The Best One Yet - ⛄ “The Crypto Avalanche” — FTX shakes cryptoworld. Twitter’s LeBron James problem. Wall Street’s best day yet.

Episode Date: November 11, 2022

Forget Crypto Winter, we just suffered a Crypto Avalanche — Bitcoin, Ethereum, and all the crypto stocks are freaking out as FTX approaches bankruptcy. Elon’s latest Twitter moves: Fire employees, fire users, fire advertisers, and 1 LeBron James issue. And stocks just had their best day of the year because inflation finally started cooling.$BTC $ETH $COIN $SPYFollow 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.

All right, here we go. You look great, dude. You're looking great. You're looking great. Yeah. You're wearing a different sweatshirt this morning. No, I didn't say it one. That's a compliment.

Yeah. Yeah. I struck you. It looks fresh all the time. Yeah. Three, two. This is Nick. This is Jack.

It's Friday, the real Friday. November 11th. And today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-Boy. Now, it is Friday the Real Friday, unless... Unless you're working at Chick-fil-A, Jack. Must be nice. Remember the three-day work week they got a Chick-fil-A?

The Chick-fil-A three-day work week. It's been the weekend for days over there. They haven't been working for like five days. It's incredible. I love it. They've been dipping chickens like a week ago. But Jack, what's our first story for the Real Friday? Crypto just had the worst, most painful week of the year.

Crypto Winter just became Crypto Avalanche. On the other hand is our second story. The stock market just had the best day of the year. Because finally, inflation is chilling out. For our third and final story, two weeks into Elon owning Twitter can be summed up with one handle. The real LeBron James. Spoiler. Is the fake LeBron James.

But yet is, before we hit that wonderful mix. The perfect mix to go into the weekend with. Love the mix. The greatest painter of our lifetime. It's not Picasso. It's not Warhol and it's not Frida Callum. Yeah, they were before our lifetime. It's not Van Gogh. It's not George O'Keefe, and it's not Mr. Leonardo da Vinci. They were way before our lifetime.

The most perfect painter in all of our lifetimes. Who is it, Jack? Bob Ross. Bob Ross, the painter with a perm. Every millennial who stayed home sick from school found companionship in Bob Ross's painting. Bob Ross, he created landscapes like a legend. No one could put little bush right over here. Little tree on that mountain top. Like Bob Ross.

We could put a little bunny next to that tree next to that bush. Like Bob Ross. Get this. The late, great television live artist painted 30,000 paintings in his lifetime. Jack, Bob Ross's TV painting show was like a second renaissance. But we learned something about Bob Ross from Yeti Melody Tackett in Colorado that we never knew. Bob Ross wasn't just an artist. No, no, no, no, no.

Bob Ross was in the Air Force. That's right. At the fresh age of 18 years old, Bob in. enlisted to the United States Air Force and spent 20 years flying for the country. Turns out Bob Ross was the Monet of the military. One of the most artistic veterans? It's Master Sergeant Bob Ross reporting for duty. And post-military, he found calmness in painting those landscapes for us.

And then Bob Ross taught us how to paint ourselves. Today, Veterans Day, we thank Bob for his service. And to all the Yeti veterans out there. Thank you for serving. And to all the bestie vets out there. Thanks for your work after serving too. On the battlefield in the art studio. Thanks for what you're doing.

You've had our back. Let's hit our movie stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best T-Brecent. 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. Start the show. For our first story, FtX's meltdown has turned Crypto Enter into a crypto avalanche. Here's why Bitcoin and everything touching Bitcoin had its coldest week of the year. All right, Jack, whip out the weather app over here. What are you seeing over in Bitcoin temperatures?

