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|  |  | Friday, November 7, 2025 | |  | | Peter Dazeley/Getty Images | Good morning, Quartz readers! It’s Shannon Carroll with the Daily Brief. Today, Ozempic gets cheaper on paper, prosperity gets pricier in practice, OpenAI deletes its “backstop,” and 40 airports learn what a shutdown feels like at the gate. | | HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW | Ground control lost contact with
Congress. In a sign that Washington’s shutdown dysfunction has taken to the skies, the FAA said it will reduce flights at 40 major hubs to prevent employee fatigue from turning into danger. | October was brutal for workers. Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported 153,000 job cuts — the most since
2003 — as tech and logistics shed tens of thousands and seasonal hiring hit its weakest level on record. | Huang’s remarks traveled faster
than Nvidia’s chips. After the CEO said China would win the AI race (see: lower energy costs and looser regulations), he issued a late-night correction, insisting the U.S. is “nanoseconds” ahead. | OpenAI, meet PR triage. After the CFO floated a federal “backstop” for its chip and data-center costs, Trump’s AI czar vowed that “no
bailout” would ever come, and Sam Altman quickly walked back the comments. | | | SPONSORED |  | News. Without motives. That's 1440 | Be the smartest person in the room by reading 1440, where 4.5 million Americans find their daily, fact-based news fix.
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| | SLIM MARGINS | America’s most popular weight-loss drug now has a new side effect: politics. The Trump administration said Thursday that it struck deals with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to slash the list prices of their blockbuster GLP-1 drugs in exchange for partial Medicare coverage — a move that could extend access to
millions of older Americans while giving TrumpRx, the new federal drug portal, its debut headline. The arrangement revives a Biden-era policy Trump once shelved, now repackaged with his branding and a promise that Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound will drop from about $1,000 a month out of pocket to $245 by 2027.
About 10% of Medicare beneficiaries will gain expanded access through a 2026 pilot program, with $50 copays and optional state Medicaid buy-ins. For drugmakers, that’s
a small concession to secure a market millions of potential new customers; for Trump, it’s proof that a populist stance can double as a marketing strategy. The deal also underscores his administration’s “most-favored-nation” push — forcing U.S. drugmakers toward matching their lowest global prices while wrapping the whole thing in campaign-season theatrics.
The Oval Office rollout ended abruptly when a Novo Nordisk executive reportedly collapsed — an on-the-nose coda for a plan that
blurs health policy with brand management. The Biden administration had tried to expand obesity-drug coverage last year before Trump halted it, only to revive it now with his name on the bottle. Shares of Eli Lilly rose roughly 1%, Novo’s slipped 4%, and Washington’s appetite for price control suddenly looks insatiable. Quartz’s Catherine Arnst has more on how TrumpRx turned weight loss into political gain. | | BUY NOW, PAIN LATER | The Trump economy is having a great year on paper — fitting, perhaps, because paper is what it looks like it’s built on. October’s ADP report showed a modest gain of 42,000 private-sector jobs after two straight
months of losses, and the headlines immediately called it a rebound. But most of those new roles came from health care, education, and logistics — the places where demand can’t fall — while white-collar fields such as IT, business services, and hospitality kept shrinking. Challenger, Gray & Christmas logged 153,000 layoffs in October, the most since 2003. The surface reads like recovery; the subtext reads like strain.
Consumers are living the contradiction. Restaurant chains that
once tracked the middle class are watching sales crater: Chipotle shares are down 50%, Sweetgreen shares are down 80%, and even McDonald’s is seeing double-digit drops in visits from low-income diners despite its endless menu of $5 “value” meals. Household debt climbed another $200 billion last quarter to a record $18.6 trillion, and credit-card delinquencies are up 80% from a year ago. With the Bureau of Labor Statistics still dark amid the record shutdown, the Fed is operating without instruments — a central bank steering by instinct through
the fog.
On the surface, the Trump economy is everything a campaign could want: steady growth, low unemployment, rising markets. But beneath that gloss, the gains are narrowing and the floor is creaking. White-collar jobs are vanishing, households are maxed out, and policymakers are calling this stability only because they can’t measure the slippage. This is prosperity propped up by optimism and overdraft — one that feels, and may yet prove, entirely paper-thin. Quartz’s Catherine Baab has more on why this boom feels borrowed. | | | SPONSORED | | News. Without motives. That's
1440 | Be the smartest person in the room by reading 1440, where 4.5 million Americans find their daily, fact-based news fix.
They navigate through 100+ sources to deliver a comprehensive roundup from every corner of the internet: politics, global events, business, and culture, all in a quick, 5-minute newsletter.
It's completely free and devoid of bias or political influence,
ensuring you get the facts straight. Subscribe to 1440 today. | |
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