The Best One Yet - 🧐 “Dude, where’s my iCar?” — Apple’s latest car update. MrBeast’s $100M Amazon offer. Puma’s Argentine sneaker losses.

Episode Date: January 25, 2024

Apple’s car *might* arrive by 2028, and it won’t be self-driving — The biggest cost to this project isn’t time, money, or work… it’s opportunity.Puma stock fell 10% yesterday because Argentina devalued their currency — We’ll show you how currency devaluations are great for 1 thing, horrible for everything else. And Amazon Prime video is reportedly offering MrBeast $100M to do an exclusive show — If they get him, they’re not getting a creator. They’re getting a nation.$AAPL $AMZN $PUMSubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Jack. This is Nick. It's Thursday, the new Friday. January 25th. And today's pod is the best one yet. You're supposed to say it's a T-Bor. It's a T-Bor. It is the top three pop business news stories.

You got to know today. We got them for you. Happy National Opposite Day, besties. What a wonderful mix of story. This is a horrible mix of story. I think I almost broke the podcast by starting with This is Jack. It's not the best one yet. It's the worst one yet.

But Jack, three. stories for today's show. What do we got for opposite day? For our first story, Amazon Prime Video is reportedly dropping $100 million to sign Mr. Beast. The biggest YouTube creator in history just got the biggest media deal of the year. For our second story, Puma's sneaker stock fell 10% because Argentina devalued their currency. So Jack and I are going to explain hyperinflation with a pair of Puma cleats. And our third and final story is Apple. Apple's Icar just got delayed again. Don't call it the I car anymore.

Call it the Y car. As in, why are you even making this car anymore? You don't make a golf cart. Apple, make a golf cart. Let's just start with that. Set to buy a loud. Baby steps. But besties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories.

Fantastic mix of stories. Love what we whipped up today, Jack. Nick and I have experienced a lot of shortages the last few years. Shortage of eggs. We had a shortage of oil, a shortage of saracha. But there's one thing we have way to. much of right now. And what is that, Jack? Snow. Snow. That is, we are not out of snow. What we got, Jack? Get this. On January 17th, last week, the United States was more covered in snow

than at any time in recorded history. Okay, no joke. The National Weather Service counted the snowflakes and it was a record over the last week. A record 58.9% of the lower 48% states was covered in snow on January 17. Ipsifacto, nearly two out of three acres of land. it was covered in a little bit of snow yetties. Odds are, you were sitting in snow. Last week, Alabama had snow. Last week, Arizona had snow. Nashville had seven inches of fresh pal.

It was the coldest thing in Nashville since Dolly Parton took a cold plunge. We had so much snow on January 17th, you could actually ski from Maine to Mississippi. In fact, the only two states that didn't have snow last week were Texas and Florida. The Cowboys and the Gators. Everything else was frosty.

Everyone else was a literal white. White Walker. Olaf was skiing in New Mexico. Elsa was skating in the bayou. So much snow that Reese Witherspoon turned her snow into ice cream. And then what happened to Reese Witherspoon, Jack? She got roasted on Instagram because it was dirty snow. Reese Witherspoon got canceled because she had too much snow. She turned it into an ice cream.

Besties, America hasn't seen this much snow since the ice age. So yeties, go out and throw some snowballs like Buddy the Elf. Go out and skate some skates like Blades of Glark. Hansel's so not hot right now. After all, Yetis, a Yeti's natural habitat is in the snow. Enjoy the record, Snow, Jack. Let's hit our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm.

They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. 50% that's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. For our first story, we just got an update on Apple's eye car. And here it is, here it is, here it is. Apple's car is delayed again. After 10 years of no Apple car, should they just cancel this project or keep trying? Jack, before we jump into the story,

can we go back in time, take us back to 2014? We're living in the East Village. What is going on, man? That's when Apple began Project Titan. Project Titan, and what was that exactly? The code name at Apple for their secret project to make the first Apple car. Apple's next big thing was going to be the icar. Now in this show, we've covered updates about the Icar a number of times over the years. It's been a while, Jack. It's been a while. The last time we covered the Icar progress was in 2022. Back when Apple hired a designer from Lamborghini to design their new car. Because the Icar was going to be the most advanced, futuristic, and tech forward car ever. Yeties, the Apple I car was going to have no steering wheel and no pedals. It was going to be self-driving innovation that Steve Jobs would have

love to drive over to yoga. Yet he's in the Apple Icar. Siri was going to be riding shotgun. You'd have unlimited dongles. And Jack, a cup holder for each and every AirPod. I heard when you get in the Icar, Bono from you two would come out and start playing music for you, Jack. Hello, hello.

But Yeties, it's been 10 years since all of that talk. And where are we standing right now? We're at the 10-year anniversary of the launch of Apple's car project and they have nothing to show for it. Not even a prototype. Which leads to the news. Apple's board reportedly told the company to ditch their self-driving car. It's time to just put a car out there, any car, or else we're going to kill this whole I-car project. Dude, where's my I-Car?

But Yeties, the I-car is happening, and we got the date. The Apple I-Car is coming out in 2028. That's the new launch date, according to Bloomberg reporting, a full 14 years after they started the project. This is not an I-car. This is more like the Y car. Because why are they even making it at this point? Like, remember, Jack and I told you, this was supposed to be a futuristic electric, self-driving Apple tech-infused car. According to the report, though, from Bloomberg, it's not going to be self-driving anymore. They've abandoned that part. It's going to have advanced cruise control, but many cars have advanced cruise control these days. And the Apple car is going to be electric, but plenty of cars are electric these days.

And the Apple car is going to integrate perfectly with your iPhone, but every other. Every car already does that with Apple Carplay these days. The Icar, it feels like the rare, huge, strategic miss by the world's most successful company. It's not the Icar. It's the Y car. Why even doing this, guys? But it'd be cool if you did it. We would probably purchase one.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Apple? The greatest cost isn't time, money, or work. It's opportunity. Yet he's, after 14 years and hundreds of millions of dollars, and loads of attention, Apple might unveil a car by 2028. That's a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of work. But the way Jack and I see it, the biggest cost wasn't any of those. The biggest cost was the opportunities that Apple could have pursued instead.

Imagine what Apple could have achieved if they hadn't been working on this car for the past 10 years. If Apple wasn't working on that car, they could have built a U.S. factory for their iPhones and gained manufacturing diversity away from China. Apple could have gotten ahead on AI instead of falling behind on AI. Apple could have bought DuckDuckGo and given us a search engine to rival Google. Add it all up, besties. The biggest cost isn't time, money, or work. No, the biggest cost is the missed opportunity to work on something else. The biggest cost is the opportunity cost.

For our second story, you've probably read crazy headlines about what's happening in Argentina's economy right now. We'll tell you what's happening in Argentina by looking at Puma's soccer cleats. But yeties, in 2022, we Americans, we were pretty furious about the high prices, weren't we, Jack? Because in July of 2022, inflation hit 9.1%. I mean, Jack, a Big Mac, remember when a Big Mac used to cost you is five bucks? Today, they're like seven bucks. $7 for two all meat, patty, special sauce, special cheese, and the sesame seed bun. And have you seen the price of those sesame seeds?

But besties, you think that's bad? This. In Argentina, inflation is up 200%. 200% inflation right now means everything is three times more expensive than last year. No joke. On the ground in Buenos Aires, Argentina, stores are literally changing price tags every day because the prices change every single day. If you want a Big Mac, you need like a billion pesos. You need to be a peso billionaire. So, Argentines were desperate for change and they elected the libertarian leader, Javier Malay, as president, back in November. back in November. And Jack, what was President Javier Muley's first move over in Argentina?

He devalued the local currency, the Argentine peso, by half. And Yetis, he calls that painful move shock therapy to turn around Argentina's struggling economy. So Nick and I were looking for the right way to tell the story on the pod. We actually took some time. We're like, all right, what's the best way we can explain this crazy situation down in Argentina and we came up with an idea? The best way to understand Argentina's economic shock, is through Puma's sneakers. Because Yeti's Puma established itself in Argentina 44 years ago with offices outside Buenos Aires.

I'm sorry, just outside Buenos Aires. Their goal was simple. Sell soccer cleats to a soccer crazy nation. From Diego Maradona to Lino Messi, Argentina, they'll buy some soccer stuff. Argentina has won three World Cups. Argentina does three things, Yetis. They do soccer, they do beef, and they do watching soccer.

That's what Argentina does. Yeti's Puma even built a shoe factory down in Argentina. And they source 24% of their global leather demand to build shoes from Argentina. So Puma was all in on Argentina, which helps explain how their stock dropped 10% yesterday. Yeti's Puma stock dropped 10% yesterday because they lost nearly $200 million after Argentina devalued their currency. It was basically shock therapy for Puma stock. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Puma? Devaluations are great for one thing, but horrible for all other things. Yet is, because of this currency devaluation, a pair of Puma sneakers made in Argentina

just became 50% cheaper overnight for everybody outside of Argentina. If an American needed 100 bucks to buy these shoes before the devaluation, you only need 50 bucks now. And that is why Argentina's president devalued their peso in order to. to sell more Argentine products to the rest of the world. His thought is that Argentina can climb out of this economic crisis by selling more to the rest of the world with their suddenly lower prices. But here's the problem, Busties. If you're Puma, everything you own in Argentina suddenly became worth 50% less.

The factory they own, the shoes in that factory, the leather they have an inventory, all of Puma's investments in Argentina suddenly got halved. Oh, and if you're an average Argentine citizen, everything is. you own is also worth half as much too. It's brutal. If that Argentine needs to buy things from abroad like gasoline, it's now twice as expensive for them to do so. So Yeti's a currency devaluation. It is the most brutal form of tough economic love. Because devaluations are great for one thing. Exports. But they're horrible for everything else. And we see it in Puma sneakers. For our third and final story, according to reports, Amazon Prime Video has offered 100,000

million dollars to Mr. Beast. Signing Mr. Beast would be like signing an entire country. Yeties, we're going to start by sprinkling on some context. Here we go. Mr. Beast signing with Amazon Prime Video would be like LeBron James signing with the Dallas Cowboys. Or like Serena Williams signing with the New York Knicks. Oh, Jack, can we go with Wayne Gretzky signing with the Toronto Blue Jays? Sure.

It'd be the biggest player switching sports. Right, because Mr. Beast is the number one crew. creator on YouTube, but Amazon Prime is video on TV. Different sport. Both big, different sport. But besties, Mr. Beast became number one on YouTube, thanks to his outrageous stunt videos. You've probably seen these videos.

Like once, Mr. Beast counted to 200,000. It took him more than 24 hours to count. He was exhausted at the end, and you can't not watch that. Or another famous Mr. Beast video. He paid someone $10,000 to sit in a bathtub full of snakes. $10 million if you're stranded in a car, on a yacht in the middle of the Sahara Desert. That's the kind of thing he's doing these days.

Mr. Beast, he loves big round numbers and really scary things, and he puts it all on YouTube. But here's the news. Amazon reportedly offered Mr. Beast $100 million to launch a giveaway TV show exclusively on Amazon Prime. Well, Jack and I should point out neither Amazon Prime nor Mr. Beast have commented on this story. They haven't confirmed. It's not official. But if true, huge.

So Nick and I got to ask, should he do it? That's the big question here yet. Should Mr. Beast give up the autonomy of YouTube and take on this big deal with a big tech company? We think he should. We do. And here's why. First, Mr. Beast would put his entire business empire on Amazon's e-commerce platform. You get all of Amazon's distribution for Mr. Beast merch, Mr. Beast snacks, Mr. Beast feastables, all of it through Amazon e-commerce.

And by signing with Amazon, he gets access to the resources of MGM studios. They could turn Mr. Beast videos into like Hollywood studio productions. And here's the biggest reason of all. Yet he's Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, and we got the numbers on Mr. Beast's business. He made an estimated $82 million in revenues last year just on YouTube. We repeat, Mr. Beast made $82 million just on YouTube videos.

That's a lot of ads that people watched before watching his crazy stunts. But here's the interesting thing, besties. one of those Mr. Beast videos has also a really big budget. It can cost Mr. Beast millions of dollars to produce those crazy stunts. So Mr. Beast's revenues are huge, but the profit he takes home might not be that huge. However, if he signs with Amazon, Amazon would probably pay for the sets, the construction, the actors, the extras, the design, everything. So Mr. Beast wouldn't deal with those huge costs for every one of his stunt videos.

A hundred million dollar Amazon deal would mean $100 million of profits for Mr. Beast. Hey, Bezos. Can we shoot some video over your place? Oh, your yacht? Yeah, that works. We'll do the yacht. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy, Mr. Beast? If Amazon signs Mr. Beast, it's not getting a creator. It's getting a country. Yeties, Mr. Beast has 234 million subscribers, and that is just on YouTube. That's five times more subscribers than Hulu has.

10 times more than Peacock has. That's Netflix nation right there. Oh, and by the way, Mr. Beast, he's. He has more subscribers than Amazon has prime members. If Mr. Beast were a country, his followers would be the fifth biggest population on Earth. Jack, you'd sprinkle on some more geographical context for us over there. His 234 million subscribers is bigger than the population of Brazil, Nigeria, or any European country. So, besties, if Amazon gets Mr. Beast, they're going to work to move his audience from YouTube over to Amazon Prime video and Amazon's other video platforms like FreeVie. Because in the creator economy, your audience is your net worth.

For Mr. Beast, his audience is a GDP. At this scale, Amazon's not signing a star. They're signing a country. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Apple's Icar is delayed again. They're now targeting 2028, and it won't even be self-driving. Yet is the greatest cost isn't time, isn't money, and isn't work. The greatest cost is opportunity.

For our second story, it's Puma. They suffered big losses when Argentine. Devalued their currency. Currency devaluations are good for one thing, but horrible for everything else. And our third and final story is Amazon Prime Video. They're looking to sign Mr. Beast reportedly to host an exclusive show. And if they get Mr. Beast, they're not getting a creator. They're getting a country.

But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, this spring, Chipotle is hiring 19,000 workers, their biggest hiring spree ever, And get this, 70% in Chippole's workforce is Gen Z. Why do they need 19,000 workers? Because springtime is burrito season, apparently. And second, Tesla reported earnings. Car sales rose just 1% in the fourth quarter from the year before.

The stock fell 5%, as that's the slowest growth we've ever seen from Tesla. And finally, John Stewart is officially returning to The Daily Show. Only on Mondays, but the OG anchor is coming back to that news desk. And now for your moment of Zen. Actually, Eddie's time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Julian Ladue from lovely Canton, Michigan. Pursion play. Greetings, best season yetis.

Last episode, Nick and Jack did a story on the Rubik's Cube and mentioned that they wanted to see a biopic of how this toy came to be. Well, to make a long story short, Erno Rubik was a professor of architecture at the Budapest College of Applied Arts in the 70s. He created their original model using 27 woodblock, and the purpose was to figure out if cubes could rotate around an axis without coming apart. Once he showed his students, they went nuts over the model about after a year.

He filed a patent and the rest is history. We basically just got our biopic. Although this is a problem, Jack, because more people are finishing Rubik's cubes before they finish our show, which means we're supposed to send them free hats. We're in trouble. We shouldn't have made that offer. But the Rubik's cube is an architectural marvel. It absolutely is.

For us, it's a financial line. liability. But before we go, Yetis, you are looking terrible today because it is opposite day. We should point out it is opposite day legally and technically. Show us how you're celebrating opposite day. Nick's celebrating opposite day by wearing jeans, something he hates. I've been scratching my legs the whole time and I feel extremely uncomfortable, Jack. Post something the opposite of what you'd normally do and tag us on Instagram.

And if you're going to say that the opposite of opposite day is not opposite day, then... At T-boy Pod, hit us up. Nick and I, we won't see you tomorrow. the opposite of not opposite day is opposite day. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Charity Terrio, who's on our way home from celebrating in Cancun, Mexico. And happy 40th birthday to Nikki Stenula in Chicago, Illinois. And A.J. Bollinger is from Provo, Utah, but just started a brand new investment banking job down in New York City.

Jack, it's always been AJ's dream to work on Wall Street. Any advice from him from our Wall Street days, man? I'd say don't wear a backpack. Some Wall Streeters wear backpacks. I think it's an amateur luck. Okay, okay, that's fair. Like, I wear backpacks now that I'm in Vermont, but don't do it on Wall Street. I was going to say, say good morning to everyone in the office, but yeah, you shouldn't wear a backpack either, potentially.

Good luck, AJ, you got this. Crunch those numbers. Don't let the numbers crunch you. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Netflix, and Nick and I both on stock of Apple and Chipotle. All right, here we go, here we go. Are you ready? I'm not ready.

I've never done. Oh, okay. Don't script this out for me. I knew that, you said of a god. I knew that. All right, here we go. I'm ready when you are. This is Jack.

I give me a three, two, one. Three, two, one. For our first story. Round button. Hey, round button.