🤏 “Zuck’s Tiny Taxes” — What Billionaires pay. New Balance’s surge. Ring’s puppy problem. +Jamie Dimon’s bar

0:28This is Nick. the show. We've reached out to the Yetis who recommended them, and we want you to join us. So check your DMs or check the comment on Spotify. We got your back. We can't wait to see you there. But in the meantime, Jack, we got three fantastic stories for today's pod. What do we got on the T-Boy? For our first story, while Nike's been marketing over at the Milan Olympics, New Balance is selling in record numbers back in Boston. New Balance made nine billion bucks, and it's all thanks to a plate of scrambled eggs. For our second story, Ring Camera is a tool for mass surveillance? Get this, Amazon lost 250 billion bucks this month because of that question and one cute puppy commercial.

1:05And our third and final story, the Wall Street Journal just came out and said that billionaire taxes aren't a political issue, they're an economic one. So Jack and I are jumping in T-boy style to Zuckerberg's taxes because Zuck's taxes are tiny. But yet he's before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Oh, I mean, what a mix to go into the weekend with. No one else doing the mix, Jack. Nick, it's Friday the Real Friday. What's the hottest place to go out in New York City? I mean, is it employees only? Is it Pheebs? Is it Dorian's? Is it Dorcia? Nope. If you bring the right business card, Jack, the coolest bar in NYC is at JPM.

1:40Specifically the bar inside the new$3 billion JP Morgan office tower. The bar in this tower is called Morgan's. It's on the 13th floor, but the line to get in goes all the way down to the 10th. Oh, we repeat America's biggest bank is now running its most exclusive bar. It's a true True story. It's a British pub theme and the Guinness in there flows like spreadsheets. But Jack, if you ask to split the G, they're going to think you're referring to a thousand bucks over there. Your card better be platinum. I got fish and chips for the mergers and acquisitions. Beggars and mash for the sales and trading over here.

2:10But the problem is that America's biggest bank miscalculated the demand for this bar because there are only 55 seats for the building's 10 ,000 workers. It's like some intern discounted the wrong cocktail cash flow. I mean, some analyst is definitely going to work till 2 a.m. on this one, Jack. So J.P. Morgan's internal office bar is the hardest table in New York. Even if you work at J.P. Morgan, besties, a standard reservation, it's free. But instant reservation? It costs 5 % of your tab or 25 bucks, whichever is greater. Remember, this is a bank. Oh, and if you try paying with your city card, they're going to put you in a doggy bag.

2:46Oh, Sapphire or bust. You hear what Jamie Dimon said on the last earnings call, Jack? When you're in the club, we're all fam. them. Jack, let's hit on three storms. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.

3:21Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

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4:01When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of the show will get a$75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast. So just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed-sponsored jobs. So yet he's Jack's instituting a new business model for his Airbnb hosting. And Jack, what is it? Here it is. Host equals guest.

4:35Yes. I funnel all my revenue from being a host on Airbnb into one bank account and use that same bank account to book travel for myself. And basically, it's Jack's host-guest bank account for when he hosts and when he's a guest somewhere else. When I lived in the city, Nick, every time my apartment was available on Airbnb, it would get booked like that. I mean, think about how often are you away from home? You got the bridesmaid, you got the shower, you got the bachelorette, you got the wedding. That's three weekends away just for one wedding right there. Plus, you got to visit your mother. Naturally.

5:05Well, that's a lot of potential hosting that you could be doing on Airbnb. Let someone else stay at your place while you're away. Take that host money and spend it when you're a guest somewhere else. Have a business model like me. If you want to travel more, hosting more is a great way to make it happen financially. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host.

5:27For our first story. While Nike's all over the Olympics, its rival New Balance is seeing its business boom. New Balance just announced that revenues rose 19 % last year, and it's nearly three times bigger in sales today than in 2020. Jack, how are they doing it? One meeting every week. The Breakfast Club. Oh, Yetis. New Balance, the way Jack and I see it, it's the father of the dad shoe. There's no arguing that, actually. this 120-year-old sneaker brand actually started as an orthopedics company in 1906. And before they got all into running, New Balance was founded just outside Boston and was made for factory workers.

6:05Yeah, they gave arch support for the guys fixing the lobster traps down at the docks. Yeah, hey, we're going to need another round over at the textile mill. Yetis, we promise that's the end of our Boston accent. But funny thing, Vesties, the term New Balance, it actually goes back, it goes back to the farm, doesn't it, Jack? Yeah, the New Balance founder bought some chickens and studied how the rooster was able to balance on the three claws of one foot. True story. And despite the gray suede vibes over a century later, New Balance is doing$9 billion in business right now. That is up 19 % from last year.

6:36And this is the first time we've seen the sales of this privately held company. Yes, it is. But there's an even bigger shocker here, isn't there, Jack? Sales have nearly tripled since 2020 for New Balance, all while Nike has stumbled and tripped. Get this, in 2020, Nike was 11 times bigger than New Balance by sales, but today, it's just four times bigger. New Balance is one-third the size of Adidas, the same size as Lululemon. This dad shoe has gone through puberty. Now, besties, pause the pod for a sec, because you may remember on Tuesday, Jack and I covered an endangered species on this show, Allbirds.

7:09Sadly, its stock is down 99%. Save the birds, but here's what we find fascinating, Yetis. New Balance is the same comfort concept as Allbirds, but unlike Allbirds, New Balance is embracing its ugly duckling era. The dad shoe became cool during COVID because New Balance owned it. Yes, we told you about the comfort economy, but New Balance's sneaker surge actually goes way deeper than that. Jack, any chance we got a sports analogy here we could drop on the besties for the show? Nike fumbled, so New Balance picked up the ball and ran it to the end zone. It was a scoop and score situation. And here was Nike's original sin.

7:42They pulled their shoes out of third-party retailers like Foot Locker so they could sell direct-to-consumer online in their own Nike stores. So New Balance simply filled the void. They loaded up Foot Locker with boxes and boxes of suede 990s, which sold way more than before. Okay, that was step one. Then step two for New Balance is they went primo. They went upmarket premium. They did luxury collabs to associate New Balance with Gucci instead of the gridiron. And that cultural cachet and that cool factor, let New Balance increase their prices by 30 % over the next five years. And yet you and Justin Bieber both paid for that price of your shoe anyway.

8:18Which leads to the third part of New Balance's master plan. That cultural cachet allowed New Balance to pick the best athletes for endorsement deals, something Nike is historically the best at. Shohei Otani, Coco Gauff, Josh Allen, all of them team New Balance. So now New Balance is saying, hey Nike, go ahead and take the Olympics, Enjoy the spotlight, the medals, the podium, and all that. Have fun up there. We'll be at Paris Fashion Week, and we'll be on Cooper Flagg's feet. Yeah, the number one NBA draft pick, he's also a New Balance guy. And he'll also probably get an invite to Paris Fashion Week.

8:52So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at New Balance? New Balance's success is thanks to the breakfast meeting, scrambled eggs, and sneakers. Yetis, let's go back to April 2020, right after COVID hit. New Balance's CEO started a weekly meeting that was mandatory for all leaders at the company. Every Tuesday at 7.30 a.m., the leaders had to zoom into a breakfast meeting. Yes. An early meeting let them have an offensive mentality for the rest of the week. And you know what? They continued that Tuesday morning meeting all the way through the pandemic, and they still do it today. Scrambled eggs and sneakers Tuesday at 7.30.

9:26It's a New Balance institution now. Now, here's why that's interesting. Nike's former CEO blamed their remote workforce for lack of innovation. He said there's no creativity when there's no connection. But New Balance's CEO says the opposite. That one meeting they found during the pandemic, it set the stage for their best leg of growth in company history. Now, besties, we know all meetings can be annoying, remote or in person. There are too many of them. They get abused. It's an easy corporate punchline joke. But a single meeting consistently done with the right people at a smart time? That's New Balance's$10 billion breakfast club.

9:59Scrambled eggs beats swooshes. For our second story, Ring's cute puppy commercial from the Super Bowl sparked a crisis on surveillance. Basically, one cute puppy cost Amazon billions. Amazon learned this critical lesson the hard way, but you can learn the same lesson the easy way. Now, Yetis, earlier this week, Jack and I discussed Budweiser's three Super Bowl commercials that were all really highly rated. Well, Ring's Super Bowl commercial was poorly rated. Yeah, so poorly rated, it actually raised billion dollars of value from Amazon stock. The Super Bowl commercial highlighted a new feature on Ring called Search Party to help people find their lost dogs.

10:38It was a cute puppy commercial starring a digital Ring doorbell. How did the commercial go, Jack? One post of the dog's photo in the Ring app starts outdoor cameras looking for a match. Search Party from Ring uses AI to help families find lost dogs. Jack, it sounds charming, feel good. I feel like it's Lassie 2.0. how were the reviews? Then the reviews came in. That's straight up surveillance state right there. They're using dogs and dogs missing to launch a surveillance state, man. With ice patrolling, people said the thousands of ring cameras in a town could be used against citizens. So Amazon stock fell each and every of the next five days after that ad.

11:18It's now down 16 % in February so far. Amazon probably hoped to run that Super Bowl ad in the Olympics. Yeah, they did. Instead, they destroyed the tapes of that commercial. Wow, Jack. Not what the Ring doorbell team thought they'd get with their first Super Bowl commercial. Yeah, knock, knock. Who's there? A full-on PR crisis. Now, the CEO of Ring doorbells did clarify the situation, besties, that Ring owners don't share information to Search Party by default. It's all up to the user. And then he clarified that Ring doesn't store users' video footage if they don't have a subscription with Ring.

11:53But that second part was not the case with Savannah Guthrie's mom in Arizona the last week, was it, man? No, the FBI got footage of Savannah Guthrie's camera from her Google Nest, even though she reportedly didn't have a subscription. So Jack, that inconsistency, plus general anxiety around AI, plus acute anxiety about ICE added all up for me, my friend. The Ring puppy commercial was a perfect storm of distrust, conspiracy, and brand bruising for Ring. And it caused Amazon's Ring last week to end its partnership with Flock. Flock, which uses AI-powered surveillance cameras to read license plates and feed the information to police.

12:31Ring is done with that partnership. Sorry, Jack, let's step away from the doorstep for a moment. Remember, Ring just wanted to evoke your love for your dog and pull on your heartstrings with that puppy. Instead, Ring's Super Bowl commercial revealed that Ring's actually involved in a police AI surveillance network. That was not in the KPIs, man. Not in the KPIs. So Jack, knock, knock. Who's there again? What's the takeaway for our buddies over at Ring? With mistrust at all-time highs, marketers need to ask about the WIP. What's the worst interpretation possible? Yetis, the Epstein files, insider trading on prediction markets, AI deepfakes of your buddy who was hanging out with your buddy and you didn't get invited to the party.

13:13Conspiracy is just everywhere right now. It feels to us that trust is at an all-time low. And marketers need to realize that and adjust accordingly. You see, people love their own Ring camera, but they are suspicious of surveillance cameras generally. Ring burned customer love last week they earned with the former by flirting with the latter. Now, could rings be used to help fight crime? Yeah, totally. But could they also be used to infringe on our rights to privacy? Also, yes, totally. And here's the problem. Ring was excited by the former, but didn't pause to think about the latter until a crisis broke out.

13:45Ring learned the lesson the hard way. Every marketer out there can learn the easy way by listening to this story. Yeah, with mistrust at all-time highs, marketers need to ask about the WIP, the WIP, the worst interpretation possible. Watch out for the marketing WIP, because if you don't, a viral TikTok video will tell you about it. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. Monarch. When I had student debt, I tracked my progress on an Excel spreadsheet I manually updated each month. Oh, I was Jack a spreadsheet jockey, because when he was paying off his student debt. Monarch didn't exist yet. Well, one year ago, I proudly killed that spreadsheet I'd been building for 12 years.

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15:26If your AI tool doesn't know anything about your biz, then it's not going to be the best one yet. That's why we're pumped to promote NetSuite by Oracle. It's helping over 43 ,000 businesses figure out how AI can work for them. NetSuite is actually the number one cloud ERP connected to your entire enterprise. It has your data on financials, HR, inventory, commerce, and CRM. To be honest, it's probably going to have to sprinkle on context about your business to you. It's that intelligent. That connected data is what makes your AI smarter. So it doesn't just guess, it knows. This isn't another bolted on tool.

15:56It's AI built into the system that runs your business. So whether your company has millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you stay ahead. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, get your free business guide, demystifying AI at netsuite.com slash tboy. The guide is free to use at netsuite.com slash tboy. Netsuite.com slash tboy. For our third and final story, Zuck's tiny taxes. Billionaires in America are paying an income tax of zero. It's not us saying that. It's the Wall Street Journal because this isn't political. Zuck's tiny taxes threaten our economy. Now, Yeti's Jack and I were prepping for today's show, and we read this Wall Street Journal headline that we just assumed was written by a progressive opinion columnist writing into the journal.

16:41But it wasn't. Here was the headline. Billionaires' low taxes are becoming a problem for the economy. Okay, that was the number one most shared article on the Wall Street Journal yesterday morning. True story. And it was news reporting, not an opinion article. No, true. Now, it is true that the top 1 % of Americans pay 40 % of all federal income taxes. Okay, but Jack, the top 1 % of that 1 %? Those in the Forbes billionaire rankings? They pay zero in income taxes. And the reason why? It's our tax code. When it was written, they didn't fathom what Elon and Zuckerberg would do. And Jack, what do Elon and Zuckerberg do in particular?

17:17They pay themselves a salary of just one dollar. Yeah, besties. To quote the notorious B.I.G., mo' money, mo' problems, less taxes. Which brings us to Zuck's tiny taxes. They're largely thanks to Zuck's tiny salary. You see, every two weeks, Zuck gets a paycheck over at Meta for three cents. That's it. After taxes, it's probably one cent. Yeah, you know how it goes. Now, Elon actually takes a$0 salary from Tesla to be their CEO. So Elon is paying$0 in income taxes right now. Now, for both, you might think initially, wow, what a great guy. They're already rich, so they're working for free. Not too shabby.

17:55Zuck just doing his thing. Nice guy. But the reality, this isn't philanthropy. This is strategy. Exactly, because these particular billionaires derive their wealth from stock and stock bonuses for tax reasons. That's why the billionaire class can get$10 billion richer in one year and only pay tax if they sell stock, which billionaires have learned not to do. Jack, why don't you whip out the whiteboard here? How exactly does this strategy break down? When a billionaire needs cash to buy like a fifth home, they don't sell the stock that they own. Instead, they borrow cash using their stock as collateral.

18:27And here's the key. The interest that they owe on that loan, it is way less than the capital gains taxes they would have paid if they'd sold the stock. And here's what their accountant tells them. Just keep doing this until you die. So you can pass as much wealth as possible to the next generation. In fact, this strategy has a name. It's called buy, borrow, die. And we'd love if you walked into your local H &R block and asked, can I have the buy, borrow, die plan, please? Carol from accounting, she's going to sit down, stand up, and she will stay seated after that one. And Nick, this buy, borrow, die tax avoidance strategy, the result is that America's 400 richest people pay half the effective tax rate of a simply normal wealthy person.

19:10Translation, the stupid wealthy are paying 24 % effective tax rates if you include all the taxes. While the regular wealthy are paying a 46 % effective tax rate. You see, besties, it's understood that you pay a higher tax rate the more money you make, but only to a certain point. Once you hit the three comma club and become billionaire rich. We're talking second boat for your third house that lives on your fourth yacht. You stop taking a salary, you take stock as compensation instead, and your income tax disappears. And besties, this is all legal because our tax code just never was able to account for the billionaire accounting schemes.

19:43And our Congress hasn't moved to change that reality. So billionaires don't dodge taxes, they dodge income. That's the trick. They don't dodge taxes, they dodge income, which leads to our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies hanging out in the Three Comic Club? Why is this bad for the economy? Well, because you can't balance a whole economy on a Birkin bag. Now, Yetis, there is a political conversation around whether this kind of wealth inequality is okay. That conversation is happening in California and New York right now, which have momentum to tax the rich. And in Florida and Texas, it's already happened, where they welcome the rich with no income tax.

20:17But interestingly, the Wall Street Journal, a historical champion of low taxes on the rich, is calling Zuck's tiny taxes an economic problem. Because our economy is unhealthily dependent on the spending of the mega-wealthy right now. I mean, look, this tax situation is great for Cartier and Hermes, but is a huge risk to the rest of the economy. If the stock market tanks and the wealthy feel less wealthy and stop spending, that could spiral us into a bad recession. Besties, our economy, it has been robust in the past, able to handle economic shocks and shakes. But if it depends on the uber-wealthy buying another private jet for their Birkin bag, that's a fragile economy.

20:54Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday? New Balance sales rose 19 % in 2025, while Nike sales fell 10 % the same year. New Balance has tripled in size since 2020, thanks to their Tuesday morning breakfast club. For our second story, Ring's security camera has put its owner, Amazon, in a PR crisis around surveillance. Ring, they didn't watch out for the whip. the worst interpretation possible. And our third and final story, the Wall Street Journal highlighted the buy, borrow, and die tax avoidance strategy popular with billionaires. The result? Our economy's fragile, like a$50 ,000 AirMaze pendant necklace.

21:31Can't balance an economy on that thing. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, we just got the government data confirming that the U.S. imported more goods in 2025 than ever before. That is surprising because the presumed goal of the tariffs were to encourage us to buy made-in-USA goods instead. But it's also unsurprising that the opposite happened because tariffs are widely known to be an ineffective tool for accomplishing that. Now, we should point out that in services, not physical goods, the U.S. has a surplus like we usually do. Movies, music, tech, America's biggest export is culture.

22:07For our second story, it's one bright detail from the avalanche ski tragedy over in California, and it has to do with the iPhone. That's right, because six surviving skiers were saved by the iPhone SOS feature. They were stuck under the snow without cell service, but they pushed that emergency button on the iPhone and it got satellite signal to send a 911 message. That iPhone saved their lives. And finally, the grandson of the founder of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. You'd like to have a word, Jack. Brad Reese, who's 70 now, but the grandson of the founder said, I just can't let this go. They're lowering the quality of the ingredients.

22:46They're charging the same price. This is skimflation, and my peanut butter heritage won't have it. That's right. So if you dive into a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup this weekend, and it doesn't have that salty taste like usual, you're on Team Brad. You know what's going on here, guys. Side note, we did an episode on the origin of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in our other show, The Best Idea Yet. Oh, yeah, yeah. The founder and inventor, he was a frog salesman. Spoiler. And that episode is Jason Kelsey's favorite episode, according to people familiar with the matter. Ipso facto, it's Taylor's favorite.

23:17Now time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and I to hand you into the finale of the Olympic Games. First, quick celebration. Team USA women took down Canada yesterday for the gold medal in hockey. Yeah, we beat the not Montreal Canadians, like the Canadia Canadians. The official ones, the real ones, the big ones. Now the captain for the Team USA women is Hilary Knight. Interesting. This is her fifth Olympic medal for hockey. Second gold to go with her three silvers. Not too shabby. And get this, the day before the championship game against Canada, she proposed to another athlete on Team USA to marry her.

23:53That's right, an American speed skater, Brittany Bowe. She is now getting married to the captain of the American hockey team. Who just won the gold medal in the Olympics. And together, the fastest couple on ice. The men playing the semis later today. We'll see you there. Yetis, you are looking fantastic for the real Friday. Jack, you are glowing over there, my friend. I can't wait to see you next week. I know. I'm flying to Austin. This is exciting. But in the meantime, besties, it is Five Star Friday. His best way to help grow the show, drop down, give us five stars in a review. Honestly, Jack and I spend all weekend reading them.

24:25We love seeing what you're saying. And Nick and I will be back for you on Monday with the best one yet. And if Jamie Dimon takes your Chase Sapphire Chardonnay at the bar tonight, don't say we didn't warn you. All right, great. I forgot to do that.

24:44And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti, Logan Rooney, huge fan of the best idea yet, celebrating the birthday on a trip to Vietnam and Japan. And happy birthday to Chandama Haremont, who's celebrating the birthday on a commute from San Jose, a legendary Yeti since 2018. And Harvey Snyder is turning 10 years old at Disney World. Harvey, we love getting you that birthday shout out every single year. Happy birthday to Haley Choi in Chicago. Doing logistics. Chase McElroy, legendary Yeti. Scott, a birthday in Costa Mesa. Happy birthday to Jen Tan in the Bay Area. And the best brother, dad, and husband out there, birthday boy Tim Dunn has got a birthday down the street in San Francisco.

25:20Happy birthday to Myra Mercy, the entrepreneur, legend, and Seinfeld fan of Spokane, Washington, is turning 41. And Evander Neumann is turning two years old on 222 in the Poconos. Now that are some good twos. Congratulations to Chris and Caitlin, who just got engaged at Zion National Park. And we can't wait to meet you guys at the Austin Live show. We'll see you next week. Congrats, guys. And congratulations to Sydney Traeger, who's going full Zamboni and freezing her eggs in Stanford, Connecticut. Congrats, Sydney. And cool Keith just had his first ever acquisition by an operating company in Calgary, Canada.

25:53After 20 years, finally on the other side of the desk. And happy birthday to John Wood in Boulder, Colorado. And he just started working with his entrepreneurial wife, New York Times bestselling author Jenny Wood, writer of Wild Courage. And finally, a bon voyage to Savannah Westwood, the legendary Yeti traveling from Florida to Austin to hang with another legendary Yeti, Kelsey Black, at our live show in Austin. Celebrate the wins.

26:20This is Jack, Nico in stock of Lululemon and Nike. I own stock of Amazon, and we both own stock in Apple. With its two juicy beef patties, three slices of melted cheese and tangy Big Arch sauce. The Big Arch is what happens when you start making a McDonald's burger and never stop. The Big Arch, the most McDonald's McDonald's burger yet for a limited time.