Those hoping that the stock market pain from President Donald Trumps tariff announcements last week was over are in for a rude awakening this morning. As of the time of this writing, stock markets across the world have gotten hammered, adding to fears of a new so-called economic nuclear war. Heres what you need to know about the latest developments in Trumps tariff trade war and how the markets are reacting.
Bill Ackman: Trump tariffs are economic nuclear war
One of the most headline-grabbing pieces of news related to the ongoing stock market crash is comments from billionaire hedge fund manager and Trump supporter Bill Ackman. Yesterday, Ackman took to X to warn that Trumps tariffs, the worst of which are scheduled to go into effect this Wednesday, April 9, are equivalent to economic nuclear war.
In a post on X, Ackman said that the tariffs on America’s allies and enemies across the globe mean America is in the process of destroying confidence in our country as a trading partner, as a place to do business, and as a market to invest capital.
Ackman suggested that Trump should call a 90-day time out on the tariffs so the administration can negotiate with its trading partners.
However, Ackman warned, If, on the other hand, on April 9th we launch economic nuclear war on every country in the world, business investment will grind to a halt, consumers will close their wallets and pocket books, and we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate.
Will Trump and his administration heed Ackmans advice? Thats unknown. But they certainly didnt seem to have similar thoughts over the weekend, when Trumps administration spent much of the time doubling down on the tariffs that are currently sinking Americans retirement savings and already raising the prices American consumers pay for goods.
In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, President Trump boasted that many of the tariffs are already in effect, and a beautiful thing to behold. Trump went on to proclaim that Some day people will realize that Tariffs, for the United States of America, are a very beautiful thing!
Markets plunge around the worldagain
However, outside of Trump and his administration, its unlikely that many Americans feel that the tariffs are a beautiful thing to beholdat least if they have a 401(k) pension or other retirement plans. Thats because, as of the time of this writing, stock markets around the world are crashing yet again, following major crashes on Thursday and Friday of last weekthe two trading days after Trump announced his tariffs on April 2.
Today, the third trading day after Trumps tariff announcement, markets in Asia and Europe have already plummeted, according to data from Yahoo Finance. In Japan, the country’s Nikkei 225 stock market fell 7.83% on Monday, and Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index fell a staggering 13.22%. Shanghais SSE Composite Index fell 7.34%.
European markets are currently in the middle of their trading day and are also getting hit hard. The United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 is currently down 3.62% as of the time of this writing. Frances CAC 40 is down 3.92%, and Germanys DAX Performance Index is down 3.66%.
American stock markets are also down in premarket trading, suggesting that U.S. markets are in for another rough session when they open at 9:30 a.m. ET.
S&P 500 Futures: down 1.79%
Dow Futures: down 1.93%
Nasdaq Futures: down 1.95%
Big Tech and Big Retail sinkagain
Given that S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq futures are all down as of the time of this writing, it should come as little surprise that major U.S. tech companies and retailers are also seeing their shares sink for the third trading day in a row after Trumps tariffs were announced.
Many U.S. tech companies and most U.S. retailers rely on products, parts, or components that come from Asia, which is the region of the world hit hardest by Trumps tariffs. Here is how major tech companies are currently trading as of the time of this writing in premarket trading:
Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG): down 1.48%
Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN): down 2.09%
Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL): down 2.75%
Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META): down 2.24%
Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT): down 1.61%
NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA): down 3.39%
Shopify Inc. (Nasdaq: SHOP): down 5.55%
Tesla, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA): down 4.84%
And here is how major U.S. retailers are currently trading in premarket:
RH (NYSE: RH): down 0.47%
V.F. Corporation (NYSE: VFC): down 4.93%
Five Below, Inc. (Nasdaq: FIVE): down 2.11%
Wayfair Inc. (NYSE: W): down 4.91%
SharkNinja, Inc. (NYSE: SN): down 1.56%
Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT): down 1.02%
Costco Wholesale Corporation (Nasdaq: COST): down 0.96%
Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT): down 2.21%
While many of these stocks are seeing low double-digit drops in premarket this morning, keep in mind that most were hammered much, much harder last Thursday and Friday.
Now cryptocurrencies are crashing, too
But its not just stock markets and individual stocks that are falling today. Now cryptocurrencies are being hit fairly hard, too. As of the time of this writing, major digital assets are down, including:
Bitcoin: down 6.79% to $77,141.06
Ethereum: down 16.28% to $1,495.82
Solana: down 15.12% to $100.89
Dogecoin: down 14.85% to $0.1398
Official Trump: down 14.4% to $7.69
Banks say the odds of a global recession are increasing
Finally, it should be noted that now a second major investment bank has come out to say that, due to Trumps tariffs, the odds of a new global recession are increasing.
Last week, J.P.Morgan upped the odds of a global recession due to Trumps tariffs to 60% (up from 40% before the tariffs were announced).
