The Best One Yet - ⚽ “The Anti-Ted Lasso” — Qatar’s World Cup. Starbucks’ biggest day. FTX’s Madoff moment.

Episode Date: November 18, 2022

The World Cup begins Sunday in Qatar, a nation of just 300k citizens (half of Vermont) — but it’s dropped $200B for 8 new stadiums. Starbucks’ busiest day of the year was yesterday’s “Red Cup Day”, because holidays beat habits. And FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried just admitted he’s a fraud, so we’re gonna play a little game: Lehman, Enron, or Madoff?$SBUX $BTC $COINFollow 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.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Friday, the real Friday. November 18th, and today's pod is the best one yet. Happy Friday, Yetis. We whipped up a T-Boy for you. Jack and I, we got an update. We got some good news for our Taylor Swifties out there.

I don't know if this is good news, Nick. Okay, well, apparently that $400 ticket we mentioned yesterday, that is a steal. If you got a ticket for $400 bucks, that is a steal. We'll ride with you because Yeti Ryan Everhart found Taylor Swift tickets in Houston for $90,000. What? So we're going to buy $400 tickets. Chuck, what's our first story?

The most expensive World Cup in history begins this weekend in Qatar. Get this. Every minute of soccer is going to cost $35 million. For our second story, Starbucks just had their biggest day of the year. Red Cup Day. Starbucks, they don't just make habits. They make holidays. And our third and final story is about the founder of Crypto Catat.

F-TX. He just admitted he's a fraud. So Jack and I are going to play a little game Lehman, Enron, or Madoff. Sam Bankman-Fried, come on down. But yet he's, before we hit that fantastic mix of stories for this Friday. Just the perfect mix to go into a weekend with. We got some good stuff this weekend. Which pants pocket is most perfect for your phone placement? Oh, hold on to your cargo shorts because we got the results from our week-long survey. With 41% of the vote on Twitter, the winner is the front right pocket.

The front right just fits your phone. Front right feels right, baby. But don't celebrate the wins quite yet, front right pocketers. Oh, there, Nelly, back, back, back, back it up. Because with 43% of the vote on Instagram, the winner is the back pocket. Back pocket? That's the snap pocket, baby. Wait, so on Twitter, most of you put your phone in your front right pocket. Wait, wait, wait, wait, Jack, on Instagram, most of us are putting our phone in our back pocket?

So Nick and I dove into the data to determine the discrepancy. Jack and I jumped in T-boy style to figure out what was going on. Yeties, these paradoxical pocketability results, they're caused by two variables. Gender and dexterity. Because women were more likely to use the back pocket or no pockets. We saw it in the comments. Because he can't fit an iPhone 14 into the tiny front pockets in those women's five pocket pants. And men, according to the comments, were more likely to be front pocket people.

Cacky, slacks, they were created to stick your phone in the front. Okay, and since we have more female followers on Instagram. And we got more male followers on Twitter. Instagram besties preferred the back pocket. While Twitter Yetis prefer the front pocket. There you go. Oh, and since 85% of Americans are right-handed, the majority of everyone prefer the right pocket.

Gender and dexterity, everything's explained. So the answer to the. perfect pants pocket pocket ability to park your phone in question what is it jack it depends on your jeans yeah like literally your jeans literally like those jeans let's hit our three stories 15 years before this song two boys from the northeast met in the dorm they had an idea to cause a cultural storm it's the best one yet but the best is an or not this 50% that's a fat tip t-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

Our first story on Sunday, the first ever winter World Cup kicks off over in Qatar. On the field, this World Cup will be normal. Off the field, it's unprecedented in every imaginable way. All right, first of all, Jack, Team USA going full Ted Lasso on this tourney, aren't they, man? I love me at locker room. Smells like potential. First World Cup for Team USA in eight years. Hopefully they remember how to flop.

Yeah, probably the last World Cup for the last World Cup for the last World Cup for the little messy and Christian Arnold's abs. Qatar was a strange choice, though, for a World Cup. We're going to be honest. He's like, oh, shoot, my jersey accidentally came off. Fell into this colonel. Now, yet he's Jack and I jumped in T-boy style to the numbers, and we noticed Qatar, it was a strange choice for a World Cup.

Qatar was a really strange choice. Because Qatar had to turn its country into a fact. in order to create and build the World Cup. All right, first of all, this is the first ever World Cup that's happening like in the wintertime because the average summer temperature when the World Cup usually happens, it's over 100 degrees in Qatar.

