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Happy Thanksgiving! A moment of silence for all the Turkeys that will be getting demolished today. If you are planning to shop for Black Friday tomorrow, you can probably expect less traffic with many people having shopped anticipating ongoing supply chain problems. People have already spent $72 billion this month, a 20% increase from last year. Also on your way back from Thanksgiving, pls don't bring your own booze on the plane as fines are wylin'. The Federal Aviation Administration proposed more than $160k in fines for 8 passengers for alleged bad behavior involving alcohol. (including $40k for one lmao)

Today, we are also thankful for 30k of y'all sticking with us. We'll be extremely grateful if you share Short Squeez with any homies you think will benefit from reading it. We also have lots of big things coming for this community. Stay tuned! 

🤝

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1. Story of the Day: How Rich is Rich?

AOC: "TAX THE RICH!"

Everyone: "OK but who TF is 'rich?'"

A $60k annual income might get you a penthouse apartment in Peoria, Illinois but in New York City, it will probably get you a shoebox apartment in Flatbush, Brooklyn (if you are lucky). So how much money do you need to make to be classified as "rich?"

According to President Biden, earning more than $400,000 in annual incomes makes you wealthy. Joe Biden gets a lot of his support from the coastal regions like NYC and California, which is why "wealthy" is suddenly defined as $400,000 and not another slightly lower arbitrary number like $250,000.

That number is $10 million in annual income if you go by the high-earners defined in the newly passed Build Back Better bill. To the average American the number seems ridiculously high. The median household income in America in 2020 was $67,521, which means 50% Americans make less than that number. If you were in the top 10% of income earners in America, you would be earning about $200,000. (*investment banking analysts have entered the chat*)

Short Squeez Takeaway: The rich paying their "fair share" (whatever that means) has become a hot topic of debate in recent times, which is why no matter how grey the definition is, we need to define "rich." But richness is definitely hard to define. Should it depend on your annual income or your net worth? Someone making $0 could in theory be "richer" than someone who made $1 million in a year (& lost it all investing in NFTs). The place where you live also has a huge impact on how rich you are. One thing is for sure, it is a number prone to political manipulation.

Source: Bloomberg

2. Markets Rundown

• US stocks finished mostly higher on Thanksgiving eve as investors received a bunch of data, including minutes from the Fed's November meeting, which showed that inflation is probably not that transitory and that members are ready to raise rates sooner than expected if inflation persists.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) HP Inc ($HPQ) +10% after a better-than-expected earnings report.

• (+) Deere & Co ($DE) +5% after the company issued stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings

• (–) Nordstrom ($JWN) -29% after reporting disappointing quarterly results citing rising labor costs, inventory issues, shopping costs and factory closures as challenges.

3. Top Reads

• Is it time to cash out and sell your house? (AWCS)

• Instagram chief Adam Mosseri to testify before Congress for the first time (CNBC)

• Is iBuying here to stay? (NYT)

• Wake up and choose violence (TonyIsola)

• A short memo on mise en place and investing (InvestmentTalk)

• Cathie Wood says her firm is testing a more aggressive strategy that would be ‘Ark on steroids’ (CNBC)

• Lying flat can be a winning investment strategy too (Bloomberg)

• Tourists are flocking to Florida in greater numbers than before pandemic (ZeroHedge)

• Jamie Dimon regrets China comments (BBC)

A Message From Polymarket: Travel Boom?

Holiday travel is in full swing, and yesterday, the TSA screened 2.2 million passengers as people are making trips back home for Thanksgiving. The TSA hasn’t screened more than 2.5 million people in a single day since the start of the pandemic; however, over 2 million people have gone through a TSA checkpoint for the last five days. 

Will more than 2.5 million people travel through a TSA checkpoint on any day on or before December 31?

Polymarket traders are currently forecasting a 90% probability that more than 2.5 million people will travel through a TSA checkpoint in a day before the end of the year. Will this Thanksgiving lead to enough people traveling. Will we see enough people go through a TSA checkpoint before the end of the year?

Trade now or follow the odds on Polymarket. Use code “OWS” to get reimbursed up to $100 on your first day of trading!

4. Book of the Day: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

With Give and Take, Adam Grant not only introduced a landmark new paradigm for success but also established himself as one of his generation’s most compelling and provocative thought leaders. In Originals, he again addresses the challenge of improving the world, but now from the perspective of becoming original: choosing to champion novel ideas and values that go against the grain, battle conformity, and buck outdated traditions. How can we originate new ideas, policies, and practices without risking it all?

Using surprising studies and stories spanning business, politics, sports, and entertainment, Grant explores how to recognize a good idea, speak up without getting silenced, build a coalition of allies, choose the right time to act, and manage fear and doubt; how parents and teachers can nurture originality in children; and how leaders can build cultures that welcome dissent.

Learn from an entrepreneur who pitches his start-ups by highlighting the reasons not to invest, a woman at Apple who challenged Steve Jobs from three levels below, an analyst who overturned the rule of secrecy at the CIA, a billionaire financial wizard who fires employees for failing to criticize him, and a TV executive who didn’t even work in comedy but saved Seinfeld from the cutting-room floor.

“Procrastination may be the enemy of productivity, but it can be a resource for creativity.”

5. Short Squeez Picks

• If you are looking to invest in VC, check out Sweater Ventures, the first VC for the retail investor

• Ready for MySpace 2.0?  

• The best days for Clubhouse are behind it 

6. Career Portal

Welcome to the Overheard on Wall Street Career Portal that will feature the best jobs in finance & crypto.

We currently have 70+ roles curated for you. From investment banking internships to private equity roles to strategy/development jobs in crypto. No more spammy jobs on LinkedIn and annoying emails from headhunters. 

If you are looking to hire a candidate and want to post a job, just click on "Start hiring" on the top right corner of the Career Portal.

7. Daily Visual: Net Income Generated Per Second in 2021

Source: Statista

8. Daily Acumen: At the dinner table

Ah, it’s Thanksgiving again. Your favorite time of the year when you get to gather ‘round with your fam and engage in thoughtful and civil discourse about politics, social issues, and crypto. 

Here are some topics that will make you sound smart at the dinner table. 

Businesses are spending increasingly more on capital expenditures as they bet big on the future due to accommodative monetary policy (thanks JPow).

Everyone is hiring (or trying to hire). There are over 10 million job openings in the US, which means that there are more job openings than unemployed Americans. Some people don’t want to get sick, some have retired, some are facing childcare issues and some are just busy binging Netflix. 

The supply chains are messed up. People are buying stuff like there’s no tomorrow which explains why it’s taking forever to get goods through the ports.

Inflation is wylin’. U.S. inflation is at its highest rate in 31 years, with consumers seeing prices rise sharply for goods and services because of supply and labor shortages and strong demand. Your parents probably paid around 14% more for your Thanksgiving dinner than last year. 

Source: WSJ

9. Memes of the Day

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