Kristin Lanham just won last week’s world-famous news haiku competition™ by a whisker, with this beauty about the war in Iran speeding up the shift to electric vehicles:

Congratulations, Kristin! She writes: “Thank you for the votes and hope this war ends soon and gas prices go down!

And here’s how you voted on the competition:

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ New PTA film, After I drank your milkshake… “There will be EVs” ~Madeliene Rae (17)
🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ Wallets cry at pumps; Meanwhile cars sip from outlets; Big Oil clutches pearls. ~Joe DeFini (139)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Put put goes the car, Tut tut goes our bank accounts, Plug 'er in and save. ~Janine (90)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Tears at the gas pump? Boo-hoo, you ignoramus: You had years to switch. ~Hans Heinrich Leuthold (66)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Hormuz tightens fast, U.S. stalls at high gas pumps, China charges on ~Kristin Lanham (149)
461 Votes

via @beehiiv polls

Democracy in haiku-action! (But I would really like Hans Heinrich Leuthold to win something because of his fancy-sounding name).

Speaking of the big D, let’s look at da news!

Matt Davis — Need2Know Chedditor

News You Need2Know

• Zuckerberg offered to censor Meta users for Musk, …

• March saw great jobs numbers, amazingly

• Economists think politicians are unprepared for AI …

• Why did a pound of coffee get so expensive?

• Someone makes the case for tariffs, a year on

What’s the stock market up to, eh?*

$SPX ( ▲ 0.11% ) $DJI ( ▼ 0.13% ) $NDX ( ▲ 0.18% )  

Companies mentioned in today’s newsletter

$META ( ▼ 0.82% )  $SPACEX ( 0.0% )  $KKR ( ▼ 0.14% )

Zuckerberg offered to censor Meta users for Musk, says report

Who says the ultra-rich can't put aside their differences to undermine democracy together?

Remember when $META ( ▼ 0.82% ) founder Mark Zuckerberg spent months railing against government censorship on Joe Rogan's podcast? Good times. Turns out what he actually meant was: Censorship is only bad when it's not his censorship helping his billionaire frenemies.

Leaked texts found by investigative outlet Oligarch Watch reveal Zuckerberg texted Musk during the DOGE chaos: "Looks like DOGE is making progress. I've got our teams on alert to take down content doxxing or threatening the people on your team. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help."

Musk's eloquent response? A heart emoji. Bromance isn't dead.

Then, naturally, Musk pivoted to business: "Are you open to the idea of bidding on the OpenAI IP with me?" Like, thanks for offering to silence my critics, wanna go in together on a $97.4 billion deal pitch?

Proton's Edward Shone told Oligarch Watch: "This isn't a blue or red thing... This is a government oversight point."

What a hater.

March saw great jobs numbers, amazingly

The U.S. labor market delivered a welcome surprise in March, adding 178,000 jobs and far exceeding the 59,000 that economists had predicted. The robust numbers marked a sharp turnaround from February's revised loss of 133,000 jobs, offering a glimmer of hope for an economy facing headwinds.

The unemployment rate dipped to 4.3%, though the improvement came with a caveat — the labor force contracted by nearly 400,000 people, pushing workforce participation to its lowest level since fall 2021.

"We should all be rooting for a higher participation rate," said Henry McVey, head of global macro and asset allocation at KKR $KKR ( ▼ 0.14% ) , talking to the Wall Street Journal. "You're in a solid, but not spectacular, growth environment."

Healthcare and social assistance drove the gains, rebounding with approximately 90,000 jobs after a West Coast strike disrupted February's numbers. Construction added 26,000 positions, while leisure and hospitality contributed 44,000. The federal government remained a weak spot, shedding 18,000 jobs.

Despite March's strong showing, the bigger picture reflects a cooling trend. The economy has averaged just 15,000 new jobs monthly over the past six months, down sharply from 78,000 during the same period last year — with job losses recorded in five of the past twelve months. Good job the long-term employment picture has nothing to fear from the robots, eh? Wait…

Song of the Day: Jack White, ‘G.O.D and the Broken Ribs.’

Jack White was playing guitar with his band the Raconteurs at the best gig I ever went to in my life, when he closed out the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans in 2011. He’s dropped two new singles, "G.O.D. And The Broken Ribs" and "Derecho Demonico," over the last few days, and White was also the musical guest on this week's “Saturday Night Live,” with Jack Black hosting. Worth a watch!

Economists think politicians are unprepared for AI’s looming jobs disruption

Economists who dismissed AI job concerns are now graciously admitting that maybe this whole AI thing could be a big deal.

"I don't think A.I. has hit the labor market yet, and I don't think it's radically changed corporate productivity yet, either, but I think it's coming," said Daniel “tenured professor so why worry?” Rock, a University of Pennsylvania economist, talking to the New York Times.

Give this man the Sherlock Holmes prize for deduction!

Alex “also a tenured professor so why worry?” Imas of the University of Chicago confessed he was "definitely on the more skeptical side" when ChatGPT launched. But now? "It was just a paradigm shift for me... This is potentially an industrial revolution-scale event, if not more,” he told the Times.

Meanwhile, Molly “cushy job at a major nonprofit so why worry?” Kinder of the Brookings Institution offered this comforting observation: "I really don't know anything a college student can bring to my team that Claude can't do." 

Plus the robot shows up on time and it doesn’t call out your “micro-aggressions” on staff retreats.

Amazingly they also think our politicians are totally unprepared. Another told the Times, "our social safety net was designed to help people over transitory shocks. This one might actually be a more permanent shock."

Or perhaps they all just have a nasty case of the Mondays.

Why did a pound of coffee get so expensive?

If you've noticed your favorite coffee costing more lately, you're not imagining things. Just ask Kansas coffeeshop owner Andrew Gough, who has raised the price of a pound of his bestselling Boneshaker Espresso from $15 to $17 — with another hike to $18 to coincide with his product being featured in the newspaper.

The culprits? A brutal combination of crop failures, tariffs, rising labor costs, and Wall Street speculation that's turning coffee markets upside down, reports the Wall Street Journal.

When Wichita-based Gough ordered beans early last year, green coffee prices had nearly doubled from $2.41 to $4.30 per pound. "It kind of freaked us out," he admitted. That single increase meant nearly $200,000 in additional costs for his small operation.

Despite absorbing roughly half of these increases himself, Gough's financial situation remains precarious. "It's been spiraling downwards every week," he said of his cash flow. His account meant to save $50,000 for futures contracts currently holds $5.02.

Adding to the chaos is rampant speculation. Emory University professor Peter Roberts — who tracks specialty coffee prices in his tenured job, so why worry? (Enough, Matt — Ed.) — doesn't mince words: commodity prices have been "just roller coaster stupid. Hedge funds are just liking the gamed uncertainty."

For small roasters like Gough, there's simply no escaping the squeeze. "There's too many variables for us to follow," he said. "I've got to fix the toilet. I've got to do the broken doorknob."

I know how he feels.

Quote of the Day

Someone makes the case for tariffs, a year on

Manufacturing jobs may not have come roaring back as promised following President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs a year ago, but it’s nice to hear from an economist who actually thinks they’ve worked…don’t you think?

A year ago, economists warned that President Trump's sweeping tariffs would trigger recession, soaring inflation, and millions of lost jobs. Writing in the Financial Times, Oren Cass — chief economist at right-leaning Washington D.C.-based think tank American Compass — argues the critics got it spectacularly wrong.

"The past year has also proved as disruptive to the discipline of economics and the overconfidence of its most prominent practitioners as it has been to supply chains," Cass writes.

The numbers tell an unexpected story. Inflation actually fell to 2.4% from 2.8% the prior year. GDP growth accelerated to 2.9%. The dollar weakened rather than strengthened, and countries negotiated rather than retaliated. Industrial output, which declined 0.3% in 2024, posted a 1.6% gain.

Even Bloomberg's chief U.S. economist Anna Wong acknowledged the positive data is "corroborated by a very strong signal from the latest earning transcripts" and that "tariffs probably played a role."

Cass concedes challenges remain; capital investment must surge, and workforce development needs, let’s say…attention. However, he sees vindication in the data.

"Globalisation worked flawlessly in theory, but failed in fact," Cass concludes. "On this first anniversary of 'liberation day', the alternative is showing greater promise."

I hate it when people I vaguely disagree with on instinct say smart things that make me feel stupid. It’s bad for democracy. I’m sure of it.

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Should you check your 401(k) today?

👍️ 

Maybe so, old chum. Maybe so.

Poll of the day: $18 espresso

Do you think $18 is too much for a pound of Boneshaker Espresso from Wichita, Kansas? 

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