Federal Reserve Faces Criticism and Boeing's Final Offer: A Week of Corporate and Economic Developments

📬 The Fed's rate cuts had a dissenter

A dissenter to the Fed's rate cut decision isn't afraid to say why. Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman wishes rates had come down a little more slowly to more fully vanquish inflation. Carmaker Stellantis wants a fresh driver. The company is seeking a new CEO as it tries to avert disaster. Meta enlisted some familiar voices for its AI chatbot. Users might hear the voices of Judi Dench, John Cena, and Awkwafina, among other celebrities. Boeing's "best and final" contract offer fell flat with its striking machinist union. The workers called the 30% raise offer a "blatant show of disrespect." The first CHIPS Act grant is here. Polar Semiconductor will receive up to $123 million in direct funding to expand its facility in Minnesota. The Consumer Confidence Index just experienced its largest drop since August 2021. The biggest driver of the dip, according to the Conference Board, is that raises are getting smaller and the job market is getting tougher. The Federal Reserve might be feeling confident that it brought inflation down without wrecking the economy. Americans aren't so sure, though, and fears of a recession have begun to tick up lately. Quartz's Rocio Fabbro explains why the index has gotten so bad so quickly and why the Fed might think the deterioration is just noise. Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen appeared before Congress yesterday to answer questions that lawmakers had about his company's popular diabetes and weight-loss drugs. A lot of those questions had to do with why the drugs are so expensive. Jørgensen said that it's true that Americans pay more money for the medications. But, he also said, it's because insurance companies are to blame. Quartz's Bruce Gil broke down the biggest takeaways from Jørgensen's testimony and what might be done to make Ozempic and Wegovy more affordable. ☕ Starbucks is having a CEO shakeup in China, too ✈️ The FAA says Boeing has still has some work to do to improve its safety culture 🤑 Bernard Arnault is facing hard times, is merely the fifth-richest person in the world ⚖️ Sam Bankman-Fried's ex Caroline Ellison has been sentenced to two years in jail 🥤 Chevrolet is pulling a Hailey Bieber with its Erewhon drink collab ⚓ A major dockworker strike might soon freeze U.S. imports Bidding starts at $1 million for a piece of filing cabinet detritus. Turns out the piece of paper was a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution. Dead volcanoes could mean fewer dead batteries. A study suggests the geological sites could be a rich source of minerals crucial to clean-energy technology. There's a new kind of grimace in the stands at Mets games. Literally: McDonald's mascot Grimace is getting his own special seat after he brought the team good luck. One in 25 latinx people know about the word "latinx." The gender-neutral word is twice as popular as it was five years ago. There are 18 different dimensions in the Marvel universe. A new book maps them among a bunch of the comic book world's other geologies and astronomies. Did you know we have two premium weekend emails, too? One gives you analysis on the week's news, and one provides the best reads from Quartz and elsewhere to get your week started right. Become a member or give membership as a gift! Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, shopping-aisle frights, and expensive old papers to talk@qz.com. Today's Daily Brief was brought to you by Melvin Backman and Morgan Haefner.

📬 Boeing's 'best and final' olive branch

Boeing is freezing hiring, executive raises, and catering as its troubles mount Ozempic made at least one entity heavier. Manufacturer Novo Nordisk's market cap is now bigger than the entire GDP of its native Denmark. Crypto raced higher as the Fed took rates lower. Bitcoin jumped 8% over the last week, and Ether is up twice that. President Joe Biden thinks Chinese smart car software is too smart. His administration is banning the technology over national security concerns -- and its threat to domestic U.S. automakers. Sam Altman is baking something with Apple's ex-design guru. The OpenAI CEO and Jony Ive are working on an AI device startup. There's an increasingly vocal chorus that hopes Google's dominance of the search and ad tech markets will come to an end soon. If it's not because business slows down, then there's hope that the government will break the company down into smaller, less dominant pieces. Competitors and industry observers alike are calling increasing attention to Google's size and opacity -- and many feel that the way it uses both to cement its position is unfair. "Market competition is the answer and regulation is where market competition comes from," says one observer who thinks innovation has taken a back seat to monopolistic tendencies. Quartz's Peter Green offers a lay of the land when it comes to Google antitrust sentiment and how it complicates the context of all the lawsuits it is facing. There's a strike wave afoot that's making things messy in the hotel industry. More than 1,500 hotel workers in San Francisco are walking off the job to demand better wages and treatment from employers like Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt. After the COVID-19 pandemic led to softer demand for hotels, many cleaners and other staffers felt the brunt of resultant layoffs and reduced hours. But now that the industry is experiencing boom times and record profits, those workers are seeking a bigger piece of the pie. Quartz's Ben Kesslen explains why coast-to-coast labor unrest is developing in the hotel sector and what is driving its unions into work stoppages and hard-bargaining. 🛒 Target might reject your return if it suspects something fishy 🔻 Trump Media stock sinks to another new low -- even as Donald Trump holds onto shares 🌈 Meanwhile, Melania made $237,000 speaking at a pair of Log Cabin Republican fundraisers 🎁 Americans are sitting on an estimated $27 billion in unused gift cards ⛽ Gas hasn't been this cheap in years -- and it could get cheaper this fall 📇 Nvidia gets almost half of its revenue from just 4 customers. Here's who they might be 🥥 Kamala Harris promised to boost AI and crypto at a campaign fundraiser People are sleeping in Goldman Sachs's offices. The company's former headquarters is now a residential building with $4,000-a-month apartments (paywall). The trail is going cold on a beloved hot pepper. The sweet, savory Chimayo is getting increasingly difficult to come by. Lego's Lego-figure business "cards" are a cult toy figure. Unfortunately, the company is restricting how many employees get to carry them (paywall). Cards Against Humanity is mad at Elon Musk's junk. It's suing SpaceX for leaving debris all over a piece of land the party game producer owns. There's still one last Kmart store in the continental U.S. But not for long: The Bridgehampton, New York store is closing next month. Did you know we have two premium weekend emails, too? One gives you analysis on the week's news, and one provides the best reads from Quartz and elsewhere to get your week started right. Become a member or give membership as a gift! Our best wishes on a safe start to the day. Send any news, comments, increased wage offers, and cheap gas to talk@qz.com. Today's Daily Brief was brought to you by Melvin Backman and Morgan Haefner.