Hiya! Dan DeFrancesco in NYC, and as a frequent orderer of takeout, I’m enthralled by the recent debate over tipping etiquette for delivery drivers.
Today, we’ve got stories on a fintech’s partnership with a Marvel star, landlords are not having fun these days, and a breakdown of how much you can really save moving out of NYC.
But first, is this a tax write-off?
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1. Kenny Giving.
Billionaire hedge-fund manager Ken Griffin is back in the news, but this time it’s for what he’s giving, not taking (in).
Griffin, who founded Wall Street giants Citadel and Citadel Securities, donated $300 million to Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).
The gift to his alma mater — Griffin graduated in 1989 — is “unrestricted,” meaning it can be used anywhere within the FAS, which includes the undergraduate program as well as the school’s PhD programs.
For his generosity (he’s donated more than $500 million to the school over the years), Griffin will get his name on the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
I’ve written a lot about Griffin this year, and for good reason. His hedge fund had a monster 2022, and his trading firm remains a key piece of how the markets operate. He’s also starting to wield that power outside of Wall Street, most notably in politics by becoming a megadonor to Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Griffin’s philanthropic efforts have spanned a wide range of venues, from a traveling exhibition on Antarctic dinosaurs to building youth soccer fields in Miami.
However, it’s interesting to see how two of his biggest contributions — DeSantis and Harvard — seem to operate on opposite ends of the spectrum. DeSantis, who holds degrees from Yale University and Harvard Law School, called his Ivy League education “political scarlet letters” as a GOP candidate in his new book. (Griffin, for what it’s worth, reportedly once privately complained about “woke ideology” impacting kids in school.)
The pessimistic person might view this as Griffin paying for more influence at Harvard. Understand, though, that while $300 million might seem like a lot, it’s still a drop in the bucket of the school’s $50.9 billion endowment.
But maybe it’s not as Machiavellian as that! After all, some of Griffin’s donations previously went to funding research on stem cells, per Bloomberg. Maybe it’s just his way of giving back to the place where he got his start.
Click her to read our profile on Ken Griffin’s rise to the top of Wall Street.
In other news:
2. A fintech and Captain America walk into a bar. Public.com and Chris Evans’ civic-engagement company A Starting Point are teaming up to get the fintech users’ up to speed on the latest public policies impacting their portfolios. More on the deal here.
3. Let’s call the whole thing off. EY’s ambitious plan to divide its audit and consulting businesses has gotten the kibosh after months of back and forth, the Financial Times reports. Here’s what led to the whole thing falling apart.
4. But what about the landlords?! Investors who bought up apartment buildings last year thought they had tapped into a gold mine. One year later, rents haven’t budged but costs, including interest rates, have. (You just hate to see it.) More on the plight of the landlord.
5. Wall Street is drying out wells to drive up returns in California. As the state battles a water crisis, some finance firms are exacerbating the problem by investing in growing high-value nuts that require more irrigation than seasonal crops, Bloomberg reports. Click here for more on the water woes created by Wall Street.
6. HSBC is the latest landing spot for some SVB bankers. The bank has scooped up some employees to focus on tech and healthcare, Reuters reports. More here.
7. To build good habits, you might need to get addicted to a bad one. Trying to eat better? Go to the gym more? Stop scrolling TikTok? (Good luck!) Whatever new habit you’re trying to form, there might be an app to help you get there. You just might end up addicted to the app too. It’s all very 2023. Read more here.
8. Citi’s M&A co-head departs. Veteran dealmaker Mark Shafir is retiring, The Wall Street Journal reports. More on his 15-year tenure at the firm.
9. How much do you really save moving out of NYC? You’ve definitely thought about, and you might have already done it. So how much further does your dollar go outside this rat-infested hell hole. A 35-year-old plastic surgeon who moved to Buffalo, N.Y., breaks down how his finances have changed since getting out of the city. Here’s how much his expenses have changed.
10. Tiny home. Good vibes. This guy spent $137,000 building his 330-square-foot home from shipping containers. (Is this the cause of the supply-chain issues?) Check out pics from his small, but beautiful, home.
Curated by Dan DeFrancesco in New York. Feedback or tips? Email ddefrancesco@insider.com, tweet @dandefrancesco, or connect on LinkedIn. Edited by Jeffrey Cane (tweet @jeffrey_cane) in New York and Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.
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