The Age of Discontentment (EP. 441)

Summary

Animal Spirits Podcast – The Age of Discontentment (EP. 441)

Date: December 3, 2025
Hosts: Michael Batnick & Ben Carlson
Podcast by: The Compound

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the paradox of widespread discontent despite rising wealth in America—and globally. Michael and Ben dissect why people feel the economy “isn’t working for them” amid robust investment returns, prosperous stock and bond markets, and an ever-growing upper middle class. Beyond market commentary, they explore societal perception shifts, generational changes in expectations, challenges in housing affordability, crypto volatility, and how technology (from Robinhood to AI to Netflix) continues changing the economic and social fabric.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Market Recap: Healthy Corrections and ‘Plain Vanilla’ Investing

• Stock/Bond Performance:
  • As of early December, S&P 500 is up ~17% YTD with only a 1% drawdown.
  • Developed international stocks (IFA) +30%.
  • Aggregate bond market up ~7–10%.
• Healthy Corrections:
  • “Every time we get a 5% correction, people are going to think, this is it, this is the crash.” (Ben, 03:14)
  • Michael: The recent overreactions are not unwarranted due to legitimate economic concerns (AI, hyperscaler spending, Nvidia, etc.).
• Revenge of Boring Portfolios:
  • “If you just had this boring three-fund Vanguard portfolio of U.S., international, bonds—you’re having a fantastic year.” (Ben, 05:23)

2. Strategist Forecasts & Financial Asset Valuations

• Wall Street Price Targets:
  • Analysts predicting continued gains (4–17% range), but Ben suggests a strategist could stand out by predicting a down year (06:10).
• ‘Everything Is Overvalued’ Myth:
  • Referencing Jeff Gundlach and Robert Shiller’s warnings, both hosts argue it’s nearly impossible for “everything” to be overvalued at once due to capital flows.
  • “I don’t think it’s possible for every financial asset to be overvalued simultaneously.” (Ben, 08:19)
  • Michael notes that stimulus-fueled wealth, post-COVID, may lead to most asset classes feeling expensive, inflating perceptions of inequality (09:10).

3. The Age of Discontentment: Wealth, Inequality, and “Bad Vibes”

• Too Many Rich People?
  • Michael’s provocative take: “Maybe the root of the problem is there are too many people with too much money…what’s causing the consternation is there’s too many people with too much money.” (Michael, 09:53)
  • Examples include high-end watches, trading cards, and stocks—all inflated due to this “too much money” effect.
• Comparative Wealth and Social Media:
  • Ben: "It's one of the trappings of wealth. Everyone is wealthier, but when you see other people wealthier, it’s really hard." (11:58)
  • The feeling of being left behind is amplified by social media and shifting expectations: “When you see rich people on social media telling middle-class people that they are actually poor…” (Ben, 12:17)
• Historical Perspective:
  • The hosts share stories from their own families about rising expectations—kids' activities, vacations, holiday gifts—as proxies for societal progress and higher baselines. (Ben, 25:26; Michael, 26:50)
• The ‘K-Shaped’ Economy and Persistent Discontent:
  • Even as median and average incomes rise, outliers (the ultra-rich getting richer) amplify the perception of a zero-sum game, making relative deprivation more acute (Michael, 24:22).

Notable Quote

“Some of it is legitimate affordability issues. Health care, education and housing do cost much more, even if they are much higher quality than they used to be.”
— Michael, quoting Allison Schrager, 25:04

4. Investor Behavior & Technology Changes

• Mutual Fund vs. ETF Ownership:
  • Despite the hype, mutual funds still far outnumber ETFs (54% vs 15% of Americans) due to inertia and 401k structures. (Ben, 15:14)
• Robinhood & Platform Interface Psychology:
  • Robinhood remains the stickiest platform for active users, but competitors are catching up.
  • “I think I look at the market 474 times a day.” (Michael, 17:35)
  • Ben notes moving to Schwab means he checks his portfolio less, acknowledging how UI design affects investor psychology (18:49).
• Rise of Young Investors:
  • More teens and young adults are investing—helped by zero commission trading and smartphone apps (21:44).
  • Story of a young woman investing to improve her family’s fortunes, learning from her immigrant parents’ struggles (22:07).

5. Housing Affordability Crisis & Societal Impacts

• Housing’s Role in Risk Appetite:
  • A new study shows young adults without realistic prospects of homeownership demonstrate “reduced work effort and increased risky asset investments” (Ben, 41:50).
  • Even so, forgoing a house means bigger brokerage balances, just not the psychic benefit of owning a home (Ben, 42:59).
• International Perspective:
  • Housing affordability is even worse in London, Australia, and parts of Europe, where house price/income ratios are way higher than in the U.S. (Ben, 43:12).

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Additional Key Segments

6. AI & Economic Boons

• AI Revenue Acceleration:
  • AI revenues up 9x in two years (from $7B to $60B); could reach $650B by 2029 if the pace continues (Ben, 34:02).
• Construction Boom Linked to Data Centers:
  • Trades like electricians and project managers see 25–30% wage inflation due to demand from data center construction (Ben, 35:04).
• Education Concerns & AI Tutoring:
  • Global test scores, especially mathematics, are plummeting, exacerbated by COVID—but Ben believes AI tutors will soon reverse this (Ben, 28:17).

7. Crypto Update

• Bitcoin and Strategy:
  • Despite volatility, Ben is incrementally buying crypto: “Every time it crashes, it comes back.” (37:09)
  • $6B was pulled from global crypto funds in November, the worst month ever (37:11).
  • On Michael Saylor's strategy: “If this is not the local bottom for [the company], holy cow, this company is in so much trouble.” (Michael, 39:50)
  • Discussing conspiracy theories: quantum computing as a risk to Bitcoin (Ben, 38:19).

8. Streaming, Media, and the Future of Content

• Legacy Media’s Decline:
  • Cable/broadcast TV’s share of viewing fell from 58% to 42% in 18 months (Michael, 53:49).
• Netflix, YouTube Premium, Consolidation:
  • Netflix leads in net income against peers hemorrhaging money (Michael, 52:57).
  • YouTube Premium has 125M subscribers @ $14/mo = $21B annual revenue (Michael, 51:14).
  • Anxiety over Netflix potentially buying Warner Bros and the future role of theaters.

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Highly Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

➤ “Investors never underreact. They always overreact.”

— Michael Batnick (03:24)

➤ “It’s the trappings of wealth: Everyone is wealthier, but the minute you see others doing better, it feels worse.”

— Ben Carlson (11:58)

➤ “Maybe the diagnosis isn’t just that it’s expensive to live now; maybe the root of the problem is there are too many people with too much money.”

— Michael Batnick (09:46)

➤ “This is the best labor market for construction workers they’re ever going to have. They’ll be talking about this forever.”

— Ben Carlson (35:55)

➤ “I don’t think it’s possible for every financial asset to be overvalued at once. Money has to go somewhere.”

— Ben Carlson (08:19)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |---------------|------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:27 | Markets year-to-date & corrections | | 04:43 | “Plain vanilla” portfolios outperform predictions | | 06:08 | Wall Street strategists’ price targets & media incentives | | 08:28 | “Everything is overvalued”—debunking the claim | | 09:53 | Too many rich people? “The real problem is...” | | 14:27 | Record foreign capital inflows into U.S. equities | | 15:14 | Mutual funds vs. ETFs—perplexing adoption gap | | 17:07 | Robinhood’s lead among active users; gamification of investing | | 21:44 | Young people embracing investing | | 25:04 | Allison Schrager: The “age of discontent” | | 26:50 | Family stories on past vs. present expectations | | 28:17 | Global test-score decline & future promise of AI tutoring | | 34:02 | AI industry revenue boom | | 35:04 | Construction worker wage inflation due to AI/data center boom | | 37:11 | Crypto market update—record outflows & investor psychology | | 41:50 | Housing unaffordability’s societal fallout | | 52:14 | YouTube Premium’s business model & media disruption | | 53:49 | Decline of legacy TV; Streaming ascendant | | 54:34 | Netflix, box office, and the fate of theatrical releases |

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Pop Culture & Listener Fun

• Disney Parks: Ben offers lightning lane recommendations; Star Wars rides “overrated” sparks minor debate (47:03, 48:20).
• Streaming UX: Robinhood vs. Schwab compared to Netflix vs. Disney/Hulu for user experience (19:13, 20:37).
• Book Recommendations:
  • Tom Freston’s memoir (MTV)
  • James Stewart’s "Unscripted" and "Disney War" (63:09)
• Show Recaps: “The Beast in Me”; “Slow Horses” continues to impress.

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Conclusion

This episode captured the essence of 2025’s “age of discontentment”—an era defined as much by material progress as by mounting dissatisfaction and the anxieties of comparative wealth. Yet, the data shows more prosperity, more opportunity, and faster-moving markets than at any point in decades. Michael and Ben encourage listeners to recognize both the real economic stressors (housing, services) and the social-psychological roots of malaise, all while advocating for practical steps: invest young, use boring portfolios, and focus on what you can control—however much the world seems upside down.

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For contact and listener questions:
[e-mail]

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Transcript

[Michael Batnick]

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[Ben Carlson]

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[Michael Batnick]

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[Podcast Narrator]

Welcome to Animal Spirits, a show about markets, life and investing. Join Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson as they talk about what they're reading, writing and watching. All opinions expressed by Michael and Ben are solely their own opinion and do not reflect the opinion of Ritholtz Wealth Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions Clients of Ritholtz Wealth Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast.

[Ben Carlson]

Welcome to Animal Spirits with Michael and Ben. All right, Michael, through the close on Monday. We're recording this Tuesday morning right before the open. The US stock market, the S&P 500, is up 17%, and it's in a drawdown of 1%.

[Michael Batnick]

Price to not, not, not. Price in gold.

[Ben Carlson]

Well, price in gold is down. Price in Bitcoin, it's up. So which one do you follow? Which is your. Which is your currency? Maybe people overreacted a couple weeks ago. Is that fair to say?

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah.

