Happy Saturday, Besties.

It’s the official start to spring… because the Masters tee’d off. But the $1.50 sandwiches down in Augusta are the real story. Get these #InflationDefying concession prices:

• 🥪 Pimento Cheese Sandwich – $1.50

• 🥚 Egg Salad Sandwich – $1.50

• 🍑 Peach Ice Cream Sandwich – $3.00.

• 🐖 Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwich – $3.00

• 🍺 Crow’s Nest Beer – $5.00

• Add it all up and the menu is $77 total

In a world of $9 hot dogs, it’s a flex. And it’s strategic. Because cheap food keeps fans happy—and happy fans drop $10M a day at the Masters on merch.

🍑 Colonoscopy Stock Market

This week, I enjoyed my first-ever colonoscopy — and Jack noticed that, weirdly, it felt a lot like what the stock market just went through.

The Experience (and the Metaphor):

• 36-hour food fast beforehand

• Drank system-clearing serum at 5pm

• Woke at 2am, drank more

• Flushed myself out—twice

• 6:30am: I was knocked out for the procedure

• 8am: my wife picked me up

• 9am: back to work with Jack

Results? No polyps, a clean bill of health. Despite the discomfort, I felt better afterward. Just like the market.

Market parallel:

• I had tension → So did Wall Street

• I got flushed → So did stocks (down 20% at one point from ATHs)

• I bounced back → So did investors (we’re sitting down 13% today)

• I liquidated my intestines → They liquidated portfolios

Econ Angle: Why I Got One Early

I’m in my 30s. Colonoscopies are usually recommended starting at 45.
But with a family history of polyps, I pushed insurance to approve it early.

The problem?

• Only 1 in 7 Americans in their 40s has gotten screened

• Yet we see 150,000+ cases of colon cancer each year

There’s a fix — and it’s economic.

The Takeaway: The Power of the Nudge

“The Nudge” has helped drive a surge in Millennials saving for retirement.

• Historically, 401(k) programs at work required each worker to “opt-in” to save for retirement → low participation rates

• But now, investing part of your paycheck into a 401(k) is the default → participation rates soared

The default choice massively changes the outcome. Apply that to colonoscopies: What if just discussing it became the default at your annual checkup at 40? A call from your doctor about colonoscopies on your 40th b’day?

No pressure. Just a nudge.

More screenings. More lives saved.

🔥 Trade War: Behind the Scenes

This week we got a 90-day pause on most tariffs—but a quadrupled tariff on China (from 34% to 145%). Here’s the behind-the-scenes drama that made it happen. This is Jack, and I’ve been (exhaustingly) keeping track on the white board.

The backstory: Trump has always loved tariffs. They give him unilateral power to impose America’s might on other countries (without needing Congressional approval). And those instincts were backed by two hardline loyalists: Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon. These guys believe trade is zero-sum—if China makes an iPhone, that means an American doesn’t.

But last week, Trump blinked: He dropped tariffs to 10% on all countries but China (although cars and steel still get tariff’d at 25%). Despite public opposition from techies & entrepreneurs like Elon Musk (who even insulted Navarro on X), it wasn’t tech billionaires who got Trump to hit pause. It was two 6-foot-men-in-finance. Fellow NY-born billionaires Bill Ackman & Jamie Dimon. They showed Trump that the bond market was tanking.

The Takeaway: The stock market reflects America’s wealth. But the bond market reflects America’s power. And last week, bond investors ran for the exits:

• US gov’t bonds saw their worst week in 24 years

• Deutsche Bank said: “The market has lost faith in US assets.”

Ackman and Dimon warned Trump: his trade war was causing investors globally to turn against the American bond market. If the US Dollar ceases to be the world’s reserve currency, or if investors stop financing America’s debt, then we’re in big trouble.

👯‍♀️ Tell a Bestie:

These are the headlines from our “Headline Hammer” of potential stories for the show each morning that we just couldn’t fit on the pod:

• 🍷 Josh Wine dominates grocery shelves. Your mom’s favorite bottle—now everyone’s go-to red. Here’s how it stayed viral after going viral.

• 🤖 Filipino “AI” startup exposed. Turns out, it was humans behind the curtain.

• 🇬🇧 SNL is launching in the UK. Get ready for fish-and-chips sketch comedy. Live from London, it’s Saturday Night, mate.

• 🍺 Trump’s immigration crackdown hit beer. Corona and Modelo sales are feeling the squeeze.

• 🏢 NYC buildings got facelifts. WFH meant time for major lobby glow-ups.

• 💰 Elon’s xAI deal boosted Morgan Stanley. The bank’s revenue popped thanks to leading the merger deal and getting paid back for its loan to him to buy Twitter in 2022.

• 🥤 Low-alc liquor is trending. Buzz-lite bottles, full flavor—and fewer regrets.

The Best Idea Yet 🐰

It used to take 27 hours to make just one Peep—hand-piped, chick by chick. 🐣
Today? They crank out 5.5 million a day. And next week is the biggest week of the year for Peeps.

All of that is in the wild untold origin story of the Peeps — the newest episode of our weekly podcast The Best Idea Yet.

Listen to The Best Idea Yet for a weekly deep dive into the products you’re obsessed with.

And one more thing. This week gave us Nick’s post-colonoscopy enlightenment, Jack’s full dad-mode nesting, and the Pod Son’s chicken tenders birthday turning into a strategy session. After all the whiplash econ headlines, we’re hitting our “greatest hits” this weekend (aka local go-to spots).

Celebrate the wins ✨

— Nick & Jack