Miami Art Week usually exists behind invisible velvet ropes. It is a place where private dinners, celebrity walkthroughs, and invitation-only installations dominate the social landscape.
But this past week, Capital One tried something unusual. It opened one of Art Weeks most insular cultural moments to people who are not part of the traditional art world by giving its cardholders access to the kind of programming that normally requires a personal invitation, using Art Week not simply as a cultural stage but as a strategic laboratory for understanding what premium consumers now expect from financial brands.
The brand’s presence featured a collaboration with artist Alex Prager and global arts agency The Cultivist, centered on Mirage Factory, a cinematic installation that functioned as both an artwork and an access vehicle. The activation also included a performance by Diana Ross, a signal of the caliber of entertainment Capital One was willing to attach to its premium ecosystem.
Taken together, these elements demonstrated how the brand is positioning itself inside a broader evolution of the credit card rewards market. Once defined primarily by points, cashback, and lounge access, the premium category has shifted toward cultural relevance and emotional differentiation, especially among younger affluent customers.
Capital One presented the activation as an example of what premium now means in a market where loyalty is shaped not only by earn rates, but by identity, affiliation, and what a customer feels their card allows them to experience.
Turning a cultural moment into a loyalty engine
Prager describes Mirage Factory as an immersive reflection of Los Angeles mythology and the machinery of Hollywood dreams.
“The Mirage Factory allows visitors to escape into the dreamlike world of Los Angeles, to experience a heightened, fabricated vision that celebrates the artifice of the city and the dreams that built it” Prager explains. “It evokes the spirit of Golden Age Hollywood, a cinematic fantasy of nostalgia, glamour, and illusion.”
The installation was open to the public for a limited time, but the most valuable components were reserved for Capital One cardholders. Those included a multi course dinner staged inside the installation and a second evening of bespoke programming. For select attendees, the activation also included access to the Diana Ross performance, a tier of cultural exclusivity that has become increasingly common as credit card issuers compete through experiential differentiation.
[Photo: Daniel Seung Lee, courtesy Capital One]
From a business perspective, the shift reflects competitive dynamics that now extend far beyond traditional rewards. The premium card category has evolved into an arms race of cultural touchpoints.
American Express, Chase, and Capital One are all investing in curated events, access-driven partnerships, and high-touch hospitality in an attempt to cultivate deeper emotional loyalty. In this context, a single moment like Mirage Factory becomes a test case for understanding what customers are willing to pay for and which experiences actually change brand perception.
Lauren Liss, Capital One’s Senior Vice President of Premium Products and Experiences, noted that the companys premium portfolio is now its fastest growing segment, driven in part by demand for experiences that feel both elevated and low friction.
She explained that Capital One evolved from a really small company that issued credit to customers overlooked by traditional banks to a firm that identified a gap in the market.
There were premium credit cards that were out there, but a lot of folks were saying they weren’t for them. They wanted something that was simple, straightforward, easy to use, had the rewards, but also had things that were tailored to great experiences, she said. Both that value and the access.
[Photo: Daniel Seung Lee, courtesy Capital One]
The company now runs more than 300 branded experiences per year. Liss said the measure of success is straightforward.
I’d say the best measurement is that our customers love it. The sellout rate is well over 90 percent, she said. Even if I’m not going now, it’s really cool that I have these types of options or offerings for the future.
Why a financial brand is investing in art world authenticity
For Capital One, credibility in cultural spaces depends on its partners. The Cultivist plays a central role in ensuring these activations feel artist-led rather than brand-driven.
Cultivist cofounder Marlies Verhoeven Reijtenbagh said the firm began as a non-commercial art membership club and expanded into a consultancy that connects artists, institutions, and brands in ways that protect artistic integrity.
We realized that a lot of brands wanted to work in the art world, and that we could help them do it in a way that felt very authentic, because we saw a lot of brand activations that maybe were a bit more pasted on, she said.
Working with Capital One, she added, is structurally different from working with other financial firms because the company brings a unified internal strategy to the table.
When I work with big brands, especially big corporate financials, it often feels like little fiefdoms that have their own individual goals, she said. This is very different.
Authenticity is especially important because the credit card industry has entered a phase where premium customers judge brands as much by cultural fluency as financial benefits. Integrations that appear superficial can erode trust faster than a weak earn rate. But Capital Ones approach reflects an understanding that cultural participation must feel native, not opportunistic.
The economics f premium dining inside a branded art experience
Capital One also expanded its culinary strategy at Art Week. The exclusive dinner inside Mirage Factory was led by chef Dave Beran, whose Michelin-starred restaurants are known for narrative-driven menus.
[Photo: Daniel Seung Lee, courtesy Capital One]
High-touch experiences like this operate at the top of what Capital One executives describe as an access pyramid. Some events serve thousands of cardholders through presales or reserved ticket inventory. Others, like the Mirage Factory dinner, serve a few dozen. Both are strategically important, but they generate value in different ways.
Monica Weaver, Head of Branded Card Partnerships and Experiences, said the system is designed to give customers multiple pathways into the cultural sphere.
We think about it in this pyramid where there are certain events that are bucket list, and those are fewer. Then there are exclusive experiences, and then there is a broader tier which is reserved access to certain things, she said.
Capital One has built out these layers through Capital One Entertainment, which blends proprietary events with the full Vivid Seats inventory. Customers redeem rewards for both bucket list and everyday experiences.
This reflects a broader shift in rewards behavior. Points are no longer perceived as a savings mechanism. They function as a form of stored access, a currency customers convert into identity-defining moments.
Expanding influence beyond the gallery walls
This year, the company also extended its Art Week presence into The Shelborne By Proper, a historic Art Deco hotel that became a branded retreat for Venture X and Venture X Business cardholders. Through the Premier Collection, stays included breakfast credits, upgrades when available, and property-wide programming tied to the Mirage Factory concept.
There were daily Golden Hour gatherings, wellness events, and nightly sound sessions. The programming allowed Capital One to shape not just a single event but the full customer journey across the Art Week environment.
In premium banking, this kind of journey-mapping is becoming a central competitive tool. Every moment becomes a data point in understanding what customers value.
Weaver framed the partnership as a broader strategic move.
Our partnership with The Cultivist and debut of Alex Pragers Mirage Factory redefines what immersive premium access means at Art Week in Miami, she said.
Ami Vedak, who leads Small Business Acquisitions for Business Cards and Payments, added that the events resonated strongly with small business owners, many of whom view premium card perks as tools for client entertainment and business growth.
You hear about Art Week in Miami a lot. It is in the press a lot. Even me as a regular person, I did not necessarily know how to access it, she said. Small business owners are people too. They want opportunities to immerse themselves in art and culture.
A financial company positioning itself as a culture brand
Capital Ones activation fits a broader industry trend, in which financial institutions compete for high-value customers by offering cultural access that cannot be replicated by earn rates alone.
In that landscape, a Diana Ross performance, an immersive art environment, and a curated hotel program are not aesthetic add-ons. They are strategic assets in a loyalty economy where emotional differentiation drives retention.
For a brief moment, the boundaries around one of the most exclusive weeks in American culture shifted. Access depended not on a relationship with a gallery, but on whether a visitor carried a specific card. For Capital One, that shift was less about a single week, and more about building a long-term competitive strategy rooted in cultural relevance rather than commodity rewards.
Massachusetts’ highest court heard oral arguments Friday in the state’s lawsuit arguing that Meta designed features on Facebook and Instagram to make them addictive to young users.
The lawsuit, filed in 2024 by Attorney General Andrea Campbell, alleges that Meta did this to make a profit and that its actions affected hundreds of thousands of teenagers in Massachusetts who use the social media platforms.
We are making claims based only on the tools that Meta has developed because its own research shows they encourage addiction to the platform in a variety of ways, said State Solicitor David Kravitz, adding that the state’s claim has nothing to do the company’s algorithms or failure to moderate content.
Meta said Friday that it strongly disagrees with the allegations and is confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people. Its attorney, Mark Mosier, argued in court that the lawsuit would impose liabilities for performing traditional publishing functions and that its actions are protected by the First Amendment.
The Commonwealth would have a better chance of getting around the First Amendment if they alleged that the speech was false or fraudulent, Mosier said. But when they acknowledge that its truthful that brings it in the heart of the First Amendment.
Several of the judges, though, seem to be more concerned about Meta’s functions, such as notifications, than the content on its platforms.
I didn’t understand the claims to be that Meta is relaying false information vis-a-vis the notifications but that it has created an algorithm of incessant notifications … designed so as to feed into the fear of missing out, fomo, that teenagers generally have, Justice Dalila Wendlandt said. That is the basis of the claim.
Justice Scott Kafker challenged the notion that this was all about a choice to publish certain information by Meta.
It’s not how to publish but how to attract you to the information, he said. It’s about how to attract the eyeballs. It’s indifferent the content, right. It doesn’t care if it’s Thomas Paine’s Common Sense or nonsense. It’s totally focused on getting you to look at it.”
Meta is facing federal and state lawsuits claiming it knowingly designed featuressuch as constant notifications and the ability to scroll endlesslythat addict children.
In 2023, 33 states filed a joint lawsuit against the Menlo Park, California-based tech giant, claiming that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents consent, in violation of federal law. In addition, states, including Massachusetts, filed their own lawsuits in state courts over addictive features and other harms to children.
Newspaper reports, first by The Wall Street Journal in the fall of 2021, found that the company knew about the harms Instagram can cause teenagers especially teen girls when it comes to mental health and body image issues. One internal study cited 13.5% of teen girls saying Instagram makes thoughts of suicide worse and 17% of teen girls saying it makes eating disorders worse.
Critics say Meta hasn’t done enough to address concerns about teen safety and mental health on its platforms. A report from former employee and whistleblower Arturo Bejar and four nonprofit groups this year said Meta has chosen not to take real steps to address safety concerns, opting instead for splashy headlines about new tools for parents and Instagram Teen Accounts for underage users.
Meta said the report misrepresented its efforts on teen safety.
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This story has been corrected to show one of the justices is called Justice Dalila Wendlandt, not Wendland.
Michael Casey, Associated Press
Associated Press reporter Barbara Ortutay contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump is planning a $12 billion farm aid package, according to a White House official a boost to farmers who have struggled to sell their crops while getting hit by rising costs after the president raised tariffs on China as part of a broader trade war.
According to the official, who was granted anonymity to speak ahead of a planned announcement, Trump will unveil the plan Monday afternoon at a White House roundtable with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, lawmakers, and farmers who grow corn, cotton, sorghum, soybeans, rice, cattle, wheat, and potatoes.
Farmers have backed Trump politically, but his aggressive trade policies and frequently changing tariff rates have come under increasing scrutiny because of the impact on the agricultural sector and because of broader consumer worries.