[Ben Carlson]

And, you know, so we had a little 5% correction. We had that one day. We were up 1 1/2%. They were down 1 1/2%. And it seemed like the mood of people were. Some people overreacted a little. Listen, I'm not calling anyone out. One of our producers, one of them said, you know, we have a lot of guys. He said, hey, is this the start of the crash? I. I just think, I do think every time this is obvious to say, but you can't have like a 40% crash without starting with a 5% correction. Duh. But every time we get a 5% correction, I feel like from now on, people are going to think, okay, this is it. This is the crash. I think that overreaction is going to happen every time we have a correction.

[Michael Batnick]

Now, I agree with that part. The. The part that I don't agree with is, did we overreact? It's easy to say with the benefit of hindsight, but I think the, the reason why the stocks were falling off was and is warranted because this is like at, you know, Atlas with the, with the world, the globe on his shoulders, that statue in New York City. That's what this is like. This market is with the hyperscalers and AI and the spending. And that legitimately came into question. And so I think that worth three weeks removed from the episode. But when Nvidia reports a blowout quarter and has that huge reversal. Yeah, people are going to react appropriately. And investors never underreact. They always overreact. So I don't think that it was an overreaction, like, oh, people are being babies and freaking out. It was warranted. We got some news that was disconcerting and people responded as they always do.

[Ben Carlson]

I'm still saying this is a healthy correction that we. A lot of the speculative stuff. Because if you say, well, wait, no.

[Michael Batnick]

But that could be true too, because I was saying it's a healthy Correction. But that doesn't mean that, like, investors were dumb to sell Nvidia and Meta and whatever.

[Ben Carlson]

So it's a healthy overreaction.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay. This is kind of interesting if you look at just plain vanilla, because I feel like in the past few years, people have wanted to put a stake in the heart of, like, plain vanilla is dead. You need, you need. You need more. You. Plain vanilla can't work anymore.

[Michael Batnick]

40, died in 2022.

[Ben Carlson]

Yeah. Remember I wrote the eulogy. Plain vanilla. This is doing fantastic this year. So the IFA is just developed. International stocks is up almost 30%. I mentioned the US stock market is up around 17%. The AG bonds total bond market is up 7% this year. So if you just had this boring three fund Vanguard portfolio of US international bonds, you're having a fantastic year this year.

[Michael Batnick]

Boring work.

[Ben Carlson]

It's kind of surprising, right? Especially I think, the bond piece. I don't. How many people do you think know that bonds are up almost 10% this year, like the aggregate bond market? Probably not many people. Correct.

[Michael Batnick]

No. Yeah.

[Ben Carlson]

It's a good year for plain vanilla.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah.

[Ben Carlson]

Most years are.

[Michael Batnick]

Most time stocks go up, as Sam likes to say.

[Ben Carlson]

That's true. Speaking of Sam Row, he does this every year, and I love it because he does this. He takes all of Wall street strategist price targets and he shows them at that because they start coming on now. He keeps track of them by. By the firm, and then he updates them throughout the year and he shows what happened at the end of the year. And so right as of right now, we're looking at like 7,100 to 8,000 for next year. I'm actually kind of surprised because. So they're all gains so far. I'm sure there's gotta be a bearish person coming out somewhere.

[Michael Batnick]

So the gain, I think Savita's not too bullish.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay. So the gain range is 4% to 17% if I'm a strategist. And I want to stand out because that's the game you want to be able to get on CNBC and Bloomberg because of your calls. You want the headline to read, hey, strategist, who predicted that's what you want to happen if you're a strategist. I'm predicting a 10, 10 to 15% down year in 2026, because you know my stat. The average down year in the S and p is down 13% over the last hundred years. If the stock market is down, the Average is down 13.

[Michael Batnick]

So you're. You're not predicting that you're saying that if you were coaching, if you were doing PR for a strategist, that's what you tell them to say.

[Ben Carlson]

If I was pr, I'd say, hey, listen, no one is doing this yet. You be the first one to say, hey, the market's going to finish down 15% in 2026. If it happens, you look like a genius. If it doesn't happen, no one remembers it because everyone else picked gains.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah, well, the thing is, if you're bearish and wrong, nobody cares.

[Ben Carlson]

Well, that's a lot of wrong, bearish people.

[Michael Batnick]

That's not true. But. But it's not as if one strategist is going to make a client do anything right? Now, they don't only listen to one strategist.

[Ben Carlson]

Exactly. So, yeah, now if you're.

[Michael Batnick]

If you're bearish and wrong and you're managing money, you're fired.

[Ben Carlson]

Because all these firms have strategists that make, that have views, but then they also have asset management firms that have their own views, and they, Their portfolios don't always match the views of their strategist. I'm just saying, if you want to get on tv, that's what you predict right now. And by the end of the year, everyone's going to forget anyway if you're wrong. Okay, I have a take here. So Jeff Gundlach was on odd lots, and he says almost all financial assets are now overvalued. And my take is that this is impossible to happen. All financial assets cannot be all overvalued because money has to go somewhere, especially in today's day and age. Everything can't be overvalued. Okay, I pulled this one up because I wrote about this in 2015, way.

[Michael Batnick]

Back when that was when the everything bubble was happening.

[Ben Carlson]

So Robert Shiller said, unlike 1929 and this was on Zero Hedge, this time, everything, stocks, bonds, and housing is overvalued. I just, I just don't think that is possible forever. Could be because people have to allocate capital somewhere. I mean, you could say, well, they could just put it in cash. But I think, I don't think it's possible for everything, every financial asset, to be overvalued simultaneously. Thoughts?

[Michael Batnick]

I mostly agree. I guess maybe the push back. If I were to give push back, not that I am, but if I were to be the math piece for people, for Jeff Gunlock, not that he needs me as math piece. The bazooka was fired during COVID and so much money made its way into the system, into People's banks accounts filtered into the stock market, into private assets, into crypto assets. So I think that, I think that you can have that dynamic where. And, and this is part of the broader conversation that was taking place this week about. And it's not just this week. I mean it did, it did. There was a piece that went viral this week. But just the overall sentiment of something is not right. And I am, I am definitely sympathetic to that view because you're seeing it in elections like something. It's not just feelings, it's not just vibes. But I think maybe the diagnosis of it, of where the bad vibes are coming from, where it's like it's so expensive to live. True. I don't think anybody would dispute that it is more expensive to live than it ever has been. But I think maybe the root of the problem is there are too many people with too much money bringing back to the point that you can have this type of thing where most asset classes are overvalued, even if it doesn't mean that all of a sudden they're going to all burst simultaneously.

[Ben Carlson]

So there was this, there was this post, I think.

[Michael Batnick]

What do you think about that? Take that. There's. The real problem is there's too many rich people. Of course the have nots, that's a perpetual issue. But what's causing the consternation is there's too many people with too much money.

[Ben Carlson]

So there was a post on LinkedIn a couple weeks ago from the tops, you know, tops, the trading cards from the CEO of Topps, which I used to be. I used to dabble in cards a little bit back in the day. I feel like everyone got into it, you know, five years after the FLIR 1986 Michael Jordan. So everyone had one friend who had the Michael Jordan rookie card. And then everyone in the 90s started buying cards. And all those cards in 90s are worthless because we all bought them anyway. So he said listen, the card market is crazy out of whack because there's so many rich people coming in and buying stuff up and everything is. He was kind of saying that like everything is overvalued. And he talked about the K shaped economy and all this other stuff. And I do think that that's a thing where everyone has a lot of money because money market assets, bonds, all this stuff. Like we keep asking where's all the money coming from? The money just starts flowing in the.

[Michael Batnick]

Stock market and people borrowing against their assets. I was listening yesterday, Patrick o' Shaughnessy did A podcast on business breakdowns with the founder of what's the watch company called? Hinki, I believe. And they were talking about. And it was, it was a Rolex episode. And you used to be able to get a Submariner for five grand, whatever it was. The entry price for a starter Rolex is now twice that. And at the upper end, you can go to a watch store, you can try to get a Rolex or the. These fancy brands and literally try and slap down $100,000 for a watch and be told, no.

[Ben Carlson]

I have to admit this, as a finance guy, I'm going to lose my finance bro card here. I don't get the Rolex thing and I never have, like, I don't, I don't even think they're attractive watches. Is that, is that a contrarian take? Like, I see a Rolex, I don't think, like, man, that's a beautiful watch. I don't.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah, and that is a contrarian take.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay, but the point, for me, the.

[Michael Batnick]

Point is, like, there's so many different. You mentioned cards, I mentioned watches. Look at the stock market. There's so many different areas to point to. Look at real estate prices, where it's like, this just doesn't feel great.

[Ben Carlson]

I don't think that that feeling is going away, though, because I think this is. No, no, no. Social media dynamic. Yeah, I, I don't think that all. And one day everyone's gonna wake up and go, yay, everything's great again. I think this is gonna be a perpetual feeling that is, is probably just gonna slowly but surely get worse because this is the, this is the where how we live now. This is, it's. It's like one of the trappings of wealth. Everyone is wealthier, but when you see other people wealthier, it's really hard because I think one of the things that's happened is on social media especially a lot of rich people are telling middle class people that they're actually poor people. And who's going to argue with you when you say, yeah, I'm middle, I should be, because by definition, everyone can't be above average. By definition, you can't be above average. There's always got to be a median. And it would be great if everything was better for everyone.

[Michael Batnick]

And the average, the average just keeps getting pulled higher. And so does the median, for that matter.

[Ben Carlson]

Yes.

[Michael Batnick]

And you're right.

[Ben Carlson]

If you do fall below there, then it, it's very painful. And you see every. Like, this person's doing fine. Why am I not doing fine? It's hard.

[Michael Batnick]

Absent complete wipeout, which obviously hurts the lower. Yeah, the lower part of the k wor the worst.

[Ben Carlson]

I mean, if you. If you do read. If you read a lot of the books about the Great Depression, they had the wipeout, but there were still a lot of rich people who did just fine and they kept living with their servants. And they're like, that's the thing is this is normal. It is. Unfortunately for a lot of people, I think it is. It's not. So the. The zeitgeist stuff is not going to get better.

[Michael Batnick]

Did you see. Oh my God, my brain, Cinderella Man? Remember that scene where Paul Giamatti where Russell Crowe goes into his apartment and he sees that he's living broke?

[Ben Carlson]

That's a. That's a really good movie, actually. That's an underrated Russell Crow.

[Michael Batnick]

One very good movie. Saw that in the theater.

[Ben Carlson]

Every movie you say you saw in the theater, I'm gonna call bullshit on half of them.

[Michael Batnick]

Call my dad. Call my dad. We saw Cinderella man in the theater.

[Ben Carlson]

All right.

[Michael Batnick]

Positive.

[Ben Carlson]

But I guess it is true. Back in the day, like, when there was nothing else to do, there was no stream. Like, we would literally just go to the movie theater every weekend.

[Michael Batnick]

So also my. My parents got divorced when I was 6. And every Saturday I went to my dad's and we either. We either went to Blockbuster or most of the times we went to the theater. Yeah, that's what we did.

[Ben Carlson]

All right, that's fair.

[Michael Batnick]

All right, this is a chart in April. So let's start with this. Actually, let's start with Yardini. So U.S. net capital inflows, foreign private purchases of U.S. equities totaled a record $646 billion over the past 12 months. Look at that chart.

[Ben Carlson]

So that whole sell of the US Thing lasted about a month. So here's the thing that I'd like to see, though. Like, what is foreign purchases of foreign assets look like? Because you. If you showed me this data before the year, I wouldn't say, man, foreign stocks are probably crushing US Stocks this year are doubling up their point.

[Michael Batnick]

I would guess not as much, but I don't know. It's just a guess. All right, but here, here's the CUDRA net. Foreign purchases of US Assets is from Apollo, and it breaks it down by month. So look at April 25th. There was a massive outflow. Like that was a thing. And the narrative was, oh, US Exceptionalism. Question mark. And that narrative died because immediately, as soon as they sold them, they came back in record numbers in May. And it's been positive inflows for the rest of the year.

[Ben Carlson]

One of the things that we asked in April or May or whenever was what's going to matter more tariffs or AI. And obviously I think we have our answer.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah, what a year. April was scary as shit. People like.

[Ben Carlson]

We had the President of the United States saying, like, listen, I don't want to make a depression, but like, what if we put this stuff through it and we're willing to remember.

[Michael Batnick]

Remember, the talking points from Besant and Lutnick were it's, it's Main Street's chance.

[Ben Carlson]

Yeah. Everyone's got it. Yeah. Rich people have to take their pain and we're going to. If we have to go recession, who cares? There are people who are like legitimate people saying we have to go into recession to do this. So be it. Anyway. Okay, moving on. All right. I've never seen this before. Eric Balchunas. Believe it or not, 54% of Americans own a mutual fund while only 15% own an ETF. Why do they get. People think so obviously the big part of this is I guess, just baby boomers who have most of their money in mutual funds and didn't want to sell them or 401ks, like the fact that. So 401ks is the thing. I can't believe that there hasn't been a bigger push to get ETFs and 401ks. Does that not seem like a. Like we're going to look back in 20 years and go, why did that take so long? What was the holdup?

[Michael Batnick]

I don't know. The mechanics of cash settlement and all that sort of stuff.

[Ben Carlson]

Yeah, I know that. But I mean, the robo advisors figured it out. You've got to imagine that the 401k, I guess maybe it's a little behind, but that this number surprised me. 15% of households own ETFs. I would have thought higher.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah. Here's a great chart from Mike Zakari from via bank of America. Robin Hood holds the biggest share of daily active users. This is a hell of a chart. So for online platforms, they compare? Well, yeah, they're not measuring physical branches.

[Ben Carlson]

Well, you know, but. So this is what Etoro E Trade, Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood. Surprisingly though, Robin hood peaked in 2021 at the meme stock craze. And the other companies have eaten into the share a decent amount. Obviously it's still what, 50% of the total?

[Michael Batnick]

I mean, yeah, it's wild, but it.

[Ben Carlson]

Was I guess 70, 75% at the peak. But yes, Robin Hood is. Is like a behemoth in the online space, obviously.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah. I mean, I'm a daily active user.

[Ben Carlson]

You know, what I did recently.

[Michael Batnick]

Probably go. Probably gone Robin Hood to check the market. I mean, what amount of. On my computer. I think I'm a sicko. I think. I think I look at the market 474 times a day.

[Ben Carlson]

You know, one of the great. The.

[Michael Batnick]

There's. There's never. There is never. How about this? I almost never. Unless I am recording with you. But even still, I've got the market on my screen. I probably go. I'd probably never go more than six minutes without looking at the prices.

[Ben Carlson]

I'm. I'm probably a little bit more of a range than you. I. But here's the thing. So I'm. I recently, I think people give say, like Robinhood's platform or like their technology and. And the access and what. How they. Their interface works is one of the reasons that they've done so well. Obviously, the zero commissions was a big thing, but their. Their interface is just better than everyone.

[Michael Batnick]

Great app.

[Ben Carlson]

It's. It's kind of like Netflix and the other streamers, right?

[Michael Batnick]

The other streamer, he's got a great app.

[Ben Carlson]

The other streamers are so much worse than nothing. Right? Well, I don't know. That's from he. Oh, a great. Oh, I gotcha. Okay.

[Michael Batnick]

Thank you.

[Ben Carlson]

That was your Pacino. But so if you use other streamers and like, it doesn't just automatically go to the next episode like you like, why is this so much worse than Netflix? Netflix's interface is just so much better. But does that. But I. And so it would be the same thing with like, Schwab and Vanguard and Fidelity. Like, their online platforms just aren't as good as Robinhood's. I think that's. That's. That's undisputed. Here's the thing, though.

[Michael Batnick]

Yes. Yesterday I was.

[Ben Carlson]

I have a point. I have a point here. I moved all my. My money, my stocks and stuff from Robinhood to Schwab recently. And I don't check it nearly as much because Schwab's interface just isn't as nice and easy as Robinhood. And I think that's actually a good thing. I'm not checking it compulsively like you were saying, like, oh, what is this stock doing? What is this ETF doing? What's the market doing? I'm not checking it as much because it's not as easy. I think that's a good thing.

[Michael Batnick]

Oh, yeah. I'm not saying what I do is healthy. It's insane.

[Ben Carlson]

I did it. It's like. It was like. It's kind of like a relief. Like, ah. I don't have to look all the time.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah.

[Ben Carlson]

What was I. What am I doing? It's not helping anything.

[Michael Batnick]

I do wonder is, is will there be a point in my life? I'm sure there will be. What? I don't do this. But it's been like this for 15 years. I don't know.

[Ben Carlson]

It's all right.

[Michael Batnick]

Anyway, getting back to the point of the interface, last night, so we watched the Beast in Me, which we'll talk about later. I was trying to search for on the Disney app. I was trying to search for the Americans, a show that you love, a show that I've never seen. The main star of the Beast in me is in the Americans.

[Ben Carlson]

That guy is fantastic, isn't he? He's such a good actor.

[Michael Batnick]

I don't think he's a very good actor.

[Ben Carlson]

You don't like him? Oh, my gosh. Wow. We're disagree on this. Totally.

[Michael Batnick]

We'll talk about that.

[Ben Carlson]

I think it's phenomenal.

[Michael Batnick]

So I was on the Disney app looking for the Americans. I couldn't find it. I literally typed in the. And I go on my phone. I said, wait a minute. Isn't the Americans on Hulu? I don't understand. So I opened the Hulu app inside of Disney, and again, I search for Americans. I search for the Americans. Nothing. But I open up my phone, and it's right there. So then I go into. I'm in the Hulu app and I'm scrolling to, like, the action category. Scroll down. Nope, not there. I scroll. Scroll. Like I said, in the drama category. Finally, it's in the drama category. But why is it so hard? And your point? Netflix is the Robin Hood of. Of content.

[Ben Carlson]

Way better.

[Michael Batnick]

All right. There's an article in the Wall Street Journal.

[Ben Carlson]

Duncan says I have to live a little.

[Michael Batnick]

Why? Because you don't check the stock market that much.

[Ben Carlson]

Yeah, I guess.

[Michael Batnick]

Meet the teens investing in stocks for their future home and retirement.

[Ben Carlson]

This is great. So they give all the stories, as usual. Like, this person is doing this, and we interviewed this person. I just think all these stories are great. This stuff was not happening when we were young. Not at all.

[Michael Batnick]

And this is all Robin hood. And in 2020 and 2021, a lot of people like you and I were wagging our fingers and saying, this is not healthy. The stock market is not a casino. People are learning the wrong Lessons and a lot of that is valid. They're gamifying investing and a lot of that is, is valid. But the benefits to people, and we did say this at the time, maybe we changed our tune a little bit later. The benefits of getting people to learn about the market and to discover that there is a right way to do this and long term compounding and all that sort of good stuff like that was all Robinhood.

[Ben Carlson]

It really was, it just, it broke the barriers down. I think the whole zero commission trading and just making it easier to set up an account and in minutes attach your bank account and then start trading or investing immediately. And the, the other thing is I think people are realizing the stock market really is like the greatest wealth building platform on the planet. So they, there's this in the story. They talk about this, this, this teen I think is in college and they talk about all these kids who have saved up their money from summer jobs and put it in the stock market and the parents helped them. And it says that this, this, this one girl growing up in Manhattan's Chinatown, Zhang translated her immigrant parents tax form for them and noticed that her classmates homes were nicer than hers. She says, I felt an obligation to be financially stable because, because my parents aren't always that stable. Now a college student studying finance and accounting and she started saving and investing and investing in the stock market because she wanted to create a better life for herself. I think that's a wonderful story.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah.

[Ben Carlson]

Good for these, good for these kids. And we, we hear about it all the time. I hear from young people all the time who are investing in way, way, way younger than I was. And if they keep their money in there, they are going to be so much better off and wealthier than even our generation.

