The Economist's 40th Big Mac Index puts the United States first in the world on purchasing power, and the two hosts of this show spend the segment explaining why nobody is celebrating. The index measures a burger. The things Americans actually spend on — a mortgage at 6.7% against 3.4% in Europe, medication at twice what other rich countries pay — go the other way.
"So, besties, add it all up and we're number one in the things that are more optional, like Big Macs, but we're last in the things that we really need, like housing and health care. That's why the defining economic issue of America right now actually is not artificial intelligence."
Nick Martell and Jack Crivici-Kramer are former Wall Street bankers who built the daily business briefing MarketSnacks, sold it to Robinhood in 2018, and took it independent in 2022 as The Best One Yet.
I listened to the full episode so you can skip it. 26 minutes of audio, 14 minutes of reading.
Here are the 11 takeaways that matter.
🎙️ Hosts: Nick Martell and Jack Crivici-Kramer, former bankers who built the daily business show MarketSnacks, sold it to Robinhood in 2018 and relaunched it as an independent venture in 2022
📰 Published: 31 August 2026
🔴 YouTube | 🔗 Episode page | ⏱️ 26 min | ✅ Time saved: 12 min
Key Takeaways
A video game trailer took a Netflix top 10 slot, and the game outsells the movie business
GTA 5 sold 230 million copies; its successor is expected to take a billion dollars in hours, not days
Netflix is buying the calendar, not just the catalogue
Christmas NFL games, a live free climb, and now a game premiere
Gucci's equestrian heritage was invented in the 1970s by the founder's son
A family member told a journalist in 1987 they had never made saddles
Being rude to customers was Gucci's deliberate strategy, and it worked for decades
No returns, no discounts, and a store that shut through the lunch rush
Gucci has now had 12 straight quarters of falling sales, and one day of relief
Kering stock rose 24% in a single session last month
The Fed chair signalled a September rate rise at Jackson Hole
Inflation is running closer to 4% than to the 2% target, and higher in 2026 than in 2025
30-year interest rates are at their highest since 2007 and the bond market got there first
America wins the Big Mac Index and loses on everything that is not optional
Housing takes a record 36% of income; medication costs twice what other developed economies pay
Tim Cook left Apple with the stock up more than 10x over 15 yrs
Kevin Durant's $250K seed cheque into Hugging Face is now worth about $60M
1. GTA 6 Premiered on Netflix
The episode opens on a video game taking a slot in a streaming service's top 10. "In the meantime, for our first story, Grand Theft Auto 6, the video game, just dropped a 27-minute trailer exclusively on Netflix, and it's got 14 million views on YouTube."
Martell's framing: "This video game is bigger than any movie ever."
It was exclusive to Netflix for six hours before going free on YouTube, and the hosts expected the view count to have moved again by the time anyone heard the episode
The installed base is the reason anyone cares. "Because GTA 5 launched 13 years ago and sold 230 million copies."
"Yeah, that previous version of this game was the second best-selling video game ever, behind just Minecraft in history."
The 13-year-old version is still generating revenue. "Microtransactions. You pay real money to get fake money to buy real fake stuff in a fantasy crime world."
The listed company behind it is small relative to the event it is about to run. "But best is the owner of Grand Theft Auto is Rockstar Games, which is owned by Take-Two Interactive, a publicly traded company worth 44 billion bucks."
Rival studios are moving their release dates to avoid the November 19 launch
"And the entire US workforce is going to take a huge productivity tanking in November when this game launches." Martell's version: "It's like six Super Bowls in one, Jack."
The strategic read on Netflix is that it is buying scheduled events. "Ah, eventizing. Netflix, they're known for being on-demand, watch anytime. But now, they've been buying the rights to sports and cultural events that are on your calendar."
"They want to own the calendar to own your eyeballs." The examples given were Christmas Day NFL games, a skyscraper free climb and this premiere
The comparison with the film industry is the number an investor would take away. "Last month, Spider-Man became the fastest movie ever to hit $1 billion in box office sales. It did it in 6 days. But Grand Theft Auto 5 from years ago hit a billion dollars in just 3 days. And Grand Theft Auto 6 is probably going to hit a billion dollars in 3 hours when it drops this November."
The one negative in the segment: major leaks last week spoiled some of the game's final quests, which the publisher called heartbreaking
The trailer itself was described as a 27-minute screen recording of gameplay — longer than a television episode, and something between a trailer and a film
2. Leonida, the Metaverse
The hosts' takeaway on the first story is that the thing Meta spent years trying to build already exists, and it is a crime game.
"Introducing Leonida, the metaverse that actually sells." The virtual world is a fictional region of Florida covering at least six counties, with a city, keys, swamps and beaches
What is new is the life outside the crime. The game carries relationships between the two protagonists, and a player has to text the other one to say they will be out late
Kayaking, dirt biking, scuba diving, mini golf, and choosing what to wear
"If you eat too much food in this game, your virtual character is going to visibly gain weight, which allows you, true story, to buy a gym membership in the video game to get those pounds to go away."
The contrast with Meta's version is the whole argument. Where Mark Zuckerberg wanted the main character in his metaverse to be the player, "Rockstar, on the other hand, understands that your fantasy is to be someone else."
The hosts' conclusion is that hours spent in this world could rival the hours people spend in their own
3. Gucci's 12 Bad Quarters
The setup is a business in a long decline. "For our second story, Gucci sales have fallen 12 straight quarters."
The claim they make for it is larger than the current numbers suggest. "But from that book you learn that Gucci is actually the most impactful company in fashion history."
"Italian fashion brands were looked down upon. They were basically just suppliers for the fancy French ones." Before Gucci there were no Italian fashion brands at all, on their account
"But it's also the craziest fashion house because Gucci went from near bankruptcy multiple times to a record-smashing IPO." The pattern repeated: back to near bankruptcy, back to records, and around again
"Spoiler, Gucci CEO was shot in 1995 by a fellow member of the Gucci family."
The corporate owner is French and listed. "The book was written by Sara Gay Forden, but today Gucci is the biggest brand owned by Kering, the $40 billion publicly traded company that happens to be based in France."
There is one piece of good news in the segment, and it is a single trading session. "Get this, sales of Gucci accelerated so much this summer, the stock surged 24% on one single day."
The brand signed Tom Brady as a model the week before
4. Hostile Hospitality
The strategy that built the brand was to treat the customer badly on purpose. "Gucci became Gucci 60 years ago with a wild strategy of messing with the customer."
"Yeah, Jack and I call this hostile hospitality." And: "What this is is Gucci basically treated customers like they were in a toxic relationship."
Four tactics, each of which would now read as a mistake. "Example of this is their no return policy. If you didn't like your bag, you better learn to like that bag."
The midday shutdown: "Every day, every Gucci store closed for an hour and a half to give the staff a break." And it was timed to hurt — "12:00 to 1:30, when people were on their lunch break out of the office, Gucci also did a lunch break and shut down the store."
"Now, this is partly the Italian tradition of a long midday lunch, but it was also partially a power move because it led to these long lines outside Gucci at 1:30 p.m., which was pretty good for Gucci's image."
"The sales people were taught by corporate to be mean." The evidence they cite is a four-page 1975 New York magazine cover story: "The rudest store in New York, that was the headline."
"They refused to do discounts, ever."
The pricing rule came with a line the hosts clearly enjoyed. "Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten."
The other half of the strategy was flattery, restricted to a thousand people. "In 1980, Gucci designed a museum on the fourth floor of their New York City Fifth Avenue store and populated it with rare Italian art. But, get this, they only let 1,000 customers into that Gucci museum. And they designed 18-karat gold keys to unlock a secret elevator just for those 1,000 VIPs."
"And The New York Times, they also wrote a story on this as well. The title, Gucci out-Guccis itself."
"New York City's must-have status symbol is the gold key that opens the Gucci museum gallery."
5. The 500-Year Saddle Myth
Everything equestrian about the brand was invented for marketing. "Because in the 1970s, Gucci told reporters that for hundreds of years, the family was actually saddle makers to medieval royalty. That's why Gucci designed their iconic double G logo to look like a horse bit that goes in a horse's mouth."
The saddles in the stores, the red and green stable colors, and the metal band on the loafers shaped like a stirrup all follow from it
"But here's the problem. All of that is based on a lie."
The person who made it up was the founder's son. "Aldo Gucci, who's not the founder, he's the founder's son, he made up this whole 500-year horse saddle history because it made the company sound cool."
A family member told a journalist in 1987: "We were never saddle makers. Gucci just dreamed up the image because it aligned with the elite clientele they were hoping to reach."
The company has quietly dropped the claim without dropping the imagery. Gucci's website no longer says it made saddles for Italian royalty, but the horses are still everywhere
The hosts' conclusion is that this is a repeatable marketing technique, with a caveat. "Gucci lied, besties." And: "Because, besties, myth making, it ain't just for ancient Rome. A myth can be a powerful tool of marketing."
6. The Fed Is Raising Again
The third segment opens on a rate rise being signalled rather than announced. "Because on Friday, Yeties, our Fed chair implied, without saying explicitly that he would, he's probably going to raise interest rates in September."
