The Hive co-hosts Kristen Scholer and Jon Kelly discuss the top 5 hottest stories in tech and politics. From Melania Trump's appearance at the State of the Union to Mark Zuckerberg's play for local news, The Hive has the latest news you need to know.
Melania Trump broke tradition and rode in a separate motorcar from her husband to the State of the Union Tuesday night... just days after news broke that Trump potentially had an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels. Bess Levin of Vanity Fair discusses why Melania can't divorce Trump and how her brand can survive the next three years.
Plus, Jeff Bezos attempts to tackle healthcare. Amazon, JPMorgan, and Warren Buffett have teamed up to fix healthcare within their respective companies. Vanity Fair's Nick Bilton says Bezos typically tries a project on the side before going totally mainstream with it and he thinks this deal is the first step in a larger plan.
John Quelch, Dean of Miami Herbert Business School, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says the retail giant is acting in accordance to President Biden's new law banning goods from China's Xinjiang region. Quelch also elaborates on the importance of China in Walmart's overall strategy.
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.
