Trump Refuses to Sign Housing Affordability Bill & Wendy’s Soars Thanks to Reddit Traders

0:01AI is uncharted territory, and many leaders are trying to navigate through without a guide to help them. That's why Morning Brew created The Intelligence Shift, a new podcast with PwC. It's all about how AI is fundamentally changing different industries. Host Dan Priest is joined by a top-tier roster of industry leaders who share real stories and real lessons learned. Get guidance from industry experts. 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, France rethinks its lack of air conditioning after temperatures shatter records.

0:38Neal Freyman:Then why did Wendy's stock suddenly gain 40 % yesterday? It's Thursday, June 25th. Let's ride. Good morning and happy half Christmas, June 25th. Okay, here's a question. Have you ever scrolled through food delivery options just because you were bored and have no intention of actually ordering food? Now, there's an app for that. In South Korea, an app called Food Never Comes has gone viral that does exactly what its name suggests. You can browse different restaurants, weigh your dinner options, but at the end of the day, when you hit order, no food is ever prepared or delivered. According to Fast Company, it's part of a growing number of so-called dopamine sites in Korea that give you a shopping high without you actually paying for anything.

1:24People were divided on social media with some saying it could curb shopping addiction, but others calling it dystopian. One viral post compared it to playing pretend for adults. They wrote, we're basically experiencing play shopping like a child again.

1:37Neal Freyman:People likened it to drinking non-alcoholic beer. You basically get the same experience and scratch the itch without actually indulging in the bad parts of it. But I think you take it a step further when you order. instead of not charging you, they should send the money to a savings account so you're truly killing two birds with one stone. I don't get this. This is insane. You've probably never done it. I would never spend time on a food delivery app without ordering any food. That seems like the biggest waste of time. I'm trying to think what apps I open for a dopamine hit, and I think it's usually just like ESPN.

2:14Neal Freyman:Like, anything going on? It's not a dopamine hit. You're finding out information. I guess you're just bored. This is completely useless. So it has divided opinion in South Korea, but I guess this is a growing trend. Dopamine sites, they just opened up for that dopamine hit and you're not spending any money. And now a word from our sponsor, ServiceNow. Who wants to do homework? Boo! Who wants the part of their jobs they hate done for them? Yay! Then check out ServiceNow's AI specialists. They aren't a tool. Think of them as digital teammates who can actually do the work. They can resolve cases, process requests, close loops without generating extra work for you.

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2:52Neal Freyman:delegate to ai you can get back to the work only you can do the work that requires a person with ideas and judgment and you know a pulse to put ai to work for people visit service now.com that's service now.com on tuesday the house passed a bipartisan housing bill the white house hyped as quote one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in american history. On Wednesday, less than two hours before he was supposed to sign it, President Trump canceled the ceremony. It's been a dizzying 48 hours for this bill, which indeed would be the most comprehensive housing affordability law in a generation.

3:30The main objective is to bring down costs by removing red tape for home builders, incentivizing construction and limiting Wall Street investors from scooping up supply. It was applauded by economists and in something you do not see in Washington, D.C. these days, supported overwhelmingly by both parties. It cleared the Senate 85 to 5 in the House 358 to 32, and Trump was supposed to sign it in a big ceremony Wednesday at noon. But the president decided to throw a Clayton Kershaw curveball into the mix. In a series of social media posts on Wednesday morning, he declared he wouldn't sign the housing bill until Congress passed a law that tightens voter registration laws around the country.

4:06He said the housing legislation was quote of minor importance compared to lower interest rates and it pales in comparison to passing the save america act which is the voter id law so toby a plot twist nobody saw coming but while the bill remains in limbo it's a great opportunity to talk about what's in it and how it aims to bring down housing prices it just feels like an own goal too

4:27Neal Freyman:because you you did mention the quote from uh press secretary caroline levitt the most significant piece of housing affordability legislation in american history so you say that after you know the passage, Republicans are at this press conference talking up the virtues of the bill and how Trump was supporting it. Trump's political advisor for the midterms called it a signature commitment, which is why the gambit is so troublesome because some of the poll numbers around affordability in the economy is just not looking good for, you know, Trump going into the midterm. So to torpedo a bill that could tell the story that you're helping with affordability feels like a pretty big risk, especially because it's not even a great piece of leverage when it comes to the other bill Trump wants to pass.

5:07Neal Freyman:Because if a president has 10 days to sign a bill, this is something I actually... Yes, I didn't learn this in Schoolhouse Rock. I know. That's exactly what I was going to say. The president has 10 days to sign or veto a bill. If he does nothing, it automatically becomes a law. So either Trump has to veto it, which again, a lot of people say there's a lot of good stuff in this bill. So he's probably not going to do that. So you're kind of in this limbo period where the leverage that you were creating is not necessarily as powerful as you might expect. All right. So what's in the bill here? How are we going to get more housing?

5:38How are we going to bring costs down? These is what the lawmakers have proposed. Well, number one, relax federal regulations on housing development, including removing some of those cumbersome environmental reviews. So you get these home builders building more quickly and reduce costs for construction. For example, this bill would eliminate a rule that requires contractors to build manufactured homes on a steel frame with wheels and an axle. So there's stuff in the construction code that you're like, huh, why do we actually need this? And they're trying to strip that out. It would also have the federal government create sort of a model zoning plan that local officials could look at and say, okay, let's just adopt this for our own locality because this is really where housing gets built.

6:21It's at the local level based on local zoning plans. So the federal government can do all this stuff, but if local leaders don't take initiative and relax zoning plans to allow for more construction, then this doesn't really do anything. And also, finally, it's going to siphon off a bunch of federal grants, billions of dollars in federal grants that will go to localities, municipalities, regions that incentivize that want to build more. So it's going to be a three-pronged assault on home prices. Economists say, look, it's not necessarily a panacea. Like I mentioned, a lot of this stuff happens at the local level.

6:55How much can the federal government do? But at least it's a start.

6:57Neal Freyman:Yeah. The supporters of the bill say that the core root of the problem in America is too few homes and too much regulation and not enough construction. So that's why they were taking this three-pronged approach. But skeptics are saying that it's going to take years for the benefits to materialize. And some were saying like, hey, if your rent just went up $1 ,000 in one month, hearing about housing supply maybe arriving in a few years from now, that doesn't do very much to you. It's not very comforting to you. The homes still need to get approved. They still need to get built. So if you're not providing immediate relief for renters and some critics were saying like, hey, this isn't actually delivering the savings that we should to everyday Americans and the zoning laws being controlled at the state and local level, you always have one arm behind your back when you're the federal government, when it comes to trying to incentivize building.

7:47This is a very salient problem for Americans. If you look at what they care about in polling data, it's, you know, housing inflation, number one, and then housing costs 1A. Rents are up 38 % from the start of COVID. And then if you own a home or want to buy a home, national prices for single family homes are about five times the median household income. So this is a huge problem for Americans that Congress on both sides of the aisle is looking to solve. And you know what? Trump was right when he said, look, the main thing is interest rates, right? Like you could still want to buy a home, have enough cash to buy a home, But how do you pay for it over 30 years?

8:24And we have mortgage rates doubling in the past five years. They're still at 6.5 percent. There's not much Congress can do. That is a Federal Reserve issue. That is an inflation issue. As long as inflation continues to run higher than average, then the Federal Reserve is going to have to keep interest rates high. The 10 year yield, which the mortgage rates track is still going to stay above comfortable levels. And those mortgage rates will still stay high. So it is a very intractable problem that Congress took maybe a few first steps to solve. And we'll see whether President Trump's gambit to get this other thing signed will work out.

8:56But you're right. After about 10 days, this thing becomes law unless he does veto it.

9:00Neal Freyman:Let's move on. For decades, France treated air conditioning with the same contempt as ketchup on steak. It was viewed as a symbol of environmental failure rather than a normal modern comfort. But after the country recorded its hottest day on record yesterday, that view is beginning to change. Thousands of schools were forced to close, hospitals struggled through stifling conditions, and 40 people drowned since last Thursday after taking to the water to escape the extreme heat. The AC debate rages across Europe, but is especially stark in France, which remains one of the least air-conditioned developed countries in the world.

9:36Neal Freyman:Just one in four households have AC, compared with 50 % in Spain and Italy and around 90 % in the United States. Critics defend their positions, arguing that air conditioning consumes too much energy, relies on dangerous refrigerants, and can actually make cities hotter by dumping warm air outside. More cool-headed proponents counter that those concerns matter less when things like schools are shutting down and hospitals are overheating because it shows extreme heat is becoming a major public health threat. But yesterday may have been a tipping point. The leader of France's Green Party, which has historically opposed AC, said this week that there are places where we just can't do without it now.

10:16Neal Freyman:Neil, it was 104 degrees in France yesterday in June. Yeah. First, I just want to emphasize how hot it's been. On Tuesday, France had its hottest day on record. And then on Wednesday, it was even hotter, broke another record. Some parts of southwestern France was at 111.7 degrees Fahrenheit. That's 44.3 degrees Celsius for those keeping track at home. Less than 1 % of planet Earth was hotter than France's hottest places on Tuesday. Basically, there are only a few parts of the world that were hotter than France. There's a Haro Desert, the Middle East, and the U.S. Southwest in the desert there.

10:52And it's not just France that's sweltering right now. Now, England, the UK had its highest set and all time record for the month of June. And then over the weekend, it's going to move east to parts of the continent through Sunday. About 400 million people across Europe are forecast to experience 90 degree heat. And of that, 150 million people can expect 100 degree heat. And you're sitting here in the United States where we are well air conditioned and you're thinking about people without air condition. It absolutely boggles the mind that you can go through this kind of heat wave without cooling off.

11:24Neal Freyman:Right. France has recorded. 52 official heat waves since 1947. Half of them have occurred in the past 16 years. So clearly there's a trend of hotter years affecting Europe in general. And Europe is especially vulnerable to this because they also have a population that is aging. The number of senior citizens in the EU has increased 40 % over the past two decades. So when we talk about it being a public health issue, senior citizens are the most vulnerable because it puts a lot of pressure on the body if you are laying in your bed at night and you can't cool down. The World Health Organization estimates more than 200 ,000 Europeans have died from heat over the last four years.

12:04Neal Freyman:It's a pretty staggering number and something that Europe has clearly thought about. The last bastion is AC. They've tried a lot of other things. They try to add more shade to their streets. They want better insulation for their houses. They want urban greenery everywhere. But at a certain point, there's only so much those mitigation efforts can do when you're facing down record heat year after year. And this has become a huge political issue. Marine Le Pen, who runs the far right party national rally, she's a presidential hopeful. She said, I'm going to, my plan is to put, like just flood the zone with air conditioning.

12:39She said, quote, it is absurd to have people die because of the heat. If I am elected president, I will put into place a massive air conditioning plan, starting in places with the most vulnerable populations, hospitals, care homes, and schools. So her party wants to make air conditioning a huge issue and attack the other side for not doing widespread air conditioning rollouts. On the other side, you have a far left leader who said absolutely not. Installing air conditioning everywhere would only mean increasing the damage, which means more carbon emissions leading to long term heating. And also there have been some studies that show that air conditioning in houses actually puts heat outside, raising the temperature by two to four degrees.

13:18but it looks like public opinion and the tide is shifting. Go back to 2003, 15 ,000 people died from a heat wave in France. That was supposed to spark a huge air conditioning rollout in the country, but in the decades since, it simply hasn't happened. You keep seeing heat waves in France and across Europe, and they look at their air conditioning distribution for homes and also schools. 14 % of schools have air conditioning. 40 % of health care facilities have air conditioning. This seems to be a wake-up call moment for them.

13:45Neal Freyman:Moving on, for many years, Wendy's stock has looked like Wendy's hair, red. But yesterday, everything changed. Shares exploded higher, rising as much as 42 % before settling up around 25 % after the company named former potbelly exec Stephen Ceruleus as its CFO. Wait, wait, wait. A 40 % move for a CFO? What is this, a dude, a freak in the spreadsheets? Well, there's more to this story, and it traces back to Reddit. it. A singular post on the Wall Street Bets forum pushed the struggling fast food maker into mean stock territory after a user posted a screenshot of the stock, which is down 72 % over the past five years with the caption, we need to save Wendy's.

14:28Neal Freyman:And just like that, the game was afoot. More than 14 million shares changed hands before the stock even opened yesterday, which is more than AI darlings Intel and Micron. Part of the reason for the rapid embrace of Wendy's is that it ticks all the meme stock boxes. Stock recently hit a 13-year low, so it appears cheap. It has a familiar brand name, and there's some short interest as well. Toss in a Reddit post and some fresh never-frozen beef, and that's all the ingredients you need to create a meme stock in this day and age. Neil, Wendy's has been down bad, but now it's down a little less bad.

15:01Wendy's is indeed need of saving, whether by this new Pop Bellies guy or by the Reddit army. The final quarter of 2025 was its worst quarter in 20 years. Same store sales in the US declined 11%. And you're thinking, okay, yeah, fast food has been under pressure. There's been inflation. But looked at McDonald's earnings, looked at Burger King. They saw a small growth in sales over the same period. So this is clearly a Wendy's problem. They have tried to diagnose what's going on and have brought in a new leadership team, mostly from Potbellies, because they just got a new CEO who is from Potbellies.

15:35And then they also brought in the CFO from Potbellies. So I guess whatever happened to Populis they're trying to do at Wendy's, but clearly there are a lot of problems going on that they need to fix.

15:43Neal Freyman:I love that that's their turnaround plan. They're like, Populis did pretty well actually over the last decade. Let's just bring that leadership team in as well. They are definitely trying to do multiple things, improve menu quality. They think their value perception got way out of whack because even though Wendy's is maybe a little higher up on the income chain than something like a McDonald's, your customers are still extremely price sensitive. So the fact that that value prop disappeared is something that is absolutely going to sink you. It is fascinating, though, because people still like Wendy's, just not here in the United States, because international sales jumped 8.1 % in the past quarter.

16:21Neal Freyman:So that is far better than what was going on in the U.S. where sales were declining. So for whatever reason, they have a taste for Wendy's abroad, but not so much in the United States. You're surprised that international people like American fast food? I thought we put that discussion into rest in the past week. It's clear that they love it. So there's a new CEO in there, Robert Wright, as I said, who used to lead Potbelly, who did this big sale to they got taken private. But I'm just so surprised that Wendy's has not done well in recent months because they have this intern CEO and his name was Ken Cook.

16:52How can a guy named Ken Cook not bring Wendy's to extreme financial success and actually explode sales?

16:59Neal Freyman:Ken is chef, actually. They need to go one level higher. But yeah, I think it's very funny too that the Wall Street bets part of it had no substance at all. Like obviously we've seen stocks jump on even less than this before. But if you go back to the GameStop era, there was at least a thesis attached to it. Like, hey, I think this is undervalued. And then everyone rallied around it. Literally was one post with a screenshot. There was no other text on the post other than let's save Wendy's guys. And it was off and running. So it just shows what market forces make stocks move today. It's not the same forces that made stocks move in the days of old.

17:34Neal Freyman:All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back with Neil's numbers right after this. There's two types of people in this world. The ones that entertain and the ones that observe. No, there are investors white knuckling through market dips and those patiently letting time do its thing. Wealthfront is for them. Their high yield cash account makes building long term wealth effortless. In fact, new clients get a three-month 0.75 % boost over the base rate, up to 4.05 % APY on up to$150 ,000. And when you're ready to invest, transferring to their expert-built investing accounts is a breeze.

18:12Claim the limited-time offer at Wealthfront.com slash Morning Brew. This is a current Wealthfront client testimonial creating a conflict of interest. Client experiences vary. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Base APY as of January 30th, 2026 and subject to change. Details in the episode description. AI is only as good as what you put into it. So it needs more protein? No, nothing needs more protein. But that's why ShipStation's AI isn't a general purpose tool. It's specialized, trained on decades of real shipping data and billions of actual orders.

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19:26Neal Freyman:How's that supposed to work better than chanting? Their blend of Infinity PX, L-theanine, Alpha-GPC, and vitamin B6 and B12 help you achieve a calm, steady flow state focus. I pop a watermelon pouch for a little extra jolt in the morning. New customers can get 15 % off with code MBD at TakeUltra.com. That's takeultra.com, code MBD. Welcome to Neil's Numbers, where I pick three stats from the week's news that will help you graduate from one of Canada's top business schools with really good grades. For my first number, it pays to be a big-time CEO. Last year, more than 25 executives made over$100 million, the most of any year since 2021, and almost 12 made over 200 million, according to the Wall Street Journal's annual rankings.

20:15Number one, you won't be surprised to hear, is Elon Musk, the world's first trillionaire. In 2025, his total compensation from Tesla came to$158 billion, which is 16 times the combined value for the other 391 execs in the journal's rankings. Number two is more surprising. Shank Mitra, the CEO of the real estate investment trust WellTower, received compensation worth$821 million, which is one of the largest pay packages of the last decade. In fact, you don't even need to be the CEO of WellTower to afford a PJ. Three other execs there got pay packages worth more than$100 million each. Another interesting finding from the rankings, you don't need to run an established mega cap company to be rewarded handsomely.

20:59According to the journal, over half of the CEOs that made over$100 million last year led companies not in the S &P 500, including Dylan Field of Figma,$864 million, and Kaz Najatian of Opendoor,$741 million. Toby, after a couple of years lying in wait, looks like the moonshot pay package is back in vogue.