The Best One Yet - “Call me if the range anxiety doesn’t subside in 7-10 days” — VW’s delegation. GoPro’s un-wearables. Tax-apalooza 2021.

Episode Date: March 17, 2021

Stimulus bill? Check. Vaccines? Coming. Now comes the biggest tax hike in 30 years. Volkwagen has whipped several remedies for range anxiety. And GoPro’s stock has tripled in 6 months because the latest GoPro product is anti-GoPro. $VWAGY $GPRO Got a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @JackKramer @NickOfNewYork Want a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9 Got a SnackFact for the pod? We got a form for that too:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe64VKtvMNDPGSncHDRF07W34cPMDO3N8Y4DpmNP_kweC58tw/viewform  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. And this is Snacks Daily. It is Wednesday, March 17. I'm feeling it. This is the best one, yeah. Yep. I know it is the best one yet.

First story, Jack, what are we got over here? Trust me, I studied abroad in Germany. Germans don't exaggerate. So we paid attention when Volkswagen said this. It was the greatest transformation in all the world. For a second story. GoPro never became a verb, but it did become a stock, and the stock has tripled in the past six months.

Forget this. The latest GoPro product? It's anti-Goproro. We're our third and final story. Stimulus bill? Check. Vaccines. Coming, also a check.

What's next? We got our first major tax increase in 30 years and a global tax pact. But before we hit that wonderful mix of stories, sad situation here, no corn, beef and cabbage with our buddy Timmy this year, check. During a pandemic, it's more self-patrick's day, Nick, than St. Patrick's Day. Excuse me one sec. I got to go postmates to Guinness to myself. That is depressing. But Snackers, we come bearing good news this St. Patrick's Day.

Okay, get this. In the last 25 years, the stock market has risen on St. Patrick's Day, not 50% of the time, not 55% of the time, three quarters of the time. That is so random that it can't be random. It's too random to not be random. It's not a luck of the Irish thing. You can't just say luck of the Irish. Causation and correlation, we think it's the Wall Street investors smelling the Bailey's wafting across from Hoboken. Hoboken, it's one square a mile, but you sense it for more than one square mile. Here's the even Stranger Part Snackers. Nick and I had way too much time on our hands yesterday. Yeah, we do. So we checked out what happened on September 17th historically on Wall Street, a.k.a. anti-St. St. Patrick's Day, it's six months away, and Jack and I have a very particular set of skills. So, Jack, what do we notice? On anti-Stan Patrick's Day, stocks fell about three quarters of the time. The opposite of what happens on St. Patrick's Day.

We got a bad luck of the anti-Irish situation going on here. St. Patrick's Day historically is the best for stocks. I'm following you. Anti-Stan Patrick's Day is the worst for stocks. Ipso facto makes so little sense. It probably makes too much sense. Snackers, the 7% of me that according to ancestry DNA is Irish is thrilled by this news.

All right, that's also all we got. Let's hit our three stories. Happy St. Patrick's Day, Snackers. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. The snacks about to hear rain food is air candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family. It's all informational just so, you know.

We're not recommending any securities. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member Fenra slash SIPC. For our first story, Volkswagen stock just jumped 10% to its highest level in 10 years. We had to see this.

We had to look into this. is stealing Tesla's strategy, but they're doing it with their own German twist. Oh, yeah. Volkswagen just announced a comprehensive transformation, transportation plan, Jack, the honors. Here's what the CEO said about it. Volkswagen will first get close to and then overtake Tesla. Those are actually his words. Jack, can you repeat those words again for us, please? We will first get close to and then overtake Tesla. Describing their corporate strategy like he's driving a sedan in Florida. Is he trying to make a pass on I-91? Like fast and the very not furious over here.

No, we're going to summarize the 10-year plan that VW just announced yesterday as the dominate electric vehicles globally plan. It's actually an incredibly ambitious plan kicking off with, you know, cutting the price of batteries in half to make electric vehicles the same price as normal cars. And they're going to do that with six brand spanking new gigafactories. It must be nice. Solely focused on producing electric car batteries. Jack, are those Tesla gigafactories?

my terms confused? What's going on here? No, but Tesla's kicking themselves for not trademarking the name Gigafactory. Oh my God. They were too focused on the Doge coin, not enough focus on the Gigafactory. Gigafactory sounds like a Lego set. It should be a Lego set. But Snackers, VW, no doubt. They can produce millions of electric vehicles next year. But here's the number one big question. Will people buy them? Only if people can overcome the number one electric car disease. Oh yeah, Jack. I got a bad case of the range anxiety. Range anxiety, Snackers. Nick and I are trying to get over it ourselves because we're both in the market for an electric car. So far, no cure. It's the subtle nervousness that your battery will run out and you'll have nowhere to charge it. I'm sorry, I hate to be that guy, but my battery's dead. Do you happen to have 3,000 double A's? I'm going to need 3,000 double A's. Whatever you got, I got every dongle in the game to charge this thing. I have. I just need like six hours of your time. Well, Vokeswagon doesn't want you to end up being that guy. So they just announced two ways to destroy, to crush, to end a bad case of range anxiety.

Those six gigafactories, they're going to figure out how to make a battery that will be charged from zero to fully charged in just 12 minutes. Oh, and then on top of that, Vokeswagon promised they're going to build three and a half thousand charging stations in the U.S., 18,000 charging stations in Europe, and 17,000 in China. Better battery. Okay. Quicker charging. Not bad. and more stations to charge that battery. I'm looking this, and your range anxiety will subside in 7 to 10 days.

Try to keep less weight on the left leg. Call me if the swelling doesn't go down. But Volkswagen, it is 6% electric vehicles right now. They're going to be converting to 20% electric vehicles by 2025. But that is a huge challenge, Nick. I mean, that's tripling your EVs in just a couple of years. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Volkswagen? Volkswagen is giving a master class in delegation.

Snackers, acquisitions. They get all the PR attacks. these days, but Volkswagen has partnered with a crew of friends to help it do this challenge. Every part of the plan that Volkswagen's doing, we just described, Tesla is doing all of that already. Where VW is different is that they're using their friends to ease the burden of the task. Case in point, VW called up its buddies at BP, and they're going to provide the juice for the charging stations. North Volt, a Swedish company, is joint veteran, basically going Dutch on all of those six gigafactories. And then you got Ford who's going to use VW's battery platform too so VW can

collect rent on their factories as well. The biggest of VW's buddies is the country of Germany, whose national pride depends on like being the leader of cars in the future like they have been the past hundred years. They're going to provide the moral, probably a bunch of financial support on this whole operation too. BP, North Fort, Ford, Germany, Volkswagen's doing it with all their buddies. Vertically integrate like Tesla or just delegate. For our second story, GoPro, its stock is up, shocker, 5% yesterday. We didn't see that coming. GoPro's pulling off the biggest pivot because it missed its biggest opportunity. GoPro, founded 2002 by Nick Woodman while he was surfing in Australia, casually, allegedly.

Or skiing at Yellowstone. If she didn't see the half pipe, did it really happen, Jack? GoPro describes itself as a tech company, but it's really a camera company. They're casually working on their ninth version of the huge. hero camera right now. Here's the evolution of the hero camera. First, it was an extreme camera. Then they added Wi-Fi. Then they made it smaller. Then they added Bluetooth. Then they made it smaller. Then they added a second screen. Then they made it smaller. Then they made it smaller again. And then they said, hey, let's stick a camera on a drone and then boom, you get the karma drones from GoPro. I think they're actually winding that down because it wasn't a success. And they're winding it

down because GoPro experienced what Jack and I like to call the great wipeout. Nick and I were entrepreneurs at Market Snacks when we first covered GoPro and its stock soared after its 2014 IPO. It was worth $10 billion back in 2014. Today, the valuation of GoPro Jack. It's less than $2 billion. And the reason is clear. Do you want to watch the tips of my skis because I did a blue square last winter? Said no, whatever. No. You don't want to watch that video. Which is why Jack and I were fat. When we noticed yesterday, GoPro is pulling off the awkward pivot. They're going from GoPro hardware to GoPro software that doesn't require GoPro cameras. It doesn't.

