(FREE) PAINE IN THE MORNING: What you need to know this Wednesday – February 8, 2023

Here’s what you need to know today, Wednesday – February 8, 2023.

There is also a full, ad-free video podcast of this broadcast available to Paine.TV members HERE.

Learn more about joining our community HERE.

Biden’s State Of The Union Preview – President Biden’s State of the Union could be seen as a soft opening for his 2024 reelection campaign. He is likely to take a victory lap on his 2022 legislative wins (the IRA and the CHIPS Act), promote climate initiatives, and highlight consumer-related sectors (tech and banking) to argue that his administration is helping consumers. The speech will likely include some mention of the debt ceiling debate, but the president will probably avoid going into detail about his position ahead of negotiations with Congress.

State of the Union (SOTU) addresses tend to include laundry lists of proposals that will never see the light today and Tuesday’s speech will probably be similar to past speeches, but President Joe Biden’s speech could be notable and potentially market moving for a few reasons. – READ MORE

Inflation Nation: AMC Theaters Hiking Ticket Prices with ‘Screen Sightline’ Pricing – Movie theater chain AMC Entertainment is implementing higher ticket prices with a new, three-tiered pricing based on how easy it is to see the screen from your seat.

Calling the plan “Sightline AMC,” the chain will charge more for seats that are in the “preferred sightline” of the screen and less for third tier seats in the wings or in the first rows. The second tier is being defined as “standard sightline.” – READ MORE

Ford CEO Hints At Imminent Layoffs, Cites Need To Be “Efficient” – Ford Motor Co has yet to announce mass layoffs like the ones that have plagued the tech industry in recent months. The latest sign the Detroit automaker might reduce headcount in the near term is from the CEO himself, according to Bloomberg.

“It takes us 25% more engineers to do the same work statements as our competitors,” CEO Jim Farley said on SiriusXM radio’s “Cars & Culture with Jason Stein,” which will air on Feb. 10.

Farley continued: “I can’t afford to be 25% less efficient.” – READ MORE

Dell Cuts 6,650 Jobs Due To “Challenging Global Economic Environment” – Dell Technologies Inc. is the latest technology company to announce job cuts. A filing released Monday morning blamed the layoffs on a “challenging global economic environment” amid a bust in the personal computer market.

Dell said 6,650 jobs, or about 5% of its global workforce, will be eliminated. The company produces personal computers, servers, data storage devices, network switches, and a slew of other electronic devices that were in high demand during Covid but have slumped in the years after. – READ MORE

Fire At New Zealand’s Largest Egg Farm Kills 75,000 Hens Amid National Shortage – The latest major food supplier to go up in flames, after decades of food suppliers not going up in flames, is New Zealand’s largest egg producer – after a blaze broke out on Monday, killing around 75,000 hens.

The fire at Zeagold farm had “taken the better part of the day to contain,” according to the company, adding that twelve workers on the site were “unharmed but very distressed.” – READ MORE

Lab-grown meat firms don’t even know if their food is safe long-term: Report –Despite leading scientists generally agreeing that lab grown meat is safe to eat, no long-term studies have been conducted to reliably demonstrate this, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

Lab-grown meat is often made using immortalized cell lines, which, unlike regular cells, are capable of continuously dividing and growing in a manner similar to cancer cells, according to Bloomberg. Companies developing lab-grown meats have largely remained silent about the connection between their product and cancer cells, possibly in a bid to keep consumers from getting skittish about their products. – READ MORE

NYC Is So Bad That Migrants Are Fleeing To Canada – Migrants living illegally in New York City are so fed up with the Big Apple’s crime and filth that they’re taking officials up on offers to bus them to Canada on the taxpayer’s dime… In the middle of winter.

According to the NY Post, the National Guard has been helping distribute tickets at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan for migrants who want to travel upstate before crossing into Canada, migrants told the outlet. – READ MORE

California Drops Plan for K-12 Coronavirus Vaccine Mandate – The State of California has scrapped a plan to require the coronavirus vaccine for children in grades K through 12, as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) allows a three-year-old “state of emergency” to expire at the end of February.

In 2021, Newsom announced that K-12 students would be required to receive the vaccine for full-time in-person instruction after the vaccine had received final approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But the implementation of the policy was postponed, ostensibly for logistical reasons. Just one year ago, as Breitbart News reported, K-12 vaccine requirements were still a distinct possibility, as a Democrat in the state legislature offered a bill to make the coronavirus shot one of the state’s required vaccinations for attending school. – READ MORE

‘More nefarious’: Here’s how much U.S. farmland has been bought up by China –Ownership of U.S. farmland by Chinese nationals has risen significantly in the last decade and amounted to 338,000 acres as of 2020, according to U.S. Agriculture Department data.

Since 2010, Chinese nationals have reportedly purchased an additional 75,000 acres of U.S. farmland, according to U.S. Agriculture Department data obtained by the WSJ. Although amounting to less than 1% of all U.S. agricultural land held by foreign citizens, ownership of U.S. farmland by Chinese nationals has received increased scrutiny in recent years following warnings from U.S. government officials claiming that the Chinese government may seek to use land for military and espionage purposes, according to the WSJ. – READ MORE