0:00

Is your money working as hard as

0:02

it could be for your future? A

0:05

decade ago, Robinhood changed the investment

0:07

landscape when they pioneered commission-free stock trading.

0:09

Today, they continue to offer innovative

0:11

products to help users build a better

0:13

financial future, like IRAs, ETFs, options for

0:16

qualified traders, and much more. Take control

0:18

of your financial future with Robinhood. Download

0:20

the app or visit robinhood.com to learn

0:23

more. That's robinhood.com. Disclosures.

0:25

Investing involves risk. Other fees

0:27

may apply. Robinhood Financial LLC,

0:29

Member SIPC, is a registered broker

0:31

dealer. Good

0:34

morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil

0:36

Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today,

0:38

the Dow hits 40,000 points,

0:41

and we're going to talk about it because

0:43

round numbers are sweet. Then, what is this

0:45

mystery stock that Warren Buffett has been buying

0:48

up in secret over the past three quarters?

0:50

It's Friday, May 17th. Let's

0:53

ride! Shout

0:58

out to you all MBD listeners for

1:00

showing your support for our interview yesterday

1:02

with the CEO of Uber, Dara Kazrashahi.

1:04

We published the episode, and from the

1:07

YouTube comments to LinkedIn messages to just

1:09

overall downloads, you all showed it and

1:11

us a ton of love, and we

1:13

appreciate that. If you haven't gotten to

1:15

it yet, it makes for some perfect

1:17

weekend listening. Yeah. If

1:20

you're taking an Uber to the bar

1:22

or the airport, toss it on because,

1:24

well, it's pretty cool to listen to

1:26

the CEO talk about something as you're using

1:29

the product. So definitely check it out and let

1:31

us know what you think. We'd love to hear

1:33

your feedback. Now, let's hear a

1:35

word from our sponsor, Sage, not the

1:37

herb, but a tool that saves finance

1:39

professionals a lot of time and headaches.

1:41

It recently rolled out an AI that

1:43

goes beyond just automating routine tasks like

1:45

invoice management. It gives you

1:47

a real-time view of your business. So

1:50

if suddenly I stopped podcasting tomorrow and

1:52

opened my own little coffee shop, Sage

1:54

could help paint a real-time picture of

1:56

my business and the numbers behind it. It

1:58

would crush, obviously. Morning

2:01

Brew daily, obviously? Should have seen that

2:03

one coming. But yeah, Sage lets medium

2:06

or small businesses like Toby's Coffee Shop

2:08

or Mocha Joe's save time and close

2:10

their books confidently. If you want to

2:13

check out Sage to help your business

2:15

flow, visit sage.com/Morning Brew for

2:17

more. The Consumer Financial

2:19

Protection Bureau, the agency responsible for

2:21

protecting consumers from sketchy business practices,

2:24

got its own Guardian Angel yesterday

2:26

when the Supreme Court shot down

2:28

a challenge that could have eliminated

2:30

the Bureau entirely. The fundamental question

2:33

here was whether the CFPB's funding

2:35

source is constitutional. The agency draws

2:37

its budget from the Federal Reserve

2:39

System instead of from Congress, which

2:42

supporters say keeps it politically independent,

2:44

but opponents say allows it to

2:46

escape accountability. A group of payday

2:48

lenders challenged the CFPB's funding source

2:51

after it slapped those companies with

2:53

new restrictions and the case made

2:55

its way up to the high

2:57

court. There, the justices

3:00

ruled 7-2 that the CFPB's funding

3:02

stream was legal, protecting the Bureau from its

3:04

biggest threat since it was created 13 years

3:06

ago. This was

3:08

a closely watched case across Wall Street,

3:11

not only because the CFPB is a

3:13

very active, very powerful agency, but also

3:15

because a loss could have led to

3:17

challenges on other independently funded regulators across

3:20

the government, like the Fed or even

3:22

Social Security. Toby, you know who's hype

3:24

about this? Elizabeth Warren. Yeah, let's go

3:26

back in time a little bit. The

3:28

CFPB was created in the

3:30

wake of the 2008 financial crisis. It

3:33

took a bunch of different disparate

3:35

consumer protections at the federal level,

3:37

put them under one unified agency.

