Santa’s workshop is somewhere in China

Shein, Temu and Miniso are cashing in this Christmas. [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a butterfly shrimp pillow stuffed with Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [Chinese companies]( head overseas. - [Charlie Munger]( held Berkshire’s keys. - [General Motors]( may be over its skis. - [Liberal arts majors]( are in a deep freeze. Your Christmas Is Made in China America’s economy has gift-wrapped a perfect holiday season for Chinese companies. It begins with the American consumer, who Conor Sen says [is deeply unhappy](. Squeezed shoppers, fed up with reading headlines about Inflation This, Inflation That, are embracing what Shuli Ren says is a “consumption downgrade” where they “happily trade away premium products for value-oriented ones to conserve cash.” Nearly all these “downgraded” products carry a little sticker or apparel tag that says MADE IN CHINA. Three retailers in particular — Shein, Temu and Miniso — are cashing in. The fast-fashion giant Shein — which [recently filed]( for an IPO — is the Spirit Airlines of retail. There is no company as ruthless, as cheap or as disreputable as Shein, which sells [rash-inducing]( [cotton]( garments (many of which are [potentially flammable](!) for pennies. For over a decade, the business has been steeped in a stew of accusations, from [forced labor]( to [design theft](. But that hasn’t stopped people — many of whom are fed up with [dinky deals](, as we explained [yesterday]( — from buying stuff that’s still UP TO 90% OFF on the Wednesday after Cyber Monday. At present, the cheapest item in Shein’s cyber sale appears to be [this miniature folding chair]( that can hold your phone. It’s selling for $0.13, an 88% discount from its original price of $1.10. I can’t imagine they turn a profit, given the delivery fees. But here comes the shocker: As of May, Shein’s valuation was worth 507,692,307,692 of those plastic chairs — $66 billion. If it sold a 10% stake, [Bloomberg calculations]( predict that the retailer “would be the fifth-largest consumer company IPO of all time, just behind Porsche AG’s $9.1 billion 2021 listing,” Isabelle Lee writes. But Shein isn’t the only Chinese company sinking its teeth into the land of the free. Shuli says Temu, the Chinese retailer that Leticia Miranda [has covered previously](, is also out for blood. Since its debut in September 2022, Temu has accrued around 120 million monthly active users, [43% of them coming from the US](. It’s reportedly on track to [sell $14 billion in gross merchandise value]( this year alone. “Temu continues to YOLO Western markets with absurd sums of ad spend. They are now nearly as prevalent in Google Shopping auctions as Amazon,” Mike Ryan, head of e-commerce insights at Smarter Ecommerce, [wrote on X]( recently. Etsy CEO Josh Silverman, meanwhile, is [saying]( Shein and Temu “are almost single-handedly having an impact on the cost of advertising, particularly in some paid channels in Google and in Meta.” And that’s on top of another headache that Temu has dealt Etsy: On [Reddit](, one buyer complained that the sandals they bought for their son on Etsy ended up being shoes still in the Temu packaging. “I spent $30 with shipping on a product that was less than $5. If Etsy doesn't start vetting their shops, I'm done with them,” they wrote. Then there’s Miniso, a Guangzhou-based lifestyle retailer that sells cheap but trendy household goods. As of 2022, more than 95% of the products it sold were priced under $7. It already has [more than 2,000 brick-and-mortar locations abroad](. At the SoHo outpost in Manhattan, the interior kinda feels like a Build-A-Bear Workshop had a baby with Limited Too. Squishmallow knockoffs line the walls, and many of the products contain tags with chemical warnings. And yet the larger-than-life plush penguin that greets you upon entry manages to trigger an unexplainable sense of childlike euphoria. I would know, because I impulse-purchased this [butterfly shrimp pillow]( when I first encountered the store in January. Photo via Jessica Karl Of course, doing business in America comes with its fair share of costs — Senator Marco Rubio’s [scrutiny](, for one. But all these retailers see “a $1 trillion e-commerce market and a US society that is fed up with inflation and the elevated cost of living,” Shuli says. “Whether the politicians like it or not, the Chinese are coming to America. And the Americans can finally get some reprieve and value for their money.” Read [the whole thing](. Oh, Gee Remember that one high-school classmate who took a gap year because their entire personality got crushed by an Ivy League rejection letter? Maybe they spent a year gallivanting around Saint-Tropez or volunteering in Cape Town before snapping back to a textbook-filled reality — a privilege that many cannot afford, no matter [how valuable]( gap years may be. Well, General Motors, too, has found that its future is taking longer to arrive than expected. And like those “gap year” kids, CEO Mary Barra can afford to buy time — about $10 billion worth of it, according to Liam Denning. With a [$10 billion accelerated buyback]( — one of the oldest tricks in the playbook — “GM has decided to be its own activist,” he writes. This “creates room for another big payout headline: a 33% increase in the dividend which, on the smaller share count, should still only cost about $500 million a year. The stock jumped by about 11% at Wednesday’s open.” It’s a much-needed boost for an unloved carmaker that’s largely believed to have hit a wall: “Since emerging from bankruptcy in 2010, GM has always traded at a fairly hefty discount to the S&P 500,” Liam writes. Making matters worse is its venture into electric-vehicle manufacturing, which has proved increasingly thorny: “GM has invested billions in Cruise, and absorbed billions more in losses, over the years,” he notes. It may give Barra some breathing room à la a “gap year,” but she’ll need to snap back to reality soon enough. The Charlie Munger Way Photographer: Houston Cofield/Bloomberg via Getty Images Charlie Munger was many things. “One of the most influential investors ever to have lived,” by John Authers’ [estimation](. A “prolific armchair philosopher” who advocated for learning “all the big ideas in all the big disciplines,” [according to]( Jonathan Levin. His talks “were peppered with references to Confucius, Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newtown and even Mozart.” He was even a fan of [poetry](, having quoted Rudyard Kipling during one of his [annual meetings](. In honor of that, here’s my measly attempt at poeticizing his legacy: Charlie Munger! He had that junk-food [hunger](, Especially for a [Costco]( hot dog. Buffett’s quality “[sidekick](,” Never without his [quick wit](, The [pessimist]( in the partnership. A witness to decades of history — of [AI]( and [crypto]( and [meme stock]( mysteries. The next [bubble](? He’d say, “you’ll miss me.” A glass-half-empty guy, Who never balked when things went awry, Except when it came to [Google](. With that, he felt like [a “horse’s ass](,” Albeit one now in the past, Barely a month before his 100th B-day bash. Keeper of the Berkshire portfolio, In [Omaha](! Not [San Antonio.]( [This]( was sadly his final rodeo. “Focus on what *not* to do,” That’s a clever mental trick for you ... One of [many]( that wise Nebraskan knew. Telltale Charts Allison Schrager [says]( the remainder of young people still interested in college are flocking to classes in science, technology, engineering and math because that’s where the jobs are. “Reading great books, learning history and debating philosophy do not appear relevant to this goal. But perhaps students feel this way because the arts aren’t doing what traditionally made them valuable: teaching people to how to think.” What will become of the newsletters of this world if their writers possess zero critical thinking skills! In the last decade, [humanities enrollment]( has fallen 17% — a decline that’s as bad for our brains as it is for the economy, Allison argues. Today, the Supreme Court considered a [case]( of potential overreach by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which is accused of violating a hedge fund manager’s right to a jury trial by assigning his case to an in-house judge. “It’s not clear the SEC really needs in-house judges in such cases,” Bloomberg’s editorial board writes. But they argue “there’s a bigger issue at stake, however: the SEC’s freedom to write rules and make other decisions.” Read [the whole thing](. Further Reading If history is any guide, Hamas is [taking advantage]( of this pause to resupply. — James Stavridis If Farfetch [goes private](, Richemont is in for a big headache. — Andrea Felsted Governments at COP28 [underestimate]( the true costs of climate change. — Clive Crook Before machines become [more intelligent]( than humans, we need to prepare. — Dave Lee PE firms that [own and lend]( to portfolio companies are in uncharted territory. — Chris Hughes SPACs are so last season: Singapore missed out on the [blank-check craze](. — Andy Mukherjee After two scorching summers, [cooler, higher areas]( in Europe will see more tourists. — Rachel Sanderson ICYMI Linda Yaccarino is in for a very umerry [X Mess](. Astronomers [discovered]( a six-planet solar system. The FDA says [this cancer treatment]( may cause cancer. Vladimir Putin wants women to have [eight more children](. Kickers McNugget Buddies [are back](. How [mortadella]( went from cold cut to hot item. [Taylor Swift]( and [Burlington]( are the stars of Spotify. Behind Rockefeller Center’s “[Chosen One.](” [This woman]( claims Chopt put a finger in her salad. [This man]( claims someone put meth in his underwear. Notes: Please send [Morty-D Sandos]( and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Threads](, [TikTok](, [Twitter](, [Instagram]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. 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