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OVERWORLD:
-How the ultra-rich get richer with the "Wealth Effect"-

TWO BETWEENS:
-Qatari money bought Gucci’s ex-creative director-
-Get disturbed: Hackers’ new way of waging war-

THE DEPTHS:
-The first meme ever-

“Hate is a place where a man who can't stand sadness goes”
— Kenturo Miura

✦TREND PICKS✦

Economy

The "Wealth Effect" made the top 1% the richest they’ve ever been.

Two things in life that’ll never stop being fun:

1. Doing the dolphin hand out of the car window.

2. Pocket-watching the Illuminati.

Today is a very big day for the second (every day is a big day for the first). That's because the wealth of the top 1% in the U.S. reached a historic $44.6 trillion.

Now, let the pocket-watching begin.

• The record is mostly thanks to the year-end stock rally, per the Fed.

• Stock holdings of the top 1% leaped to $19.7 trillion from $17.65 trillion this quarter.

• The surge is part of a broader wealth boom that kicked off with the pandemic in 2020, propelling the top 1%'s wealth by nearly $15 trillion, or 49%.

✦Slow down, buckaroo✦

Relax with the pitchforks, please. The middle 50% to 90% of Americans also witnessed a 50% wealth increase since 2020, which is huge.

Economists say booming stocks have led to consumers and investors being more confident in spending, per CNBC.

They call it the "wealth effect," which is just a sleeker way of saying that people are feeling themselves.

Still, it doesn’t mean that the economy is going A-OK.

Sure, everybody is getting richer across the board - but the people of the middle class and lower are more likely to spend their gains.

And that’s money that runs out and eventually trickles into the pockets of the 1%, which are much less likely to spend money. They’re basically hoarding money.

So yeah, maybe get the pitchforks anyway.

✦Bonus cute facts about ultra-rich Americans✦

✦QUICK HITS✦

The Magnificient Seven is no more. Apple, Google, and Tesla are out of the gains race, but Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and NVIDIA are still carrying the stock market. It is now the age of the Fab Four.

Universal just flexed on TikTok. Since all UMG music was removed from TikTok, they’ve added a “Switch to Video" music video feature in Spotify. Now you can watch Billie Eilish videos in the app. That’s what you wanted, right?

A Nigerian woman is facing jail for reviewing a tomato puree and calling it too sweet.

Roscoe, a Boston Dynamics robot dog was shot and destroyed by an armed suspect. However, he played a crucial role in safely arresting the shooter without putting human officers in danger. Good boy.

Gold prices are booming and hit a new record high, driven by expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts and its status as a safe investment.

Japan is using influencers to attract tourists to off-the-beaten-path destinations, capitalizing on social media's influence as a king source of travel information.

Read: The jobs being replaced by AI – an analysis of 5M freelancing jobs.

Profile picture sauce: generate an ugly doodle version of yourself here.

🇶🇦 Alessandro Michele was bought by Qatari royals and put at Valentino
Few things are as pre-pandemically nostalgic as Alessandro Michele's work at Gucci.

The tigers, the snakes, the old Hollywood vibes, the fake tees... aaah, times of peace (and ISIS).

It was a hit: From 2015 to 2022, Michele's maximalism era tripled sales to 3 times its size (€10B).

Now, Gucci has Jean-François Palus now, and Michele will debut for Valentino in September.

But Valentino isn't LVMH, nor is it Kering. It's part of the Mayhoola group, which is backed by the Qatari royal family.

Qatari money is long, but it's shocking how long. They've most likely outbid the largest groups and brands for Michele, which is mind-boggling (LVMH is Europe’s richest company).

And Valentino isn’t huge, but they’re doing better and better. Recently, they ran a record €1.4B in revenue. The Qatari royal family obviously likes Michele's resumé of turning a few billion into a dozen.

Hopefully, Michele can do the same trick twice.

🤮 Get disturbed: Hackers are using child abuse imagery to fight each other
Hackers at war with other hackers are sending child abuse imagery pictures to shut down rival Discord servers. Which is… wow, just different.

The strategy exploits Discords systems image recognition designed to protect and moderate servers. So yeah, instead that system is being used to sabotage rival hacker communities.

It’s kinda evil, on many levels: Not only does this violates Discord's community guidelines but it also poses legal risks. Innocent users who are simply bystanders in the servers now have illegal content on their computers and can get implicated in federal crimes.

THE DEPTHS

History

The first meme ever, and why it meme’d so hard.

Before spinning gorilla, before skibidi toilet, and before this shit, there was “Kilroy Was Here” - the first meme.

Kilroy was viral before viral existed. And because of that, analyzing it gives us a simple understanding of viral memes - without the blinding fuss of modern hyper-culture.

✦Text + Image = Meme, even in the 40s✦

The Kilroy meme was just the text “Kilroy was here,” plus a doodle of a silly bald man with a fat nose peeking over a wall.

It seems stupid, pointless even, but with memes frivolous silliness is everything. Things are allowed to be funny for no reason.

Also, it’s crazy that even before modern memes, text + image was still king. If you think about it, it’s the most ultra-compact way of delivering culture. The cultural bang for the buck you get with just that is huge.

✦Closed culture, made worldwide✦

The origins of Kilroy are a mystery. Word-to-mouth lore suggests it began with American shipyard inspector James J. Kilroy, who marked the phrase on ships to verify he had checked them.

As these ships traveled, so did the graffiti. All over Europe and the Pacific, "Kilroy Was Here" started popping up scribbled in the most unexpected places.

If you knew about it, you knew about it - an inside joke was born.

Plus, the drawing and words are simple. They transcend language barriers and nationalities, giving it true global status.

And that’s kinda how all memes are today. They’re inside jokes that go worldwide - which is paradoxical, but super important for interconnectivity.

✦Memes make friends✦

The phenomenon of Kilroy wasn't just about leaving a mark. It became a way for soldiers to connect through a shared inside joke. It became a symbol of the Allied culture, their camaraderie, and their resilience.

There’s probably an essential human desire for that type of connection.

Memes are just jokes that we use to test who’s in our tribe and who isn’t. If they’ve heard of your meme, there’s probably lots more you have in common.

Ironically, just seeing a cool group of people enjoying a meme makes you want to get the meme - which is why memes spread.

Yes, memes spread because humans like humans. Simple enough.