The aid is the administrations latest effort to defend Trumps economic stewardship and answer voter angst about rising costseven as the president has dismissed concerns about affordability as a Democratic hoax.
Upwards of $11 billion is set aside for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmer Bridge Assistance program, which the White House says will offer one-time payments to farmers for row crops.
Soybeans and sorghum were hit the hardest by the trade dispute with China because more than half of those crops are exported each year with most of the harvest going to China.
The aid is meant to help farmers who have suffered from trade wars with other nations, inflation, and other market disruptions.
The rest of the money will be for farmers who grow crops not covered under the bridge assistance program, according to the White House official. The money is intended to offer certainty to farmers as they market the current harvest, as well as plan for next year’s harvest.
China purchases have been slow
In October, after Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, the White House said Beijing had promised to buy at least 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans by the end of the calendar year, plus 25 million metric tons a year in each of the next three years. Soybean farmers have been hit especially hard by Trumps trade war with China, which is the worlds largest buyer of soybeans.
China has purchased more than 2.8 million metric tons of soybeans since Trump announced the agreement at the end of October. Thats only about one quarter of what administration officials said China had promised, but Bessent has said China is on track to meet its goal by the end of February.
These prices havent come in, because the Chinese actually used our soybean farmers as pawns in the trade negotiations, Bessent said on CBS Face the Nation, explaining why a bridge payment to farmers was needed.
During his first presidency, Trump also provided aid to farmers amid his trade wars. He gave them more than $22 billion in 2019 and nearly $46 billion in 2020, though that year also included aid related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump has also been under pressure to address soaring beef prices, which have hit records for a number of reasons. Demand for beef has been strong at a time when drought has cut U.S. herds and imports from Mexico are down due to a resurgence in a parasite. Trump has said he would allow for more imports of Argentine beef.
He also had asked the Department of Justice to investigate foreign-owned meat packers he accused of driving up the price of beef, although he has not provided evidence to back his claims.
On Saturday, Trump signed an executive order directing the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to look at anti-competitive behavior in food supply chains including seed, fertilizer and equipment and consider taking enforcement actions or developing new regulations.
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An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed the connection to tariffs to a White House official.
Seung Min Kim, Josh Funk, and Didi Tang, Associated Press
Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price, Bill Barrow, and Jack Dura contributed to this report.
Planner vs. Engineer is a well-known professional rivalry in the infrastructure world. The arguments are sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile, sometimes about important issues, sometimes insignificant. Im in a peculiar spot because of my career as a plangineer. My parents helped me buy a civil engineering degree, but several years into my career, I bought the certified planning certificate. I know the two camps very well.
The roundabout question
Roundabouts are one of the many Planner vs. Engineer debates, and it happens to be a very important issue where emotions cloud good judgment. As much as I criticize the engineering profession, they are generally correct on this one. But that wasnt always the case.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the status quo transportation engineering community believed wholeheartedly that roundabouts were not only good, but were silly, dangerous, would lead to gridlock, couldnt be understood by American drivers, etc. The primary reasons for opposing roundabouts and defending traffic lights (the typical alternative) were speed and delay. That is, if an intersection design slowed down vehicles, that was bad. If there was real or perceived delay for drivers at intersections, that was bad.
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The status quo certified planners, spotting a thing engineers hated, praised the thing. Their reasons for supporting roundabouts included their function as a community gateway, a traffic calming feature, an environmentally sustainable design, and something that wasnt so car-oriented like seemingly everything else dreamt up by traffic engineers.
But in the 2000s, a fringe group of practitioners and academics who were claiming that roundabouts were [Gasp!] actually good started growing in numbers. Case studies were repeatedly finding the same results: roundabouts dramatically reduced vehicle speeds, reduced crashes, maintained or reduced overall travel time, and made it safer for pedestrians to cross the street.
When the engineers became pro-roundabout, the planners became roundabout skeptics or flat out anti-roundabout. I lived through this transition. It was wild to behold.
Modern roundabouts have been proven to be the safest form of at-grade intersection, and the most common claim from skeptics is but cars dont stop at roundabouts, so they must be dangerous for pedestrians. That seems like a reasonable explanation, but its wrong.
There are two reasons pedestrians are safer at roundabouts: slower vehicle speeds and shorter crossing distances.
[Photo: WendellandCarolyn/iStock/Getty Images Plus]
Speed is the difference between life and death
Speed is the fundamental factor in crash severity. The difference between a person struck at 45 MPH (the standard American arterial speed limit) and one struck at 20 MPH (the standard design speed at a roundabout) is the difference between death and life.
Roundabout geometry forces drivers to slow down. Even on a high-speed road, roundabouts are designed to slow approaching vehicles. Once drivers enter the circle itself, speeds drop even lower, giving them ample time to yield to people in crosswalks on the exit leg. The physical design of the roundabout makes speeding through nearly impossible. When drivers are moving slowly, they have time to see pedestrians, react, and stop.
Shorter crossings are safer crossings
Multi-lane roads get even wider at intersections, with multiple left-turn and right-turn lanes added to process vehicle queues during each signal cycle. Without these additional lanes, traffic would back up to adjacent signals. For pedestrians, this means crossing not just two lanes but potentially six or more, with threats coming from all directions. The longer pedestrians remain exposed to moving vehicles, the greater their risk.
Turn lanes extend hundreds of feet before intersections, meaning a series of signalized intersections produces bloated corridors between them. These wide corridors invite speeding, and speeding leads to more severe crashes. Roundabouts eliminate the need for long turn lanes in every direction. Without them, the corridors between intersections can remain narrow, which naturally discourages high speeds throughout the entire roadway network, not just at intersections.
