The Best One Yet - 👍 “Facebook should buy BuzzFeed” — BuzzFeed’s robo-writers. AmEx’s lounge love. GDP’s soft landing.

Episode Date: January 30, 2023

BuzzFeed’s stock has quadrupled in two days on word it’s hiring robot writers… and that has us dreaming of a Facebook acquisition. American Express has a new strategy for its credit cards: Double-down on lounges — not just in airports. And we just got a hat trick of economic data for America - the soft landing could be in our future.$BZFD $META $AMEXFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeWant a Shoutout on the pod? Fill out this formGot the Best Fact Yet? We got a form for that tooLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dude, you look great. You look great. You're looking great over there. Thank you. I'm not thrilled about my neckline. I think, don't worry about the neckline. You're kind of going, you're kind of going, it looks like Porsche and the White Lotus, you know? You're kind of going full Gen Z on that thing.

All we need is a little Tommy Hill figure here. Maybe like Ralph Lauren here and some Calvin Klein boxers. Yeah. It's a cute top is what I'm trying to say, Jack. You're wearing a cute top over there. This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back.

It is Monday, January 30th. then today's pod is just the best one yet. It's a deep one. Go-h-h-Kee, Chris. Why not? I don't know. Breakfast is the champions. That came out of nowhere.

I love it. Jack, can you whip up some milk and tell us our first story over there? BuzzFeed stock has quadrupled in just two days because they've hired robot writers. Now lost your birthday, and we'll tell you which spice girl you are. For our second story, we just got America's GDP report for the fourth quarter. This thing is like a crystal ball on the U.S. economy. So we're jumping in. And our third and final story is American Express.

They just revealed a new strategy for their credit card business. Here's the new MX strategy. Double down on de club. So many lounges, so many fancy physical clubs. So little time. But yet,ies, before we hit that fantastic mix, I've been waiting all weekend for this mix. I love this mix, man.

It's Monday. You know what that means? I'm flipping it out to Horters' Almanac Week 150. Things were running out in the economy. Jack and I have been. keeping track for you. This week, we are running out of paper maps. Paper maps. Not map apps, but maps. Pieces of paper with cartography, old school maps. Get this, Yet this, Yeties. For some reason, sales of old school roadmaps are popping right now. Like, the new thing is the old school map.

It's not a shortage yet, but it's getting pretty close. Like, Jack, are you talking about that map that I'm picturing you're talking about? Yeah, the map your dad used to keep in the glove box of your old station wagon. The kind of map you had to spread out on a table like you were a 16th century explorer. The kind of map that's so big after you open it, you gotta sprawl it out on the hood of the car on the roadside. So big, you need a map to figure out how to get around that map. But the wildest part of this surge in sales of paper maps? Get this, the paper map mania isn't driven by grandpa. It's driven by us. It's us. iPhone owning millennials. We are tired of staring at our phone screens all the time. 20 year olds aren't whipping out ways. They're whipping out compasses.

Hey, Copernicus, why don't you navigate yourself to the back of the line? Hold on while I plot our course over here, Jack. Yeties, we're no navigators, but we know the sun rises to the east. It sets to the west. And the moss is always on the north side of the tree? I think so. Nick, can you please plot our longitude and our latitude while you have a second? One second while I pull them a jelling on us. According to this map, we've only gone three inches.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies whipping out paper maps? Laminate that map. Pro tip, you don't want a wet paper map. Nick, I think I'd think I'd. just lost our three stories. Hold on. Before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm.

They had an idea that cost of culture. 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, BuzzFeed Stock, get this, just quadrupled in two days, because they're going to use robots to write articles, Robo riders. Well, us human writers, we have an idea.

Facebook, should acquire BuzzFeed. Okay, Yeti's last year, Jack and I got to interview the founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, Jonah Peretti. It was a lot of fun. We had a blast in that interview pod. In October when we interviewed him, JetGPT hadn't launched yet. Well, we should do another interview with Jonah, Jack. This feels like a great opportunity.