3:39

It was Senator Elizabeth Warren, or

3:41

she wasn't a Senator at the

3:44

time, who is widely credited as

3:46

the driving force behind its creation,

3:48

considered the agency's founder and architect.

3:50

President Obama called it Elizabeth's idea.

3:52

So you can see the roots

3:55

of why Republicans in particular have

3:57

been typically against this particular agency.

4:00

And it does have to do with this

4:02

funding stream because Congress does all

4:04

these appropriations to dole

4:06

out money to the various government agencies. But

4:08

the CFPB is funded by the Fed. And

4:10

critics of the CFPB, they don't like what

4:13

it's doing in general because they think it's

4:15

a rogue agency that's way too powerful and

4:17

goes after businesses for things that maybe it

4:20

shouldn't go after. And they say that because

4:22

it doesn't have to be funded by Congress

4:24

and it's funded by the Federal Reserve System,

4:26

which gets fees and on its interest that

4:29

it's outside the system of accountability

4:31

or anything like that. So this has

4:33

been a long waging war against the

4:35

CFPB ever since it was founded 13

4:37

years ago. And it's not

4:39

like it's spending willy nilly either because

4:41

right, it's funded by profits from the

4:44

Federal Reserve. The budget may not exceed

4:46

12% of the Fed's annual operating expenses

4:48

or $734 million. So

4:51

far, the agency has never asked for all

4:53

of its authorized budget. So it's not the

4:56

amount of money spending issue. And if you

4:58

do the math, the return

5:00

on that investment is very good because

5:03

the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has returned

5:05

over $20 billion to consumers ripped

5:08

off by bad actors or whatever you want to call

5:10

them. So on a budget that they never seem to

5:12

exceed, they're returning a lot of money to consumers just from

5:14

a math perspective. It seems like the

5:16

agency is doing its job. Yeah, let's see

5:18

how the CFPB has actually affected your life.

5:20

Here are some of the actions it's taken

5:23

recently. It ordered Bank of America to return

5:25

more than $100 million to customers who were

5:27

charged fees multiple times. Wells

5:29

Fargo, huge. It

5:33

ordered Wells Fargo to pay $3.7 billion

5:35

for wrongfully foreclosing homes,

5:37

illegally representing repossessing vehicles,

5:39

and charging surprise overdraft

5:41

fees. And currently, it's

5:43

looking into deceptive designs

5:45

that lock consumers into

5:47

subscription services. You know

5:49

how it's so hard to cancel a

5:51

subscription? They're looking into ways that might

5:53

compel companies that charge subscriptions to open

5:56

that up to increase cancellation. Again, opponents

5:58

of this bureau say that it's It's

6:00

way too aggressive in policing

6:03

the business world. The

6:05

Chamber of Commerce was

6:07

for the challenge of the CFPB and

6:10

challenged its funding source. So this is

6:12

a battle that will continue to rage,

6:14

but it looks like because of this

6:17

SCOTUS decision, its long-term viability will continue.

6:19

It's not facing an existential threat anymore.

6:21

The Dow is an imperfect index. It's

6:23

filled with companies that used to be

6:25

great, is weirdly weighted, and has dreadfully

6:28

underperformed the S&P 500 recently. But

6:31

yesterday it hit a big round number you mentioned at the

6:33

top of the show, Neil. Before

6:36

we get into that number though, I want to beat up on the

6:38

Dow a little bit more. The Dow Jones

6:40

Industrial Average is just weird. Stocks

6:43

in the Dow are weighted by their nominal

6:45

share price, not their market value. So that

6:47

means the literal share price a company is

6:49

trading at is more important than what the

6:52

company is actually worth. It also contains 30

6:54

companies, so it's widely ignored on Wall Street

6:57

because it's just too limited in scope for

6:59

anybody to really pay attention to it. But

7:02

the index is 128 years

7:04

old, contains blue chip American companies like

7:06

McDonald's and Disney that people care about.