Now, Goldman Sachs has also raised its odds. Pre-Trump tariffs, Goldman Sachs said that there was a 35% chance of a recession. Now Goldman Sachs says that the chance has jumped to 45%, notes Reuters.
Its no secret: Landing a job in todays economy can feel overwhelmingly difficult. Qualified candidates regularly apply to hundredssometimes even thousandsof positions before receiving that one coveted offer. In fact, over half of unemployed job seekers have been searching for four months or longer, highlighting how competitive the market has become.
And its not just the job market itself thats challenging. Were living through one of the most turbulent periods in modern history:
The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 4.1%, the highest in over two years.
23,000+ tech layoffs occurred in the first three months of 2025 alone.
Nearly 50% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
Consumer debt hit an all-time high of $18.04 trillion, with credit card delinquencies increasing sharply.
University degrees are no longer a guarantee of success. Even government jobs, once considered safe, are under threat. Its no wonder many job seekers feel anxious or fearful about asking for more.
Negotiation expert and career coach Ted Leonhardt notes that the fear of asking for higher pay has always been an obstacle. And in todays volatile environment, that fear can feel even more paralyzing. But he emphasizes: Workers at any level are more vulnerable today than any time in memory, perhaps since the Great Depression. This makes knowing your worth and advocating for yourself all the more essential.
Here are six essential tips for confidently negotiating your salary in todays tough economy.
1.Hide your desperation
A Pew Research Center survey found that most U.S. workers did not ask for higher pay the last time they were hired, with men slightly more likely than women to negotiate (32% vs. 28%).
Even if youre surviving on ramen and desperately need the job, dont let it show. Employers often interpret eagerness as desperation, leading to lower initial offers. Take your time to respondusually 24 to 48 hoursand subtly indicate youre considering multiple opportunities. This helps maintain your negotiating power.Leonhard further advises: Always be developing a new opportunity for yourself. A side gig. A better job elsewhere. Having other options in progress or appearing to can drastically reduce that sense of desperation.
2. Know your worth and back it up with data
Before negotiating, gather salary benchmarks from sites like Glassdoor, Payscale, and LinkedIn Salary. Present clear, data-backed reasons for your requested salary based on your experience, skills, and current market rates.
Leonhardt succinctly puts it: Know your value and use it as leverage. Leverage is always your superpower. Staying true to your worth can provide dividends. Annie Papp, executive vice president at Career Group Companies, advises that: In any job market, applicants should be prepared to come right out and ask for a raise or negotiate higher compensation. While it may seem obvious, most people dont do this, assuming their employer will offer a raise without promptingwhich is rarely the case.
3. Quantify your value
Make a detailed list of your accomplishments and quantify your impact whenever possible. For example: Increased sales by 300% within one year or Managed projects that increased revenue by $X amount. Even before the negotiation, review this to remind yourself of your accomplishments and the value you bring, boosting your confidence.
4. Bet on yourself and plan for the future
If the job offer isnt quite where you want it to be, focus on creating a clear path to get there over the next year. Jason Giagrande, CEO of Hospitality Farm, suggests: Bet on yourself. Propose a lucrative bonus structure with aggressive milestones or KPIs that your boss would be happy to pay if accomplished. Everyone wins, and it will motivate your growth individually as well as help your company grow. Not only does this show initiative, but it also aligns your compensation with company goals, making it easier for employers to say yes.
5. Be willing to walk away (if you truly are)
One key to negotiation success is the willingness to walk away. Listen carefully, remain composed, and always take time to consider the offer before responding.
6. Consider negotiating benefits, not just salary
If salary negotiations stall, consider other forms of compensation. Diversify your requests to reach a deal that satisfies both sides. Signing bonuses, professional development funds, flexible work arrangements, or extra vacation days can all hold significant value.This market is different because employers are being more cautious when it comes to hiring and budgeting. A few years ago, on the heels of the pandemic, applicants could negotiate higher salaries much more easily because every employer was in a desperate race to retain talent. Now, thats not the case. The frenzy has slowed, and employers are taking their time.
While inflated salary increases may no longer be the norm, advocating for growth is still crucial. Losing strong talent can ultimately have a far greater cost than providing a reasonable raise, Papp says. If higher compensation isnt immediately feasible, ask for a timeline to revisit the conversation.
Finally, Leonhardt offers a lasting piece of advice: Always be developing your connections and community both online and off. Connections with those you help are always the best opportunity for your continuously evolving future.
Negotiation can feel intimidating, especially in a fragile, uncertain world. But by advocating for yourself thoughtfully and strategically, youre not just setting yourself up for immediate successyoure safeguarding your long-term career stability.
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
Interim leadership is on the rise in the U.S. Nearly a quarter of new CEOs named in the first two months of 2025 were hired on an interim basis, versus 8% in the same period last year, according to a recent report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The surge in interim leadership coincides with significant tumult in the C-suite. The Challenger report shows that 247 U.S. companies named new CEOs in February, the second-highest total for any month since the firm started tracking CEO changes in 2002. A lot of times when a company brings in an interim CEO its when theyve been caught off guard by the CEOs departure, says Andy Challenger, senior vice president of the outplacement firm. Its not part of a structured succession plan. An interim CEO can buy a board time to conduct a thoughtful search for the right executive, especially if it feels the company needs skills that the existing leadership team lacks.
Management experts say theyre also seeing companiesparticularly mid-market and investor-backed businesseshire temporary CEOs during changes such as restructuring, merger integration, or executing a new strategy. Their expertise can be crucial to navigating complex changes that require seasoned leadershipeven temporary solutions can be transformative for an organization, says Sunny Ackerman, global managing partner of on-demand talent at Heidrick & Struggles, the executive search firm.
The Temp-to-perm CEO
Interim roles also can serve as a tryout for prospective CEO candidates. And companies can engage an interim executive while they figure out what they need in a leader. Ackerman recalls working with her team on an early-stage medical technology company that sought to replace its founder with a full-time CEO. Heidrick & Struggles brought in a life sciences consultant who had been a CEO to create a plan for market entry. The board then hired that consultant as interim CEO to execute the plan. Once they saw his operational skills and market expertise in practice, the board eventually decided to convert him to permanent CEO. Other temp-to-perm CEOs include Chipotles Scott Boatwright, who went from interim in August 2024 to permanent status three months later, and Lance Tucker, who last month was named CEO of Jack in the Box after a 36-day stint as interim CEO of the restaurant company.
Avoid leadership limbo
Companies need to be careful not to let interim leadership linger. If [an] interim is in place too long, it may communicate the wrong message to the market and employees and create uncertainty about the future leadership of the organization and its strategy, says Janice Ellig, CEO of executive search firm Ellig Group. Employees and the market like certainty. They want to know who is at the helm and what direction they are headed. And in the absence of clear guidance from the board, some interim chiefs may act like caretakers instead of leaders, causing the company to lose ground during the search for a permanent CEO.
One things for sure: Interim CEOs arent going away. Ackerman notes that many of the CEOs exiting business right now are baby boomer and Gen X retirees who are eager to remain active by taking on interim roles, generating a larger pool of independent talent than weve ever seen before, she says.
Are you a temp-to-perm leader?
Are you a CEO or leader who turned a temporary or interim role into a permanent one? How did you win your role? Send your stories to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. Id love to share your experiences in a future newsletter.
Read more: temps in the C-suite
The great fractionalization may be coming to your leadership team
How to step in as an interim manager
Interim CEO posts: intense and eye-opening
According to the latest Gallup State of the Workplace report, employees are seeking new jobs at thehighest levelsince 2015. This trend has been coined The Great Detachment.
A key reason for this is increasing employee dissatisfaction with management. For instance, Gallups research shows that those who work in companies withbad management practicesare nearly 60% more likely to be stressed, and stress is the second most-cited factor influencing employees’ decisions to quit.
Peoples values have also changed post-COVID-19. Employees prioritize well-being. They expect their contribution to be recognized, and if they arent valued or supported, they arent prepared to tolerate it.
The rise of Gen Z in the workplace also needs to be considered. They now make up 27% of the workforce across the 38 high-income countries that make up the OECD. This generation wants to be coached, not directed, and if they dont feel that theyre progressing or that their employer wants to cultivate them, theyll simply leave.
Yet, management practice has remained unchanged, with managers still using outdated and clunky methods unsuited to todays workplace. Managers are ill-equipped to give feedback and handle challenging conversations in this rapidly changing work environment and consequently default to directing employees rather than enabling them.
Companies need to upskill their middle managers urgently to keep employees engaged and stop hemorrhaging talent. After all, talent is critical for successcompanies in the top quartile of employee engagement achieve23% higher profitabilitythan those in the bottom quartile.
If youre losing your top talent to your competitors and suspect poor management may be a cause, here are three things to do:
1. Shift the prevailing management mindset from managing to enabling
Managers are often high-performing employees promoted for their technical strengths rather than their people skills. Their management style is typically command and controlsimply directing and providing solutions for employees’ problems without engaging their capabilities.
This can be incredibly demotivating for employees, signalling their ideas arent valued or welcomed. Over time, they lose autonomy over their work and wait for direction from their managers before following their instructions, leading to increased disengagement.
Managers urgently need to change their mindset from perceiving themselves as the manager and solver of all problems to becoming the enabler of other people’s talents and capabilities. Affording team members the space to contribute creates opportunities for them to grow and advance. To do this, managers need to adopt an enquiry-led approach by learning to ask powerful and insightful questions that encourage reflection at the point that would be most helpful to someones thinking.
Instead of asking why questions such as Why did this happen? shift to asking what questions. For instance, What are the reasons behind this outcome? or What could have gone better? What questions remove the personal sting from a why question and promote reflection without triggering defensiveness. This simple change signals a shift from being the all-knowing manager to being a supportive enabler, which is beneficial not only for employee growth but also for building an inclusive and collaborative team culture.
2. Give better feedback to stimulate high performance
Giving feedback is often associated with challenging conversations, as managers try to share something they want people to change or improve upon. Moving to more intentional, appreciative and developmental feedback can support employee development.
Instead of constantly identifying problems or behaviors that need fixing, managers should seek out moments when someone has excelled in a particular situation. Visibly pointing out the skills or behaviors that made a positive difference to outcomes is a great way to build trust and an openness to constructive feedback. It also creates an environment where employees look forward to coming to work and are motivated to build on their strengths and contribute at their best, increasing job satisfaction.
3. Encourage more collaboration within teams
Rather than defaulting to a command and control style of fixing everyones problems, managers must develop their awareness and tune in to coachable moments throughout the day. For example, instead of stepping in to solve every issue brought to them, managers learn to recognise the potential for a better outcome by engaging team members to explore their problem-solving capabilities, giving them the space to suggest ideas and talk them through. They might ask what ideas theyve thought of themselves that could offer a way forward and explore the steps they would need to take to progress those options.
Using a more purposeful approach to asking questions intended to stimulate other peoples thinking in the flow of work has been recognised as an advance in management practice known as Operational Coaching. Practitioners learning this new approach stop firefighting and instead adapt their management style to engage their team, acknowledge their capabilities, and invite greater collaboration. This demonstrates that employees thinking and contributions are valued, increasing employee satisfaction, and managers win back valuable time from not stepping in to every problem.
Why these strategies help retain top talent
As a result of the behavioral work we were engaged in, we developed the STAR model to help managers apply these skills in their daily lives. STAR consists of four steps:
STOP Step back and change state
THINK Is this a coachable moment?
ASK Powerful questions and actively listen
RESULT Agree on next steps and an outcome from the conversation
By applying this model, managers can learn to adopt new coaching-style “behaviors” in the moment, enabling them to challenge, support, and grow the capabilities of their team members in ways that measurably benefit both the individual and the organization. When employees feel valued for their contributions, have autonomy in their work, and sense their managers care for their development and advancement, their relationship with work improves.
As workplaces evolve, businesses must recognize the need to shift managers from their task-focused mindset to a people-focused mindset. This simple but vital step will help foster an environment that values every employee and ensures that top talent is appeciated, nurtured, and retained.
The first few weeks of working for a new boss are exciting. Youre ready to jump in, hopeful for growth opportunities, and eager to please. Your boss is enthusiastic, too, likely welcoming you with open arms, setting up 1-1s, and taking a keen interest in your professional development. You both want to make a great impression on each other.
Yet, as the new job glow wears off, you may find yourself confused by how quickly your bosss attention vanishes. The leader you were excited to work for becomes the person ignoring your emails, giving haphazard feedback, and postponing your 1-1 (again!).
Working for a boss who is overwhelmed is a frustrating, yet not uncommon experience.
A growing number of managers report feeling burnt out. Yet, employees are eager for growth opportunities, mentorship, and regular communication with their leaders. This tension often results in teammates feeling under-supported and confused, while managers feel overloaded and guilty.
Even if your manager is spiraling, youre not powerless. Through intentionally leading yourself, you can form a supportive and impactful partnership, getting the most out of your managers often limited time.
Make it easy to say yes
When your manager is juggling a million things, they dont have time to read between the lines or guess what you need. Most leaders want to support their teamthey just need a little direction. Thats where you come in.
Rather than hoping your manager will support you, be specific. Ask them to role-play a tough conversation with you, join a high-stakes meeting, or advocate for your work to leadership. The clearer you are about what you need, the easier it is for them to step up and help.
Dont just hope for growth opportunitiesgo after them. Find the conference you want to attend, break down why it matters, how much it costs, and then ask your manager for approval. A clear, direct request is way more likely to get a yes than a vague wish for development.
Same goes for flexibility. Instead of saying you need more work-life balance, be specific. Ask to work from home on Fridays or swap early mornings for late nightswhatever actually helps you.
Your manager is busy, and broad requests like support or professional development are easy to push to the bottom of the list. Spell out exactly what you need, make it an easy yes, and watch how much more you get.
Take charge of your 1-1s
If your manager is showing up to your 1-1s frazzled and in need of a deep breath, youre not alone. The challenge is that overwhelmed managers spend most of their time on near-term fires. Theyre often worried about getting through the week, not building a successful year.
Left unchecked, this can leave your long-term strategies and professional growth high and dry. Address the pop-up windows in your managers brain first, but then take it upon yourself to proactively bring up longer-view horizons by asking questions like:
What skills should I be proactively developing to excel in my role?
How can I further support our organizational strategy of X? Or mitigate the challenge of Y?
Who should I be building relationships with beyond our immediate team?
1-1s that dont go beyond immediate deliverables wont hurt your manager, theyll hurt you. Surface whats most important to your career growth; dont wait for your manager to bring it up.
Create a paper trail
A leader who is overwhelmed will often forget what happened, what they said, and what the next steps are. Their brain is either in overdrive or stuck in a survival response.
If your leader is overwhelmed, create a paper trail. Its on you to recap conversations, confirm prioritizations, and document timelines. This is of service to you and your manager.
For you, creating a paper trail saves you time. When your manager can search their inbox for information, theyre less likely to ask you to recap or remind. When they inevitably ask you anyway, you have a simple email to forward. A paper trail is also a form of self-protection. Overwhelmed bosses are more likely to give unclear directions, change timelines, and constantly change their minds. Protect yourself and your work product by documenting important conversations.
Busy managers are juggling a hundred things at once, and sometimes, they dont even realize theyve given unclear or conflicting feedback until they see it in writing. That quick comment they made in passing? It might not hold up once its written down. That timeline they casually agreed to? It might suddenly seem impossible when its laid out in black and white.
If your boss is moving a mile a minute, a clear, written recap can be a lifesaverit gives them a chance to process things at their own pace and catch any misunderstandings before they turn into bigger problems.
Bottom line: dont leave things up to memory or interpretation. Put it in writing and protect yourself from the dreaded I never said that.
Be the change you seek
Dont add fuel to the never-ending corporate fire drill. People mirror the energy around themregardless of hierarchy. Want your manager to be more engaged? Show up engaged. Wish they were less frantic? Bring calm and focus to your meetings.
Yes, working for an overwhelmed boss can be frustrating. But odds are, they dont want to be this way. They probably wish they had more time to support you, but theyre drowning in emails, answering to their own micromanager, or buried under deadlines.
Heres the good news: You dont have to wait for them to change the dynamic. You can shift the toneno title required.
On Mauis North Shore, inside an industrial building that was once a pineapple cannery, an architecture office sits across the hall from a surfboard manufacturer. When the architects first moved in, they noticed something: Every few days, the dumpsters in the back would fill up with scraps of foam from making the boards.
David Sellers, one of the architects, realized that the foam could be used in a building materialinsulated blocks that are typically made from a mix of concrete and new polystyrene foam. I was just like, We shouldnt be throwing this away, says Sellers, principal architect at the firm, Hawaii Off Grid. We live on an island, with limited space. So how can we use this to make houses?
[Photo: Hawaii Off Grid]
In 2023, the team got a small grant to pursue the idea of recycling the surfboard waste into new blocks. Then came the Lahaina fire, which destroyed more than 2,000 homes and other buildings. The small firm paused the project and focused at first on helping redesign houses. But we also said, we’re going to need a lot of building materials, he says. And we’re going to need building materials that are fire resistant.
The blocks have some advantages. In addition to resisting fire, theyre also four times as strong as a two-by-four framed wall in a hurricane. Theyre impervious to mold, mildew, and termites, all issues in Hawaii. The insulation properties are twice whats required by code. (The fact that its energy efficient is especially important for Hawaii Off Grid, which focuses on the carbon footprint of each of its projects; the firm actually requires all of its clients to commit to net zero buildings.) The blocks use only about a third as much cement as is used in cinder blocks.
[Photo: Hawaii Off Grid]
Its also an accessible alternative to wood. Lumber is at an all-time high again, and the availability of building materials is stretched thin, Sellers says. This is another option that people can utilize and hopefully help them rebuild faster and not be pinched by the current tariffs that we’re dealing with in the building industry.
To make the blocks, the company uses a large machine to grind up the foam into tiny beads. Then those are mixed with Portland cement, making a consistency that Sellers compares to rice crispy treats, and pressed together in wooden molds. The one-foot-high blocks are five feet long, making them faster to stack together during construction.
The design-build firm has just completed its first house using the surfboard-waste-based blocks, on the edge of the burn zone in Lahaina. More are coming. Though the fire happened 20 months ago, the process of rebuilding is just beginning, delayed by the need to decontaminate properties and by red tape. Now, as construction begins to ramp up, materials will be in more demand.
[Photo: Hawaii Off Grid]
With the volume of foam waste produced by its neighbor alone, the firm has calculated that it would have enough to build 10 to 20 houses a year, much more than it currently needs as a small firm. Sellers has also talked to companies like Lowe’s about recycling foam packaging after appliance deliveries. (In theory, old surfboards could also be recycled, though surfers tend to hang on to old boards and display them rather than throw them away.)
The idea could be replicated by other builders, Sellers says. But he’s hoping that polystyrene foam can eventually be phased outat which point, they’d stop using the blocks as a building material. “I hope we won’t be using petroleum-based solutions, moving forward,” he says. Surfboard companies are already experimenting with alternative materials, and other companies are trying to find foam alternatives for packaging. For now, the architects plan to keep recycling as much foam as possible to keep it out of the dump and out of nature. “We have a stockpile of foam,” Sellers says. “We’re trying to not let any foam go in the landfill.”
While home sales and remodeling rates remain low, Thumbtackwhich connects homeowners with professionals to do work on their housessays business is booming.
In fiscal 2024, Thumbtack saw revenue of $400 million, up 27% from the previous year, with billions of dollars going to the roughly 300,000 small businesses that book work through the platform. Cofounder and CEO Marco Zappacosta attributes the companys success to more than 15 years of work helping users find the right, trustworthy professionaleven if theyre not entirely sure what they need to fix a problem in their homebolstered by recent advances in artificial intelligence.
“You’ve got to remember this is, on average, a $1,000 purchase,” Zappacosta says. “It’s not something you do casually.”
[Photo: Thumbtack]
Zappacosta believes it’s inevitable that the vast majority of home maintenance and remodeling bookings will ultimately move online, similar to the travel and transportation industries. What sets this industry apart, however, is the sheer number of service typesThumbtack lists professionals in about 500 different categories, from ceramic tile installation to black mold remediation.
To help users understand what’s available and how services match their needs, the company has offered an AI-powered search feature since last year. It allows users to describe home issues in plain language, rather than rely on keyword searches or Yellow Pages-style lookups for terms like “plumber” or “electrician.” Thumbtack is also testing an AI feature that lets users upload photos of home issues, such as a leak through the ceiling, to get help finding the right professional.
As AI grows more powerful, it can help transform the experience of booking home services from a traditional internet search into something more like a conversation with a savvy neighbor, Zappacosta suggests.
[Photo: Thumbtack]
“The opportunity that AI creates for our business is at any point in the process, if you have a question or concern, or if you have to make a decision, we can arm you with the relevant context to help you evaluate that and confidently take action,” he says.
Even before the rise of large language models, the company offered a collection of home project guides, including advice to help people decide when to tackle a task themselves and when to hire an expert. Alongside reminders of scheduled work and tools to rebook trusted pros, the Thumbtack app also provides customized guidance on when to perform various maintenance tasksguidance Zappacosta suggests will only improve as AI systems advance and the company gathers more data about users, their homes, and their needs.
AI can also likely help professionals optimize their use of Thumbtack, Zappacosta says, enabling them to better configure platform features to find sales leads suited to their businesses.
“The focus on pros is always how we can provide them more consistent value,” he says.
[Photo: Thumbtack]
Thumbtack’s technical edge, says Sequoia Capital partner and Thumbtack board member Bryan Schreier, gives the company a strong chance of becoming the go-to platform for home servicesakin to Uber for ride-hailing or DoorDash for delivery.
“Owning a home is complex, and so I think it’s just taken a while to deliver the technical achievement that is required to become the Uber of the home services space, because it is so complex,” Schreier says. “In the last couple of years, in terms of its growth and profitability, I think the secret behind [Thumbtack’s] emergence is the fact that they have cracked the technological nut behind what had been holding back a company from becoming the Uber of the home services space until now.”
In parallel with its AI efforts, Thumbtack has forged partnerships with other online platforms, including providing search results for home improvement-related terms on Nextdoor. The company was also recently featured in an Amazon preview of upcoming AI enhancements for Alexa, which would be able to book professionals on users behalf. These partnerships now account for 10% of Thumbtacks annual revenue and help deliver its services to users even if they dont visit the site directly.
“Hiring pros and dealing with your home is a huge activityit happens in a ton of places on the internet,” says Zappacosta. “And increasingly, platforms are utilizing us as the best way to fulfill a homeowner’s hiring needs.”
When the House of Cinema in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, was demolished in 2017, it was an architectural awakening for the city. A large circular concrete building completed in 1982, the House of Cinema was an instant cultural and architectural landmark in the city, then part of the Soviet Union. Its demolition, to make way for a controversial commercial development project, spurred many in the city to worry about which landmark would fall next.
That led the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation to launch a citywide research project to document endangered buildings. Most were built between the late 1960s and early 1980s when the Soviet Union sought to frame its ambitions through civic architecture. Many buildings from this time embraced modernism, with swooping facades, inventive structural forms, and artful mosaic panels adorning interiors and exteriors. As public buildings, their fates were at the whims of government leaders eager to develop the city into a 21st century economic powerhouse, which is how the House of Cinema was destroyed.
[Photo: Karel Balas/Tashkent: A Modernist Capital, Rizzoli New York/courtesy of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation]
To try to stop others from falling, the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation funded a team of international researchers, historians, and architects to undertake Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI, a research project documenting the city’s modernist structures, and rallying for their preservation.
[Photo: Karel Balas/Tashkent: A Modernist Capital, Rizzoli New York/courtesy of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation]
The concentration of modernist architecture is very high in Tashkent, but what truly sets it apart is the remarkable number of well-planned, innovative, and elegantly designed public buildings, says architect Ekaterina Golovatyuk, one of the experts involved in the project and a co-founder of Grace Studio, a Milan-based architecture, design, and urbanism firm.
Underway since 2018, the research project has documented 24 key modernist sites across the city. Of those, 21 have secured national heritage site status, along with 154 mosaic panels, protecting them from demolition.