Most modern roundabouts are designed so pedestrians never cross more than one or two lanes at a time without reaching a refuge island. The splitter islands that separate entering and exiting traffic create natural stopping points, breaking what would be a long, dangerous crossing into manageable segments.
Retrofitting suburbia
In the United States, the greatest life-saving potential for roundabouts lies in sprawling suburban areas along multi-lane arterialsprecisely the environments where traffic engineers were trained to maximize vehicle flow at the expense of all else. These are the locations where pedestrians face the longest crossing distances, the highest speeds, and the most complex traffic movements.
On tight urban streets with traditional grid patterns, signalized intersections can work well for pedestrians. But in suburban contexts, where intersections are spaced far apart and roads are designed for high speeds, roundabouts offer a proven solution for protecting vulnerable road users.
As a certified planner who has worked as an engineer for many years, I dont care which team gets the bragging rights for promoting pedestrian safety. I only care that we stop designing intersections and corridors in ways that are proven to be deadly. In suburbia, especially, every new or retrofitted multi-lane arterial crossing should default to a roundabout.
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The new Pentagon press corps gathered last week for their first in-person briefing. Thats since almost all credentialed reporters from traditional media companies surrendered their passes in October to protest new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s strict media policy.
Refusing to sign a 21-page Pentagon document that in effect banned journalists from trying to solicit any kind of information that was not pre-approved, the Pentagon instead issued passes to a newly credentialed corps of influencers, conspiracy theorists, and conservative commentators who happily agreed to the strict rules.
The handpicked press corps were active on social media last week as they documented their first few days on the jobs. The Fake News is OUT, Wade Searle, who works for LifeSiteNews, a right-wing Catholic publication, posted on X. LifeSiteNews is IN.
The A-Team press corps has taken over type beat, 23-year-old MAGA influencer Lance Johnston posted. He also uploaded a slideshow of photos of himself posing with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
Others were otherwise occupied fighting over the desks of former press corp reporters. The Pentagon cubicle that used to belong to @DanLamothe is now mine, RC Maxwell, a reporter at the conservative outlet RedScare, posted on X, referring to a journalist at The Washington Post. Out with the propagandists and hacks. In with the truth tellers who love America.
Conservative influencer Cam Higby and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer also shared photos of themselves claiming to be sitting in Lamothe’s old spot. The Post reporter shared a compilation of the images on X, writing, “Y’all are going to have to work this one out for yourselves.”
During the three-day event, the new press corps didnt miss an opportunity to take shots at their predecessors. MSM Journalists wreaked havoc on the Pentagon during their time in the building, posted Higby on X. He claimed that the adversarial media created a hostile work environment for staff, echoed by Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson who spoke of former press corp members waltzing into her office and eavesdropping on officials meetings.
The new press corp instead brought the heat and kept the public informed on issues relating to national security. Hegseth answered my questions. Its off the record so no details but I am very pleased with his leadership, John Konrad, a former ship captain and social media personality, reassured his X followers Wednesday.
Last week also saw the release of the long-awaited inspector generals report on Hegseths sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
JUST IN: Advisor to @SecWar tells @RedState the IG report on SignalGate is an exoneration given that it proves no laws were broken, no classified information was shared, and the mission was a success, Maxwell posted on X. That is despite the report explicitly saying that Hegseth’s actions could have led to U.S. soldiers being harmed.
The new press also kept the public informed with reports of festivities in the Pentagon. SANTA @ PENTAGON, Higby posted. Today Secretary of War Pete Hegseth introduced the children of Americas warfighters and civilian DoW staff to Santa, escorted in an armored military vehicle. Two soldiers in elf hats rapelled from the building as the vehicle arrived. Johnston also captured the Pentagon Christmas tree lighting party for the publics benefit.
Last week, The New York Times sued the Pentagon and Hegseth over limits on press reporting. They alleged that the ban seeks to restrict journalists ability to do what journalists have always done ask questions of government employees and gather information to report stories that take the public beyond official pronouncements.
For many who grew up visiting older relatives during the holidays, memories of childhood Christmas are swathed in a warm glow that feels like the calling card of the season: a combination of colorful bulbs, lit candles, and soft lamplight. In recent years, though, it feels like the holiday season has traded its cozy tones for a much cooler, even sterile color palette. As it turns out, thats not just a quirk of our rosy collective memory.
David Andora, a multidisciplinary creative whos worked in branding, production design, specialized lighting, and parade events, set out to understand why Christmas looks so different today. He discovered that, with the advent of LED technology, classic holiday lighting has become something of a lost art.
When LED lights started becoming the norm for Christmas lights, which happened quite a while ago, one of the things that was completely missing was that warm, peachy glow that came off of those incandescent painted big bulbs, Andora says. Each year I would go to the big box resellers, look at the new Christmas lights, and wonder, Why is no one making these?
[Photo: courtesy Tru-Tone]
So, he decided to do it himself. Andoras company, Tru-Tone, caters to a growing audience of customers who want the look of retro Christmas without any of the accompanying fire hazards. The company declined to share exact sales numbers with Fast Company, but its seen major demand since its founding in 2020, experiencing growth of about 50% over the past several consecutive years. A 25-light set of Tru-Tone bulbs costs about $65, making them significantly pricier than similar options at big box stores (a 100-count strand at Home Depot that retails for about $50).
Tru-Tones secret, Andora says, comes down to a fairly simple design trick that pairs modern LED technology with a vintage lighting technique.
[Photo: Tru-Tone]
Why are today’s Christmas lights so bad?
During his research process, Andora found that the Christmas light manufacturing process has changed drastically since the mid-20th century.
In that era, almost all holiday lights were incandescents, or bulbs that emit light via heat. The actual light source was all one colora warm white hueand, to make it colorful, American manufacturers like GE (one of the largest holiday light makers at the time) would add translucent bulbs with color washes on top. This combination created the peachy glow that defines Christmas nostalgia. There was just one major drawback to incandescent Christmas lights: they were hot. Like, really hot.
Your parents were constantly warning you to never leave the tree lit unattended, Andora says. If you left the room, the tree had to be turned off because there were all these horror stories of trees burning people’s houses down with these blazingly hot light bulbs.
LED lights began to replace incandescents in the late 90s, and manufacturing largely moved overseas to China. Unlike incandescents, almost all LED holiday lights on the market rely on colored LED diodes, rather than color-washed bulbs, to produce their final look.
Colors from an LED diode are deeply saturated, “pure” colors emitted from a very narrow spectrum of colored light, whereas white incandescent light filtered through a colorful bulb produces a wider spectrum of light. This difference in the breadth of light spectrum is what makes many LED bulbs appear harsher and more electronic (even if they’re trying to recreate a “warmer” appearance), whereas vintage incandescents have a blurry, glowing look.
[Photos: courtesy Tru-Tone]
For Chinese manufacturers, this process makes sense, Andora says. Producing lights that draw their color from the LED itself is much simpler and more cost-effective than the incandescent technique, on top of LEDs being significantly more environmentally friendly. In addition, he says, Chinese manufacturers typically dont hae the same nostalgic associations with peachy tones that American consumers do, meaning that modern LED bulbs are also considered more aesthetically appealing.
“The nostalgia for warm-colored Christmas lights is very Western, not part of the region where these lights come from. The factories view the colored-diode lights as easier, less costly, and more beautiful,” Andora says. “Very little development of these products is coming from the U.S. Most of this happens from the factories, and provides a catalog to resellers, also shaping what we see for sale here.”
To recreate the vintage Christmas look, he would need to both rethink todays design process and convince manufacturers to adopt a new process.
[Photo: courtesy Tru-Tone]
How Tru-Tone recreated the vintage incandescent look
Tru-Tone started as a passion project from a basement in Michigan. Andora spent a year experimenting with his prototype before landing on a final product that he felt looked almost identical to the real thing.
To recreate vintage incandescents, Tru-Tones products use the same basic process as the original lights. Every light is a warm white LED that’s fitted with a tinted bulb on top to produce the actual color. Inside the bulb, the light itself is created by warm white LED “filaments”an array of very tiny LED’s used to mimic a tungsten wire filamentwhich create their warm white color with a color-tuned phosphor coating.
Andora says this technique already exists in modern household lighting to produce a warmer effect, but Tru-Tone is the first to bring it to holiday lighting, likely because it adda an extra layer of inefficiency to the manufacturing process.
To capture the nostalgic magic of vintage Christmas lights, Andora experimented with theater gels to perfect each bulb’s color wash. He used archival incandescent light samples from a range of periods, dating from the ’50s all the way to the ’90s.
Once Andora had an actual product, the real challenge was convincing an overseas manufacturer to sign on. Hiring a manufacturer was made even more complicated by the fact that Andora hand-designs all of Tru-Tones packaging (and its delightfully retro website) to resemble vintage advertisements, which, he says, often included font alignment inaccuracies and printing errors that lend them a certain charm.
Today, he provides manufactures with a full packet of informationtranslated to Chineseexplaining Tru-Tones premise and assuring bulb manufacturers and packaging printers that the brands quirks are intentional.
You see a lot of vintage-style design these days that I joke is Old Navy-style retro, Andora says. It’s really just retro font, and that’s the end of itthe design isn’t as authentic. I think that what makes us special is that I try to really make things feel like you pulled it out of your grandmother’s attic.
[Photo: courtesy Tru-Tone]
The return of a nostalgic Christmas
When Tru-Tone launched its first small batch of lights via social media in 2020, they sold out within two weeks. Since then, the brand has been steadily expanding and adding new product lines while navigating the typical growing pains of a new small business.
One of the main problems its faced, Andora says, is not having enough stock to keep up with demand. While that struggle has diminished as he’s developed some “good relationships” with overseas manufacturing partners over the years, Tru-Tone is still actively sold out of several popular items. In the future, Andora says, he’d love to begin manufacturing in the U.S.though that’s currently more of a pipe dream than an actionable reality, given the lack of infrastructure for such an undertaking in the states.
Andora believes that interest in vintage Christmas aesthetics is currently on the riseand big box retailers seem to agree. According to a Home Depot spokesperson, demand for nostalgic holiday aesthetics is one of the major trends theyre noticing this year. Thats evident on TikTok, where a search for vintage Christmas yields hundreds of aspirational videos, DIY concepts, and nostalgia-core clips. And Pinterest data shows that searches for “nostalgic christmas aesthetic” are up 1,130% this November compared to last November, while “colorful vintage Christmas” and “vintage retro Christmas” are up 1,500% and 100%, respectively.
Customers are turning away from the bright white, blue, and millennial grey aesthetics in favor of a classic Christmas, and Tru-Tone is on the leading edge of that shift.
I think that mid-century design, especially related to Christmas, is definitely reaching a peak, Andora says. After with the grey and beige interior trend, people are looking for more color in their lives, and the Christmas holiday is the perfect time for people to really want cozy, colorful, comfy vibes.
When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built Apple in a garage, the incumbents they were up against were slow-moving hardware companies. When Jeff Bezos started Amazon, Barnes & Noble wasn’t pouring billions into machine learning or cloud infrastructure. This doesn’t mean that it was easy for these entrepreneurs to change the face of whole industries. It was not. But it was at least possible. Back then, giants could be out-innovated because they were bureaucratic, cautious, and often blind to the potential of what the upstart start-ups were building.
The situation is very different today. The startup landscape has changed radically. Where once it was populated by bootstrapping innovators who hoped to build giants from tiny seeds, today many of the most promising opportunities are gobbled up by firms that can deploy billions of dollars in resources long before they start making revenue. Often, these companies are funded by giants themselves, whether thats the enormous PE and VC firms that dominate the Silicon Valley landscape or existing tech hyperscalers, who work hard to ensure that their dominance wont be threatened by some offbeat newcomer. Microsoft, for example, now owns approximately 27% of OpenAI’s newly restructured for-profit entitya share valued at roughly US$135 billionafter investing some US$13.8 billion across the early life of the AI firm. Amazon, meanwhile, has invested $8 billion into the AI startup Anthropic and supported it with extensive infrastructure-building. Not to be left behind, Alphabet has channeled around $3 billion into Anthropic as well.
The established giants are also pouring almost unimaginable resources directly into their own innovation efforts. A 2025 report found that five of the biggest US tech companiesAlphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoftinvested $227 billion in R&D in 2024, which is more than the US government’s total non-defense R&D budget; indeed, it is more than the annual R&D investments of most countries.
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These investments have predictable effects. Over the last decade, the research output of the big tech companies has dramatically outpaced that of other researchers (typically academics at universities). Crucially, from a commercial perspective, this kind of fundamental research leads to patents that can then be monetized. A recent report from the World Intellectual Property Organization found that large corporations dominate patent applications for AI-related applications and techniques.
In contrast to previous times, the giant corporations are now also the disruptorseither directly or through their substantial investments in other companies. These giants are doing deep research, filing patents, and pouring resources into new ventures. An entrepreneur today is not competing with a handful of people with big ideas and small resources. In most major markets, tiny startups now have no choice but to get into the ring to duke it out toe-to-toe with an 800-pound gorilla. The game has changed on a fundamental level.
Entrepreneurship today
The old assumption was that entrepreneurs could out-innovate big companies, using their small size and agility to pivot twice before the traditional lumbering beasts could even begin to turn. But the statistics show that this assumption no longer holds. Entrepreneurs are not able to out-spend, out-compute, or out-research the giants.
Yes, a privileged few entrepreneurstypically those with deep connections in Silicon Valleycan still raise enormous sums and aim to reshape entire industries. But for most founders, that path simply isn’t available. And here’s what often goes unsaid: it doesn’t need to be. You don’t need billions in seed funding or a Rolodex of prominent venture capitalists to build something valuable. What you need is expertise so deep that no one can challenge you.
This article is about a different pathone that any entrepreneur can take, whether in tech or far beyond it. The principles here apply to healthcare, construction, professional services, manufacturing, and countless other fields where deep expertise creates real value.
The new entrepreneurial opportunity lies not in disrupting entire industries, but in becoming the undisputed authority in a problem space in which your specialized knowledge defines your competitive advantage. This isn’t about slipping under the radar or being too small to notice. It’s about being so specializedso clearly the expertthat you effectively build a moat around your niche.
Here are three things that can help entrepreneurs do just that.
Become the domain expert
The most reliable path to taking ownership of a market niche is simple: become the domain expert.
As an expert, you know the vocabulary, you know which problems are just annoying and which are also important. You know the workarounds people use when traditional systems fail and you know the ways in which those systems normally do fail.
As a domain expert, you aren’t selling a vision of the future. You are selling the fact that you have spent years in the trenches and you know things that cannot be learned from market research or Google searches or AI queries. You are selling something that differentiates you from the big corporations that cater to mass audiencesexpertise that is both narrow and deep. The kind of expertise that can’t be replicated by a team of generalist engineers, no matter how many resources they throw at the problem.
Start Here: Pick one domain you know well and spend a week documenting three problems that matter intensely and that cannot be solved by a generalist solution.
Define your specialization ruthlessly
Your job isn’t to find the biggest market. It’s to find a market where your expertise gives you an unassailable advantageone in which even well-funded competitors couldn’t match your depth of understanding.
So, instead of “I have a vision for transforming healthcare,” it’s “I spent 10 ears as a hospital administrator and I know exactly why the equipment maintenance scheduling system creates safety risks that nobody’s addressing.” Or, instead of “I’m going to disrupt construction,” it’s “I worked on 50 residential job sites and I understand why tool checkout tracking breaks down and costs contractors thousands per project.”
A trillion-dollar company is not going to deploy a team of 40 engineers to solve a scheduling quirk faced by 10 mid-sized hospitals. Meta is not spinning up a new product line to solve equipment-tracking failures on residential construction sites. Alphabet isn’t obsessing over the peculiarities of compliance reporting in boutique insurance firms. And even if they did, they couldn’t match the hard-won expertise of someone who has lived these problems for a decade.
So you can.
Start Here: Write down your idea. Then ask: “Could a well-funded generalist team outcompete me here?” If yes, go deeper into your specialization until the answer is no.
Solve the specific problem from end to end
Giants build platforms. They build tools. They build solutions designed to work reasonably well for millions of different users with millions of different needs. By necessity, that means they solve problems partiallythey will get their many different customers 70% of the way to a solution and then leave them to figure out the final stretch.
As the true expert, you can do something they never will: solve the customers specific problem from end to end.
When you’ve spent years living inside a specific domain, you understand not just the obvious pain points but the second-order complications, the upstream causes, the downstream consequences, the workarounds people have layered on top of broken systems. You see the complete picture. That means you can deliver a complete solutionone that doesn’t require your clients to bridge the gap between what the tool does and what they actually need.
That depth commands a premium. Clients aren’t paying for a product that they can use to solve a problem; they are paying you for the solution itself, built by someone who understands their reality.
Start Here: Think about the problem you solve. What’s the gap between existing solutions and what your clients actually need? That gap is where your expertise livesand where your value lies.
You can still win
You don’t need venture capital connections. You don’t need billions in seed funding. You don’t need to be in tech. What you need is expertise so deep and specialized that you can own the specialized problems the industry giants cant even see. Instead of trying to disrupt whole industries, the winning move today is to leverage domain expertise so you become the irreplaceable authority in a space so specialized that competition becomes irrelevant.
The giants will keep chasing the billion-dollar markets. Let them. Your expertise is your moat and, if you use it correctly, they will never be able to cross it.
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Chinas exports rebounded in November after an unexpected contraction the previous month, pushing its trade surplus past $1 trillion for the first time, according to data released Monday.
Exports climbed 5.9% from a year earlier in November while imports rose just under 2%.
The customs data released on Monday also showed that shipments to the U.S. dropped nearly 29% year-on-year. But as trade with the U.S. weakens, China is diversifying its export markets throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
China’s exports had contracted just over 1% in October. November’s worldwide exports of $330.3 billion exceeded economists estimates. Imports totaled $218.6 billion for the month.
The nearly $1.08 trillion trade surplus for the first 11 months of this year is a record high, surpassing the $992 billion surplus for all of 2024, based on official data compiled by FactSet.
A year-long trade truce between China and the U.S. was reached at a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in late October in South Korea. The U.S. has lowered its tariffs on China, and China has promised to halt its export controls related to rare earths.
Its likely that November exports have yet to fully reflect the tariff cut, which should feed through in the coming months, ING Bank chief economist for Greater China Lynn Song wrote in a report.
Chinas factory activity contracted for an eighth straight month in November, according to an official survey, and economists said it was still early to determine whether there was a real rebound in external demand following the U.S.-China trade truce.
With exports still going strong, economists generally expect China to meet its target of around 5% annual growth for this year.
Chinese leaders outlined a focus on advanced manufacturing for the next five years following a high-level meeting in October. It also highlighted the need to boost domestic consumption, which could help address trade imbalances.
A meeting of the ruling Chinese Communist Partys decision-making Politburo was held on Monday, led by Xi, to discuss economic plans for 2026, according to the Xinhua state news agency. It said Chinese leaders reiterated a focus on pursuing progress while ensuring stability.”
A readout from Xinhua said China needs to better coordinate its domestic economic work in the face of global trade struggles.
Businesses and investors are paying close attention to China’s annual Central Economic Work Conference, which is expected to take place later this month and could map out economic priorities for the next year in more detail.
Trade diversification will remain a long-term strategy for China to fight the trade war and manage external exigencies, said Chi Lo, Global Market Strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management.
A stable global trade environment is unlikely to last long, as China-U.S. relations remain in a stalemate despite their temporary trade truce, he said.
Still, some economists believe that China will continue to gain export market share in the coming years.
Morgan Stanley predicts by 2030, Chinas market share in global exports will reach 16.5%, up from about 15% currently, fueled by its edge in advanced manufacturing and high-growth sectors such as electric vehicles, robotics and batteries.
Despite persistent trade tensions, continued protectionism, and G20 economies taking up active industrial policies, we believe China will gain more share in the global goods export market, Morgan Stanley Chief Asia Economist Chetan Ahya said in a recent note.
Chan Ho-Him, AP business writer
The long battle over control of Warner Bros. Discovery took another turn Monday when Paramount Skydance announced a hostile bid for the entertainment giant, following Warner’s acceptance of a competing offer from Netflix last week.
Paramount, which many once deemed the frontrunner in the original bidding war, announced a tender offer that tops the Netflix bid by $2.25 per share, appealing directly to shareholders. That adds another layer of complexity to the deal, which will see a significant consolidation of Hollywood’s power players, no matter who ends up on top.
With all the back and forth, it’s easy to have lost track of who’s proposing what. Here’s a rundown of what you need to know.
What is Paramount Skydance offering for Warner Bros. Discovery?
Monday’s bid, the sixth by Paramount Skydance for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), is the same one the company made in the close bidding process, it says. Paramount is offering $30 cash per share to acquire the totality of WBD, including the broadcast and cable networks, the HBO Max streaming service and the company’s extensive catalog. That works out to $18 billion more in cash than the Netflix offer.
“We believe our offer will create a stronger Hollywood,” said David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance in a statement. “It is in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry. We believe they will benefit from the enhanced competition, higher content spend and theatrical release output, and a greater number of movies in theaters as a result of our proposed transaction.”
Who is funding Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery?
While not mentioned in its press release, Paramount’s SEC filing about its tender offer noted that beyond the money that’s being supplied by the Ellison family, the deal will be partially financed by sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. In addition, Affinity Partners, the private equity firm led by Jared Kushner, is part of the bid.