7:08

So when it hits an all-time high

7:10

alongside all the other indexes and breaks

7:12

through a number it's never touched before,

7:15

like 40K, we talk about it. So

7:17

Neil, here we are. We are. Let's

7:19

go. So the Dow is a very old

7:22

index. It dates back to the 19th century. I just want to go

7:24

back to 1929. Remember the crash

7:26

of, I mean, you don't remember. I remember it well.

7:30

So we hit 40,000 points. So during that crash

7:32

of October 28 and 31st, that year of 1929, the Dow fell

7:34

38 points and

7:39

31 more points the next day. That

7:42

accounted for declines of 13% and 12%. Now

7:46

a 100-point swing for the Dow implies a

7:48

move of less than 0.3%. So

7:51

I just want to show how much the stock

7:53

market has grown. Last time the Dow hit 30,000

7:56

was in November 2020. So

8:00

it's been just a couple years ago from 30,000 to 40,000. I

8:03

think this is emblematic of the rise of the

8:05

stock market. Coming out of COVID, there was a

8:07

huge boom, and then we went down in 2022

8:09

as the Fed jacked up interest rates. But

8:12

for multiple reasons, the fact that interest

8:14

rate cuts are coming into view, the

8:17

economy has held strong, and AI has

8:20

taken the stock market to the moon, the

8:22

market is doing really, really well. All

8:24

indexes are hitting all-time highs, and the Dow has passed 40,000.

