Morning Brew Daily - Bird Flu Outbreak Impacting Your Dairy? & Why Ugly Shoes Are Everywhere

Episode Date: April 29, 2024

Episode 311: Neal and Kyle cover the bird flu outbreak that’s made its way to the milk industry. Should you be worried? Next, two government programs that are actually finding some success despite its initial skepticism: the Chips Act and IRS Direct File. Also, this private company wants to take you to the Hamptons in style. Then, New Balance has some new footwear that’s great for your feet but maybe not for your eyes. Meanwhile, Zendaya is dominating the box office with her latest 2 films. Lastly, the biggest news in the week ahead.  Per My Last Email: Spotify, Apple, YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts Get your Morning Brew Daily Merch HERE: https://shop.morningbrew.com/products/morning-brew-daily-sweatshirt?utm_medium=multimedia&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=mbd&utm_content=shownotes Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here: https://link.chtbl.com/MBD Watch Morning Brew Daily Here: https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow Robinhood Gold Card is offered by Robinhood Credit, Inc., and is issued by Coastal Community Bank, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Terms apply to the Robinhood Gold Card rewards program and are available at http://robinhood.com/creditcard. Gold Card requires an annual Gold subscription and a fee applies to Robinhood Gold subscription. Visit http://robinhood.com/gold for more information. Some limitations or conditions may apply. Must have Robinhood Financial brokerage account to redeem cash back. See rewards program terms for details. Rewards program terms are subject to change. Returns are not guaranteed. Interest is earned on uninvested cash swept from your brokerage account to program banks. The cash sweep program is offered through Robinhood Financial LLC. Terms apply. Robinhood is not a bank. Terms apply to the match and limitations apply to IRAs. 3% match requires Robinhood Gold for 1 year from the date of first 3% match. Must keep Robinhood IRA for 5 years. Visit robinhood.com/retirement for more information. Robinhood Financial LLC (member SIPC) is a registered broker dealer. 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 Kyle Hagee. Today, the IRS's free tax filing system was a big success. Is that turbotax sweating? And we're also going to be talking about why ugly shoes are so hot right now. In the Crocs collab, you didn't know you wanted. It's Monday, April 29th.

Let's ride. MBD Super Sub, Kyle is here to fill in for Toby. We're back. Sixth man of the year. I can't wait. Toby's out this morning. Always a pleasure to chat about the news with you, Kyle. I've got to say, something has changed since the last time you joined the show.

It's the crest white strips. It's those. And you just look a little more comfortable on the mic. So I just got to ask what's going on. Well, yes, I'm more comfortable on the mic because we actually just dropped a new podcast. I have a show here at Morning Brew called Per My Last Email, it's hot takes and tactics to help you navigate work life. We have an episode that just dropped today on navigating hybrid work that I think is excellent.

We also had one on how to talk to your coworkers about salary. if you should actually care about AI. Is that not how to talk? And the co-host of the show is my colleague and friend Kayla, and rumor has it, the chemistry between us is almost as good as the chemistry between you and Toby. So you know you're in for a treat. Would love for everyone to check out for my last email and let me know what they think.

So when do these episodes drop? They drop every single Monday at like 7 a.m. Okay. Yeah. So check it out. Now let's hear a word from our friends over at Robin Hood. Neil, we've said it before, and I'll say it again. Robin Hood Gold is a great deal.

It is an insane deal. For less than $7 a month, you get 5% APY on uninvested cash, 3% cash back on the gold card across any category, and 3% match on retirement contributions. I legit don't think I can get a sandwich for less than $7 in New York, and Robin Hood gets you all that? I wasn't even done either. You also get access to these nifty Morning Star stock reports that cost $35 a month just on their own. Okay, you're not going to believe me, but I swear I've hit $35 on a sales. sandwich order before. I do believe you. It's because you add black truffle to everything,

Kyle. If you want a better deal than whatever monstrosity, Kyle, ordered, check out Robin Hood Gold on the Robin Hood app, less than $7 a month for one of the best premium tiers out there. Disclosures, investing is risky. Robin Hood Gold is offered through Robin Hood Financial LLC and is a subscription offering services for a fee. Terms applied to the APY and rate is subject to change. Limitations applied to the retirement match. Robin Hood Gold card is subject to credit approval. Terms apply to the card and the rewards program. More info in the description of this podcast. Own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino

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We need to talk about bird flip. We have to. I know. It's not the most appetizing topic to lead a Monday morning show, but it is a big deal for consumers and businesses and the agricultural sector, and it's spreading among dairy cows right now. Last week, the FDA reported that 20% of milk samples it tested from the retail market contain viral fragments of H5N1 bird flu. Now, it's important to note that it did not find any alive bird flu virus, just genetic

traces, and that shows how the process of pasteurization is effective at killing the virus before it reaches your honeybunches of oats bowl. Official stress that there's minimal risk to humans from consuming milk and the commercial milk supply is safe. Still, the current outbreak among mammals and cows in particular is concerning health experts. As of last Friday, the USDA confirmed 34 bird flu outbreaks and cattle in nine states. That's almost certainly an undercount given the lack of testing. Think about the early days of COVID, saying, if you don't test, you won't find the virus. That also applies here. And the parallels

with COVID don't stop there. Many critics are accusing the government of bungling the response to bird flu in the same way they acted, laissez-faire about the pandemic in the early days of 2020. Kyle, the last outbreak of bird flu and poultry led to major supply shortages. And egg skyrocketing in price, and no one wants to repeat. We can't have that. I now know why you wanted me to sub today, because it's a little known fact about me. I worked on a dairy farm in France for one week. For one week 11 years ago, so I'm a bit of an expert on this topic. What did you learn? I learned that cows, it's a tough job. It's a really tough job. And I think the main takeaway from me from the story from the consumer's perspective is milk, not raw milk, but milk pasteurized, is

safe. The testing they did is like super sensitive. It can find like genetic traces of the of the virus, but like your milk in your store, you can still drink safely, which I think like you start reading these headlines and you get a little worried. The real cause for concern is obviously like animal and human welfare and the business impacts that this is going to have because like you said, people might not want to test for this because then they have to like maybe call their herd. They have to like put these animals away. They're going to. They're going to. not be able to produce as much milk, which is how they make money. So this has economic concerns, but also, like, you want animals to be healthy. You want humans to be healthy. And there has

been some people that have been found with traces of this virus in them, although we're still not sure really how it spreads from animal to human. No, that's the concern, because usually it goes from wild birds to poultry. And that was the source of large outbreaks a couple of years ago, which resulted in the skyrocketing egg prices. It was the largest outbreak of bird flu in history, and American farmers actually had to call 50 million turkeys and chickens. So that was devastating for supply, and that led to skyrocketing prices.

The concern here is that it has spread to mammals, cows, and it is spreading within the cowpot, the cattle, dairy cattle population. One of the major concerns here is if it spreads to pigs, because pigs are very effective hosts. They're like petri dishes for viruses. They often live in on these farms with cattle. So the major concern for health officials is keeping it away from pigs because who knows

if it goes to pigs, starts spreading within pigs, it could definitely impact workers on these farms. Already one dairy worker was infected with bird flu. And it is quite fatal for humans. There's been 900 cases over the past few decades, and 50% of them were. fatal. So making sure that the government is on top of this and making sure that the industry is prepared with testing and procedures to keep their humans and their livestock safe is very urgent. I think that's spot on. And before we go, I got to give a shout out to one guy.

Louis Pasteur, who is the French chemist who came up with pasteurization. He's keeping us all safe. So shout out to Louis, developing that in 1864. I went down to Wikipedia rabbit hole clearly. All right, we're going to move on to weekend winners, Neil, and I'm here to report some truly incredible news. It appears that the government is working, some rare Ws from the U.S. government, because my weekend winner is the IRS. Now, the IRS this year rolled out a direct file software, allowing some households in 12 states to complete their taxes for free with a new and improved system. And this system is truly putting some numbers on the board. I'll break these numbers down. 140,000 plus households completed their tax returns using the new direct file software.

