Quartz Daily Brief—Fed finally tapers, Putin’s Q&A bonanza, proposed NSA curbs, textopornographie
Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
How low can Brazil’s jobless rate go? Latin America’s largest economy releases jobs data for November. The 5.2% unemployment rate for the previous month was the country’s lowest in over 10 years.
Nike’s earnings. Analysts will be watching the athletic retail giant’s performance in emerging markets, after its business soared in North America and Europe last quarter, but was weaker elsewhere—especially in China, where sales dropped by 3%.
Question time with Vladimir Putin. Russia’s president gives a press conference just once a year, but when he does, it’s a doozy. Over 1,300 journalists will attend a session that typically lasts over four hours and covers every subject under the sun—last year he talked about the the Mayan apocalypse.
While you were sleeping
The Fed is finally tapering. The US Federal Reserve will trim its bond-buying program by $10 billion a month, to $75 billion, beginning next month. But it also promised not to raise interest rates until unemployment falls below 6.5%. Markets reacted with glee. Banks were mostly caught off guard.
The euro zone got a banking deal. The region’s finance ministers okayed a long-awaited plan to establish a 55 billion euro ($75 billion) fund over the next decade to assist failing banks.
New Zealand recorded a trade surplus in November, the first since 1991, and China overtook Australia as New Zealand’s top export destination.
Max Baucus was tipped for US ambassador to China. Sources say the retiring senator, a Democrat from Montana and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, will be President Obama’s pick to be the next China envoy. The current ambassador, Gary Locke, is scheduled to step down early next year.
A White House panel recommended NSA curbs. The 46 suggestions include ending the mass collection and storage of metadata such as telephone call records, limiting spying on foreign leaders, and restricting the agency to foreign intelligence collection.
Oracle’s strong earnings. The world’s largest database software maker reported second quarter revenues of $9.28 billion and net income of $2.55 billion. The company expects its software business to grow by as much as 12% next year.
Brazil spurned US aircraft. The country choose Saab over Boeing to build a new fleet of jet fighters. Brazil’s defense ministry said it picked Saab for cost and performance, but there are suspicions the decision was influenced by recent news that the NSA spied on president Dilma Rousseff.
Quartz obsession interlude
Gwynn Guilford on the Korean-owned company hoping to make millions from the next generation of emoticons. “A language from Asia is rapidly closing in on the West, threatening the longstanding supremacy of the Latin alphabet. This means that one day soon, it won’t be merely alphabet letters that Western mobile users tap onto their screens. It may also be whistling kittens, or a bear dancing the hula.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Consumers should spend like it’s Christmas year-round. Ignore the current puritanical mood: Purchasing goods is the lifeblood of economic activity (pay wall).
Bernanke’s savvy taper move. Like a wise mother placating her sugar-hungry children, the Fed Chairman is offering investors fewer M&Ms—but more Snickers bars.
Uber’s pricing model is flawed. The car-service company raises fares when cars are in short supply, so why doesn’t it drop them when customers are in short supply?
Microfinance is too micro. To grow it needs better regulation, technology, and ways of measuring its impact.
Surprising discoveries
The UK is switching to plastic bank notes. They’re harder to counterfeit and longer lasting, but there are implications for banks—and magicians, too.
Reddit banned climate deniers from its science section. The debates were getting too personal.
A lot of the internet is copied. As much as a third of everything online is duplicate material.
France now has an official word for “sexting.” It’s “textopornographie.”
Best wishes from Quartz for a productive day. Please send any news, queries, insane Uber price quotes, and favorite bank note magic tricks to [email protected]. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates during the day.