8:27

Yeah, for a lot of people, the Dow in their

8:29

minds just is the stock market. You hear

8:31

it on CNBC, you hear it on these news

8:33

programs. Google searches for down jones are

8:36

always higher than searches for the S&P 500, according

8:39

to this market research firm Data

8:41

Trek. So despite its flaws, it's

8:43

just very much embedded in the

8:45

human psyche of Americans who

8:47

pay attention to the stock market. And you're right, the

8:49

Dow is just very, very old, dates back to the

8:51

1890s. And S&P didn't

8:54

come into the picture until after World War II

8:56

in 1957. So

8:58

just serves as almost this litmus test and

9:01

running history of the US economy. So

9:03

you can do things like go back

9:05

to that crash that we remember so

9:07

well and compare it to also how

9:09

the market has evolved because companies come

9:11

in and out of the Dow. So

9:14

it does have its place, even though

9:16

it's not a very effective index. One

9:19

of the original members of the Dow was

9:21

a company called Standard Rope and Twine. I

9:23

don't know if they're still around. But you said

9:26

that the Dow doesn't really change with the times or

9:28

it's at least a laggard to do so. And

9:30

that's why it falls behind the S&P 500. I

9:33

mean, right now, the Dow does not

9:35

contain alphabet, meta, or Nvidia. And Nvidia

9:37

has surged more than 200% in the

9:40

last 12 months. So

9:43

to say that the Dow represents what's going

9:45

on in the stock market right now is

9:47

just false because it

9:49

doesn't have Nvidia, which represents the AI

9:51

boom. Right. Part of what

9:53

they do is they're very loathe to put a

9:55

company in until it's very much established. And what

9:58

often happens is they end up almost timing

10:00

the market to the absolute top. They didn't put

10:02

Microsoft in until late 1999, which subsequently,

10:06

the market completely fell

10:09

out from underneath them. It took Microsoft another 15

10:12

years to return to its valuation when it was

10:14

put in the Dow. Now, you might say that

10:16

Microsoft did eventually come good and it is one

10:18

of the most valuable companies on earth. But that

10:21

is another that tends

10:23

to happen for the Dow is that it's

10:25

almost like if you see a company added,

10:27

that means we're usually at the peak of

10:29

some cycle and that the floor is about

10:31

to get wiped out from underneath us because it just

10:33

happened throughout the history of the Dow. All right. Well,

10:36

in true Bell Balochik fashion, we're on to 50,000. Last

10:38

month, the United Auto

10:41

Workers Union scored a historic victory when

10:43

employees at a Volkswagen plant voted to

10:45

join the union, becoming the first foreign

10:47

owned auto factory in the South to

10:50

link up with the UAW. The

10:52

next battle in the union's Southern conquest

10:55

comes today when votes will be counted

10:57

in a union election at a Mercedes

10:59

plant in Alabama. This vote is

11:01

seen as a more difficult and more significant

11:03

test than the VW one because there are

11:06

more workers at this plant over 5,000 and

11:08

Mercedes has played

11:10

more defense. A win would lend

11:12

a major tailwind for the UAW's

11:14

push to unionize 13 automakers across

11:16

the South. Remember, last fall, the

11:18

union scored large pay raises for

11:20

workers at Detroit's big three automakers

11:22

and it's using that victory as

11:24

its pitch to the Bible Belt,

11:26

which has historically been hostile toward

11:28

unions. Speaking of pushback, Republican governors

11:31

in six Southern states released a statement

11:33

last month criticizing unions as special interests

11:35

looking to come into our state and

11:37

threaten our jobs and the values we

11:40

live by. Foreign automakers building factories across

11:42

the South have juiced the regional economy

11:44

and these politicians don't want those gains

11:46

threatened by the UAW. Toby, a big,

11:49

big test for UAW president Sean Fain's

11:51

Southern takeover. Right. The Southern takeover is

11:53

something that's been on his priority list

11:55

because the South has the lowest union

11:58

density in the United States. United

12:00

States. Only six percent of workers in the

12:02

region are union members, but they got the

12:04

ball rolling a little bit in that Tennessee

12:07

decision. If the U A W loses thou

12:09

ever really tie up our son feign style

12:11

thou because he is deathly been trying to

12:13

keep this momentum going And these votes tap

12:16

typically do lead one to the other to

12:18

the other and he wants to be dominoes

12:20

falling. So you're right, this is probably the

12:23

at. This is a much bigger the domino

12:25

just in terms of the fact that there's

12:27

more workers. I gathered I more workers. Mercedes

12:29

has definitely. Play a lot more defense

12:31

then V W did. of course, some

12:33

workers at this point are like Black

12:35

Mercedes treat us well. We that thirty

12:37

four dollars an hour after three years

12:40

like that's pretty good. Crazy sad that

12:42

I found the average weekly pay in

12:44

South Carolina for manufacturing workers last year,

12:46

with three percent more than in Michigan.

12:48

Meanwhile, and twenty twenty two Michigan workers

12:50

were paid forty two percent more than

12:52

in South Carolina. So there's been a

12:54

lot of pressure on these are aware

12:56

automakers in the South to raise wages

12:58

despite not having unions just because. Of

13:00

the overall strong labor market and the

13:02

the heavy competition that's going on ever

13:04

since, Nice on came in in the

13:06

Nineteen eighties to Tennessee, there's any huge

13:09

wave of our foreign automakers setting up

13:11

shop in the South's because of these

13:13

right to work laws that they pass

13:15

which discouraged unions. We've also seen Mercies

13:17

running that. Kind of the playbook

13:19

that other southern factories have. When they're

13:21

faced with union pressure, they have raised

13:23

pay. In recent months they've made an

13:25

effort to be more flexible and give

13:27

more notice to workers about scenes and

13:29

their schedule. But then worker seeps through

13:31

this little been say or you're already

13:33

raising our wages because you're afraid of

13:35

as unionizing. Imagine the power will have

13:37

once we join the union. Also, talk

13:39

about opposition to ah this union vote.

