What we need to offset inflation and expensive stock valuations ... will Trump deliver? ... expect volatility to remain ... how short-term options can mean big returns overnight We think the combination of pro-growth policies, still-low inflation, continuing rate cuts, and AI-driven economic tailwinds will propel stocks broadly higher in 2025. That comes from our hypergrowth expert Luke Lango. Of the variables Luke identified, we’re focused on “pro-growth policies.” That’s because they have the best chance of mitigating the biggest threat to your portfolio value in 2025 – reinflation. Looking at the data, it’s easy to agree with her. The last handful of months of core PCE inflation (the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge) have been flat or slightly higher on a month-to-month basis: May: 0.1% June: 0.2% July: 0.2% August: 0.2% September: 0.3%. (The October reading arrives next week.) The Fed isn’t going to raise rates to deal with this. We’ve begun a rate-cutting cycle, and a U-turn now – even the hint of a U-turn – would be like tossing a grenade into the economy. If we want to help hurting Main Street America... and ease lofty stock valuations via real earnings growth... and offset inflation ... then the answer is simple: Grow like crazy. Specifically, outgrow inflation. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers had a great one-liner when asked about any advice he’d give President-elect Trump: We need to be able to build, baby, build in the United States. Here’s more from MarketWatch : [Summers] argued there were too many barriers to constructing data centers, energy production facilities and electricity transmission systems to help power the AI revolution and new green technologies. “These are potentially complex and risky technologies, and the government needs to, less by law than by moral force, establish close connections where real experts within government who are closely monitoring and following developments” in the sector, he said. From Thomson Reuters : President-Elect Trump has the potential to impact a wide range of policy provisions, from the economy to a raft of regulatory rules and directives... The regulatory landscape under Trump is also expected to see significant shifts. Deregulation would be a key theme, affecting sectors from energy to finance... As we discussed in the Digest at the start of the week, in a rosy scenario, Trump tax cuts and deregulation increases demand for goods and services... business investment increases... hiring increases... wage growth increases... so, overall productivity skyrockets. No, prices wouldn’t come down (they’re entrenched at this point). They might even climb again. But in this ideal hypothetical, growth-based wages and economic opportunities will rise to offset higher prices and inflation, and then some. So, the net, felt effect is positive. But for this to happen, it’s all about growth. That’s how we spike the punchbowl and keep this party going in 2025. For a sense of this, let’s turn to Eric Fry’s lead analyst in Investment Report , Thomas Yeung: [The result of the run-up in the market] has been a surge in average valuations – a fact Eric and I have been highlighting over the past several weeks. The Shiller PE Ratio, which averages earnings over a 10-year business cycle, now sits at 37.0, its highest level since the heady days of 2021. When the Shiller PE Ratio was last at this level in December 2021, stocks tumbled 19% over the following year. The Shiller PE has climbed since Thomas wrote this. As I write Friday, it’s up to 37.95. The chart below, dating to 1860, will give you some context for how extreme this level is. Will Trump’s pro-growth policies create an earnings explosion that gently lets the air out of this overinflated balloon? We’ll find out beginning next year. If not, today’s lofty valuation increases the likelihood of volatility – stocks roar on good news but drop sharply on not-so-good news. Now, while such an environment is tough on long-term investors, it’s a dream for traders. Jonathan is the lead analyst at our corporate partner Masters in Trading . After spending 25 years learning his craft on the Chicago trading floors and inside private investment firms, Jonathan now offers up live trading ideas, market commentary, and trading education each morning. This week, we’ve introduced Digest readers to how Jonathan is trading short-term options. This includes zero-day options, which expire on the very same day they’re issued. As we detailed yesterday , zero-day options can be incredibly lucrative, potentially rewarding traders with quadruple-digit returns – sometimes in just hours. But for this to happen, it requires big moves in the underlying stock. Translation, lots of volatility. Jonathan believes today’s market is ripe for such moves: I’ve been hammering one point home all week... All this short-term volatility isn’t going anywhere. And with volatility remaining elevated, we have many ways to capitalize on whatever the markets throw at us. One opportunity on Jonathan’s radar comes from QQQ, which is an ETF that tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index: Take a look at the daily chart below. The $500 mark is standing out as a critical