🐤 Off the ropes

🏦 Markets: There was some good news on the inflation front on Thursday. OK, maybe “good” is stretching it a little, but at least we got some evidence that runaway price increases are starting to slow down.

December’s consumer price index showed that inflation was a relatively low 6.5% compared to a year earlier — and Wall Street reacted positively to the news. There weren’t many huge winners, but the market closed up on Thursday as the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq Composite each increased by a fraction of a percent.

🥚 Egg-spensive: Inflation has pushed the price of all sorts of items much higher in recent years, but perhaps none has seen its cost soar more rapidly and precipitously than a carton of eggs. From November to December, the supermarket staple’s price increased by about 11%. Over the course of a year, eggs became almost 60% more expensive. That marks both the largest monthly and yearly price increase for any food item. One factor that has contributed to the hike has been the prevalence of avian flu, which has seriously limited the global supply of chickens.

🥇 Biggest loser: When someone earns a Guinness world record, it is usually for an achievement that can be considered a point of pride. Not so for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who received the dubious distinction of losing more money than any single person in recorded history. Since November 2021, he has reportedly lost as much as $200 billion, eclipsing the previous record held by Japanese tech titan Masayoshi Son, who lost less than $59 billion more than 20 years ago. While Musk’s losses — caused in large part to sagging Tesla stock — are staggering, he can find some consolation in the fact that his $147 billion net worth still ranks him as the second-richest person on earth.

📕 Royal record: Since stepping away from his official duties, Prince Harry has shared many personal details as well as complaints about the monarchy and the toll that royal life took on his wife, Meghan Markle. The Duke of Sussex delved even further into such matters for a memoir that went on sale this week. “Spare” sold a whopping 1.4 million copies on its first day, proving that folks around the world still want to learn more about the trials that he’s been through. The huge initial success set a record for nonfiction releases by publisher Penguin Random House. For the sake of comparison, former first lady Michelle Obama’s book “Becoming” only reached 1.4 million sales a week after its release. The publishing house reacted to the news with a statement declaring that the autobiography “is a book that demands to be read, and it is a book we are proud to publish.”

🍔 Eastward bound: As an In-N-Out fan who recently moved cross-country from out west to the Atlantic coast, today’s Breakdown ends on a personal high note. The storied fast-food burger chain has announced that it will be opening stores in at least one eastern state after being an exclusively west-of-the-Mississippi treat for many years. So far, the only confirmed locations will be in Tennessee and they’re set to start opening in about three years. Here’s hoping this is just the beginning of a trend that will establish In-N-Out locations somewhere in my neck of the woods!

Vince McMahon, the long-time head of World Wrestling Entertainment, recently returned to the position following a departure linked to allegations of sexual harassment. Along with his reinstatement came new speculation about what would become of the WWE.

An international sale

Although pro wrestling has been a mainstay of U.S. culture for generations, there’s also plenty of interest in such events around the world. One prominent rumor that has emerged since McMahon came back is that the entire organization is being sold to the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.

If true, this would essentially make the WWE a private entity and could result in a huge financial windfall for McMahon. As it stands, however, there’s no concrete evidence that such a deal is in the works.

What’s the truth?

Wrestling fans are grasping for verifiable facts regarding what will become of the organization, but so far there aren’t many confirmed details to report. What does seem clear, however, is that McMahon’s return to the helm of the WWE is somehow connected to a desire to sell the company.

Whether that’s to Saudi Arabia or not remains to be seen. In fact, CNBC reported that streaming services, network and cable channels, and other domestic entertainment companies could be preparing to submit a bid to buy the organization.

A complicated history

Some of the rumors surrounding the WWE and Saudi Arabia might be linked to the fact that the Middle Eastern nation has a decade-long arrangement with the company to host wrestling matches within its borders.

That deal (not to mention a possible outright sale of the organization) has been met with criticism over the fact that Saudi Arabia has a troubling track record of human rights violations. A Saudi-owned WWE could result in discrimination against women and LGBTQ wrestlers.

You’d think that a financial institution with as much clout as JPMorgan would do plenty of research before agreeing to acquire a startup company. When the bank purchased a startup company that claimed to help millions of student loan borrowers make sense of the process, however, executives say they were taken for a ride.

The truth about Frank

According to JPMorgan’s complaint, the startup firm in question — Frank — misrepresented the number of users it had attracted to its platform. After raising about $5 million in early 2020, Frank made its case to the financial services giant, which agreed to acquire the startup for an undisclosed amount the following year.

Now, JPMorgan is suffering from something a bit more acute than buyer’s remorse.

Subsequent reports indicate that the bank paid $175 million for Frank and a lawsuit filed last month claims that the startup’s CEO Charlie Javice exponentially overstated its user base.

Instead of the more than 4 million users Javice claimed, the platform really had somewhere around 300,000, JPMorgan said.

Details of a scam

Although the case remains under review, JPMorgan’s lawsuit lays out a pretty compelling case against Javice and his company. Here’s how the complaint claims that Frank managed to pull the wool over a multinational corporation’s eyes:

• Frank initially produced a list of 4.265 million users who started the loan application process.
• JPMorgan wanted more information about the users, but Frank cited privacy concerns to avoid providing it.
• Javice allegedly paid a professor $18,000 to create a forged list after a Frank engineer refused to lie.
• The doctored data allegedly came from a list of 4.5 million students that another Frank executive bought for $105,000.

Now JPMorgan wants its $175 million investment back.

When it comes to replacing the internal combustion engine with electric-powered vehicles, there are many reasons to be optimistic. One serious sticking point for critics, however, has been the need for a steady supply of rare earth minerals needed to make the high-tech batteries used in today’s EVs.

Well, Sweden might have the answer.

Game-changing discovery

Rare earth minerals are integral in the creation not only of EV batteries but smartphones, missiles, and many other items that our modern society needs to thrive. As a result, it was big global news when Swedish officials confirmed that a major deposit of these elements had been discovered in the northern region of the country.

As European Union Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton explained last year: “Lithium and rare earths will soon be more important than oil and gas.”

Since Europe and most of the West have relied on China and, to a lesser extent, Russia for the vast majority of their supply, a find like the one in Sweden is likely to be a huge step in the right direction.

It could take a decade or more for these metals to be available in the market, but Swedish officials are working to expedite the permitting and mining process as much as possible.

What are rare earth minerals?

In broad terms, the term can apply to any of 17 raw materials that are both in short supply and necessary for the creation of many products that humans increasingly rely on.

Here are some important facts and figures about these metals:

• About 98% used across the EU in 2021 came from China.
• Global reserves total an estimated 120 million tons.
• More than 1 million tons were discovered in the Swedish reserve.
• Demand is expected to increase 5x within the next seven years.