Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🪙 Trump admin halts penny production
• 📰 News and AI don’t mix, new research indicates
• ⛳ Behind the scenes of Happy Gilmore 2

… and more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.05-minute read (1,078 words).

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“Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.”

–Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

On Sunday, President Trump ordered the US Treasury to stop minting new pennies, citing the coin’s high cost of production as wasteful government spending.

His order echoes previous comments from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which expressed displeasure with the costs associated with pennies and called for the coins to be phased out of circulation.

• The cost of penny production rose 20% last fiscal year to reach 3.7 cents per penny, according to the US Mint.
• The US government sustained $85.3 million in losses on the nearly 3.2 billion pennies produced in FY 2024.

Americans share their two cents

Trump’s move revives a longstanding debate about whether the US government should eliminate the penny – a plan that’s been proposed in Congress several times in recent years, but has never progressed far.

• Proponents argue the cost savings would be worth any added hassle, pointing to Canada, which stopped producing pennies in 2012, as an example. They also note that less than 20% of all transactions in the US are by cash, meaning any negative impact will be limited.
• Opponents say abolishing the coin would add more complications for both merchants and consumers, since cash transactions would need to be rounded to the nearest nickel. Some economists argue this would largely raise prices across the board, since they’re typically slightly below round numbers (e.g., $0.99).

In the know: A 2023 study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found eliminating the penny wouldn’t pose any “significant inflationary consequences" and would only slightly decrease the hassle of exchanging cash.

Looking ahead…It's unclear whether Trump’s order to halt penny production would survive a potential legal challenge (though none have emerged yet). The Constitution provides Congress with authority over coinage and currency regulation, but the Treasury Secretary has some discretion in the minting of coins.

📊 Flash poll: Do you think the US government should stop minting pennies?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

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New data from the BBC won’t help anyone with trust issues.

The British news org recently gave four prominent AI chatbots – OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini, and Perplexity – access to its site, then asked the bots questions about the news, prompting them to use BBC articles as sources where possible.

Its findings:

• 19% of AI answers that cited BBC content included factual errors.
• 13% of quotes sourced from BBC articles were either altered or didn’t actually exist in that article.
• In total, 51% of all AI answers to questions about the news were judged to have significant issues of some form.

AI inaccuracy is a persistent problem

Even though it’s impossible for them to consume LSD, generative AI models have a tendency to hallucinate – or present incorrect or misleading results with the confidence of Neil deGrasse Tyson.

And research indicates this may be more of a feature than a bug. A July 2024 study from Cornell concluded that no matter how advanced language models become, hallucinations are inevitable.

🤔 But…Solutions may exist. One such potential fix is called retrieval augmented generation, which the Wall Street Journal compares to looking through a library of photos from the past year before writing a holiday letter instead of writing it all from memory.

Another potential fix? Teaching the models to say: “I don’t know.”

Last year, Wicked defied gravity the odds of movie musicals, making its way into mainstream culture and topping the box office like none before it.

But the witches of Oz now have to walk a fine line between avoiding oversaturation and keeping audiences interested ahead of the Part Two release – Wicked: For Good – later this year.

The initial marketing campaign was in-your-face by design. Universal chief marketing officer Michael Moses said his mission with promoting the first Wicked was being “just short of obnoxious.”

• Universal partnered with 400+ brands for marketing purposes, rolled out stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo for surprise appearances at the 2024 MET Gala and Summer Olympics, and built anticipation with intentional “leaks” and sneak peeks.
• Their efforts paid off; Wicked earned $643 million globally plus 10 Oscar nominations.

But now the strategy is slow and steady. While Universal used the Super Bowl to jumpstart its marketing campaign for the initial film, the company chose to hold off from running a Wicked: For Good trailer in last Sunday’s contest.

The key is to find the right balance between keeping the large group of existing Wicked fans engaged, and avoiding audience oversaturation with too much content, marketing experts say.

🏜️ A prime example: Dune: Part 2 utilized a similar balanced marketing approach to become one of the biggest films of 2024, grossing ~$714 million worldwide.

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📊 US markets closed mixed (S&P: +0.03%; Dow: +0.3%; Nasdaq: -0.4%). | 🏦 Fed Chair Jerome Powell spoke before the Senate Banking Committee yesterday; it was his first congressional appearance of the new Trump administration.
• ✈️ Connecticut has become one of the hottest aviation markets in the US.
• 🥤 Coca-Cola reported Q4 results that topped expectations on revenue and earnings; shares rose 4.7%.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Going

• 🏈 The New Orleans Saints hired Eagles OC Kellen Moore as their new head coach.
• 👕 Shopify deactivated Yeezy.com, which had been selling shirts featuring a swastika, saying the site violated its terms of use.
• 🏆👀 The Super Bowl drew a record 127.7 million average viewers, up 3% from last year (123.7 million). | 🎤 Kendrick Lamar broke the record for the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show of all time with 133.5 million viewers, dethroning Michael Jackson's 133.4 million in 1993.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• ☄️🛰️ NASA has enlisted its James Webb Space Telescope to study a recently identified “city-killer” asteroid; astronomers estimate it has a ~2% chance to impact Earth in December 2032.
• ⚛️💻 A new quantum computing breakthrough has increased the possibility of scaling such technology across an “internet” of connected quantum systems.
• 🚀 Last year set spaceflight records with an average of one launch attempt every ~34 hours, per a new report; 2025 is projected to exceed that pace.

MISCELLANEOUS

in partnership with Commons

• 🌨️ A major storm system dumped snow, ice, and rain over a ~1,500-mile stretch of the eastern US yesterday; it’s the first of projected back-to-back-to-back major storms to hit the US this week.
• 🏛️🗣️ President Trump appeared before reporters alongside Elon Musk in the Oval Office yesterday, where the two participated in a lengthy question-and-answer session. | 🗽 The Justice Department directed federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D), saying the case was hindering Adams’s ability to do his job.
• 💥 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu called for Hamas to release three Israeli hostages by noon Saturday, as planned under their ceasefire deal, or face a return to war; it came a day after Hamas said it will postpone the hostages’ release to protest alleged Israeli ceasefire violations.

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A record 50% of private-sector workers are saving in 401(k)s, according to the US Labor Department. Lil Dicky would be proud ($ave Dat Money!).

That figure is up from 43% a decade ago. And, as policy makers work to broaden access and automatic enrollment in employer plans (now mandated by federal law) increases, 401(k) usage is only expected to rise further.

401(k)s, a brief history: Congress opened the door to 401(k)s with a provision in The Revenue Act of 1978. Before that, retirement plans were ruled by the almighty pension – once a staple of mid-20th-century employment.

Big picture: Even though retirement plan adoption has picked up, ~40% of the working population isn’t saving enough to maintain their lifestyle throughout retirement, according to Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research.

☝️ The 2025 Westminster Dog Show, the second-oldest continuously running sporting event in America (behind the Kentucky Derby), concluded last night; Best in Show was awarded to Monty, a giant schnauzer (top-left).

🤔 Did You Know? Famed French general Napoleon Bonaparte was a fan of Breguet watches – a timepiece brand that still exists today.

📰 Worth a Read: ‘Be Cruel’: Inside Russia’s Torture System for Ukrainian POWs

🖱 Clickbait: These Songs By Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, and Chappell Roan Can Literally Help Save Lives

🦍 A new study at Johns Hopkins University found that bonobos, a member of the great ape family, can recognize when humans don’t know something and effectively communicate information to change their behavior. This discovery may be the first to confirm that apes have empathy for others and a theory of mind.

💸 Millions of people have poured out financial support for the families who have lost their homes in the wake of the devastating California wildfires. GoFundMe has become a lifeline for such donations, raising $250+ million for victims – or ~$20 million more than it helped collect for all global natural disasters last year.

🛹🐾 Coda the cocker spaniel recently claimed the world record for longest human tunnel traveled through by a dog on a skateboard (yes, that’s a thing). Coda skated between the legs of 40 people on the set of the Italian TV show Lo Show Dei Record.

💍 Explore: The history of wedding rings, from ancient Egypt to De Beers.

❣️ Last-minute planning: Here are 95 romantic, unique, and spicy Valentine’s Day ideas.

👀 Take a peek: Behind the scenes of the filming of Happy Gilmore 2 (which is slated for release on Netflix later this year).

🚶 That’s cool: See what it’s like to walk through 130+ different cities and countries.

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Can you name the top three highest-grossing movies of the 1980s? (Hint: Two are from the same franchise.)

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1. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) – $796 million
2. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) – $551 million
3. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) – $483 million

Source