level right now. After QQQ hit a high just above $515, it pulled back, but it’s consistently found support right around that $500 area. This isn’t just a coincidence — it’s where buyers and sellers are battling it out, making it the key level to watch. Why does this matter? Because levels like this often act as a launchpad for the next big move. If QQQ holds above $500, we could see another push higher. But if it breaks below, we could be looking at some serious downside action. Either way, this is where opportunity lives, and this is why we trade short-term options like 3DTE, 2DTE, and even 0DTE — to move fast and capitalize on these shifts. If you’re less familiar, “DTE” stands for “days to expiration” which circles us back to the short-term options trades I highlighted a moment ago. That’s when he’ll be broadcasting in real time, demonstrating how zero-day and short-term options work. This will be a live, one-time-only event. Now, if options make you nervous, I get it. They have a questionable reputation. But I’d encourage you to join Jonthan so you can see for yourself why that reputation is unfair – and why these short-term options can be so powerful, both for protecting and making money. On the “making money” side, let’s return to Jonathan and the QQQ set-up he just identified: We’ve seen this play out before. Earlier this year, during a similar setup, I highlighted a key level in our live class. Members positioned themselves using short-term puts ahead of a market pullback, and when the QQQ dropped 2.4%, our model portfolio saw gains as high as 179.9% overnight. This is what it’s all about — being prepared, staying disciplined, and taking advantage of these moments. Tuesday’s live event is all about helping you understand how these options work... the market conditions that increase the chances of such triple/quadruple-digit overnight returns... and the right way to avoid taking unnecessary risk. On that note, here’s Jonathan: A solid fundamental understanding of the market, the strategic use of options, and disciplined risk management forms the cornerstone of successful trading. My career on the front lines of the exchanges has shown that these principles, when applied systematically, can offer major advantages, even in volatile markets. To reserve your seat for Jonathan’s One-Day Winners Live Summit this Tuesday at 11 a.m. Eastern, sign-up here. If we get loads of it, our inflation and valuation problems shrink. If we don’t get it, we’re left with a very expensive stock market. And that could mean major fireworks. But that just points us back to Jonathan and how he trades unpredictable markets. We hope you’ll join him on Tuesday to learn how to put volatility in your corner . Have a good evening, Jeff RemsburgFitness App Market Generated Opportunities, Future Scope 2024-2031

By ZEKE MILLER, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday reached a required agreement with President Joe Biden’s White House to allow his transition staff to coordinate with the existing federal workforce before taking office on Jan. 20. The congressionally mandated agreement allows transition aides to work with federal agencies and access non-public information and gives a green light to government workers to talk to the transition team. But Trump has declined to sign a separate agreement with the General Services Administration that would have given his team access to secure government offices and email accounts, in part because it would require that the president-elect limit contributions to $5,000 and reveal who is donating to his transition effort. The White House agreement was supposed to have been signed by Oct. 1, according to the Presidential Transition Act, and the Biden White House had issued both public and private appeals for Trump’s team to sign on. The agreement is a critical step in ensuring an orderly transfer of power at noon on Inauguration Day, and lays the groundwork for the White House and government agencies to begin to share details on ongoing programs, operations and threats. It limits the risk that the Trump team could find itself taking control of the massive federal government without briefings and documents from the outgoing administration. As part of the agreement with the White House, Trump’s team will have to publicly disclose its ethics plan for the transition operation and make a commitment to uphold it, the White House said. Transition aides must sign statements that they have no financial positions that could pose a conflict of interest before they receive access to non-public federal information. Biden himself raised the agreement with Trump when they met in the Oval Office on Nov. 13, according to the White House, and Trump indicated that his team was working to get it signed. Trump chief of staff-designate Susie Wiles met with Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients at the White House on Nov. 19 and other senior officials in part to discuss remaining holdups, while lawyers for the two sides have spoken more than a half-dozen times in recent days to finalize the agreement. “Like President Biden said to the American people from the Rose Garden and directly to President-elect Trump, he is committed to an orderly transition,” said White House spokesperson Saloni Sharma. “President-elect Trump and his team will be in seat on January 20 at 12 pm – and they will immediately be responsible for a range of domestic and global challenges, foreseen and unforeseen. A smooth transition is critical to the safety and security of the American people who are counting on their leaders to be responsible and prepared.” Without the signed agreement, Biden administration officials were restricted in what they could share with the incoming team. Trump national security adviser-designate Rep. Mike Waltz met recently with Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan, but the outgoing team was limited in what it could discuss. “We are doing everything that we can to effect a professional and an orderly transition,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday. “And we continue to urge the incoming team to take the steps that are necessary to be able to facilitate that on their end as well.” “This engagement allows our intended Cabinet nominees to begin critical preparations, including the deployment of landing teams to every department and agency, and complete the orderly transition of power,” said Wiles in a statement. The Trump transition team says it would disclose its donors to the public and would not take foreign donations. A separate agreement with the Department of Justice to coordinate background checks for vetting and security clearances is still being actively worked on and could be signed quickly now that the White House agreement is signed. The agency has teams of investigators standing by to process clearances for Trump aides and advisers once that document is signed. That would clear the way for transition aides and future administration appointees and nominees to begin accessing classified information before Trump takes office. Some Trump aides may hold active clearances from his first term in office or other government roles, but others will need new clearances to access classified data. Trump’s team on Friday formally told the GSA that they would not utilize the government office space blocks from the White House reserved for their use, or government email accounts, phones and computers during the transition. The White House said it does not agree with Trump’s decision to forgo support from the GSA, but is working on alternate ways to get Trump appointees the information they need without jeopardizing national security. Federal agencies are receiving guidance on Tuesday on how to share sensitive information with the Trump team without jeopardizing national security or non-public information. For instance, agencies may require in-person meetings and document reviews since the Trump team has declined to shift to using secure phones and computers. For unclassified information, agencies may ask Trump transition staff to attest that they are taking basic safeguards, like using two-factor authentication on their accounts.League fines Hawks $100,000 for Young missing NBA Cup game

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John Wayne Stock & Supply to host Hats + Art ExhibitDeploy sufficient police force to protect Shahi Hammam: HCNUBURU, Inc. Receives Notice of Non-Compliance with the NYSE

India's economic transformation over the past two decades has lifted millions out of poverty. But this growth has not been evenly distributed. Persistent disparities in income, expenditure and savings highlight a fragile narrative of inequality. ET Year-end Special Reads Corporate Kalesh: Top family disputes of India Inc in 2024 The world of business lost these eminent people in 2024 Fast, faster, fastest: How 2024 put more speed into your shopping Income In 2005, income Gini coefficient was 0.48, indicating high inequality. This declined to 0.40 by 2014 and 2016 due to welfare programmes and rising rural incomes. But Covid pushed Gini to 0.53, its highest during the period undertaken by the PRICE ICE 360° income survey, as informal sector workers faced challenges while wealthier households benefited from asset price increases. By 2023, cash transfers and food subsidies reduced Gini to 0.41, reflecting partial recovery. Brazil's experience parallels India's. The Bolsa Familia cash transfer programme reduced its income inequality from 0.60 to 0.53 by 2014, but recessions and Covid reversed these gains, with inequality rising to 0.57. Both India and Brazil highlight the vulnerability of progress to external shocks and the need for sustained social policies. Expenditure This has been lower than income inequality, reflecting consumption-smoothing mechanisms like subsidies and remittances. Expenditure Gini declined from 0.36 in 2005 to 0.31 in 2011, showing improved access to essential goods and services for low-income households. But between 2014 and 2016, it plateaued at 0.33. Covid caused a spike to 0.46 in 2021, as wealthier households maintained consumption levels, while poorer households cut back. By 2023, expenditure inequality fell to 0.36, indicating recovery. South Africa provides a comparable example. While its income inequality is among the highest globally, programmes like Child Support Grant and Old Age Pension have stabilised expenditure inequality at lower levels. However, these efforts demonstrate that addressing consumption disparities alone can't resolve underlying structural inequalities. 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View Program Data Science SQL for Data Science along with Data Analytics and Data Visualization By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI and Analytics based Business Strategy By - Tanusree De, Managing Director- Accenture Technology Lead, Trustworthy AI Center of Excellence: ATCI View Program Web Development A Comprehensive ASP.NET Core MVC 6 Project Guide for 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Pam Moore By - Pam Moore, Digital Transformation and Social Media Expert View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI-Powered Python Mastery with Tabnine: Boost Your Coding Skills By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Office Productivity Mastering Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and 365 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Digital marketing - Wordpress Website Development By - Shraddha Somani, Digital Marketing Trainer, Consultant, Strategiest and Subject Matter expert View Program Office Productivity Mastering Google Sheets: Unleash the Power of Excel and Advance Analysis By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Mastering Full Stack Development: From Frontend to Backend Excellence By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Finance Financial Literacy i.e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By - CA Rahul Gupta, CA with 10+ years of experience and Accounting Educator View Program Data Science SQL Server Bootcamp 2024: Transform from Beginner to Pro By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Savings This remains India's most pronounced and persistent challenge. In 2005, savings Gini coefficient was 0.78, highlighting severe disparities in wealth accumulation. By 2014, it improved to 0.60 due to financial inclusion programmes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, which brought millions into the formal financial system. Covid disrupted this progress, pushing savings Gini to 0.73 in 2021 as wealthier households saved more while poorer households struggled. By 2023, it improved to 0.56, but wealth accumulation gaps persist. Indonesia's experience echoes these challenges. Despite progress in financial inclusion, wealth disparities endure due to unequal access to investments like real estate and equities, concentrated among the wealthy. This underscores the need for policies that address systemic barriers to wealth creation. Dimensions of inequality are interconnected, influencing broader economic outcomes. Income inequality directly drives savings inequality, as higher-income households can save and invest more, compounding wealth disparities. Expenditure inequality reflects disparities in access to goods and services, further amplifying income and savings gaps. Experiences from Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia reveal that addressing only one dimension of inequality is insufficient. Policies must focus on income generation, equitable consumption and wealth accumulation to achieve inclusive growth. Structural factors underlie India's inequality trends. Economic changes have disproportionately benefited high-skilled and urban populations, leaving low-income and rural households behind. The pandemic widened these disparities, particularly for informal sector workers and marginalised groups. Financial inclusion has improved banking access, but wealth-building barriers persist. Redistribution policies like rural employment schemes and direct benefit transfers reduce inequality but require scaling up to tackle systemic challenges effectively. Expanding MGNREGA to urban areas can offer a crisis safety net. Progressive taxation, including wealth and luxury taxes, could fund redistributive programmes. Investing in education and skills is vital for low-income workers in growth sectors like tech and manufacturing. Financial inclusion must foster wealth creation via credit and investments. Targeted rural development in infra, healthcare, and education is key to reducing regional disparities and driving inclusive growth. The PRICE ICE 360° surveys reveal that while progress has been made, external shocks like the pandemic expose the fragility of these gains. Policymakers must prioritise resilience and inclusivity to ensure economic growth benefits for all. Reducing inequality is not only a moral imperative but also a prerequisite for sustainable development.ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — John Elway says any remorse over bypassing Josh Allen in the 2018 NFL draft is quickly dissipating with rookie Bo Nix's rapid rise, suggesting the Denver Broncos have finally found their next franchise quarterback. Elway said Nix, the sixth passer selected in April's draft, is an ideal fit in Denver with coach Sean Payton navigating his transition to the pros and Vance Joseph's defense serving as a pressure release valve for the former Oregon QB. "We've seen the progression of Bo in continuing to get better and better each week and Sean giving him more each week and trusting him more and more to where last week we saw his best game of the year," Elway said in a nod to Nix's first game with 300 yards and four touchdown throws in a rout of Atlanta. For that performance, Nix earned his second straight NFL Rookie of the Week honor along with the AFC Offensive Player of the Week award. "I think the sky's the limit," Elway said, "and that's just going to continue to get better and better." In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Elway also touted former coach Mike Shanahan's Hall of Fame credentials, spoke about the future of University of Colorado star and Heisman favorite Travis Hunter and discussed his ongoing bout with a chronic hand condition. Elway spent the last half of his decade as the Broncos' GM in a futile search for a worthy successor to Peyton Manning, a pursuit that continued as he transitioned into a two-year consultant role that ended after the 2022 season. "You have all these young quarterbacks and you look at the ones that make it and the ones that don't and it's so important to have the right system and a coach that really knows how to tutelage quarterbacks, and Sean's really good at that," Elway said. "I think the combination of Bo's maturity, having started 61 games in college, his athletic ability and his knowledge of the game has been such a tremendous help for him,'" Elway added. "But also Vance Joseph's done a heck of a job on the defensive side to where all that pressure's not being put on Bo and the offense to score all the time." Payton and his staff have methodically expanded Nix's repertoire and incorporated his speed into their blueprints. Elway lauded them for "what they're doing offensively and how they're breaking Bo into the NFL because it's a huge jump and I think patience is something that goes a long way in the NFL when it comes down to quarterbacks." Elway said he hopes to sit down with Nix at some point when things slow down for the rookie. Nix, whose six wins are one more than Elway had as a rookie, said he looks forward to meeting the man who won two Super Bowls during his Hall of Fame playing career and another from the front office. "He's a legend not only here for this organization, but for the entire NFL," Nix said, adding, "most guys, they would love to have a chat with John Elway, just pick his brain. It's just awesome that I'm even in that situation." Orange Crush linebacker Randy Gradishar joined Elway in the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year, something Elway called "way, way overdue." Elway suggested it's also long past time for the Hall to honor Shanahan, who won back-to-back Super Bowls in Denver with Elway at QB and whose footprint you see every weekend in the NFL because of his expansive coaching tree. Elway called University of Colorado stars Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders "both great athletes." He said he really hopes Sanders gets drafted by a team that will bring him along like the Broncos have done with Nix, and he sees Hunter being able to play both ways in the pros — but not full time. Elway said he thinks Hunter will be primarily a corner in the NFL but with significant contributions on offense: "He's great at both. He's got great instincts, and that's what you need at corner." It's been five years since Elway announced he was dealing with Dupuytren's contracture, a chronic condition that typically appears after age 40 and causes one or more fingers to permanently bend toward the palm. Elway's ring fingers on both hands were originally affected and he said now the middle finger on his right hand is starting to pull forward. So, he'll get another injection of a drug called Xiaflex, which is the only FDA-approved non-surgical treatment, one that he's endorsing in an awareness campaign for the chronic condition that affects 17 million Americans. The condition can make it difficult to do everyday tasks such as shaking hands or picking up a coffee mug. Elway said what bothered him most was "I couldn't pick up a football and I could not imagine not being able to put my hand around a football." Get local news delivered to your inbox!If Lockheed Martin made a Game Boy, would you buy one? In the 1990s, I was among the kids who thought military aircraft were devastatingly cool. By then, Tom Cruise and had long established the F-14 Tomcat and a pair of aviator shades as ; I personally preferred the Lockheed F-117A, the high-tech angular “Stealth Fighter” that could invisibly sneak past enemy radar, and was partial to the legendary Lockheed SR-71 that flew so fast it could outrun missiles. At the time, I probably would have snapped up a jet-black Lockheed Game Boy without a second thought. But I’m old enough now to realize that cool aerodynamics are just the tip of a deadlier geopolitical iceberg. Lockheed makes , and I don’t have a say in who gets to buy them or who they’re used against. I don’t have a say in whether that tech should exist at all. I’ve been thinking about Lockheed Martin as I review a much simpler gadget: the ModRetro Chromatic. The Chromatic is a high-end remake of Nintendo’s Game Boy, and it might be the best version of a Game Boy ever made. But it’s connected to a company much like Lockheed: Anduril, the defense contractor that makes weaponized drones, networked surveillance systems, and other military tech. Both Anduril and ModRetro are founded by Palmer Luckey, the creator of the Oculus Rift VR headset. Luckey is now an , a devout anime and video game lover who reportedly stores his vast collection of games in a decommissioned US nuclear missile silo — one of . He plays with a lavish collection of military hardware including helicopters and a Mark V Special Operations Craft used by Navy SEALs. He once as a floating barefoot “visionary” with an Oculus headset atop his head, though these days he’s more likely to make headlines his version of the defense industry. He was the face of VR before Facebook kicked him out. (Luckey was an early and took flak for funding a single Hillary Clinton-trolling billboard; Mark Zuckerberg denied he was fired for his political views at the time; some Meta execs have for his ouster.) Many tech companies are involved with military projects in some shape or form. Google and Amazon have a contract with Israel for a “Project Nimbus” that , and Google for protesting that deal. Microsoft is currently working towards with a militarized version of its HoloLens headset. Meta use its Llama AI model. I think it’s fair to say few of us boycott these companies or even think about these things when we use their products. But where each of these companies can plausibly say “It’s just business” as they defend their cloud server contracts or , and it’s , this is a fun but unnecessary product from a man with a specific point of view on weapons, war, and politics. Luckey has twice hosted fundraisers for Donald Trump (in 2020 and 2024) at his own house. He publicly expresses the fervent (and self-serving) belief that tech companies should get in bed with the military. For Luckey, it’s not just business, it’s . And we’ve heard loud and clear that it’s personal for many of our readers, too. I’ve been testing the ModRetro Chromatic for over a month, and it’s good. I believe it’s the best, most luxurious way to play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. But if the goal is to restore and preserve our childhood nostalgia, the Luckey connection throws a wrench in the works. What you’re about to read is a real review of an excellent product, one I genuinely enjoyed using — but one that left me feeling somewhat tortured in the process. For Luckey, the Game Boy itself is personal. It’s how he got his start. Before Anduril, before Facebook, before Oculus, Palmer Luckey was a teen who modded Nintendo Game Boys. “ModRetro” was the name of the very first thing he founded: an online forum for gaming hardware modders like himself. So as you’d expect, his company has some strong ideas about what a modern Game Boy should look like. Where seeks to update the Game Boy experience for the present day — with support for other handheld cartridges, ROMs, save states, a TV dock, and so on — the Chromatic stays squarely rooted in the handheld’s past. There are few modern amenities here. It’s designed to like a vintage Game Boy, only now with the rough edges sanded off. Nintendo’s easy-to-scratch casings, screen lenses, and buttons? They’re made of metal, sapphire, and PBT plastic now. Those hard-to-see screens? You now get a custom IPS display at the same size, resolution, and pixel structure as the original Game Boy and Game Boy Color, one so bright you can play in direct sunlight like we did back in the day. It does come, however, with a brand-new copy of that optionally adds T-Spins, instant drops, and the ability to hold pieces for later, modernizing the classic game that famously came bundled with the original. At its heart, the Chromatic is an attempt to faithfully cross the original 1989 Game Boy with the 1998 Game Boy Color. There’s no SD card reader, no user-accessible operating system, no ability to add or play ROMs: when you slide the top-mounted power switch, it instantly boots your Game Boy or Game Boy Color cartridge using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chip that emulates an actual Game Boy’s processors. Like with the Analogue Pocket, the upshot is more responsive, quirk-free gameplay than software emulators allow. I’m a parent, and “I don’t have time for this shit” comes with the territory, so I immediately assumed I would miss “save states,” the feature that lets practically every video game emulator and retro handheld pause and resume your game at literally any moment. Then I fired up on an Analogue Pocket, and found I was wrong. I was on a pokémon-catching roll like never before. I caught Charmander, my daughter’s favorite pokémon, and for the first time in , I evolved it into a Charmeleon, then a Charizard, all without losing my ball. The stakes were high, so I reflexively tapped the Save State shortcut so I could retry if I failed. Immediately, the pressure was off — but I felt a chunk of my excitement vanish along with it. I caught those Pokemon fair and square without loading the save, but I’d of a pure victory, even if I didn’t wind up cheating the game. When I stuck that same game back into the Chromatic, a handheld without save states, the excitement came back. This is the way the game is meant to be played, and those stakes are there by design. That’s the experience ModRetro