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- Trump Loves The Homeless, Yahoo! Makes A Mistake, and France Controls Africa
Trump Loves The Homeless, Yahoo! Makes A Mistake, and France Controls Africa
Welcome to This Week In Ticker History, where every stock has a story
David Prince
January 26, 2025
In partnership with
What a start to 2025.
Amazon is up almost 7% on the year and just hit all time highs.
The United States added over 250,000 jobs in December alone, and unemployment is down to 4.1%.
The Super Bowl matchup is set, bringing in over $700 million dollars to the host city, $200 million in income to local workers, and $16 billion in bets (legally and illegally).
Life is good. Stay bullish.
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New York City, 1982: Donald Trump Loves The Homeless 📅
Donald Trump made an incredibly generous offer to New York City.
In 1982, the real estate developer proposed housing dozens of homeless New Yorkers in apartments he owned at 100 Central Park South. For free.
He even offered to pay for round-the-clock nurses for the homeless and their daily meals, all while offering rent-free views of Central Park from midtown Manhattan.
The NYC Housing Authority had reason to be suspicious, however.
For years, Trump had been in a legal fight to get the rent-stabilized residents of the building evicted from their apartments so that he could demolish it and build luxury condos.
He tried buying them out. When they refused, he ignored routine maintenance and filed false non-payment notices with the city.
This dragged out in NYC housing courts for years.
Trump got his condos in 1986- but the residents got to live there at their reduced rents and had their legal fees covered.
Media coverage of Trump’s offer to take care of the homeless in 1982.
Trump got his revenge, however.
Charles Foy, a lawyer who represented the city against Trump’s evictions, was given a job offer at a private firm years later.
Trump, one of the firm’s biggest clients, ensured his offer was revoked.
As recently as 2019, residents in 100 Central Park South were paying $1,000 per month to live there, well under market value.
This Week In Ticker History 📅
February 1, 2008 Microsoft bid $44.6 billion to acquire Yahoo in an attempt to challenge Google’s dominance in search and advertising. Yahoo rejected the offer, believing that it undervalued the company. Eight years later, Yahoo would be bought by Verizon for less than $5 billion. |  Coverage of the acquisition attempt from the Wall Street Journal in 2008. |
D’oh.
January 27, 2010 Apple debuted the iPad, a tablet designed to bridge the gap between smartphones and laptops. Equipped with a 9.7-inch touchscreen, a custom A4 chip, and access to the App Store, the iPad sold over 300,000 units on its first day. |  Steve Jobs holding the original iPad at its San Francisco debut. |
February 1, 1971 The Soviet Union opened the Institute for Management of the National Economy, marking the first business school in a Communist nation. Located in Moscow, the institute was designed to combine communist principles with Western management practices. |  American exchange students visit the IMNE in Moscow in the early 70’s |
January 31, 2008 Amazon acquired Audible, the leading provider of digital audiobooks, for approximately $300 million. Today, Audible is still part of Amazon's strategy to control all channels of digital content distribution. |  Coverage of the acquisition from the New York Times. |
January 27, 1855 The Panama Railroad was completed, providing a transit route across the country and significantly impacting global trade and travel. Sixty years later, the Panama Canal would be built, significantly reducing shipping times between East and West. |  Workers stand outside by a railcar of the newly completed Panama Railroad. |
January 29, 2014 Google sold Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion after buying the company for $12 billion only two years earlier. While seeming like huge loss, Google kept control of Motorola’s patents, incorporating much of it into future iterations of the Android operating system and hardware. |  Forbes’ coverage of the “profits” of the sale were controversial at the time. |
January 30, 1944: France Demands Loyalty From Its Colonies 📅
During World War II, Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Free French Forces, had a major problem.
France’s 18 African colonies were an important part of the war effort, providing manpower and raw materials to fight the Nazis back in Europe.
However, the leaders of leaders of the colonies wanted independence. And they wanted it now.
The Brazzaville Conference, held on January 1944 in Brazzaville, French Equatorial Africa (now the Congo), brought together representatives from French colonies in Africa to discuss the future of French colonial policy.
 Charles de Gaulle asking his African colonial leaders to continue supporting France in Brazzaville. |  A French stamp commemorating the Brazzaville Conference of 1944. |
At the conference, de Gaulle proposed the idea of a "French Community" that would keep trade flowing while preserving French control over the continent. He didn’t grant independence to any of the colonies, but still needed loyalty.
The Brazzaville Conference was a turning point in the African independence movement. France could not maintain control over the African colonies as they rebuilt after the war, and slowly each of their colonies gained independence over the coming decades.
The stock certificates below are from two pre-World War II French companies that operated out of colonial Africa at the time.
Are You Ready For Some Football? 📅
Yes. Yes we are.
Looking Forward 📅
That’s old news. What can we look forward to this week?
The Super Bowl is set! Who you got?
On January 29, both the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Canada meet to set monetary policy and make interest rate decisions.
On January 30, the federal government will release its preliminary GDP report for Q4 of 2024.
The Fall of Diddy, a documentary about the the music producer’s legal troubles, is released on Max.
If you celebrate Lunar New Year, 新年快乐，恭喜发财.
Stay safe, stay warm, and stay bullish. |
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