[Michael Batnick]

I don't think I told you this. Josh and I are interviewing Vlad on Thursday.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay.

[Michael Batnick]

No, yeah. So that should be fun.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay. Yeah. All right. I love their. You always pull out from quarter the Robin Hood charts and stuff.

[Michael Batnick]

That shows them they have the best deck in the business.

[Ben Carlson]

They do. Yeah. It's very.

[Michael Batnick]

All right. Getting to the point that we were talking about earlier about the discontent and where it's stemming from. Allison Schrager had a really good piece on this. She said this is an age of discontent. Just note how often we use the word crisis. The affordability crisis, the housing crisis, the everything crisis. And yet we've never had so much, not only in terms of wealth, but also income. It's true the middle class is disappearing, but largely because so many people have become upper middle class. And fewer people than ever live in poverty, even by real American poverty standards. She has a chart showing the percentage of U.S. households with a total income greater than $150,000 has increased as the middle class has been shrinking. So more people are getting pulled up. It is important to note this figure includes earned income tax credits and transfers. To some extent, it shows how much redistribution we already do. It also shows how much, how much more prosperous America has become over the last 50 years. You can't even compare our standard of living today with how we lived 15 years ago. So why do people feel like the economy isn't working for them? Some of it is higher expectations of what a home should be, where you should be able to live, and how fast your earnings should rise. Some of it is legitimate affordability issues. Health care, education and housing do cost much more, even if they are much higher quality than they used to be. Well, maybe not education. More on that later. If we are richer, our expectations would rise. It could also be that while the upper middle class has grown and is better off in many ways, the very rich got much, much richer. And this makes the economy feel more zero sum to people striving for success, even if overall it has meant a more prosperous economy for more people. I think she nailed it. So the people that would have been discontent 20 years ago are so much angrier, understandably so, because they see so much excess and so much wealth and it's so visible and it feels so up when everything that they're paying for is so expensive.

[Ben Carlson]

So I thought about this recently in terms of my own family dynamic over the years and how the expectations rise. So my dad and his, he had four brothers and sisters. They lived in a tiny, tiny house. One of my uncles still lives there. And I can't believe that with seven people, they lived in this house. And when we were growing up, he would always tell us that they didn't have anything at all. He would say, like. And he would, every year at Christmas, he would say, listen, we didn't get Christmas presents every year. We rented them. And he was trying to tell us, like, we didn't come up. So what you guys have is way more than I ever had, okay? But I think about something like childcare, which I think is a big thing. I asked my parents recently, like, what did you guys do for us for childcare? My mom worked night shifts. She worked 7pm to 7am three days a week. And she said in the other days, me and one of the moms down the street we traded off doing daycare. So half the time I took her kids, half the time she took us. Right. And so she said, you sending your kids to daycare? Like, they're actually learning stuff. They're doing stuff. We just made do with people in the neighborhood, and I don't think people do that as much anymore. And so when we went to Florida last week and our kids flew, I said, listen, when we went to Florida as a kid, we drove. I laid in the back of minivan. We drove for 24 hours to get there or something. We stayed off premises. We didn't stay on Disney. Like, we were doing, like. And I think that stuff, like, over time, that that's a sign of progress, but also the expectations are rising and rising and rising, and that I think that is a form of progress in itself. But unfortunately, when the expectations get higher and the luxuries become necessities, that can make it easier to be discontented.

[Michael Batnick]

I told this story a couple months ago. Over the summer, my dad took me to the apartment that he grew up in, the complex. And my dad grew up in poverty. He was. He. He shared a bedroom with his grandfather, like a bunk bed with his grandpa, which is wild to think about. And he. I asked him if he felt poor, and he said. He said no. Because they didn't know.

[Ben Carlson]

Right?

[Michael Batnick]

He didn't know. He didn't know that people lived in houses and that there was. Now, there wasn't the extravagance in the 1950s that there is today, obviously. But that's the point. It wasn't visible. It was much more local.

[Ben Carlson]

Everyone's kind of in it together, more or less.

[Michael Batnick]

Right?

[Ben Carlson]

Yeah. Right again. So I think this is a sign of progress, and this is one of the reasons that this. This. These feelings aren't going away. Yeah, probably ever.

[Michael Batnick]

All right, good chart. Claire Lehman tweeted the trends in mathematics, reading, and science performing. This is for the oecd. So it's global. It's not just the United States. People who don't take phone social media are having a deleterious effect on developing brains. What's the alternative explanation for this? Did every country put lead in the water at the same time? So the test scores for mathematics, reading, and science are collapsing now, there is a noticeable break, especially in mathematics, around Covid.

[Ben Carlson]

Yeah, Covid's a big thing for this, for sure.

[Michael Batnick]

Had a horrendous impact on society, but this was trending lower. And these. These. There's been a lot written about this over the past couple of weeks. This trend is alarming.

[Ben Carlson]

I don't want to poo poo this at all. What I feel like for decades we've heard how bad our education system is. Why do things keep improving then? Why do we keep. Why do, like, if. If our education system is so bad, how do we keep creating such great stuff? How do. How do we keep creating so much wealth? I just, I. I'm not trying to poo poo this. And I also think that, like, the solution is coming. Every kid is going to have an AI tutor. Like, I. I don't think. I'm not as worried about this because I think the solution is already here. That I like that take, like, it's going. This, it's. I agree. This is not good. This is not a good thing. The solution is here. All of our kids are going to have an AI tutor that's going to, like, understand and know their specific strong points and weak points and help them on the weak points.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah, I agree. All right. Carlile has two charts that I wanted to highlight. One of them is the household consumption index. I don't know exactly what this measures, but it breaks down into highest income, middle income, lowest income, and the takeaway is the highest income. The middle income and the lowest are up into the right, but nowhere near as steep as the highest income line. And then they have another chart next to it showing the household financial stress index. And of course, at the highest income, there's, you know, no stress, less than 2% delinquency rate. The middle income is steady, under 4%, but the lowest income, although declining, is still way, way, way higher. I think the chart always looks like this. But. All right, good news, good news. On the other side of this, the fantastic news, in fact, Michael and Susan Dell announced on Tuesday that they would deposit $250 in individual investment accounts for 25 million children, an amount totaling $6.25 billion. It is one of the largest philanthropic, philanthropic gifts ever to go directly to Americans. These are called Trump accounts.

[Ben Carlson]

This is a cool story.

[Michael Batnick]

That's great. The federal government will give $1,000 to babies born between January 2025 and December 2028. The Dell's gift extends to children up to 10 years old, though it limits eligibility to those who live in a zip code where the median household income is below $150,000. More of this, and I think. I think more of this is coming. I think people will follow his lead.

[Ben Carlson]

If you're a really, really super duper rich person. I think I looked. It's like he's worth like 150 billion. What, what better way to give it like than doing something cool like this. I've seen other billionaires that have like paid off everyone's student loan debt or something like this is, this is a very cool story. I do think that one of the ways that we could help a lot with young people. We talk a lot about the housing market. I do think that the, there should be a way bigger tax credit you get for daycare if you, if you have a dual income family. Like it's, it's so stupid that back breaking. We subsidize education K through 12 but not pre K when it helps people go to work and, and be members of the economy and help things grow like that. That should be a way higher number. Like if they're in this same time frame.

[Michael Batnick]

People hate. People hate this. Why should my taxes go up to subsidize you having babies? We don't have that. Like this is a very. This is a electric rail.

[Ben Carlson]

It's a net positive for society because it helps the economy with more people working and producing.

[Michael Batnick]

Yes, I unapologetically agree with this. Take like whatever child, child costs pre daycare, daycare. Just completely unhinged. All right, this is, this is another interesting one from Carlisle. So last week we shared the staff from Matthew Boaz. I can't remember what the stat was but it was something like what we're seeing has never happened outside it was.

[Ben Carlson]

Recessionary for job losses. Right.

[Michael Batnick]

All right. This is not a good chart. The local experiences versus travel spending index. Both of them are going down big league. There was another chart showing the experiences spending index which is travel, tourism and live events. This turned negative for only the second time over the last three years. Not great. I don't know what the story is here. Maybe it's just. I don't, don't need to overthink it. The economy is slowing.

[Ben Carlson]

I think eventually people got exhausted and did too much stuff. Like at a certain point it had. We've been waiting for this forever. Like we thought, ah, people are going to take one or two trips after Covid and then it'll be back to normal. And it didn't. This seems like it maybe is back to normal. I tell you what, not at Disney. Holy smokes. People love spending. So I'd never been to the. I'm not a Disney person. I've mentioned this before.

[Michael Batnick]

You're a Disney person.

[Ben Carlson]

I am. We've gone three times. So I'd never been to Disney Springs before. Have you been there before?

[Michael Batnick]

No. Oh, is that, like, the shopping spot?

[Ben Carlson]

It's shops and restaurants. So for Thanksgiving dinner, we went there. Which. Side note, the last two years we've been traveling. Thanksgiving week, we thought. We thought it was. The kids have time off of school anyway, so I missed Thanksgiving, the traditional Thanksgiving Day. I didn't miss it at all. Two years in a row. Not at all. Yeah, I don't, you know, anyway, but we go to Disney Springs and there's just millions of people everywhere, and we're trying to go in stores, and it's too much. It's too chaotic. And I. The kids went and did some, like, boat. There's a car that you could drive that, like a car turns into a boat, you can drive around. So the kids did it with Courtney, and shoot, there's only four spots. So I'll just stay back and have margarita. So I'm talking to the bartender, and I said, this place. Is this place more insane than usual because it's a holiday. And she was like, it's a little bit more. But she's like, honestly, it's always like this. It's. It's always busy. And, like, that just blows. Boggles my mind that there's just always people spending money in an insane amount of money at a place like that, and it really never slows down.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah. Happiest place on earth. Can't wait to go.

[Ben Carlson]

I have some more Disney thoughts for you later. Let's talk about AI. So Derek Thompson had a cool post with Tim Lee, who. He does a substack called Understanding AI. So he's. He's. And he does a lot. He does some of the best charts on AI, I think. And they did this thing kind of like the pros and cons, right? They did a Grand Rapids hedge post, okay? Little of this, little of that. Little good, little bad. And I thought. I thought this one was interesting. He said, on the. On the positive side, AI revenue is climbing fast. So they. They said AI generative. AI revenue has increased ninefold in the last two years, from 7 billion to more than 60 billion. And this isn't counting, like, circular spending on chips and data centers. Like, I'll to you. You give to me. And they look out what it could be, the estimates. So say if AI revenues continue to grow at 100% per year, AI will hit 650 billion annualized in 2029, which is right on schedule. And it's basically saying all the money they're spending, if that happens now, that's a big if. Like, all the money, like The ROI would actually be worth it.

[Michael Batnick]

I hope so.

[Ben Carlson]

That's a big, big leap, obviously, right?

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay. We talked a few weeks ago about the construction boom. I said, like, there's got to be construction companies that are. That are going crazy. And people doing. The Wall Street Journal had this one nailed. A few people sent this to us. So they're saying that because of high demand from data centers, people from electricians to project managers are earning 25 to 30% more than they did before this happened. So they said. They talked to this guy in Columbus, Ohio, who said he's been doing odd jobs, hanging drywall, trying to find clients. He said he pinches himself every day going to work. He's 51. He now makes more than $100,000 a year. It's a huge increase in pay, and it's all because of data centers. And they said they had all these stories about these people who are in construction workers making more money than they ever thought possible. But this is one of those. This is one of those things, though. Like, if you're a realtor in 2020, late 2020, early 2021, it's the best market environment you're ever going to have ever, right?

[Michael Batnick]

Yes.

[Ben Carlson]

Low interest rates, bidding wars, housing selling. Like, this is going to be the. Probably the best labor market for these people in these specific industries ever. Like, this boom is going to be the biggest one they ever see.

[Michael Batnick]

Correct.

[Ben Carlson]

They're gonna be talking about this forever.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah.

[Ben Carlson]

But anyway, that's a good unintended benefit, I suppose.

[Michael Batnick]

Absolutely. All right, let's do some crypto stuff. Crypto has been acting horrifically.

[Ben Carlson]

What do you think? What do you think bitcoin could go to?

[Michael Batnick]

Like, especially notable considering the strength of the stock market. You asked me for a bitcoin price target.

[Ben Carlson]

You gave S&P 10,000 couple. Obviously, a lot of this has to do with the stock market because. I don't know, crypto is a risk asset.

[Michael Batnick]

This could. This could age terribly. I think the bottom's in. Okay, but could it go to 70,000 and. I mean. Yeah, why not?

[Ben Carlson]

And obviously, if the stock market fall 20%, Bitcoin is going way lower.

[Michael Batnick]

Sure. But here's my grand Raptors hedge. Did I buy more? No. So do I really believe it that much that I'm putting my money where my mouth is?

[Ben Carlson]

No. Oh, okay. See, I'm a money where the mouth is guy. I start. I said, I started buying. I've been once a week. I'm buying a little more crypto because it crashed.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah. If it.

[Ben Carlson]

Every time it crashes, it comes back.

[Michael Batnick]

If it rolls over again, I'll buy. Okay, so investors pulled $6 billion from global crypto funds. November's exodus is so far the worst on record for ETFs. So investors are scared, you know, for whatever reason. I mean, maybe prices are going lower. It's that simple.

[Ben Carlson]

I don't know.

[Michael Batnick]

But they're pulling money out of it.

[Ben Carlson]

So that's interesting because in April, money went in, right? Everyone flooded in to buy the dip. Now the money's flooding out. Yeah, I think that's interesting.

[Michael Batnick]

The April crash felt worse, maybe because it was in the context of falling, falling stock prices as well. Like for me personally, I. I said this in April. I almost sold.

[Ben Carlson]

Right.

[Michael Batnick]

I remember I was, I was on the baseball field and I saw, I saw a tweet from a guy that I really respect who I think is really bright on this stuff. Level headed, say that bitcoin go to 10,000. I said, Ken holy. And that was the literal bottom. But I was genuinely tempted to like sell a decent amount.

[Ben Carlson]

So do you think it still could go to 10 at this point with the ETF powerhouse behind it? No, I think, I almost think it's impossible.

[Michael Batnick]

No, I just think that there's too many people with too much money that would.

[Ben Carlson]

Unless there's a quantum computing hack or something. But you know, it's funny, someone did some. I saw some conspiracy theory out there saying like Bitcoin is crashing because they're worried about quantum computing figuring it out someday. But if you could figure out the code to Bitcoin, what would be the point of it? Because it would all crash if, if you. Unless you just wanted to see, see anarchy. Like if you could hack Bitcoin and it wasn't secure network anymore. So what? It's all going to zero?

[Michael Batnick]

Well then what. And that, right, if you're the only. Why. And why wouldn't you hack the Federal Reserve or the treasury?

[Ben Carlson]

Or steal the U.S. constitution, right? Declaration of Independence. I mean. Yeah.

[Michael Batnick]

All right, so in LOL O L O L News, here's a press release from Strategy establishment of USD Reserve. Strategy today announced that it has established a USD Reserve of $1.44 billion to support the payment of dividends on its preferred stock and interest on its outstanding indebtedness. The USD reserve was funded using proceeds from the sale of shares of 8 of Class A common stock under Strategies at the Market Offering Program. Strategy's current intention is to maintain a USD reserve in an amount sufficient to fund at least 12 months of its dividends. And strategy intends to strengthen the USD reserve over time. All right, so.

[Ben Carlson]

Oh, so back into fiat, I see. Interesting.

[Michael Batnick]

So they sold shares and they raised cash, AKA a USD reserve.

[Ben Carlson]

Is this a massive red flag to you or is this just like. Oh, no, they're. They're just. They're being prudent because I feel like you've been more of a strategy. You. You followed this story pretty intently.

[Michael Batnick]

Both. Yeah. I. If this is not the local bottom or a local bottom for strategy, which I do believe it is. Like, I think the next 20% is higher that. Holy cow, this stock is in. So this company is in so much trouble. Now. There are people that know about where, like the. The puking point is for his bitcoin holdings. I don't know all the mechanics of how it works.

[Ben Carlson]

I saw this morning someone said the average price is like 75 for them, but I don't know when that means they have to sell.

[Michael Batnick]

It's. It's much, much, much, much lower.

[Ben Carlson]

So anyway, to me, it has to. Bitcoin can't. Like, obviously the premium has compressed so much. It would just have to be. Bitcoin would have to keep crashing. Because if you look at the chart of this thing. Holy smokes. Did it get rocked?

[Michael Batnick]

I mean, it got rocked. Well, so relative to bitcoin, too. So that's why I think the. There is a floor under strategy, because smart people would just be like, all right, well, now it's training at a. At a 20 discount to its bitcoin holdings. Like, I'm buying because if there's a bitcoin balance, the leverage is here.

[Ben Carlson]

Yeah, it would be. It just be. But if Bitcoin falls 20% more from here. Look out below. Right? I think. I think you're right. If bitcoin stabilizes that this thing. I don't know.

[Michael Batnick]

It depends. It depends on the mnet. It's called the M. Nev of where strategy is relative to its underlying holdings. And there is a floor at where the discount could go to, like, I don't think it could collapse to like, you know, a 20 discount, for example, because people come in and buy.

[Ben Carlson]

But the. The real. Where this snowballs is people start worrying like, okay, he's not gonna be able to fund any more purchases anymore because people aren't gonna buy the convertible notes. Like, that is when.

[Michael Batnick]

But. But counterpoint, he just did. Yesterday they sold the $1.4 billion worth of stock.

[Ben Carlson]

I just think this is one of the stories where when bitcoin is going up he looks and sounds like a genius. Like, oh, God, this guy has it figured out. When it's going down, he sounds like a lunatic. And it's. It's. Obviously it's. It's not either of those things. Those are the extremes. But that's how this. And it's kind of like crypto in general. But this Strat. This company especially.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah.

[Ben Carlson]

Is like that.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah.

[Ben Carlson]

All right, so there's some new studies that came out. Let's talk housing. In a study from the University of Chicago, Northwestern, they found that Americans demonstrate reduced work effort, increased leisure spending, and investment in risky financial assets among young adults who face little to no realistic prospect of being able to afford a home. So they found out, and I don't know how they did this, but they found that people who are owning a home, or it's more realistic, they take fewer risks and they strive harder at work, which is kind of surprising. The work thing, I don't know how you can actually figure that out, but the whole. The risk thing obviously makes sense. And we've talked about this, and I do think. And some people look at this and go, this is a bad thing. And I continue to think this is probably a net positive for most people who are doing this. Not for their psychology, not for their psychic income. I think from their bottom line, they're going to be wealthier because of this, because they're willing to take more risks, invest in the stock market. I think that is going to be the outcome of this, even if they're not happier. Because they would rather own a home than have a stock portfolio.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah. Because somebody's like, all right, I have 20. I would have had $17,000 in my brokerage account, and now I have 34. Whatever it is, like, they want to be in the house.

[Ben Carlson]

Yes.

[Michael Batnick]

For those that want to be in the house.

[Ben Carlson]

Yes. But obviously this. So they put some numbers behind the stuff that we've been talking about. This obviously makes intuitive sense. This is kind of crazy, though. They look at. Because the FT is, I guess a lot of people are based in the UK or overseas. They show housing price affordability across the UK and us. They show London, the UK and US and look at how much more unaffordable it is in London and the uk. Obviously, if you put, like, New York on here, it would be probably pretty similar to London, maybe not as bad. But this just shows the house price to income ratio. And I just keep thinking in places like England, in Australia and a lot of places in Europe, things are way, way worse. And I just wonder if people think it's bad. Now imagine, I can't believe that people aren't like riding in the streets or like the house prices in Australia and London and such. I just think that it could get worse and it doesn't seem like anyone is willing to do the thing that we need to do, which is build more housing.

