Finance

Crypto May Be Going Mainstream

Bank of America is ready to embrace crypto payments.

Bank of America boss Brian Moynihan said this week that U.S. banks would be open to using cryptocurrency for payments, if regulators permit it.

The CEO acknowledged that all of the biggest banks already send money digitally anyways, and that Bank of America has been studying blockchain technology “for years.”

These comments come just after Wall Street’s top regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, announced a new crypto task force that will create “a sensible regulatory path” for the industry.

President Trump has also seemed to embrace crypto, and even released a Solana meme coin last week, which could help this scenario become a reality.

Meanwhile, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has repeatedly said the biggest cryptocurrency is useless and like a “pet rock,” but that blockchain technology was helpful. “I’m not against crypto, but Bitcoin has no intrinsic value,” Dimon had said in an interview with CBS News.

Business

Netflix Prices Are Going Up

Surge in subscribers, raise the price.

As subscribers increase, so, too, does Netflix’s subscribers. Supply and demand!

Netflix has announced price increases for all of its plans, just after a stellar earnings report, which showed the largest subscriber increase over a three-month period since the company’s founding more than 25 years ago.

Netflix added 19 million subscribers during the final three months of 2024, vaulting the company to 302 million total subscribers worldwide. With all of the new subscribers, revenue also increased 16% over the last three months of 2024, topping $10 billion in a single quarter for the first time in company history.

“As we continue to invest in programming and deliver more value for our members, we will occasionally ask our members to pay a little more so that we can re-invest to further improve Netflix,” Netflix said in its letter to investors. That investment includes the $150 million spent on NFL games for this year alone (the first of three years in the deal), as well as the $5 billion spent to acquire WWE’s Monday Night Raw, amongst other deals.

The standard monthly subscription, without advertisements, will climb from $15.49 to $17.99, and a standard monthly subscription with ads will increase one dollar to $7.99.

Netflix has become just the latest streaming service to recently increase prices, as Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and Max have all increased their prices since July.

Shares of Netflix soared 12% on Wednesday, following the announcement of the price increase.

“The incredible power of its subscriber growth and subscriber base will continue to drive further gains in the stock,” Tigress Financial wrote in a letter.

Netflix led all studios with 36 nominations for the Golden Globes earlier this month.

190k to Work for The Family Office

Small businesses are starting to pony up big salaries.

Supply and demand seems to be the theme this week. Family offices, the private investment firms of the ultra-wealthy, are paying top dollar to try and compete with Wall Street. Not only for c-suite roles, but also for administrative positions… as good talent has become even harder to find. And these companies are increasingly willing to pay extra for it.

Executive assistants can now command base salaries as high as $190,000 at family offices with billions in assets, according to three recruiters who spoke to CNBC. This is wellll above the industry average of $81,500 for a senior executive assistant, according to the staffing firm Robert Half.

There are approximately 8,000 single-family offices worldwide, with nearly 3,200 of those in North America, according to a survey by Deloitte Private. These administration roles can come with a bevy of responsibilities, such as compiling expense reports, managing correspondence, organizing travel for the entire family, or coordinating household staff at multiple personal residences.

“You will have to do anything for this person, and you don’t know what that will be,” explained Jonathan Hova, recruiter and senior vice president at Career Group. “If a pipe bursts in Southampton in January, that’s where you're going.”

The media base salary for executive assistants at family offices is $100k, according to a survey of 436 family offices and investment firms by Botoff Consulting.

The larger the family office, the more executive assistants can expect to be paid. At family offices with at least $2.5 billion in assets under management, that media pay is about 35% higher, the survey found. And that’s before annual bonuses, which typically range from 10-20%, according to Botoff.

The top 10% of administrative assistants at family offices, regardless of size, make $188,800 with a 20% bonus, according to the survey. The top 10% of assistants at the largest family offices can see all-in compensation of $240k. Wowzers!

Politics

Trump is Signing Orders

President Donald Trump is wasting no time rolling back Biden era policies and signing a slew of executive orders.