13:41

Mercedes has been accused a little bit

13:43

of union busting and one thing that

13:45

I found was that they actually brought

13:47

in mix saving. at alabama football coach

13:50

to talk to workers in that manufacturing

13:52

plant one worker said that still i

13:54

never stops or anything but everything sat

13:56

down to hear nick saban talk about

13:58

teamwork makes even does own Mercedes

14:00

dealerships and he has reportedly said he

14:02

does not endorse the UAW campaign so

14:05

that is and Mercedes has

14:07

said we've had a long relationship with Nick

14:09

Saban he's come before but that smells a

14:11

little bit like union busting if you bring

14:13

in Nick Saban in Alabama yeah to talk

14:16

to those those workers up next it's stock

14:18

of the week dog the week time but

14:20

with a little twist what's

14:24

a nightmare scenario for you in the workplace

14:27

oh that's a scary question outside

14:29

of a hair and makeup fiasco I'd

14:31

probably say losing a great episode of

14:33

our show in some sort of company-wide

14:35

computer meltdown I hate to tell you

14:37

this but that did happen once I

14:39

was on the subway back home when

14:41

I had to come back in and

14:43

record the entire episode again no way

14:45

I tried to block it out honestly

14:47

the good news is that crash plan

14:49

offers secure cloud backups for every computer

14:51

and we're talking anywhere anytime I know

14:53

crash plan they work for massive

14:55

enterprises small businesses and individuals too they

14:57

literally cover everybody what I like most

15:00

about crash plan is that they automatically

15:02

encrypt all your data and then send

15:04

that same data to the cloud every

15:07

15 minutes it's backup power that's speedy

15:09

and secure exactly listeners go ahead and

15:11

level up your backup game over at

15:14

crash plan comm slash brew and for

15:16

a limited time they'll even mail you

15:18

their popular stuff happens swag when you

15:20

sign up for a free trial okay

15:23

need that that's crash plan.com/brew fun

15:26

fact of the day according to

15:28

Forbes 84 trillion dollars is expected

15:30

to be transferred from the boomer

15:32

generation to their adult children in

15:34

the next two to three decades

15:36

the problem is most people aren't

15:38

having conversations around generational wealth to

15:40

plan for the future and another

15:42

problem a lot of people don't

15:44

feel comfortable or equipped to talk

15:46

about finances luckily math mutual has

15:48

been an industry leader in helping

15:50

people secure their financial futures for

15:53

over a hundred and seventy years

15:55

talk about legacy a math mutual

15:57

financial professionals can help you plan for both

15:59

your short term and long-term goals.

16:01

This means planning for retirement and

16:03

protection planning with life and disability

16:06

insurance. Ready to ride? Start at

16:08

mathmutual.com planning.

16:10

That's mathmutual.com planning.

16:16

So all the major indexes are trading near

16:18

or at all-time highs right now, which means

16:20

when it came time for Neil and I

16:23

to pick our stock of the week and

16:25

dog of the week, it was hard to

16:27

find any underperformers. But luckily we remembered this

16:29

is our podcast. We can do whatever we

16:31

want. So if it's okay with you all,

16:33

we're picking two stocks of the week. Don't

16:35

worry, we still had our pre-show competition and

16:38

I ended up wiping the floor with Neil

16:40

and we tennis. So I'm up first and

16:42

my stock of the week is Walmart. For

16:44

a decade Walmart has rained over all others

16:46

as the biggest company in the country by revenue. Last year

16:49

it brought in $648 billion. That means it makes more than

16:51

$1.2 million a minute.

16:55

Recently though it's rained has looked

16:57

a little shakier as Amazon is

16:59

breathing down its neck. Amazon

17:01

reported $575 billion in total revenue last year but

17:05

it grew at a 12% rate compared to 6%

17:08

for Walmart. But Walmart is not going

17:10

gently into that good night. It reported

17:12

earning six-week and it showed Wall Street

17:14

why all roads still lead through

17:17

Northwest Arkansas. It beat revenue

17:19

expectations jumping 6% from

17:21

last year bringing in $161 billion in Q1 while

17:25

US same-source sales increased 3.9% year-over-year. Its stock

17:27

hit an all-time high

17:30

in response. It's still dominating grocery. It

17:32

has a nice ad business cooking now.

17:34

Ecommerce sales were up 22%. Neil, Walmart

17:36

is not giving up that throne quite

17:38

yet. Now Walmart's just such in a

17:40

great position for inflation because you have

17:42

higher income consumers, people making over $100,000

17:45

a year going to

17:48

Walmart for trading down a little

17:50

bit and then they really, Walmart

17:53

also specializes in these staple

17:55

goods that people need to get a

17:57

lot of retailers that

18:00

sell discretionary items like Home Depot and Target

18:02

are getting crushed right now as people tend

18:04

to not do that kitchen upgrade and instead

18:06

are just like, let me make a good

18:09

meal for my family. Walmart benefits from that

18:11

100% and I do want to zero in

18:13

on this e-commerce business, which is booming right

18:15

now. In the past 12 months,

18:17

Walmart shipped about 4.4 billion

18:20

units for same day or next day delivery. That

18:22

was more than Amazon, which said it shipped more

18:24

than 4 billion items in 2023 for same or

18:28

next day delivery. It's built out a

18:30

huge e-commerce business with logistic plants all

18:32

over the place that are getting people

18:35

their boxes of stuff within a day

18:37

or two days. Every

18:39

time Walmart comes to the news, I'm always just

18:41

shocked about the sheer scale of it because it's

18:43

got a sales target of around 4% growth

18:45

each year. That means it needs to find

18:48

an additional $26 billion in sale this year. That

18:52

is not easy because around 90% of

18:55

Americans already shop at Walmart. There's not

18:57

a lot of juice left to squeeze

18:59

in terms of just overall market

19:01

penetration. Rising inflation technically

19:03

does help it meet its sales goals

19:05

because as things get more expensive, if

19:07

they need a 4% sales

19:10

target of growth each year, then when

19:12

inflation is going up as well, it

19:14

actually helps Walmart meet that sales target.

19:17

It's just an insanely sprawling company

19:19

that affects 90% of

19:21

Americans shop at it. They're

19:24

not giving up that throne anytime soon. No, but Amazon's

19:26

growing at 12% a year. Walmart's

19:28

growing at 6% a year. In some

19:31

podcasts in the future, we will

19:33

be talking about Amazon eclipsing Walmart

19:35

revenue. My stock of the

19:37

week is Chubb, one of the world's biggest

19:39

insurance companies, which shot up more than 4%

19:41

yesterday. Why? It's

19:44

because a mystery was solved. Since

19:46

last year, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has

19:48

been buying up lots of stock in

19:50

a company, but no one knew which

19:52

one it was because it was held

19:55

secret. Speculation ran rampant and not even

19:57

Woach could get his hands on the

19:59

details. But in a regulatory filing

20:01

Wednesday, Buffet spilled the beans. It was

20:03

Chubb all along, and it's a huge

20:05

stake in Chubb, too. Buffet

20:07

bought $6.7 billion worth of Chubb

20:09

stock, accounting for 6.4% of its

20:11

outstanding shares.

