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Good morning. The nation's flies are swarming to Nashville ahead of tonight's presidential debate, where they'll compete for a shot at internet stardom. But if we learned anything from the ABC show, you need more than a pretty three-eyed face to make it in that town. Good luck!

MARKETS NASDAQ 11,484.69 - 0.28% S&P 3,435.35 - 0.23% DJIA 28,210.29 - 0.35% GOLD 1,927.80 + 0.65% 10-YR 0.818% + 2.90 bps OIL 40.03 - 4.00% *As of market close Economy: The Fed’s beige book survey of regional economies painted a more optimistic picture than the one from September. One word you hear a lot? Uncertainty. Markets: Just a reminder, if the six indicators above look like hieroglyphics, earlier this week we published a guide that walks you through our markets section. Covid-19 update: Argentina hit 1 million confirmed cases. Ireland is implementing its strictest coronavirus restrictions for six weeks. Boston’s school district is going remote. And U.S. hospitalizations are at their highest level in five months.

MONEY Cryptocurrency’s New Pal

Francis Scialabba In one small step for a digital future, and one giant leap for anyone with #Bitcoin in their Twitter bio, payments giant PayPal announced yesterday it would let users “buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency directly from their PayPal accounts.”   Why it’s a BFD PayPal isn’t the first to allow crypto transactions (other upstart fintechs like Robinhood and Square have been doing so for years), but this news is newsworthy for two reasons: PayPal is huge: It has over 346 million active accounts worldwide, and it processed $222 billion in payments last quarter. Many retailers use PayPal: You’ll now be able to buy your morning coffee using bitcoin or other approved cryptocurrencies at any of the 26 million merchants that use PayPal’s online payment systems.  Zoom out: Businesses have shied away from cryptocurrency transactions because of long transfer times and price volatility. But PayPal has allayed those fears by converting the cryptocurrency used to buy a coffee into dollars, pounds, or any other currency that the merchant would typically accept.  It’s been a good week for crypto  On Monday, during an International Monetary Fund panel, Fed Chair Jerome Powell shared his thoughts on the U.S. creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC): “We do think it’s more important to get it right than to be the first.” Not exactly a gung-ho endorsement of a CBDC, but he didn’t reject the idea, either.  Powell’s right about one thing: The U.S. definitely won’t be the first. China has been testing out a new digital currency tied to its central bank since April, while the Central Bank of the Bahamas launched a digital version of the Bahamian dollar yesterday called—and this is pretty epic—Sand Dollar.  Bitcoin to the moon? The most powerful monetary policymakers discussing digital currencies, paired with PayPal’s stamp of approval, sent the price of Bitcoin soaring. Already up over 19% this month, the world’s largest crypto jumped as much as 8.5% yesterday to just under $13,000. That's the highest price since summer 2019.

ENTERTAINMENT A Really Quick Bite

Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images Quibi, the short-form video app that probably generated more memes than paying subscribers, is shutting down. It’s an abrupt end for former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and Hollywood super-mogul Jeffery Katzenberg who, armed with $1.8 billion in funding, tried to spend their way into the streaming wars.  Quibi dropped up to $100k/minute on original shows featuring the talents of Chrissy Teigen, Chance the Rapper, Anna Kendrick, and other stars. Katzenberg and co. envisioned users consuming Quibi’s "quick bites" of highly produced video content while on their commute or waiting in line at Starbucks, activities that ended up being the dinosaurs to the pandemic’s asteroid. In an open letter Whitman and Katzenberg posted yesterday, they admitted Quibi failed “Likely for one of two reasons: because the idea itself wasn’t strong enough...or because of our timing.” Looking ahead...you can debate whether it was the pandemic that caused Quibi to fail or its unpopular content, but either way, it’s left picking up the pieces. The company is looking to sell its content and technology assets, a potentially tempting investment for big-name tech and media firms should they want to go second-hand shopping.

PHARMA Purdue to Plead Guilty Purdue Pharma’s saga reached a major milestone yesterday, when the drug company agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges for its part in the U.S.’ devastating opioid crisis. The backstory: Purdue’s role in the opioid crisis is well established—it pleaded guilty to violating kickback laws when it paid doctors to write more opioid prescriptions. According to the CDC, about a third of overdose deaths in 2018 involved prescription opioids. The details: The company will pay more than $8 billion, some of which will go to opioid treatment and abatement programs. Problem is, bankrupt Purdue doesn’t have $8 billion. So the government will reshape Purdue into a “public benefit company” that gives the government all of its profits. The new company will still produce Purdue’s tentpole product OxyContin, an outcome critics slammed. Big picture: While $8 billion is a record for a pharma company, it’s well below the cumulative $2 trillion states are claiming Purdue owes them. And this settlement doesn’t mean Purdue is off the hook for the thousands of lawsuits those states have brought, or for its bankruptcy proceedings.

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FOOD Friends of Bob Iger, Brace For Cholesterol Lectures

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images In his first big move since stepping down as Disney CEO, Iger joined the board of animal-free dairy startup Perfect Day. Iger says he’ll “open doors” and add knowledge of “operational excellence” from his experience at Disney and Apple.  Perfect Day has raised $360 million total, including from Singapore state investor Temasek. It only has one commercially available product, a non-dairy ice cream, though it has plans for more.  Perfect Day uses fungi, fermentation tanks, and copied cow DNA to make its products. Guess the old saying is true...it’s best not to know how the animal-free ice cream gets made.  Also yesterday, alternative meat leader Impossible Foods rolled out a plan to funnel the $700 million it raised this year into animal-free steak, bacon, fish, and milk. The company pledged to make a no-cow milk that cooks, heats, and even mixes with coffee like cow milk.

MISC Cool & Interesting Here are some news stories that will make you go, “That’s pretty interesting. And also somewhat cool.” 1. Vaccine dummies: To prevent theft, Pfizer and other coronavirus vaccine makers are engaging in some Mission Impossible-level security measures, including deploying empty “dummy trucks” to confuse criminals. Counterfeiting and theft of pharma products rose almost 70% globally the past five years, the WSJ reports. 2. Elon's World: Tesla reported its fifth straight quarterly profit and record revenue. Its shares are up about 400% this year. 3. Twitch for pres: At one point Tuesday night, 439,000 people simultaneously logged on to Twitch to watch Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez play the videogame Among Us. It was the third-most-viewed single Twitch stream in history.  4. Cosmic rubble: A NASA spacecraft successfully landed on an asteroid named Bennu more than 200 million miles away to grab some space rock samples. The van-sized spacecraft, named Osiris-Rex, had been circling Bennu for more than two years.

GIVEAWAY Apparently People Still Wear Pants But since comfort is in and anything with a belt loop is out, we highly suggest you secure a pair of Morning Brew joggers. Plus, they are free The only thing we ask is that you get five friends to sign up for the Brew this week. That’s, like, fewer than six. Time is running out. Get your joggers today. Remember: Your current referral count does not matter. US only.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING Ant Group has secured the regulatory approvals necessary to proceed with its $35 billion dual-listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai in the coming weeks. Two new international studies show no consistent relationship between the opening of K-12 schools and coronavirus spread. Facebook has started to test a Nextdoor clone called Neighborhoods, TechCrunch reports. Regal is opening 11 cinemas in New York state just weeks after its parent Cineworld closed 500 in the U.S. Pope Francis broke with the Catholic Church’s official doctrine and voiced support for same-sex civil unions in a documentary that aired in Rome yesterday.

BREW'S BETS A really important reco. Read Sailthru’s guide, Recommendations to Revenue, to learn which type of product recommendations are right for your brand. The guide covers topics like personalization, collaborative filtering, and much more. We recommend you read it here.* Rake in some cash this fall. Quicken Loans is giving away $4,000 to a lucky person who’s fast enough to squash the competition. Sign up here, take a quick survey, and they’ll give you a heads-up when the rewards are released.* Why: This Instagram account exists for the sole purpose of getting 100 million followers. Election-ready: BallotReady breaks down everything you’ll find on your local ballot. You can also channel your inner Nate Silver and build your own election forecast, or see which fast food chain is donating to which candidate. Not registered? Check your status or start your registration on our Brew Votes website before your state’s deadline (time is ticking). Then, we’ll send you stickers when you share Brew Votes on social media. *This is sponsored advertising content

FROM THE CREW Brew's Bookshelf

Francis Scialabba Every other Thursday, Brew’s Bookshelf brings you our favorite business-related reads. Today, we’re tackling the topic of income inequality from a few angles. At the top...Plutocrats by Chrystia Freeland looks at the new class of oligarchs and how the richest 0.1% have grown their wealth at breakneck speed. At the other end...Evicted by Matthew Desmond explores the seemingly inescapable cycle of housing insecurity and poverty through the stories of eight Milwaukee families. And I Don’t Want to Die Poor is a series of witty personal essays by Michael Arceneaux exploring the crushing economic anxiety brought on by debt. How’d we get here? Kurt Andersen’s newest book Evil Geniuses explains how the wealthy got so far ahead in recent decades. Check out the rest of our recommendations here.

GAMES Mapquest

Source: Can't tell you that yet What do the red lines in this map represent?

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Amtrak routes

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY 1969 Spike Jonze American director and producer 1811 Franz Liszt Hungarian composer 1920 Timothy Leary American psychologist 1917 Joan Fontaine American actress 1943 Catherine Deneuve French actress 1938 Derek Jacobi British actor SEE ALL BIOS ON THIS DAY October 22 FEATURED BIOGRAPHY Franz Liszt READ MORE   FEATURED EVENT 1962 Cuban missile crisis READ MORE   Advertisement Advertisement   MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY 2010: WikiLeaks , a Web site founded by Julian Assange that functioned as a clearinghouse for classified or otherwise privileged information, released thousands of U.S. documents relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 2008: Chandrayaan-1, India's first lunar space probe, was launched, and it later found water in the Moon's atmosphere. [Take our quiz about space exploration.] 1964: French philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre was announced the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature; however, he became the first person to decline the award. [Test your knowledge of Nobel laureates in literature.] 1943: French actress Catherine Deneuve, who was noted for her archetypal Gallic beauty as well as for her roles in films by some of the world's greatest directors, was born. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about A-list actors.] 1910: In one of the most notorious criminal cases of the 20th century, American physician Hawley Harvey Crippen (widely known as Dr. Crippen) was found guilty of murdering his wife; he was executed in a British prison the following month. [Read about 10 “trials of the century.”] 1906: French artist Paul Cézanne, considered one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionists, died at the age of 67. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about artists and painters.] SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY Columnists What Do These Never Trump Losers Think Is Going to Happen to Them? Kurt Schlichter Will Changes to American Life Become Permanent? Victor Davis Hanson The Russians Made Me Write This Derek Hunter Stumper: Should Trump Mention His Most Popular Issue? Ann Coulter Ice Cube Gets It -- Almost Larry Elder The USMCA: Great Neighbors, Better Trade Deals Mark W. Menezes Trump Is a Champion for the Black Community—The Platinum Plan Is Just Another Example Of What He’s Doing Paris Dennard An Open Letter to the Media Regarding the Democrats’ Disinformation Campaign against Judge Amy Coney Barrett Mike Davis Hypocrites, Stop Lecturing the Rest of America Laura Hollis ADVERTISEMENT Pandemic News the Left Cannot Deny Jeff Davidson Welcome Back Football, But Leave Subsidies on the Bench Young Voices Contributors Two Weeks to Go Emmett Tyrrell Is the Dam About to Burst for Google? Nicholas Waddy Debate Topics and American Priorities Cal Thomas The Final Stretch Jackie Gingrich Cushman Save Beer (and Science) from the Leftist Mob Andrew Langer The Threat of Court Packing Jerry Newcombe Don’t Overlook America’s Loggers Danny Dructor Video Gov. Evers: Saying Abortionists 'Execute Babies' Is 'Blasphemy' Trump blasts Schiff as 'political hack' Pelosi's condescension offers some laughs Pelosi open to border infrastructure INVESTING Sanders And Warren Mistake Money For Wealth Haile Selassie's Grandson Warns African Americans: Marxism Leads To Blind Murder Connecticut’s Exodus Of Wealthy People Why The Founding Fathers Despised Democracy Fascism Is Socialism: Here’s The Proof Milton Friedman On Taxation Tipsheet Hunter Biden's Ex-Business Partner: China Emails Are Real...And Here's Why Joe Was Called the 'Chairman' Matt Vespa Uh Oh: It Looks as Though Hunter's Laptop Is Part of an Even Bigger Probe Beth Baumann What Do Senate Judiciary Republicans Plan to Do Now That Dems Are Boycotting ACB's Nomination Vote? Beth Baumann Biden Associate: Yeah, I Gave Hunter Biden a $1 Million+ Job As a Favor to His Father Matt Vespa Clown Show: Senate Democrats Plan to Boycott Amy Coney Barrett Committee Vote Matt Vespa Trump: Biden Sent Jobs Overseas and Brought Millions Back for His Family Bronson Stocking Obama's Reason Why Trump Won In 2016 Is Indicative of Dems' Ignorance Beth Baumann BREAKING: Intel Officials Identify Multiple Foreign Adversaries Attempting to Meddle In the Election Beth Baumann The Jaw-Dropping Difference Between the Old 'Wall' and the New Wall the Trump Admin. Is Building Julio Rosas Biden: Next Debate Needs More Than Just Muted Mics Beth Baumann ADVERTISEMENT Political Cartoons Bearing Arms Georgia Arrest Shows Why Gun Control Fails | Tom Knighton Did Kentucky AG Really Present "Everything" To Breonna Taylor Grand Jury? | Cam Edwards Emotional Appeals For Gun Control Points To Endgame | Tom Knighton Armed Citizens Fight Back In Louisiana Home Invasions | Cam Edwards Americans Brace For Inevitable Post-Election Violence | Tom Knighton

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