The new thing, it's called the Quick app. They already had a version of it, but this is the new version. It's basically your photos app meets Pinterest. It's quick with no C, Q, UIC, and it's designed to kill the endless scroll we all have when we look at the photos, the millions of photos on our smartphone. But here's the kicker. The new GoPro app doesn't require a GoPro camera. All JPEGs are created equal with this app.

Let's say you're mountain biking on some adventure, which is like a constant series of incredibly close calls, you want to do a highlight video of that video. Well, this new app has editing tools so you can easily add the Jock Jam soundtrack in the background to make this video a highlight. Or you got a new baby nursery you want to show off. You could also use this new GoPro product.

You can overlay some lullaby music, find a picture of a bassinet online and insert it, because let's be honest, you never finished building the bassinet. No, you didn't. Now, GoPro, its hardcore customer was always the hardcore ex-gamer. The future customer is anyone who has pictures on their smartphone, which is everyone. It's an awkward pivot. Investors, though, see hope in this pivot because the stock has rose from $2 a share one year ago to $12 a share today. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at GoPro? If you miss a trend by just a smidge, you still miss the trend. Classic GoPro critique we always hear.

Is it a feature? Is it a product? Is it a company? What is GoPro? The issue is wearables, which GoPro missed. Yep, wearables. They're living their best life right now. The market for wearables jumped almost 30% in 2020. Apple dominates wearables with the Apple watch and with AirPods. Google recently acquired Fitbit, another wearable. Honestly, GoPro's products, they're not quite wearables. They're kind of unwearable. to basically wear unables. I had the GoPro Hero 1.

I remember it. I realized I couldn't use it without a helmet holster, a body harness, or the dreaded selfie stuff. Honestly, Jack, it was a weird phase in your life. I remember that whole thing. GoPro failed the, Can I casually wear this around and not scare people test.

Wearables. That was the trend. GoPro missed by one degree. For our third and final story, the stimulus bills, they're done. Next up from the cat. capital, taxapalooza. We're talking higher taxes across the world. Let that sink in higher taxes across the world. President Joe Biden right now is taking a nationwide tour to tout the benefits of

the $1.9 trillion latest stimulus. All right. You got the $1,400 checks for everyone and vaccine distribution check. Those are short-term crucial investments, but they also just have a short-term path. All right. Then you got your ABCs, Amtrak 2.0, bridges, broadband, and clean energy. Those are the long-term infrastructure projects that have been on the to-do list for like 30 years, but they have long-term payoffs. It's going to be a long CVS receipt for all that stuff. It's going to be very expensive. Yes.

And we already put $5.7 trillion on the old nationwide corporate credit card in the past year. Yeah, now to get Congress to pass an infrastructure bill, it's going to require, wait for it, higher taxes to pay for all this stuff. And on Monday, Joe Biden's press secretary said, They're going to raise taxes in three ways. All right. First of three ways, we've got it for you right here. First, people. They're going to raise taxes on people.

Yes, they're going to increase the income tax rate on individuals earning over $400,000, which is like 10% of Americans. And stocks, stocks don't get away with anything. Number two here, stocks are going to see a raise in taxes. The White House wants to increase capital gains taxes for individuals with over a million dollars of income. All right. So you got people, you've got stocks.

Third and final here, corporations are going to see taxing. increases. Raise the corporate tax rate from 21% today to 28%. Okay, so let's track this a little bit. From 21% today to 28%. It used to be 35%, but under President Trump, it got slashed down to 21%. Yes. So Joe Biden wants to partly undo the signature tax cut legislation of President Trump. And here is the reason why Fortune 500 companies, they don't pay 21%. They laugh at the 21% tax bill they get. really end up paying 11.3% income taxes on average. I see you 21%. I downgrade you to 11.3%. Louples. Snackers, looples. That's what corporations are taking advantage of that you and I probably can't. All right. So you got 91 of America's 500 biggest publicly traded companies paid zero in federal taxes last year.

So naturally, the Biden administration wants to change that. But some economists are definitely going to say, if we increase taxes in the U.S., corporations are going to pack up their bags, buy a plane ticket, and move overseas. Feels like Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in corporate America? Raise taxes alone, you'll lose. Raise taxes together, everyone could win. Except in the tax savings. By the way, Snackers, related story that explains everything we were just saying, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Janet Yellen is trying to forge a Paris Climate Accord-style deal, but for corporate tax.

We're talking like the Olympics of taxes here. The goal is to set a minimum corporate tax rate across all the world's developed nations. That way, Microsoft, for example, can't respond to higher tax rates in the U.S. by dodging them and like setting up some lawyer to give them a technical headquarters in Luxembourg, Bermuda, Grand Cayman Islands. The kind of places where your bank accounts described by 16 digits and a whole bunch of contents. Snackers, there's been a race to the bottom among countries to lower their tax rate, to rock bottom levels in order to track companies that want to avoid taxes. Jack, I'm looking at right here. We got 76 countries. 76 countries have dropped their corporate tax rates in the past 20 years. If we in America raise our corporate

taxes alone, companies could avoid them easily by setting up a headquarters technically elsewhere. But if we pull off an Olympic ceremony and raise with the rest of the world, we close the loophole and pay for the infrastructure. Janet Yellen is on the task. Jack Kenyon, whip up the takeaways for us over there, better than the bassinet. Volkswagen is the Walmart to Tesla's Amazon. It's the clear number two in electric vehicles, and it's putting on a master class in delegating. GoPro's cameras missed the wearables trend by just a smidge. Just a little bit.

It's pivoting to JPEGs. Any JPEGs with the Quick app. For our third and final story, now that the stimulus is done, higher taxes are probably coming next. Honestly, increasing corporate taxes, more fun. when you do it as a group. It should be a group activity. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one sent in by Luria Koenig

in lovely San Francisco. Jack. Okay, the Oakland Athletics, who are rooted in Oakland, by the way. They're the first professional sports team to accept Bitcoin as a valid currency for tickets. Yeah, here's the thing, though.

You're going to be spending a lot of money on tickets. It's $64,800 if you want to get a suite for an Oakland A's game, or one Bitcoin. Interesting because Bitcoin is trading at less than 64,000. So sounds like a little arbitrage situation. Yeah, it's $56,000 right now, kind of a good deal. It's not about the 162 games you go to.

It's about the 162 times you said you paid for those games in Bitcoin. Throw that up on the Twitter, for sure. Snackers, you'll look fantastic today. The next thing you should probably do, share snacks on social. Tag Robin Hood Snacks, tag T-Boy Jack, Tag Nick of New York. Make it all three. It's a lot more fun that way.

We miss you, you miss us. We should be hanging out. We're going to reshare your share. This is what we have on our schedule tomorrow for like three hours. And then we're going to do the pod. We'll see you there. Honestly, it's our entire morning. If you know, you know.

And before we go, congrats to Snackers, Alma and France, two-year anniversary over in lovely Salem, New Hampshire. And to John Dumbrowski, congrats on the new job at Dr. Pepper in Dallas, Texas. Come at the Husky just turned 10. 70 in dog years? What do you think?

That's right, down in Boka. Happy anniversary to Lucy Ann and Cornelius, who defined the relationship eight years ago while crossing the East River on the Manhattan Bridge. Nothing better, most underrated bridge on Manhattan. BMW, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg. That's how you remember it. If you know, you know.

Coonj, congrats on the new job down in Chicago. Happy anniversary to Mario and Christian in Jacksonville, Florida. And Quincy Stiles, congrats on the first job down in Virginia. Happy birthday to Arush Barozy in Houston, Texas. And Scott Snowden, happy birthday in Little Rock, Arkansas. And anyone else celebrating anything, make it a tea boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack.

I own stock of Volkswagen and Amazon. Nick own stock of Apple. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the hosts who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a recommendation to buy or sell any security and is not an offer or sale of a security.

The podcast is also not a research report and is not intended to serve as the basis of any investment decision. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.