Good Morning! Google debuted Gemini, its most powerful AI model yet. Taylor Swift is Time's Person of the Year. According to a new study, Bitcoin mining consumed more water than all of NYC last year. Wall Street bank bosses are sounding alarms about new capital rules that could mess with the economy. Plus, restructuring investment banks as NFL teams, 5 hacks to reclaim your time and 3 ways to discover your leadership style. 

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_{SQUEEZ OF THE DAY}

NYC is So Back

Since the pandemic, a common rumor is that rich New Yorkers are ditching the city for sunny spots like Florida and Cali. But it looks like the millionaires are making a comeback – they're flocking back to the city in droves.

New York isn’t just holding its ground; it's posting with a net gain of 15,100 millionaire households from 2020 to 2022. And only 2,400 of such households left during that time. 

In 2022, the last full-year with data, millionaire households left New York at a lower rate than any other income group.

Turns out, it's the ones making under $65k who are leaving the fastest, probably because the NYC area is getting a little too pricey.

Takeaway: NYC has probably bounced back a lot faster from the pandemic than people give it credit for - especially when you look at what’s going on in cities like San Fran and Chicago. Those who live in Manhattan know it’s tough to put a price on being in the center of the action - and it’s going to take some time before another city dethrones NYC for being king of career opportunities.

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_HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Google debuts Gemini, its most powerful AI model yet (YF)

• Taylor Swift is Time’s person of the year (Axios)

• Wall Street bosses warn lawmakers of economic toll of new rules (YF)

• Bitcoin mining used more water than all of NYC last year (WSJ)

• Carlyle weighs foray into markets that’s transforming pensions (BB)

• Venture capital slowly moving to middle of the country (Axios)

• Fully remote work is on the decline in the U.S. (Axios)

• FTC tries to stop already-closed Activision deal again (Reuters)

• Elon Musk’s Plan B to save X (Axios)

• Apollo says investors overpaid for private companies (BB)

_{CAPITAL PULSE}

Markets Rundown

Stocks closed lower as investors assess economic data.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Campbell Soup ($CPB) +7% after earnings beat.

• (–) Shopify ($SHOP) -5% after the company hosted an investor day.

• (–) Box ($BOX) -10% after issuing disappointing Q3 earnings.

Private Dealmaking

• Trive Capital bought Ten Entertainment, a British bowling center operator, for $361 million

• Pragmatic, a semiconductor firm, raised $229 million

• Vast Data, an AI data platform, raised $118 million 

• Gecko Robotics, an inspection robots maker, raised $100 million 

• AssemblyAI, an audio intelligence API, raised $50 million

• Keboola, a data ops platform, raised $32 million

For more PE, VC & M&A deals, subscribe to our Buysiders newsletter.

_{BOOK OF THE DAY}

How To Know A Person

As David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.”

And yet we humans don’t do this well. All around us are people who feel invisible, unseen, misunderstood. In How to Know a Person, Brooks sets out to help us do better, posing questions that are essential for all of us: If you want to know a person, what kind of attention should you cast on them? What kind of conversations should you have? What parts of a person’s story should you pay attention to?

Driven by his trademark sense of curiosity and his determination to grow as a person, Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience and from the worlds of theater, philosophy, history, and education to present a welcoming, hopeful, integrated approach to human connection.

How to Know a Person helps readers become more understanding and considerate toward others, and to find the joy that comes from being seen. Along the way it offers a possible remedy for a society that is riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception.

The act of seeing another person, Brooks argues, is profoundly creative: How can we look somebody in the eye and see something large in them, and in turn, see something larger in ourselves? How to Know a Person is for anyone searching for connection, and yearning to be understood.

“Human beings need recognition as much as they need food and water.”

_{DAILY VISUAL}

The Most Desired Gifts This Xmas in US

Share of respondents who would be happy to receive the following Christmas gifts this year

_{WHAT ELSE TO READ}

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_{DAILY ACUMEN}

Anxiety

In the context of the pandemic, a significant realization unfolded: anxiety is not an entity to be escaped but rather one to be discarded. Despite a decrease in external stressors, anxiety persisted.

This prompted the recognition that anxiety is an internal state, impervious to external circumstances. Centuries ago, Marcus Aurelius expressed a parallel sentiment in his Meditations, stating, "Today I escaped from anxiety... or no, I discarded it because it was within me, in my own perceptions—not outside."

The responsibility for anxiety does not rest with airports, traffic, or preparations; it resides within individuals. Acknowledging this internal origin may be vexing, yet it also brings liberation, signifying the capacity to choose and discard anxiety arising from within.

_{HEARD AROUND THE STREET}

Wall Street Corner

RX Investment Banks as NFL Teams

Tom Brady was right when he said the NFL has become mid as of lately.

And it turns out, there’s a lot in common with today’s NFL landscape as well as restructuring-focused investment banks on Wall Street.

Here are our official Overheard on Wall Street power rankings as we wrap up the 2023-24 season.

_{ENLIGHTENMENT}

Short Squeez Picks

• 5 tips to take back control of your time 

• 3 hard truths you need to hear

• How to do a brain dump 

• 3 ways to identify your leadership style 

• 12 short anecdotes that entertain and enlighten 

_{MEME-A-PALOOZA}

Memes of the Day