What else are his "magic seeds" in?
What else are his "magic seeds" in?
Plus: A controlled-substance showdown for our age!
Editor’s note: I have two invites to Bluesky, a popular Twitter alternative, and I’ll give them out to the first two paying Friends of Fingers who claim them by replying to this email. If you’re not yet a paying subscriber, consider upgrading today! (NB: Buying a subscription doesn’t guarantee you an invite; they went fast last time I did this. But it does guarantee you full access to a year of independent journalism about drinking in America!)—Dave.
Last week, news broke that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had purchased $95 million worth of Anheuser-Busch InBev stock at some point in this year’s second fiscal quarter. This follows a February 2023 investment in which the foundation, as well as Bill.i.Am personally, acquired a combined ~$940 million stake in Heineken, the world’s second-largest macrobrewer.
It is this boozeletter’s overarching project to interrogate the powerful forces that shape the institution of drinking in America. So even though we’re just one week removed from considering Ted Cruz’s ass, I am regrettably duty-bound to hash out the commercial, political, and conspiratorial dynamics at play here. Why has one of the world’s wealthiest and Illuminati-est figures taken a billion-dollar interest the beer business? Strap on those tinfoil hats, Fingers Fam, because people—including me—have ideas, man.
Let’s start with some basic industry analysis from your fearless Fingers editor. My theories on this, with varying levels of cynicism, are: