January 4, 2024 • 5 min read

with Dan DeFrancesco

Almost Friday! Did you know no human has ever beaten Nintendo’s Tetris? Well, at least that was the case until 13-year-old Willis Gibson reached the game’s “kill screen.” See for yourself the moment Wilson realizes he beat the game.

In today’s big story, we’re diving into the unsealed court documents naming more than 170 Jeffrey Epstein associates.

What’s on deck

• Markets: Bankers are watching these trends to get a read on potential M&A deals.
• Tech: The hardest places to interview as a software engineer, according to someone who landed 18 offers.
• Business: Costco CEO’s response to a warehouse unionizing isn’t what you’d expect.

But first, a document dump.

Jeffrey Epstein. Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty Images

The big story

Epstein’s associates

A series of court documents have been unsealed, revealing the names of more than 170 Jeffrey Epstein associates. 

The unredacted documents weren’t short on powerful names, as the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender ran in elite circles. Former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew were named in the documents.

Business Insider’s Jacob Shamsian has the full rundown on some of the biggest takeaways from the docs.

The leadup to the unsealing of this newest slate of documents drew plenty of attention — including causing drama between Aaron Rodgers and Jimmy Kimmel — but many of the names revealed in the docs were previously connected to Epstein.

That’s not to say new details haven’t emerged. According to one newly unsealed deposition, Epstein told one of his victims that Clinton likes girls “young.” A source told BI more docs are expected to drop today, Jacob and Sarah Gray report.

Other names in the unsealed documents are victims or people linked to Epstein’s high-profile associates but not necessarily implicated in wrongdoing.

There also wasn’t a singular list, for the record.

Still, unsealing the docs provides more transparency to a case that has continued to captivate the world more than four years after Epstein’s death in a Manhattan jail.

But the well-connected pedophile’s web of connections spreads much further than the 170-plus names revealed in these latest docs.

Epstein listed over 1500 connections, including several of the 170 names revealed yesterday, in a little black book. BI tabulated that book in 2020, and you can search it in full here. In 2021, BI found another of Epstein’s little black books from 1997 with 349 names, which you can search here.

Both databases provide an even greater accounting of the influence and power Epstein held among the rich and powerful.

Markets

🔔 Before the opening bell: US stock futures fall early Thursday as oil and gas stocks surged 1%.

Holloway/Getty, andresr/Getty, Robert Nickelsberg/Getty, Alix Minde/PhotoAlto/Getty, moodboard/Getty, © Marco Bottigelli/Getty, Tyler Le/Insider

1. If you’re hoping for M&A to ramp up, keep your eye on these indicators. Top bankers highlighted the signals they watch to assess potential deals. From CEO confidence measurements to companies’ cash stockpiles, these factors give you a good sense of who is in the market for deals.

2. The Fed might not be so quick to cut rates. Macquarie strategists said the market has overestimated the speed at which the central bank will lower interest rates. Instead of a cut coming in March, Macquarie believes the second half of the year is more likely for a rate reduction.

3. A hiccup in the crypto comeback. Bitcoin enthusiasts have been salivating over the SEC’s potential approval of a slew of spot bitcoin ETFs. But one crypto firm believes the regulator will reject the applications this month.

Tech

strelss/Getty Images

1. The career tip that helped this techie get promotions faster: “Eat the frog.” Andrew Yeung, a former Meta and Google employee, said this tip helped him secure promotions quickly. He figured out which tasks his manager didn’t like doing and took them off their plates.

2. The 10 hardest interviews. A software engineer ranked his most difficult interviews after landing 18 offers from tech companies like Apple, Palantir, and Meta. Uber and Stripe were among the companies with the hardest screenings.

3. Harvard’s president might not be the last to lose her job over plagiarism claims, thanks to AI. Software tools can easily accuse more academics of plagiarism. Experts reportedly warned that scholars in specialized fields often use similar wording to describe the same concepts.

Business

DenisKot

1. Some young workers can’t believe a $74,000 salary is considered “middle class.” It was deemed sufficient for previous generations. But a recent survey found that Gen Zers don’t see it as middle class. One person even said that “100k is the new 45k.”

2. California left millennials behind. Homeownership is increasingly out of reach. And Californians, in particular, are falling behind the rest of the country — some are even leaving the state for greener pastures.

3. Costco CEO’s surprising response to a warehouse that unionized. A Virginia warehouse recently voted to unionize. In response, CEO Ron Vachris and former CEO Craig Jelinek wrote: “We’re not disappointed in our employees; we’re disappointed in ourselves.”

In other news

• MIT’s president announces new steps for the university — one day after Harvard’s Claudine Gay resigned.
• Claudine Gay speaks out about her Harvard exit with “words of warning” about her loudest critics.
• A Nobel Prize-winning economist warned students against rushing into STEM to get AI jobs, saying they may sow their “own seeds of self-destruction.”
• Blue Zones researcher says to forget your New Year’s diet resolution. Instead, try sticking to this new habit every Sunday.
• Pornhub is blocking users in two more states over age verification rules.
• The Starbucks app “traps” customers into a “vicious” spending cycle, consumer advocate says.
• Meet the typical mover leaving Florida: Millennials who aren’t married and make $48,000 departing for Georgia and Texas.
• What Harvard students have to say about the bombshell resignation of embattled president Claudine Gay.
• The top six people in artificial-intelligence edtech.
• CHART OF THE DAY: The Magnificent seven stocks are now roughly equal to the combined value of the UK, Japan, and Canada’s stock markets.

What’s happening today

• It’s World Braille Day. The observance is meant to raise awareness of the tactile writing system, which the UN considers a part of “human rights for blind and partially sighted people.”
• Happy birthday, Coco Jones. Isaac Newton, Victor Wembanyama, and Heidi D’Amelio were also born on this day.
• Earnings today: Walgreens Boots Alliance, Conagra Foods, and other companies.

Marina Cavusoglu/Getty Images

For your bookmarks

Mediterranean diet supremacy

Why the Mediterranean diet is the healthiest in the world for the seventh year. Experts say the best diets are easy to follow, not restrictive, and focus on unprocessed foods.