CEO Killer Merch Goes Viral & Amazon Sells Cars Now

Summary

Morning Brew Daily: CEO Killer Merch Goes Viral & Amazon Sells Cars Now

Release Date: December 11, 2024
Hosts: Neal Freyman & Toby Howell

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1. Time's Person of the Year Shortlist Quiz

Neal kicks off the episode with an engaging quiz about Time magazine's shortlist for Person of the Year.

• Neal Freyman (00:51): "I'm going to give you a list of six names. Five are finalists, four times Person of the Year and one is not a finalist. Try to guess which one is the imposter I included on the list."

• Participants:

  • Kate Middleton
  • Mark Zuckerberg
  • Caitlin Clark
  • Joe Rogan
  • Elon Musk
  • Kamala Harris

• Toby Howell (01:22): "Oh my gosh. They all seem... my initial thought was Caitlin Clark because maybe she's just not quite big enough."

• Neal Freyman (01:37): "The correct answer is Caitlin Clark as the imposter. Caitlin Clark did win Time's Athlete of the Year yesterday, so she is going home with some hardware. But she is not up for Person of the Year."

The discussion hints at the potential winner, with Neal suggesting, "Donald Trump. He is by far the odds on favorite to win this thing tomorrow morning" (02:13).

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2. Luigi Maggione's Murder and Viral Merchandising

The hosts delve into the controversial case of Luigi Maggione, charged with murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the subsequent viral merchandising.

• Overview:

  • Merchandise Surge (02:51): "Online stores were flooded with merch that sported his name and likeness alongside phrases like 'In this house, Luigi Mangione is a hero.'"

• Public Reaction:

  • Neal Freyman (03:52): "This reaction... the Internet's intense fascination with this character whose privileged background... hasn't deterred people from stanning him as a folk hero despite him allegedly fatally shooting someone in Manhattan."

• Companies' Responses:

  • Google's Action (05:21): "Google has removed all of them because they don't want reviews pertaining to a particular location from people who have not even been there."
  • Amazon's Strategy (05:21): "Amazon has taken a harder approach and removed more of these listings."
  • GoFundMe's Policy (05:21): "Crowdfunding site GoFundMe took down some campaigns that popped up in support of the suspect because it has a policy against raising money for the legal defense of violent crime."

• Community Behavior:

  • Toby Howell (06:16): "Most of these sellers... catching on to any Internet trend quickly. This is a capital V, capital O, very online story."

• Expert Insights:

  • Network Contagion Research Institute (06:56): "This phenomenon... we are now witnessing similar dynamics emerging on mainstream platforms, amplifying the risk of further escalation."

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3. One Year of Javier Milei's Presidency in Argentina

Celebrating the first anniversary of Javier Milei's presidency, the hosts analyze his economic reforms and their impacts.

• Economic Achievements:

  • Inflation Reduction: "Inflation has plunged from a monthly rate of 26% last December to 2.7% in October."
  • Peso Strengthening: "The rapidly depreciating peso has strengthened considerably against the black market dollar."
  • Sovereign Bonds: "Argentina's sovereign bond prices have almost tripled since his election."

• Austerity Measures:

  • Spending Cuts: "Implementing hardcore austerity measures, including laying off tens of thousands of government workers, freezing infrastructure projects and imposing wage and pension freezes."

• Social Impact:

  • Rising Unemployment & Poverty: "Unemployment and poverty have climbed."
  • Approval Ratings: "Milei's approval rating stands at about 50%."

• Toby Howell (09:00): "People were spending their pesos as soon as they got them because they'd be worth less in a week, in a month. So incomes Milei the Nacro capitalist... he vows to bring a chainsaw to government spending."

• Global Influence:

  • Alignment with Trump and Musk: "He's buddy buddy with Trump and Elon Musk."

• Future Challenges:

  • Economic Revival: "The bigger challenge of getting the economy back going again and really opening up Argentina."

---

4. Amazon Ventures into Car Sales with Hyundai Partnership

Amazon expands its "everything store" model by partnering with Hyundai to sell cars directly through its platform.

• Amazon Auto Launch (12:01):

  • Features: "Browse, work on financing, and arrange delivery for your very own Hyundai without ever leaving Amazon.com."
  • User Experience: "Search for the model you want, customize trim, color, and interior features."

• Hosts' Experience:

  • Neal Freyman (13:01): "We just literally typed in 'car' and it worked. We saw all of Hyundai's new cars in front of us."

• Consumer Behavior:

  • Avoiding Traditional Dealership Hassles: "People are looking for different ways to buy cars online... Tesla revolutionized this because Tesla doesn't have any dealerships and you have to buy a Tesla online."

• Industry Impact:

  • Competitor Reactions: "Autotrader, Carvana, CarMax... investors aren't too worried at the moment."
  • Expansion Plans: "Amazon plans to expand beyond Hyundai and into more cities next year."

• Toby Howell (14:39): "Amazon is the middlemen connecting dealers with customers... People are okay with going to pick up a car and not having it shipped to their doorstep."

---

5. Decline in Basic Skills Among US Adults

A recent survey reveals that US adults are lagging in essential skills like reading and math compared to other advanced economies.

• Survey Findings (17:40):

  • US Rankings:
    • Literacy: 14th
    • Adaptive Problem Solving: 15th
    • Numeracy: 24th
  • Skill Deficiency: "More than one-third of US test takers didn't demonstrate the skills that would be expected of a primary school student, up from 29% in 2017."

• Factors Contributing to Decline:

  • Increased Migration: "Non-native speakers affecting literacy scores."
  • Aging Populations: "Machine literacy peaks at age 30 and doesn't improve thereafter."
  • Reduced Reading Habits: "Adults are reading less, possibly due to distractions like TikTok and Instagram."

• Real-World Implications:

  • Economic Impact: "People who perform better in these tests see wages that are 75% higher."
  • Social Impact: "Higher scores correlate with better health and happiness."

• Toby Howell (18:55): "Our time is pulled in a lot of different directions. People aren't reading as much as maybe they were a decade, two decades ago."

---

6. General Motors Abandons Autonomous Robo-Taxi Ambitions

GM pulls back from its ambitious robo-taxi project under the Cruise unit, refocusing on advanced self-driving technology for existing vehicles.

• Project Termination (21:19):

  • Neal Freyman (21:19): "General Motors said it would stop trying to make an autonomous robo taxi through its cruise unit and instead shift its focus to making advanced self-driving technology for its existing fleet of cars."

• Reasons for Abandonment:

  • Safety Incidents: "Safety incident in San Francisco sidelined Cruise's cars."
  • Regulatory Scrutiny: "Potential lies in reports to regulators."
  • Financial Strain: "Cruise laid off 900 people; GM poured $10 billion without viable returns."

• Market Impact:

  • Competitor Advantage: "Waymo and Tesla advancing in the self-driving space."
  • Neal Freyman (22:57): "Waymo is operating in a bunch of cities and they just announced... they're pulling ahead."

---

7. FTC Blocks Kroger and Albertsons Supermarket Merger

A federal judge halts the proposed $25 billion merger between Kroger and Albertsons, citing antitrust concerns.

• Legal Rulings (23:22):

  • FTC's Position: "The merger would lead to reduced competition, potentially harming consumers through higher prices and fewer choices."
  • Judges' Concerns: "CNS is ill-prepared to take on the stores and will likely end up selling or closing those stores."

• Regulatory Landscape:

  • FTC Chair Lina Khan (23:58): "Perhaps her last decision or her last action against mergers... Incoming commissioner Andrew Ferguson is expected to take a lighter touch."

• Future Prospects:

  • Potential Re-attempts: "These two companies may try again in a few months, but currently, the merger is on ice."

---

8. Rupert Murdoch Loses Control Over Family Trust

Rupert Murdoch's attempt to restructure his family trust to grant his son Lachlan sole control over the media empire is thwarted by a Nevada commissioner.

• Court Decision (25:25):

  • Outcome: "The commissioner ruled against Murdoch's bid, stating it was a 'carefully crafted charade.'"

• Implications:

  • Share of Control: "Four of his children will have equal say in the future of his media empire, including Fox News and the Wall Street Journal."
  • Family Dynamics: "Lachlan wanted full control to maintain conservative leanings, but his siblings hold differing political views."

• Cultural Reference:

  • Succession Parallel (27:02): "The kids are challenging their father's family trust realignment after watching the HBO show 'Succession.'"

---

9. Nigel Richards' Controversial Scrabble Victory

Nigel Richards, a professional Scrabble player from New Zealand, wins the Spanish Scrabble World Championship despite not speaking Spanish, sparking controversy.

• Victory Highlights (27:46):

  • Neal Freyman (28:25): "Richards... has been described as the Tiger Woods of Scrabble."
  • Achievements: "Won the French Scrabble World Championships twice without speaking French."

• Community Reaction:

  • Local Outrage: "A local newscaster described it as 'incredible humiliation.'"
  • Peers' Views: "Viewed as a fascinating blend of memorization and strategic gameplay."

• Future Challenges:

  • Upcoming Competitions: "Awaiting Richards' performance in Romanian and Italian Scrabble where dictionaries are even larger."

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Conclusion

Neal and Toby wrap up the episode by encouraging listeners to share the podcast, reminiscing about playing Words With Friends during the pandemic, and highlighting the diverse range of topics covered—from viral merchandise related to a high-profile murder to Amazon's foray into the automotive market.

Notable Quote:

• Toby Howell (27:45): "This is inspired by a TV show... they're literally looking at this piece of paper that they can't read."

Final Thoughts: The episode offers a comprehensive look into current events impacting business, economy, and society, delivered with the hosts' signature wit and insight.

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Note: This summary excludes advertisements, intros, outros, and any non-content sections as per the provided instructions.

Transcript

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[Neal Freyman]

Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neal Freyman.

[Toby Howell]

And I'm Toby Howell.

[Neal Freyman]

Today, more Americans are falling behind on basic skills. Is it TikTok's fault then?

[Toby Howell]

You really can buy anything on Amazon. It's now selling cars. It's Wednesday, December 11th. Let's ride.

[Neal Freyman]

Earlier this week, Time magazine released the shortlist for its Person of the Year, who will be announced tomorrow. So I want to play a little quiz with you all. Toby, you can participate too. I'm going to give you a list of six names. Five are finalists, four times Person of the Year and one is not a finalist. Try to guess which one is the imposter I included on the list. Here we go. Kate Middleton, Mark Zuckerberg, Caitlin Clark, Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, Kamala Harris.

[Toby Howell]

Oh my gosh. They all seem that my initial thought was Caitlin Clark because maybe she's just not quite big enough. But my other thought was Mark Zuckerberg because I don't know, other than come on our podcast, what really big thing did he do this year? But tell us, what is the correct answer?

[Neal Freyman]

The correct answer is Caitlin Clark as the imposter.

[Toby Howell]

Oh, it's. Wait.

[Neal Freyman]

So Mark Zuckerberg is shortlisted four times Person of the Year, but I agree with you. I'm not exactly sure what he did except, you know, get a makeover a little bit. Caitlin Clark did win Times Athlete of the Year yesterday, so she is going home with some hardware. But she is not up for Person of the Year. Who do you think is going to win Person of the Year?

[Toby Howell]

That was sneaky, Neal. I think. Wait, is Elon Musk on the shortlist?

[Neal Freyman]

Yeah.

[Toby Howell]

Okay, so he might go back to back. Oh no, he didn't win it last year. So I think probably Elon Musk is pretty dang influential Time Person.

[Neal Freyman]

You know, influential Donald Trump. He is the by far the odds on favorite to win this thing tomorrow morning.

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So less abracadabra, more sage. Visit sage.com for more info. That's sage.com on Monday, Luigi Maggione was charged with the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and just hours later, online stores were flooded with merch that sported his name and likeness alongside phrases like in this house, Luigi Mangione is a hero. T shirts, coffee mugs, stickers, you name it, people were selling it. Wired found nearly 100 listings featuring Mangione's name or image on Etsy alone, and over 800 results come up. If you search for deny, defend, depose the three words that were etched into the bullet shell casings at the scene of the murder last week. It's been one of the stories within the story of the assassination how different parts of the Internet have reacted and in some cases embraced mangione. The McDonald's that Manjoni was spotted out in Altoona, Pennsylvania. It's been review bombed with hundreds of people flooding the restaurant's Google page with negative reviews, calling the workers rats and snitches.

[Neal Freyman]

This reaction is something we saw right from the outset to a Facebook post from UnitedHealth Group soon after Thompson's killing received 62,000 reactions and 57,000 of those were the laughing emoji speaks to the deep animosity people have toward the health care insurance industry, but also shows just the Internet's intense fascination with this character whose privileged background in Baltimore having haven't deterred people from stanning him as a folk hero despite him allegedly fatally shooting someone in Manhattan.

[Toby Howell]

It is odd Neal. Most of these sellers on the merch side of things are just trying to catch and you see a lot of print on demand shops with products for sale because they let these opportunistic sellers capitalize on trends very quickly. You see it really any time a meme goes viral from something as harmless as moo Dang to something as serious as an assassination of a health care CEO. If you go to some of these sellers pages you'll find other merch maybe related to Maga or Donald Trump, some featuring a ray gun. They are just these sellers who jump in on any Internet train. But I think part of the reason why the Internet has had such a field day with this particular story is that so much of Mangione's public life is out on the Internet for people to see. People are going through his Goodreads account to see what books he was interested in, going through his ex account to see what he was into. I saw a screenshot from the upenna Crushes group, a Facebook group where man Johnny went to school. So this is a capital V, capital O, very online story.

[Neal Freyman]

And, and how are companies responding to this? So you mentioned that the McDonald's and Altoona was review bombed with all these one star reviews. Well, Google has removed all of them because they don't want, they don't want reviews pertaining to a particular location from people who have not. From people who have not even been there. So they've cracked down hard on that. And then when it comes to these online selling platforms, so something like ebay, they have taken down the ones that glorify or celebrate the actual murder of the violence, but they're allowing the ones to stay on that just say, deny, defend, depose, because that is within their guidelines. Amazon has taken a harder approach and removed more of these listings. And then the crowdfunding site GoFundMe took down some campaigns that were that popped up in support of the suspect because it has a policy against raising money for the legal defense of violent crime.

[Toby Howell]

Another interesting wrinkle to this case is that that is related to social media is that usually in high profile crimes like this, you will see kind of this outpouring of Internet sleuths that jump online and try to solve the murder alongside or solve the case alongside police. But in this case, the Wall Street Journal documented multiple instances of the online community actively not trying to help and there actually was no aid. And in some cases there was actually trying to hamper the investigation. So that was another interesting thing that we saw bubbling up is that people weren't doing the online sleuthing thing that you mostly see on Tik Tok or Instagram or something like that. And in some cases we're going the opposite direction entirely.

[Neal Freyman]

What do Internet experts think about this? Well, there was a report from earlier this week from the Network Contagion Research Institute. And they called this phenomenon of online accounts glorifying the shooter as a cause for concern. Because usually you see this kind of stuff on fringe platforms like 4chan and Achan after mass shoot. The report's authors wrote. While this phenomenon was once largely confined to niche online subcultures, we are now witnessing similar dynamics emerging on mainstream platforms, amplifying the risk of further Escalation.

[Toby Howell]

Finally, what is the latest on the case itself? Mangione and his legal team appeared at an extradition hearing in Pennsylvania. They are working to contest bringing him back to New York to face murder charges. He's pleading not guilty to those offenses, his lawyer said. I haven't seen any evidence that he's the shooter.

[Neal Freyman]

Yesterday marked one year since Javier Milei took over as president of Argentina. The political newcomer and libertarian economist sparked intrigue all over the world for his pledge to use unconventional methods to bring Argentina back from the brink of hyperinflation and revive its flailing economy. So far, so good. 365 days into Milei's presidency, the progress has been notable. Inflation has plunged from a monthly rate of 26% last December to 2.7% in October. The rapidly depreciating peso has strengthened considerably against the black market dollar. And Argentina's sovereign bond prices have almost tripled since his election. Bringing down inflation has not been without pain, though. As promised, Milei took a chainsaw to government spending, implementing hardcore austerity measures, including laying off tens of thousands of government workers, freezing infrastructure projects and imposing wage and pension freezes. Below inflation, unemployment and poverty have climbed. Still, Argentines are giving him plenty of latitude to continuous turnaround plan. Millaise approval rating stands at about 50%. Toby. This fiscal experiment has gained global attention and may provide a blueprint for other conservative leaders.

[Toby Howell]

I think to really understand the impact of Javier, Millie, you have to go back to a year ago. Supermarkets were changing their prices almost on the daily as they were trying to keep up with inflation. People were spending their pesos as soon as they got them because they'd be worth less in a week, in a month. So you have to go spend them now. So incomes melee the Nacro capitalist, the former TV guy, he vows to blow up the central bank. He vows to bring a chainsaw, a literal chainsaw. That imagery has been a very big part of his presidency to the government and kill sky high inflations. And I guess you can really look at his effect in two ways. On the bad side of the coin is what you mentioned. Unemployment is way up, economic activity is a little bit down. Poverty is up to a two decade high. But then on the other side of the coin, inflation has plummeted, it has come down, bonds have regained some of their value and the country's risk of default is at its lowest point as it's been in five years. So it really is whatever side of the coin you want to look at, you can either support his policies or detract them.

[Neal Freyman]

And many, many people in Argentina do support them. A 50% approval rate with poverty over 50%. And there also hasn't been these mass protests that were envisioned when he implemented these severe austerity measures. I mean, 200,000 construction workers have laid off because he froze all infrastructure projects from the banking community. So these are people that are working with Argentina from JP Morgan that the Argentina country head for. JP Morgan compared it to a country company coming out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy that needed to get its financial house in order. It has a lot of assets, but it has a lot of distress as well. And this guy is pretty happy with the, with the progress so far. He says this company, which he means Argentina, is getting out of a chapter 11 after less than a year. Things couldn't be better from where I stand. So one year in, things are going pretty okay. Because Milei wanted to kill inflation first. He did that. Now there's a much bigger challenge of getting the economy back going again and really opening up Argentina, which has, which is a very, very regulated, insular economy to the world and global market.

[Toby Howell]

Right. You do need to see this economic revival that he has been promising follow through because there has been a lot of pain. So you need to have something on the other side of it. One reason why people think his approval rating has remained relatively steady despite that increase in poverty that you've mentioned is that he was very open and honest about like things are going to get worse before they are going to get better. But now you are in the things have to get better phase of things. So that will be the real test to see if all this pain was inevitably actually worth it.

[Neal Freyman]

And let's talk about his global influence too. I mean, the fact that he brought a chainsaw and talked about taking a chainsaw to the government is, is very much in line with what you're seeing adopted in the incoming Trump administration with doge, the Department of Government Efficiency. Melaye is buddy buddy with Trump and Elon Musk. He's very close with Elon Musk. So you're starting to see his influence creep north of the equator to the United States.

[Toby Howell]

Have you ever been shopping for some extra toilet paper on Amazon and thought to yourself, huh, really wish I could also buy a car right now? Well, you are in luck because the so called everything store took the name literally and partnered with Hyundai to launch Amazon Auto. You can now browse, work on financing and arrange delivery for your very own Hyundai without ever leaving Amazon.com the actual shopping Experience makes a lot of sense. You can search for the model you want, go deeper to customize things like trim, color and interior features. And during the checkout process, instead of clicking One Day shipping, which it doesn't offer, you can sign all the annoying paperwork and then schedule a time for pickup at your local participating dealership. Neil at first glance, cars on Amazon seems a little crazy. But all the typical Amazon signals used to judge whether you should buy something, things like user reviews and star ratings are part of this program and could be helpful. So maybe go ahead and toss in that $56,000 Ioniq 5 while you're doing a little Christmas shopping.

[Neal Freyman]

Yeah, well, earlier this morning, Toby and I, we fired up Amazon.com and we just literally typed in car and it worked. I mean, we saw all of Hyundai's new cars in front of us. You clicked in, we saw all the specs. And I think one reason why people may gravitate to this, obviously this is the early stages of Amazon's entrance into cars, is that, you know, survey after survey shows that the dealership experience the, you know, the experience of going in, talking to a dealer, buying a car from then haggling is miserable. So I think people are looking for different ways to buy cars online. Car shopping has been around a long time. I mean, Tesla really revolutionized this because Tesla doesn't have any dealerships and you have to buy a Tesla online. Same codes for other EV upstarts like Rivian. So Amazon is not the one who Amazon car car buying, but now it's getting in and, you know, maybe its competitors should be worried.

[Toby Howell]

Yeah, the Amazon ification of car buying has already happened, but now Amazon wants to put itself at the middle of that, at the center of it. Some dealers are a little skeptical because of course they're going to be skeptical as they think buying cars is a complicated business. And there are also these rules in the US that prevent retailers from selling cars directly to consumers. There's actually a lot of protections for dealerships that make them still be central to the process. But Amazon has skirted around those rules because it is working with Hyundai dealerships to say that, hey, people order online on our platform, but you have to go to the dealership to pick it up and you guys still facilitate the transaction there. So they are playing nice with the dealership industry, which is why some people are bullish on this because basically it's.

[Neal Freyman]

Just a top of just Amazon.

[Toby Howell]

Yeah, it's just Amazon. You go click it. And instead of it showing up in one day, though, you have to go and pick the car up. But I think people are pretty okay with going to pick up a car and not having it shipped to their doorstep.

[Neal Freyman]

Yeah, they're getting around these odds by just saying they're the middlemen connecting dealers with customers, which is what they say to every other third party seller on their platform. The question is, what do these competitors do? Autotrader, Carvana, CarMax. You know, I expected their share prices to like go down 30% yesterday because Amazon's getting into the business. Seems like investors aren't too worried at the moment. All of those other companies sell used cars and they have a much bigger selection than Amazon does right now. Amazon will slowly dip its toe in though next year it says it's going to expand just beyond Hyundai, which is probably pretty important because people don't just buy those, those cars and then also getting into more cities. Right now it's just in 48 cities.

[Toby Howell]

Up next, US adults are getting worse at reading and math.

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[Neal Freyman]

Every decade, a test is administered to adults around the world to assess basic life skills like reading a thermometer, finding info from a website, and creating a comprehensive travel itinerary. The idea is to measure job readiness and critical thinking skills among people in the workforce. Well, the results are in from last year's survey of adult skills, and they are not good for the U.S. it showed that Americans are falling behind other advanced economies out of 31 industrialized countries and economic regions. Given the test, the US ranked 14th in literacy, 15th in adaptive problem solving, and 24th in numeracy, which is the ability to understand and work with numbers. More than one third of US Test takers didn't demonstrate the skills that would be expected of a primary school student, up from 29% in 2017 the last time the test was administered. And 28% of U.S. adults ranked at the lowest levels of literacy compared to 19% in 2017. The findings show that the learning loss US students experienced during the pandemic may also be happening with those out of schools, and it could be a problem for employers who are looking for workers with skills they don't have. Toby, what's your takeaway from this study? Why is the US languishing in terms of basic skills?

[Toby Howell]

I mean, it's not just the US Though it is most of the developed world did make did see losses in literacy and numeracy. Some of the potential reasons for this that they looked at globally was increased migration, which if you bring in a lot of adults who are non native speakers of that language to a country, of course they're going to fare worse in tests that involve literacy. Also, aging populations don't help either. A lot of countries are getting older and data over the years has suggested that new machine literacy actually peak at age of 30 and then it's down downhill from there. Or not downhill, just you don't get better after the age of 30. Another reason that was put forth by one of the people who helped administer the studies was that a lot of adults are getting a lot less practice than they used to reading books. And you can blame Tik Tok, you can blame Instagram, whatever you want to say, but Our time is pulled in a lot of different directions. People aren't reading as much as maybe they were a decade, two decades ago. So those are a couple of the reasons why we might be seeing these trends.

[Neal Freyman]

And you're right, the, you know, the world broadly is, is not doing so well. But the US has had a precipitous decline over this just administered last. The last time it was administered was 2017. In the interim, Denmark, England, Canada and Germany surpassed the US in literacy. Singapore, Ireland and France moved head in numeracy skills. So the US is falling down the the leaderboard. But let's talk about the leaderboard. Who did well? Well, the same eight countries got the top eight in all three categories. Finland, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Estonia, Belgium and Denmark. And for everyone living in Finland, you know, papa Finnish, what do they call it? Long drink, I think. Yes, pop a long drink because you were the top of the rankings in all three fields.

[Toby Howell]

Yeah, Finland is crushing it. Japan is also during. Very well, there are real world implications to these tests as well. Real world implications of having smarter people in a society. Because people who perform better in these tests actually see wages that are 75% higher than those with worse scores. And it's not just financial either. Higher scores also report that they are happier and in better health. So lower scores seem to be more suspicious of others and more likely to report feeling alienated as well. So, so it's not just a test. It is something that has broad impact up and down societies.

[Neal Freyman]

Let's sprint to the finish with some final headlines. The quest to build self driving cars has claimed another victim. General Motors said it would stop trying to make an autonomous robo taxi through its cruise unit and instead shift its focus to making advanced self driving technology for its existing fleet of cars. For CEO Mary Barra, cruise was an ambitious and ultra expensive bet that went South. South. GM poured $10 billion into making robo taxis with the hopes the unit would bring in $50 billion in revenue by 2030. But a safety incident in San Francisco sidelined cruises cars even as competitors like Waymo shot ahead and expanded into other cities. Bar decided it just wasn't worth it to keep pouring money into this business without a viable path forward. She said you have to understand the cost of running a robo taxi fleet, which is not our core business and is very expensive. Toby, do you understand?

[Toby Howell]

Yeah, I do. Is a major egg on the face moment for Barra and then also just GM in general. It just ran into a lot of issues, I mean, not even pun intended. There because yeah, it did strike and drag a pedestrian. It then had some federal regulatory scrutiny and then it potentially lied in its report to them. And then Cruise's co founder and CEO left as well. Cruise laid off 900 people. The writing was on the wall. But what this really is too is any loss for Cruise is a big win for its competitors, a big win for Waymo. It really does look like Waymo. You can toss Tesla in there as well, although they're a bit of a wildcard. Is the clear winner in the self driving space as of now because they are operating in multiple cities across the country.

[Neal Freyman]

Waymo is operating in a bunch of cities and they just announced earlier this week or last week that they're going to Miami by 2026. So they are pulling ahead. You're right. Tesla said it would roll out a RoboTaxi fleet in 2026. Amazon also has a competitor in this space, but Cruise is no longer with us. They're just going to be doing that, you know, advanced driver assistance tech for GM's existing vehicles.

[Toby Howell]

A federal judge in Oregon has temporarily blocked the proposed 25 billion tie up between Kroger and Albertsons, doing a blow to what would have been the largest supermarket merger in the United States. The judge sided with the FTC's argument that the merger would lead to reduced competition, potentially harming consumers through higher prices and fewer choices. In a separate ruling in Washington, a state judge also permanently blocked the merger. So this thing is looking dead in the water and deals a huge blow to both Kroger and Albertsons, who argued that joining forces was necessary to compete with the big boys of the grocery world like Walmart, Amazon and Costco.

[Neal Freyman]

Yeah, this is Lina Khan, the FTC chair, doing the Steph Curry sleep move right now because this is perhaps her last decision or her last action that she's brought brought against merger. She's done a ton. She's had some wins and losses over the past four years. But she is going to be replaced in the incoming Trump administration by a guy who's already on the FTC commission named Andrew Ferguson, who is expected to take a much lighter touch than Lina Khan to mergers. He is still going to go after big tech companies. He said that they deserve a lot of scrutiny. But for mergers like maybe the supermarket mergers or the, the handbag merger that we talked about that Lina Khan successfully blocked, those might get to skate through. So maybe these two companies will try again in a few months. But right now it seems like this temporary injunction that the judge ruled for will put this merger completely on ice.

[Toby Howell]

Yeah. The judge was not so down with the fact that Kroger and Albertsons were like, pinky promising that they were going to lower prices, which isn't actually a legally binding process. So it was a pretty scathing review, saying, like, hey, you guys are saying something that cannot be enforced and that we don't know if you actually do. And then the other part that they had issue with their diverse divestiture plan. They promised to sell off over 500 stores to this other operator called CNS. But the judge, both judges in both cases that I mentioned argue that CNS is ill prepared to take on the stores and will likely end up selling or closing those stores. So those were two issues that these judges had with this merger.

