VF Hive editor Jon Kelly, Kristen Scholer and the Hive panel discuss the top five stories of the week in politics, technology and business. Tom Frank and Bess Levin kick off The Hive 5 with the first legislative victory of Donald Trump's presidency. They talk about the tax reform bill that, critics argue, will raise the deficit, harm the middle class, and only benefit corporations.
Maya Kosoff covers the latest troubles for Uber. She and Nick Bilton discuss the recent ruling from the European Court of Justice that Uber is essentially a cab company, as opposed to a digital technology company.
Bess Levin and T.A. Frank weigh in on Bernie Sanders' suggestion that the Republican tax bill will be completely re-written once the Democrats take over Congress in 2018. The panel discusses a possible Sanders run for president in 2020.
Bilton and Kosoff return to report on Facebook, and how 2017 was a reckoning for the company. They talk about whether Mark Zuckerberg can pivot in 2018, or if the company will be broken up.
Levin and Frank round out The Hive 5 with a discussion on the return of Anthony Scaramucci to the news. They bring up his criticisms of Steve Bannon at a recent holiday party, and whether he might be well-suited to star in his own reality show.
Cheddar's Chloe Aiello has our cannabis year-in-review, breaking down how several states legalized adult recreational use and greenlit medicinal use in 2021. She noted that while a cannabis legalization and decriminalization bill was introduced in Congress this year, potential FDA involvement in the industry, as well as a 25 percent excise tax, killed any chance the bill had of moving forward. Aiello also speculated that some form of cannabis reform could be rolled out in 2022, as the midterm elections draw closer.
Jim Worden, Chief Investment Officer at Wealth Consulting Group, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says the period between Christmas and New Year's is difficult to predict due to a lack of institutional volume, with the Omicron variant adding even more uncertainty on Wall Street.
Prices at the pump this year reached a seven-year high, and a new forecast from GasBuddy shared with CNN predicts that gas prices will only continue to rise in 2022 and that the national average could even reach $4.00 a gallon; however, analysts at GasBuddy say anything could happen when it comes to gas prices in the future, as the pandemic has made it difficult to make any predictions about the economy. Consumer Energy Alliance federal policy advisor Michael Zehr joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
David Stryzewski, CEO of Sound Planning Group, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says that some of the major stock positions are getting the most lift to the upside as the major indexes climb higher to begin the week.
