What do FTX and the fish and chip shop near my apartment have in common? They both use the same accounting software to keep track of their finances – QuickBooks. I’m not sure whether the salesperson that managed to convince FTX management that this was the right accounting solution for them deserves a raise or a prison sentence.

The lowdown

• 🎈 Fed policymakers confirm their intent to continue raising rates to tame inflation.

• 🦤 Insiders say that Twitter is planning further layoffs after already making deep cuts.

• 🛢️ Oil declines on fears of a US recession.

Flex your finance muscle

Poison pill

A "poison pill" is a defensive tactic used by companies to prevent hostile takeovers or limit the ownership stake of large shareholders. It is typically implemented in the form of a “shareholder rights plan” which allows existing shareholders to buy additional shares at a discounted price if a buyer acquires a large stake in the company. This dilutes the value of the buyer’s investment and makes a hostile takeover less attractive.

In the most recent example of this, Carvana has adopted a poison pill to limit shareholders from raising their stakes for a different reason – to safeguard its significant US federal net operating losses (NOLs) that could be used to offset its future taxable income. 

The company’s ability to use the NOLs would be substantially limited, if its shareholders increased ownership above the 5% threshold. The company has therefore set a trigger of 4.9% for the shareholder rights plan, which took effect on Monday and is scheduled to be in place until Jan 15, 2026. 

And here I was thinking that investing in a company that sells cars out of giant vending machines was already enough of a deterrent.

Featured Stories

Japan maintains ultra-loose monetary policy

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) has defied expectations by leaving its yield curve control measures unchanged, sending the Yen tumbling.

Japan's loose monetary policy has had a significant impact on the value of the yen. The BoJ’s policy keeps interest rates low, making the yen less attractive to investors, leading to a decrease in the currency's value. This is because investors are less likely to hold the yen when they can earn a higher return on their investments elsewhere.

So far, the BoJ’s policy has also been ineffective in achieving its inflation target of 2%. Despite years of monetary stimulus, Japan has been unable to consistently achieve this goal. 

The meeting to decide the policy was the second to last for the BoJ’s longest serving Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who insists the policy has been ‘successful’ (and will be someone else’s problem in two months).

The content we're consuming today

• Gamecraft podcast: The calculus of fun (Ep. 3).

• FT: Macau gaming: Chau’s jail term warns punters and investors alike ($).

Off-balance sheet items

• You probably know that OpenAI’s ChatGPT is smarter than you. But did you also know that Boston Dynamics’ robot Atlas is more athletic than you? Check out this new video and meet our new robot overlord.

The bottom line