🥇 “$4K” — Gold’s “debasement” trade. Rowan’s $150M Ear Piercing. Sharpies’ Made in America. +Netflix’s Loud Ad Law.

0:28This is Nick. need one of those six digit codes to get the app? I got four of mine left. DMS at tboypod. We'll select a couple of yetis and besties. I invited Jack, then Jack invites you. I invite you. It's kind of like a whole chain going on, right, man? Kind of like a whole pyramid scheme. Nevermind. It's free of charge, free of charge. But Jack, three fantastic stores for today's pod. What do we got on the tboy? For our first story, it's gold. Silver and gold. Silver and gold. Gold continues to blow past record highs, hitting$4 ,000 per ounce for the first time ever. But besties, this gold rally is different.

1:02It's less about buying gold, more about selling dollars. For our second story, it's one of the fastest growing retail chains in America. It's an ear piercing startup called Rowan. Rowan, they're doing 100 million bucks of pierced ears, all thanks to the window of loyalty. And our third and final story is the Sharpie marker. It's the most permanent thing in any of our lives right now. But they just switched from made in China to made in USA. And Sharpie pulled it all off without ever raising prices. But yet is before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories. Love the mix, Jack.

1:39It is Wednesday night. If you're like me, you're sipping a glass of Pinot, maybe some Ben and Jerry's, watching an episode of Wednesday on Netflix. But then, boom. Did my house just shake from that Jeep commercial? Jack, you know how they say the rent is too damn high? Well, the ads are too damn loud. My Soto speakers just broke, Nick. But here's the news. California just passed the first ever ban on loud commercials. That's right. California just put a cap on that commercial. Behold the dial it down law. No streamer can make an ad louder than the program it's interrupting. We're looking at you, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Disney Plus, Hulu.

2:23You must turn down the volume on that volume. This is probably the only thing in America we can all agree on right now. You can't jack up the 30-second pharmaceutical ad to 100 decimals. Sorry. Because there's too much screaming when we're streaming these days. Now, we should sprinkle on some context. Please, Jack. The U.S. Congress banned loud commercials back in 2010, but that was for TV networks. But that ban did not apply to streaming networks. In fact, this new dial-it-down law, it was proposed by a state senator in California who had a newborn baby. Apparently he was binging HBO until a car commercial woke up his baby.

3:02Oh, please, just go back to sleep. We've all been there. Besties, there's nothing worse than trying to understand the dialogue in a succession, then a cliffhanger, and then a Planet Fitness ad makes you pull a hammy in your eardrums. I'm just trying to enjoy some Love Island. I don't need to be yelled at about the side effects of Tithastrozole. The only one who hates this news is Pfizer. But besties, this is Nick. And this is Jack. And we vow to maintain the same volume in all of our ads. Actually, Billy Mays is not a fan of this lot either. Jack, hit our three story.

3:51Cause we ready to go, we can't wait no more So just start the show

3:58Start the show First, a quick word from our sponsor

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6:19For our first story, gold just hit another crazy milestone yesterday, 4 ,000 bucks. But not because of the economy, it's because of the dollar. Here's why crypto bros are telling you to de-dollarize your finances. Oh, Jack, remember it was only a month ago we did a whole story on gold hitting$3 ,500. New record high. But here's the headline yesterday from the Wall Street Journal. Gold soared to$4 ,000 an ounce for the first time, signaling concern about the outlook for the U.S. economy and its place in the world. Okay, that is ominous. More on the U.S. place in the world segment in a minute. We'll get to that.

6:59In the meantime, the price of one ounce of gold is up 50 % so far this year. Gold having its best year since King Tut got buried it in ancient Egypt. And gold was already at a record high to start the year. If you ask for Costco gold bars for your birthday, oh, that was the move. Now, why would anyone want to buy gold unless it's for jewelry? No, it's a fair point, Jack, because it is better to own stock of a company that's generating value or real estate that people are using. Those typically do much better. The reason why some invest in gold is that it's an alternative asset. You buy gold when you think that the traditional assets may be going down.

7:34And Jack, the last time we saw gold prices going crazy like they are today, when was it, man? It made sense. It's when stock markets and the economy were crashing in the 08 financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed. But besties, here's what we find fascinating. Actually, confusing. Gold is hitting all-time highs right now, but the stock market is also hitting all-time highs? That's not how it usually works out. This gold rally must be different. No, no. This gold rally, in fact, is not normal. And to explain why it's not normal, we'll hand things over to Ken Griffin. Ken Griffin is famous.

8:08We've actually covered him twice in this podcast. First, when he bought an original copy of the U.S. Constitution. And second, when he made a bid and won at an auction, he bought a complete skeleton of a stegosaurus. Yeah, he's silly rich. And he got silly rich running a hedge fund. And what he's been seeing with gold concerns him to the point he just started sharing it publicly. Ken Griffin is concerned that gold is at an all-time high, and he refers to it as the debasement trade. Ah, the debasement trade. Jack, could you sprinkle on a definition for us, please? The debasement trade is if you think there's mismanagement of the U.S.

8:43dollar by government officials, and you think the dollar is going to be diluted long-term. Basically, if you think the U.S. dollar is getting weaker, it'd be a smart move to move your money to non-U.S. dollar assets like Bitcoin or gold. And enough people think that, that a pawn shop will give you more money than ever for your grandma's gold bracelet right now. That's why those$4 ,000 gold bars at Costco are more sold out than the$4 toilet paper. It's not because investors are concerned about the stock market or the economy. Investors are concerned about the US dollar itself. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone looking at gold?

9:18The issue isn't the price. It's the dollar symbol at the beginning of the price. Now, Yetis, Jack and I just mentioned the mismanagement of the U.S. dollars. Investors are seeing that across three key areas. First, debt. Republicans passed the big, beautiful bill that boosts America's debt by$4 trillion. And now Democrats, during the shutdown, are demanding a reinstatement of healthcare spending, which would increase debt by another trillion dollars. Then you've got the central bank losing independence. Next year, President Trump indicated he'll replace Jerry Powell at the Fed with someone more political.

9:51And finally, you've got the trade war. It's caused the whole world to reconsider their relationship to the United States and their relationship to the U.S. dollar. Now, Basties, we have always had debt issues, but they have never been as big as this. And the Fed and the trade war, those are completely new economic issues affecting the dollar. Add them all up, and it's causing some to say that you shouldn't trust the U.S. dollar anymore. Its value will fall long term. We're not saying that, but we're noticing that in so many more places now, we wanted to share the news with you. What does the market say?

10:21The U.S. dollar is down 10 % so far this year compared to foreign currencies. And gold is at an all-time high. It's called the debasement trade, and it's jumped from crypto bros to the front page of the Wall Street Journal. The issue isn't the price. It's the dollar symbol at the beginning of the price. For our second story, Rowan is the fast-growing ear-piercing chain on track to double sales to 150 million lobes. I mean, bucks this year. Why is venture capital going into ear piercing? Because Rowan understands the window of loyalty. All right, Jack, we're going to tell the story. Full disclosure, I've never been pierced, never been tattooed, and never had my hair braided.

11:04Yes. Although I did get a henna tattoo at a bat mitzvah once and it stayed on me for like eight months. Nice, nice. Dude, I want to get a tattoo. All right, next live show, I'll tattoo you. On me, it's on me, Jack. But besties, that's why Jack and I were fascinated by one of the fastest growing retail chains in America because they specialize in one thing. Your ears. It's called Rowan. And they're the Sephora of studs, the Lululemon of lobes, the pink berry of piercings, Jack. Rowan was actually founded by a former hedge fund manager. And get this, she specialized in shorting shopping malls. But as she did, she noticed the ear piercing store was the only business thriving inside of those shopping malls.

11:45So she pivoted her focus from betting against the shopping mall to betting for an ear piercing business. Now she's got the Erewhon of earrings, so she launched an ear piercing business. And they don't require an empty parking garage and the smell of auntie and pretzels to pull it off. No. Rowan has opened 100 locations on high-end strip malls. They generated$70 million of revenue last year and are on track for$150 million this year. They're doing$1.5 million per shop. Jack, could you sprinkle on some context, please? That's more than Dunkin' Donuts or Skechers on a per-store basis. So besties, this brand, Roan, is selling bling to preteen girls, getting their ears pierced, and they are profitable.

12:26Jack, how are they pulling it off? The real key to Roan's success is ritualization, turning a simple activity into a ritualized activity. Jack, we've seen this before, haven't we, man? SoulCycle turned spinning into a 45-minute religious experience and charged 40 bucks per seat. Dry Bar turned hair drying into a party experience and they charged 40 bucks a sesh. Similarly, Rowan recognized the gap between the social importance of getting your ear pierced when you're a little girl to the service that the market was offering. The transition to girlhood without pomp and circumstance, I mean, inside that delta was an opportunity to elevate.

13:05So Rowan hired professional nurses, designed Instagrammable stores and put those girls up on a throne. And now they can charge a premium of 35 bucks for a single piercing because they've elevated it to a ritual. The competition, by the way, that's Claire's. But the 1 ,000 store chain known as Claire's has declared bankruptcy twice since 2018. Yeah, because Claire's piercing was transactional, not sensational. And also, they were inside the malls, right? But we have a big question. Yeah, we do. If the customer of Rowan is only getting their ears pierced, once or twice in their lives, and they're only charging$35 per piercing, this doesn't sound like a good business.

13:43And yet it is, and here's why. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Rowan? Rowan understands the window of loyalty. Ah, the window of loyalty, one of our favorite takeaways. Yeti's an investment in making the first impression when a customer is most likely to generate a core memory. The window of loyalty is why you're irrationally still a fan of that team you saw when you were six years old, even though you haven't lived in that city for 20 years. Yeah. And like Jack, we covered the window of loyalty first with McDonald's Happy Meal. They focus the food and the experience on the kids.

14:17And we also covered the window of loyalty with Band-Aid. It's the most trusted brand in America because you remember it was there for you when you had a boo-boo on your knee. Similarly, Rowan focuses on doing your first piercing because that's a core memory. And then you'll come back for, this is key, After that$35 piercing, Rowan makes most of their money selling that child jewelry for like the next decade. Hundreds of dollars of jewelry that Rowan will sell after you got your ear piercing. So Rowan turned a piercing business into a$150 million jewelry business because of the window of loyalty.

14:54Now a quick word from our sponsor. NetSuite. Yeah, these NetSuite is the corporate control panel for business. Has been since 1998. They probably use this on Star Wars. This pre.com software suite, though, it remains the market leader. But Nick, what is next? I got no idea, Jack. You tell me what's next. Well, they say every day your business is late for AI, you fall two days behind. I didn't know they said that. Now I'm stressed, Jack. That's an incredibly stressful thing. We're all anxiety maxing. So, Bezzy, if you're feeling like your business is behind, there is NetSuite next. Next. NetSuite is a unified suite that brings your financials, inventory, commerce, HR, and CRM into a single source of truth.

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16:06Walmart business. Yetis, we cover business trends on our show and they move faster than you can spell GPU. One minute it's vibe coding, the next it's agentic. Tomorrow it's probably gonna be in-person old school again. Yeah, well, while you're managing this to stay ahead, the last thing you need to worry about is supplies for your company. Carol, do we have the cogs needed to meet our Q1 sales commitments? Carol! Outsource that mental load instead to Walmart Business. Walmart Business lets you buy the bulk supplies your business needs. AI tools are there for your digital work. Walmart Business is there for your physical work.

16:38Like restock your office inventory with low prices, reliable shipping, and fulfillment. Walmart Business helps simplify your operations so you can focus on building and selling your product. You see Carol in accounting? She'll be relieved that Walmart Business is all over it. Eligible organizations can take advantage of tax-free shopping. both in-store and online with Walmart Business, saving you more while getting you everything you need. It's Walmart built for your business. Sign up for a free Walmart business account today at business.walmart.com. For our third and final story, it's Sharpie, the champagne of pens.

17:15The market company has never been hotter, and now it's a model for made in America. Here's how Sharpie pulled off a reshoring from China to the US, and what other companies and politicians can learn from it. Ah, the Sharpie, Jack. You own a whole bunch of them. You probably have three or four, but you never, like, where are they when you need them? One sec, is it in here? They are wherever you're not. I know where they are, Jack. They're in the dongle drawer next to the 43 chargers that I'm not using anymore. We actually have a thing called the junk drawer, and that's actually where the Sharpie lives.

17:47Can we do a little Sharpie sound effect on the pod? Thank you, Trey. All right, that's great. Yeti's, the last time Jack and I covered the Sharpie marker was news of their biggest order ever, Starbucks. Starbucks was going back to hand-drawn names on cups, so they bought 200 ,000 Sharpies. It was a barista Sharpie boom. Huge news for the company. And then Sharpie signed Mindy Kaling, the comedian, as a Sharpie endorser. Yeah, she's now a Sharpie model, Mindy Kaling. There you go. Super random. But bigger news came this week when the Wall Street Journal profiled Sharpie as successfully completing a reversal of their outsourcing.

18:25Yeah, Sharpie made in America again. Welcome back, guys. Great to see you here. Yetis, we got to take you back to the early 2000s when Sharpie did what every big U.S. corporation did. Yeah, they pulled a Nike and they started outsourcing to China. They did it to save costs and boost profits. Until 2018, when the CEO of Newell Brands, the owner of Sharpie, heeded Trump's call. He brought manufacturing of the Sharpie marker back to the United States, and shockingly, he did it without raising prices. Get this, today, made in America, Sharpies cost$1, the same price as when they were made in China.

19:01That sounds to defy the laws of physics. It seems like to defy every law, Jack. Like, how is Sharpie pulling this off exactly? We jumped in T-boy style and found the five-step recipe that Sharpie followed. Well, first of all, Sharpie took a long time to pull this off. It took six years for them to manufacture in the United States. Yeah, so the first ingredient to reshoring from China to the U.S. is patience. Yeah, the second ingredient is it required an expensive one-off moving cost, a$2 billion capital investment. $2 billion was spent on new equipment, more training, and new HR policies to reduce employee turnover.

19:39So the third ingredient is robots, and that's where the bulk of that$2 billion expense we just mentioned actually went to. An investment in robots is how the reshoring of the Sharpie marker back to the U.S. did not result in an increase in the number of workers in the U.S. factory. Although they did have to increase wages by 50 % over the last five years to reduce turnover of those employees. The fourth recipe was volume, because Sharpie is a marker, not a car. Yeah, so you can produce 4 billion Sharpies over a year. You can't produce 4 billion cars. And that's what they do. And when the costs are spread out across 4.3 billion units per year, you can barely see those increased costs.

20:18Which leads to the final ingredient, lower shipping costs. Since most of Sharpie's customers were here in the United States, where they now were making the pens. So today, only the felt tip of a Sharpie marker is imported. Oh, that's my favorite part, Jack. The other five parts in the assembly all happen in Tennessee, and it's one buck per pack. Add it all up, and the Sharpie is now as American as a Big Mac and Levi's jeans riding a Harley Davidson, baby. More American than Levi's, because jeans aren't, Levi's jeans aren't made in the USA anymore. Well, either way, President Trump already loved Sharpie markers for his huge signatures.

20:52That's actually a fact. 209 executive orders, all with a Sharpie marker. Well, now President Trump wants to kiss that felt tip. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at, can we do another Sharpie sound? Sharpie. When two forces are competing, the bigger force wins. And the bigger force here is automation. Yeti's, President Trump wants Americans to make things here in America again. And we are all for that as well. But you can't ignore the bigger force, which is automation. Machines and robots doing work that humans used to. Well, here's some interesting data to follow. The month that Donald Trump was first inaugurated as president, back in 2017, there were 12.3 million manufacturing jobs in America.

21:34In August of this year, which is the last month that we have data, there are 12.7 million manufacturing jobs in the United States, an increase of just 3 % over eight years. What we're saying here is that despite a Trump and Biden presidencies pushing U.S. manufacturing, it's still basically flat over those eight years. If the goal of trade policy is to increase the number of manufacturing jobs in America, that's a worthy goal. But it is going to fail if you don't have a policy for the bigger competing force facing all of this, automation. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday?

22:13Gold is at crazy new all-time highs. It's driven by the debasement trade, which is concern for the US dollar. Yeah, this issue ain't about the price. It's the dollar symbol at the beginning of the price. For our second story, it's Rowan. That's the fast-growing chain of piercing shops. It's expected to double sales this year to$150 million. And it's all thanks to the window of loyalty. Whoever does that first piercing, oh, they got a jewelry customer for life. And our third and final story is Sharpie markers. They're made in America again, and they did it without increasing prices. Because of automation, which is the competing force against increasing manufacturing jobs.

22:53But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, LeBron James teased a major announcement yesterday. Even Wall Street was watching to see what he was going to do. Remember in 2008 when LeBron made the decision live on ESPN to leave Cleveland and take his talents to South Beach? Literally, our bank paused like work for the day because we were watching the decision. Well, everyone hated that decision. So LeBron teased a second decision that happened yesterday. Yeah, it was also a letdown though. It turns out it was simply an ad for Hennessy. Second, Tesla also had a big announcement they were hyping up.

23:30And it was announced yesterday, a slightly cheaper version of their existing cars. Yeah, this was also a disappointment. You see, now that the$7 ,500 electric vehicle tax credit is gone, Tesla had to find a new way to lower the price to 5 ,000 bucks. They did that, which is a nice achievement, but they massively overhyped what was going to be announced. Basically, these new Teslas have no power seats or power steering wheel, no vegan leather, and they have less range. The hyped announcement disappointed investors and the stock fell 5 % on the knees. And finally, Instagram is getting into the awards business.

24:02Insta just announced Oscars for the gram. It's actually what they call gold rings. Instagram and a committee of specialists will award 25 creators with gold rings. Yeah, now by the way, Zuck's not giving a cash prize on this. You're going to get a digital prize. It's a gold ring around your profile picture if you win it. There will only be 25 of them though. So it's like a blue checkmark, but way more super extra exclusive. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in and it's a voicemail from Jake Contos from lovely Albuquerque, New Mexico. Push and play. Hey, Nick and Jack. This is Jake from Albuquerque.

24:40Just wanted to hop on and give a correction to one of the takeaways from Thursday's pod. You had mentioned Isaac Newton came up with the law of the conservation of energy, and this is technically not the case. In 1687, he laid out his three laws of motion in the Principia, implying the conservation of momentum and laying the foundation for classical mechanics. The law of the conservation of energy, however, is the first law of thermodynamics, in which energy is neither created nor destroyed, simply transferred. And this emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries, formalizing the principle of energy conservation.

25:13Nick, we're like 300 years off. I know. Our physics a little rusty, Jack. I gotta say, though, the physics of our audience is on. Because this is one of the most corrected, factual mistakes we've ever made. We've never had a mistake with so many corrections sent in. And like, it's like every Yeti is an AP physics major. So every science teacher out there, you should be proud. Yetis, you look fantastic today. And by the way, whether you're judging us on our science backgrounds or not, we would love if you would drop down to leave us a five-star review. That helps us grow the show. Also, we are tied for first place for best business podcast in the voting.

25:51And voting ends tomorrow. We are tied at number one with 26 % of the vote. We got a link in the episode description so you can drop down and vote to help us win the award. Again, it's Best Business Podcast, not Best Science Podcast, so we deserve your vote. If you know, you know. Jack and I will see you tomorrow.

26:12And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Eddie Kyle Howard, born just outside San Francisco, now living just outside of Boston. And Joe Driano in Bellingham, Washington, is a new dad to Genevieve. Congratulations, guys. Congratulations to Kim Murray of Ormond Beach, Florida, who just passed the final CPA exam. And Adrena Kang is turning 18 years old in Orinda, California, gearing up for water polo season at the old IU, baby. Indiana University. Go Hoosiers. And a happy birthday to Shannon Jimenez in Orlando, Florida. Orlando. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy.

26:49Celebrate the wins.

26:53This is Jack. I own stock in Disney and Netflix. Nick own stock in Lululemon and Nike. And we both own some Bitcoin. Bitcoin named Ben. Bureau premium non-alcoholic beer. All right, yeah, he's a little behind the scenes here. Before our New York City live show back in April, Jack and I went sober for two weeks. True story. Couldn't risk getting sick. I didn't want to be groggy. I couldn't afford a hangover. It was New York, baby. Okay, but Jack, celebrating the wins is what we do. And so for our live shows, we crack open something special. So we drank Biro, the premium non-alcoholic beer brand co-founded by Tom Holland.

27:28Yeah, I actually first saw it at my grocery store. Delicious tastes like a celebration, feels fantastic, and looks legit. More on the looks in a sec. And if it's good enough for the actor who played Spider-Man, it's good enough for us. You see, it pairs well with a pickleball game, a profitable earnings report, or with the best podcast. So Yetis, if you want to celebrate the wins with all the taste of a premium lager or IPA, but none of the alcohol. There's no better choice than Bureau. Okay, pause the pod. Did we mention the can is straight up gold? This thing will stand out at every one of your next parties.

27:59Trust us, we've done it. Only beer we know that actually upgrades the scene like a promotion. So, Basties, if there's a win you're celebrating every day, Bureau is the non-alcoholic brew brand you gotta bring. So use code T-Boy for 20 % off your first order at BureauBrewing.com.