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☆ 29-year-old who quit the NFL to sell Pokémon cards: How my side hustle became a company bringing in $8.3 million in 9 months
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Megan Sauer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

When Blake Martinez was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 2016, he didn't foresee leaving the NFL to sell Pokémon cards. Since its launch, Blake's Breaks has brought in more than $8.3 million in revenue, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. Most of them are streamers — people who open and auction items on live streams — hawking everything from Pokémon cards to vintage purses. Selling food and selling Pokémon cards is obviously different, but they both depend on culture. Just last week, I told everyone, "This isn't about making Blake's Breaks money.

☆ Marsha Blackburn wants her fans to buy $20 pizza cutters from her, so they can help her 'cut the red tape in Washington'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn is promoting her own pizza cutters, which she's offering for $20 each. Blackburn said the pizza cutter sales would allow her to continue to "cut the red tape in Washington." "I'm fighting to cut the red tape in Washington, but it's not easy," Blackburn said in a Monday promotional video for the kitchen utensil. "Together, we can cut the red tape in Washington once and for all," she said. In comparison, pizza cutters of similar functional designs are available at Walmart for $2.96 and $7.98.

☆ One of Harlan Crow's Hitler paintings from his collection of Nazi memorabilia is likely a fake, according to two top experts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Jack Newsham | Katherine Long | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But one of his supposed Hitler paintings appears to be fake, two experts told Insider. Harlan Crow's little-seen Hitler art collectionLittle is known about Crow's collection. Insider spoke with a person who attended a 2014 tour of Crow's library, led by Crow's personal librarian, who confirmed that he saw the Hitler watercolor in Crow's collection. The US Army has four Hitler paintings in storage, Renee Klish, a retired Army curator, told Insider. Panagopulos of Alexander Historical Auctions, who has often disagreed with Droog, also said it was doubtful that Crow's painting was genuine.

☆ Inside the Wild World of Celebrity Keynote Speakers: Drugs, Alcohol
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( David Kushner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +31 min

"I never saw myself as a speaker, let alone a motivational speaker," Leonard tells me while his assistant irons his jeans. 'When I ramble," Hunter told me, "hit me in the leg!" Every plane had been grounded, including the one stuck on the tarmac with an increasingly inebriated Hunter Thompson trapped inside. But by far the most all-consuming task was booking gigs for Hunter Thompson. Just before a debate with G. Gordon Liddy at Brown University, Hunter demanded that Betsy Berg, whom I now worked alongside at GTN, score him some crystal meth.

☆ Warren Buffett's former deputy slams crypto and meme stocks, heralds AI's 'iPhone moment,' and flags big risks to commercial real estate. Here are the 6 best quotes from her annual letter.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Warren Buffett's ex-deputy blasts meme stocks and cryptos and welcomes a more sensible market. Tracy Britt Cool advises investors to be careful and touts ChatGPT as groundbreaking. Here are the six best quotes from Britt Cool and her Kanbrick cofounder in their annual letter. Tracy Britt Cool and her Kanbrick cofounder, Brian Humphrey, also jabbed at meme stocks and cryptocurrencies, and hailed artificial intelligence as a game-changing technology. (Britt Cool and Humphrey singled out commercial real estate, heavily indebted companies with floating-rate loans, and the mushrooming federal debt as areas of concern.)"

WASHINGTON — Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler faced a barrage of criticism from House Republicans on Tuesday over his agency's crackdown on cryptocurrency trading platforms. In more than four hours of testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Gensler stood firm on his view that crypto trading platforms and exchanges should abide by strict U.S. securities laws. "All of these companies should come into compliance with the law, and until they do, we will continue to pursue them as the cop on the beat, and investigate and follow the facts and law," Gensler told the panel. Gensler, however, rejected the notion that crypto trading platforms don't know how to interpret U.S. securities laws. Facing the House committee on Tuesday, Gensler showed little sympathy for the challenges faced by crypto exchanges operating in the U.S."We have a clear regulatory framework built up over 90 years," he said.

☆ Opinion: Top secrets come spilling out
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Richard Galant | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +16 min

We’re looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. Writing for CNN Opinion, Rep. Justin Pearson noted, “This should be a chastening moment for revanchist forces in Tennessee’s legislature and across the country. Over the long haul, the undemocratic machinations employed to oust us from office are destined to fail. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once famously said that the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. “As a Jewish historian,” Perry wrote, “I worry about the tension between preserving the memory of past hardships while not locking our entire history into a tale of oppression.

☆ Fears that the US dollar will collapse are nonsense, and doomsayers are often hawking gold, investment chief says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Filip De Mott | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Dollar collapse fears are bogus as the greenback can't be replaced anytime soon, Brad McMillan said. A lot of the talk is often from doomsayers trying to push gold, Commonwealth Financial's CIO said. The dollar "is not only the established choice and, in most cases, the smart choice, but it is the only choice." "Frankly, a lot of the talk is nonsense designed to panic you into buying something the doomsters are trying to sell, often gold," he wrote. "As far as the markets are concerned, the dollar is still where it has always been.

☆ TikTok is subsidizing shipping and hawking 30% discounts as it races to onboard US sellers for its social-shopping service
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Dan Whateley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Sellers told Insider that TikTok Shop is driving real sales, but still has some bugs to work out. Thus, when TikTok emailed her in March to join the US rollout of its e-commerce initiative TikTok Shop, she decided to give it a shot. Unlike with some other e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, TikTok sellers in the US need to handle their own order shipping and fulfillment. TikTok assists in generating shipping labels for new orders, the sellers told Insider. FancyCube is leaning heavily into working with influencers on TikTok Shop, sending them free products and offering them between 10% and 15% commission when their TikTok videos convert into makeup sales.

☆ A gag order for Donald Trump is 'extremely likely' once he's before a judge, legal expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But once he's arraigned, it's "extremely likely" he'll be put under a gag order, one expert said. But the judge is likely to issue a gag order on the lawyers from both sides, along with Trump, he said. If there's a gag order, Levin said Trump will be "very limited" in what he's able to say, even if there may be proxies who speak for him. Former Indiana Attorney General Jeff Modisett said he also expected that a judge could narrowly craft a gag order that could survive an appeal. "Theoretically, a litigant who breaks a gag order could be thrown in jail," he said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued crypto exchange Coinbase a Wells notice, warning the company that it identified potential violations of U.S. securities law. "Based on discussions with the Staff, the Company believes these potential enforcement actions would relate to aspects of the Company's spot market, staking service Coinbase Earn, Coinbase Prime and Coinbase Wallet," Coinbase said in a regulatory filing. A Wells notice is typically one of the final steps before the SEC formally issues charges. Coinbase described the investigation as "cursory," and said the Wells notice provided relatively little information about potential violations. The SEC sent a Wells notice to stablecoin issuer Paxos in February.

☆ Joe Exotic is running a long-shot 2024 campaign for president, all while serving 21 years in prison for his role in a murder-for-hire plot
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Joe Exotic of "Tiger King" fame is running a long-shot 2024 campaign as a libertarian. At press time, Exotic's 2024 campaign appeared to still need some staffers. Exotic listed several "celebrities and influencers" who he says have endorsed him, including a man named Seth Posey, whose occupation is listed only as "Joe's fiancé." Angela McArdle, chair of the Libertarian Party, slammed Exotic's campaign in an interview with TMZ on March 19. Exotic, McArdle, and Meester did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment outside regular business hours.

☆ Want the Newest Girl Scout Cookie? Better Check eBay.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Suryatapa Bhattacharya | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Online-shopping chaos is taking a bite out of Girl Scout cookie sales. The new Raspberry Rally cookie, an online-only special, is near impossible to find. On eBay , sellers are hawking the $6 box for $100—or more. Other cookies, even fan favorites like Samoas, are in short supply for online buyers. Parents are annoyed and worried they have disappointed customers, and troops are scrambling to meet their sales goals as the annual Girl Scout cookie-sale season nears its end.

☆ At right-wing CPAC forum, Trump shows why he'll be tough to topple
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( James Oliphant | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/4] Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at Gaylord National Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., March 4, 2023. The three-day conference illustrated the iron grip he holds over the right-wing, grassroots base of his party and how hard it could be for a challenger to deny Trump the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. DeSantis also attended a gathering for Republican donors in Florida held by the anti-tax group Club for Growth to which Trump was not invited. In his remarks, Bannon maintained that Trump should be the Republican nominee, saying DeSantis and other potential challengers lacked experience. Trump and DeSantis both are scheduled in the coming days to visit Iowa, which holds the first Republican nominating contest next year.

☆ New documentary reveals how Jared Fogle led a 'double life' as a 'puppet master' who committed child sex acts while pitching sandwiches for Subway
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Jared Fogle became Subway's pitchman after losing 245 pounds by mostly eating the chain's subs. He filmed over 300 ads for Subway before pleading guilty to child sex acts in 2015. Jared Fogle became a pop-culture icon after being tapped as the face of Subway in 2000. A random tip in 2015 finally exposed him as a child sex predator. Here are the most revealing highlights:Jared Fogle led a "double life," according to a documentary about his child sex crimes.

☆ The UFO shoot-downs show the hardest part of discovering alien life may be announcing it. Here's how NASA might break the news.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Extraterrestrial life likely wouldn't show up as flying objects, but finding it could cause similar chaos. An illustration of the CoLD scale for determining confidence in a detection of alien life. The president or other countries could be involved in announcing extraterrestrial life existsPresident Joe Biden speaks at Delaware State University. Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesAnnouncing the existence of alien life would be an "administration-level" affair, Glaze said, referring to the US presidency. Needless to say, any discovery of alien life would likely lead to chaos — at least in public discourse.

☆ The $400 Tiffany & Co. and Nike sneaker collab is just the beginning — the brands are also hawking silver accessories like shoe horns totaling over $1000
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Danni Santana | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Nike and Tiffany & Co. are releasing their first sneaker collaboration next month for $400. Accessories are a sterling silver shoe horn, sneaker toothbrush, deubré, and a referee whistle. But the sneaker, dubbed the Nike Air Force 1 Low Tiffany & Co. "1837," is just the beginning. But in classic Tiffany's style, the luxury jeweler is selling a sterling silver shoe horn, sneaker toothbrush, deubré, and a whistle as part of the release. The brand also sells sterling silver photo frames, bowls, and pens, among other items.

☆ Why Hollywood's tech evangelists are bullish on NFTs and Web3 storytelling, even after the FTX scandal tarnished blockchain's rep
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Elaine Low | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Amid the FTX scandal and declining NFT sales, Web3 chatter has grown quieter in Hollywood. But proponents of NFTs and Web3 storytelling are betting on the tech's entertainment potential. Hollywood's evangelists of Web3 — the decentralized, blockchain-based future of the web that includes crypto and NFTs — were out in full force. She has worked to distance the creative and storytelling potential of NFTs and other blockchain-based technologies from the cowboy rep of the digital currency world. "I'm excited about moving Web3, blockchain technologies past sort of the hype cycle that we've seen with digital collectibles and NFTs," Greg Reed, Universal Pictures' VP of technology partnerships, told Variety.

☆ Volunteers who used digital ads to counter Russian propaganda about Ukraine plan to fight misinformation in countries like Syria and Iran
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A group of volunteer 'spammers' who used ads to counter Russian propaganda about Ukraine plans to expand the campaign. Rob Blackie, organizer of the Breaking Putin's Censorship campaign. Earlier this month, the Kremlin said that anyone found simply posting a link to the banned independent Russian news site Meduza could face a six-year prison sentence. An example of one of the Breaking Putin's Censorship ads, which reads, "Why have 141 countries condemned Russians invasion of Ukraine? Breaking Putin's CensorshipThe group, which has now grown to around 60 volunteers, is already structured similarly to an ad agency.

☆ From Jeff Bezos to Jack Dorsey, here are 14 the world's wealthiest entrepreneurs trying to crack the code of living forever
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Mark ZuckerbergMark Zuckerberg, with a net worth of $56.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, once told physicist Stephen Hawking he wanted to know what would enable humans to live forever. Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesInsider's Cadie Thompson reported that in 2015, the late physicist Stephen Hawking asked Mark Zuckerberg about which big questions in science he sought answers to. Zuckerberg responded, "I'm most interested in questions about people. How does learning work and how we can empower humans to learn a million times more?" Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are among a small crop of Silicon Valley elite who founded the prize in 2012, and continue to back it.

The scarcity principle drove many people to buy way too much dry pasta at the start of the pandemic. Scarcity principleThe scarcity principle is technically an economic principle, but it explains a crucial aspect of consumer behavior that leads to overspending. Consumers are more likely to buy items that they perceive as dwindling in supply. Retailers will use the scarcity principle to convince consumers to purchase items by emphasizing dwindling supplies or limited-time offers. It becomes preferable to "gain" free shipping by adding more items to your cart than to "lose" money on shipping.

☆ Retail advertising will make $45 billion this year — here are 3 ways companies like Nordstrom and Albertsons are looking to cash in
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Lauren Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Many big retailers are building ad businesses this, which Insider Intelligence predicts will be a $45 billion opportunity in the US this year. Leaders from Albertsons and Nordstrom spoke during the panel about how they plan to grab that money. But retailers also need to grow their advertising businesses beyond those companies to so-called non endemic advertisers, like automakers and insurance companies. Argyilan said Albertsons is also working on a tool to help advertisers plug Albertsons' measurement into their broader measurement efforts. "I think measurement needs to grow up quite a bit in retail media space," she said.

☆ At 3 a.m., Mourners Were Still Waiting Hours to See Pelé
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Jack Nicas | Dado Galdieri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The streets were empty, the shops were closed and a dog howled in the distance. Then, a few blocks from the soccer stadium that put this port city on the map, there were signs of life. The soccer star Pelé’s 24-hour wake was in its 17th hour, and by the looks of the crowd, one day might not have been enough. The Santos soccer club estimated that 230,000 mourners had been through the stadium. “This is no sacrifice,” said Walter Henrique, 35, a tax analyst who traveled three hours to the wake and had to be at work in five hours, yet had another few hours before he would be through the line.

☆ Opinion | Vaccines, Inflation, Abortion: 2022 in Charts
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Steven Rattner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +16 min

By the end of 2022, 23 percent of American women resided in states with effective bans on abortion. June 2022 March 2022 Dec. 2021 Sept. 2022 Dec. 2022 Fed Funds Rate 6% 5 4 3 2 1 2022 2023 2025 2024 Longer run Unemployment 5% 4 3 2 1 2022 2023 2025 2024 Longer run G.D.P. Growth 4% 3 2 1 2022 2023 2025 2024 Longer run Core Inflation 5% 4 3 2 1 2022 2023 2025 2024 Sept. 2022 June 2022 March 2022 Dec. 2021 Dec. 2022 Fed Funds Rate G.D.P. Growth 4% 6% 5 3 4 3 2 2 1 1 2022 2023 2025 2022 2023 2025 2024 2024 Longer run Longer run Core Inflation Unemployment 5% 5% 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 2022 2023 2025 2022 2023 2025 2024 2024 Longer run Source: Federal Open Market CommitteeThe sustained period of high inflation left the Fed playing catch-up, as it had initially believed that the surge would prove transitory. 150 100 Xi Jinping addresses in 2017 & 2022 50 1982-2012 Economy Military Market Technology Reform Security Source: Capital EconomicsThen there was China: Our biggest source of imported goods became ever more clearly our biggest strategic adversary.

☆ Zimbabwe's night markets cushion crisis-weary citizens from inflation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Nyasha Chingono | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] Clothes and shoes are displayed for sale at a roadside night market in central Harare, Zimbabwe December 12, 2022. Tinotenda Taruberekera, a 21-year-old clothing vendor, says he makes more money selling at night than during the day. "In the afternoon, there are constant battles with police so selling at night helps," said Taruberekera. The street traders often undercut prices in mainstream shops, which have costly overheads, and this can eat into the retailers' market share. For college student Obert Chinganyama, street vendors offer bargains he cannot get in stores.

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