Well, we've had crypto winter for like a full year now. Prices have been falling for a year. Yeah, Bitcoin, it's like 70% off its all time high. Ben the Bitcoin pretty cold right now. But the selling this week got way worse and we're calling it a crypto avalanche. Yeah, because panic selling. led to more panic selling, which picked up momentum, fell down the mountain, led to a snowball effect. One company's crisis became a snowball that rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled and

rolled and got bigger and bigger, dropping Bitcoin, tokens, even stocks related to crypto were falling. One company set off a crypto avalanche from the top of the mountain, and it all started with a snowball. It all started with FTX. The snowball was FTX. FTX, the fourth largest crypto exchange in the entire world. Full disclosure, we don't know what FTX stood for. Nobody knows what it stands for. But it was a blue chip crypto brand with Super Bowl commercials.

We're talking Tom Brady, Giselle, Larry, David. This is a lineup supporting this brand. But two days ago, we told you on this pod that FTX ran into some money problems. So FtX turned to their frenemy Binance, which happens to be the world's largest crypto exchange. And they asked Binance to bail them out by acquiring the company. But one day later, Binance said, actually the deal's off. Sorry, Giselle.

Yeah, we're not going to acquire FTX. Like we said, we were going to yesterday. We're going to potentially let you do your own thing. Here's the reason yet is. Binance looked at the paperwork over at FTX and determined FTX may have misused customer funds. And Binance wants nothing to do with that shady business. Yeah, it looks like FTX's founder may have used your. crypto coins at FTX to fund his very own personal investments. And since his own personal investments

have fallen in value, it's put your money, your money in FTX accounts at risk. We're talking about FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. His irresponsible moves put FtX and honestly the whole crypto industry into a crisis over the last week into an avalanche. And the worst partner. Talk to me, Jack. All this shady business by this 30-year-old billionaire put regular old account. Holders money at risk. Which led to the latest news from FTX. FtX is looking for a bailout from somebody. Anybody. Or else they're going to have to declare bankruptcy soon. Where's ski patrol when you need them, Jack? And that alarming prospect that the number four crypto exchange in the world could go bankrupt caused the avalanche of falling crypto prices. It all began with that snowball effect. Now,

we should point out, prices bounced back yesterday as everything rose, including the stock market. But we should also point out those prices of crypto are still way further down than they were last week. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in crypto? Crypto was already risky. This week, we learned the piggy bank is risky too. The piggy bank. Yeties, if you invest in stocks, you face stock market risk. Yeah, the price of the stock you own could fall, but you hope it rises.

Well, that same market risk exists with crypto too. But this week, we learned there's a lot. another risk particular with crypto. This week we learned about piggy bank risk. The risk that the exchange handling your crypto loses all your money and you get nothing. With stocks, you never really consider if your brokerage is a risk because there are regulations and insurance that protect you and your investments. With stocks, there's no piggy bank risk. But crypto institutions have fallen like Celsius and now maybe FTX. And if your crypto institution falls, you may never see your bend the Bitcoin ever again. And that is piggy bank risk. And worries about piggy bank risk

helped lead to this week's crypto avalanche. For our second story, stocks just had their best day of the entire year. And it's thanks to the celebrity of economic reports. Okay, so wait, just to sprinkle on some early context here, Jack, crypto just had its like worst day of the year. But stocks are living their best life of 2022. Industrial stocks jumped 4% yesterday. Big stocks in the S&P 500 jumped 6% yesterday. Tech stocks said, hey, don't forget about us.

Tech stocks jumped 7% yesterday. The NASDAQ had a really good day. Yeah, and I haven't seen this much green since the Olive Garden All You Can Eat buffet. A trick question. They don't have it in all you can eat buffet. A never-ending pasta ball is different. I don't know, Jack.

I once almost drowned in a Caesar salad there. It's all thanks to the... the celebrity of economic reports. The one economic report that gets all the attention these days. The Consumer Price Index. The inflation report. It gets all the attention. And it finally showed yesterday improvement.

Yeah. It finally showed that we've got to slow down in inflation. Prices rose by 7% in October compared to the year before. Now, 7% sounds like a bunch, but that's actually the smallest year-over-year price increase since January. And it's down quite a bit from peak inflation that we hit over the summertime. Jack, what were we hitting back in June when I was visiting you in Vermont? In June, prices were up 9.1%. That was peak inflation so far.

