• My family moved from Maryland to Florida over 7 years ago, when my teens were in elementary school.
• From hurricane parties to political protests, I've experienced a lot and I love living here.
• Florida is more than just Walt Disney World and gators, but both of those exist here.

It's been over seven years since my husband and I chose to relocate our family from Maryland to Florida. It's a decision I've never regretted once, but living in the Sunshine State is very different from life in the Northeast.

Aside from the obvious things like no snow and exponentially more humidity, there's a different political vibe down South and a lot more Southern hospitality. Plus, Disney World is here, which makes me — a journalist who covers theme parks — very happy.

Since arriving here, we've lived in the same place — a concrete, hurricane-proof bunker of a beach house that's steps from the ocean. My kids, who were 6 and 8 when we arrived in Florida, are now 13 and 15. They've grown up eating mangoes fresh from the neighbor's tree, hanging out at the beach, and spending summers at surf camp. 

The life we've built here in our tiny beach town is what I love most about Florida, but such a drastic move is not without its surprises. Here are some things that have given me pause since we arrived as a caravan of cars, kids, dogs, and moving vans in 2016.

We don't actually see many alligators.

I definitely thought there'd be more gator action in the state of Florida — after all, the American alligator is the state reptile.

Although I've seen an occasional gator floating in a pond or sunning itself on the roadside, they aren't running rampant in the streets of Florida as I'd imagined. Instead, when we want to see gators, we go to Gatorland, one of my favorite Florida theme parks.

Driving here isn't always the best, and it can take us a long time to get to most places around Florida.

Whether we're trying to get across the state to visit family or head south to cities like Miami, we're constantly amazed at how long it takes us to get anywhere using Florida's road system. 

There can be a lot of traffic and, in my opinion, there just aren't fast ways to connect from one major highway to another in Florida.

The Florida heat doesn't actually bother us much.

Well-meaning friends and family warned us about moving to a state that has consistently hot weather. But for us, summer in Florida with temperatures regularly hitting over 80 degrees Fahrenheit in August feels no different from a hot, humid August in Maryland.

Fortunately, the super-hot weather typically lasts just a few months out of the year. The rest of the year is blissfully breezy, warm, and sunny, without the extreme heat.

There's really good food in Florida, but I feel like we have to look harder for it.

When we lived close to Baltimore and Washington, DC, we had access to any type of cuisine we desired, as varied as Ethiopian and Thai.

In Florida, I've found that delicious food from different cultures exists but it can be harder for us to find. Do I drive 45 minutes to the best Indian restaurant in the area? Yes, but I have no regrets.

Orlando is also way more than just theme parks.

We live about a 90-minute drive away from Orlando, which has been nicknamed the "theme park capital of the world."

When we first moved to the area, we only visited the city to experience its theme parks. Now we know there's so much more to Orlando, such as museums, parks, and fun downtown areas to explore.

Still, having easy access to theme parks has not gotten old.

My family still spends a lot of time at theme parks such as Disney World and Universal Orlando — we haven't gotten sick of living close to them even after seven years. 

When you live within driving distance of theme parks, it's easier to enjoy them for just a bit and then head home. I don't miss the days when my kids were small and we'd plan theme-park trips from Maryland, exhausting ourselves by squeezing everything into a weeklong vacation.

Hurricane season is a blend of concern and celebration.

The first year we lived in Florida, a major hurricane hit our town. The next year, we were faced with another that seemed equally menacing.

By our third hurricane season, we'd purchased a generator and started thinking harder about whether or not to evacuate our home. Hurricanes can cause devastating damage but we've found some Floridians try to make the most of a looming storm when possible.

After a few years, we've hosted (and attended) a few hurricane parties where people wait out the storm together with food and drinks. If you host or attend one, though, just be sure to exercise caution and stay alert. 

Yes, things can get pretty political… even when you're not expecting it.

Anyone who pays remote attention to the national news cycle knows we've got a lot going on politically in the Sunshine State. It was different to experience it firsthand once we moved here.

I'll never forget when I received the Trump pin pictured above. My family was stopped at a traffic light and a group of protesters, upset about the outcome of the 2022 election, came up to our car window, handed us a Donald Trump button, and tried talking to us about the election.

When the light turned green, we kept on moving.

Golf carts are a huge part of daily life in some parts of Florida.

I never knew street-legal golf carts were a thing until arriving in my tiny beach neighborhood. Here, many people, including police officers and delivery drivers, use golf carts instead of cars. 

There are golf carts in the school pickup line and special golf-carts-only parking spaces at restaurants. I also sometimes see teens I know aren't old enough to have a driver's license flying through my neighborhood behind the wheel.

I've been laying down hints to my husband that I want my own golf cart for my birthday, but until then, I'll catch a ride with cart-owning friends.

This story was originally published on August 4, 2023 and most recently updated on April 17, 2024.

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• Bridgemans ServicesGroup operates a fleet of former cruise ships turned into hotels. 
• Its "floatels" are designed to house workers during long-term projects.
• See its largest 652-cabin floatel with a game room and buffet.

Some old and unwanted cruise ships meet their demise at ship-breaking yards, where they are disassembled and sold for scrap.

Other vessels find a more fortunate fate, receiving a second chance to do what they already do best: serve as floating hotels.

Canada-based Bridgemans Services Group buys and charters former cruise ships to turn into "floatels," outfitted with standard cruise amenities like daily housekeeping, buffets, and relaxing lounges.

But the ships aren't designed to transport tourists from one destination to another anymore. Instead, companies turn to Bridgeman when they need to house workers for a long-term project, whether it be the construction of an offshore wind farm in Europe or the shooting of a major film in a remote destination.

Floatels can accommodate workers in remote destinations where hotels might not be an option.

In more metropolitan areas, Bridgemans says its ships could lessen the stress an inundation of workers might have on the local housing market.

And once they are no longer needed, the vessels depart and "leave no trace behind," the company said.

Over the last decade, Bridgemans has deployed its ships for 15 projects on every continent, Brian Grange, the company's president, told Business Insider.

Grange said that its deployments — most often for liquified natural gas companies — last for an average of two years.

In the past, it has also provided accommodations for MSC Cruises at its Ocean Cay private island and housing for more than 1,000 workers in the Philippines' on a project for the Manila International Airport during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company's three ships range from 150 to 652 cabins.

The floatel operator acquired its largest ship, the 561-foot-long MV Isabelle X, in 2023.

In its past life, the 35-year-old vessel sailed around the Baltic Sea as one of Estonia-based Tallink Gruipp's cruise ships.

But gone are its days of leisurely cruising. The 35,000 gross-ton ship is now on its first deployment in Howe Sound, just north of Vancouver, where it's housing more than 600 workers who are building Woodfibre LNG's "net zero" LNG export facility.

Isabelle X underwent a six-month retrofit before it was sent to Howe Sound.

The process included updating the ship's cabins and adding amenities like a game room and an 8,000-square-foot gym.

The latter two are especially important: "We need to make sure we delineate between work and home," Grange told BI. "We have to create a social environment on board these vessels that makes it attractive for workforces around the world."

During their free time, workers can play billiards, relax in the outdoor lounge, or use the ship’s WiFi to catch up on social media.

The sports lounge has large television screens, while the games lounge has darts, ping pong tables, and air hockey.

The 'quiet lounges' are the go-to space for people who need to unwind after a long work day.

Or, they could recharge and catch up on the latest shows in their cabins, which all come with desks, storage, and 32-inch televisions.

Like a typical cruise ship, Bridgemans' vessels have buffets with live cooking stations, a dessert bar, and the occasional themed night.

The ships' chefs tailor their menus to the demographic and dietary restrictions of the workers on board, the company's president told BI.

Residents can expect at least four protein options, plenty of veggies, and handmade bread and desserts.

Unlike most cruise lines, Bridgemans can pre-purchase all the food it needs before deployment.

Grange says this allows the ships to maintain food quality and consistency in remote locations.

Remember that deployment in the Philippines during COVID-19? He said the ship had packed almost 800 tons of food ahead of the project.

He wouldn’t disclose the cost to rent one of Bridgemans’ floatels.

But he did note that the cost of a cabin on the Woodfibre LNG project in Howe Sound is comparable to a hotel room in nearby Vancouver, as is the case with most of its projects near major cities.

The company’s most recent acquisition, the 150-cabin Diamond XI, is currently being retrofitted and would be ready for deployment this year.

According to the company's president, the vessel is small and high-end, likely to be used for sporting events and movie shoots.

It could also be the start of a greater expansion: He hopes to add two or three more vessels to its fleet in the next five years.

"The world has opened up to this as a valued alternative to housing," Grange told BI.

Who knows, the next time you see a cruise ship off the coast, there's a slim but possible chance it could be housing workers — not vacationers.

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• In a survey, 49% of business leaders said knowing how to use ChatGPT could top having a degree.
• About three-quarters of leaders say mandating the use of the AI tool can boost worker productivity.
• Despite this, 36% of respondents didn't see ChatGPT experience as more valuable than a degree.

If you ask ChatGPT whether it makes more sense to learn how to use the artificial intelligence tool or go to college, you get a version of "It depends."

If you ask corporate types, you get a more surprising ambivalence: In a recent survey, 49% of business leaders said that knowing how to chat up the chatbot could, in some cases, amount to more than four years of lectures and term papers.

The early April survey of 800 senior managers, directors, and execs by Intelligent.com also found that eight in 10 regard ChatGPT experience as valuable for entry-level gigs.

The results illustrate how quickly some bosses expect the technology will redraw the way work gets done, and also how readily some of them are rethinking degree requirements in favor of a show-me-what you-can-do approach.

Huy Nguyen, chief education and career development advisor at Intelligent.com, told Business Insider that many execs see AI as a speedy way to boost productivity.

"They're thinking that if people have experience with chatGPT — generative AI — they can come in there and have an immediate impact on the business," he said.

About three-quarters of respondents said they required ChatGPT experience for some entry-level jobs to increase how much workers could accomplish and to help employees learn. Sixty-eight percent said it was to promote creativity.

AI could close a skills gap.

In polls, some workers have said they're worried AI will push them out of a job. Yet many bosses appear focused on how the technology could amp up the abilities of their employees, especially those just starting out, Nguyen said.

"They may not have the same experience or skillset as others," he said, adding AI might make it "easier to close the skills gap" between new workers and veterans.

With more seasoned workers, Nguyen said there's often less need to worry about how technology could supercharge people's abilities because those who have been at it for a while have had time to build up expertise. "You're hiring for experience," he said.

It's also possible that some business leaders expect that newer — and presumably younger — workers might have more exposure to AI, Nguyen said.

Regardless, a greater focus on what someone can do and less on formal training reflects a certain pragmatism among employers, he said. For many young people in the US, scaling a mountain of debt in pursuit of a degree might not be worth it. And workers can be hard to come by in many fields, so doing away with degree rules can widen the pool of candidates.

"What's more important is actually demonstrating the skill," he said. "If you're a programmer, you either can program or you can't."

Don't drop out just yet.

Not all leaders are ready to skip over the education sections of résumés, however. In the survey, 36% of respondents didn't see experience with ChatGPT as more valuable than a college degree, and 12% were unsure.

While some employers set aside degree requirements, not all have made good on promises to hire more people who didn't attend college, one study found.

Nguyen said that regardless of how it's done, what's important is that workers keep learning. Nearly all of those polled endorsed that idea.

Just under nine in 10 leaders said that having taken courses on ChatGPT could make job candidates for certain roles more attractive. Nguyen said he suspects what many leaders are really after — more than those who took AI 101 — is workers who are conversant in using the technology.

"ChatGPT is still quite new," he said. "The course that you took 12 months ago may actually be irrelevant. And you may not be using ChatGPT in the future — and may be using something else."

For now, though, workers with an eye on an entry-level role might need to get used to working with AI. About six in 10 companies require experience with ChatGPT for at least some entry-level jobs, particularly in tech, according to the survey. That includes 7% of companies that require it for all jobs.

Some eight in 10 execs said knowing how to use AI would be even more important for entry-level workers in 2025.

"I don't think that people fully understand the business impact of it yet, but it's moving quick," Nguyen said.

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• The Allied Pilots Association says safety problems are increasing at American Airlines.
• It said incidents include tools left in wheel wells and increased collisions between towed planes.
• United Airlines has faced increased oversight from regulators, which American will want to avoid.

The union for American Airlines pilots has warned that safety problems are increasing at the carrier.

In a Saturday statement, the Allied Pilots Association said it "has been tracking a significant spike in safety- and maintenance-related problems in our operation."

It listed incidents like tools being left in wheel wells, and more collisions between towed or tugged aircraft.

The APA also said some maintenance actions hadn't been closed out properly, and there were increased intervals between inspections.

"Remember: Don't rush, don't be intimidated, and don't be pressured into doing something that doesn't pass the 'smell test,'" the union told pilots. "Just because it's legal doesn't make it safe."

The union encouraged its members to speak up and report any issues: "As the last link in the safety chain, our passengers and crew depend on us to be the strongest link in that chain."

It also referenced recent problems at United Airlines. A series of safety events — like a tire falling off a Boeing 777 — have seen regulators ramp up their oversight of the carrier.

"While United Airlines is currently under public and government scrutiny, it could just as easily be American Airlines," the APA said.

United's share price fell 3.4% after the Federal Aviation Administration announced the move last month, Reuters reported. So, avoiding similar actions from the FAA will be important for American.

Two days after the memo, the APA's president, Ed Sicher, said the union's safety committee had met with senior management to discuss the issues earlier this month.

"APA is squarely focused on finding solutions — which will require collaboration between the union and management — and management's initial response to our concerns was encouraging," he added.

An American Airlines spokesperson told Business Insider: "Safety at any airline is a shared mission and it's especially true at American. Our robust safety program is guided by our industry-leading safety management system."

They added: "It includes a multitude of collaborative programs — and regular touchpoints — with the FAA and all our unions, including APA, to further bolster our strong safety record and enhance our ever-evolving safety culture."

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• Russia's economy is predicted to grow by 3.2% in 2024, outpacing all advanced economies, including the US, the IMF said. 
• Despite the war, high investment and robust private consumption have driven Russia's economy forward. 
• The IMF expects the momentum to fade in 2025, with Russia growing at a rate of 1.8%.  

Russia's economy is expected to grow significantly faster than major developed economies this year, including the US, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The country's war-time economy is forecast to grow by 3.2% in 2024, largely outpacing expected growth for other advanced economies including the US (2.7%), Germany (0.2%), the UK (0.5%), and Japan (0.9%), IMF said in a report published on Tuesday. 

The surging growth rate has been linked to the effects of "high investment" and "robust private consumption" buoyed by wage growth in a tight labor market, though the IMF said it expects these effects to taper off in 2025, with a growth rate of 1.8%.  

The forecast is a wake-up call for Western countries that have hoped to throttle Russia's economy with sanctions to make its war in Ukraine unsustainable. Growth at that level would back up Vladimir Putin's claims that Russia's economy has withstood the most dire effects of Western sanctions and trade restrictions. 

Meanwhile, as foreign companies leave Russia amid the war, Moscow has been accruing funds from fleeing firms, seizing $387 million as of mid-March.

In its energy trade, sustained oil and commodity exports to major markets like India and China, alongside Russia's sidestepping of G-7 countries' oil price cap, have enabled it to maintain strong energy exports. 

Russia's resilience against Western sanctions stems largely from its boundless alliance with China. Trade volume between the two countries surged to a record $240 billion last year, fueled in part by Beijing's appetite for essential Russian commodities that have been discounted amid the West's reluctance to trade with Moscow. 

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Government investment into research and development has helped the UK become a leader in life sciences, engineering biology, and artificial intelligence.

As humans, we depend on scientific advancements for our development and vitality. These innovations keep us healthier longer and living more fruitful, happier lives. But developments in science often require years of trial and error — and finding success in engineering biology, life sciences, and AI is easier said than done.

Take the costly enterprise of drug discovery, for instance. It costs around $2 billion and 13 years for a drug to go from proof-of-concept to final pill. In part, that's because the odds of success are stacked against companies. Around 95% of projects that start fail because of one reason or another, said Ben Taylor, chief financial officer and chief strategy officer at Exscientia, which blends the twinned fields of AI and life sciences. 

"There's usually some sort of Achilles' heel to most drug candidates," he explained. "What we do is we try and identify the Achilles' heel for different pharmaceutical compounds and various disease indications. And then we make predictive models using AI, aiming to design a better-quality drug candidate without that Achilles' heel — or others — before it ever reaches a patient."

Exscientia is a leading global biotech company headquartered in the UK, using AI, machine learning, and automated experimentation to rifle through millions of permutations of molecules within a potential drug to find the "perfect fit" before putting compounds into patient trials. It saves time, effort, and money. Above all, it can lead to better quality drug candidates. Using AI to predict what qualities may have the most benefit for patients and then how to design the molecule to match those qualities changes the drug discovery process, Taylor said.

The company, which floated on the Nasdaq stock market in October 2021, raising $510 million — the largest initial public offering (IPO) for a European biotech company in history — has developed eight "development candidates" for medicines to date. 

"We've been able to take about 75% of the time and cost out of going from an idea to an actual drug candidate," Taylor said.

Born in the UK

Exscientia was spun out of the University of Dundee around 12 years ago and is now located in Oxford, with nearly 500 staff members working on around 20 separate projects. "The talent pool has been terrific here," Taylor said, setting the UK apart from its peers. "The UK has been a great place for us to really set up home and build our headquarters from."

Government support and a receptive business environment mean Exscientia is far from the only home-grown success story in life sciences. AstraZeneca helped spearhead the fightback against COVID-19 by developing the world's first vaccine, saving millions of lives around the world. And medical equipment manufacturer Smith & Nephew is a UK-born business helping improve lives by manufacturing the artificial joints used in countless knee, hip, and other joint operations around the world. 

Exscientia's growth was bolstered by government support: The company didn't take venture funding until 2019. "One of the things that I think causes people to be hesitant about the UK is that there's not a massive venture community," Taylor said. "But what we've been able to find is that actually, between the tax rebates and the support of some of the grants, that was enough for us to get going and really move forward." Exscientia wouldn't be where it was, Taylor said, without the support of the UK higher education system and government funding. "If you don't have that, the idea just falters," he said. "It remains on a cocktail napkin."

Martin Tangney, the chief scientific officer of Edinburgh-based Celtic Renewables, said the £11 million of funding his company received in 2015 from the UK government was "pivotal." The grant "wasn't to do research in the university. It wasn't that kind of funding, which is available," he said. "This was a grant that was transformative for the company to do something commercial."

With the help of government funding, massive shifts in the biosciences sector are possible. Exscientia isn't just competing; it's leading the way. 

"We really believe … [that] basically, soon all drugs are going to be created with AI," Taylor said. "It's a fundamentally better way of doing things."

To help support that, in late December 2023 the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) announced its national vision for engineering biology. As part of that strategy, the government will invest more than £2 billion into engineering biology over the next decade, keeping the UK at the cutting edge of the technology.

Renewed passion for renewables

Celtic Renewables also believes it has found a fundamentally better way of doing things. The business aims to re-establish the use of acetone-butane-ethanol (ABE) byproducts as a fuel stock. ABE was used to make acetone for explosives in the First World War, and up until the 1960s was second only to ethanol production as a fermentation industry. However, the rise of fossil fuels, and particularly oil, changed all that. 

ABE is the fermentation process used in the production of whisky, which has huge volumes of waste material. Each liter of whiskey produced results in 2.5 kilograms of solid waste byproducts, and 18 liters of liquid byproducts. Nearly 3 billion liters of waste liquids come from malt whiskey production in Scotland every year. "Then you've got Ireland, Japan, America, India, and so on," Tangney said.

But those waste liquids can be turned into a fuel source. "We can still do everything that we currently do, but use the carbon that's above the ground and repurpose it, rather than digging up oil and gas," he said. Tangney set up the Biofuel Research Center at Edinburgh Napier University in December 2007, spinning out Celtic Renewables four years later. "The UK is very good at funding fundamental research, [but] the biggest problem is taking that out of the lab and putting it into factories," he said.

Government backing makes a difference

The government support was useful because of its comparative lack of strings — getting out of the way and allowing the entrepreneur to build his business. Tangney points out that by and large, funding into private enterprises is made in exchange for shares in the company, and once you've sold all of them, you're unable to do anything else. "That's the only currency you have as a startup," he said. The government grant was different. Before, the largest vessel in Celtic Renewables' lab had a capacity of five liters. "We can now run our fermentations in our plant in vessels that hold 100,000 liters of volume, and we have five of these vessels at our plant," Tangney said.

The company has also grown its staff from four to nearly 60. A facility at Grangemouth is producing fuel from waste materials, with plans for more facilities to come.

"There needs to be an awful lot more Celtic Renewables out there at scale around the world," Tangney said. "Then it creates a brand new economy, and it creates skills." 

Click here to find out more about how your business can benefit from Research & Development in the UK.

This article was created by Insider Studios with the UK's Department for Business & Trade and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

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Halfway to the weekend! Budget cuts could spell the end of NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Here's a look back at some of the coolest photos taken by the $2 billion space telescope during its 25 years of service.

In today's big story, we're looking at how Tesla has entered its cost-cutting era.

What's on deck:

• Markets: The Fed and the Middle East conflicts won't slow down stocks, according to some Wall Street vets.

• Tech: A "social walkie-talkie" app is the newest thing tech insiders are excited about.

• Business: People looking for the American Dream are finding it abroad.

But first, we've gone off the track.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

The big story

Tesla trouble

The wheels are coming off one of the most high-profile car makers in the world.

Tesla's awful 2024 got much worse this week when the company cut 10% of its workforce, and a major executive resigned after 18 years at the EV maker.

Fears of layoffs at Tesla had been building along with Wall Street's growing concerns. That all accelerated after the company reported slumping delivery numbers earlier this month.

In the aftermath of the cuts, market watchers wonder what's next for Tesla, writes Business Insider's Graham Rapier.

