America Unleashes “Economic D-Day” on Iran & US Open Faces Backlash Over Ticket Prices

0:01Are you sucking wind from trying to keep up with AI and its impact? Take a breather and tune in to The Intelligence Shift, Morning Brew's new podcast with PwC. It bridges the gap between big picture AI concepts and what it actually means in practice. Host Dan Priest is joined by expert guests to discuss AI's role in sports, music, HR, and more. Listen to The Intelligence Shift wherever you get your podcasts. Good Morning Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, the U.S. Open faces backlash over soaring ticket prices. Then, Blank Street is taking their VC-backed coffee business out to L.A.

0:38It's Tuesday, August 25th. Let's ride.

0:48Imagine you're at home, just trying to go about your life, but every 30 seconds for 10 straight hours, you hear a bunch of people shriek at the top of their lungs. That's the reality for residents of Toluca Lake, California, who live next door to a new roller coaster at Universal Studios Hollywood. Screams, blood-curdling screams, one local told the New York Times. Some people can hear it inside their homes with the windows closed. Talk about unintended consequences. When constructing the roller coaster, Universal went to extraordinary lengths to make it whisper quiet, even lining the track with pea gravel to mute the vibrations.

1:23And it worked. Too well. because the coaster itself is so silent, the human screams can be heard much more vividly, sparking an angry reaction from the homeowners of Toluca Lake. Toby, you a screamer? I mean, it sounds like hell on earth. One homeowner, Judith Angel, who has lived there for 38 years, told the New York Times, our brains are designed to respond to screaming. It's biology. The hairs on your neck would just constantly be on high alert. The craziest part is not only did Universal account for the vibrations in the actual noise of the coaster, They did try to dampen the screens from the start.

1:57Designers used computer models to predict the loudest parts of the rides and added glass scream screens and a 940-foot sound wall that's made out of Acoustoblock, which is the same stuff that they use to insulate houses from airports. They even programmed the cars to turn riders away from nearby homes when they might scream. Hasn't worked at all. The screams are still blood curdling and people are still upset. And now a word from our sponsor, American Express. Toby, what do you expect from business travel? Mini quiches, little croissants, and absolutely tiny espressos. Dream bigger, literally.

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3:11There's nothing like business platinum. them. With aerial bombardment failing to bring the Iran war to an end, the Trump administration is trying plan B, wholesale economic isolation. In an announcement previewed as Economic D-Day, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson threatened additional sanctions against Iran, hoping to ramp up the pressure by cutting Tehran off from the global financial system. We are launching an economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections around the globe, he said, calling the move economic asphyxiation of this regime. As part of Operation Economic Outcast, Besant said the U.S.

3:45was sanctioning more than 60 entities, individuals, and vessels around the world that facilitate Iranian oil revenues and cyber abilities. He demanded that countries home to branches of Iran's largest bank, Bank Melly, to shut them down. And he said that President Trump is making calls to individual leaders with, quote, specific requests to cease their interactions with the regime or else face punishment from Uncle Sam. Still, for an offensive billed as economic D-Day. Some question the metaphor, likening Besant's threats to more preparing for D-Day instead of storming the beaches of Normandy itself.

4:17Besant also acknowledged that his economic onslaught would not go into effect immediately to give countries time to sever their relations with Iran. He said, we are giving everyone the opportunity to remedy bad behavior. Why would I want to blow up the global financial system? What remains to be seen, whether more economic pressure from the U.S. will allow it to wind down the war in Iran, which is unpopular at home and has dragged on for nearly six months. I mean, all you have to do is look at the market's reaction to see that this was probably more of a warning shot than the actual big sanction package that Besant was promising.

4:48Stocks barely moved. Oil actually fell a little bit. And so nothing really was being reacted to when you look at the financial markets. The other thing that a lot of people were questioning is that if this was always an option, why not roll it out a little bit earlier, if sanctions are as economically devastating as you're making them out to be, why would you not employ those before the U.S. military got involved? So those are some of the question marks that are associated. But still, the administration is framing this as a finishing move. They're saying that Iran is as economically vulnerable as they've ever been.

5:25And as long as the world can kind of rally together and start cutting off all its sort of lifelines, this is going to be the move that will finally bring this long war to the close. And the biggest X factor, it's a literal X factor, Xi Jinping, the premier of China, because this won't work without China's cooperation. That was what you hear from a bunch of analysts saying, so what about China? These are all the questions that Besant was asked because in terms of economic lifelines for Iran, it's basically China and then secondarily Russia. China buys the bulk of Iran's oil and that's what's used to fund its government revenues for the most part.

6:04And Besson was asked about China. Obviously, the U.S. sanctioning China or ramping up its economic warfare with China would just be huge news of the two big geopolitical powers. He demurred a bit. He said, quote, no one is above the reach of U.S. sanctions without mentioning China. I think that's also another reason why there's this warning shot so they can go into negotiations, what Besson called quiet diplomacy because without China's cooperation, not buying Iranian oil, which it gets to do at a discount, it's super cheap oil for them. So they're not going to stop that lightly. Without China, this whole thing kind of falls apart.

6:39Yeah, but China does kind of need to respect the threat at least because China does not want to lose access to the U.S. financial system. Again, this is the big threat that this D-Day is kind of built upon. If you lose access to the U.S. dollar clearing system. That affects all sorts of business. If you are a Chinese company that wants to pay a Brazilian company, you'll probably likely use U.S. dollars. And even though neither one of those parties is American, that dollar will generally need to pass through banks with access to the U.S. banking system. So again, when we talk about shutting off countries from the global financial system, that is what you're talking about because the U.S.

7:17still controls a lot of the plumbing of global finance. Meanwhile, there are signs that Iran's economy is succumbing to the pressure from longtime sanctions and this war, the Rial. Their currency fell to$2.02 million per dollar on Monday. That is a record low and down from$1.65 million per dollar just before the war, which itself was a record low. When you see currency depreciation, you see inflation, and Iran's inflation is expected to hit 69 % in 2026. Not nice, the highest figure since 1979. Its economy is expected to shrink by 5.4 percent this year, which previously was expected to grow by 1.1 percent.

7:59People are finding it hard to afford everyday goods. Government officials are not being paid. So Besson and the Trump administration thinks by tightening the economic screws and this particular package is designed, they're called secondary sanctions because it's not really putting more sanctions on Iran. It's putting sanctions on countries that do business with Iran will deal the final economic blow where military action has failed. Moving on, if you've visited New York in the last few years, you've no doubt noticed the plethora of pastel green Blink Street coffee shops tucked into the fabric of the city.

8:33But after announcing it raised$75 million from investors this week, it has its sights sets on something further west than Chelsea, Los Angeles. The VC-backed coffee chain masquerading as a neighborhood coffee joint is heading to Beverly Hills in Malibu as it looks to expand to the West Coast. As part of the raise, which values the company at$650 million, it's trying to transform from a coffee shop into something bigger. Founder Issam Friha said the goal is to become a daily luxury brand that gives customers a reason to visit throughout the entire day. Morning is for coffee, afternoon is for matcha, and evenings are for sweet treats like ice cream, which the chain will start rolling out later this year.

9:14Blank Street has expanded from a single coffee cart in Brooklyn to over 100 stores in just over five years, powered by Gen Z embracing the aesthetic, particularly its Instagrammable matcha concoctions. It's been a dizzying rise that has Starbucks looking over its shoulder, but also locals protesting against the PE-fication of their coffee runs. I prefer going to one-off locations, one resident told the LA Times in reaction to Blank Street's appearance in Studio City. Still, the first location had customers lining up on a Tuesday morning for a taste. Neil, this sort of reminds me of the trajectory of Pop-Up Bagels, a similarly popular food concept that started as a small business before using institutional money to supercharge its growth.

9:58I wonder if Blank Street can keep the appeal while scaling from hundreds to thousands of locations. I think that's appropriate comparison because they actually share an investor. Tiger Global, which is a huge investment firm, has invested in both Pop-Up Bagels and Blank Street. General Catalyst is the other big backer of Blank Street. And if I told you, okay, here's a company that General Catalyst and Tiger Global are backing, you'd probably say, okay, so it's a tech company from Silicon Valley. I mean, these companies invest in Airbnb, Stripe, Anthropic, OpenAI, companies like that. But here they go into a coffee company, and I think it speaks to what Blankstreet is trying to be, which is a little bit more than a coffee company.

10:39It's this, yeah, what do they call it? Like a daily luxury brand where you come in, everything is so automatable and there's not a lot of human interaction. You go in and you get your matcha or ice cream and you leave and it's just this very efficient process that no doubt was started by, or no coincidence was started by a bunch of tech entrepreneurs. There is some secret sauce to Blankstreet's model One, as you mentioned, they have invested a lot in technology. They have automatic espresso machines that can produce eight espresso shots at once in as many as 700 shots per hour. It's just faster than most other coffee shop chains.

11:17A lot of these LAites that were being interviewed by the LA Times were like, yeah, I love my specialty coffee shop, but it takes so long to get a cup of coffee there these days. Go to Blank Street, it arrives much quicker. And the other thing that they've done very well is kind of put themselves into culture. The company describes its design philosophy as tofu in cigarettes, where tofu is like the simple, sleek, clean, and restrained. Cigarettes are energetic, fun, and a little bit weird. I was just educated. That is also a Gwyneth Paltrow phrase right there. And they're just really good at doing fashion stuff as well.

11:52They invented a tiny puffer jacket for an ice drink. They debuted what they called the sleeve globally during London Fashion Week. So they just kind of understand how to navigate the culture of today in addition to getting you your coffee in a reasonable amount of time. And they've also become a verb or an adjective in a negative sense because I hear people talk about the blank streetification of certain neighborhoods where it's super bland. And it has that Silicon Valley tech aesthetic where there's not much going on. There's not a lot of personality to these particular locations. And when a blank street moves into your neighborhood, you know it's a little bit cooked.

12:30So blank street, you know, obviously a ton of people want it and they're expanding like crazy. But also there is some backlash to what it does to the character of local neighborhoods when it comes in. All right, moving on. Tennis fans have found an even more sinister enemy than pickleball, their own U.S. Open. As fan week kicks off in the sports final major, tennis lovers are sounding off against soaring ticket prices that are putting this once-affordable New York pastime out of reach. Weekday grounds passes are$65, but those face-value tickets were scooped up long ago when they were first released in May.

13:02Now, on the secondary market, the average get-in price is about$311 compared to$262 a year ago. If you want to be guaranteed a seat in one of the stadiums, just a place to park your butt, that'll run you even more. And good luck scoring a ticket to the championship match. Center court tickets for the men's final have risen above$21 ,000 on secondary websites. The growing backlash has put the USTA, the organization running the tournament, on the back foot. It's a nonprofit whose mission is to increase accessibility to tennis and grow the game across the country. And for decades, the US Open lived up to that promise, giving fans the opportunity to get up close and personal with the best players at a reasonable price point.

13:41But as you no doubt have noticed, in the past few years, the U.S. Open has become a cultural juggernaut, drawing celebrities and influencers, while at the same time, demand for live experiences has skyrocketed. Many say that's leaving the regular middle-class tennis fan on the outside looking in. I mean, it is a brutal display of supply and demand. One buyer who was just trying to get a little ticket to a general admission posted a screenshot showing 430 ,000 people were ahead of them in the virtual queue for men's singles final tickets. So just the sheer amount of people who want access to this event cannot keep up with the prices that are being offered right now.

14:20So when you have a resale market that allows unrestricted markups, you're going to see these prices start to balloon. And it's a story we've been talking about all summer, really. Think about how much World Cup tickets we're going for. It's just the demand is there. So prices are going to meet that demand, rise and meet that demand. So you can complain about it unless you start passing down laws and rules around resale market. It's going to keep exploding because so many people want these tickets. So here's the USTA response. They say that accessibility is at the core of the beginning of our strategy.

14:54Our vision is to be the most inspirational and captivating sports entertainment event in the world. They also point to fan week, which is happening this week, which most of the tickets or access there is completely free. You can see the qualifying tournament, mixed doubles, exhibition nights. The spokesperson said you can see Djokovic on Arthur Ashe playing a practice match against another top 10 player for free in the first row. That's like no other sport that I can think of. and I do think they have a point because think about going to a live event these days, whether it's a concert or an NBA game, that runs you$200,$300,$400,$500, and when you go to the U.S.

15:30Open, it begins at 11 a.m. and runs potentially in the first week. It could go late into the night, so if you're spending$300 in terms of a cost-per-hour basis, a ticket is actually a bargain, but for me and a bunch of other tennis fans who remember the golden days of 10, 15 years ago where you could get in for 50, 60, 70,$80. It just represents what maybe what the US Open has become, which is like a bastardization of this once affordable egalitarian tennis tournament. Especially too, the USTA has approved credentials for close to 100 content creators to attend. That says everything right there.

16:06It does. I mean, you talked about like how it's become this Instagrammable event and the fact that they are dedicating a lot of their time and energy to catering to creators and influencers rather than the normal person. That also is rubbing people the wrong way. But also, I did notice the USDA has started credentialing podcasts as well. So maybe, just maybe, we'll be part of the problem. I don't know if they'll have us after this particular segment. Good point. Good point. All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back with Toby's Trends right after this. Meet Amazon Ads rising star Daryl Spencer, who set out to redefine men's self-care with with his brand, Crown Skin.

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17:47Neil, you know how parents always get loads of unsolicited advice about kids' clothes? I believe it, but I can't say I've experienced it. Wait, are you expecting, uh... No, for clothes you can actually count on, there's Little Sleepies. Real Moms created Little Sleepies with clothing designed for the realities of daily life with babies and kids. plus super soft, super stretchy fabrics and no scratchy tags. Snag some for the kids in your life at littlesleepies.com. That's littlesleepies.com. Neil, I'm looking at my phone right now. I have 515 unread text messages. It is overwhelming being this popular, but it's also got me thinking about using one of those slow messaging apps that have taken the internet by storm, a trend I want to talk about on today's edition of Toby's Trends.

18:38Take Carrier Pidge, for example. It's an app that lets users send messages via digital pigeons that fly at the actual speed of pigeons. You can track your little bird as it makes its way across the physical distance that separates you and your recipient, bringing my good morning text to Neil from Chelsea to Williamsburg. Developed by 29-year-old software engineer Noah Irabino, the funniest part is your pigeon can get lost or die along the way, adding an air of unpredictability to your communications and a revenue stream for Irubinos since a replacement bird costs 99 cents. Roost is another similar app that expands the idea from just pigeons to include 1 ,000 animal messengers, including a white Italian snail that goes at just over one mile an hour.

19:24The thesis of these slow communication apps is that life has gotten too frictionless and fast for our own good. by making a message take a day to reach your friend instead of a millisecond, you might spend a little more time crafting what it has to say and a little more time digesting it as the recipient. Clearly, the idea is resonating. Roost hit 650 ,000 downloads last month, while Carrier Pidge went from a couple hundred users to over 75 ,000 after a viral post on X. Neil, would getting a breakup text delivered via Barn Owl make it better or worse? It would be a hoot for sure. I mean, is this the first moment in history where we've tried to slow down human communication?

20:06For thousands of years, we tried to talk to each other faster. We had the Pony Express. We had the Telegraph. We had the telephone. We had railroads. We wanted to talk to each other faster. Now that we can do that instantaneously, a lot of people in the slow tech movement are saying, actually, maybe that has had negative societal consequences. And we need to slow things down and talk to each other more intentionally. and these guys came in with pigeon apps and said maybe this is the way to do it, whether you think it's a gimmick or something that can last long term remains to be seen. But I do kind of find it funny that these two apps happened around the same time.

20:42They say it's two guys from New York who both worked in tech and they developed concurrently these pigeon sending apps. And they both say, yeah, we launched it independently. We had no knowledge of each other. So maybe it's one of those quirks of history where two people had the same inspiration for some reason at the same time. I mean, the basic concept isn't new either. You go back to the mid-2010s, slowly is a pen pal app that does geographically delayed messaging. So this idea has been in the ether for a while now. The other thing, too, is that there's clearly demand for it right now. 80 % of Gen Z adults are worried their generation relies too heavily on technology.

21:24Cal Newport talks a lot about adding friction into your life. He is an author. He says, the human brain cannot function well in a friction-free world. When your information is constantly arriving and instantly, it overwhelms your ability to switch attention. So people have been adopting these apps and started writing very funny to their friends because it's not just a, you don't send KK as a text message. People have said that they started writing in like Bridgerton language where they say, dearest Neil, it has been a long time since I've last seen you because this is arriving via bird. And just like the fact that the bird could not make it just add some fun to it as well.

22:03Some relationships who live in Manhattan together, they're like, yeah, that's how I text my boyfriend now. It just makes it more fun. So I can clearly see how it's both fun and needed in today's information environment. Yeah. I think Olivia McDonald, who was quoted in the New York Times, summed it up a little bit best. She said, some things are better when they're worse. However, However, I want to point out, sending things via pigeon is not necessarily worse. There's this famous story back in 2009 of a South African financial services company named Unlimited IT. And they were fed up with the internet speed in South Africa at the time.

22:37It was super slow. So they put this test out. They sent a homing pigeon about 50 miles away with a memory card attached to its leg. And then they also sent the same data via internet. So the homing pigeon, which was named Winston, got there in an hour and eight minutes, and then it took another hour to upload all the data. Okay, so it took about two hours and eight minutes. By that time, the internet had only transmitted 4 % of the exact same file. So just because it's a bird doesn't mean it can always lose to the internet these days. A joy of learning about these apps was we learned how carrier pigeons work as well.

23:15Carrier pigeons are actually not carrier pigeons. They're more homing pigeons because they are raised in a particular location, which is essentially their inbox. You then physically transport those pigeons somewhere else. And then a person possessing your pigeon can attach a message. And that's why they're called homing pigeons. It will fly back to where it was raised. You cannot just have pigeons flying from one location to a location of your desire. They can really only go in one direction, which is back home, which I did not know. I actually never knew how carrier and homing pigeons worked.

23:45So some people were, you know, had a bone to pick with these apps because they're like, you can't be sending them willy nilly. They all have to be raised in their respective inboxes. So just another useless fact that maybe will come in handy one day. All right, let's sprint to the finish with some final headlines. President Trump upped the ante in his trade war with Canada, saying the U.S. will impose 50 percent tariffs on Canadian autos and parts come January 1st, 2027. The threat came two days after Canada's Prime Minister, Mark Carney, announced dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., which slapped tariffs on$20 billion worth of Canadian goods on Saturday.