President Donald Trump has been a busy man during his first week back in the White House, as he made a plethora of policy actions. His executive orders cover issues such as trade, immigration, U.S. foreign aid to demographic diversity, civil rights and the hiring of federal workers. Some have an immediate impact, some are more symbolic, and some, don’t ya know, are already being challenged by federal lawsuits…

There’s way too many to list in this newsletter, you can find the full breakdown here. But to highlight a few:

Trump issued pardons for about 1,500 people convicted or criminally charged in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, something he had promised throughout his campaign. This comes after President Biden had issued numerous pardons in his final weeks, right up to his final day, with a handful being deemed as controversial. Trump also ordered an end to federal cases against “political opponents” of the Biden administration… a.k.a. (most likely) Trump supporters.

Trump also signed an order intended to pause Congress’ TikTok ban for 75 days, a period in which the president says he will seek a U.S. buyer in a deal that can protect national security interests while also leaving the popular social media platform open to Americans.

Just as he did during his first term, Trump is pulling the U.S. out of the World Health Organization. He also ordered a comprehensive review of U.S. foreign aid spending.

Trump also signed an order to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” and for all flags to always be at full height on Inauguration Day (which comes after flags were at half-staff Monday due to the passing of former president Jimmy Carter).

Trump reversed several immigration orders from Biden’s presidency, including one that narrowed deportation priorities to people who commit serious crimes, are deemed national security threats or were stopped at the border. This returns the government to Trump’s first-term policy that everyone in the country illegally is a priority for deportation.

As expected, Trump signed documents that will formally withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreements. He made the same move during his first term, but Biden reversed it.

One order also declared that the federal government will only recognize two sexes: male and female and that federal taxpayer money can not be used to fund “transition services.” A separate order halts DEI programs, directing the White House to end them within the government.

U.S. News

Snow in the South

They have no idea what to do. 

Apparently, hell has frozen over… or just the south (insert Little Nicky saying he’s from the deeeeep south).

Southern states, like Texas, Louisiana and Florida, saw some unprecedented snow this week. New Orleans, for example, saw 10 inches of snow! It was the city’s first snow fall in more than a decade.

Some areas in the Florida Panhandle recorded snowfall of more than six inches, shattering the area’s previous record. The town of Milton set a new Florida record with nine inches, breaking the state’s previous record of four inches from 1954. Some areas of Houston reportedly received four inches of snow, which would be the second most all-time (most since 1895).

At least 2,572 flights were delayed, and 2,039 more were canceled, by midday Wednesday. Unfortunately, there have also been at least nine deaths from the storm reported so far too.

Tech

Musk Trolls Trump

You didn’t think we’d get through a newsletter without AI mentioned somewhere.

It seems Elon Musk and President Donald Trump don’t agree on everything, as the tech billionaire, and Trump ally, poured cold water on a landmark half-a-trillion dollar AI initiative that is being backed by Trump.

Musk’s criticism came two days after attending Trump’s inauguration. Musk is also set to be part of his administration this time around, spearheading DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency).

Trump announced Tuesday that several tech giants, including OpenAI, Oracle and MGX, plus Japanese investment company SoftBank, would invest about $500 billion in building data centers in the U.S. over four years. He touted the project, which is known as Stargate, as “the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history.”

“It’s big money and high-quality people,” Trump said, calling the initiative a “resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential.”

However, Musk responded skeptically, especially in regards to OpenAI announcing an initial investment of $100 billion for the initiative, claiming that “they don’t actually have the money,”

“SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority,” Musk continued on X (formerly twitter).

While Musk has seemingly become great friends with Trump, he has long been at odds with Sam Altman, with whom he co-founded OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT.

Since resigning from OpenAI in 2018, Musk has referred to Altman as “Swindly Sam,” while Altman has called Musk a “bully.”

It seems in this love triangle, Musk’s dislike for Altman overrides his new fandom of Trump. Meanwhile, Altman said, “we wouldn’t be able to do this without you, Mr. President.”

Construction on one of the project’s data centers has already begun in Texas… where Musk also has Tesla based. The drama! Reminiscent of John, Marlena and Roman’s triangle on “Days of Our Lives.”