20:14

Buffet is the original Roaring Kitty. When

20:16

he seems bullish on a company, those

20:18

company's shares typically pop. The

20:20

big picture here is that Buffet is

20:22

doubling down on financial services and insurance,

20:24

which he calls the most important business

20:26

at Berkshire. This time period is

20:28

always fun because a lot of the major fund

20:30

and money managers are disclosing which moves

20:33

he made. They file these 13 F

20:35

forms that allow you to pick through

20:37

their portfolio and how they've changed. There's

20:39

other nuggets that were revealed in these

20:41

SEC filings, though. Renaissance Technology, the fund

20:43

that we recently spoke about on

20:45

the show, founded by the late Jim Simmons, loaded

20:48

up on shares of AMC and GameStop before they

20:50

went nuts. I don't know how they keep doing

20:52

this, how they keep getting away with this. We

20:54

also found out what Michael Burry of Big Short

20:57

fame has been up to. He's loaded up on

20:59

jd.com and Alibaba, two big Chinese

21:01

e-com plays. No one

21:03

moves markets quite like this good old

21:05

Warren Buffet. No, and Chubb's actually been

21:07

in the news recently because it owes

21:10

the state of Maryland $350

21:12

million for that collapse of the

21:15

Francis Scott Key Bridge. Then it

21:17

also put up an appeal bond

21:19

for former President Trump, $92 million

21:22

for that defamation case against

21:24

writer E. Jean Carroll. Then also,

21:26

they initially were going to put

21:28

up that half a

21:30

billion dollar bond for the civil fraud

21:32

case. There was a lot of pushback

21:34

and the CEO, Evan Greenberg, who's the

21:36

son of the former AIG CEO. These

21:39

guys run the insurance business. Basically, this

21:42

one family dropped that appeal

21:44

bond for Trump after a lot of pushback.

21:47

Try to guess how I'm going

21:49

to finish this next headline. Two

21:51

math genius brothers who graduated from

21:53

MIT were arrested and

21:55

charged with stealing $25 million worth of

21:57

crypto within approximately 12 seconds. up

22:00

the DOJ charged these two brothers,

22:02

Anton and James Pereira-Bleno, with using

22:04

their special computer science and math

22:07

skills to engineer a never-before-seen cryptocurrency

22:09

fraud to compromise the Ethereum blockchain

22:11

and make-off with millions in April

22:13

2023. I'll

22:15

spare you the gory details because they

22:18

are extremely technical, but the TLDR is

22:20

that these two brothers allegedly infiltrated the

22:22

process by which transactions are validated on

22:25

the blockchain and then set up shell

22:27

companies, private crypto addresses, and foreign crypto

22:29

exchanges to launder the money they stole.

22:32

The charges come with a maximum penalty

22:34

of 20 years in prison for each

22:36

count. Turvi, that's certainly one way to

22:38

use your MIT degree. 12

22:40

seconds. MIT is slipping a little bit. I was

22:42

thinking some six seconds for carrying out a fraud

22:44

of this scale. But no, what's very

22:46

funny to me is that these two brothers

22:48

are obviously portrayed as these computer geniuses. They're

22:50

very smart. Yet, it's their browser history that's

22:52

going to come back and bite them in

22:54

the butt because their search history shows that

22:57

they looked up things like setting up shell

22:59

companies and getting around to know your

23:01

customer procedures. They literally search for how

23:03

to watch crypto. Then to cover the

23:05

legal side of things, they also search

23:08

for top crypto lawyers and money-laundering statute

23:10

of limitations. It's always that

23:12

browser history that ends up getting you. Got

23:14

to go incognito mode. This

23:17

is a weird story, wacky story, but

23:19

it also has major implications for crypto

23:21

because we know that these spot Bitcoin

23:23

ETS were just approved. That's been a

23:25

huge tailwind for Bitcoin prices. Everyone's

23:28

looking at whether the possibility of

23:30

the whether the SEC will approve

23:32

Ethereum ETFs. Ether is the second

23:35

largest crypto by market cap. This

23:37

could throw a wrench into that

23:39

because the Fed say that the

23:41

Ethereum blockchain was completely compromised by

23:44

these two guys, allegedly. Gary

23:48

Gensler, the SEC chair, could say,

23:50

man, I'm already nervous about crypto

23:53

being unsafe for investors. Now

23:56

I have a patent example of $25 million

23:58

getting stolen off the Ethereum blockchain. Why

24:00

would I ever approve an Ethereum ETF?

