Business

Americans Just Aren’t Shopping

Slow to the 2025 calendar year for retail.

It’s been a cold start to the year for retail stores, as sales dropped by the most in nearly two years in January. A perfect storm of complications seem to be the culprit, such as frigid temperatures keeping people inside, the wildfires, motor vehicle shortages, and more. 

Kanye West might not be able to sing about females that are “addicted to retail” anymore.

However, it is believed that the decline is more about those factors and not some sort of shift in consumer spending, as the prior four months all featured hefty increases in retail sales. So January, as of now, seems more like the outlier, than the norm. 

“The drop was dramatic, but several mitigating factors show there’s no cause for alarm,” said Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union.

Retail sales dropped 0.9% in January, the largest drop since March 2023. This comes after a 0.7% increase in December, which means January provided a 1.6% swing in the wrong direction. The forecast called for only a 0.1% dip.

Still, retail sales increased 4.2% from last January to this one. 

“The wildfires in Los Angeles, the second-largest metro area in the U.S., and severe winter weather in other parts of the country, may have limited face-to-face shopping activity,” suggested Jay Hawkins, a senior economist at PNC Financial. 

Some have also wondered if rising prices and upcoming tariffs could have impacted (the lack of) sales, as well. 

“We will need to wait until the February data to see if this is the start of a more cautious consumer trend or indeed whether it was simply a weather-related pull back,” explained James Knightley, chief international economist at ING.

Jamie Diamond Hates Work From Home

Another executive is joining the fight against the increasingly popular work-from-home method in the U.S. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon scolded employees last week during a fiery town hall, after workers raised concerns with the bank’s five-day return-to-office policy. 

Work from home became a necessity during Covid nearly five years ago, and (fortunately) has stuck around since. However, many companies have recently begun repealing those luxuries, forcing employees back to offices. JPMorgan Chase was one of the more recent ones, in a decision that has not gone over too well.

“It simply doesn’t work. It doesn’t work for creativity. It slows down decision making,” Dimon claimed, while explaining his disdain for working from home. 

“And don’t give me that shit that ‘work from home Friday’ works. I call a lot of people on Friday. There’s not a goddamn person to get a hold of,” he added. 

Employees at JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, signed a petition urging the CEO to NOT remove hybrid workdays. However, Dimon would have none of it - claiming these work-from-home opportunities are harming the next generation of workers.

“The young generation is being damaged by this. That may or may not be in your particular staff, but they are being left behind,” Dimon said at the company town hall meeting.

He also didn’t like the petition, saying at one point: “I don’t care how many people sign that fucking petition.”

Meanwhile, one employee claims he was fired after questioning the return to office mandate during the town hall meeting. The employee, Nicolas Welch, who has worked for JPM since 2017, said he was then told he could stay on afterwards. 

The 45-minute town hall meeting featured nearly 1,000 employees in person and thousands more on zoom. IN total, JPM has 317,233 employees… all of whom have been ordered back to their offices.

Tech

TikTok Is Back Baby

Teens across America rejoice, as TikTok is back in the app store.

The American crisis is over! TikTok has been restored to the Apple and Google stores after being removed last month. Hallelujah! 

The app was originally removed from mobile stores to comply with a ban on the social media platform. The law essentially served as an ultimatum, requiring the Chinese tech company ByteDance (owners of TikTok) to sell the American version to an American-based company, in order for the app to continue in this country. The law granted ByteDance nine months to make the sale, otherwise the app would be banned from the U.S. 

However, President Trump, who was sworn back into office less than 24 hours after the ban was supposed to be instituted, said he was going to extend the time before the law would be in effect, with hopes of securing a deal. 

Therefore, the app went dark in the U.S., and was removed from the app stores, but only temporarily, before President Trump was able to restore it… for the time being, at least. 

In a statement, ByteDance thanked President Trump and said they will work with this administration to find a long-term solution for TikTok to remain available in the U.S. The app is currently used by over 170 million Americans, making it the most popular mobile app. 

While the app has been restored on the app stores, the law is still unresolved, as is a potential resolution, as the app has not been sold yet. For now, it seems to just continue in a limbo-esque holding period.

Politics

Doge, What’s Going On

Doge has been all over the news, here’s a round up of what’s going on.

It’s been a busy few first weeks for DOGE and its leader Elon Musk. As they continue to get things done, you certainly can't question THEIR efficiency - drum rim shot - we’ll be here all week. 

DOGE first encouraged federal workers to resign, pushed for the shutdown of USAID and accessed agencies’ records. And they haven’t slowed down.

Musk, appearing virtually Thursday morning at the 2025 World Governments Summit in Dubai, said that he is helping the country engage in a sort of “corporate turnaround” that should include deleting entire agencies. 

“It’s kind of like leaving a weed: If you don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back,” Musk explained. “But if you remove the roots of the weed, it doesn’t stop weeds from ever growing back, but it makes it harder.”

Musk was in the Oval Office, alongside President Trump, earlier in the week, as the two answered questions from reporters about DOGE and also sat down for a recorded interview with Sean Hannity. 

The first round of layoff notices are being sent out, reportedly targeting employees who were just recently hired and still on probationary status. Compensation for federal employees amounted to about 3% of the federal budget in 2024. Musk drastically reduced the number of employees at X, the social media site he bought (formerly Twitter), following his purchase. 

Reportedly, DOGE has its eyes set on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau next, as Musk might plan to dismantle it. Director Russ Vought ordered employees to halt nearly all work and Musk posted “CFPB RIP” on his X account. This has led to even more lawsuits hurled President Trump’s way due to the apparent actions of DOGE. A union representing federal employees filed a second suit.

Federal judges have also halted DOGE’s access to sensitive Treasury payment systems. 

Musk said that DOGE’s work was “maximally transparent,” with claims of saving billions of dollars in less than a month. Some wonder about the legitimacy of those claims and how transparent Musk is truly being.

U.S. News

Governtment Layoffs Begin

It’s all part of President Trump’s effort to shrink the size of the federal workforce, which is the nation’s largest employer. 

The layoffs have begun, as the Trump administration ordered agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees, who hadn’t yet gained civil service protection, on Thursday. This move could affect hundreds of thousands of workers. 

Probationary workers generally have less than a year on the job. According to government data, there are 220,000 workers with less than a year on the job. Workers at some agencies were warned that large workplace cuts would be coming. 

This is the first step in what are expected to be sweeping layoffs. President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday that told agency leaders to plan for “large-scale reductions in force.”

Elon Musk called for the elimination of whole agencies on Thursday. “I think we need to delete entire agencies as opposed to leave a lot of them behind,” Musk explained.

At least 39 were fired from the Education Department on Wednesday. The layoffs hit the Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday. The VA announced that it had laid off more than 1,000 probationary workers in a move that would “save the department more than $98 million per year.” The CDC were among those affected by the layoffs on Friday. And the Department of Homeland Security cut more than 400 employees on Friday, as well. 

World News

Collision at Sea

First planes, now we have boats running into one another.

The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman was involved in a collision at sea with a merchant vessel near port Said, Egypt, according to the Navy.

The collision occurred on Wednesday while both ships were moving. Fortunately, no one was injured and there was no damage to the ship. 

The Truman, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, deployed to the Mediterranean and the Middle East in September. It had just completed a port call in Greece, prior to its arrival in Egypt.