🌞 Spoiled Rotten – November 29 2021

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00 am ET.

• Markets: Bitcoin bulls showed up driving the world's biggest crypto currency up over 5%. Stocks dropped sharply in the post-Thanksgiving trading session on Friday due to concerns over the new Covid variant, Omicron. The Dow fell 2.5% for its worst day of the year, and the S&P also tumbled 2.3%

Today's Live Show

WE ARE BACK, JOIN US AT 9AM EASTERN TIME

On today's live show we're happy to be back from our Thanksgiving slumber and looking forward to making sense of the biggest stories in the world.  Join us at 9AM Eastern right here. 

Lead: Omicron Rising

credit: ap

The new Omicron variant of Covid has 50 mutations. That is a lot. The Delta variant only has 19. Health experts all over the world are terrified of this variant and governments are starting to talk tough about new lockdowns and restrictions, even though South African doctors are reporting that the Omicron cases that they’ve treated have been mild. 

We know. We want to protest too – not flawed human responses, but the existence of the bugger! 

The world's response:

• In Israel, the government has restricted foreign nationals from visiting.
• Travel between Africa and many European countries has been restricted.
• Cases have already been detected in Europe, Israel and Hong Kong.
• The U.S. has not reported any cases but Dr. Fauci says that he wouldn’t be surprised to learn of any. 

Vaccine makers are working to address these variants and Moderna says that it could have a solution in 2022. Even without this new variant, the CDC predicts that Covid cases will increase over the next few weeks due to the holidays with deaths passing 800,000 by Christmas. 

Climbing Peak Inflation

credit: giphy

Economists say we *might* have seen a peak in inflation. Maybe. Perhaps. Kind of. 

These economists are in Europe but they have extrapolated this data to the U.S. as well. They say that inflation will stop in the beginning of 2022 but prices will not go down very quickly. Instead, they will hang out in the high zone for a while before starting to decline in the middle of the year. 

Central banks do not seem poised to raise interest rates in the near future.

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What Is Wrong With My Kids?

credit: getty

A new study shows that parents think they’re kids are ungrateful little beasts. 

Researchers at the University of Michigan asked 1,125 parents of children between the ages of 4 and 10 if they thought that their children were grateful. Over half of the parents said no and two out of five parents say that they are sometimes “embarrassed by how selfish their child acts.” 

We get it but this is a little harsh. The natural progression of a human is to go from completely selfish to empathetic. In a world where children have so many choices and so little responsibilities, it is our job to teach them selflessness. 

“Gratitude is not something that children usually acquire automatically; it needs to be nurtured, in an age-appropriate way,” said the co-director of the study. 

News By The Numbers

credit: ap

300-400. That is how many FedEx packages were found in the woods in Alabama last week. No one knows why. 

$1,500,000. That is how much money has been raised in a GoFundMe to help Kevin Strickland, a man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and has been in prison for over 40 years. The state of Missouri only pays wrongfully imprisoned people if they were exonerated by DNA so Strickland doesn’t qualify. 

$350,000. That is how much a Colonial coin from 1652 sold for at auction last week. It was found in an old candy tin. 

28.3%. That is how much sales of goods from Black Friday dropped this year from 2019’s pre-pandemic levels.

Close Only Counts in Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

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A new study from AAA shows that cars that drive themselves make a mistake about once every eight miles. That doesn’t sound safe. 

The most common types of mistakes involved lane positioning, meaning the autopilot could not stay in its own lane without human assistance. In tests where the autopilot approached a stopped vehicle, it hit the parked car 66% of the time with an average speed of 25 miles per hour. 

Clearly, we’re not there yet with autopilots so you’ve got to stay rested, sober and keep your hands at ten and two, young man! 

What's Trending?

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Hannakkah is trending because the Jewish holiday began on Sunday and many are searching for why it starts so early this year. The answer is that Hanukkah is based on the lunar cycles, which changes every year so sometimes the holiday can start as early as November and as late as late December. 

Karol G is trending because the Columbian singer fell down some stairs while performing on Friday. 

Spider-Man No Way Home is trending because early ticket sales opened on Monday and they crashed AMC and Fandango’s websites. 

Tony Bennett is trending because his final performance aired on CBS on Sunday. The concert was filmed in August but Bennett has stopped performing. His family confirms that he is suffering from Alzheimer’s. 

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