The Deal for Topps Trading Cards & Arthur Brooks on the Art of Pandemic Unhappiness

Squawk Pod

CNBC

Business News, News, Investing, Business

4.2 • 543 Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Joe Biden’s overall disapproval rating reached a new high in December as more voters signaled their unhappiness with his handling of the economy and the Covid pandemic. Harvard University’s Arthur Brooks, AEI president emeritus, contributing writer for the Atlantic, and host of “The Art of Happiness,” breaks down why Americans are feeling disappointed with the U.S. economy despite strong employment and economic metrics. Walmart and Kroger have raised the price of Abbott’s at-home Covid-19 test kit after their reduced-price agreement with the White House expired. Biden said last month that the administration plans to ship as many as 500 million free test kits to people who request them through a website — a plan experts have said will require significant scaling up. Plus, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin discusses the company’s estimated $500 million acquisition of the Topps’ trading cards business. Rubin explains why the deal was a “win-win” for the companies and how Fanatics plans to continue with the Topps brand. In this episode: Arthur Brooks, @arthurbrooks Michael Rubin, @michaelrubin Becky Quick, @BeckyQuick Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Katie Kramer, @Kramer_Katie

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bring in show music please.
0:04.0	This is Squawk Pod. I'm the NBC producer Katie Kramer.
0:08.0	Today on our podcast.
0:10.0	Nearly two tough years behind us, it's time to talk it out with podcaster Arthur Brooks.
0:16.0	Our workplaces and our schools, these are not just economic arrangements, these are social arrangements.
0:21.0	People are lonely. We're facing a mental health crisis, a wave of depression
0:25.2	and anxiety like we've never seen before. And a big trading card deal, Fanatics CEO
0:30.6	Michael Rubin on buying Tops. We looked at this is the best brand in trading cards.
0:35.0	Give us a bunch of infrastructure to have to be able to go more quickly, to be able to start
0:39.9	four years earlier with baseball, have global capabilities.
0:43.0	Plus, teachers taking a stand in Chicago, and the cost of staying safe.
0:48.0	Prices for COVID test kits are up, but who needs them?
0:51.0	New guidance from the CDC?
0:53.3	We also realize the reality is that you're not going to find a test and you can't shut down the entire economy.
0:57.7	So basically this is the week that we've decided.
1:00.8	Yeah, we can't do this. It's Wednesday, January 5th, 2022.
1:05.0	Squawk Pod with Becky Quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin begins right now.
1:10.0	Stand under by in three, two, one, Q.
1:13.0	Andrew.
1:14.4	Here's what's making headlines.
1:15.5	Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has now
1:17.1	set an official date before Congress next week.
	...

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