Tesla reports earnings next week, but we've already got an idea of one of Elon Musk's big ideas: robotaxis. Amid all the bad news over the past week, the Tesla CEO said the long-awaited robotaxis will be unveiled in August.

But as Graham points out, robotaxis aren't a novel concept for Tesla, which has been pitching the idea for years. And rolling them out would mean improvements to Tesla's Full Self-Driving software, which has lagged behind competitors.

In the meantime, Tesla's stock keeps falling.

Shares of the EV maker are down more than 35% this year, giving back a good chunk of the massive gains it saw in 2023. Meanwhile, most of its Magnificent 7 peers have continued their 2023 hot streaks.

Tesla's been good to its longtime investors. It's up more than 900% over the past five years, far outstripping the S&P 500 index (72%). And the stock has bounced back from volatility before. Tesla's incredible 2023 was preceded by a 65% drop in share price during 2022.

But external factors make this year's comeback more daunting.

Demand for EVs in the US is slowing down, and China is proving to be a more prominent rival than Musk previously believed. Even worse, people who are in the market for EVs aren't necessarily interested in Teslas.

Big, expensive EVs aren't what customers want. And that's an issue for a company whose newest vehicle is a big, expensive EV.

Yet, despite a long list of recent setbacks, there is some good news buried amid the carnage: EV sales data shows Tesla has outpaced all competitors in the US electric vehicle market lately, growing its market share to 51.3%.

Meanwhile, Musk is at the center of it all. The polarizing billionaire is embroiled in several feuds, including with Tesla. And now his latest endeavor, an AI startup, is reportedly pulling talent away from the EV maker.

3 things in markets

1. The Andy Sieg era is underway at Citi's wealth business, and it includes some massive changes. The Merrill Lynch vet has only led the unit since September, but almost a dozen executives have left since he arrived. Here's a running list of who's departed so far.

2. There ain't no stopping this bull market. Despite geopolitical concerns and interest rates staying high, some Wall Street vets don't see an end to the bull market. From explaining away the high inflation data to why we're in a buy-the-dip moment, four experts weigh in with their optimistic take.

3. Truth Social users are feeling glum about Trump Media's tanking share price. The ex-president's social media platform has plummeted over 60% since it went public at the end of March. Truth Social has been buzzing about the stock's steep decline, with some "Truthsayers" claiming its shares have been artificially devalued.

3 things in tech

1. Kids are bored with VR goggles. A new survey found 56% of teens who own VR devices rarely use them. That's bad news for companies like Apple and Meta, which are banking on the tech for the future.

2. Silicon Valley's new favorite social-media platform is an invite-only audio app. Airchat, an app marketed as a "social walkie-talkie," is taking off among tech and creator-economy insiders. But can it stick around?

3. Microsoft is gearing up for the AI boom. The tech giant's data center capacity grew rapidly in recent quarters, according to an internal presentation seen by BI. It's planning an even faster ramp-up in capacity over the rest of 2024, the document showed.

3 things in business

1. The new American Dream? Leaving the US. With the cost of living in the States on the rise, more and more Americans are deciding that the only way to get ahead financially, pay off debts, and save for retirement is to move abroad.

2. Australia's retirement model could inspire America's. While US retirement plans rely on workers' contributions to accounts like 401(k)s, Australia's superannuation system mandates employer-funded retirement contributions. Adopting something similar could improve Americans' retirement.

3. New York is using AI to challenge wealthy remote workers. CNBC reported that the state's tax department is sending out hundreds of thousands of AI-generated letters looking for revenue. It's mainly targeting wealthy remote workers and those who require a change in tax residency, per the outlet.

In other news

• Trump is struggling to stay awake at his first criminal trial. It's going to be a long 6 weeks.

• US Navy warships shot down Iranian missiles with a weapon they've never used in combat before.

• I quit McKinsey after 1.5 years. I was making nearly $200k but my mental health was shattered.

• China is still struggling to fix its demand problem — and that's bad news for the likes of Apple and Tesla.

• It's not just you: Reddit is taking over Google.

• Amazon is pouring big bucks into geek culture — and Critical Role's Matt Mercer just dropped a major hint about the series fans have been waiting for.

• Bank of America's dealings with Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein are in the Senate's crosshairs.

• Citadel's Ken Griffin wants to build a massive NYC skyscraper that the city hopes will lure more workers back to the office.

• Millennials may have an easier time buying homes in these 5 cities where boomers may actually give up their houses.

• I relocated across the country when Tesla asked. Then I was laid off 6 months later.

What's happening today

• Today's earnings: Discover and other companies are reporting.

• Semafor's World Economy Summit starts today.

