Silicon Valley Loves Trump's Tax Plan & GameStop Tanks After 'Roaring Kitty' Stream

0:28Change is always happening. Good morning Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Kyle Heggie. Today, why are so many British people in charge of America's newsrooms? We also will hear about a new lawsuit that Netflix is facing and why your friends are all of a sudden talking about cricket. It's Monday, June 10th. Let's ride.

0:52Kyle, always great to have you make an appearance on the show. We're back, ready to talk about the news. Speaking of making an appearance, anyone heard about these brightly colored giant venomous spiders that are supposed to be making their way up the East Coast? Kyle just gave me a freaked out. I feel like you're making this up to scare me. I'm not. Joro spiders, which can grow to the size of a human hand, are expected to make their move from the Southeast United States up the coast to New York and New Jersey, potentially as soon as this year. It's not as scary as it sounds, though. a bite from the Joro would hurt less than a bee sting, and they're not even likely to bite you at all because they're one of the shyest spiders around.

1:31Plus, they eat other pests like lanternflies, so maybe they'll even contribute to our urban ecosystem. This seems like, one, seems like a win for us. Two, a shy little spider? That's cute. It's not little. I like the Joro spider. Okay. It can be eight inches. All right, actually, now I am terrified. They're very brightly colored. One of the other crazy things, you might have heard that they can fly, which is not true. They do something that's called ballooning, where they throw their silk in the air and they let the winds take them far. Yeah. So that's how they move. They're like paragliding. Right.

2:02Or they hitch a ride in your car, and that's how they're expected to get up to the northeast. So if you see one of these spiders, you know what it is, but don't freak out. Yeah, do not pick up hitchhikers. Do not bring them here. All right, now let's give a shout-out to the show's sponsor, the Purple Prince himself, Yahoo Finance. You know, Kyle, when I watched the Roaring Kitty livestream Friday, one thing stuck out to me. And what was that? That in the background, he was displaying a GameStop stock chart from Yahoo Finance. I know I'm not the only person who picked up on that. Pretty wild that one of the most famous investors in the world is using Yahoo Finance to track his holdings.

2:38It's really not that surprising to me. Yahoo Finance has everything an investor needs, whether you're a meme lord or someone who plays it a bit safer with their portfolio. That's right. Trusted news, in-depth analysis, comprehensive market data, all in a single ecosystem. So whether you're about to hop on a live stream or just want to put your money to work, download the Yahoo Finance app on the Play or App Store today. Tuesday on NBC, Jimmy Fallon and Bozema St. John host the highly anticipated new competition show. I hired 10 creatives from all walks of life. They will be battling it out to see who can impress the world's biggest brands.

3:14This is a huge opportunity. This is the battle for the next big idea. This is not play play. We're spending millions of dollars. I'm so excited to embark on this adventure with all of you. Make the best idea win! On brand with Jimmy Fallon. Series premiere Tuesday on NBC. Let's begin on the 2024 presidential campaign trail, where last Thursday Donald Trump found himself in a surprising place, the home of a tech entrepreneur in San Francisco. The home belonged to David Sachs, who was part of the PayPal mafia, is BFFs with Elon Musk and co-hosts the popular All In podcast. The reason for the visit was a fundraiser for Trump that cost up to$300 ,000 per ticket and it raised more than$12 million when all was said and done.

3:59The sight of Trump in blue Silicon Valley might sound bizarre, but it reflects tech billionaires growing embrace of the former president, despite his criminal convictions on 34 charges just a week prior. Go back to the 2016 presidential election. And it was only the billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel who publicly endorsed Trump in Silicon Valley. Now their ranks are growing and they're not afraid to flaunt their support in front of everyone. So what's behind this support? In a post on Twitter, Sacks said he was very dissatisfied with Biden over a slowing economy, high inflation and government overreach, such as Lena Kahn's war against mergers at the FTC.

4:35Not mentioned, but probably very salient to these folks. Trump has pledged to extend his tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations that expire next year. Kyle, what do you make of some Silicon Valley elites bear hugging Trump? It's very interesting. I mean, he he called himself also the crypto president, but he might be the podcast president because this all in podcast has gained so much popularity. It kind of represents this Silicon Valley ethos. And we're seeing, like you mentioned, people that you wouldn't expect maybe to publicly support President Trump are coming out and supporting him. But I think the last thing you actually said is the most important, which is these tax cuts.

5:11Like if you start talking to millionaires and billionaires, that's something that's going to get them very interested. And he's promised more tax cuts. Extending all of the Trump tax cuts from previous years would add about$4.6 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, which I think is very interesting that it's easy to talk about cutting taxes. But then we also want to fix our national debt and national deficit. And you can't have both. No, well, what they say is that if you cut taxes, then it spurs economic growth, more investment, and that accounts for the revenue lost from cutting taxes for the wealthy and for corporations.

5:49There was a report from the Nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget that came out just last week that kind of took the scope of what Trump is proposing in terms of tax cuts. And they said that this so-called dynamic effect, which is the economic growth that is spurred by tax cuts, how much will it account? How much will it recoup in revenue for what's lost from tax cuts? And they say that over the next decade, they would recover. The U.S. economy would recover just 1 percent to 14 percent of what's lost in revenue from tax cuts, juxtaposes with what Biden is proposing. He's saying let a lot of the tax cuts expire like they're supposed to in 2025.

6:27I'm going to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations. So you have probably what experts are saying, the most distinct different tax policies of any two candidates in distant in in recent memory, where you have Trump wanting to continue tax cuts on corporations, on the wealthy. And then you have Biden who wants to raise them. So there's a literal trillions of dollars at stake in the upcoming election. That's where I think you're seeing some of these tech billionaires, which typically supported Democrats and also traditional Wall Street billionaires coming out of the woodwork to support Trump despite January 6th, despite these criminal convictions.

7:02I think it's also very interesting, too, like this speaks to almost the fragmentation of media, that the fact that there's four Silicon Valley venture capitalists who have a podcast who are then kind of shaping some political thought in this country and hosting fundraisers with former presidents, like very interesting, the amount of like power or we assume power that they've accrued. And it'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. That's a really good point. And also, I just want to make a note that Biden and Democrats are still very popular in Silicon Valley and in San Francisco, which is typically very Democrat.

7:35Reid Hoffman is a major backer of President Biden. He is the co-founder of LinkedIn and another billionaire tech investor. I feel like I've said that word so many times, but he broke down sort of in a response to David Sachs, who said why I'm supporting Trump. He said why I'm supporting Joe Biden. He talked about for American business, the rule of law is essential and said we can't have investment and prosperity without, you know, a legal foundation. And he accused Trump of of sort of breaking down that legal foundation. So you're seeing the side split. Some people in Silicon Valley are a little more vocal of supporting Trump this time around.

8:08But I still think in general, if you look at San Francisco, it's far more Democrat than than Republican. Up next, I'm going to do my best Paul Revere impression and warn that the British are coming to American newsrooms. Yep, new articles by The Wrap and The New York Times highlighted the recent trend of American media companies being led by people who drive on the wrong side of the road. And the British invasion could give your news a bit of flavor with a U at an inflection point for the industry with the U.S. presidential election heating up but many outlets suffering financially. Here's a short list of all the Brits in charge of iconic American brands.

8:43The Washington Post is now led by Daily Telegraph vet Will Lewis. Emma Tucker is the Wall Street Journal's editor-in-chief. Mark Thompson is the CEO of CNN. John Micklethwaite, definitely British, is the editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News. I could go on and on. So why is this happening? It's not just that their accents make them sound smart, though. That's definitely a factor. It's also because struggling American news outlets may see British editors known for their cutthroat style of reporting on a budget as disruptors who could shake up their flailing businesses. And the disruption has already begun, most notably at The Washington Post, where new boss Will Lewis is ruffling feathers with a leadership overhaul a week ago during a contentious meeting last Monday.

9:24He told one staffer, people are not reading your stuff, right? I can't sugarcoat it anymore. The Brits don't mince words. No, and I love this story. I mean, my breakdown was they cost less. They're super hard workers. That is British editors, super hard workers that like to get the story no matter what, have fuzzier ethics, which is a big kind of red flag to American journalists, much more common in Britain. And they're used to kind of historical legacy institutions that have been around for a long time. They can do less with more. They've battled through crisis before, and they're not afraid to scorch sacred cows.

10:00Like it's kind of like a no stone unturned strategy. And they have incredible accents. And so I understand why we'd want to bring people with that skill set in. Particularly, we just talked about fragmenting news media. A lot of these papers and a lot of these media publishers in the States are struggling. And so they're hoping that someone who's battled through these crises before can come in and reinvigorate them. There was one really funny story in this broader story, which was in 1992, the New Yorker actually brought in a Brit, a Mr. Chancellor. And they thought he was going to do great. And he came in and then he told all of his colleagues, have you guys seen this big tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City?

10:38Like, we got to do a story on this. And they were like, OK, you're a little out of touch. So there is maybe some cultural relevance that they don't have in terms of American context that they will need to get up to speed on. But I like that the British are here. Let's see what happens. Let's see what happens. But let's go back to Will Lewis, because he is definitely ruffling feathers at The Washington Post. He kind of booted the top editor there and then reports emerged that he tried to kill stories that were portrayed him in a negative light related to a phone hacking scandal. This NPR reporter, David Fulkenflick, wrote in a report that he talked to Will Lewis and Will Lewis offered him an exclusive interview in exchange for him squashing this report about Lewis.

11:19And that did not go over well with Washington Post newsroom. At the same time, the Washington Post lost seventy seven million dollars last year and their digital traffic has plummeted by 50 percent since those heydays of 2020 when everyone was reading the news about Trump and the pandemic. So there's a big turnaround that needs to happen at The Washington Post and elsewhere. And at CNN, this guy, Mark Thompson, a Brit who was noted for the digital transformation of The New York Times that he did a great job on. So he's moving on to CNN. Their viewership is also down because of the same reasons as people just not tuning into the news anymore.

11:53And so they're looking to Fleet Street. And I learned this Fleet Street is sort of the metonym for the British national press. And the way you would say like Wall Street is the New York financial system. And Fleet Street is New York, and they really are hardscrabble there. You read some of these stories about how they get these scoops and how they get it. It's definitely fuzzy on the ethics front that I think Americans would not be so comfortable with. But it is happening. And it's been here before. I mean, Anna Wintour. Yep. She's British. I actually didn't even know that, which is slightly embarrassing.

12:23I've never heard her speak. So this is definitely a thing, and we'll see if they can turn around the news business with their particular different strategies coming from a place where really news is their blood. And just one particular example, a lot of people have looked at the Daily Mail online, this British tabloid, which has become this giant newsroom. It's the largest English-based news website reaching over 225 million unique visitors globally, 75 million of those coming from the United States. So they've seen success of this one publication. They're trying to mirror it here. All right, let's move on to our next story, which is the sequel to Netflix's surprise hit Baby Reindeer might be called Legal Nightmare.

13:00and it's going to be played out in a courtroom and not on your television. That's right. Netflix is getting sued for defamation and gross negligence, among other things, by Fiona Harvey. Now, Fiona Harvey is the real-life version of the woman, the quote-unquote stalker on the TV series. She is suing Netflix for alleging they've told, quote, the biggest lie in history by claiming this story is true. Lies include that Harvey is a twice-convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison and that Harvey sexually assaulted Gad. Gad, who is the creator and star of this TV show, might not be doing himself any favors.

13:36He said the story is, quote, very emotionally true, but we wanted to exist in the sphere of art. Now, Netflix does have a disclaimer at the end of Baby Reindeer. Quote, the program is based on real events. However, certain character names, incidents, locations, and dialogues have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Neil, is this a big nothing burger or does Netflix have something to worry about here? Well, it seems like legal experts do think that Netflix has something to worry about because you said they had that disclaimer at the end of the credits. But at the first episode, at the right beginning of the show, they display this five words that say this is a true story.

14:12And if you say this is a true story, you don't make it hard to conceal who the person you're basing this off of, and then you tell lies, that could amount to defamation. So experts expect that this may have some legs. It's not likely that maybe it'll go to court. It's more probable that Netflix will settle. They just recently settled a defamation lawsuit with somebody over the the recent show about the Central Park five, which just happened last week. So we'll see what happens here. But it does seem like they didn't do any themselves any favors by literally splashing the line. This is a true story at the top of the show.

14:48I'm not a lawyer, but do not say this is a true story if you haven't verified or if it's emotionally true. But it's crazy what happened with the show about how it sparked the social media hunt by people who were trying to figure out who this person was behind the show. And they did not do – I mean they say they tried everything to conceal her identity and make her not hard to find. But literally it happened within days, which kind of blows up their argument. Yeah, I mean I think any story that is based on true events now, like people will find out who's in charge. It's just like Netflix didn't do a ton of due diligence on their part to verify this is a true story and to protect identities.

15:22However, this woman, Fiona Harvey, also went on Piers Morgan recently, and everyone can watch that interview to kind of assess their viewpoint of her. But Baby Ranger is one of these shows that I have not seen, but I cannot stop hearing about. It is seemingly everywhere. It's super popular. I mean, it was at the top of Netflix watch lists in many different countries. Viewership was over 65 million. It's one of the biggest hits for Netflix in years. So, I mean, this whole genre, I don't know if I want to call it true crime or anything, because, I mean, it's like half true crime. We'll see what happens with this lawsuit.

15:56It's just so mega for them. And yes, it's definitely been a part of the discourse. I haven't seen it either, but I guess we're talking about it, so we should probably go watch it. We've invented a new genre, half true crime. Up next, the U.S. Women's Olympic basketball team with a big snub.

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17:08Welcome back to Winners of the Weekend, the segment where we typically highlight the best society has to offer, but it seemed like an off weekend for a lot of folks. So instead, we're pivoting to Losers of the Weekend. Sorry to be a downer. It'll still be fun. I won the pre-show game of horse, so I get to go first. And my loser is Keith Gill, the investing legend, better known as Roaring Kitty. Gill earned loser of the weekend status after his much-hyped YouTube live stream on Friday flopped and pushed GameStop shares down for their worst day in years. Here's what went down. On Thursday, Gill shared that he'd be hosting a YouTube live stream, his first since meme stock mania went down in 2021.

17:48Gill was the subject of massive speculation online after a post on Reddit showed he built a$116 million position in GameStop, sending shares skyrocketing last week. But I watched this live stream Friday, and like a lot of other people, I was underwhelmed at this so-called investing mythical genius. He didn't offer any new insights into his investing strategy. He rambled. He spent a lot of time sifting through the comments. In a word, it was just boring. And the fact that GameStop shares has plunged 39 % on the day, showed that maybe this kitty should maybe have just kept his mouth shut and took a nap or something.

18:23While he still holds about$350 million worth of GameStop, he lost$235 million on Friday alone. Yeah, I mean, he also only streamed for 48 minutes. Those are rookie numbers. He used to go for hours and hours. Trust me, I wish it weren't longer. 48 minutes was long enough. Yeah, maybe he should have kept it to like five minutes. My loser of the weekend is the Team USA for Olympic women's basketball, but it might really be us all that have lost. Why I'm picking them is that they did not select Kaitlin Clark to the team, and according to unnamed sources, it was, quote, concern over how Clark's millions of fans would react to what would likely be limited playing time on a stacked roster.

19:03Now, the U.S. Olympic team is no joke. They've won seven straight Olympic games dating back to 1996. They're loaded with talent, and there is a legitimate argument that Clark is not top 15 and could make the team. In fact, Dallas' Arike Agunbowale is not even on the final roster. She's the second leading scorer in the WNBA right now. However, I think this is a loss for the Olympics because there is probably no bigger women athlete in the WNBA right now than Kaitlin Clark in terms of drawing in new crowds and creating a ton of buzz, and they're going to miss out on all those new fans, potentially becoming lifelong fans of the women's Olympic team and of the players on it.

19:41So maybe an OK basketball move. I think it's a bad business move. And I'm disappointed we're not going to see her in the Olympics. Right. Jason Gay, the Wall Street Journal sports columnist, called it a comical blunder of industrial self-sabotage. And it's just, you know, it's an interesting decision. I mean, so many times in sports we say that business trumps actual integrity of the sport. And then for the first time where maybe the best players are actually the ones being showcased and you're putting business considerations aside. And we're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing? We're all like, oh, no, you should take business considerations, sell jerseys, grow the sport, market it at a global level.

20:18It's kind of funny to see the reaction. You're like, actually, let's put some business considerations first when all we've talked about for the past few years is college football is becoming just, you know, this huge industry. And the integrity of game is being degraded. And the one time where it doesn't happen like that, everyone is in an uproar. Some have argued that this is the right decision. put the best 12 basketball players out on the court, which you could argue that they did. Maybe it's a missed opportunity. But Clark, she's just been like a pro this whole time. I mean, we even talked about all the chaos swirling around her first few weeks in the WNBA, but they interviewed her.

20:52She said, honestly, no disappointment. I think it just gives you something to work for. It's a dream. Hopefully one day I can be there, and maybe she'll finally get some rest because she went straight from Iowa to the WNBA and has been playing a lot of games. So hopefully she'll get some rest. And the women bring home the gold and we'll get a double win there. Yes, we want to see them win gold. Now, Neil, confirmed on the podcast, they will win gold. Neil, it's a tale as old as time. Americans discover something for the first time and they think it's brand new when it's actually existed for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

21:24We did it with tacos. We did it with democracy. We did it with Formula One. And now we're doing it with cricket. So if you had a friend text you this week about the sport, you're not alone. Cricket seemed to pierce the mainstream after the U.S. team defeated powerhouse Pakistan in the T20 World Cup, which is actually co-hosted by the U.S. and the West Indies this year. Now, cricket is considered the second most popular sport in the world with more than one billion fans. And the International Cricket Council estimates the U.S. is home to 30 million cricket fans. But that number is largely comprised of immigrants from South Asia.

21:57And the ICC is really hoping to grow the sport in the U.S. of A. Now, the India-Pakistan match of the T20 World Cup filled an entire 34 ,000-person stadium up in Long Island over the weekend. Major League Cricket just launched in the U.S., and Cricket has been added to the 2028 Olympics. Neil, are we bullish or bearish on Cricket in the U.S.? I tried to go to this game. I couldn't. It was so expensive. You could get tickets for only over$1 ,000. It was yesterday morning in Long Island, and India beat Pakistan. This, India rarely plays Pakistan because there are a lot of geopolitical issues between them.

22:34And they're both really, really good at cricket, even though the U.S. beat them, which is awesome and one of the biggest upsets in cricket history. But this game was probably the most viewed sporting event of the year. More than 400 million people around the world tuned in compared to the Super Bowl, 117 million. So we almost, or this cricket game almost tripled up because they rarely play. Tickets were insane. You said$34 ,000 was a lot, but that's small for a cricket stadium to see these two teams go at it. So it was just a huge event, and they're hoping that this T20 World Cup and T20 is a shortened version of cricket, and it still lasts three hours, but compared to Test Cricket, which is the one that can last five days, it seems like it goes over in a blink.

23:19So we're hoping that the U.S., all they have to do is maybe win one more game in their next two matches to advance to what they call the Super 8, which is, I guess, the quarterfinals. Then we'll hopefully see a groundswell of support. But it's really hard to watch. It's on Willow TV, which I'm sure a lot of people don't have. And I think for it to break into the mainstream in the U.S., it needs to be just more available on television. But this is a sport that's on the up somehow. You know, as baseball has certainly eclipsed it in the United States. You know, cricket was around 100 or so years ago.