But Yetis, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style to that inflation report, and we said to each other, you know what? What do you think, Jack? Let's give the Yeti something to celebrate. This inflation report, it had some wins to celebrate. For example, women's outerwear, prices are down almost 2% from last year. Go treat yourself to that Canada goose jacket. It's marginally less expensive.

Beef prices are down almost 4%. Chuck that ground chuck, go rip into a rib eye, man. What are you doing? And tickets to sporting events are down by 17%. You can go to Madison Square Garden wearing that Canada Goose jacket and get a filet mignon. And it's not going to be as expensive. It still sounds pretty expensive a day. It's still going to be a night out. So yet he's, yeah, most prices, we should say, most prices are still up from last year. Yeah, inflation is 7.7%. But it's nice to see. some crucial things go down in price for once. Well, Wall Street looked at this and investors are like, hey, we've been trying to identify signs that inflation is reversing. Investors are hoping the worst

of inflation is behind us and that it's all better from here. And yesterday kind of felt like that first sign. It did. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who bought stocks yesterday and may be buying T-bone stakes too? It is way too early to celebrate the end of inflation. Yet is you don't want to over pregame before the party. You've been there. On a monthly basis, we should point out, prices still rose. Like, they were up 0.4% compared to the month before. And honestly, Jack, the three main drivers of inflation that we've talked about?

Too much consumer spending, the war in Ukraine driving up oil prices, and the supply chain issues. Yeah, those three things are still very much there. And the Fed won't think inflation is under control until at least a few more months of consistent cooling down. But despite that, investors celebrated what could. be the start of the end of the rising prices. But we think it's still way too early to celebrate. Just celebrate a little bit. Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood.

You can do just about anything from your phone, but some industries, they've just been slow to move. The finance industry was slow to move from phone to computer and then from computer to app. Robin Hood wasn't. It's the Silicon Valley based brokerage that's been updating app since it was born in 2015. Using the Robin Hood app for your stocks and crypto is almost as easy as downloading it. So you can invest to your pace on your terms by downloading the Robin Hood app. 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 Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y limitation supply.

Stocks are 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 by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood. For our third and final, two weeks into Elon buying Twitter, a lot has already happened. And it's all represented by this one new account. One account. The real LeBron James.

But first of all, kind of shocking, Elon just sent his first Twitter email. There you go. Finally, it took two weeks for the new CEO and the new owner to email the employees. Yeah. And then in that email, Jack and I read it, what was bullet point number one? Return to the office now or you're fired. Oh, work from home, it is over at Twitter. You have to whip those khakis back on and come in 40 hours a week, minimum, or you're out.

Oh, and yet is Elon's not just firing Twitter employees. He's also firing Twitter users. That's right. If you don't pay for your blue Twitter checkmark, you're fired. Oh, and if you impersonate someone else on Twitter, you're fired forever. Oh, and if you stop advertising, he's threatened, and I quote, thermonuclear name and shame. Yeah, all of those firings are from Elon in the first two weeks. They all came in the form of threats.

But what fascinated Jack and I was actually the biggest change at Twitter in the last two weeks. Twitter's planned for the $8 a month verified subscriptions, it's already falling apart. Yeah, and it's all falling apart because of LeBron James. Hear us out, here's what went down this week. We'll explain. Someone set up a new Twitter account with the handle King James. And this person paid $8 for that verified check on LeBron James. Which person? That would be LeBron James, Jack.

LeBron James did that. Yeah. Then this person, LeBron James, with a handle King James, dropped a huge tweet that got a ton of likes and retweet. They tweeted out, farewell to Los Angeles. LeBron is leaving the Lakers. I think he used it in the first person. He said, I'm leaving the Lakers.

And the sports world was shocked. Because LeBron's leaving the Lakers? Wow. middle of the season? But then the sports world learned it was fake. This fake LeBron account reveals the big problem with Elon's first new product. And that problem is that the verification blue checkmark isn't really verification at all. It doesn't verify your identity.