$200 a year is about what Americans normally spend on average to file their returns. 10.5 million and 2.4 million. That's the cost to develop the site and then run it during the tax season, which amounts to just $92 in total cost per filing. And then the last number I have for you, 9 out of 10, which is the people that rated it excellent or above average for those who actually used the software. I think this is really cool. What's your take on the IRS getting a W? Well, anytime you hear about the government getting into software development,

you break out in hives because it has not been super successful in the past. There's nightmares from the 2013 rollout of healthcare.gov. And then just this past college prep season, the government tried to redo this completely overhaul, The student financial aid process, and that was a complete debacle led students up in the air about how much money they were going to get. So I would say the government has a pretty bad track record at putting up websites. This seems to be a rare win that has helped a lot of people file for free when the average cost of filing for households is $200, $200 a pop. Meanwhile, it does present a bit of an existential crisis for the turbo taxes of the world, H&R blocks, who make a living on charging you

to file taxes. They and Republicans have pushed back against the IRS doing this saying it's redundant. It's not necessary. The government shouldn't step into taxes. But it does seem to be that there is at least somewhat demand for this product. Right. And according to an audit from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, what a title. They found that more than 14 million Americans paid tax prep companies a total of about $1 billion in 2019 for services that they could have received for free. I think the software is a response to that. The IRS also found about three quarters of Americans are comfortable and actually want the government to provide a free software that has a little more advanced functionality. It still doesn't rival the intuance and the turbo taxes and the HR blocks, but it's better

than what we currently have from the government. It might be. So there is a very limited rollout. It doesn't impact most filers for now, and they're reevaluating what went well, what didn't work this time and seeing whether they're going to expand it for next tax season. My winner on the government W track is the Chips Act. So go back two years ago, Congress passed the ambitious measure to juice American production of semiconductors, a component that powers everyday life and is vital to national security. These days, the government has doled out more than half of the legislation's $39 billion in incentives, and it's working out just as well as the Jalen Brunson signing for the NICS.

Chip companies and their suppliers have announced U.S. investments of $327 billion over the the next 10 years. Construction of manufacturing facilities for computing and electronics devices has jumped 15-fold, and by 2030, the U.S. will likely produce around 20% of the world's most advanced chips, according to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Right now, it's making 0%. And these facilities are so huge, so expensive, they could transform regional economies. Micron, which received $6.1 billion in federal grants last week, plans to invest $100 billion in a manufacturing campus near Syracuse, and that would be the single largest private investment in New York history. Kyle, the Chips Act seems to be doing what it's set out to do. Yes, and I love this part

about Syracuse that you just mentioned, because President Biden also announced the creation of four new workforce hubs in upstate New York, Michigan, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia, and they're targeting areas that I think used to be industrial powerhouses, went through deindustrialization, are maybe struggling a bit. And the hope is that while the Chips Act is also maybe important for national security, it can reinvigorate some of these cities that have fallen behind. So they're trying to accomplish a lot, whether it will work out ultimately is still TBD. But even zooming out, I think what's interesting about this is like a rare bipartisan effort. This passed the Senate 64 to 33.

And it is a major investment in industrial policy, about $280 billion in a combination of research and subsidies around chips, but also science and technology broadly, like the act, is doing a lot. It's exciting to see, I think, but I do have a trivia question for you, because I know you're big on trivia. What does Chips stand for? The acronym. I didn't know it was an acronym, but I'm not surprised because I think every single bill that comes through Congress is an acronym in some way or form. It's kind of like a prerequisite. It's like legally mandated. Yeah, I don't know what it is, though. It stands for creating helpful incentives to produce semiconductors. Damn. Boom. Well, we talked about the good things about

the Chips Act, and it's wonderful acronym. There are a few critics that we should mention, and one of those relates to the fact that these projects have been delayed and delayed again many times. I'm thinking about the TSM one in Arizona, and it's because there were not enough workers available to staff these plants, which required multiple thousands of people, and it looks like they're finally resolving the workforce issues there, and the TSM plan is going to start producing its first chips next fall. Meanwhile, other critics say we really shouldn't be, the government shouldn't be in the business of subsidizing certain industries at the expense of

others, shouldn't be picking winners and losers because we're going to create this race around the world just to subsidize domestic manufacturing. If we do it, Europe is going to do it. Asia is already subsidizing its own industries. And that comes at the expense of free trade and free markets, and it's not generally sound policy to so heavily subsidize certain industries because you're distorting the market. So, you know, I don't think that criticism will go away. It does seem like the Chipsax has spurred a great deal of investment, but at what cost? Yeah, there's tons of talk about industrial policy making a big comeback. I think Chips Act is an example of that. Yeah. All right, I'm more of a Jersey Shore guy myself, but for anyone listening,

hoping to head out to the Hamptons this summer, there's a new transportation. option from an unlikely source. Blade, the Boogie Helicopter Company, known for flying rich Manhattanites to JFK, is getting into bougie buses. For a one-way price of up to $275, Blade will take you to the Hamptons from Memorial Day through Labor Day in a pilot program. Included in the ticket, seats that recline up to 45 degrees, espresso martini, sweet green, salads, pillows, blankets, and speedy Wi-Fi so you can fire off those last few emails before shutting your laptop for the beach weekend. For Blade, this represents the expansion of what is already a pretty nice business.

Revenue was $225 million last year up 580% from 2019, and it thinks it can grow that by targeting a less wealthy, younger clientele that still probably uses the word summer as a verb. Kyle, I know you're a big Hamptons guy. Do you think Blade has identified a real gap in the market here, people that can't afford to helicopters than Hamptons, but still wouldn't suffer the indignity of traveling on the Long Island Railroad. I have to correct some misinformation.

I'm not a Big Hampton's guy. I've never been yet, but I'm open to invites, and I do have to make a bit of a disclosure. I have taken a blade helicopter before. I've done it once. I got the introductory rate. I've never been on a helicopter. It was amazing. So I actually kind of like this company.

They're doing really interesting things, and I actually do like the bus idea. Now, reading the press release is like, it feels like you're in a day. different world. You mentioned, like, sweet green salads. They have these seats that were specifically developed by Bose to eliminate 90% of bumps and vibrations and help prevent motion sickness. They're like the most advanced passenger seats in the world, according to the press release. They're going to have pop-up bagels, which is a famous New York bagel. So the press release sounds good. It's easy to write a press release. It's maybe harder to execute. But as oxymoronic as it sounds, I do think there is a middle ground here because they noted that people already pay like 750 bucks.

to take charter a car to get out to the Hamptons, this bus is actually cheaper and probably much more luxurious than a single car. So there might actually be a place in the middle to get out to the Hamptons, and Blade is trying to exploit that. Yeah, I mean, there's only 19 seats on this bus, so I can't imagine that they wouldn't be able to fill this, you know, on Fridays or Saturdays going out to the beach. But what is interesting to me about Blade's business is that less than half, 44% of their revenue comes from their flagship air taxi services around the world.

the majority of their revenue actually stems from an acquisition they made in 2021. They bought an organ logistics and transportation company, and now Blade is the largest dedicated air transporter of human organs in the United States. So this is their big business now. It's organ transportation. They completed the longest heart organ transportation in the, or root in the world. They flew from Juneau, Alaska to Boston for a transplant. So this is the real moneymaker for Blade is moving.

goods, organs, and not people. And I just have to say one thing. Before you get on this bus, I feel like you should have to ride a megabus, like a $5 megabus at least once in your life. Picks you up in the weirdest parking lot. It's way too hot in the bus. Like, that's how you build character.

Do that once, and then you can go to the Blade bus. Up next is Sexpack in Hollywood? Neil, a new word just dropped, and that is snowfer. It is not a sneaker. It's not a loafer. It's made by new balance, and it's likely to be worn. by the most annoying person you know. Now, why do I bring this up?

Well, ugly shoes, quote, unquote, are having a moment. It's not just the snowfer, but Crocs has been crushing the ugly shoe game. They have a recent collab with Pringles. Yes, you heard that right. Crocs and Pringles. Mischiff had those famous big red boots that every celebrity was wearing courtside. And there's now even bedazzled Birkenstock. So ugly shoes are having a moment.

Neil, what can you make of this? Ugly shoes are having a moment. Collabs are having a moment. Mishmashes are having a moment. having a moment. I mean, the reviews of this new balance shoe, first of all, the shoe went viral. It's been meme to death. The reviews say, perfect for when I need to run a marathon with a business casual dress code.

It is a sneaker that dares to be worn with a suit. I mean, so this did go viral. It is a meme, this new balance shoe, which, I mean, I encourage everyone to look it up. It is a sneaker in the shape of a loafer. Yeah. And it maybe represents a bunch of different trends that are going on these days in work. in fashion, which is the pivot to comfort, right? The blurring of, I mean, you host a work-life podcast, so you could probably tell me better

than that, but it seems like people are much more comfortable wearing more comforting things to work after COVID. And it seems like this new balance shoe plays into the trend of mixing and matching dress clothes with more casual clothes. And then there's this concept of like a fashion bomb, like a fashion trolling online, where Crocs, all of these brands, are releasing just the most hideous, abominable-looking shoes imaginable for the sole purpose of going viral. And the Crox Pringles collab, you know, who the heck would buy it?

It's sold out, right? Like, these are great sales drivers. It's great marketing tactics to just release the most hideous shoe available. It's super interesting. And I have to say, like, I personally owe Crocs a huge apology. When they first came out of the scene, I was like, these are the ugliest shoes. Who's going to buy these? They're absolutely crushing it now.

And I love this idea of, like, there are. almost like drop shipping or like doing like, I think it also has a collectibles trend where you're getting some of these shoes, maybe not even for the purpose of wearing them, but they're like these viral moments, a capstone of time, a collectible item. And I think that this trend is only going to continue. So we're going to have to do the next show in our new balance snow first. What's interesting is the Crocs, you know, the Crocs leaders, the executives there say, yeah, we're down to experiment and try all these different collapse things because our shoes are so ugly to begin with, that it doesn't matter.

Like, we can't go any lower. So we're just going to throw a bunch of stuff at the wall, see what works. And people are going to give us a lot of leeway just because of how our shoes look in general. Yeah, I love Crocs. I'm going to have to get myself a pair because they're winning me over. All right. For our last story, I'm excited to announce that we're officially bringing sexy back.

And by we, I certainly don't mean, me and you, Neil, I mean major Hollywood studios are back to exploring adult relationships and sexuality in their projects. Now, eroticism in film, it used to be common in studio movies like 1980s, 1990s. This actually slowly started to disappear throughout the 2000s. Chief Film Critic for The Washington Post and Hornaday said that sex and mainstream movies was pretty much gone, quote unquote, by 2019. And then Kate Hagen writing in Playmoy magazine found that only 1.2% of films released between 2010 and 2020 contained an overt sexine, which is the lowest in any decade since the 1960s.

Now, the movie that many are saying is kind of the perfect example of this pendulum swinging back, bringing is a sexy tennis drama, which is a word I never thought I'd say. Sexy tennis drama, Challenger's the film stars Zendaya. It's gathering a ton of attention, particularly around its trailer, which definitely doesn't shy away from sex. Neil, I know you did some investigative journalism, and you went and checked out the film. What's your take on the trend and this movie in general? Yeah, I mean, we can talk about maybe more in depth after the show. what I really thought, but no, I did see Challenger's really fun film, really fast-paced, Zendaya's amazing, and these two guys who also play tennis are also great. So definitely

steamy. There's a lot of streaks from the audience. But what I think is really driving this trend, though, is to more sex and adult themes in movies is streaming. So we saw this with Saltburn, right? This was the previous movie from last year that had a lot of sexy bits in it. And it became, it was did okay in theaters, but it did much better and streaming platforms afterwards. So there is an valve for these studios to produce pretty sexy films and maybe people are shying away from them going into theaters. And they didn't challengers because challengers earned 25 million.

