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Warren Buffett is Cashing In 💵
Buffet dumps Apple, what does he know?
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Finance
Cash is King
With almost 200 Billion in cash, Buffett is loading up.
Berkshire Hathaway has never had more cash than it currently does, which is seen as a red flag to some.
At the end of the first quarter, the company, led by Warren Buffett, had over $189 billion in cash and short-term investments on its books.
This stockpile has many concerned that it might be a silent warning to the stock market. Buffett, known as the “Oracle of Omaha”, is one of the greatest investors. And many look to him for their investing cues. So the idea that Buffett isn’t putting that cash to work must mean that there aren’t many good deals in the market. Is this some sort of warning?
On the flip side, while Berkshire Hathaway’s cash position has never been larger, their cash and short-term investments currently account for 17.7% of their total assets. Over the past 25 years, their average has been 17.1%. So historically, and relatively speaking, it isn’t a huge difference for them - and therefore, maybe not the great concern that many are taking it to be.
Around the Water Cooler
Politics
Harris Leading Trump
New polling has indicated that Kamala Harris is currently ahead of Donald Trump in some crucial states. According to polls released this weekend, conducted by Siena College for the New York Times, Harris has a 50% to 46% lead over Trump among likely voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
In 2020 President Biden won those three important states by razor thin margins, as he was able to defeat Trump. Harris is now attempting to do the same.
The poll was conducted this past week, surrounding the news of Harris naming Tim Walz as her Vice President. Granted, the survey involved fewer than 2,000 people - so it was a smaller sample size.
Since Harris replaced Biden, the polls suggest things have certainly tightened up, and remain tight between Harris and Trump in this presidential race.
Meanwhile, Harris has agreed to debate Trump on September 10th (as originally scheduled with Biden). Trump wanted more than the two debates that Biden originally agreed to, and has offered to debate Harris three times - though she has only agreed to the one so far.
Additionally, Walz and J.D. Vance have both publicly said they would like to debate each other, but, so far, no date has been announced.
From the Hill
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World News
62 Dead in Brazilian Plane Crash
Tragedy struck Friday, as a Brazilian plane carrying 62 people (58 passengers, 4 crew members) crashed and burned. Sadly, there were no survivors.
The flight had departed from Cascavel, a city in south Brazil, and was headed to Sao Paulo’s main international airport in Guarulhos. The flight was part of regional airline Voepass, which was founded in 1995. This was the first accident in the airline's history that resulted in any casualties.
The plane was an ATR-72 twin-engine turboprop, manufactured in 2011, which spiraled to the ground in a residential area. The investigation to determine what caused this accident is still ongoing, but some experts have speculated that the unusual circling motion, as it fell, suggested ice had built up on the plane or it had experienced engine failure.
"Today ice was predicted (at the altitudes the plane was flying at), but within the acceptable range," Voepass Chief Operations Officer Marcel Moura said during a press conference. "The plane is sensitive to ice, that could be a starting point," Moura said, adding the plane's de-icing system, along with all other systems, had been deemed operational before takeoff.
However, the aircraft’s pilots did not report an emergency or adverse weather conditions. The plane stopped responding to calls, and the radar lost contact with the aircraft, around 1:22 PM, eight minutes before the crash.
Though many are already afraid to fly to begin with, and this story certainly doesn’t help, consider that the last fatal U.S. airline crash was in 2009 (on a short connecting flight from Newark, New Jersey to Buffalo, New York). Most airline accidents have occurred in other countries. In this case, the plane was French-Italian made and featured turbine engines that turn propellers, rather than using jet power. These planes are cheaper and more efficient for shorter flights, which is why so many regional airlines use these types of aircrafts in other parts of the world.
Sadly, there was a three and four-year-old aboard the flight. Also, there were eight cancer doctors on board that were en route to a conference (seven others had changed their flight last minute), including Dr. Leo Ferreira. Similar to the 2014 Malaysia Airlines plane crash, where at least six of the passengers (and potentially as many as 100) killed were en route to an international Aids conference, including Professor Joep Lange - the top Aids researcher and former president of the International Aids Society.
You can read more about the victims here.