Paramount said each of those parties “have agreed to forgo any governance rights — including board representation — associated with their non-voting equity investments.” However, having Trump’s son-in-law as part of an offer in a deal where Trump has already said “Ill be involved in that decision” raises several potential conflicts of interest.
What was Netflix’s offer for Warner Bros. Discovery?
In the Netflix deal, which was announced last Friday, the streamer agreed to pay $27.75 per share for the film studio and streaming divisions of WBD, putting the deal price at $82.7 billion. Netflix’s bid was mostly cash, with some Netflix stock included. Shareholders, under those terms, would receive $23.25 in cash and about $4.50 in Netflix stock per share.
WBD, under that deal, would still spin off its TV networks, including CNN and TNT, into a separate company.
How long do Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders have to decide which offer to take?
Paramount says its offer will expire at 5:00 p.m. ET on Jan. 8, 2026. That could be extended, however,
Why did Warner Bros. Discovery choose Netflix’s offer instead of Paramount’s?
The announcement of the Netflix deal on Friday talked about complementary strengths and assets, more value for shareholders, and more opportunities for the creative community. You might expect that sort of language in a merger agreement, especially one that faces a tough regulatory fight. With Paramount’s tender offer, though, Paramount will be required to make a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, explaining in further detail why it chose Netflix and rejected Paramount.
Prior to the Friday announcement, Ellison, in a leaked letter, discussed what he called a tilted and unfair process in the bidding, suggesting WBD management viewed Netflix more favorably than it did Paramount.
Which proposed deal has a better chance of passing review by the Federal Trade Commission?
Netflix’s proposed takeover of HBO Max and the WBD catalog had been flagged by several experts as facing an uphill battle in Washington and possibly other parts of the world.
On Friday, Trump himselfsaid Netflix also owning HBO Max “could be a problem.” That doesn’t mean the deal would necessarily be stopped, though. There is plenty of time for both sides to make concessions with regulators (a close date hasn’t even been announced). There will be a lot of work, however.
Paramount, though, says it would be able to clear regulatory scrutiny quickly. (Larry Ellison, father of CEO David Ellison, is very close with Trump.) “Paramount is highly confident in achieving expeditious regulatory clearance for its proposed offer, as it enhances competition and is pro-consumer, while creating a strong champion for creative talent and consumer choice,” it wrote. “In contrast, the Netflix transaction is predicated on the unrealistic assumption that its anticompetitive combination with WBD, which would entrench its monopoly with a 43% share of global Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) subscribers, could withstand multiple protracted regulatory challenges across the world.”
Will Warner Bros. Discovery films still be released to theaters?
The impact of a Netflix-WBD deal on theatrical releases is one of the big unknowns. Netflix would honor commitments previously made by Warner Bros. Discovery, but things are murkier from there as to whether it would release films in theaters before putting them on the streaming service.
Paramount Skydance, via David Ellison on CNBC, said it would put 30 movies exclusively in theaters each year.
The National Park Service will offer free admission to U.S. residents on President Donald Trump‘s birthday next year which also happens to be Flag Day but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth.
The new list of free admission days for Americans is the latest example of the Trump administration downplaying America’s civil rights history while also promoting the president’s image, name, and legacy.
Last year, the list of free days included Martin Luther King Jr Day and Juneteenth which is June 19 but not June 14, Trump’s birthday.
The new free-admission policy takes effect Jan. 1 and was one of several changes announced by the Park Service late last month, including higher admission fees for international visitors.
The other days of free park admission in 2026 are Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Constitution Day, Veterans Day, President Theodore Roosevelts birthday (Oct. 27) and the anniversary of the creation of the Park Service (Aug. 25).
Eliminating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Americans were emancipated, removes two of the nation’s most prominent civil rights holidays.
Some civil rights leaders voiced opposition to the change after news about it began spreading over the weekend.
The raw & rank racism here stinks to high heaven, Harvard Kennedy School professor Cornell William Brooks, a former president of the NAACP, wrote on social media about the new policy.
Kristen Brengel, a spokesperson for the National Parks Conservation Association, said that while presidential administrations have tweaked the free days in the past, the elimination of Martin Luther King Jr. Day is particularly concerning. For one, the day has become a popular day of service for community groups that use the free day to perform volunteer projects at parks.
That will now be much more expensive, said Brengel, whose organization is a nonprofit that advocates for the park system.
Not only does it recognize an American hero, it’s also a day when people go into parks to clean them up, Brengel said. Martin Luther King Jr. deserves a day of recognition For some reason, Black history has repeatedly been targeted by this administration, and it shouldnt be.
Some Democratic lawmakers also weighed in to object to the new policy.
The President didnt just add his own birthday to the list, he removed both of these holidays that mark Black Americans struggle for civil rights and freedom, said Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. Our country deserves better.
A spokesperson for the National Park Service did not immediately respond to questions on Saturday seeking information about the reasons behind the changes.
Since taking office, Trump has sought to eliminate programs seen as promoting diversity across the federal government, actions that have erased or downplayed America’s history of racism as well as the civil rights victories of Black Americans.
Self-promotion is an old habit of the president’s and one he has continued in his second term. He unsuccessfully put himself forward for the Nobel Peace Prize, renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after himself, sought to put his name on the planned NFL stadium in the nation’s capital and had a new children’s savings program named after him.
Some Republican lawmakers have suggested putting his visage on Mount Rushmore and the $100 bill.
David Klepper, Associated Press