24:03

So this has definitely raised doubt that those

24:05

Ethereum ETFs will get approved. Right. Gary Gensler

24:08

wasn't a huge blockchain guy to begin with

24:10

and this is just another piece

24:12

of evidence that goes to support his

24:15

claims that maybe the blockchain isn't something that

24:17

a lot of consumers should have widespread exposure

24:19

to. It's Friday, but

24:22

I want to finish this week of shows

24:24

by channeling the vibes of Taco Tuesday. A

24:26

small taco stand in Mexico that serves

24:28

just four items has just been awarded

24:30

a Michelin Star. Michelin Stars

24:33

are the restaurant version of your parents

24:35

telling you they're proud of you. It's

24:37

a huge stamp of approval for anyone

24:39

in the food business and now Taqueria

24:41

el Califa de Leon in the San

24:43

Rafael neighborhood of Mexico City is the

24:45

first Mexican taco stand to receive this

24:47

honor. You know, this is literally a

24:49

taco stand. The entire place is only

24:52

about 10 feet wide, but it's been

24:54

around for more than 50 years and

24:56

just serves bomb tacos. The chef says

24:58

the magic lies in the tacos simplicity,

25:00

tortilla, meat and a red or green

25:02

sauce. That's it. Incredible accomplishment and good

25:04

Lord, do I want to take a

25:06

morning brew daily on the road now?

25:09

Let's go to CDMX. Now, this is

25:11

a big day for this taco stand,

25:13

but also for Mexico in general, which

25:15

has had a huge come up in

25:17

the culinary scene in recent years. The

25:19

Michelin guy just awarded its first restaurants

25:22

in Mexico with these stars. So this taco stand

25:24

was one of 18 restaurants to get

25:26

a star. 16 of them got

25:28

one star and then two of them got two stars.

25:31

The most famous one of those is Pujol with

25:33

any which any person who goes to Mexico City

25:35

tries to get a reservation there. It's considered one

25:37

of the best restaurants in North America. So I

25:39

see this as a just

25:42

a great come

25:44

up for the entire Mexican culinary scene, which

25:46

has been booming for the past few years.

25:48

Yeah, let's look at what the Michelin guy

25:50

wrote about Taqueria el Califas de Leon. Thinly

25:53

sliced beef filet is actually cooked to order

25:55

season with only salt and a squeeze of

25:57

lime at the same time a second. cook

26:00

prepares the excellent corn

26:02

tortillas. The resulting combination is

26:04

elemental and pure. It

26:06

just sounds so good. And it goes to show

26:08

me I'm overthinking everything because if this place is

26:11

getting the Michelin star with just a squeeze of

26:13

lime and some salt and just like very high

26:15

quality meat, man, it just sounds so simple and

26:17

perfect. You don't need to go to the Cheesecake

26:20

Factory or Diner with too many options. Just go

26:22

to a place that specializes in one thing. This

26:24

guy, this chef did not give away any of

26:26

his secrets, but

26:29

the only thing he did disclose was that you have to

26:31

heat the grill to 680 degrees. So

26:34

this is a taco you cannot make

26:36

at home. But congrats to this

26:38

taco stand and everyone else who just got that

26:40

Michelin star in Mexico. We're coming to you, CDMX.

26:43

But the last time I went and ate the

26:45

food, I mean, it was delicious, but yeah, you

26:47

have stomach problems. That is

26:50

all the time we have. Another week in the

26:52

books. Hope you all have a relaxing Friday. Toby,

26:54

how'd our boy Burm Easter do at the PGA

26:56

up there? He's in contention, baby. He's better than

26:58

Corey Connor. So yes, tune in. Check out

27:00

our boy Burm Easter. Any questions,

27:02

thoughts, concerns, hit us up at our

27:05

email, morningbrewdaily at morningbrew.com. Just don't use

27:07

cheers as a sign up and we'll

27:09

be friends. Let's roll the credits. Emily

27:11

Miliron is our executive producer. Raymond Liu

27:13

is our producer. Olivia Graham is our

27:15

associate producer. Larissa Lourmoss is our technical

27:18

director. Billy Mennino is on audio. Herra

27:20

Makeup can't wait to lead all their

27:22

emails with Happy Friday today. Devon Emery

27:24

is our chief content officer and our

27:26

show is a production of Morning Brew.

27:28

Great show today, Neil. Cheers.

27:31

Cow.