The Best One Yet
👜 “Louis VuiTexas” — LVMH’s Made in America fail. Dubai Chocolate’s virality. iExports > iPhones.
Mon, 14 Apr 2025
Louis Vuitton opened its 1st Texas factory 6 years ago… but we’ll explain why it’s failing (#FooeyVuitton).Dubai Chocolate went viral 17 months ago… It shows why every biz needs a “Trend Team.”Trump’s trade war focus is the “trade deficit”... But America’s economy is Brains & Brands.Plus, tomorrow is tax day… But if you haven’t done yours yet, Pokemon can help.$LVMUY $SHAK $SPY Want more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.“The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Susper Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.—-----------------------------------------------------Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: Why is Louis Vuitton's Texas factory failing?
Jack, I'm kind of picturing the scene in Derek Zoolander when he goes to the coal mine and he gets the black lung.
It's just not working for him over there. Exactly. It's kind of the reverse of that.
Or as one LV executive put it, it took them years to start making the simple pockets on the bags. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over at Louis Vuitton? It's a dirty secret about the trade war. Humans are not commodities. Yeah, it is. We are all for getting more high-skilled jobs into the hands of Americans. Jack and I are rooting for this factory. We love the idea of it.
But Americans have certain skills, and you can't always just switch to a completely new role in a completely new industry. Like working on a ranch versus working on an oil drill versus working in a luxury handshake.
bag factory those are all a very different range of skills we keep hearing about bringing back jobs to america in general for certain industries that can happen quickly because we have trained workers but for other industries a lot of industries it'll take years decades to get the workforce ready for those jobs it can actually take entire generations for a region to pivot their workers like it starts with parents telling the kids to focus on certain skills in school and then they have to learn them over decades that's why products are typically made
in manufacturing hubs. In hubs, yeah. They focus on one craft or one skill from kindergarten all the way to corporate. These hubs of expertise, that's what drives global trade. And that's what creates great products. Louis Vuitton's struggling Texas handbag factory is a visual reminder that jobs are not commodities. For our second story, the hottest food trend of 2025 is official.
It's Dubai chocolate. Brown on the outside, green on the inside. We'll share how this viral Middle Eastern candy craze went from TikTok post to Shake Shack. So Yetis, look, we all hate inflation, but a little thing Jack and I like to say to each other, sometimes inflation can cause innovation. Because necessity is the mother of invention.
Like during World War II, when chocolate prices spiked, it became unaffordable. So what did Italians do, Jack? They mixed in hazelnut. a much more available nut, to lower the price of making chocolate. And we got Nutella. Well, last year, cocoa prices jumped again, 150% to their highest point since World War II. And what happened, Jack? Once again, that inflation... gave us innovation.
That's because pregnant British-Egyptian woman Sarah Hamouda, a baker, invented a bar that was only one half chocolate. The other half was pistachio. Yeah, actually a mix of pistachio, cream, tahini, a little bit of cheese, and canafa. It's called Dubai Chocolate. Dubai Chocolate. A Middle Eastern chocolate nut combo. Think of it kind of like a Nutella of Arabia.
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Chapter 2: What is Dubai Chocolate and why is it trending?
Now, President Trump thinks that if we import more from others, we are losing. And if we export more to others, we're winning. That's how he sees the world. And for the United States, we've actually been negative for decades. We've been running a trade deficit for a long, long time. And he interprets our trade deficit as us perpetually losing. This is the context Jack and I wanted to sprinkle on.
By measuring trade in this way, we're focusing only on our weaknesses and ignoring our strengths. Because America is a brains and brands economy. We import iPhones, yes, but we export information. And therein lies the problem with the trade deficit calculus. It only measures physical things. Our economy, however, is 72% services, non-physical things.
And none of those services are included in Trump's assessment, his calculation of our economy. Exhibit A, Hollywood. Nick, all but one of the top 25 grossing movies of all time are made in America. Talk to your buddies over in Belarus, and yeah, they're enjoying the Minions movie for like the 50th time. Get this, 60% of box office revenues from those top 25 movies came from overseas.
But none of that is included in President Trump's trade deficit calculus. Exhibit B, music. Two-thirds of the Spotify global top 50 right now are American artists. We're talking made-in-the-USA music. Taylor Swift, she's boosting GDPs wherever she tours. But none of that counts in Trump's trade deficit calculation. Jack, it feels like exhibit A, exhibit B. We got an exhibit C here, don't we?
Tech, metasocial networks, Google's online search, Android and Apple mobile phones. all dominate the world with made in USA software. If it moved fast and broke a few things, yeah, we exported it. It was software and it didn't get included in the trade deficit calculus. America puts movies into Chinese TV sets and music into European speakers.
And we're pumping software into the world's smartphones across every single line of longitude. But since none of that is physical, none of it counts in our trade deficit equation. So Add it all up, besties, and looking at goods without looking at services is kind of an incomplete picture. And there's actually one more thing that the trade deficit ignores. It's a big one, and it's our takeaway.