It just verifies that you paid $8. And you don't need to use your imagination to see how this could go horribly wrong. Eight bucks and I'm Joe Biden on Twitter. So for a few hours, Twitter launched a second checkmark that actually verified your real ID, a second checkmark. And then two hours later, they canceled that second checkmark. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who've had a really tough two weeks over at Twitter? For the next year, Twitter is a series of dumb things. A series of dumb things. Yet he said is not our judgment. Like, we didn't say that. That's what

Elon said about Twitter under him this year. Right after killing that second checkmark thing, he tweeted out that he's going to try lots of dumb things at Twitter in the coming months. Everyone's going to keep what works and change what doesn't. Research and development. Twitter is crowdsourcing ideas from Twitter. Jack, that $8 checkmark subscription idea, where did it come from? That came from someone's tweet. And that second checkmark idea, Jack?

It was killed because somebody tweeted about it being weird. Yet these even other companies are looking at Twitter as an experiment right now. A lot of executives are curious. Can you run a social media company with half the number of employees as last month and not break it? It's a fair question. Twitter's the experiment. But for the next year, just remember, Twitter is a series of dumb things. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us before the weekend?

FTX is on the brink of bankruptcy, which caused an avalanche for crypto prices. FTX just revealed that crypto has piggy bank risk. Our second story is stocks having their best day of the year, thanks to cooling inflation. It's a little too early to celebrate. So just do a little treat yourself. It's too early to celebrate. Get a burger. For our third and final story, the fake.

but verified LeBron James account shows the issue with Twitter's new product. But for the next year, just remember, Twitter, this is a series of dumb things. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Alec Bayesteros from lovely Flagstaff, Arizona. Motion play. Here we go. Hey, besties. In honor of Veterans Day and to celebrate Native American Heritage Month,

today's best fact yet is about Native American veterans of World War II. This includes, but is not limited to the 29 Navajo men who became the Navajo Co-Tockers, Ira Hayes and Otam Marine, who was pictured raising the flag at Iwojima, and the legendary Joseph Medicine Crow, the last war chief of the Crow Nation, a feat he accomplished while in Europe

serving under the U.S. Army. Happy Native American Heritage Month. Happy Veterans Day. And Jack, don't we know some of the Yeties who are veterans out there? Oh, yeah. I'm sending a big hug and a big thank you to LaSalle. Can I get a big embrace over to Mr. Sam Mall?

And the Tony Nash. goes by the three of our veteran Yetis, thanks to you and your family for your service. And thanks, Bob, for teaching us how to paint. Indeed. Yeties, Jack and I will see you Monday. Before we go, we just want to say good luck to Elijah Batson, who has his second grade spelling test today down in Houston. And congratulations to Clarissa and Chris Scott, celebrating 11 years together on 1111 with a backyard

barbecue. And they got married in 2011 too. And Riley and Kim, congrats on the one year. year wedding anniversary down in Kenosha, Wisconsin. And happy two-year anniversary to Weldon Chandler and Jasmine Garmenda in Oklahoma City. And Varroon Prakash is heading out on a cruise because he just got a new job down in Houston. Congratulations. And happy 28th birthday to Andreas Chattner in Portland Orange.

And Barbrose Oz Turk celebrating the birthday wins in Vancouver, Canada. And happy 27 and a half birthday to M.T. Bungaro in Chicago. Chicago Browns up. And to anyone else, celebrating something today, making a tea boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack.

Nick and I both own stock of Robin Hood. We both own ETFs of the S&P 500, and we both own some Bitcoin. A Bitcoin named to Ben. Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. Jack, rule number one about a kitchen renovation. Tell your friends about your kitchen renovation. We know the cabinets are expensive.

Well, in the pandemic, a lot of companies renovated their businesses, focusing on apps and digital. Robin Hood didn't have to. It was built digital from the start. Robin Hood's mobile first and intuitive design makes investing a little easier for every stage of your investing journey.

Whether you want to trade options, ETFs, or stocks through Robin Hood Financial or buy some Bitcoin on Robin Hood Crypto, you can do all that right on the Robin Hood app. 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 robinood.com slash TBOI.

Limitations apply. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SID. All investments involved risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood.