[Simone Del Rosario]

We made it through another election year where the economy was the top issue for voters. So which business stories grabbed you the most this year? We know you came to Straight Arrow News for the unbiased, straight facts. I decided to pull together the business stories you watched the most in 2024. These are your top 5. 

We had enough to worry about here with the U.S. economy, but what really grabbed your attention is an economic experiment happening in South America. See, voters in Argentina had just elected a brash, unconventional choice for president in Javier Milei. He’s the guy who promised to take a chainsaw to the economy. He has a friendship with President-elect Donald Trump and has been called a “mini Trump” in the past. 

A year following his election, we checked in with economists to grade Milei’s year. Despite the poverty rate under his policies spiking to include more than half the population, he’s made serious progress on inflation and the economy is starting to grow. There’s real hope he can turn things around there if the people of Argentina don’t run out of patience. 

When this man makes money moves, the world pays attention. So when Warren Buffett kept selling Apple stock and hoarding cash, you wanted to know why – or rather, what he knew. The Oracle of Omaha said, Don’t worry, Apple is still Berkshire Hathaway’s largest investment.

Warren Buffett: But I don’t mind at all, under current conditions, building the cash position. I think when I look at the alternative of what’s available in the equity markets, and I look at the composition of what’s going on in the world, we find it quite attractive.

Simone Del Rosario: There it is from the horse’s mouth. But an analyst quoted in our story speculated the Apple sell might have more to do with the death of Buffett’s right-hand man, Charlie Munger, who may have always been more comfortable with the company. 

So far in 2024, Apple’s share price is up 36%. 

The boycott of Bud Light was a huge business story in 2023, and by 2024 the beer still hadn’t recovered. But this year conservatives found a new target in Dunkin’ Donuts and set out to give it the “Bud Light Treatment.” 

The hashtag Boycott Dunkin Donuts splattered across social media after the CEO of Rumble said Dunkin’s parent company refused to advertise on the site because of its “right wing culture.” Rumble is essentially the conservative counterpart to YouTube. 

Was the boycott successful? It’s no Bud Light. The momentum fizzled out because Dunkin is a privately-held company and there’s no public data to reinforce the success of the boycott like there was with Bud Light. 

Your No. 2 story is a topic I could talk about every day, every week of every year and never run out of things to say. In fact, there are a lot of reasons to talk about it right now. I’m talking about the U.S. national debt, which is at $36 trillion dollars. 

We started the year by breaching $34 trillion in debt and set out to tell you who holds it all. 

We knew you had a serious interest in which foreign countries hold the bag. Japan has the biggest purse, followed by China, then the U.K. But foreign governments account for less than a quarter of the whole pie. Private investors hold the biggest share, followed by foreign countries, U.S. government accounts, and the Federal Reserve. 

Drumroll please – for the top business story of 2024. 

When Boeing machinists walked off the job for the first time in 16 years, many thought the strike would be a quick one. But weeks in, management completely botched negotiations by releasing details of an offer to the media before the union had responded. 

Richard Aboulafia: I thought the arrival of new management with a lot of experience and understanding in the industry would make things different, but that doesn’t appear to be the case at all, I’m afraid.

Simone Del Rosario: The story “Boeing strike strategy ‘baffles’ top aviation analyst” is the top of our list. It would be nearly another month before machinists would come back to work. 

In the end, workers got Boeing up from a 25% raise to 38% over four years. It was new CEO Kelly Ortberg’s first test in a long line of challenges we’ll be talking about for years to come.