wants you to have, and the only one you’ll get. Ditching that modern amenity is a choice, and it isn’t for everyone. It’s just one of many ways the Chromatic feels more authentic. Even though it’s a mash-up of two different Game Boy models, it instantly feels familiar in ways the Analogue doesn’t, from the sliding power switch and volume dial (the Analogue has you hold down closely spaced digital buttons and takes longer to start a game) to the button layout and feel. The Chromatic is basically the size of a Game Boy Color, with the same bulging battery compartment curve providing a rounded perch for your fingers to rest. But it’s clearly been designed for those who appreciate the original 1989 model too. It’s got the original’s iconic slanted, cake-sprinkle Start and Select buttons, its glossy domed A and B buttons, its larger D-pad, its more protected cartridge slot, and the rounded lower-right corners of its flat-faced chassis and cover glass. All of them bring me back to the handheld that made me a gamer. I wonder if they bring Luckey back to his early days, too. Because while ModRetro appears to have made a and is currently , this bespoke device is not exactly what ModRetro was originally created to make. Luckey cut his teeth turning Game Boys and GameCubes into arguably better, more portable versions of themselves by reusing bits of old and new electronics. “It’s a lot of fun because it’s about taking old technology and then cutting out the old parts, replacing them with new parts and making it into something that was never possible before,” he told in 2014. The ModRetro Chromatic is all custom, though, right down to its in-house screen. Still, ModRetro’s original approach to development has been on display throughout Luckey’s professional history. Luckey’s key insight with the Oculus Rift was that low-cost smartphone components could finally make VR accessible, a belief , too. Repurposed commercial supply chains are also Anduril’s pitch to become the world’s most efficient weapons manufacturer, “so that the same processes used to build fiberglass bathtubs can just as easily be reconfigured to build missile airframes,” in August. With that approach, Anduril has rapidly built out an arsenal in just seven years, including multiple drones that can kill — one is a “loitering munition” that remotely dive-bombs a target, another effectively a recoverable ground-to-air missile. When I look at the Chromatic and its prominent “MODRETRO” logo right above the screen, often I just see an excellent Game Boy. But sometimes I see the latest high-tech product from a man who makes high-tech missiles. At this point, you might be wondering: just how excellent is this hardware to justify all this soul-searching? Let’s start with build quality: The Chromatic’s pixel-perfect screen isn’t strictly necessary: I generally had just as good a time on the Analogue Pocket’s bigger, higher resolution display if I enabled the right filters and color palettes, though I did appreciate that the Chromatic got the Game Boy Color feel just right out of the box. The Chromatic even by holding down buttons at boot. There are also some ways it’s not completely faithful to the original Game Boys, just FYI: And there were a few minor disappointments too. Mostly, I wish it worked a little better in quiet bedrooms and loud airplanes. The buttons and even the D-pad click louder than any of my old Game Boys, yet the 3.5mm headphone jack volume is the of the pack. I could barely hear its chiptunes over the din of the plane, and I couldn’t compensate with my noise-canceling Bose QC25 since the Chromatic doesn’t have a four-pole headset jack. ModRetro also advertises the Chromatic as “indestructible,” and if that sounds like marketing bluster, you’re at least half right. I dropped the Chromatic twice onto concrete, from 4.5 feet, and it came away with only minor dents, and I was impressed. But ModRetro also has getting run over by a car. When I ran it over with car, the screen shattered. The frame is now badly bent. I was also a tad disappointed to find the Chromatic’s USB-C port isn’t as potent as promised. While the company advertised USB-C video output and using the do-it-all port, it turns out the Chromatic can only present itself as a webcam for desktop-style video recording, and NiMH AA charging didn’t make the cut. ModRetro CEO Torin Herndon, who was an engineer at Anduril from 2017 to 2021, tells me the company is beginning production on an optional rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack, but won’t talk price, capacity, or runtime just yet. That said, I actually find I prefer AAs. At 50 percent brightness — far higher than I needed on the plane — I saw over eight hours from a set of Ikea-branded Panasonic Eneloop rechargeables, or closer to seven hours from Amazon Basics alkalines. That same brand of alkalines gave me over 12 hours at the second-lowest brightness setting, the dimmest I’d want to use in the daytime, and just under five hours at max brightness and max volume. And again, you can simply plug the Chromatic into a USB port if you’re ever running low on charge, then drop in new AAs without losing your game. There’s really no question in my mind that this handheld is the best retro Game Boy yet made, the one that best captures the physical feeling I had playing Game Boy as a kid. I remasters because they can let you recapture that childhood joy, playing with or you think you remember instead of the one that actually existed. But I don’t remember my childhood nostalgia coming with a side of possible guilt and fear about putting money into the pocket of a weapons contractor. Feels weird! Even practically, I wonder who, outside of a handful of 1989 handheld lovers like me, would want a handheld that plays Game Boy and Game Boy Color carts. Many of the best games are expensive and hard to find in physical form — and the best titles can easily command $100 each — and it’d be a more compelling gadget if it could play the arguably better library of Game Boy Advance titles as well. The Analogue Pocket does. Luckey has said he wants to expand that original Game Boy library. Game developers never quite stopped making homebrew games for the Game Boy, and ModRetro is one of the few now publishing them on actual carts. Every Chromatic comes with a new copy of , and you can , including a new version of and , sequels to and , and my personal favorite, the grindy JRPG with some excellent tunes and pixel art. This chiptune in particular, Dragonyhm’s “Gonrad Forest,” captivated me at once: If you feel weird about ModRetro, you should know these games aren’t exclusive to the Chromatic, either — they played perfectly well plugged into an Analogue Pocket or a Game Boy Color, and some even worked on my 1989 original. Some may be available to . If you just want to try them, many have you can try in an emulator, or even , like this: It’s not clear to me how serious Luckey is about funding a new era of Game Boy. For one thing, the Chromatic is already sold out at his website, and he isn’t making any more, but will focus on releasing new games while it builds in terms of hardware instead. ( is still available at GameStop, for now.) Second, as far as I can tell, all of ModRetro’s games beyond were already in development; some, like , were already . Developing new games isn’t currently a company goal: “We are typically looking for games deep in development at this time, and try to push them across the finish line into being a full-on physical good,” Herndon tells me. He says ModRetro largely pays to create cartridges, boxes, and manuals, and gives developers a “pretty awesome” percentage of sales. The pre-release carts that ModRetro sent me also had a couple issues that are hopefully getting ironed out: I mysteriously lost my entire save in , and was missing a key bugfix the developer made almost a year ago. also booted into a full screen glitch the first few times I started it up, but it seems to be working now. Even when people love the idea of revisiting the Game Boy and supporting retro game development, I suspect most will see a $200 handheld that makes you individually swap pricy cartridges as a luxury they can’t afford — not when every iPhone and a mountain of Chinese emulator handhelds can play the same games, ones they can (illicitly) download for free. And if you find the Analogue Pocket isn’t vintage enough for your tastes, you could always do what I just did and add a modern backlit screen to your genuine Nintendo Game Boy. It won’t be pixel-perfect, but it might be good enough for me: This is one of the more difficult reviews I’ve ever had to write, because I have no qualms recommending the ModRetro Chromatic on the strength of its hardware, which justifies its $200 price. It feels more like the Game Boy I remember than many of Nintendo’s actual handhelds when I pick them up today. But like the Tesla Cybertruck, it’s also very much the product of one person in particular, a person who stands for things that might clash with your ideals, and it could wind up being a symbol that you don’t terribly mind any of that, even if you actually do. Luckey a Pepperdine University audience that it’s not a bad thing to celebrate the power of weapons, saying that “societies have always needed a warrior class that is enthused and excited about enacting violence on others in pursuit of good aims,” and that “you need people like me who are sick in that way and who don’t lose any sleep making tools of violence.” He explained that his company is named Anduril after Aragorn’s sword in partly because that sword was “inherently good,” and “wielded only by the kingdom of man against the hordes of Mordor.” Real life contains no inherently good drones or inherently good missiles. And two major throughlines of Tolkien’s work are that war is hideous and that power inevitably corrupts. The joy I find playing with fake swords in the ModRetro Chromatic is now weirdly intertwined with a general fear: that Anduril’s real weapons might be misused. I won’t suggest that niche $200 Game Boys are actually those weapons in any meaningful way, but these still aren’t emotions I associate with my childhood Nintendo experience. That means the Chromatic isn’t the ultimate Game Boy, even if it has the best build quality and the best screen. There’s still room for a better pair of rose-tinted glasses than the ones Luckey has paid to create.

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