[Michael Batnick]

Well, as far as the, the comments about foreign markets, I, I assume you don't track foreign politics. Like maybe it is bad.

[Ben Carlson]

Fair, it, it's possible. But like the, the price to income ratios in places like Australia and the UK are five times worse than they are in the us. They're, they're so much the off the charts worse.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah.

[Ben Carlson]

And I just think that like, are we on track to become those type of countries? Are we actually going to do something to fix it? I don't, I don't see anyone willing to fix the problem yet. There's like a few handful of cities that are doing it. That's it.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah.

[Ben Carlson]

All right. Did you read this piece from Greg Zuckerman about Charlie Munger? So it's kind of the story of Charlie Munger's final years and it's a really good read. But I wanted to pull out this one piece and I think this kind of blends in with what we've been talking about with like higher expectations and how different generations. So he says he owned a home with spectacular ocean views in Montecito, California. I guess he designed the entire community. They call it Mungerville. And at one point he told a friend he expected to spend his last years there. I looked the house up. It looked fantastic. Beautiful, right? And said. Instead, Munger chose to remain in his longtime home in Los Angeles. The place didn't even have air conditioning during a heat wave three years ago, friends bought electric fans and bags of ice to cool his library. Munger didn't care. The home was close to people he liked and the project he found simulating. So this guy is obviously a billionaire. Could have easily afforded air conditioning. Didn't want it. The first person I thought of when I read this is my father. My dad would do this exact same thing. And I feel like this is this attitude, this like, I don't want it, I don't need it. It's, I'll be fine. Which we grew up in a house without air conditioning, by the way. My parents just got it finally a few years ago. This is something my father would do. And I feel like this, this attitude of like, I don't need it. I feel like that is. That. That is dying with the older generation.

[Michael Batnick]

Of the baby boomers. That's depression babies.

[Ben Carlson]

Yes, exactly. So we don't have that anymore. And so starting with Gen X and lower. That whole attitude, I wanted completely gone. Yeah, that attitude. This is gone. Like, I just thought it was really funny because I just thought for like, oh my gosh. That's my.

[Michael Batnick]

I think that mentality is, is sad. And I understand where it comes from, obviously. Right. Like your childhood memories form who you are forever. You can't change who you are. And I'm glad that that, that is dying out. I'm not glad that these people are dying. Don't mishear me. But that, that is a horrible way to go through life.

[Ben Carlson]

I actually. Yes. When you see the stories about billionaires who drives a 20 year old Honda Accord or whatever, I don't think that's a success story.

[Michael Batnick]

No.

[Ben Carlson]

I think that's someone who like can't get out of a. Or the, the, hey, this person was a janitor who secretly had $8 million and never spent a dime on themselves and lived above a garage.

[Michael Batnick]

Right.

[Ben Carlson]

I don't think that's a success story. I think that they should have spent the money on themselves and made their life better.

[Michael Batnick]

Me too.

[Ben Carlson]

Some people would disagree with us. All right, so no one else is going to care about this, but you're going to Disney next month, right? You're taking the kids on Christmas?

[Michael Batnick]

I am.

[Ben Carlson]

How long are you going for?

[Michael Batnick]

We're going to. We're going to Universal and Disney. I think I'm going for five days, something like that. Six days.

[Ben Carlson]

You're hitting all the Disney parks.

[Michael Batnick]

I don't think we're doing Animal Kingdom because we did it the last time.

[Ben Carlson]

That's one we didn't do this time. All right, so I'm going to give you the rides that you should buy the Lightning Lane Premier pass for. Okay.

[Michael Batnick]

Okay.

[Ben Carlson]

This is Ben's ride. We did this at the end on Thanksgiving dinner. We were all done with all the parks. We all went through and named our favorite rides. So Guardians of the Galaxy at Epcot is a must. That's one of the best roller coasters I've ever been on. I couldn't believe how great it was. Like, it was fantastic. So much fun.

[Michael Batnick]

I think we did that last time. That was good.

[Ben Carlson]

There's an Aerosmith roller coaster in Hollywood studios that I didn't know about. It's called Rock and Roller Coaster. It's the only roller coaster that goes upside down. Hmm. It's Fantastic. Tron, of course, is very cool. Do you see the picture I put in here of me doing Tron?

[Michael Batnick]

That's amazing. So Tron was closed last time we went.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay. It's very fun. It's as advertised. My kids said it a little too short, but it's like that thing. It looks like it's fake what I'm doing. That's the actual roller coaster. Riding on a motorcycle. Tower of Terror was great. My daughter Kate, my youngest, was holding on my arm for dear life. And a few other ones that you know. But the Star wars rides are overrated.

[Michael Batnick]

Stop. Just stop. Next topic.

[Ben Carlson]

Really? You don't think this.

[Michael Batnick]

I think the Star wars rides existence is overrated. What is wrong with you?

[Ben Carlson]

They could have made a very cool Star wars roller coaster, and they chose to make some. Like, to make you feel like you're in the movie.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah. Imagine being a kid.

[Ben Carlson]

Yeah, but it's the new Star Wars. Movies like that no one likes. It's not the old ones.

[Michael Batnick]

Get out of here. Get rid of that.

[Ben Carlson]

And finally, It's a small. You like horror movies? It's a Small World, after all. Could be a horror movie they could make a movie about. It's a small. That is the creepiest ride I was telling my kids, like, just. Just be aware. This is the creepiest ride you're going to go on anyway. Okay. That's all I got.

[Michael Batnick]

All right. I have some Disney stuff later, actually, as it turns out.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay.

[Michael Batnick]

All right, so ne. So let's talk streaming stuff.

[Ben Carlson]

Wait, hang on. One more thing. We did, you know, they had the live Indiana Jones thing, right? The Indiana Jones Show. It's. Yeah, it's one of my favorites because that's my favorite action movie of all time. And my son George has watched all the Indiana Jones movies multiple times. He loves them. He goes, I don't think that's a real Indiana Jones, you know, And I said, the original movie came out in 1981. Harrison Ford is like 85 years old now. It's kind of hard to believe that. That. I mean, I don't know if they're still making the. The bad movies and recreating them, but it's been out for a long, long time. And I also said that's the greatest action movie jingle ever, right?

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah. It's just absolute goosebumps.

[Ben Carlson]

Yeah.

[Michael Batnick]

All right, so Michael Semblis did a post that we spoke about last week with his favorite movies on the state of streaming. There's so Warner Brothers is for sale. Talks are heating up that Netflix Might buy them in a mostly cash offer. Paramount is obviously in the picture.

[Ben Carlson]

Did you, did you listen to the James Cameron one with Matt Bellany?

[Michael Batnick]

I did.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay. And he said he absolutely does not want Netflix buying Warner Brothers, which I thought was interesting because he's worried that they won't show all their movies in the theater.

[Michael Batnick]

Right. So they'll show the, you know, the, the, the Batman to the world. But like Sinners, for example. No way.

[Ben Carlson]

That'll go straight to HBO or wherever. Yeah, or Netflix now.

[Michael Batnick]

So anyway, interesting to see where that lands.

[Ben Carlson]

And Netflix hasn't really, hasn't ever really done a big acquisition like this.

[Michael Batnick]

Certainly not a giant studio. I mean, I, I don't want Netflix to buy them.

[Ben Carlson]

I think we have to just relent and just. It's going to be Apple and Amazon and Netflix in the future. They're gonna.

[Michael Batnick]

No, Paramount.

[Ben Carlson]

Yeah, I guess Paramount, Yeah.

[Michael Batnick]

By the way, Paramount. Michael Eisner did Indiana Jones. More on that in a second. So YouTube Premium has 125 million subscribers paying $14 a month.

[Ben Carlson]

What do you get for that? Just no ads.

[Michael Batnick]

I wanted to watch. I wanted to watch. So my favorite Patrick o' Shaughnessy interviews are with Rue. I don't know what she's doing down there. I hear noises. My favorite Patrick interviews are with the Hollywood guys. So I love listening to Mike Ovitz from CIA. I love listening, I love listening to Ari Manuel and Barry Diller, like all these guys that made Hollywood. So I wanted to watch the Ari Manuel one and I, I, I popped it up on YouTube and there's, there's commercials in there. So for YouTube Premium, which is not YouTube TV.

[Ben Carlson]

Right.

[Michael Batnick]

YouTube Premium gives you, I guess, ad free viewing, I think. I'm, I'm sure there's more to it. I haven't really, like, done a deep dive, but they've got 125 million subscribers paying $14 a month. That's $21 billion a year, to say nothing of YouTube TV, which I'm sure I could just.

[Ben Carlson]

It is kind of, it is kind of funny that people tried to like, say Google's done, like, how stupid was that that people were actually throwing dirt on the grave of Google?

[Michael Batnick]

So Barry Diller said to Patrick, now Barry basically invented the movies. Not, not exactly, but he was a hugely, hugely influential media media guy. He said, quote, hollywood is irrelevant.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay, Meaning, Meaning it's because of YouTube.

[Michael Batnick]

Oh, it's YouTube, it's Netflix, it's Amazon, it's Apple, like Paramount and Warner Brothers. And like, who gives a Shit, they're. I mean, obviously they're a fraction of the old school.

[Ben Carlson]

The old school Hollywood being so important is not anymore.

[Michael Batnick]

So check out this chart. Streaming earnings Netflix net income since 2019 versus the major studio direct to consumer losses. Disney, NBC Universal, Warner Brothers, Discovery and Paramount. Obviously Netflix disrupted them. They were so late and then they overspent. Remember Disney plus how much the money they spent out of the gate trying to catch up and didn't work, obviously. So this is wild. The share of US TV viewing time, like the, the, the pie is not growing. Nobody's watching TV more than they used to. And increasingly legacy broadcast cable, it's, it's just, it's. It's a nice cube. It was 58% in January 2023. 58%. I'm sorry, 57 and a half percent down to 42%. That is a rapid. It is melting fast.

[Ben Carlson]

Where do you think YouTube TV falls in this?

[Michael Batnick]

It is in all other streaming.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay.

[Michael Batnick]

Because YouTube TV is YouTube. YouTube is bigger than Netflix.

[Ben Carlson]

Wild stuff makes sense. All right.

[Michael Batnick]

Oh, so and then the next chart, the next chart shows streaming. US video revenue streaming versus traditional tv box office, home entertainment. And yeah, streaming is just going to continue to eat into the pie. Which is why so many people are worried about Netflix buying Warner Brothers. Like the, the theaters are already under such pressure that if Netflix, like does what they do and just move moves, a lot of these would be theatrical releases to. To the couch. Not great. All right, last one.

[Ben Carlson]

Disney basically has to hold on to ESPN forever. Like, if they get rid of ESPN and one of these other big streamers picks them up, like, then it's over.

[Michael Batnick]

Lastly, to. To put a bow on this, he has this great chart that I've never seen. It shows recovery rates since 2020. Since 2019. And it shows all different categories. US restaurant revenues exceeded 2019. So they're all the way back.

[Ben Carlson]

Do you remember when people thought people were saying that, like, restaurants are dead forever? That was actually a thing.

[Michael Batnick]

Hotel average daily rates all the way back. North American airline passengers all the way back. Okay, what's not back? New York City Mass transit recovery Film industry box office receipts only 75% recovered. Film industry tickets sold only 60% of 2019 levels.

[Ben Carlson]

I'll get to my recommendations. We went to the movie last weekend.

[Michael Batnick]

Zootopia.

[Ben Carlson]

Wicked.

[Michael Batnick]

Wicked. Okay. All right. Somebody told us that air fryers are what? Ben.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay, a bunch of people said this. Air fryers are small convection ovens. And yes, you can have a large oven that has convection mode. Convection ovens have a heater which is feeding a fan that blows the hot air into the oven space. The fast moving of the air speeds up the speed of the preheating and shortens cooking time. I think people were saying one of the reasons it speeds up so fast is because it's smaller. But a few people sent us pictures, said, hey, I have an oven and an air fryer oven right below it, like those double ones, you know?

[Michael Batnick]

So some people had it anyway, so I keep getting emails about my car. We were.

[Ben Carlson]

People have very strong opinions about what kind of car you should get.

[Michael Batnick]

So get this. I was dropping Kobe off to school last week, and he's never said anything about a car. He pointed out a car and says, daddy, I really like that car. You should get that. A big white Range Rover. I swear to God.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay.

[Michael Batnick]

We were driving on the highway the other day. We were going to ikea, which, by the way, when did IKEA become expensive?

[Ben Carlson]

Oh, really? The Snooping Florgans are expensive now.

[Michael Batnick]

So I got Kobe a desk. The desk we didn't spend a lot of money on. It was maybe 90 bucks. But the desk chairs are all like, two, 300. I'm like, what is. So we're. Kobe's becoming a value shopper. I took him to the mall the other day, and he said his budget is 35, which is very cute. So he's. So the chairs are 200 bucks. 300 bucks. And he said, why is this place so expensive? So we ordered a chair on Amazon. But anyway, on the highway, a GX passed us, and I said, that's the car that I'm gonna get. And Robin, Kobe, and Logan looked out the window, and they all at the same time said, either ew or I don't like that. It's ugly.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay.

[Michael Batnick]

Oh, I'm standing my ground.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay. I guess I haven't seen the new ones. It's. Oh, so it's kind of boxier now.

[Michael Batnick]

It's very boxy. I. I don't know that I love the look either, honestly, but I don't want to be. I just want a car that works.

[Ben Carlson]

It does look kind of, like, futuristic. It's not. I kind of like the boxy look too. It's not terrible.

[Michael Batnick]

So my. My struggles with TVs continues. Okay, two things. I'm bad at buying cars and buying TVs. So the people who we bought the house from, they left their TVs, which was very nice. But the TV in the basement is an older TV, and so it only has, like, one HDMI cord.

[Ben Carlson]

Wait, does that mean you got rid of your TV with a line on it?

[Michael Batnick]

I left it. Yeah, finally.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay.

[Michael Batnick]

I loved it.

[Ben Carlson]

Oh, the people in the house. In your old house. Oh, great. Thanks for the TV with the line.

[Michael Batnick]

No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. No, I threw it out. Like if I, you know, so I put, I was trying to hang my TV from my office there, but the TV was too thin, it didn't fit on the wall. And I, I, I'm trying to put on the, the rack and I crushed the tv.

[Ben Carlson]

Oh.

[Michael Batnick]

Just, I'm like, what? All right, it's annoying. Whatever. So I go to Best buy, get a TV and I'm swapping out their TVs with my TVs from my house. Have some guys come and hang the TVs because there's three TVs. I'm hanging three TVs. Plug in the TV downstairs, blinking red light six times. I chatgpt it. What's going on? It's a manufactured defect. I'm like, come on, go back to Best Buy. Swapped it out. Just annoying.

[Ben Carlson]

Just annoying. That is annoying. Okay, speaking of breaking stuff, so Marc Andreessen did this thing on a podcast recently and they wrote about it. Alex Danko wrote about this and he says if you live in the United States today and you accidentally knock a hole in your wall, it's probably cheaper to buy a flat screen TV and stick it in front of the hol compared to hiring a handyman to fix your drywall. And I think we realize, like getting stuff fixed is, it's hard to do, it's expensive. Like you have to pay a certain amount just for someone to come into your house. Right. So I have the WI FI enabled heater on our phone. Like it attaches to our phone.

[Michael Batnick]

What do you use? The Nest or the Honeywell?

[Ben Carlson]

It's like a sensei Honeywell. Yeah, Sensei. I don't know.

[Michael Batnick]

I hate the Honeywell. I swapped the Nest with the Honeywell and I regret it. I want to go back.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay. So you can turn it up and down, obviously. I get a note that our last night in Disney, hey, you're heat fell below because it, there's a big cold front that came in. It's tons of snow. Heat fell below 60 degrees and it's like, I look and it's like 54 degrees in the house. So like, oh, shoot. So my father in law, the next morning goes to check it out. Yeah, your heater's off. It's broken. So as we're Flying home. He. Luckily he went early and did this. He called the heating place, came to look at it. Heater's broken. Oh, should we come home and do a broken heater?

[Michael Batnick]

When you say your heater like your. The. The water boiler or whatever. The. The boiler.

[Ben Carlson]

The actual. Yes. Heating machine. Yes. Not the. The weed with no heat in our house. Okay, whatever you want to call it. The fire.

[Michael Batnick]

What is it?

[Ben Carlson]

He's like, it was unsafe. He's like, there's like a. He's like some water dripped and there's rust and there was like a. The flame of the heat was like. It was like a backdrop. He's like, it was a very unsafe situation. So I have to fix this. He says, here's the problem. So he's there for a couple hours trying to figure it out. You need this new mainframe. Whatever he's saying, it's going to be expensive. Okay, whatever. We need heat. It's freezing. Here's the problem. It's Friday after Thanksgiving. We're open today, but the part carrier for the carrier air conditioning are not open. We can't get it till Monday. He says, what we could do is you could spend 200 bucks. I could have some from carrier drive there for that $200 fee and then they could get the piece. And I said, or we. Yeah, of course we can't. We need heat. It's freezing. And then he says, I can't get ahold of. I'm sorry. Have to go to a hotel or something. And I'm going to go clean up and get everything ready. So Monday I can come in and just put the thing in and it'll be ready. Okay. All right, fine. He called and he says, all right. The carrier guy.

[Michael Batnick]

Wait, so did he stay at the hotel?

[Ben Carlson]

No. So he. As he's walking out the door, he comes back in and he says, the carrier guy just called. This is like five at night, by the way. He's been there all day almost. He says, the carrier guy just called me. He can come in and meet me. I can go get it. And I'm like, man, listen, I feel bad. It's a holiday weekend. You're working. He said, listen, I don't get paid until this gets fixed, so I'd rather do it now than Monday. So I said, go for it. The guy did it, came and fixed it. But that, that kind of thing, those people are never going out of business.

[Michael Batnick]

No, so wait, you don't need a new thing. You just needed a piece fixed.

[Ben Carlson]

It was a big, big piece Some mainframe. I don't. He's telling me the names like. Like I know what it means, you.

[Michael Batnick]

Know, like it's the Rotary Gooder.

[Ben Carlson]

Yeah, do it, man.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah.

[Ben Carlson]

Anyway, but you know what everyone always says when this kind of thing happens? Ah, the joys of homeownership. People love saying that.

[Michael Batnick]

Of course.

[Ben Carlson]

All right, anyway.

[Michael Batnick]

All right, let me start.

[Ben Carlson]

I'm due for some good luck on my house because I've had bad luck the last few weeks.

[Michael Batnick]

What happened with your door?

[Ben Carlson]

They're gonna come and refix it, but they're gonna have to give us like, all new trades. I don't. It's gonna be a mess. But they're coming next week to fix it.

[Michael Batnick]

All right, I'm gonna start with some book stuff. So a couple of weeks ago, when Josh and I were going to Austin, I saw. I was watching CNBC in the morning, and I saw this guy who I'd never heard of, Tom Freston, do an interview with Andrew Osorkin and talking about his new autobiography. So Tom Freston ran MTV from the beginning. Like he was. He was the guy and he had a fascinating life.

[Ben Carlson]

Oh, yeah, I saw that interview too. You're right. That was good.

[Michael Batnick]

So good audiobook. And in the audiobook, so he worked directly for Sumner Redstone, who owned Viacom. And Sumner Redstone is a world class psychopath, absolute tyrant maniac. And told. He was. Tom Press was telling stories of taking him to Southeast Asia to, To go to sex shows and all this sort of stuff. So after I finished listening to the book, which was good, I. I saw like a recommend, another recommendation. Right. Like, maybe you should listen to this. So a book called the Unscripted by this author, James Stewart. James Stewart wrote Den of Thieves.

[Ben Carlson]

Oh, yeah, he's good.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah. So I listened to this.

[Ben Carlson]

He's a really good investing column. He. He kind of helped me through the 2008 crisis. He was saying, like, every 10 lower, I'm buying again. He had like this, this rules in place.

[Michael Batnick]

Anyway, so. So I listened to Unscripted, and it's the battle for Viacom, and it's Sumner Redstone and these two girlfriends that he lived with that were. That. That he gave $50 million each to, that were bleeding him dry and keeping him away from the family. And the story about him and, and, and Shari Redstone, of course, and. And looped into it was Les Moonves and Tom Froston.

[Ben Carlson]

So they like pulled from that for Succession. Right. Is that the book they used for Succession?

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah, it was. It was unbelievable. This. This guy's life and the aftermath of. Of all of that. So then that led me to another James Stewart book, Disney War. So Disney, how are you listening to.

[Ben Carlson]

These books so fast?

[Michael Batnick]

I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna get to that because I had a feeling that was coming. So Disney War is about how Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Barry dealers are involved because Eisner worked for him at Paramount. So the story of how they built out Disney, the movie studio, because they were in the shitter. Like in the 80s, Disney was nowhere. I remember when the Disney Store came to the malls. Like it was a huge deal at the time.

[Ben Carlson]

Oh, yeah.

[Michael Batnick]

So Disney was absolutely nowhere. And then they basically reinvented the studio. Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, Aladdin. We were there.

[Ben Carlson]

Right.

[Michael Batnick]

You remember that? Excellent book. Excellent book. So anyhow, the question is, how do I have time to read these books? So I was thinking about this because I knew I was gonna have to answer because people are going to ask, what are you doing, you weirdo? Over the weekend, I took the kids to see Zootopia 2. Not over on Friday. So Black Friday, Robin was with her friends. I had to kill the day. I don't know anything about Zootopia. Like, I know my kids aren't fans of the movie. They. I've never seen it, but my kids.

[Ben Carlson]

Really like the first one. I've watched it many times.

[Michael Batnick]

So it turns out it's a massive, massive global Sensation. Like did $500 million over the weekend.

[Ben Carlson]

Yeah.

[Michael Batnick]

So I took them to Lincoln Square, to the imax because I needed to kill the day. Right. So my kids are car sleepers. So boom, two hours in the car. The next day, ikea, I'm putting together Kobe's desk. Another hour and a half. I'm running errands all weekend and I'm listening to that. So the book was probably. The unscripted book was probably like seven or eight hours and then a couple morning walks to Starbucks.

[Ben Carlson]

That's the nice thing about Audible. Right.

[Michael Batnick]

So I'm cutting vegetables, I'm putting the groceries away. Like, is it a bit antisocial? Yeah, but my kids are playing. They're out. So anyway.

[Ben Carlson]

And you're ignoring them.

[Michael Batnick]

No, no, no. But Table Pounder for unscripted, you would love this. It's. It's succession. It's. It's unbelievable. And it one of the one. There's a lot of things to take away from the book, but envying like these billionaires.

[Ben Carlson]

Right. It's not what you think? Right.

[Michael Batnick]

Tragic life. Sherry Redstone living under the thumb of her maniacal, truly sociopathical. Sociopathic, pathological, whatever it is. That guy's a total psycho.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay.

[Michael Batnick]

All right. Anyway, enough with the audiobooks. Oh, last thing. Zootopia. So excellent movie. Had no expectations. Truly a very quality movie.

[Ben Carlson]

Jason B.

[Michael Batnick]

In the. The trailer project. Hail Mary. I'm in.

[Ben Carlson]

I can't. That's one of my favorite books I've read in a long time.

[Michael Batnick]

Remember, like, how are they going to like, put that onto the big screen? It looks good.

[Ben Carlson]

I don't know how they're going to do the alien. I still. I'm worried about how they're going to make the alien look.

[Michael Batnick]

It looked pretty good.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay.

[Michael Batnick]

Another coming attraction was a Neil diamond biopic. I'm not a biopic guy. Like, I didn't see the Bruce Springsteen one. I didn't see the.

[Ben Carlson]

I'm sick of these. The Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

[Michael Batnick]

I didn't see Rocketman. I watched Queen. Maybe we need to have one for.

[Ben Carlson]

All of these guys. No, I'm sorry.

[Michael Batnick]

Okay.

[Ben Carlson]

However.

[Michael Batnick]

So I certainly, in a vacuum, I don't need to see a Neil diamond movie. But it's Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson.

[Ben Carlson]

I don't know. You know, the best Neil diamond pop culture moment is saving Silverman. They have a Neil diamond tribute band.

[Michael Batnick]

All right. Did you binge watch the Beast in me?

[Ben Carlson]

We're two episodes away from finishing.

[Michael Batnick]

This is the first show that we've binged. I feel like we were like 25 again. Kobe was out of playdate over the weekend. Logan was somewhere else. We like. We watched three episodes on Sunday. Highly bingeable. It's been a minute. I can't remember the last time I binge watch a show. So anyway, I think I thought Claire was. Claire Danes was so much stronger than her male counterpart.

[Ben Carlson]

So you didn't see. I thought like the scene where they're getting drunk together and the scene where they're at lunch. I thought that they just played off of each other so. Well, I think he is amazing. I love that guy.

[Michael Batnick]

I thought there were. There were parts where he was strong and parts where it literally sounded like he was reading.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay. I. I think he's fantastic. So we will have to agree to disagree there. I enjoy it.

[Michael Batnick]

Good show.

[Ben Carlson]

Anything else from you?

[Michael Batnick]

No, I. I am contented out the ass the past couple of weeks.

[Ben Carlson]

Okay. I got a little bit too. So I finished Slow Horses. The new season. It was season five. And I would say the first three seasons were Like a nine for me. Like I thought just out of the. Knocked it out of the park. This is the best show no one talks about. I say this every year I watch it. Yeah, Gary Oldman is. Gary Oldman is so good in this show. And I think the last two seasons are more like eights out of ten. Right? Still good. Not as good as the first three, but. But somehow the last episode, they always tie it in so, so good. And it's always a twist you never saw coming and the ending is always great and they always make you leave you wanting more. It's just, it's such a high quality show and it's only six episode seasons. It's so, it's so good. I watched the Roses on my way down on my iPad. Total. So do you hear of the War of the roses from the 80s? It's Michael Douglas and Kathleen. Kathleen Turner. It's a couple who's getting divorced who love each other and fall passionately in love and then they grow to hate each other and they sabotage each other's lives. And this is an updated version of that. And it's Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman and Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon play their friend couple who's kind of funny and humor and it's just, it's a. It felt like a 80s or 90s movie. It's like not good. But a total great airplane movie. Benedict Cumberbatch is actually really funny in a comedy. I thought he was very good. That's like a. It's on Hulu. So it's like a, it's a good background movie. Like not something you have to pay attention to that much. Wicked. So I took my kid. My kids love Wicked. They loved the first one. They listened to all the music. My wife and my mother in law love it. So they went and took the kids to see the actual live show of it. So they love Wicked. So they were so excited for it, went to see it and afterwards they're talking about how much they loved it and, and how great it was. And I had to be the turd in the punch bowl. And I just put my hand up and I said, I just have a little slight, slight comment to make. And they're like, my wife knows probably what I'm gonna say and she's getting mad at me already. And I said, it's creative, I get it. But they're trying to change the story of one of the most magical movies ever made. And I don't like that they tried to Change wizard of Oz to make it a story that it wasn't okay. And I thought that they took a lot of liberties there. So I didn't like the fact that they tried to change wizard of Oz. That's my problem. And obviously the show has been out forever, so I should have known this, but I didn't know what the story was. And I don't like that they tried to change wizard of Oz. I think that's sacred material.

[Michael Batnick]

Yeah, I agree.

[Ben Carlson]

Anyway, but my kids loved the movie and it was way too long for me.

[Michael Batnick]

Wait, when's the last time you've been to the theaters?

[Ben Carlson]

That's the first time in a while, I suppose. But yeah, they're psyched for Zootopia too. It was great. Not bad. $10 matinee tickets.

[Michael Batnick]

Not last thing. So this goes to the earlier point of Netflix depriving me, the moviegoer of a great cinematic experience. You know, there's a new Knives Knives out coming next week.

[Ben Carlson]

Can't wait. I rewatched the first one this weekend because I. I'm excited for it.

[Michael Batnick]

First one was. It was a 10 second one.

[Ben Carlson]

Yeah, the second one was okay, but.

[Michael Batnick]

That should be, that should be a big screen release.

[Ben Carlson]

I thought they're gonna release it on like for like a week maybe. So you might be. You might get in New York if you want. I think they're going to release it for a week.

[Michael Batnick]

I texted, I texted Robin yesterday. Hey, Friday, December 12, 7pm I'm going to see the shiny at the IMAX. It's a re release that I did not see in the theater. 100% okay. I'm writing it wrong, Ben. All right, That'll be my Friday night solo.

[Ben Carlson]

All right. Are we going to get your predictions before the end of the year? Are you doing Michael's 10 predictions again? Is that coming?

[Michael Batnick]

I don't remember what my predictions were.

[Ben Carlson]

Someone on Twitter said to me, hey, you predicted that strategy was gonna crash like this. And I said, there's no way I predicted that. It was probably a Michael prediction.

[Michael Batnick]

Did I? I don't remember.

[Ben Carlson]

It's possible you did. So I think we're need your 10 predictions coming up soon. You do that.

[Michael Batnick]

You know what I have to do? I have to start working on it now because I don't want to cram at the end of the. It's too much work.

[Ben Carlson]

All right, thank you to the production team. As always, Duncan and crew. Appreciate it. Thanks to all the wonderful emails we always get from people. What's our email address? Animalspirits compoundnews.com and we'll see you next time.

[Podcast Narrator]

Introducing Taking Share Lessons from Leaders with Rob Holmes, Chairman, President and CEO of Texas Capital. During each episode, you will hear from leaders, decision makers and culture shapers across industries. What drives them? What tips the scales when making tough calls? How do they continue to evolve? We're here to understand the thoughts behind their actions and discover how they are Taking Share. For more information on Texas Capital, please visit us at our website.