And surprisingly, it's not a dry heat. It's a humid one. Qatar is a former British protector, and today it's an oil-rich monarchy that sits on a peninsula in the Persian Gulf. But when Jack and I look at the numbers, it appears that the only reason that Qatar can host this big torporing,

is because of their 2 million migrant workers. Get this, the actual population of Qatar. This is shocking. Is insanely small. It's 300,000 people. That's it. Check, can you spring on some context for us over there? The country that's hosting the World Cup has 300,000 people.

That is half the population of Vermont. But for every one of those citizens of Qatar, there are eight foreigners living in Qatar. That's right. There are 2 million migrant workers who came to Qatar to build all these stadiums. and they work in quite exploitative conditions. Like we said, this country is a factory,

and it's filled mostly with Bangladesh, Indian, and Filipino workers. The World Cup is only possible, thanks to the backbreaking work of those migrant workers. Now, if Qatar is a factory, then FIFA, the soccer organization, is that casino from Godfather, too. Yeah, FIFA is about as corrupt an organization as Tony Sopranos' waste management business. It's not just us saying this. It's like the U.S. government, they've confirmed that Qatar is the host of the World Cup for one very particular reason, Jack. Bribes.

Yeah, bribes. Yeah. The U.S. government confirmed that Qatar bribed a bunch of the voting members of FIFA to get selected as the World Cup host. Yeah. And if you're gay or a woman or you're a gay woman, Qatar is not a safe place. Rainbow flags are actually going to be prohibited at this World Cup because homosexuality is illegal in Qatar.

And women are punished for breaking conservative mothers. laws historically across guitar. So this is a really heavy World Cup and a kind of dangerous place. Jack, can we talk about just how heavy this World Cup is going to get for a moment? Yeah, as if this wasn't enough. On November 29th, the United States plays against Iran. Iran. You know who's going to be in the stance?

The CIA. I think a CIA agent is probably acting as one of the players on the pitch. Actually a pretty good gig. And that is why Fox Sports, which is broadcasting the World Cup, isn't going to cover the field issues. No, Fox Sports has already announced. They're going to stick to Ted Lassow inspirational quotes. Yeah, let's turn it over to Coach Beard. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are playing in the World Cup? The World Cup just changed Qatar's economy. The key number, the hero statistic here, Yetis, it's $200 billion because the country of Qatar spent $200 billion

on this World Cup. You want to know how much money that is. Let's talk about it, Jack. 200 billion is more than Qatar's annual GDP. 200 billion is 10 times more than the cost of any previous World Cup. 200 billion dollars to host the World Cup. Yeah, can we whip out the TI83 calculators on this thing? We did the math. That's $35 million per minute of soccer happening on the pitch. We're talking eight brand new stadiums, new roads, a new subway system, airports,

100 new hotels. Now, on the bright side, all the international attention has forced, Qatar to give more rights to the migrant workers doing all the work. The more than 2 million foreign workers are a little more free and protected than they were before. But honestly, there's way more productive ways they could have spent $200 billion on than a bunch of stadiums. But for better or worse, the World Cup already changed Qatar's economy.

For our second story yesterday was Starbucks Red Cup Day, but it was also one other thing at the same time. It was also Strike Day at a hundred star Starbucks locations. Oh, you gotta love the holidays, Jack. Yeah, it is, if you want to know what day it is, you could look out the window, you could look at your phone. You could even look at your calendar, no one would blame you.

Sure. Or just take a look at the menu at your local Starbucks. That's how you know what this season is. You look at Starbucks. Because for Starbucks, the best way to spread Christmas cheer is red cups for all to hear. Starbucks. It just began their holiday season with an annual tradition, a classic, an instant institution. Pumpkin spice latte season is over.

because Red Cup Day happened yesterday. They whipped up like four Red Cup options. They're giving them away. They got stars, snowflakes. Basically, they just don't want to offend people. That's their goal. When you put the green Starbucks logo on a Red Cup though, it looks like a warm and fuzzy holiday roof.

They got pretty artistic. There's like a Jeff Coons vibe in this kind of thing. And it's not just cosmetic. The cup change. There's a corporate angle here, too. Yeah, Red Cup Day kicks off the holiday menu, which they highlighted on their last earnings call. It could be a profit puppy.

The holiday menu is expensive. Yeah, it is all about premium. It's all about soup premium. You can get a peppermint mocha for seven bucks. Jack, and I interest you in a chestnut preline latte for like nine bucks? How about the sugar plum cheese Danish for, uh, you can't afford it? Is that a drink or a dessert? I don't even know what's going on.

I think it's a dessert, but I'm not sure. Jack, Darlina Duncan, uh, she's shaking right now. That was a Starbucks flex. But yeah, it is. At 100 Starbucks locations, you didn't get a free cup. yesterday. Because at 100 Starbucks locations, they've unionized and they were on strike. That's right. A hundred spots with newly unionized staff refused to cooperate in Red Cup Day. It was no free Cup Day fun.

According to these unions, baristas kind of hate Red Cup Day. They do. Because it overwhelms them the rush of customers looking for those red cups. Customers are crushing double-digit lattes, demanded more cups. That is a stressful situation. At those 100 locations, union workers were picketing out front. and instead of giving the red cups that people expected, this was pretty creative. They handed out their own red cups where Starbucks was the Grinch on the cups.

They're striking to get the upper hand in the contract negotiations with corporate. And they chose the biggest sales day of the year for Starbucks to do it. So Jack, I'll take a Vente-sized takeaway for our buddies over at Starbucks. Starbucks invented the corporate holiday. Yeties, Jack and I have told you about the power of habits. Every company wants your routine like a daily coffee. But in addition to product habits, companies can create product holidays. They have routines.

They drive consistent sales, but celebrations, they power sales cycles. The government gives out federal holidays. Companies can create fiscal holidays. Get this, Starbucks's Pumpkin Spice Fall kickoff this year. That was the biggest week of sales in Starbucks history. And Red Cup Day is typically the biggest day for. for sales in Starbucks history. That's why Ben and Jerry does a free cone day.

That's why IHop does free pancake day. It's why Jack and I spent the last three hours trying to figure out a T-boy, T-Boy, T-Boy Day. We haven't figured out what to do yet. Let us know if you have an idea for T-Boy Day Day. We're going to whip up our own takeaway on ourselves. Also, what day should T-boy Day be? Starbucks invented the corporate holiday, because holidays are bigger than habits. Now, a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood.

You know, honestly, your salad? It says so much about you. Nick, you like to blaze your own trail at the salad bar. I'm ordering a salad. I go off menu, man, like a combo of kale and croutons that has never been made before. Me? I'm not reinventing the wheel. I like to go classic.

Sweakerian thinks it's a good combo. Jack's not going to change that. Kind of like investing strategies. Someone to build a custom portfolio of stocks, crypto, and options. Others don't want to reinvent. Just give me the most standard ETF. Whether you're tweaking your one-of-a-kind portfolio every day or prefer a more hands-off approach, Robinette has the tool.

If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-B-Boy to choose your free stock. That's robinood.com slash T-B-O-I. Limitations apply. Stocks offered by Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Crypto offered through Robin Hood crypto. All investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood.

For our third and final story before the weekend, the founder of FTX, just admitted he's a fraud, and he said it himself, in prime. private messages. He didn't know those private messages would leak, but they did. Yeah, they did. He didn't know. So now we're going to play a game. There we are. Madoff and Ron or Lehman. Madoff and Ron or Lehman. But to start, we're going to begin with FTX, as in the FTX crypto catastrophe. You all saw it. The fourth biggest crypto exchange in the world declared bankruptcy last week. Well, what we just learned is that FTX wasn't a financial mistake. It was actually one of the biggest financial frauds in the history of month. A new CEO has taken over FTX and is desperately scrambling

to clean up the mess that former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried left behind. Literally the first thing this new guy said was, uh, I've never seen such a complete failure. Those are his words. Not just failure, but also fraud, because FtX's founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, took $3.3 billion of customer money for personal use. Basically, he stole customer money to buy stuff for himself. He even used FTC's customer money in FTCS customer accounts to buy employees of FTX houses on the Caribbean island of the Bahamas. So we were talking about this before the pot and we were like, you know what? This is as if Jamie Diamond, the CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, secretly borrowed the money

from your savings account to buy a yacht. Yeah, that $2,000 that was in your Chase bank account. Yeah? I used it for a thing in the Hamptons. Don't worry about it. I'll give it back to you eventually, maybe, probably not. Jamie, you can't do that. Actually, he wouldn't do that.

He didn't do that. But Sam Bankman-Fried did at his crypto firm FTX. Now, yet he's, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story twist. It wasn't just financial fraud. New private messages reveal it's also sociopathic fraud. Because yesterday, a reporter at Vox had a DM Twitter conversation with Sam Bankman-Fried that went public. Now, Sam-Bankman-Fried didn't think this was going to be published. Like, he thought this was a private message and he opened up.

You may have seen stories about Sam Bankman-Fried's philanthropy and that he was a do-goder who's trying to save the world and better everyone. But in these private messages, Sam Bankman-Freet admitted that all the dumb stuff I said wasn't true. He said it was just PR because the greatest heroes, they all do it for PR. The greatest heroes are shams, he said. And then he said he played a dumb, woke game so everyone would like him. Wow. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy?

in the whole crypto industry. We're going to play a game. Madoff, Enron, or Lehman. All right, Jack, let's start with Lehman. Lehman Brothers. The bank, it went bankrupt in 2008. It wasn't fraud. It wasn't illegal?

It was just a bad business. Lehman Brothers made some bad investments in the housing market. It took on way too much risk. Company eventually imploded and declared bankruptcy. All right. Then you got Enron. Enron Energy Company went bankrupt 2001. They manipulated numbers, illegal accounting fraud.

Yeah, a bunch of executives at Enron lost a lot of company money, but hid those losses from investors, and like three of them eventually went to jail. And then you got Bernie Madoff, the money manager who went bankrupt in 2008 for illegally handling people's money. Bernie ran a massive Ponzi scheme. He took money from some clients to pay others, and then he died in jail. So the way Jack and I see it, when it comes to Lehman, Enron, or Bernie Madoff, Jack, where do we see founder Sam Bankman Free? He's a Madoff guy. Yeah, he's a Madoff. It looks like it.

He's a Madoff. Big personality, illegally misused customer money. Just like Bernie Madoff, everything was okay with Sandbankman Fried until the market downturn revealed his massive fraud. In fact, one regulator just said the two are eerily similar. Like they both charmed investors and they both commingled funds. Now, there is some good news, a silver lining for crypto. This wasn't a Lehman situation. It wasn't reflective of a system-wide problem.

But there is bad news for crypto. It was a made-off moment, and that badly crippled crypto trust. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday? On Sunday, the men's soccer World Cup begins in Qatar. It's unprecedented in like every single way. It changed Qatar's economy. For our second story, Starbucks kicked off the holiday season with Red Cup Day yesterday. Yeah, we talked about habits, but Starbucks invented the corporate holiday.

For our third and final story, it looks like Sam Bankman-Fried pulled off a huge, huge fraud. Madoff, Enron, or Lehman? This looks like a made-off moment. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Vell-Kellen-Duvil from lovely Chennai, India, currently living in Austin. You want to know what the longest road in the world is? It turns out it's in Africa. Actually, it's across Africa and it's across Asia. There is one single road that begins in Cape Town, South Africa, and goes all the way. to Magadon on the other side of Russia. We're talking 13,911 miles to travel the world's longest road.

That's like New York to Los Angeles, to New York to Los Angeles, back to New York. Yeah, it would take you 187 days walking nonstop with no sleep to cross that road. No pee breaks either. 187 days of walking straight. 17 countries, six time zones, every type of weather, and a whole lot of podcast, Jack. The name of that road? Yeah, talk to us? We don't think he has name, but we're going to call it Root Infinity.

Yeties, you look fantastic to end the week. And if there's a day you think should be T-boy Day, hit us up at T-boy Pod. Also, what should be like the deal with T-boy Day? Let us know what you think. We're really going to crowdsource this thing. Celebrate the wins this weekend. Jack and I will see you Monday. And before we go, happy birthday to Jen Loo Lee and Yongji Kow,

father and nephew, turning 64 and 11 in Taiwan. And happy 17th anniversary to Caesar and Zika Infante in Atlanta, Georgia. And we got a 30th birthday to Tyler Fordham down in Miami. And happy birthday to Padilla from San Francisco to Toronto. And Raul Aaron's turning 50 down in the Bougar down Bronx. And happy birthday to Moises Jimenez, listening to this show while running a marathon on his birthday in Anise, France. And Jason Barocas, happy birthday over in New York City. And happy 27th birthday to Giovanni Gonzalez and West Lafayette.

Indiana. And John Niecy, enjoy the birthday in Newark, New Jersey. And happy 35th birthday to Kayla Gasker in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. And happy birthday to Ty Dinger in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Happy birthday to Alex the Centaur Biller in Seattle. And Pranavi turning 30 in Sacramento. Happy birthday to Ron Schwips in Milan, Indiana. Natalie Hooke Maloney turned in 29 in Chicago doing logistics. And a big happy birthday to Henry Lynn in Chicago. This is Jack, Nick and I both on Jack of Robin Hood. Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. Okay, so Jack and I both worked in finance for a while.

And we know the six-monitor Bloomberg jockey, with charts, numbers, balances, and more charts. They got coffees in both hands while they're executing some complex trade on a soybean future. Well, we're not trying to impress with our mission control trading center. Just give us an app, please. Robin Hood, with its mobile first and intuitive design, it lets you trade with just a few quick taps on their app. And even if things still don't seem easy,

Robin Hood has your back 24-7 with its live and robust customer support. If you're not investing on 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-I. Limitations apply. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involved for us. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood.