Morning Brew Daily - Big Banks Pushback Against Credit Card Cap & Beyond Meat Launches Protein Drink

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

Episode 759: Neal and Toby do a roundup of this week’s big bank earnings, which showed across the board falling short of expectations…except for one. Then, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s new movie ‘The Rip’ premieres on Netflix, but it’s the kind of deal they inked that could pave the way for future movie productions in the landscape of streaming. Also, Beyond Meat pivots one more time, this time, into the sports recovery drink category. Meanwhile, Vail, one of the country’s biggest ski resort companies, is seeing a slow down in demand because there’s simply a shortage of snow. Finally, Spotify is increasing their prices again.  Explore Indeed’s full findings at https://www.indeed.com/2026hiringtrends Subscribe to Morning Brew Daily for more of the news you need to start your day. Share the show with a friend, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.swap.fm/l/mbd-note⁠⁠⁠  Watch Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Good morning Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Fryman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, Ben Affleck goes from robbing Fenway Park to disrupting Hollywood. Then Beyond Meat is launching its first non-meat product ever a drink. It's Friday, January 16th. Let's ride. Good morning and happy Friday.

The year may be 2026, but at least on social media, it's 2016. You've probably seen this on your own feeds or participants. it in yourself. A viral trend has users posting pictures and memories from 10 years ago when Hamilton was huge, Beyonce released Lemonade, and everyone was doing the Manicen Challenge. Apparently people are nostalgic for the summer of Pokemon Go. Toby, what were you doing in 2016? Well, that was my first year of college, and I hate to say it, I had a full-on man bun during that time. But I also went back through the year and found some things to reminisce on on social media in addition to the mannequin challenge,

we saw the rise of the evil Kermit, the frog meme where he's wearing the hood, and also Arthur's fist. Feels like those have been around internet lore forever, but no, they emerged in 2016. 2016 is when Instagram stories were first introduced, which is wild to think about. I do remember Pokemon Go too.

I was running down a road looking for blast toys. My mom was visiting me at college. It was not my finest moment ever, but hey, you know, that was a fun at time. 2016 is when Stranger Things was released. That is insane to me. We're still watching Stranger Things to this day. And also AirPods were released.

This is a dangerous game, though, because I could go on all day. The year you enter college is one of the last years. I feel like you really, really remember. So I'm going to stop there. Are you going to post on social media? Are you going to join this trend? I don't know. You really don't want to see me with that man,

but it was not a good look. It was a little ratty. And now a word from our sponsor, indeed. Neil, I got something pretty exciting for you. A snowmobile? Nope. Better insights highlighting six dynamics that will define hiring in 2026 from evolving skill demands to the growing influence of AI on job structure and productivity.

Where'd you get something like that? From Indeed, they're gearing up for something big. Yeah, the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos next week. And indeed, we'll be there giving business leaders the inside scoop on all things hiring will be there too. There will be real-time insight into the global labor market and more than 20 years of hiring expertise. and Indeed is bringing a data-driven perspective to the conversations shaping the future of work. Those insights come together in reports from Indeed's Hiring Lab, like the newly released 26 Jobs and Hiring Trends Report,

which offers a forward-looking view of the U.S. labor market, what's shifting, what stabilizing, and what business leaders need to prepare for in the year ahead. You listeners can also explore the insights at Indeed.com slash 2026 hiring trends, you lucky little ducks. That's Indeed.com slash 2026 hiring trends. hiring trends. After a year's long run where it looked like they could do no wrong, Wall Street is looking like it's emerging from a four martini lunch, a little shaky. Bank earnings this past

week fell short of expectations across the board as Bank of America, City, J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo all solve their shares wilt under a variety of different pressures. It wasn't one issue per se, but a range of problems from J.P. Morgan reporting a slowdown in money-making mergers to city banks struggling to keep costs down due to a hiring spree. However, one bank was able to emerge unscathed thanks to a focus on the 1%. Goldman Sachs had a particularly strong quarter on the back of record fees from its wealth management business, plus a gangbusters trading quarter that saw its traders bring in $4.3 billion the biggest haul on Wall Street.

And though the halo around the banking industry was dimmed somewhat, it's still coming off a pretty dang good year. The six biggest banks in the country paid out more than on. $140 billion in dividends and buybacks in 2025, surpassing a record set in Trump's first term, according to Bloomberg. Yet Trump has started putting banks in his own political burn book of late. His administration's attack on Fed independence has put him at odds with some of the industry's most vocal leaders, including Jamie Diamond, while Trump's proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10% has sent banks into a tizzy. Neil, the sky is not falling by any means, but things have been a bit

bumpier in the industry of late. One thing that every single big bank is trying to do is just pay people less or pay fewer people and they are making inroads there. The biggest U.S. banks, those six that you mentioned, they've cut their combined headcount by the most in almost a decade in 2026. They have about 1.1 million combined employees at the end of December, which is down more than 10,000 from a year earlier. Now it's at the lowest level since 2021. Wells Fargo CEO, Charlie Sharp, one of the things he loves to do in these earnings calls and goes up and says, here's how many fewer employees we have. And he's actually been very successful in that regard. Wells Fargo has 22 consecutive quarter of headcount reductions. And Bank of America actually

had their stock go down this week because the CEO got up there and said, actually, guys, he told the analysts, you know, we actually have the same amount of employees as the quarter before. I'm just trying to get these employees down through attrition. And analysts had some pretty tough questions about that, but it's all about the year of efficiency for banks. And, you know, their headcount has been cut by the most since 2016. Why do we keep focusing on a bank earnings? Obviously, they're very big companies, but also they kind of offer a barometer for the broader economy. How is the financial health of ordinary consumers? And on that front, things are actually looking pretty okay. Again, we go back to Charlie Sharp of from Wells Fargo.

he says they observe no meaningful changes in checking a clout flows, direct deposit amounts, overdraft activity, payments, aka the stuff that you and me and normal people are doing with their banks on a daily basis. So in terms of how the canary and the coal mine is looking for the economy, bank earnings did not raise any red flags. And each of these CEOs was asked about the elephant in the room, which is President Trump's proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10%. And to a T, they said, yeah, that would not be good for us because in 2024, the industry, the banking industry, brought in $160 billion from interest fees. That was up 50% from the $105 billion they made in 2022.

So this is a huge profit center for them. And here's just a few quotables from these earnings calls. Jeremy Barnum, who's J.P. Morgan's CFO said it would obviously be bad for us. Citigroup CFO said in its straight cap is not something that. we would or could support. Frankly, it would restrict access to credit to those who need it most and would have a deleterious, good word, impact on the economy. Bank of America, C. O'Brien Moynihan, if you bring the caps down, you're going to get restricted credit, meaning less people will get credit cards. So to a T, these bank CEOs and executives are saying, if we put the cap on,

then fewer people are going to have access to credit. And also at the same time, we're going to make a lot less money. I think the broader overall view, though, is the sky is not falling when it comes to break because one thing we didn't really touch on is trading deaths absolutely ripped in this past quarter because the markets did very well there was a lot of volatility and bates kind of cashed in and did very well also deal-making tailwinds are here even though jp morgan missed on that front the hundred billion dollar bidding war between netflix paramount warner bro's discovery that is boon times for investment bank so the big picture here is that even after this slight stumble things are looking up over the past 12 months final note i think one of the most interesting

interesting that came out of these earnings calls was what Goldman Sachs, David Solomon said about prediction markets. He said that prediction markets are, quote, super interesting. He said he met with the two big prediction companies and their leadership in the last two weeks. You have to think that's Kalshi and Pollymark. And he said it's something that Goldman Sachs might get into. This is, you know, maybe the fastest growing aspect of finance. I don't even know if you call it finance or trading or anything like that. Someone call it gambling. But it seems like traditional finance is looking into that market and seeing whether it would make. sense for their businesses. Moving on, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are releasing a new movie today,

the rip on Netflix, but it's the behind the scenes business deal they inked with the streamer that's more intriguing than what's happening on the screen. Affleck, Damon, and their production company Artists Equity convinced Netflix to do something it has never done before. Allow the entire cast and crew to collect a bonus should the movie perform well. That's typically how Pays been doled out by traditional Hollywood studios. You get some cash up front just for making the movie. But if it does really, you do it. well at the box office, bonuses are handed out to certain people who worked on it. Netflix, Ever the Disruptor, scrap that compensation model.

According to the New York Times, virtually all Netflix TV and movies pay casting crew a bigger set fee up front, but with no potential upside on the back end. The company says it's a system that's worked well for creators and Netflix. Chief Content Officer Bella Bajaria told the Times, a lot of talent likes that a company takes the financial risk and supports their vision and makes a movie. That's why we're not changing our model. And yet they did change their model for Afflick and Damon because who could say no to those guys?

The big question is, will other studios follow the Boston Bros and begin pushing for the backend bonus system that proponents say better aligns incentives and will generate higher quality productions? Time will tell whether a bigger shift is underway. But for now, I'm sure of one thing, these guys should probably run the Red Sox front office. I saw the trailer for the movie too. It looks okay. You know, it's kind of this crime thriller where there's a lot of money at stake. But I do think that the question is, is Netflix doing this just because it is Matt Damon and Ben Affleck or if it is the shift of a broader industry trend here? Ben Affleck has a core belief in that he's pushing for this model saying that, hey, you can do all these raw, raw speeches on set.

You can motivate people with words, but you know what really motivates people? Financial alignment. So why is streaming the one industry that is bucking the trend of allowing people to participate in the upside of what they create? If you go outside of Hollywood, it's a very normal thing if you join a tech company. You get equity in the business. Why suddenly in this corner of Hollywood of entertainment should they not participate in the upside equity? That being said, streaming works a little differently from box office because box office

receipts, you bring in money based off how many people buy tickets. Streaming, it's like streaming hours. They all have different metrics. So figuring out the tranches of how to reward people based off performance has been an interesting part of how of Netflix's deal with these two guys. Apparently there are benchmarks in the top tier what Affleck calls a grand slam as if they reach K-pop Demon Hunter's level of streaming views, which has 325 million views as of August. So that's one of the biggest movies of all time. He's not thinking that they're going to get to that far, but figuring out where you reward people

is an interesting part of this deal. It's also interesting that, so 1,200 people worked on this movie and all of them would get a bonus if this if this movie performs well. Even in this traditional what Hollywood has been doing if you get in this bonus system, just a few people collect that bonus at the end, but all 1,200 cast and crew members would get it. So that's another thing that Affleck and Damon secured in this deal with Netflix. That was also pretty fascinating what Affleck said about Ted Sarandos, who's Netflix's co-CEO. Now, the broader content creator community, movie community is very nervous about Ted Sarandos because he wants to buy Warner Brothers Discovery and he'll take control of the Warner Brothers movie studio and he's been pretty anti-theatrical releases.

So everyone's very nervous about him. But Affleck said that, Affleck said he's met Sarandos and said, actually had a lot of praise for him that he was open to this model. Affleck said, I thought this is clearly somebody who cares about the business, wants it to work, is doing very well and understands the value of filmmakers and performers and artists. so maybe Affleck's the only one in the entire industry has some good things to say about Sarandos right now. I hope this movie is good, by the way,

because we just gave a lot of air time to it. I'm a little dubious, but I'm going to put my trust in Damon and Affleck. All right, moving on, it is Stock of the Week, dog of the week time where Neil and I pick one stock that is only getting better with age and one stock that peaked back in 2016. I won the pre-show game of disc golf, so I'm up first. My stock of the week is beyond meat because it's moving beyond meat. Yesterday it announced it's expanding into a new product category, drinks, dubbed Beyond

Emmerse. The new beverage comes in a 12-ounce can and offers two versions, one with 10 grams of protein, and the other with 20. And of course, this being beyond meat, that protein comes from veggies, mostly yellow peas. So yes, you're drinking yellow pee. But it's pea juice that CEO Ethan Brown thinks represents a noticeable breakthrough in recovery. In addition to the 20 grams of protein crammed into the drink. It also contains as much fiber as three cups of spinach, zero grams of fat in a package that all comes in under 100 calories. For comparison, the popular dairy-based core power drinks have 50% more calories and three more grams of fat. While the protein is meant to make you strong, the launch is coming at a time of grave weakness

for the business. Sales fell 5% in 2024 and another 14% last year. Its stock has had an even rougher go. After peaking at $230 a share in 2019, Beyond Meat has traded as a penny stock for much of the last few years, down at 99%, though it did see a 10% jump on the announcement yesterday. Neil, the last gasp of a dying company or the beginning of something beautiful. Toby, that was a joke I was going to laugh at in 2016. It's a joke I'm going to laugh at in 2026. So according to the market research firm, Sir Cana, nearly half of Americans are trying to increase their protein intake. And where are they trying to get protein?

It's not the center of the plate, which is this industry term for the most expensive item, you know, the main protein as part of your meal, the meat, poultry, seafood. It's outside the center of the plate. It's things like drinks. And that's what Beyond Meat is looking at protein beverages grew 122% between 2020 and 24. And companies as disparate as Starbucks, Duncan, Propel are all getting into the protein trend. And Beyond Meat thinks that it can use the P-Protein that it made its main products on

that can transfer pretty easily into the drink realm. But I would actually argue that protein isn't even the star of the show here. The fiber that is included in this drink is something that I do think, one, is a growing food trend. People are paying more attention to their fiber intake. But also they think that the tapioca fiber derived from Casva that they crammed into this drink has a lot of functional effect. it can benefit gut bacteria, it can regulate blood sugar, and it also triggers satiety hormones, the same ones that are triggered by GLP1 drugs, essentially.

So they think that not only are you getting this protein, but they have this fiber at a time where people want to increase their intake, and also hopefully allow them to eat less. So they think the fiber portion is kind of the ace in the hole here. Beyond me is just really rowing upstream here, because the food pyramid, according to the government, has essentially been flipped on its head, and it just completely, fell on what Beyond Meat was doing with its plant-based burgers because demand for animal proteins, actual meat is absolutely surging. JBS, which is a meat giant, just posted record revenue. Cargill, another massive meat company had a 44% profit increase. What is at the top of the food period

now, according to RFK Jr., red meat, whole milk, things that are just actually come from animals. So maybe this is Beyond Meat saying, actually our main business that we've been trying to do for 10 years is dead in the water right now. We're just going against all of the trends. Why don't we hop on a trend and actually go with the current right now and we'll see whether consumers will be amenable to that. One thing that is smart that I think they're doing

is they're throwing this up on their D to C website. It's kind of a separate thing from their main homepage. And it's just a limited run test to see how it does if people seem to respond to it. They'll ramp up production. If not, I guess they'll just have to pivot again. All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back with Neil's Dog of the Week.

My dog of the week is Vail because no snow equals big problems when you're the largest ski company in the world. There's been very little powder this winter out west where Vail operates several big time resorts like Park City, Beaver Creek, and Breckenridge. Yesterday, the company reported a major shortfall in skiers this season, primarily due to the lack of snowfall in the Rockies. Season-to-date skier visits had plummeted 20% through January 4th compared to a year earlier, sending revenue from lift tickets, ski school, and dime. all lower. Rob Katz, CEO of Vail, blamed the worst early season snowfalls in the West in over three decades. He said snow at the company's Western U.S. Resorts for November and December was about 50% below the historical 30-year average, allowing only 11% of terrain to be open in December. Vail stock didn't totally get hammered from the reveal since the slump was already priced in by

investors, but over the last year, shares are down nearly 25% as Vail looks for ways to improve from a pizza corporation to French fries. I do just want to dig into the snow even further because this was a wonky year of weather. There was two things that combined to make it not snow out west. And essentially there was the polar vortex. Remember, that came down from the Arctic that really descended on the East Coast. That combined with La Nemia ended up dumping record amounts of snow on the East Coast, which is not where, you know, Vail operates most of its mountains.

