🐤 Making them pay

🏦 Markets: Wall Street ended the week on a generally positive note, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average stretching its winning streak to eight days.

But the economic news wasn’t all rosy. Data shows that consumer sentiment is at its lowest point of the year as Americans fret over issues from rising unemployment to stubbornly high inflation and interest rates.

⚡ At any rate: Energy prices have spiked across the U.S. recently, but consumers in California have long paid much more than the national average. This week, utility regulators announced a new measure that will reduce the per-kilowatt rate … but the relief comes at a price. Most customers of investor-owned utility providers will pay a new monthly charge of more than $24, though low-income Californians will see as little as $6 added to their bills. The 20% cut will reduce the 31.2 cents currently being charged, which is the nation’s second-highest rate.

🐕 Reunited: The community of Canoas, Brazil, recently experienced a major flood and a group of volunteers organized an ad hoc shelter to take care of hundreds of displaced dogs. Eder Luis da Silva Camargo was one of the individuals reunited with his pup after fleeing his home due to the natural disaster. “They were so terrified so they ran off and we couldn’t catch them,” he said. Shelter organizer Gabriel Cardoso said it was “a thrill for us in the midst of chaos to be able to celebrate a victory,” noting that “meeting a family member is joy.”

🏆 Film fundraiser: If you watch its glamorous Oscars award each year, you might think that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is flush with cash. In reality, however, the nonprofit organization has been focused on raising funds wherever possible in an effort to ensure that it has the money necessary to keep going long into the future. Chief executive Bill Kramer confirmed that the academy is currently embarking on a global mission to raise half a billion dollars “to allow for solid long-term planning and fiscal certainty.”

🍔 Happy meals: Cost-conscious customers used to flock to McDonald’s for an affordable, quick, and tasty meal. In recent years, however, menu prices have soared and executives have acknowledged that they haven’t been appealing to those who prioritize affordability. That appears to be changing, though. Reports this week indicate that the fast food chain is set to roll out a new value meal deal allowing customers to choose either a McChicken or McDouble, a side of fries, and a drink for the (relatively) low price of just five bucks.

Inflation has caused the price of just about everything to increase substantially over the past several years. But when it comes to items imported from China, there’s another reason costs might start soaring across the U.S.

“I’m looking for competition”

While electric vehicle prices have become quite expensive, China has proven to be an exception to that rule. We recently told you about how the nation is flooding much of the world with more affordable EVs.

That might sound good to consumers, but it’s not what the U.S. government wants to see. President Joe Biden is prepared to take action in the coming days with tariffs that could as much as double the cost of imported vehicles from China.

It’s the latest move to thwart the influx of cheap goods, which officials from across the political spectrum say can hamper the domestic economy. With EVs in particular, Biden is concerned that inexpensive Chinese imports represent a threat to U.S. efforts to expand the green energy sector.

“I’m not looking for a fight with China,” he said. “I’m looking for competition — and fair competition.”

“Tariffs are not enough”

There’s bipartisan support for levies on Chinese imports, as evidenced by the 2018 tariffs imposed by then-President Donald Trump. But some lawmakers don’t think an added cost is sufficient — particularly when it comes to EVs.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) recently advised: “Tariffs are not enough. We need to ban Chinese EVs from the US. Period.”

The current 25% levy on Chinese EVs could spike to as much as 100% as part of the president’s plan. Biden is also considering “tripling the tariff rates for both steel imports and aluminum imports from China” if the country is found to be selling the metals at artificially low prices to undercut domestic production.

Formula One racing is not only a vicarious thrill for fans and a white-knuckle adventure for drivers, but it’s a major source of bragging rights (not to mention revenue) for the teams that produce the best results.

And right now, there’s one name that is consistently leading the pack.

Pushing F1 to the Max

Max Verstappen has cultivated significant buzz around his skills behind the wheel, and the Red Bull team behind is known as the brand to beat.

For a company that emerged with animated commercials about how its energy drink “gives you wings,” the trajectory to a dominant racing team has been a sight to behold. Unless you're a more established racing company like Ferrari, Mercedes, or McLaren, of course.

In that case, it’s probably a little embarrassing. That’s why there’s a clear effort among legacy teams to develop a path toward dethroning Red Bull.

McLaren made headway with Lando Norris’ victory earlier this month — his first win in 110 races.

He credited the team for upgrading his car and “the hard work that they’ve been putting into everything.”

Taking a victory lap

McLaren might have gained the upper hand momentarily, but if it and other companies want to consistently compete against Red Bull, it’ll require attaining some strategic, long-term goals.

When fractions of a second count, every decision is important. And teams that have been falling behind are laser focused on reversing course.

“The issue at the moment is everyone else is developing their cars, so you saw McLaren with a big package and they look to have moved forward,” acknowledged Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur stressed a comprehensive focus, explaining: “We don’t think only about the developments and upgrades, it is also the job we are doing at the track.”

Whether signing up for a new membership or downloading an app, we’ve all experienced that moment when we’re hit with a wall of text that we know we should be reading. But instead, we scroll to the bottom and click “accept.”

Is it boilerplate legalese or did we just sign over our firstborn? We’ll never know because none of us ever read the terms and conditions … Well, almost none of us.

As if you needed proof

The fact that most consumers skip all that text probably doesn’t come as a shock to you. But one U.K. organization recently conducted an experiment to see just how long it would take for somebody to actually read its terms.

Tax Policy Associates included one condition amid the boring clauses on its website that promised: “We will send a bottle of good wine to the first person to read this.”

That was in February … and founder Dan Neidle confirmed just this week that someone had finally contacted the group to claim the prize.

“Our ongoing experiment into whether anyone reads website T&Cs continues,” he wrote. “We put this in our terms back in February. Just got claimed.”

The person who claimed the wine received a bottle of 2013-14 Chateau de Sales valued at roughly $44.

“My childish protest”

Now that the wine has been claimed, that passage in the website’s terms authoritatively asserts: “We know nobody reads this.”

For his part, Neidle said the giveaway was a “childish protest” against the fact that “all businesses have to have a privacy policy and no one reads it.”

But should you start? You probably won’t get a free bottle of wine, but you could find out some useful information about what you’re getting (and what you’re giving up) by accepting the terms.