It was the number one at the box office this past weekend. But there is a long tale for these movies like Saltburn, like challengers, like poor things that have come out recently that have a long, much longer tale on streaming. and when people can watch it at home. So maybe the move away from sex in movies over the 2000s, there was a lot of factors. There was China. China censors these parts of the movies.

So if you want to be big in the Chinese box office, you can't have them. The other is just general family-friendly entertainment. There was no streaming. So you had to get people packed into theaters. That was how you made your money. And so you wanted to have the broadest audience possible. So that means PG-13, PG-G, let's make family-friendly entertainment. Maybe the streaming era has opened up a new wave of movies where you can explore these particular themes.

And Zendaya, I just got to give a shot to her. She's absolutely crushing it. And they did a survey of people who went to see challengers. And 55% of the people that went to see this movie said they just went for Zendaya. Like, incredible. That's why I saw it. I will say I'm glad we're bringing sexy back because I feel like it's such a quintessential moment in your childhood when you're like 12. And you're watching a movie with your parents.

and then like a sex scene comes on and you just all, no one talks and it's the most uncomfortable like one minute of your life. Like that's important for kids to go through. I will say, don't see challengers with your parents. Yeah, don't do that. All right, it's, let's get to our week ahead preview. It'll be a big week for hot takes on the U.S. economy with the Federal Reserve meeting Wednesday and the April jobs report dropping Friday.

Because inflation has remained sticky, the Fed is expected to hold interest rates steady at this meeting and for the foreseeable future. And then on the jobs front, economists are projecting another strong month for employment growth. And there's also another heavy slate of earnings coming your way. Analysts are expecting huge revenue growth from Amazon, but there's significantly less optimism around Apple as the company confronts declining iPhone sales in China. Also, pharma giant Eli Lilly will reveal how its blockbuster weightless and diabetes medications have been selling.

So, yeah, last week, Microsoft and Alphabet just surged after. earnings and meta plummeted after earnings. The big theme there was how much money these companies are spending on data centers and capital expenditures on AI. The Kentucky Derby is on Saturday, and it's not just any Derby. It's the 150th running of the longest running continuously held annual sporting event in the United States. I had no idea. That's cool. Here's something you may not have known. Churchill Downs is also a publicly traded company. And last Thursday, its stock had its best day in nearly six months after posting record revenue and profits. And that was even before.

the Kentucky Derby. Yeah, shout out to Churchill Downs. I did not know that. What else is going on on Wednesday in our best Justin Timberlake voice? It's going to be May. Berkshire Hathaway is holding its annual shareholders meeting, which is known as the Woodstock for capitalists. That's in Omaha on Saturday. And we should expect tributes to Warren Buffett's long-time business partner, Charlie Munger, who died last year at 99. Finally, also on Saturday, it's Star Wars Day. May the fourth be with you. Checks out. Neil, there's one thing. missing. The only thing I'm caring to watch this week is my Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round versus the Lakers are the Nuggets. Let's go, Wolves. They're so good, man. Can I,

can I hop on board the bag? We welcome everyone. Because I'm done with the six. Come on. I'm absolutely done with them. All right, that's all the time we have for today. Kyle. Thanks so much for stepping up. Six-man award performance right there. And thank you all for listening. Hope you have a great start to the week. If you have any feedback on the show or just want to tell Kyle how charming he is, send a note to Morningbrewdaily at Morningbrew. Let's roll the credits. Emily Milliron is our executive producer. Raymond Liu is our producer. Olivia Graham is back as our associate producer.

Euchenoa Ogu is our technical director. Billy Minino is on audio, hair and makeup, approves of the snowfer. Devin Emery is our chief content officer and our show is a production of Morning Brew. Have a great week, everyone.