For the first time in nearly 40 years, Budweiser won't advertise in the Super Bowl this year

Instead, Budweiser will spend $1M for a vaccine awareness campaign throughout the spring

Other Anheuscher-Busch brands, including Bud Light and Michelob Ultra will still advertise during the big game

Marketing analysts say this may end up a better marketing ploy than spending $1M on a Super Bowl ad itself

Brexit uncertainty meant that the UK was struggling before the pandemic, and lockdowns put the economy's problems over the edge

It appears to have shrunk 8.6% in last quarter of 2020, versus just 2.8% in the US

Of the G7 countries, which excludes China but includes the other leading economies, it shrunk more than 2 points more than the next-worst performer

France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan all shrunk between 3.9% and 5.7%

Traders on the Reddit thread Wall Street Bets cooperated to send GameStop stock (GME) soaring

The stock jumped about 150% early Monday, before finishing the day up 18%

They say they are "at war" with the hedge funds who were shorting the company's stock, and that they are going to push the stock to $1,000

One trader ended the day up $13M after buying $50,000 in GME in 2019

The Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust began buying Tesla stock at $6 in 2013 (it's since jumped to $846)

The fund made $14.8B profit through selling its shares over the last year, and held onto remaining shares, worth an additional $14.6B

The person who decided to buy the Tesla stock said it was "clear" even in 2013 that the renewable tech Musk was developing would continue to grow

The fund represents pension funds, foundations, and charities, among other investors

The Wall Street Journal released its list of the companies that paid the most to lobby Congress in 2020

Amazon was #1, spending $19.7M and Facebook was #2, with $17.9M

After them came Comcast, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman

Unilever, AT&T, Amgen, and Charter Communications rounded out the top 10

Apple is expected to release its quarterly results this week, and analysts are expecting quarterly revenue to pass $100B for the first time

The quarter, the first fiscal one, includes the iPhone 12, whose launch was extremely successful

Apple has also been boosted by iPad and Mac purchases throughout the pandemic, with people working and studying remotely

Additionally, people have turned to Apple for cloud storage needs, creating another lucrative revenue source

United Airlines' CEO has said that he wants to require all the company's employees to get vaccinated

“Because I have confidence in the safety of the vaccine—and I recognize it’s controversial—I think the right thing to do is for United Airlines, and for other companies, to require the vaccines and to make them mandatory,” he said

American Airlines has said that they do not plan to require their employees to get vaccinated

Some other companies have offered incentives for employees who get vaccinated, including cash bonuses

Google has threatened to stop providing its search engine within Australia in response to proposed legislation there

The proposal would require tech companies to share revenue with media companies

News companies have lobbied for the change, as Google and the social media giants have devoured their advertising revenue. Tech and media companies would have to agree to a price to share their content

12.5% of Google searches in Australia are for news. Google has said it would shut down its search engine in response, and the case is seen as a test of how countries can regulate Big Tech

The Washington State government has turned to major companies located there to help increase vaccine distribution

Washington is lagging, having vaccinated just 4.9% of its population, versus 5.6% nationally

The government has asked the major corporations based there to help improve distribution, including Starbucks, Costco, and Microsoft

Yesterday, Seattle-based Amazon announced it would set up a vaccine pop-up to inoculate 2,000 people

Newly released government data has shed light on how badly Trump's businesses were affected by the coronavirus

The documents showed the Trump businesses' revenue down 60%, from 446M in 2019 to 278M last year

Revenue at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida club and new home, was a bright spot, jumping 13%

Some businesses have said they would terminate relationships with Trump businesses because of the Capitol riot, including the PGA, whose 2022 championship was scheduled for a Trump golf course

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, the world's most valuable bank, made $31.5M in 2020

That broke down into a $1.5M salary, a $5M cash bonus, and $25M in stock linked to company performance. Dimon is a billionaire

Dimon has been spoken loudly against inequality, saying, it "bifurcated the economy”

Since becoming CEO in December 2005, the bank's market cap has more than tripled

Bitcoin's rough start to 2021 continued, with the cryptocurrency dropping 17% yesterday

The drop wiped $100B off total Bitcoin value. Its price is down 40% since its $42k peak earlier this month

Ether, the second-most popular crypto, dropped 22% yesterday and is down 27% on the week

One theory is that concerns about crypto regulation are driving the dip. Biden's pick for FTC head taught about cryptos at MIT

Mahomes cleared concussion protocol this week to play in Sunday's AFC Championship game in which he torched the Bills defense for 325 yards & 3TDs on 29-38 passing

With the Super Bowl berth, Patrick Mahomes will become the youngest QB in NFL history with two Super Bowl starts

His foe, Tom Brady, is getting the spotlight with his remarkable return to the NFL's brightest stage as a 43-year-old geezer

Mahomes is showing that poise, dominance, and clutchness can exist at both ends of the age spectrum

After edging the Packers 31-26 in Lambeau Field, Tom Brady led the Bucs to Super Bowl LV in Tampa Bay

Brady has thus clinched his tenth Super Bowl appearance in the last two decades -- four more than the next closest player all-time

To put this in context, he's played in half the Super Bowls of an average college junior's life span

Tom Brady holds a 6-3 record in his first nine Super Bowl appearances. Let's see if he can add one more exclamation point to his standing as the NFL's GOAT

Hank Aaron, one of baseball's greats and a civil rights leader, died on Friday at age 86

Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run records and held that record for decades. He was black, and subject to frequent death threats and verbal attacks

Muhammad Ali famously called Aaron “the only man I idolize more than myself,” and he is considered to be a civil rights and sports icon for generations of Americans

Aaron has records of 2,297 RBIs, 6,856 total bases, and 1,477 extra-base hits. He spent most of his career on the Braves

Riots against a 9:00 PM curfew in the Netherlands continued for the third straight day

It's the worst unrest the Netherlands has seen in decades, with over 150 people arrested

Protesters threw rocks, smashed windows, and lit fireworks, prompting authorities to hit them with water cannons and tear gas

On Saturday, the rioters lit a Covid testing center on fire. Bars and restaurants have been shut in the country since October

A week after Russian authorities detained opposition leader Alexei Navalny, tens of thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets in cities across Russia

Over 3500 people were arrested, which groups said was the large amount in 9 years

Putin is expected to try to stay in power for years, after constitutional changes made last year gave him the right to hold power until 2036

The Russian government has to decide between caving and releasing Navalny, or keeping him in jail and risk inciting further protests

A 58-year-old man was stranded for 18 days in Australia after his car broke down

The man was driving on a country road when his car got stuck on a dirt road

He stayed in his car for 3 days, then tried to walk toward civilization after he ran out of water and food

He roamed the area foraging for dam water and mushrooms. A local politician found him 18 days after he went missing, just 2 miles from his car. His health was in relatively good shape

2 separate research groups have identified a mutation to the coronavirus found in California

They think the mutation makes the strain more contagious, and believe it may have accelerated the virus's spread across the state

California has recorded more cases than any other state, and southern California has faced a case surge in recent months

Yesterday, the state relaxed its nearly state-wide stay at home order, allowing people to resume dining outside and other non-essential activities

Moderna announced it is developing a Covid booster shot to combat the South African strain of the coronavirus

Moderna has said that its vaccine is effective against the strain, but potentially less-so than it is against the primary coronavirus strain, especially in older people

Studies showed that the immune response to the South African variant was relatively weak, meaning people may need a booster shot for protection against it

Moderna's CEO said it is doing this "out of an abundance of caution." The timeline on the booster is not yet clear

A new report has shed light on how climate change is impacting glaciers and other ice formations on Earth. It was published in the European Geophysical Union’s "Cryosphere" journal

It said that the Earth has lost ice equivalent in size to the UK or Michigan with a depth of over 300 feet

Average global temperatures have risen 2 degrees since the 1880s

Last week, President Biden rejoined the Paris Agreements, which has the goal of limiting climate change to +3.6 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050

A Korean report reveals that the forthcoming Apple Watch Series 7 will include a blood sugar measurement

The Apple Watch originally served as a device that would add convenience to the notification process but has evolved into a more health-oriented device

The watch will measure blood sugar levels via an optical sensor. 10% of Americans have diabetes and an estimated tens of millions more have undiagnosed cases

The Series 6 watch starts at $399 in Apple Stores. Apple has not yet announced the price of the Series 7 device

Dr. Anthony Fauci recently told Matthew McConaughey on his podcast that he merely "lives on a government salary." What Fauci didn't mentioned is that his is the highest salary in the entire federal government

In 2019, the last year for which federal salaries are available, Fauci raked in over $417,000. President Trump, on the other hand, earned $400,000 (all of which he donated)

Vice President Pence must've had an inferiority complex around Dr. Fauci since he pulled in a mere $235,000

The federal government pays 4 million employees and the controversial Coronavirus taskforce leader sat at the top of last year's ranking

In 2016, President Obama announced that Harriet Tubman would one day replace Andrew Jackson's on the $20 bill

The Trump Administration slowed down the plan, but Biden's press secretary Jen Psaki announced yesterday that they will accelerate the process to change the bill

Trump's Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced in 2019 that the Harriet Tubman $20 bill was on track to be printed by 2028 with the Treasury's new high-speed printers

The Biden Administration has not shared specifics on its expedited timeline for the change but plans to make this announcement in the coming months