Yeah, because Jonah just announced that he's going to hire artificial intelligence to create content for BuzzFeed. Yeah, yet he's the next thing that you read on BuzzFeed, it could have been written by a robot. Yeah, that top 10. list of tacos and Tulsa. A robot can't eat the enchilada, but a robot can write about that enchilada. Yeti's Jonah just emailed the entire BuzzFeed staff with news that they're going to use Chet GPT and other artificial intelligence to craft some articles.

According to the memo, which Wall Street Journal reviewed, the main use case of this is going to be quizzes. Yeah, like the classic BuzzFeed quizzes that catapulted that company to recognition, right? What kind of stuff, Jack? Answered these five questions and we'll tell you which Disney Princess Y. By the way, I did that while we were researching this pod and I was a Jasmine and you actually struck me as a Moulon, but with Elsa vibes. Moulon's at water. I'll take that any day. Well, pretty soon, Yeti's AI is going to start crafting questions based on what's trending and

this is key, personalize the quiz results for you. And based on this news, investors had to reimagine what they think BuzzFeed is. Here's what Jack and I find fascinating about this story. You can't think about BuzzFeed as a media company anymore. You need to think about it like a content factory. Let's look at car factories for a second. Today, car factories use humans and robots to build cars. Well, media companies can move in that direction too. And that could boost profitability just like it did with cars.

Because here's the dirty secret about media. The biggest cost for a media company. What is it, Jack? Is us. Like Nick and me. It's us too. The creators. Jack and I are a big burden on that T-Boy podcast.

bottom line. True. But maybe artificial intelligence can help BuzzFeed double the number of articles they publish at no extra cost. Now, yeties, this is a risky bet by BuzzFeed. Because content is king. So if these robots produce crappy articles, BuzzFeed's reputation will suffer. Jack, remember when CNET tried doing this exact thing in the last couple months? Yes, they were shamed by the internet, first of all, for not hiring humans. But second of all, because the AI wrote articles that were full of So we know what you're thinking yeties. Why is BuzzFeed taking this huge, big, risky bet? Because BuzzFeed needs a huge, big risky payoff. BuzzFeed stock has plummeted since going public to under $1 a share as of Wednesday.

But on Thursday and Friday, in the enthusiasm for this new opportunity, it's stock more than quadrupled to over $4. It's one of the biggest stock pops we've seen in such a short period of time. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies? Over at BuzzFeed. Facebook should acquire BuzzFeed. Okay, Yeti's Jack and I have sold a media company to a tech company before. We've seen it. It's a powerful combo.

The tech company gets content to keep the users engaged. The media company gets exposed to the huge tech user base. Well, the Wall Street Journal also reported last week that Facebook happens to be paying BuzzFeed millions of dollars to post articles on Facebook. Yeah. Apparently BuzzFeed is training creators to share videos on Facebook instead of tech. TikTok. So the way we see it, this BuzzFeed RoboWriter news, that would fit perfectly in Zuck's techie empire. Yeah, both Facebook and BuzzFeed have seen slower growth and both need what the other has. Jack, BuzzFeed needs audience more than ever and Facebook needs content more than ever.

BuzzFeed and Facebook have always been tight, but with RoboWriters, they should merge. For our second story, stocks have risen to their highest levels since August. Why? A hat trick of good economic signals. Yeties, we just got three. Count them three economic reports that individually are good, but together are fantastic. First, last week we got the GDP report, and America's economic growth last quarter was looking pretty good. It was looking good. Our economy grew 2.9% last quarter. What would you put that? Jackie, you're going to put that on the fridge?

Not amazing growth, but definitely not a recession at all. Not too shabby. All right, that was report number one. Report number two, the inflation report. The celebrity of economic reports these days. Guess what? Prices rose by the slowest amount in December since 2021. Jack, did I tell you, I just paid $8 for a latte, not $11?

Progress. That's not terrible. And the third economic report that we got was the Consumer Spending Report. Yeah, consumer spending. It shrank last month. Like, we spent less money and we saved. more money instead. Now, it doesn't sound good that Americans spent less money over the holidays compared to last

year. No, it doesn't sound good, does it, Jack? No, it doesn't. But that is exactly in this unique moment what our central bank has been yelling at us to do. Janet Yellen has been yelling at us to stop spending so much money, and we stop spending so much money. So let's add this all up. Consumers were spending less, but the economy is still solid and inflation slowed down.

Jack, I don't want to jinx us here. I don't want jinks is here. But this sounds like what you and I were talking about the other day. Is this it? It sounds like we might be approaching a soft land. It feels like a soft landing. It really feels like a soft landing. A soft landing is exactly what policy makers have been hoping for. Honestly, we love a soft landing. The soft landing is the goal of 2023. We should all be putting it on our wish list.

And a soft landing is basically a combination of two very specific things. A soft landing is when the economy slows just enough to stop prices from rising. economy also grows just enough to avoid a recession. A soft landing. We fix inflation, but we don't break the economy. Soft like silk, velvet cashmere, smooth like butter. This feels like an ASMR moment. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies hoping for a soft landing? The odds makers on Wall Street are optimistic. Yet he's right now in Vegas. Oddsmakers are showing us the chance of who will win the upcoming Super Bowl. On Wall Street, odds makers show us their thoughts on the economy. And so far in 2023, Wall Street has boosted the odds that will escape

inflation with no recession, a soft landing. And we see the odds in the stock market, which is up 7% so far this year. Tech stocks of NASDAQ, they're up 12% so far this year. Yet he's the Santa rally, we told you about in December. We were hoping for it, Jack. It's finally arrived at the stock market, just a month later than we thought. Because the odds maker, of Wall Street are finally optimistic about a soft landing. Now, a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. A lot of yetis don't realize how much prep work goes into this pod. We spend hours every morning jumping in T-boy style to earnings reports, CEO tweets, breaking news,

headphones. Jack and I are toggling tabs like you toggled IM Convo's in 2004. Having eight tabs open can be stressful. You don't need that, especially when invest. Robin Hood offers it all in one app. Whether you want to trade options, ETFs, or stock. through Robin Hood Financial. Or you want to buy some Bitcoin on Robin Hood Crypto. You can do it all on the Robin Hood app. If you're not investing in Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com

slash T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's robin hood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Limitations apply. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involved with us. By the way, this podcast is not owned or part of Robin Hood. We are not employees of Robin Hood. For our third and final story, American Express has a brand new strategy for its credit card. Double down on fancy physical lounges. To stick to you like honey, they got to spend money. All right. Over the holidays, Yeti's that take away.

It does feel really good to say that thing. American Express was feeling pretty, pretty good, Jack. On Friday, the CEO of American Express said, we see no signs of recession in our numbers. Yetis, here's the vibe right now for American Express customers. Put it on the plastic. I mean the platinum. American Express makes a majority of their revenue.

from when you swipe their card. They do. And revenues jumped 25% last year for American Express. In this economy? In this economy? In this economy. And that's why Amex's stock searched 12% on Friday. That's got to be one of their best days ever, man.

Now, no surprise for American Express that they said the word platinum 19 times in their earnings report. That's rich, Jack. Now, the housing market, it may be frozen at the moment. But handbag sales are hot among the platinum card crowd. Speaking of the platinum card card, was it $700 annual fee for this thing? You need a credit card to pay for your platinum card. But yet here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. Forget about the credit cards for a moment.

MX is doubling down on fancy physical lounges. Shocking transformation. But Amex has become a borderless country club where you can hang out, eat dinner, and put it all in the tab, literally. Literally. Like here's the news. They are now investing at Amex in high. high-end airport lounges more than they ever have.

They now have 24 Centurion Langers. Nick and I visited one of them at JFK's Terminal 4. We did. Jack and I jumped in T-boy style because like we had to see what these MX lounges were like. I've actually been to a few. Whoa! Have you now, Jack? Not too shabby.

Just snuck that one in there. Seattle, Dallas, Fort Worth. Now, I'll tell you, the food is way better than the Delta Lounge is. That granola at the Amex Lounge was playing at another level. But the surprising update we learned last week, they're opening up their first lounge that's not at an airport. Yeah, this is an Amex Lounge in Midtown Manhattan on the 55th story of a skyscraper over Grand Central Station. It's not a club. It's a clue.

