Billionaires Flee Cali Taxes for Miami & Ferrari Reveals EV Interior

0:00Jony Ive:Oh, could this vintage store be any cuter? Right? And the best part? They accept Discover. Accept Discover? In a little place like this? I don't think so, Jennifer. Oh, yeah, huh. Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on, baby, get with the times. Right, so we shouldn't get the parachute pants? These are making a comeback. I think. Discover is accepted at 99 % of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nielsen Report.

0:31Toby Lyles:Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, Miami is seeing an influx of billionaires from California.

0:39Neal Freyman:Then let's take a look inside the Ferrari Luce, its first all-electric vehicle. It's Wednesday, February 11th. Let's ride.

0:51Toby Lyles:Yesterday brought us the first mega-viral moment of the Winter Olympics when a Norwegian athlete used his post-race interview to win back his girlfriend. After nabbing the bronze in the men's 20-kilometer biathlon, all anything Sterla Holm-Lygrid wanted to talk about was his depressing personal life. He said, again, this is in a public interview after winning an Olympic medal, that he had cheated on his girlfriend three months ago, fessed up to her last week, and she had left him. He said he, quote, had a gold medal in life, but had squandered it, wishing he could share this moment with her. But he is not giving up.

1:23Toby Lyles:He said, I hope that committing social suicide like this might show her how much I love her. Toby, a biathlete and a yearner.

1:30Neal Freyman:Dude is making a last minute push to have a Valentine's Day date, and I don't blame him. But I also want to bring attention to some other athletes. Johannes Klabo is a cross-country skier who also went viral yesterday for winning the men's sprint event. Not only did he win, at one point he gapped the field by reaching sub-six-minute mile pace up a mountain on skis. A Wall Street Journal article said that this is Michael Phelps-level Olympian that we're talking about. He has a very real possibility of winning six gold medals at a Winter Olympics. That has never been done before. Clabo remembered the name.

2:06Neal Freyman:Finally, a quick shout-out to our U.S. women's hockey team. They thumped Canada yesterday 5-0 and have now outscored opponents 20-1 so far. Men's hockey gets underway tomorrow against Latvia.

2:18Toby Lyles:And now a word from our sponsor, FlavCity. Toby, it's a new year. What are you doing to adopt healthier habits?

2:24Neal Freyman:Well, I've been fasting for the last five days. How's that going for you? Pretty bad, Neil. And hey, has anyone told you your head is starting to look a little cheeseburger-y?

2:33Toby Lyles:Can't say anyone has. How about instead of depriving yourself to the point of hallucination, you try FlavCity's all-in-one protein smoothies. They come in all sorts of flavors like pepperminty shamrock, banana bread, brownie batter, and more.

2:44Neal Freyman:Okay, sure. Next, you're going to tell me they have real ingredients, 25 grams of protein, 10 grams of collagen and don't taste like chalk. All of that is true. Well then, I guess head to go.shopflavcity.com slash mbds to try any of their delicious flavors. That is go.shopflavcity.com slash mbds. I'm so hungry.

3:07Toby Lyles:Billionaires are trading breakfast burritos for fish tacos. California's wealthiest residents are scrambling to scoop up houses in Miami over concerns of a billionaires tax getting approved on the November ballot. That tax, which is still being debated by California lawmakers, would impose a one-time 5 % tax on Californians with a net worth of over$1 billion, including unrealized gains. Crucially, it would apply retroactively to January 1st, 2026, sparking an all-out rush for South Florida real estate in the past few months. And a bunch of California moguls are already picking out wallpaper for their new Miami digs.

3:41Toby Lyles:On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that one Mark Zuckerberg is purchasing a house in Indian Creek, an insanely exclusive man-made island known as Billionaire's Bunker. Once he moves in by April, Holby neighbors with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, Jeff Bezos, Carl Icahn, and Tom Brady. We don't know what Zuck paid for it, but local real estate agents said the property would probably sell for$150 to$200 million. Toby, it's pretty funny. Miami brokers were preparing for an influx of billionaires from New York City after Mom Donnie was elected mayor. They got their billionaires all right, but from California instead.

4:13Neal Freyman:And it's creating kind of a weird dichotomy in the Miami real estate market right now because Miami's median home price has actually fallen beneath its pandemic peak. Remember, everyone seemed like they were moving down south during the pandemic. But now, if you look at just kind of the middle part of the market, it has settled down a little bit. Metro Miami home prices are still up 60 % from 2020 to 2025. But again, that has cooled off a little bit. At the top end of the market, though, things are frothy as heck. 19 homes sold over$30 million last year. That is up from zero in 2019 and nine in 2021.

4:49Neal Freyman:So there is a shortage of the ultra luxury, the top of the line mansions in Miami right now.

4:55Toby Lyles:And you hear brokers say, these guys are actually settling for properties around 10 million to$25 million range, which is just maybe a starter home for them just to establish residency in Florida. And then once the dust settles, That's when they'll go for the bigger mega mansions once those are built, because those are in shortage right now. So who is actually moving besides Zuck? Well, two of the Google co-founders are some of the big names that have established residency in Florida over concerns of this tax. Larry Page, who is the co-founder of Alphabet, bought a$101 million mansion as well as a$72 million waterfront estate in Coconut Grove.

5:35Toby Lyles:His Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, also is buying a$50 million waterfront home in Miami Beach. Peter Thiel, David Sachs, and at one point Elon Musk are all other names that have moved out of California. And you're probably thinking, wow, why is this a story? Well, California's tax revenues are very much reliant on the 1%. There are more billionaires in California than anywhere else. They get a third of their tax revenues from their 1 % of residents, which is why you see there's this pretty heated debate going on among Democratic circles in California about whether we actually want this tax to pass.

6:09Toby Lyles:Because Gavin Newsom, the governor, said, actually, no, I don't want this. And he's fighting against it.

6:13Neal Freyman:And then the other thing that has people railing against this one time tax is that it could start to hit founders of AI firms because they are on paper very rich because they've raised these gigantic rounds. But they're also very illiquid. None of that money is actually in their bank accounts. It's all tied up in the valuation of their company. So if that starts, if you start pushing those founders outside of California, then you're losing, you know, your innovation hubs as well. Is that actually going to happen? Unlikely because so much talent is still concentrated in the Bay Area. You're not going to set up a AI company in Florida right now because employees aren't there.

6:51Neal Freyman:You know, the brains aren't there. So that part of the market is not going to suddenly come flooding into Miami for their beach culture. The very tippy, tippy, tippy top of all humanity on Earth can move there because they're probably not even running companies anymore. Whatever companies they're running are big behemoths at this point. So companies aren't going to follow, but maybe the leaders of them might.

7:15Toby Lyles:So a lot of attention on whether this bill actually comes to the ballot needs 875 ,000 signatures to appear on the ballot in November. We will see what happens. But either way, it looks like these billionaires are saying, I don't actually want to even test the waters in California anymore. I'm heading to Miami. Moving on, while the U.S. and Canada faced off in women's hockey at the Milan Olympics, Officials on both sides of the border were trying to diffuse tensions after President Trump threatened to block a$4.6 billion Canadian-built bridge that will connect Michigan and Ontario. On Monday night, Trump unleashed a truth social rant where he vowed to block the Gordie Howe Bridge from opening unless Canada turns over at least half of the ownership of the bridge and bows to other unspecified demands.

7:58Toby Lyles:Trump listed a bunch of other grievances he has with Canada, including that the province of Ontario removed American booze from government-owned liquor stores. He also criticized Canada's growing trade ties with China, writing, the first thing China will do is terminate all ice hockey being played in Canada and permanently eliminate the Stanley Cup, which maybe won't be a problem for Canada, given that their teams haven't won a cup since 1993. Anyhow, back to the bridge. The Gordie Howe, named after the Canadian hockey legend who played for the Detroit Red Wings, will connect Detroit with Windsor, Ontario at North America's busiest commercial land crossing, where it's expected to alleviate congestion on the existing span, the Ambassador Bridge.

8:35Toby Lyles:construction began in 2018 fully funded by the canadian government and it's anticipated to open sometime this year in response to trump's threat michigan's democratic and business leaders basically said nope this bridge is going to open one way or another it is too important to the economy sandy barua president of the detroit regional chamber called the bridge the most consequential infrastructure project in the state and region of this generation there is one very interested party

9:00Neal Freyman:in addition to Trump that wants to block this bridge. And it is the owner of the Ambassador Bridge that you mentioned. Matthew Maroon is a Detroit-based trucking billionaire. His family has operated the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor for decades now. And apparently Maroon met with Howard Lucknick, the Secretary of Commerce, just hours before Trump kind of went on this rant against the Gordie-Howe Bridge. Because again, the Gordie-Howe Bridge is alleviating traffic, but it's also taking some of that toll revenue. It's taking some of that economic activity that used to only flow through the Ambassador Bridge.

9:34Neal Freyman:So obviously this private owner of the bridge has a vested interest in making sure this other bridge doesn't come to fruition. So that's just the other wrinkle of this is that maybe there's something other than just tension with Canada. Maybe there's an interested billionaire who wants to stop.

9:47Toby Lyles:There is certainly has been a lobbying effort for decades to not get another span built. And yeah, the timeline is Maroon goes to the White House, meets with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. A few hours later, Donald Trump posts this true social rant. So maybe it didn't come out of nowhere. Mark Carney, who is the prime minister of Canada, who has feuded with Trump many times over his tenure, said he called up Trump. He said, I explained that Canada paid for the construction of the bridge, that the ownership is shared between the state of Michigan and the government of Canada, and that in the construction of the bridge, obviously there's Canadian steel and Canadian workers, but also U.S.

10:22Toby Lyles:steel, U.S. workers that were involved. It's a great example of cooperation between our countries. this is going to be resolved. So Mark Carney got on the phone with Trump and said, look, like this is going to happen. We're going to make sure this happens. It's too economically important. $300 million worth of trade goes over this span, the Ambassador Bridge, every single day. You have, especially in the auto manufacturing sector, a car that is built in Canada is going back and forth from Detroit to get parts multiple times before it is finished. So there's just too much economically, there's just too much economic interest in this bridge for it not to get done.

10:58Neal Freyman:And remember, back in his first term, because this bridge has been in the works for a long time, he was in favor of the Gordie Haubridge. Trump was. Yeah, he said that it's a vital economic link between our two countries. So he was singing a much different tune a few years ago. And I do think you're right. Just it is so important. Like there is so much at stake here that at the very finish line. This is not going to somehow get shut down because there's just too much riding on the line. The message from Canada is like, this is just self-defeating. Don't we want trade? Don't we want economic activity between our two countries?

11:31Neal Freyman:This bridge helps make that a reality.

11:34Toby Lyles:It's also unclear what Trump could do to actually stop it. He could declare an emergency, which he's done before, or he could perhaps decline to staff the custom checkpoint on the Michigan side. But those are sort of pie in the sky ideas. But we'll keep an eye on what happens with the Gordie Howe bridge.

11:49Neal Freyman:The rumble of a Ferrari engine is soon to replace by the whir of an electric motor, a transition the Italian automaker has painstakingly prepared for. This week, we got a sneak peek at Ferrari's first electric vehicle named Luce, which is Italian for light. Only the interior has been revealed for now, but it's an interior that is plenty newsworthy given Ferrari partnered with the famous Apple designer, Johnny Ive, and his firm Love From. Johnny Ive brought a distinctly Apple feel to things. The car's binnacle, the term that I just learned that houses a vehicle's instrument cluster, is apparently a highlight.

12:23Neal Freyman:Each dial contained in the Luce's binnacle contains eight layers of computing components housed within a custom glass that eliminates 99 % of glare. I've said it would be arrogant to ignore Ferrari's history, and he is scoring points in that regard. The steering wheel, according to Road & Tracks editor Emmett White, is the closest thing to a genuine vintage steering wheel you can find in a new car. In general, everything feels satisfyingly clicky or twisty, Wired reviewers wrote, praising the abundance of physical controls available to drivers. Neil, zooming out, this is an important transition for Ferrari to nail.

12:59Neal Freyman:Electric cars are unfamiliar territory for them, and the Luce represents a break from its growling gas tradition. We still don't know what the exterior of this car looks like, but dang, the inside looks pretty cool.

13:10Toby Lyles:Yeah, it is pretty cool. And it's a bit of a pivot for Ferrari in terms of who they work with for design. For more than 60 years, they had worked with this design firm called Paninfarina. That contract ended in 2013. They moved all of their design in-house then. But now in 2026, they're coming out with their first new electric vehicle. They said, we want to make a splash. Who did they look for? Well, the guy who invented the iPhone and a bunch of other.

13:33Neal Freyman:Not invented per se, but design.

13:36Toby Lyles:The guy who designed the iPhone, hey, maybe he should design our car as well. So this is a big thing for Ferrari to not design something in-house for the first time in more than a decade.

13:45Neal Freyman:A lot of people are saying that this is what an Apple car could have looked like. Because remember, there was this very secret project within Apple for years that maybe they were going to unveil a car themselves. They ended up shuttering that project, but you can see the design influence or the design direction that perhaps would have gone on. because you have the same brushed aluminum inside. You have the same curvature that the iPhones under Johnny Ive started to adopt. So that was kind of like the wish of people. It's like, man, this is what could have been if Apple continued down this road.

14:17Neal Freyman:But also at the same time, Johnny Ive said that designing a car is really, really hard. He said he was unfamiliar with the safety and regulatory requirements. He told Engadget, I've never worked in an arena that's so regulated. Some of it's great because you understand why and people's safety is certainly important. but some of it drives you nuts. So maybe he'll go back to designing things that you don't have to crash test going forward.

14:39Toby Lyles:And you hope this brings about a new era of analog dials and buttons and knobs because we know that cars have been moving in the direction of digital interfaces and massive screens and infotainment systems. And while that's all cool, there has been a big consumer pushback against that. And some say that it leads to more distracted driving. And Johnny Ive is pushing back against this. He said, one of the founding assumptions I've never understood was why if the power source was electric, does it follow that the interface must be digital? So this thing, if you look in the car itself, looks like an airplane cockpit with the amount of switches that it has.

15:16Toby Lyles:So hopefully this, you know, it is a Ferrari and you can't compare it to a Toyota or a Honda or a Ford. But hopefully it brings out a new era where car manufacturers are turning back the dial to go with dials.