[Cover Image: Rizzoli]
These buildings, and the ongoing effort to save them, is the subject of a pair of new books, Tashkent: A Modernist Capital, published by Rizzoli New York, and Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI, published by Lars Müller Publishers. The books reveal Tashkent as an under appreciated hotbed of modernist architecture, and a historical turning point for both Soviet and post-Soviet Central Asia.
At one point the fourth largest city in the Soviet Union, Tashkent was chosen in the 1950s as a showcase of the Soviet Orient, which resulted in an architectural boom. The city was meant to demonstrate how well socialism could adapt to a different cultural context, Golovatyuk says. This initiated a very interesting search for local identity, contended between architects from Tashkent and Moscow. The result was a transformation of traditional architectural elements within the framework of a modernist language.
State Museum of History [Photo: Karel Balas/Tashkent: A Modernist Capital, Rizzoli New York/courtesy of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation]
This building spree took on new urgency in 1966 when a massive earthquake damaged much of the city. The city’s recovery coincided with a Soviet Union-wide emphasis on prefabricated building and new forms of construction, leaving Tashkent with a wide variety of inventive and modern buildings.
Palace of Peoples’ Friendship [Photo: Karel Balas/Tashkent: A Modernist Capital, Rizzoli New York/courtesy of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation]
The Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI research project has put this legacy under a new spotlight, helping to save many buildings from demolition while also underscoring their significance as the city grows. Some of these buildings are also being seen in a broader context. Golovatyuk and Giacomo Cantoni, co-founder of Grace Studio, were recently named curators of Uzbekistan’s national pavilion at the upcoming Venice Architecture Biennale. Their exhibition will focus on one project included in the research project, a large-scale scientific complex outside Tashkent known as the Sun Heliocomplex. Dedicated to studying solar energy, it was ahead of its time in both design and intention.
Big Solar Furnace [Photo: Karel Balas/Tashkent: A Modernist Capital, Rizzoli New York/courtesy of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation]
Golovatyuk says this project and others that are being saved through the Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI research project are finding new relevance, especially within Uzbekistan, where contemporary architects are building on their heritage. I think the search for national identity restarted almost from scratch when Uzbekistan gained independence in 1991, says Golovatyuk, who first visited Tashkent in 2006. Many buildings have sought to establish continuity with the pre-Soviet past through ornamentation, probably in a more exuberant manner than during the modernist period.
Big Solar Furnace [Photo: Karel Balas/Tashkent: A Modernist Capital, Rizzoli New York/courtesy of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation]
An emerging generation of young architects is taking particular inspiration from the buildings being preserved through the Tashkent Modernism XX/XXI research project, creating what Golovatyuk calls a more sophisticated dialogue with both tradition and the modernist past.
Palace of Peoples’ Friendship [Photo: Karel Balas/Tashkent: A Modernist Capital, Rizzoli New York/courtesy of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation]
The effort to save and recognize these buildings is city-specific for Tashkent, where modernism is now a kind of calling card. But it’s also a fight that exists in cities around the world, such as Philadelphia, where an internationally renowned police headquarters building is losing a long preservation battle, and Boston, where the government center complex is a perennial demolition target.
Palace of Culture of Aviators [Photo: Karel Balas/Tashkent: A Modernist Capital, Rizzoli New York/courtesy of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation]
A few of these buildings faced at least some risk of transformation, but I believe it is to be expected. The city has been undergoing rapid growth for the past eight years, there is significant pressure on all real estate, Golovatyuk says. This kind of pressure is the fate of modernism not only in Tashkent, but worldwide. The research project’s success in securing protected status for Tashkent’s modernist buildings could be a playbook for other cities to follow.
The news has been something of a hellscape lately, and the urge to doomscroll is destined to worsen rising anxieties about tariffs and the cost of living. Luckily, theres a new website that you can turn to if you need a bit of a brain break, and its all about chickens.
Chicken.pics is a site from the mind of Erika Hall, cofounder of the design consultancy Mule. In a new subsection on the site, called Clickens, users are presented with two paintings of chickens and asked to judge them based on a hyper-specific adjective: For example, one might have to choose which of two hens is more maladjusted, mephistophelean, or persnickety.
All of the chickens are hand-painted by Hall, and there are over 200 of them, as well as more than 200 potential adjectives, which means the chicken show-down options are functionally infinite. Its a nostalgic concept that harkens back to an early 2010s era of the internet, when silly stunt websites were everywhereand its a reminder that sometimes, the internet can still be fun.
[Photo: chicken.pics]
Which chicken is more punk?
The idea for Clickens hatched back in 2021, when Hall was on a sabbatical to write her book, Just Enough Research, and was, by her own admission, looking for ways to procrastinate.
She took up painting with watercolors and gouache as a sufficiently distracting side-hobby, but soon found it difficult to imagine new things to paint. Chicken was top of mind at the time because Halls senior pug, Rupert, had begun preferring the meat over his usual canned food.
