Politics, memes and protests continued to collide with the economy this week, turning everything from Black Friday shopping to stock charts into referendums on power and attention.
Investors who have ridden the profits of AI and cryptocurrencies over the past few years are being reminded that gravity still rules, with the introduction of terms like “death cross” and “profit taking” on once-screaming upward charts. Retailers are heading into the holiday season knowing that some shoppers are intentionally planning to spend nothing at all. And on the cultural front, while the president’s single insults ricochet across social networks, New York’s local elections are being framed as a national narrative about socialism, faith, and economic justice.
Here’s what really happened in business this week.
Long housing stagnation: Moody’s maps 10 years of flat ‘real’ house prices
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, expects the U.S. housing market to slowly unwind from pandemic-era excesses over the next decade, with prices rising roughly in line with inflation and no real gains when adjusted. After the huge price hike and mortgage rate shock, he expects existing home sales to remain frozen for years as affordability gradually improves. Moody’s projects nominal home prices to rise about 23.5% from December 2025 to December 2035, with some declines expected in parts of the South and West and stability in the Northeast and Midwest. Zandi also pointed to longer-term headwinds such as immigration restrictions that could limit the construction workforce and rising U.S. Treasury yields that could keep mortgage rates stuck around 6%.
‘Quiet Pigs’ Turns into a Meme War the President Can’t Control
A video of President Donald Trump telling Bloomberg reporter Katherine Lucey to “shut up, pig” aboard Air Force One went viral online and quickly turned into a memetic insult aimed at the president. Blue Sky and X users are now posting quotes about Trump and his allies using the phrase, often paired with explicit photos or AI-generated images of Trump dressed up as Miss Piggy or screaming at her. The response draws on President Trump’s long history of calling women “pigs,” “dogs” and “sluts,” and his long history of attacking journalists to discredit negative reporting. That history makes this latest jab feel particularly youthful and very on-brand, fueling frustration that his fellow reporters didn’t push him harder in the moment.
XRP falls as profit-taking and macro concerns hit cryptocurrencies again
XRP, the token associated with Ripple’s XRP ledger, has fallen to around $2.13, down more than 26% from three months ago and well below its July high of $3.65. The decline also comes after the launch of three XRP exchange-traded funds, including Canary Capital’s XRPC, where large holders reportedly sold 200 million XRP within two days, with XRPC already down about 11%. Analysts say the pullback is part of a broader risk-off mood, as investors worry about a potential tech and AI bubble, economic uncertainty and the possibility of future interest rate cuts. Bitcoin has been under similar pressure, recently flashing a “death cross”, reinforcing bearish sentiment and erasing any gains heading into 2025.
Epstein’s ‘Bubba’ emails become NSFW merchandise, causing headaches for platforms
The release of more than 23,000 pages of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate documents has spawned a wave of NSFW Trump and Clinton-themed merchandise on Etsy and Amazon. Sellers are focusing on a 2018 email in which Epstein’s brother joked about “pictures of Trump blowing his hair.” The passage has sparked online speculation about the two former presidents, both of whom have denied wrongdoing and the document does not explicitly implicate them. The email has become the basis for T-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, and other items featuring provocative slogans and “big, beautiful buildings” signs. A few designers have branched out into more creative or graphic realms, such as artwork styled after movies. Brokeback Mountain.
Netflix’s 10-to-1 stock split shocks casual chart watchers, not investors
Netflix stock appears to have fallen more than 90% on some charts, dropping from more than $1,100 to about $111. However, this move was due to a 10-for-1 stock split rather than an actual collapse in value. For existing shareholders, there is no fundamental change as their old shares were simply split into 10 pieces each, with shareholders receiving an additional 9 shares for each share they already owned. Netflix says the goal is to make stock more accessible to employees in stock purchase and option programs, where four-digit prices can create psychological and financial barriers. The lower nominal price could also make the stock more accessible to small retail investors who may be wary of four-digit tickets.
Holiday boycott aims to turn non-spending into a political weapon
Two overlapping campaigns, “Massive Blackout” and “We Ain’t Buy It,” are asking Americans to skip Black Friday and the shopping days surrounding it to protest Trump-era policies and corporate compliance with them. The Blackout Boycott is asking people to stop shopping, streaming, and possibly even working, while supporting local small businesses with cash from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving until the day after Cyber Monday. The “We Ain’t Buy It” boycott focuses on Target, Home Depot, and Amazon, citing everything from DEI rollbacks to alleged collaboration with ICE and tax cut lobbying. Organizers frame the action as economic non-cooperation in an economy where the gap between rich and poor continues to widen and institutions are designed to favor the rich.
Bitcoin’s ‘death cross’ deepens anxiety as token remains largely flat heading into 2025
Bitcoin has fallen from an October high of more than $124,000 to around $94,000, regaining year-to-date gains and putting the token firmly in bear market territory. This slide is accompanied by a classic technical warning sign known as a “death cross” where the short-term moving average falls below the long-term moving average on the chart. Some analysts have noted that previous death crosses have been in line with localized lows rather than full-blown crashes, but this pattern is adding to concerns that the current economic downturn could become even more severe. Other cryptocurrencies have followed suit, with major market indexes falling along with Bitcoin over the past week. The broader backdrop is a mix of profit-taking by long-term holders, capital outflows from institutional investors, and macro concerns that make it difficult to sell speculative assets.
New York City Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani has not yet been sworn in, but conservative media has already made him the latest symbol of all that is wrong with the left. Commentators on Fox News, Newsmax, and elsewhere have called him a communist, Marxist, and “jihadist sympathizer,” often blurring the lines between socialism and communism while attacking his membership in the Democratic Socialists of America and his Islamic faith. of new york post ran a series of high-profile covers about him before the election and is now monetizing those images as merchandise, further cementing his role as a polarizing figure. Right-wing news outlets have described Mamdani’s policies as fundamentally at odds with American values, while progressive watchdog groups say she is being used as a stand-in for the entire Democratic Party, much like Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were before her.
Verizon cuts 13,000 jobs as it pivots to become more customer-centric
Verizon is laying off more than 13,000 employees, about 20% of its non-union management team, as part of a larger effort to streamline operations and free up money to invest in customer experience. In a memo to employees, new CEO Dan Schulman said the company’s cost structure is holding it back, creating friction that is slowing Verizon’s performance and causing customer dissatisfaction. The company reported third-quarter revenue of about $33.8 billion and continued growth in prepaid wireless subscribers, but it is losing higher-value postpaid lines and faces stiff competition from the likes of AT&T and T-Mobile. Along with the layoffs, Verizon plans to significantly reduce its outsourced workforce and created a $20 million retraining and career transition fund to help affected workers.
Tech industry’s rollercoaster week dazzles investors
Thursday was a roller coaster day for tech investors. Nvidia’s explosive earnings sent the company’s stock up nearly 5% earlier in the day, briefly lifting the entire Magnificent Seven thanks to better-than-expected revenue, solid profits, and a bullish fourth-quarter forecast. However, these gains were quickly erased by concerns about an AI bubble and declining confidence in the Fed’s rate cut in December, sending major tech stocks and the Nasdaq Composite into sharp intraday swings. By Friday morning, the chances of a rate cut had risen again, and despite Nvidia’s decline, some of the biggest companies were inching back into positive territory.
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