[Neal Freyman]

Remember earlier this year when there was that secretive hearing in Nevada where Rupert Murdoch tried to change the family trust so that his son Lachlan would gain full control over, over his media company and make sure it maintains its conservative leanings? Yeah. Well, he lost. A Nevada commissioner ruled against Murdoch's attempt to change the family trust to cut out every other kid besides Lachlan. Which means that four of his children will have equal say in the future of his media empire, which includes Fox News and the Wall Street Journal. In the end, it really wasn't much of a fight. The commissioner ruled resoundingly against Murdoch, calling his bid to change the family trust just a carefully crafted charade. Toby, walk us through a bit why Murdoch wanted to strip power away from the three other children.

[Toby Howell]

The eldest boy being screwed again. Where have I seen this for? But yes, big implications here, because Murdoch won. This isn't about money. He still is saying that his, his children can share in the wealth of this organization he's created, but it is about power. He wants to keep one of this biggest, most powerful conservative media apparatuses in the world together. Lachlan was going to be the person who wanted, who is very aligned with Rupert and what he, his vision for, you know, Fox News and this general news conglomerate should behave like. So James and Elizabeth, some of his other children are a lot less conservative politically than their father or their brother. So that was why Lachlan, the eldest boy, was. He was trying to force the, you know, the courts to grant him control over this empire. But it's looking like another succession incident. I don't know who the, who the Tom is in scenario, but maybe someone coming in from the outside.

[Neal Freyman]

And the parallels between the HBO succession and this case are not theoretical because apparently the kids decided to bring this case and you know, challenge their father's family trust realignment after he is gone. After they watched this episode of Succession where if people know the show after he dies, they're trying to figure out the, you know, how to divvy up the empire, and it's absolute chaos. They're literally looking at this piece of paper that they can't read. So that inspired Elizabeth's representative to get everyone together and say, we need to figure this out before he dies, because this is can be absolute chaos because I watched it on a TV show.

[Toby Howell]

Neil, spoiler alert. Come on, you got to say spoiler alert there. No, you're within the window. It's been long enough.

[Neal Freyman]

The window.

[Toby Howell]

That season ended. A major kerfuffle has broken out at the Spanish World Scrabble championships because a man named Nigel Richards has won it despite not speaking Spanish. Richards. Its victory has led to indignation across Spain and incredible humiliation is how one local newscaster described it. But for those who follow the professional Scrabble scene, it was no surprise. Nigel Richards, who's originally from New Zealand, has been described as the Tiger woods of Scrabble. People say playing Richards is like playing a computer. He's won the French Scrabble World championships twice despite not speaking that language either. Neil, this guy is the goat.

[Neal Freyman]

I mean, Richards, talk to me when you do Romanian or Italian Scrabble because, you know, the Spanish Scrabble dictionary only has about 400000 words. The French one has 386,000, so you can memorize those in a few weeks. Come on. But the Romanian and Italian Scrabble dictionaries have more than half a million words each. So until he wins those, then I'm not aboard the Richards train.

[Toby Howell]

His peers are like people would. He would make a great doctoral thesis subject because it is. It's incomprehensible that someone can have that much of an understanding of the language without actually being able to speak the language. How can you memorize the entire Spanish gravel dictionary, which apparently he did ahead of his win, without actually being able to hold a conversation? It is such a interesting, like, left brain versus right brain sort of thing where you know all the words of a language but can't actually speak that language? This dude is extremely interesting.

[Neal Freyman]

That is all the time we have. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us and have a wonderful Wednesday. For any questions, comments, or feedback, send an email to Morning Brew daily at Morning Broadcom. And if you're feeling extra merry this holiday season gift, give the gift of morning Brew daily to a friend, coworker, or family member. You don't even have to come in through the chimney. Just send a link to someone who you think would enjoy the pod. And for more sharing inspiration, Toby's got you covered.

[Toby Howell]

I want you to share the podcast with someone who you used to play Words With Friends with. That Scrabble story reminded me that I got so into Words With Friends during the pandemic and it was a great way to stay in touch with people. So maybe redownload it, send someone a challenge and send this episode to go alongside it.

[Neal Freyman]

Let's roll the credits. Emily Milian is our executive producer. Raymond Liu is our producer. Olivia Graham is our associate associate producer. Uchenowa Ogu is our technical director. Billy Menino is on audio, hair and makeup. Just played a Q on a triple letter. We're so done. Devin Emery is our chief content officer and our show is a production of Morning Brew.

[Toby Howell]

Great show today, Neil. Let's run it back tomorrow.