What Else to Know
Tech
Former YouTube CEO Passes at 56
Susan Wojcicki
Susan Wojcicki, the former YouTube CEO, passed away on Friday after a two-year battle with non-small-cell lung cancer. She was 56 years old.
Wojcicki was a mother of five, with her youngest being born in 2015. Tragically, her 19-year-old son passed away in February while studying at the University of California, Berkeley. The cause of death was ruled “acute combined drug toxicity.”
Wojcicki worked for Google and recommended, and managed, the $1.6 billion purchase of YouTube in 2006. She later became the CEO of YouTube in 2014 and was named “the most important person in advertising.” She later launched YouTube Premium (formerly YouTube Red) and YouTube TV, growing the platform into a $30 billion company.
Wojcicki was often under fire from social media users for YouTube’s video policies, with many complaints about inconsistencies and biases.
She resigned from YouTube in February of 2023, saying that she wanted to focus on “family, health and personal projects.” Her net worth was estimated at $765 million.
Wojcicki first joined Google after renting her garage out to its co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, in 1998. She was then hired as their marketing manager the following year.
In other news:
Sports
USA “Wins” The Olympics
With more medals than any other nation, the US leads the world.
The 2024 Summer Olympics concluded yesterday with performances form Billie Ellish, Snoop Dogg (of course) and the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the closing ceremonies.
While the IOC does not acknowledge an Olympic winner, the U.S. did win the final medal count with 126. Next closest was China with 91, followed by France with 64.
When it came to gold medals, the U.S. had 40 - tied with China (though the U.S. won the tiebreaker over China) and then followed by Japan’s 20 and Great Britain's 18.
This was similar to the 2020 summer Olympics, where the U.S. had the most medals (113), followed by China (89) then, as well. That summer, the U.S. had the most gold (39), followed by China, Japan and Great Britain - the same order as this year.
The U.S. has won the most golds in each of the past four summer Olympics (China had more golds in 2008) and has won the overall medal count in each of the nine summer Olympics since 1988.
The 126 total medals were the most for the U.S. in a non-boycotted Olympics since 1904, and the second most by any country since 1908. The USSR holds the record (for non-boycotted Olympics) with 132 total medals in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
Some highlights over the weekend included Team USA men’s basketball winning its fifth straight gold with an 11-point victory over France, Team USA women’s basketball holding on to beat France by one in their gold medal game, and the U.S. Women’s soccer team earning its first Olympic gold in 12 years, following a win over Brazil.
The next summer Olympics will be in Los Angeles in 2028 - the first time we will be hosting since Atlanta in 1996.
Around the Leagues:
Entertainment
D23, What You Missed
Disney unveils upcoming projects
Disney just wrapped up its D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim, California yesterday. The three day event featured plenty of announcements, so let’s run through some of them:
*The release of the Moana 2 trailer. The movie will be released on November 27th, featuring “new threats and familiar faces.” Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will reprise his role for the sequel and even showed up at the announcement over the weekend to dance on stage.
*Speaking of The Rock, he is partnering with Disney for a monster truck project. He announced he is making a live-action monster truck movie, titled “Monster Jam.”
*Avatar 3, which is set to be released on December 19, 2025, received its official title: “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” James Cameron, who will continue to direct the film series, made an appearance at the convention for the announcement, along with stars Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington. No footage was shown.
*Toy Story 5 will be written by Andrew Stanton, of Wall-E and Finding Nemo fame. Not much is known about the film yet, which will be released in the summer of 2026, except the fact that the characters will apparently be battling…. 50 rouge Buzz Lightyears.
*Pixar announced the “crazy, funny, action-packed” original movie, “Hoppers”, which will star Jon Hamm and Bobby Moynihan. Not much else is known yet.
*Not long after the release of Inside Out 2, we’ll now get a spinoff: “Dream Productions.” Furthermore, the animation company will double down on its Disney+ presence with the release of a second series: “Win or Lose”. It will be released in December.
*Pixar is working on an Incredibles 3. No details are known just yet.
*Frozen, Hercules and The Greatest Showman stage adaptations are all on the way. “Frozen: the Broadway Musical” will come to Disney+ in 2025. Hercules will begin it’s run in the summer of 2025, while The Greatest Showman is still in development.
And SO much more, which you can see here.
In other news:
