Good morning and Happy Valentine's Day ❤️ Sign of the times, via Pew: More Americans are marrying across religious lines, relatively few are marrying across political lines.

• Give your special someone the gift of the Market.

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The Great Concentration

State of the Market, Pt. 1: More than half of the 100 richest towns in America are either in the New York City area or California, according to Bloomberg's new list of the nation's wealthiest places.

• Three of the top five are in Silicon Valley.

The Big Picture: The concentration of wealth in a small group of ex-urban areas around cities like San Francisco, New York, Washington and Los Angeles has created a feedback loop wherein growth and opportunity begets growth and opportunity, while the rest of America falls behind.

The Richest Towns, via Bloomberg:

• #1. Atherton, California (Median Household Income: $450,696). Home to Eric Schmidt, Sheryl Sandberg, Meg Whitman and Marc Andreessen.

• #2. Scarsdale, New York ($417,355).

• #3. Cherry Hills Village, Colorado ($394,259).

• #4. Los Altos Hills, California ($386,174). Home to Sergey Brin, Yuri Milner and Sundar Pichai.

• #5. Hillsborough, California ($373,128).

State of the Market, Pt. 2: Thirteen of America's top 20 nonprofit donors last year came from the technology, media and telecom sector, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy's new list of America's top donors.

• Eight of the top 20 live in Seattle, San Francisco or Silicon Valley.

Top Tech/Media Donors, via the Chronicle:

• #1. Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos, Seattle (Gave $2 billion in 2018)

• #2. Michael Bloomberg, New York ($767 million)

• #3. Pierre and Pam Omidyar, Honolulu ($392 million)

• #5. Steve and Connie Ballmer, Hunts Point, Wash. ($295 million)

• #6. Paul Allen, Seattle ($261 million)

• #7. Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, Palo Alto ($214 million)

• #11. Craig Newmark, San Francisco ($144 million)

• #12. Bill and Melinda Gates, Medina, Wash. ($138 million)

• #19. Sheryl Sandberg, Menlo Park ($101 million)

• #20. Evan and Sara Williams, San Francisco ($100 million)

The Big Picture: The technology, media and telecom sector's biggest donors cumulatively gave more than $5 billion to nonprofit organizations in 2018, accounting for the vast majority of the $7.8 billion given by the Chronicle's "Philanthropy 50."

• Bonus: Speaking of wealth, here's Bill Gates' explanation to The Verge on why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 70% top tax rate proposal won't work.

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American Code Theory

Big in the Valley: Tom Friedman's most recent column, "The Two Codes Your Kids Need to Know," has caught the attention of some of our readers, especially tech executives and policy makers with opinions on education reform.

• The Thesis: The College Board, which administers the SAT, believes the two most important things an American citizen needs to know are computer science and the U.S. Constitution.

• The Theory: "If you want to be an empowered citizen in our democracy ... you need to know how the code of the U.S. Constitution works. ... If you want to be an empowered and adaptive worker or artist or writer or scientist or teacher ... you need to know how computers work."

What's Next: "Rather than have SAT exams and Advanced Placement courses based on things that you cram for and forget, [the College Board is] shifting them, where they can, to promote the 'two codes.'"

🛫 Rally the Market 🛫

Valentine's Day Special: "Twenty-Eight Perfect Dates Around the World, From Miami to Milan," via Bloomberg.

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Tim Cook builds the stream

The Streaming Wars: "Apple is in the final stages of preparing its new streaming video service, which will feature free original content for device owners and a subscription platform for existing digital services," CNBC's Alex Sherman reports.

• The Big Picture: Apple's entry into streaming could reshape the media and entertainment business, given its distribution power (through the iPhone) and its power to invest in premium content. At the very least, it will give Apple a lucrative new revenue stream.

What We Know, via Sherman:

• "Apple is aiming to launch ... in April or early May."

• "Lions Gate's Starz; CBS, which owns Showtime; and Viacom are expected to offer subscription streaming services on the Apple platform."

• "HBO may join ... but isn't as far along in discussions with Apple."

• "Netflix and Hulu ... aren't expected to be a part of Apple's product."

What's Next: Apple has invited signed talent — including Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Garner and JJ Abrams — to attend the March 25 event where it will announce the launch of its streaming service and its new news service.

• Bonus: Recode's Peter Kafka digs into the logic behind Apple’s proposal to split revenue 50-50 with news publishers, which I wrote about yesterday.

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Bob Iger's Brazilian bust

Big in Burbank: Disney chief Bob Iger flew to Brazil over the weekend to pursue the required regulatory approval for his $71 billion takeover of 21st Century Fox, but returned empty handed, sources with knowledge of his trip and the negotiations tell me.

• Insult to injury: The trip, which Iger made during his 68th birthday, was intended to be a power play, with Iger hoping to leave Brazil with the approval, the sources said.

• What's next: Iger needs regulatory approval across international markets in order to close the 21st Century Fox acquisition. And while Brazil is likely to come around, the delay is causing headaches.

The Big Picture: Iger is on the verge of closing the deal that will cement his legacy as the celebrated chief executive who turned Disney into the world's most powerful media company through a series of bold, game changing acquisitions: Pixar, Marvel, LucasFilm, BamTech and Fox.

• But he still needs to clear some hurdles.

Meanwhile ... Disney and Fox employees are anxious about the impending cost cuts and job cuts that will come with the merger.

Market Links

• Jennifer Salke lays out Amazon Studios' global ambitions (THR)

• Sundar Pichai expands Google's real estate footprint (CNBC)

• Gene Levoff is charged with insider trading at Apple (CNBC)

• Jonah Peretti faces mounting criticism from his own staff (BI)

• Tom Barrack apologizes for Jamal Khashoggi remark (WaPo)

Kevork Djansezian/Getty

Who's killing the Oscars?

Talk of Tinseltown: The Academy's attempts to make the Oscars more entertaining and save them from their slide into irrelevancy have been met with overwhelming pushback from Hollywood's creative class — amplifying the Academy's problems rather than fixing them.

• The Latest: The Academy sent a letter to its members defending its decision to present some of the awards, including the award for cinematography, during commercial breaks in order to speed up the notoriously long award ceremony.

• The letter was a response to protest from Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee and other prominent Hollywood figures, who called the move an "insult" to filmmakers.

The Big Picture: The Academy is facing an uphill battle against a creative class that cares far more about being honored for its art and craft than whether or not the Oscars can be a revenue driver for television networks like ABC.

• The problem is that if the Oscars aren't a revenue driver for television networks like ABC, the Oscars aren't going to have the budget to put on a show that an already dwindling audience wants to pay attention to.

In other words, someone needs to come up with a way to fix the Oscars and make them relevant to contemporary audiences, otherwise the art and craft isn't going to be celebrated at all.

What's Next: "Most Americans Tune Out Red Carpet Coverage, Poll Finds," via THR's Lindsay Weinberg.

• "About 22 percent of respondents think it's 'old fashioned' to ask women what they're wearing on the red carpet."

See you tomorrow.