It's a clue because they got a Michelin-Start chef. It's invite only for events. It is a foie gras feast at this place. Yet is this Centurion Lounge is on the 55th floor. It's right next to the Chrysler. building. But there is one catch with this new MX lounge. Even if you have a platinum card, you can't get in. Only Centurion black card members can get in, and that's only 20,000 people in the United States. The annual fee for that card, we looked it up, $5,000. $20,000, that's not the top 1%,000. That's

the top 0.007% of the United States. Not too shabby. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our our buddies over at Amex. To stick to you like honey, they gotta spend money. Yet he's the Amex earning surprise wasn't you spending more money? It was Amex spending more money. Get this, American Express splurged $3 billion last year on card member services. That's a 48% jump in perks. Besties, that's $3 billion for Amex to serve lobster salads and wood paneling at their lounges and clubs.

It's $3 billion spent on rest of. restaurants, entertainment, and benefits only for card members. Because Amex knows that to attract the biggest spenders, which is how Amex makes money, it needs the biggest perks. To stick to you like honey, they gotta spend money. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? BuzzFeed is reportedly going to use AI RoboWriters to write some of its famous quizzes. So we think Facebook should acquire BuzzFeed.

For our second story, three economic reports show that this plane could be on. approaching a soft landing. So Wall Street's optimistic about a soft landing. And our third and final story. In March, American Express opens its first non-airport lounge in Manhattan. Because to stick to you like honey, they got to spend money. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Steve Hammond from lovely Kirkland, Washington. Push and play. Here we go. The human body is about 60 or 70% water. And water blocks Bluetooth signals. A lot of new phones and music players no longer even have

a headphone jacks, and they only work with Bluetooth headphones. And most of those Bluetooth headphones have the antenna on the right side. In the case of earbuds, the right bud is the one that connects to your phone, then transmits data to the left earbud. That means if you want the best signal, have your phone

on your right side so it has the clearest line of sight to your headphones. So the right hip pocket is the best place to keep your phone. Trust me, I'm an engineer. So Steve is saying the right side is the superior phone side, which gives us an answer to the question, but it also leads to more questions. Front right or back right. Pockets. This is a big controversy, Steve. We need more specificity. Feels like we need a follow-up best fact yet. Yeties, you look fantastic today. Jack, you're going over to a Centurion Lounge over there? What's

going on? It was so out of character for me to brag about that. Totally. We can recorded from a Centurion Lounge. Can you let me in? Can you get me into this thing, man? We'll do that tomorrow. If you're lucky. Apparently, if you know, you know. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. As long as I can get into a Centurion Lounge. And before we go, congratulations to Yeti Josh D'Amigo from Ventura, California, for acing the T-Boy quiz three straight weeks in a row.

And happy 32nd birthday to Nick Los Cicero from Astoria Queen. And Alanna Harvey, happy 30-second. birthday up in Toronto Canada. And happy 32nd birthday to Elsie Hamilia in the Philippines. And Dakin, the Bacon Rust, is having a birthday in Boise, Idaho. Happy 50th birthday to Ken C. in Lake Worth, Florida. And Reed Johnson is on the way to school right now to celebrate that birthday in Las

Goddess, California. Congratulations to Anna Saltzman, who just got her first promotion in Chicago. And Jack Mani Patel just got his first Tesla in Orlando in this economy? And to anyone else, celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins? This is Jack. I own stock of Disney, and Nick and I both own stock of Robin Hood. Now, a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood.

A lot of you listen to our show while you're driving. Two hands on the wheel. Keep it 10 and 2. You might be cruising, Chris, no rush. Stay in the right lane. Or you might be dolling from Duncan, dotting from lane to lane. And there are different drivers on the road. They're different investors too.

Maybe you're cruising down the long-term. lane with stock investing, or maybe you're a more advanced full speed trader. Well, the Robin Hood app helps put you in the driver's seat wherever you're at in your investing journey. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robinode.com slash T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Limitations apply. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood. This is Nick. This is Jack.

You're so not ready. Dude, I was getting a phone call on my Apple Watch. From the Centurion Lounge at Amex, Jack. What happened? You left your caviar back in the lounge?