The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. George Glover, reporter, in London.

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• Boeing executives regularly use the company's eight private planes for business and personal travel.
• The fleet's 1,800 flights last year amounted to about $14 million in fuel and 22,500 tons of CO2.
• Boeing says its CEO is "required to use company aircraft for all business and personal travel for security reasons."

Boeing's top executives regularly crisscross the globe on the manufacturer's fleet of private planes, hopping between company offices and assembly lines, visiting international airshows and conferences, and sometimes jet-setting for personal use.

Boeing's corporate planes collectively flew about 4,500 hours across some 1,800 flights last year, according to data from the aviation-tracking website JetSpy. That amounts to about $14 million in fuel and about 22,500 tons in CO2 emissions.

The fleet consists of two 737-700 Boeing Business Jets made by the company's private arm and six private planes made by Canadian corporate aircraft manufacturer Bombardier, including one Global 6,000 and five Challenger 600 planes, according to JetSpy.

Sizable private jets like these typically feature onboard luxuries like double beds, couches, theaters, and giant meeting spaces.

The fleet's top airports include Chicago International Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, and Boeing Field King County International Airport — all located near Boeing's corporate offices and factories.

Other most-flown destinations include Westchester County Airport in New York and Lebanon Municipal Airport in New Hampshire, both near some of Boeing's executives' homes, per JetSpy.

This mirrors a September report from The Wall Street Journal that found company CEO Dave Calhoun took some 400 trips between Boeing's offices and his homes in South Carolina and New Hampshire since he took the helm in 2020. Calhoun announced his resignation effective year-end following heightened scrutiny over Boeing's quality control.

The Journal also noted Boeing built a small office for CFO Brian West near his home in New Canaan, Connecticut — just a 30-minute drive from the airport in Westchester. West's convenient work setup represented a much different approach to return-to-office efforts previously pushed by the company.

Although it has a particuarly large fleet, the thousands of hours worth of flying isn't all that unusual for giant companies. Especially one like Boeing, which is in the plane business after all.

For instance, JetSpy data shows aerospace company Lockheed Martin collectively flew its five private jets for about 2,700 hours in 2023. And the five-strong corporate fleets operated by PepsiCo and Costco each flew about 1,600 hours last year.

Access to these swanky corporate fleets may be fast and convenient for high-worth VIPs. Still, the carbon impact of private flying has made headlines as activists rally against the jet-setting habits of the superrich, especially celebrities like Taylor Swift and Elon Musk.

Boeing did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Boeing's private jet use isn't helping its already tainted image

Boeing is under intense scrutiny at the moment over its quality control after an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 door plug blowout in January. The incident followed two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019 of another Max variant, the Max 8, which killed 346 people.

More recently, whistleblower allegations from a veteran Boeing engineer indicate safety concerns on at least 1,400 of the company's 777 and 787 widebody planes.

Boeing's rough run got even messier this month after it was revealed the planemaker set aside more than half a million dollars for executive personal use of its corporate aircraft.

According to an amended SEC filing, the American planemaker did not initially report the $545,520 it spent on personal jet travel in 2021 and 2022 by four top executives — including the $142,315 in personal trips taken by Calhoun.

Boeing wrote in the filing that its CEO "is required to use company aircraft for all business and personal travel for security reasons."

Still, using the plane for a non-work-related vacation is considered a taxable benefit, and the IRS is cracking down on how companies file their jet use, according to the Journal.

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• Donald Trump's meme stock has plunged by 70% from its peak last month.
• Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, soared after it went public.
• Experts say powerful figures can drive up stock prices, but the gains can be short-lived.

Donald Trump's meme stock skyrocketed in March but has now crash-landed.

Experts say its explosive rise and dramatic fall show how powerful people can wield their influence to create vast amounts of stock-market wealth — but it doesn't last long without a real business behind it.

Blasting off, crashing down

Trump Media & Technology Group owns Truth Social, the former president's social-media platform. The parent company recently went public via a SPAC merger, and its stock surged as high as $79 on March 26.

That price valued TMTG at about $11 billion — roughly 2,700 times the $4.1 million of revenue it posted last year, which fueled a $58 million net loss.

However, a disappointing performance update and plans to issue shares have pulled the stock down by about 70% from its peak to just below $23 at Tuesday's close. The company's market value is now about $3 billion.

Trump, who owns at least 58% of TMTG, saw the value of his stake balloon to over $6 billion then plummet below $2 billion in under a month.

The former president briefly joined the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and even secured a spot among the top 300 wealthiest people in the world. He's since fallen off the rich list entirely since his net worth nosedived.

Destined to tumble

Michele Costola, a researcher at Ca' Foscari University of Venice who studies meme stocks, told Business Insider that TMTG shares may reflect Trump's popularity and his supporters' confidence in him — or might speak to the market's perception of his current political power.

"Undoubtedly, TMTG is intricately intertwined with the persona of Trump, suggesting that the driving force behind its price fluctuations could be seen as a reflection of public perception, contingent upon positive or negative news about him," he said.

Costola compared Trump's company to listed European soccer clubs whose stock prices rise and fall depending on whether they win or lose.

"We can draw a parallel with the TMTG stock, linking its market value to Trump's political performances and the outcomes of the trials he's involved in," he said.

Trump might be able to convince his base to invest in TMTG and make him rich, said Imran Yousaf, an assistant professor at China's Wenzhou-Kean University who researches meme stocks.

"Given Donald Trump's substantial fanbase, particularly during election cycles, he could wield significant influence over specific stocks, such as Truth Social stock," he said.

But he emphasized that's unlikely to last unless there's a compelling product or service, as a company's stock tends to reflect its fundamentals in the long term.

'Hype and speculation'

Indeed, Warren Buffett is known for saying the stock market is a voting machine in the short run, but a weighing machine in the long run.

Yousaf compared TMTG stock to cryptocurrencies where "hype and speculation often overshadow fundamentals in driving valuations."

People egging each other on and stoking fear of missing out using funny pictures and videos can spur buying frenzies like the GameStop craze in 2021.

But Yousaf said it's "challenging to gauge how much memes alone can boost its stock. The sharp rise in Truth Social price will definitely be a short-run phenomenon because it is not fully backed by fundamentals."

On Tuesday TMTG announced plans to launch a streaming platform offering news, religious and family-friendly programming that it claims has been canceled or suppressed by other outlets.

"There is a lot of great content that simply can't find an audience for unjust reasons, and we want to let these creators know they'll soon have a guaranteed platform where they won't be canceled," said CEO Devin Nunes in a press release.

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• China's Xi Jinping met Germany's Olaf Scholz Tuesday. 
• Xi said he wanted to try and bring peace to Ukraine. 
• But analysts say China is secretly intensifying support for Russia. 

China's leader, Xi Jinping, played the role of Ukraine's peacemaker during talks on Tuesday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

At the meeting in Beijing, Xi presented his German counterpart with four principles for peace in Ukraine, according to Chinese state media.

Nations must focus on "the upholding of peace and stability and refrain from seeking selfish gains," Xi said, as well as "cool down the situation and not add fuel to the fire."

He added that they must establish conditions for restoring peace while reducing the war's impact on the world's economy.

The principles are vague and similar to a Ukraine peace plan proposed by China last year. At the time, the US said the plan worked mostly in Russia's favor.

But despite these public statements, analysts say Xi's claims to be a peacemaker are a charade, and in reality, China is increasing support for Russia's military.

Last month, London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) warned that Russia was increasing its cooperation with China in 5G and satellite technology.

And in recent weeks, US intelligence has claimed that China is increasing its equipment sales to Russia, as well as providing important technologies such as microelectronics, optics, machine tools, and missile propellants.

This is in addition to the diplomatic and economic support China has already given the Kremlin.

The Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, on Tuesday, said that Xi was seeking to garner goodwill in Germany, a key trading partner for China but an ally of Ukraine.

 "Xi's generally vague signaling to Scholz vis a vis Ukraine over the backdrop of reportedly intensifying Chinese support for Russia is, therefore more likely an attempt to maintain China's access to European markets by garnering goodwill with Germany than to show actual interest in facilitating an end to Russia's invasion of Ukraine," said its analysts.

Scholz is just the latest Western leader to try to persuade Xi to use his influence with Russia's President Vladimir Putin to end the Ukraine invasion.

But China showed no signs of changing its position, reiterating claims that the West was to blame for the war by arming Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.

China has been balancing conflicting priorities in Ukraine, experts previously told Business Insider. While Xi sees a Russian victory in the war as a way of damaging the global power of Ukraine's main backers, he's also keen to retain access to Western markets and US investment.

In recent years, the Chinese economy has experienced a serious downturn caused by a property market bubble, and Xi has abruptly changed his tone with many Western leaders, offering a series of concessions to US President Joe Biden at a meeting last year in San Francisco.

So far, that shift in tone has not resulted in a substantive change in his position on Putin's war in Ukraine despite the best efforts of Western leaders to get him to intervene.

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