[Photo: chicken.pics]
I thought, You know what, if I have to cook all this chicken for my silly little dog, I need to do something for the chickens, because we take chickens for granted, Hall says. Like, there’s 33 billion of them on the planet, and we just turn them into nuggets and things. And I thought, I’m going to honor these chickens that I’m feeding to my dog by really trying to see chickens and help other people see chickens.
So, Hall started painting chickensand just didnt stop. Soon, square profile pics of chickens were covering her kitchen walls. Last year, she set up Chicken.pics to as a gallery to display the works.
[Photo: chicken.pics]
I made this website last year called Chicken.picswhich is, like, the greatest domain everbecause the web has gotten all platformized, and there just aren’t fun, stupid websites anymore, Hall says. So I decided I was going to restart the web from first principles and just make a website. It’s not trying to sell you anything. It’s just got pictures of chickens.
In the last week of February, a friend helped Hall add the Clickens feature to the website, which pits two random chickens against each other in a battle of adjectives, hot or not style, Hall says. In just over a month, more than 74,000 votes have been cast on the site.
People need something to do that isn’t doom scrollingthat was the intention, Hall says. It’s just a silly thing for people to do.
An outbreak of extreme weather has roiled the country with deadly dust storms in the plains and hundreds of tornadoes across the eastern U.S. over the past few weeks.
Now, heavy rainfall across parts of the South and Midwest is prompting comparisons with some of the worst flooding on record for the region.
Very moist air from the record-warm Gulf of Mexico is being drawn northward into a stalled frontal system creating a perfect recipe for torrential rains. Parts of the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys received more than 15 inches of rain over the past four days.
High water swept away buildings, forced water rescues in river towns, and cut off rural areas when roads flooded. More than 18 people have died, just days after damaging tornadoes swept through some of the same locations.
The rains prompted dire wording from the National Weather Service including warnings of a potentially historic, prolonged flash flood event and serious concern of catastrophic, life-threatening consequences from generational rainfall.
This isnt routine. This is a rare, high-impact, and potentially devastating event, said a social media post from the Memphis office of the National Weather Service.
This weeks floods are set to reach a mark set only a handful of times over the past 200 years. The region’s last floods of this magnitude were in 1997 and 2011. In 1997, parts of western Kentucky received more than 10 inches of rain in a single day, which created turbulent currents on the Ohio River strong enough to flood the lock-and-dam infrastructure that allows barge traffic to operate.
In 2011, water rose so rapidly that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had to blast a hole in levees along Mississippi River farmland in rural southern Missouri in a last-ditch effort to avoid an uncontrolled breach of the levees further downstream in Memphis, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans.
The worst-case scenario for the Ohio River was the flood of 1937in which the river peaked about 10 feet higher than current forecasts. Although that magnitude isn’t expected this time, a similar amount of rain felljust about 100 miles further north than this weeks storms, enough so nearly all runoff went into the Ohio River. More than a million people were homeless after the 1937 flood, and only one bridge was left intact between Pittsburgh and Memphis. The flood struck during the middle of the Dust Bowl and at the end of the Great Depression, and it paved the way for the modern system of flood control through levees and dams.
Although weather forecasts for the rains have been reliable, the National Weather Service continues to be stretched thin due to Trumps budget cuts.
A staffing assessment gathered by NWS employees and published by the Associated Press on Friday found that nearly half of all local forecast offices are now critically understaffed, reducing meteorologists ability to interface with the public and local emergency management.
Detailed vacancy data for all 122 weather field offices show eight offices are missing more than 35% of their staffincluding those in Arkansas and Kentucky where tornadoes and torrential rain hit this week, said the report.
A four-day total rainfall of 15 inches is more than Memphis, Tennessee, typically receives in April, May, and June combined. According to NWS data, in a stable climate, that kind of rainstorm is only expected to recur approximately once every 500 to 1,000 years.
This is exactly the sort of extreme weather event that our infrastructure isn’t built to handle. According to the Corps of Engineers, many of the locks and dams along the Ohio River are beyond their 50-year lifespan. Climate change increases the risk of extreme rainfall events, and the Corps is in the process of updating its flood maps to account for those changes nationwide.
This weeks rains have already created major flash flooding in cities and smaller rivers from Texas to Ohio. Near the confluence with the Mississippi River, the Ohio River is expected to crest by mid-April at its highest level since 2011just a few feet below the tops of the levees there.
All that water will gradually make its way into the Mississippi and out to the Gulf of Mexico through Louisiana. In addition to physical damages, the flooding could bring weeks of shipping delays for companies that rely on the roads and river barges that form the backbone of the Midwests economy. This weeks flooding could add to supply chain chaos as Trumps latest tariffs go into effect.
The governors of Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee have asked the federal government for help, and Kentucky has also activated its National Guard to help respond to the floods. The governors have also declared states of emergency as waters continue to rise.