It's mostly in the Rockies. And so if you're looking at historical 30-year averages over there, it is gross. On Tuesday, Vail reported its worst snowpack since it started keeping records dating back to 1978 with just 4.4 inches. Only 11% of its terrain in the Rocky Mountains was open last month. So again, you talk about that it was already priced in, but those are really, really ugly numbers if you are a ski company and no one can ski. And you know it's doing great.

The Northeast, there's a lot of snow. Put some respect on the green mountains name in Vermont. As of mid-December, more than 100 inches of snow had fallen near Jay Peak in Vermont versus 30 to 60 inches in Utah. When you're from the northeast like me, we have a little bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to our ski mountains. People head out west to Utah and Colorado where they say the snow is so much better and the runs are longer and the mountains are bigger, which may be true. But at least for one year, Vermont's time to shine is now. And also, if you're our veil, the snow is the issue. but the Epic Pass is kind of your bread and butter here.

Remember, Katz, who came back as CEO, was the man who basically started this entire revolution in the industry where you buy one pass and you get access to a bunch of different mountains. But they've seen sales of that start to soften a little bit. It costs you over $1,000 these days. They said that they might have prioritized Epic Pass too much over, you know, daily, everyday skier. So there is some crack starting to form in that model.

And we were kind of discussing how do you grow your business as a, ski industry operator. It's difficult. There's only so many mountains in the world. So Vail obviously goes around and buys up as many as they can. But at a certain point, there's a limited amount of peak. So it becomes a difficult business to grow. And the more people who go to your ski mountain, the worst experience it is. So yeah, glad we're podcasters and not CEO of a ski company. But I actually did pose this question to my group chat. I was like yesterday, after we were talking, like, how would you grow? You're a ski mountain CEO, your Vail CEO. How do you grow this business? Very interesting question. Let's sprint to the finish with some final headlines. Spotify wants to put something else

on your release radar, a price hike. The music streaming service announced that it's going to be hiking the price of its U.S. individual premium subscription by $1 from $11.99 a month to $12.99, starting next billing date. Duo subscriptions are getting an even bigger bump from $16.99 to $18.99, and family plans will go from 1999 to $219.99. It's Spotify's third price increase since 2023. after spending 12 years not budging its subscription cost at all. In its announcement, Spotify said, occasional updates to pricing across our markets reflect the value that Spotify delivers,

enabling us to continue offering the best possible experience and benefit artists. Analysts think Spotify has lots of flexibility to raise prices given how relatively low they are compared to other subscriptions and the fact that you're still going to be paying just 13 bucks to access the entire history of recorded music. Surveys have consistently shown users would be willing to pay more for the service. That stat of going 12 years without changing a price at all.

Makes me reminisce about 2016 again. Everything comes back to 2016 again, but we are far from that era. Inflation is actually hitting streaming. If you go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, recent report, they found that subscription and rental of video like Netflix and Disney Plus saw inflation of nearly 20% in December. Then also a Forbes analysis from November found that the typical American spends $46 a month on streaming. Most households have an average of three streaming services. So we are currently

entering an era where, you know, streaming used to be the more affordable and flexible option for a variety of different things from video to listening to music. Now those prices are bumping up. And it's calling into question, is this actually better for us? But Spotify has always been lower than the video streaming. I think that's why they have a lot more pricing power. And analysts have been telling them for years to jack up their prices. Like, what are you doing, not staying put for 12 years? I guess it was just a growth mechanism. which actually succeeded, but now, yeah, three price hikes since 2023. You're going to be paying more for Spotify, but I think people generally see it as a much better bargain

than something like Netflix or HBO Max where you're playing, you know, close to $20 a month. Moving on, what's the number one college in the world? It ain't that school outside of Boston anymore. After decades of sitting at top global rankings, Harvard was not the most productive research university in the world. The listing question is called the Leiden rankings, which come from Leiden, University in the Netherlands, and it ranks institutions based on scientific output, such as published journal articles. This year, Harvard comes in at number three on the list, leapfrogged by two Chinese universities. To put this shift in perspective, 20 years ago in the early 2000s, seven American

schools would be among the top 10, and only one Chinese school, Xi Jiang University, would even make the top 25. Now, seven Chinese schools are in the top 10, and Jay Jiang is ranked number one. It's not that the U.S. universities are getting worse per se. Harvard is producing far more research than it ever has before, but the global competition is also producing more work and has ramped up even faster than the nerds in the U.S. Okay, but what do the party school rankings say? I think we're still doing okay on that front. Who's got the better tailgates? I think that's a little bit more important than who produces the most scientific research. But no, the United States and China are going in different directions

in pulling in people to study at their higher educational institutions. The number of international students arriving in the U.S. in August 2025 was 19% lower than the year before. Meanwhile, China has been spending billions of dollars into its universities. In the fall, they released a visa specifically for graduates of top universities in science and technology to travel to China to study. so things are going in opposite directions. I'm sure in five to ten years,

those lists will look a lot more Chinese if the United States don't do anything about it. They're going to beat us in some beer pong in 10 years too if this rates keeps up. All right, finally, divisional round of the NFL playoffs begins tomorrow, and Toby and I are going to give you some interesting talking points to bring up with your friends

while you're watching the Bills v. The Niners versus the Cocks, the Texans versus the Patriots, and the Rams versus the Bears. First of all, it'll be tough for these games to deliver the drama of last week's wild card matchups, which were historically tense. The first four games of the playoffs featured a combined 12 lead changes in the fourth quarter,

which set a new record for the most in an entire postseason. And next, remember how I mentioned that the Rams are facing the Bears? We'll get this. That'll be the Rams coach Sean McVeigh's 15th playoff game and his 15th different opponent. Yes, he has never played the same team twice in the postseason, which I can't wrap my head around. That's really crazy. Toby, what else should people know ahead of this week?

weekend. I really just want to talk about one of these matchups in particular, the San Francisco 49ers versus the Seattle Seahawks. There's been this theory floating around that the San Francisco 49ers have been the most injured team in the NFL over the past decade, not because Shanahan gives Christian McCaffrey 400 touches

a year, but because of chronic EMF exposure, electromagnetic field exposure, thanks to the fact that their practice facility is located near an electrical substation. So there's this threat on social media from a guy named Peter Cowan that went super viral explaining how since moving near this electrical substation in 2014,

the 49ers are top five in games lost for 10 of the past 11 season. They've had seven to eight full Achilles ruptures. They've had over 40 major hamstring and calf tears, high ankles sprains every single year, and no other franchise comes close to their industry record. And he blames it on chronic exposure to these waves that he says has collagen, damages the collagen integrity of players, tendons, and ligaments. Of course, some people from the scientific community have pushed back against this, but a very funny kind of sub story to bring up during the 49ers game and say,

hey, where's that electrical substation? Yeah, and even players and agents have acknowledged this in post-game interview after the last game, the deniers beat the Eagles, but their tied end went down with an injury. And yet other players being like, it's that damn power plant that we practice next to. But actually, they've been practicing next to this substation since 1988. it doesn't exactly work Peter Cowan. But anyway, this thread went nuclear and it's kind of a fun thing to talk about. Also, they are hosting Levi Stan is hosting the Super Bowl and World Cup matches this summer.

So I don't think this is the last we're going to hear about this electrical substation. That is all the time we have. Thanks for starting your morning with us. Have a great Friday and an even better weekend. If you want to get in touch, send an email to Morning Brew Daily at Morningbrew.com or DM us on Instagram at MB Daily Show. Let's roll the credits. Emily Milliron is our executive producer.

Raymond Lute is our producer, our associate producers are Olivia Graham and Olivia Lake. Hair and makeup is catching the first chair at Killington. Devin Emery is our president and our show is a production of Morning Brew. Great show today, Neil. I wish you all well. Spring is the season everyone refreshes everything except their blinds. People put it off because they think it's complicated. But at Blinds.com, we've spent 30 years proving it's not. Right now, you can save big during the Spring Cyber Monday sale.

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