🐤 The election connection

Markets: Tuesday’s election was an obvious factor on Wall Street the following day. All three major indexes shot up sharply in response to projections of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential race. For the Dow Jones Industrial Average, it was the biggest post-election surge since 1896.

A sporting chance: With Donald Trump preparing for his second term in the White House, many special interest groups are busy considering the ways his administration could affect them. As with any election that replaces a president of one party with a nominee from another, it’s not yet clear which Biden-era policies Trump might decide to change or repeal. Within the realm of college athletics, that involves the possibility that Trump will alter the status quo regarding gender-segregated sports and how colleges compensate their student athletes.

Midseason check-in: We’ve reached the midpoint of the NFL season, and there are probably more than a few of you who are disappointed in your fantasy football stats. The level of frustration might be a little higher than usual due to a series of shortcomings by key players across the league. Cowboys QB Dak Prescott hasn’t been living up to the hype, which has hindered his team. Meanwhile the Bears have struggled defensively throughout the season. These and other upsets might prompt some fantasy football managers to shift their strategy.

Haggis the hippo: The world took notice earlier this year when a zoo in Thailand introduced its newest resident, a tiny hippo named Moo Deng. Now, a zoo in Scotland is hoping to capitalize on that animal's virality by publicly welcoming a pygmy hippo of its own. With a nod to Moo Deng’s popularity, the Scottish zoo wrote: “Prepare to fall in love with wee Haggis. With her playful nature, Haggis will show you why the world has fallen in love with pygmy hippos!” It remains to be seen if she will enjoy the level of social media fame her Thai counterpart has.

Childcare funds: A wide range of issues appeared on ballots across the U.S., including a proposal in a number of cities that would provide parents with childcare funding by raising taxes. In many cases, like a new property tax in Austin, Texas, and a sales tax in Sonoma County, California, voters approved the ballot measure. Elsewhere, like in St. Paul, Minnesota, such initiatives failed. Regardless of the outcome, proponents of increased childcare funding think that just having these measures on the ballot is good for the movement.

Despite receiving an endorsement from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, former President Donald Trump hasn’t exactly been the biggest cheerleader of the auto industry’s shift from gas to electric power.

Now he’s preparing to serve another term in the White House at a pivotal moment for EV producers. So how might Trump’s actions over the next four years affect the industry?

Speculation abounds

The short story is that we simply don’t know what the future holds, but that hasn’t stopped many political analysts from dissecting Trump’s previous policies and campaign promises in hopes of determining what he is likely to do upon re-entering office.

One prominent example is his vow to “end the electric vehicle mandate,” which could involve rolling back many of the pro-EV policies implemented under the Biden administration, such as:

• Tax credits for EV purchases
• Incentives for EV battery factories
• Funding for EV charging stations

American consumers continue to express concerns about EVs in general, from range limits to high costs, so some industry insiders worry that a Trump win will further dampen the market.

Winners and losers

While environmental activists, investors, and others might be wary of a second Trump term, one aspect of his platform could bode well for U.S. automakers.

Trump has advocated for increased tariffs, including on cheaper imported Chinese EVs, and if he follows through it would make American brands more competitive domestically.

“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched in the EV industry and this dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players (BYD, Nio, etc.) from flooding the U.S. market over the coming years,” analyst Dan Ives explained.

Buying up residences and renting them out for profit can be a lucrative business plan, as evidenced by America’s continually rising rental prices.

But there are some aspects of becoming a landlord that immediately turn off many prospective investors. Two increasingly popular options, on the other hand, promise the upside of rental income without the downsides associated with being a landlord. Let’s explore them both:

• Real Estate Investment Trusts: This option is popular among investors who aren’t interested in the day-to-day maintenance of rental property. A leading REIT, The Monthly Dividend Company, has been offering services for more than half a century and boasts a staggering 652 monthly dividends in a row. In fact, the rules associated with forming such a trust require that it return 90% or more of all taxable income in the form of dividends paid out to investors. With a dividend yield at or around 5.37% these days, the typical monthly payment is just over a quarter per share. Before investing, however, it’s important to remember that those dividends are not guaranteed and prices can go up or down sharply without notice.
• Fractional investments: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has been a driving force behind this alternative, which essentially allows investors to purchase shares in rental properties. It’s possible to get started with an investment of as little as $100, so it appeals to many people who might want to test the waters before making a major commitment. The Bezos-backed company Arrived Homes even offers investors access to a Private Credit Fund, which provides monthly payments and returns with an annual target yield of 7-9%.

Making big money in the rental market means making big investments, but these two options might help level the playing field in an industry that has become dominated by huge corporations.

There’s no shortage of news coverage regarding the problems that AI could create or exacerbate. But there are many other potentially positive features ranging from mildly intriguing to revolutionary.

For the tech-minded insiders of the startup business world, that could mean the dawn of a golden era.

The coding advantage

There are already several companies competing to introduce a superior AI-powered coding program capable of addressing bugs and other technical issues with minimal human input.

Specifically, platforms in development by Replit and Bubble are being marketed as tools for creating complex code from basic instructions.

For time- and cash-strapped startups, this could make the development process faster and cheaper.

Venture capitalist Elizabeth Yin is urging startup companies, particularly inexperienced ones, to adopt AI tools in order to allow for trial and error.

“One of the major challenges of the early stages, you don’t quite know exactly what problem you’re solving and quite exactly what the [ideal customer profile] is and quite exactly what they need,” she argued. “So you’re going to end up throwing out a lot of work. So the faster you can go, and the faster you can iterate, the better in order to learn quickly.”

Who pays the price?

Sure, the implementation of AI tools might make it easier for entrepreneurs to bring their ideas to life, but there’s an unavoidable downside associated with trusting robots to do the jobs that humans used to do.

AI proponents say the automation of coding will spark new positions, with some predicting that today’s engineers could become tomorrow’s AI managers.

For better or worse, it appears that AI is going to soon be a major resource for startups of all types. Analysts say more and more startups are being launched with AI making up a portion of its workforce.

They're finally making a documentary featuring the world's most famous clocks.

It's about time.