The world in 2024

Welcome back to Spark, a weekly newsletter from Vivace Content. We compile news signals from across the business, financial, and cultural landscape, and spark ideas to help you and your business jump on something new to talk about. Send tips and feedback to [email protected].

🇬🇧 Hello from London, where Ryan and I are excited to be spending a week full of meetings with some of the brightest minds we know in the wonderful world of financial content. If you’re reading this and not already on our calendar, ping us if you’d like to grab a coffee or a pint.

Massive thanks to everyone for the love and support on our inaugural edition of Spark last week. If you like what we’re doing here, would you send it to a friend or colleague? It’d mean a lot.

In today’s issue: Looking into the crystal ball, unpacking the vibecession, Barbenheimer, Taylor Swift, and more.

-joel

📈 TRENDING NOW

BIG IDEAS FOR 2024

No one can predict the future, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun to try. We’ve rounded up some of the most intriguing and insightful guides published to date, which are sure to come in handy as we plan for the year ahead.

• Just a few of LinkedIn News’ 34 Big Ideas that caught our eye: Living to 100, the rise of fractional, move over ChatGPT, IPO boom, Private Equity waning, unretirement, nearshoring, and the creator economy goes to university. (LinkedIn News)

• From the Economist’s excellent World Ahead package: Superforecasters make their predictions on U.S. and British elections, China’s GDP, and some of the ongoing major geopolitical conflicts. (The Economist)

• If Trump wins: Like it or not, the U.S. 2024 presidential election, which as of now looks to be a repeat of 2020’s match-up, will dominate our feeds and screens. The Atlantic’s Jan/Feb 2024 issue features 24 contributors exploring what a second Trump presidency would look like, from NATO to immigration, climate to the courts, disinformation to corruption, and more. (The Atlantic)

• Hot Stocks: This is not investment advice, but we will be keeping an eye on Fortune’s 13 stocks to buy for 2024 (chart below). Their picks from this year beat the S&P500 by a half a percentage point. (Fortune)

>Angles:

• Does your organization have a POV, research, or analysis that supports or disagrees with any of the above predictions?

• Did you make any predictions at the beginning of 2023, and if so, did you go back and see which ones stood the test of time?

• Given the stakes and polarization for the major elections next year, have you begun to plan how you may (or may not) wade into the topic?

What forward-looking round-ups are you currently reading? Send us your favorites and we’ll feature them next week.

VIBECESSION

Have you heard about the Vibecession? It refers to “a period of widespread pessimism about the economy regardless of the actual economic situation,” and it’s a particular phenomenon in the U.S. that analysts and economists are trying to unpack.

Consider this, from a great deep data dive on the issue from the FT:

Go deeper:

• Why are we so bummed about the economy? (Planet Money)

• Most Americans are better off financially now than before the pandemic (Stay-At-Home-Macro)

>Angles:

• What other stories and narratives might be ripe for digging into the data to show a gap between perception and reality?

BEST OF 2023

A lot has happened this year. SBF, UFOs, a coronation, massive geopolitical conflicts, and of course the joy that was Barbenheimer. Get caught up with some of these great pieces that help contextualize the year that was.

• Taylor Swift is TIME’s Person of the Year. Whether or not you’re a declared Swiftie, it’s undeniable that Taylor Swift is not only a music superstar, but a genius businesswoman, an economic force, and a monocultural phenomenon. In this story for TIME’S POY, Taylor talks horcruxes, highs and lows, and her “metal as hell” relationship beginning. (TIME)

• In a year defined by Taylor, Beyonce, and Greta Gerwig, the FT picks the 25 most influential women of 2023. (Financial Times)

• The year in photos. We’re a bit biased, given we used to work there, but Reuters photographers are some of the very best in the world. Pulled from 649 photographers in 125 countries, who collectively took 1.3 million photos, view 2023 through the lens of the award-winning Reuters photojournalism team. (Reuters)

• The year in memes. From nepo babies to girl dinner, Kevin James to the Roman Empire, and of course Grimace Shakes, here’s the very best of meme culture in 2023. (Rolling Stone)

What are your favorites of 2023: Articles, movies, books, podcasts, and any other media? Let us know and we’ll feature your answer in an upcoming issue.

Which reminds us: Did you catch this from earlier this year? Beyoncé concert in Stockholm blamed for unexpectedly high Swedish inflation. (The Guardian)

📰 ELSEWHERE:

• AI gets its first comprehensive major regulation. The EU, often far ahead of the U.S. on regulating new technologies reached a preliminary deal that would limit how ChatGPT could operate. (Fortune)

• Barbenheimer fans, rejoice. Margot Robbie (Barbie) and Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) sit down for Variety’s wonderful Actors on Actors series to discuss their blockbuster hits. (Variety)

• Bill Ackman turns his attention to American elite universities. (Reuters Breakingviews)

• The end of globalization? How Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act changed the world. (FT Film)

OFF THE CHARTS

With Bitcoin rallying once again, everyone is trying to figure out what is happening. According to MarketPsych, “social sentiment on BTC is the highest since 2020, and news sentiment is the highest since 2018.”

📆 UPCOMING DAYS & EVENTS

• Dec 11: UNICEF Day for Change (DOTY)

• Dec 13 COP28 concludes (UNFCCC)

• Dec 14: Sustainable Entrepreneurship Day (DOTY)

• Dec 17: Wright Brothers Day (DOTY)

• Dec 18: International Migrants Day (Unesco)

• Dec 27: International Day of Epidemic Preparedness (UN)

FRIENDS OF VIVACE: NEWS & VIEWS

• Che Sidanius recaps some of the key milestones for the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime in 2023.

• Mark Lulsens appeared on the Tech Marketing Podcast for a fascinating conversation about creative culture. A must-listen!

• Mimi Hayton wrote a jarring, vulnerable essay on a perspective about back to the office that you likely have not heard before.

• David Butcher recently published his excellent annual investment communications guide, the Readability Report. For anyone who writes financial content, we highly recommend you grab a copy.

• Richard South shared the new striking and psychedelic website for Graphy, a very cool data viz tool.

Send us your shout-outs, strong opinions, and headlines to include in next week’s edition.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Please send all ideas and feedback to [email protected]. 

Spark is a production of Vivace Content, where we help our clients navigate what to say and how to say it every single day. Get in touch if you’d like to have a no-hassle consultation about how we can help you too. Have a great week ahead, and see you next Monday.