guide your employees through the complexities of tax season and ensure compliance. Download your copy today. | | Mad Men/AMC Stat: In a YouGov America survey, 31% of respondents said that they've hit the button to close the elevator's doors because they saw that someone was trying to get on and didn't want to ride the elevator with them (the other 69% are lying). Meanwhile, 25% of respondents said they believed that most buttons to close the doors on elevators do nothing…and they are right. Quote: "Booking international travel plans for a criminal defendant in anticipation of a complete defense victory is a bold move." US District Judge Edward Davila rejected Elizabeth Holmes's attempt to stay out of prison while she appeals her conviction, calling her booking of a one-way ticket to Mexico in January "ill-advised." Holmes will surrender to authorities on April 27 to begin serving her 11+ year prison sentence for defrauding investors with her startup, Theranos. Read: 'Claudia' offers nude photos for pay. Experts say she's an AI fake. (Washington Post) | | - EY tossed its big plan to separate its audit and consulting divisions after facing pushback from some partners.
- A Whole Foods flagship store that opened last year in downtown SF is closing its doors temporarily, citing crime that threatens the safety of its employees.
- Chipotle unveiled an all-electric store design that will eliminate those sizzling gas grills in the name of sustainability.
- What you need to know about the legal fight over the abortion pill mifepristone.
- YouTube TV has begun selling NFL Sunday Ticket, which it recently acquired the rights to. The package starts at $249 for the upcoming season.
- An elephant at the Berlin Zoo learned how to peel a banana.
| | Scott Olson via Getty Just when you thought you'd reached your Chicago news capacity, we've got one last Italian beef-filled treat for you today. Three years after the start of the pandemic, American cities have a surprisingly difficult task: getting people back on public transport. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) reported that last year's weekday train and bus ridership hit only 53% of 2019 levels. And whether it's due to unreliable wait times or passengers smoking cigs on the train, commuting in the Windy City has gotten worse. You can read the whole story here. | | Word Search: Some of the most famous logos in the world are circles. See if you can identify them here. Main city of a movie This category was recently featured on Jeopardy! and it seemed like a good time, so we put together some questions of our own. We'll give you a movie, and you have to name the city in which the movie was primarily set. The twist: None of these films are set in the US. - Lost in Translation
- City of God
- District 9
- Roma
- Parasite
- The Phantom of the Opera
| |  Get ready to network with and hear from top marketing leaders as they share their insights at The Brief, a Marketing Brew Summit, on May 11 in NYC. Grab your ticket today.
 A single tool that tracks your income, spending, investing, debts, and net worth?! Money with Katie's 2023 Wealth Planner has it all. Shop now.
 Technology is great…until it's used against you. Learn how to fight back by watching our recent Tech Brew event on cybersecurity. Check it out.
| | - Tokyo, Japan
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Johannesburg, South Africa
- Mexico City, Mexico
- Seoul, South Korea
- Paris, France
| | | Written by Neal Freyman, Sam Klebanov, Abigail Rubenstein, and Matty Merritt Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. Get smarter in just 5 minutes Business education without the BS Interested in podcasts? | ADVERTISE // CAREERS // SHOP 10% OFF // FAQ
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