Capital T. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone buying things in America? America is the capital of the world. Literally, we'll explain. Yeti's capital. Capital. It is a fancy word for money. And every year, foreigners invest $2 trillion of that capital, that money, into the USA.
Foreign investors invest in American companies, they lend to us, they buy in our stock market, and they buy our bonds. That is why our stock market is more valuable than the rest of the world's combined. I repeat, the stock market in the United States is more valuable than the stock markets of all of the rest of the world.
So what President Trump bemoans about physical goods, we make up for in finance. Now, we're not defending the status quo. There are plenty of issues with our economy, like inequality, for example. The gains the US has made in capital and services have mostly stayed at the top. They could be better shared across the country. But to ignore those gains is to ignore the things that the US does best.
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Chapter 3: How long does it take for a trend to go from social media to store shelves?
And congratulations to Morgan Stanley, which announced solid earnings, which were actually boosted, though, by Elon Musk. Three years ago, Morgan Stanley lent Elon a bunch of money to acquire Twitter, which, of course, he renamed to X. And when Elon merged X with his AI company last month, that Morgan Stanley loan got paid back.
Plus, Morgan Stanley was the investment bank representing both X and XAI in the merger, which is highly unusual to represent both sides. Over at Wall Street, this is some serious financial drama. So basically, Elon showered Morgan Stanley with fees and repayments, and that helped boost Morgan Stanley earnings a solid 26%.
And finally, stocks actually ended the week up last week in one of the most volatile weeks for the stock market ever. Although despite rising last week, the S&P 500 is still off 13% from its all-time high. Nonetheless, investors bought the dip like a bowl of hummus last week. Now time for the best fact yet. This one, some trivia whipped up by Jack and me. Trivia.
In 2015, this toy was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. It was actually invented by a man who worked for NASA, a rocket scientist, literally. But he invented it in the bathroom of his home by accident. Because like rockets, this product requires force. But unlike rockets, this product is safe for children. Do you know the name of this viral product?
Drop a guess in the comments on YouTube or Spotify. The answer is the next episode of our weekly deep dive show, The Best Idea Yet. And we'll reveal it tomorrow. Yetis, you look fantastic over there. Jack, for your birthday, do you want a Louis Vuitton or you want a Fooey Vuitton?
Which one am I going to get you over here?
You want Made in America, Made in France? What can I do?
What are you feeling, man?
I mean, I'd like Made in America. Yeah, okay, okay, yeah. Man bag, Made in America. There may be a couple holes in it, okay? But hey. Remember that story we did. That's the explanation. I want Texas raised leather, baby. Well, we can get it in your pocketbook, Jack. Besties, remember to tell a friend. H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y. That is how we grow the show. Have you had the best one yet?
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Chapter 4: What is Trend Team 6 and why does every business need one?
Chapter 5: What lessons can be learned from the trade war and job skills?
and the 2019 movie adaptation of Cats.
Like, if I'm watching the dancing and I'm noticing the feet aren't touching the ground, there's something wrong with the movie.
Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco. Enjoy The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Get started with your free trial at wondery.com slash plus.
For our third and final story, President Trump has become obsessed with two words, trade deficit. But that ignores what America is best at. While we import iPhones, we export information. And the world pays us $2 trillion a year for it. Yetis, open up the book, Trade War Almanac Day 12. How tariffs are messing with the economy. Jack and I have been keeping track for you in the tariff trenches.
The top term that Trump has been focused on for the last two weeks, the trade deficit. The trade deficit, it has basically become President Trump's economic scoreboard. Jack, could you sprinkle on a definition for us? The trade deficit is a simple formula. It's the difference between what a country exports and what it imports.
Now, President Trump thinks that if we import more from others, we are losing. And if we export more to others, we're winning. That's how he sees the world. And for the United States, we've actually been negative for decades. We've been running a trade deficit for a long, long time. And he interprets our trade deficit as us perpetually losing. This is the context Jack and I wanted to sprinkle on.
By measuring trade in this way, we're focusing only on our weaknesses and ignoring our strengths. Because America is a brains and brands economy. We import iPhones, yes, but we export information. And therein lies the problem with the trade deficit calculus. It only measures physical things. Our economy, however, is 72% services, non-physical things.
And none of those services are included in Trump's assessment, his calculation of our economy. Exhibit A, Hollywood. Nick, all but one of the top 25 grossing movies of all time are made in America. Talk to your buddies over in Belarus, and yeah, they're enjoying the Minions movie for like the 50th time. Get this, 60% of box office revenues from those top 25 movies came from overseas.
But none of that is included in President Trump's trade deficit calculus. Exhibit B, music. Two-thirds of the Spotify global top 50 right now are American artists. We're talking made-in-the-USA music. Taylor Swift, she's boosting GDPs wherever she tours. But none of that counts in Trump's trade deficit calculation. Jack, it feels like exhibit A, exhibit B. We got an exhibit C here, don't we?
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