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China’s Geely and Malaysia’s Proton might be getting together in Thailand to produce EVs. The two automakers are considering it, said Thai prime minister Srettha Thavisin, and if the deal goes through, it’ll start happening quickly.
Birkenstock’s IPO tripped. The sandal that’s often (unfairly, in our view) described as ugly made its debut on the NYSE below its initial listing of $46 a share and closed the day at $40. Perhaps, like the footwear itself, it needs to be broken in, but its performance during its first month—like Arm and Instacart before it—will be another litmus test for IPOs.
The Fed’s minutes say it’s proceeding with caution. It’s another indicator that rates will stay the course at the US central bank’s meeting in three weeks. Meanwhile, US wholesale prices were up by 2.2% last month, year over year, despite interest rate increases for the last couple of years.
US gas prices are going down. But the Israel-Hamas war could complicate that.
One big number: $13 billion
Estimated sales during Amazon Prime Day in July, a record-breaking event for the company
Amazon is hoping that number will be topped by its October Prime days, which ended yesterday. Analysts have predicted that October Prime sales may at least beat out last year’s Cyber Monday orders, but as Quartz’s Grete Suarez explains, stubborn inflation and rising prices have forced shoppers to buckle down. Many of them might even hold out for Black Friday or Cyber Monday bargains—or some other invented holiday of capitalist cheer.
Checking in with AI regulation around the globe
It’s just as AI Uncle Ben told AI Peter Parker: “With great power comes great responsibility.”
And those who wield AI technology certainly have a specific kind of power. Manipulating images, especially via deepfakes; using creators’ work without attribution; and massive job loss thanks to automation—it all has governments around the world considering or actively working on creating AI regulations that promote safety and fair use while still encouraging innovation.
Michelle Cheng rounded up the latest international efforts. Here’s a preview:
🇺🇲 The US is letting private companies come up with their own policies while the government discusses licensing and certification requirements down the road.
🇪🇺 The EU, on the other hand, aims to make its AI Act the first AI law in the West, which tracks with its record of having some of the strictest rules for regulating tech.
🇨🇳 In China, AI providers undergo a security assessment, and their tools must adhere to socialist values—but there are exceptions.
The Taylor Swift economy
If Jake from State Farm doing an impromptu ad by taking a photo with Travis and Jason Kelce’s mom at a football game, a shot set up by Ryan Reynolds’s marketing company, was hard to follow… well, welcome to the Taylor Swift economy.
The buzz around the pop star’s rumored romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is getting the Chiefs a lot of traction on X. But the effects are simply another cog in what’s become nothing less than a Taylor Swift economic machine, and advertisers want in. A few digits (and we’ve got more) make it clear why:
48: Hours it took to orchestrate the State Farm Taylor Swift stunt
$5 billion: Contribution of Swift’s Eras tour to the US economy’s consumer spending this year
$1,300-$1,500: What Swifties spent on hotels, food, and other concert-going goods to see the Eras tour; usually it’s around $300 for any other show
Quartz’s most popular
💰 Cryptocurrency fueled Hamas’ war machine
💼 Nobel economics prize goes to Harvard’s Claudia Goldin for research on the workplace gender gap
🫥 Bad bosses are harder to hide on remote teams
📉 A new study finds returns on ESG ETFs to be “unremarkable”
📉📉 US Treasury yields fell after the Fed hinted at leaving interest rates alone
Surprising discoveries
Ancient tree rings indicate there was a huge solar storm 14,000 years ago that would have shut down power for months. Good news, they didn’t have power grids back then.
Samples from asteroid Bennu are back, and they’re full of good stuff. Some of that stuff is water stuff, which gives scientists exciting clues about Earth’s origins.
Climate change is making beer taste worse. We knew it was something.
Tasmanian devils are being wiped out by not one, but two transmissible cancers. The problem is not environmental factors as previously thought, but a lack of genetic diversity and a tendency to bite each other.
Having your book banned isn’t the good publicity they often say it is. Unless the author was already famous, they were probably really relying on school library orders.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, banned books by non-famous authors, and pretty asteroid dust to [email protected]. Reader support makes Quartz available to all—become a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Susan Howson and Morgan Haefner.
