It's legal, but...

MARKETS

• Brexit: Theresa May revealed her Brexit "Plan B" yesterday. There's just one problem...it looks really similar to Plan A, which was defeated in historic fashion by British lawmakers last week.

INTERNATIONAL

Davos 2019: Did We Miss the Party?

Like one Super Bowl locker room, the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland this year might be more about who's not there than who is. Yes, that's a reference to the refs in the Saints game.

When the annual summit kicks off today, more than 60 heads of state and many other business tycoons will talk everything from climate change to globalization to slowing economic growth.

But missing from the ski resort?

• President Trump, who's trying to manage the partial government shutdown
• UK Prime Minister Theresa May, who's trying to manage Brexit
• French President Emmanuel Macron, who's trying to manage the yellow-vest protests

So maybe not the best time to throw up a "Your email is important to me, but I'm busy shredding the gnar pow pow" OOO message...

A silver lining? The WEF says their absences mean the focus this year could at long last be on the "non-Anglophone world."

That's about the only silver lining we could

Because Davos attendees will definitely be chatting about this weekend's disappointing economic news.

The IMF cut its forecast for the global economy...predicting it'll grow at its weakest clip in three years in 2019 thanks to trade tensions, slowing demand across Europe, and uncertainty in financial markets. It's the IMF's second downgrade in three months.

Here's IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde:

• "After two years of solid expansion, the world economy is growing more slowly than expected and risks are rising."
• "Does that mean a global recession is around the corner? No. But the risk of a sharper decline in global growth has certainly increased."

And did you catch the new numbers out of China? The country, whose economic explosion over the past half-century has been likened to a "miracle," posted its slowest growth rate in nearly three decades in 2018 at 6.6%.

Buried under a stack of papers forecasting lower-than-expected sales in China, Apple CEO Tim Cook is muttering, "I told you so."

TECH

Google Probably Shouldn’t Have Ignored All Those GDPR Emails

Google has been fined $57 million from a French regulator for violating GDPR rules. Sure, that's pocket change for a company worth $767 billion, but the penalty is the highest-profile slap on the wrist yet since GDPR went into effect in May 2018.

• Quick refresher on GDPR: The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation requires firms to follow strict privacy rules created to keep Europeans' data secure.

So what's the beef with Google? Regulators allege the search engine didn't do enough to get valid user consent before gathering data for targeted advertising.

While we're here...it looks like the battle to rein in big tech has only just begun. Margrethe Vestager—or as she's known in Silicon Valley, "She Who Must Not Be Named"—is the EU antitrust enforcer who's bullied Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Google.

The good news for those companies? Vestager is in her last year in office. The bad news? She's been busy creating stringent blueprints for tech regulation even after she's off the EU payroll.

SHUTDOWN

If at First You Don’t Succeed…

Try, try...to work around the SEC's public offering rules until you get the funding you need.

With the partial government shutdown at the one-month mark, the SEC's still unable to give potential IPOs the green light. That's driven some cash-strapped firms to extremes, according to the WSJ.

Option A: Use a workaround that allows you to begin trading without SEC signoff. The strategy involves changing IPO filing verbiage to make it automatically effective after 20 days.

• Yes, it's legal—but there are risks. A lot can happen to the market in 20 days, making it tough to price shares that far in advance.

Option B: Take a road trip that may never end. Before ringing the bell, companies often pitch investors during a "road show." But if the government is still shut down by the time a firm is ready to list, it could be forced to hit the circuit again...and again...

Bottom line: The typical IPO process involves lots of communication with the government pre-listing. But without the SEC's approval, some companies are flying blind.

FILM

Can We Interest You in More Documentaries?

We get it—your head is still spinning from a weekend bingeing both Fyre Festival docs. But the non-fiction filmmakers showing off their projects at the Sundance Film Festival (opening this Thursday) are hoping you aren't burnt out.

This year's crop of films is especially notable, because several focus on the business world...

• "American Factory": What happened when a Chinese billionaire bought a shuttered GM plant near Dayton, OH.
• "The Inventor: Out For Blood In Silicon Valley": Can you guess which disgraced exec this one profiles? Yep, Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos.
• "Untouchable": Examining the rise and fall of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

Zoom out: Sundance documentaries aren't just about big business, they are big business.

• In 2018 "a number of Sundance docs went on to gross more at the box office than some of the buzziest scripted films," per the AP.
• "Won't You Be My Neighbor" netted $22.8 million, "RBG" $14 million, and "Three Identical Strangers" $12.3 million, the AP reported.

CALENDAR

The Short Week Ahead

Short on days, sure, but not short on business news.

Tuesday: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos begins; earnings (Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Capital One, UBS); existing home sales; Oscar nominees announced; Baseball Hall of Fame inductees announced

Wednesday: Earnings (Procter & Gamble, Comcast, Ford, United Technologies, Texas Instruments)

Thursday: Earnings (Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, Starbucks, Intel, Bristol-Myers Squibb); jobless claims

Friday: Durable goods orders

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• PayPal CEO Dan Schulman has offered $25 million in interest-free cash advances for federal workers impacted by the government shutdown.
• Walmart and CVS finally came to an agreement over drug pricing. Looks like Walmart will stay in CVS's pharmacy network after all.
• Tesla secured permission to start selling Model 3s in Europe. Deliveries should start next month.
• Netflix is getting slammed by officials in Quebec for using footage from a deadly 2013 railway disaster in the province in films including mega-hit "Bird Box."

BREAKROOM

Coke and Pepsi
We're putting a business twist on the classic Bar Mitzvah game. We'll give you a brand and you've got to determine whether it's owned by Coca-Cola or PepsiCo. The best part? No running required.

1. Daasani
2. Mountain Dew
3. Tostitos
4. Powerade
5. Snapple

Breakroom Answers