Good Morning! Tesla lost its ‘Master of Coin’ yesterday - CFO Zachary Kirkhorn is abruptly stepping down ahead of the Cybertruck launch. Kirkhorn had been touted as a potential successor to Musk, and $TSLA’s value grew from $50 billion to $773 billion in the four years he was CFO. And Elon Musk says the cage match with Zuck is still on - he hinted at potentially needing surgery before, though.

The AI stock bubble might be popping after underwhelming Q2 earnings, and investors are bracing for this week’s CPI report. And in a twist of irony, Zoom is ordering its employees to return-to-office.

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_{SQUEEZ OF THE DAY}

Consultants are Chilling

We’ve all known consultants have a slightly better work-life balance than their investment banking counterparts. After all, getting that ‘pls fix’ email at 9pm opposed to 2am hits different. But with consulting revenue drying up over the past year, junior consultants are literally left with nothing to do. And they’re starting to wonder...has their work-life balance gotten too good?

Consultants, especially at the junior level, often toggle between getting staffed on projects (where they’re usually working 60+ hour weeks), or taking a break and going ‘on the beach’ between projects. Benched consultants are sort of living the dream - they’re making a fat salary and can watch Netflix, hit up Equinox, or even just take a nap while they informally network and stay on top of emails.

But some consultants say they’ve mostly been benched over the past year or two. And with firms like EY, KPMG, and BCG slashing jobs and McKinsey and Bain pushing back start dates - they’re worried they could get pushed out before they get valuable experience.

Consultant headcounts have swelled over the past decade. And while firms rely on junior talent, many institute ‘up-and-out’ models (only 80% of the analyst class gets promoted, the other 20% are pushed out). And with 65% of the top 100 consultant clients saying they’ve paused projects over recession concerns, there’s just not enough work to go around.

Takeaway: The consultant boom-times might be over…and who knows what the industry will look like as generative AI catches on. After-all, why hire McKinsey when you can just ask ChatGPT who you should lay off? But you gotta pour one out for the recent MBB and Big Four consultant hires - they’re making upwards of $100k literally doing nothing.

_{CAPITAL PULSE}

Markets Rundown

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq snapped a four-day losing streak as stocks rebounded.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Sovos Brands ($SOVO) +25% after the sauce maker will be acquired by Campbell.

• (+) DaVita ($DVA) +4% after UBS raised the dialysis provider to ‘buy’ on its strong growth trajectory.

• (–) BioNTech ($BNTX) -7% after the Covid vaccine maker reported a big revenue miss.

Private Dealmaking

• Campbell bought Rao’s premium sauces maker Sovos for $2.33 billion 

• KKR bought Simon and Schuster for $1.62 billion 

• Bain Capital bought Estia Health, an Australian aged care operator, for $551 million

• Toss Bank, a Korean neobank, raised $154 million

• Tenstorrent, an AI chip startup, raised $100 million

• Endor Labs, an open source code startup, raised $70 million 

_{SPONSORED BY INCOGNI}

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Don't let spam callers, identity thieves, and health insurers misuse your details. Take control with Incogni and Short Squeez readers get 55% off Incogni using code SHORT.

_HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Venture-backed startups are failing at record rates (FC)

• Apollo uses private capital to become top non-bank (BB)

• Big Oil has a talent crisis as high salaries are no longer enough (WSJ)

• The long and variable labs before Fed cuts rates (Reuters)

• PayPal launches stablecoin in crypto push (YF)

• Meta’s big AI play is shoring up its ad business (Axios)

• Oppenheimer surpasses $500M (CNN)

• U.S. banking starts picking its battles against new capital rules (Reuters)

• He thought he saw wrongdoing on Wall Street and it took over his life (WSJ)

_{BOOK OF THE DAY}

Faster Cures

What if cleaning early-stage cancers from your body could become as routine as going to the dentist to clean your teeth, or if a single vaccine could protect you against multiple viruses, or if gene editing could eliminate many birth defects and slow the aging process? Mike Milken believes these, and many other advances, are within reach.

Beginning with a description of the 1950s civilization and culture that helped shape Milken's early views, Faster Cures traces the life-extending acceleration of progress in medical research, public health, and clinical treatments over the seven decades since Milken’s childhood—and shows how he helped transform the process of developing disease cures.

Among many examples, he recognized the promise of immunology more than twenty-five years ago and provided crucial support for the emergence of immunotherapy as a powerful life-saving treatment.

“Partly a memoir and partly a recent history of medicine, the definitive account of Michael Milken’s lifetime work to accelerate medicine's evolution from a dark past to a bright future.”

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Short Squeez Picks

• Ask yourself these questions before saying no at work

• 10 C-habits of high-minded leaders and top career performers

• How to make smart decisions without getting lucky

• 5 delicious NYC dishes in Lower Manhattan

• Why decluttering your room leads to increased brain power

_{DAILY VISUAL}

Credit Watch

US Consumer Credit Card Loans and Other Revolving Plans as a Share of GDP

_{SPONSORED BY FENNEL}

One Investing App to Rule Them All

Just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s not costing you 💸

Things your “free” investing app will do:

• Turn the “buy” button off

• Not give you the best possible price on your trade

• Lend out your shares

Enter Fennel, a beautifully designed app that never compromises or monetizes your dignity as an investor. For a small fee a month you’re not just paying for transparency and security — you’re paying for:

• Expansive & accessible company data

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_{DAILY ACUMEN}

Fear

Fear is basically our mind playing tricks on us.

Often, we're stressing about potential "what ifs" that might never pan out.

The key? Stay anchored in the present.

While fear can hold you back, taking action is the game-changer.

If you want to conquer fear, get proactive.

Instead of getting wrapped up in our own narratives, it's crucial to step up and tackle what's making us uneasy.

_{MEME-A-PALOOZA}

Memes of the Day