The reason is that inflation has gone the wrong way for two years. "You see, besties, inflation, it's been higher in 2026 than it was in 2025 or in 2024. We're closer to 4% inflation than the target 2% right now."
"Unfortunately, it's higher interest rates. That's the tough medicine that the Fed has the assignment of giving the American economy."
The bond market has already moved without waiting for the central bank. "Yeah, 30-year interest rates are the highest right now since 2007. So, we've got debt hit 40 trillion bucks, oil's up to 90 bucks a barrel, and your 30-year mortgage is almost up one percentage point since the war in Iran started."
The hosts' summary of that list was two words: "That's all bad."
7. America Wins the Big Mac
The Economist's index turned 40 and put the United States first. "And last week The Economist published their 40th anniversary Big Mac Index."
"America is number one in global purchasing power. Your average annual salary can afford the most Big Macs of any country in the world."
"Your after-tax income of the average American can buy over 10,000 Big Macs at your nearest McDonald's. That is more than twice as many Big Macs as the average German can afford and three times as many as the average Italian can afford."
"And it's four times as many as your average Mexican can afford."
Why a burger is the instrument. "Because the Big Mac is the most standardized product on Earth. It is served the same in over 100 countries."
"And while Big Mac is crude culinary-wise, it is complex economic-wise because it includes meat, cheese, bread. It requires human labor, energy. It even has vegetables in the supply chain."
Purchasing power, as they defined it, folds together what people earn and what things cost
The Fed chair had this to point to at Jackson Hole. "Because according to the legendary Big Mac Index, America isn't doing the worst with inflation. We're actually doing the best."
8. Last in Beds and Meds
The rebuttal to their own headline is the strongest thing in the episode. "We are great at burgers and fries, but we're terrible at beds and meds."
Housing takes a record share of income, and rates are why. "No, besties, the price of a bed, aka housing, that eats up a record high percentage of Americans' income, 36% of your income."
"Our 30-year fixed mortgage that we just mentioned, it's 6.7% here in the states" — against, as Martell put it, "compared to 3.4% in Europe."
Medication is the second gap, and the comparison includes what the tax pays for. "Oh, and medications? Well, we pay twice as much as other developed economies do on their medical stuff." In most of those economies health care is covered by taxation
The conclusion is a ranking of what the country is good at. "So, besties, add it all up and we're number one in the things that are more optional, like Big Macs, but we're last in the things that we really need, like housing and health care. That's why the defining economic issue of America right now actually is not artificial intelligence."
"Ah, so despite the Big Mac victory, the defining economic issue of our times continues to be interest rates and inflation, just like 5 years ago."
9. Tim Cook's Last Day
The episode marks the handover with a number. "First, grab the cupcakes. Happy final day of work to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. In the last 15 years as CEO of Apple, he has grown the stock price by more than 10x."
What comes next is a product launch inside a week of the new chief executive starting. "Apple became the first trillion-dollar company under his leadership. Now, John Ternus takes over as CEO tomorrow, and his first big thing is going to be a product unveil next week, expected to be the iPhone folding phone."
10. Starbucks' Slushy Powder
A product ingredient is being pulled because of what it does to the people making the drink. "And second, Starbucks Refreshers are making baristas sick. Not like sick of making the drinks, we mean actually sick. Because the mango dragon fruit blended refresher requires a blending powder to be blended. And a bit of the problem, that powder meant to maintain slushy integrity when airborne it was making people cough around the drinks."
"So, Starbucks is removing the powder."
11. Durant's $250K Became $60M
The last item is a venture return in a professional athlete's portfolio. "And finally, the greatest athlete investor in sports history might be Kevin Durant."
"Get this, a few years ago Kevin Durant invested 250,000 bucks in a series A of Hugging Face, the AI company."
"That AI company is reportedly now selling to Nvidia for $13 billion."
"Which means Kevin Durant's quarter million dollar investment is now worth 60 million bones."
Bonus Insights
The show's trivia segment produced a physics fact with a real number. "A champagne cork flies off at up to 50 mph. But get this, if the weather is warm when you pop that champagne, it's been recorded to go over 100 mph."
Crivici-Kramer guessed 80 mph and was told he had split the difference
The hosts disclose their own holdings at the end of every episode. "This is Jack. I own stock of Netflix and Lyft and we both own stock of Apple."
Both hosts were returning from holiday, which is why the episode carries no market levels at all — they said they would resume that the following day
The Gucci research came out of a habit worth stealing: Martell reads a business book about wherever he is on holiday. Italy produced House of Gucci this time, Ferrari the time before, and a book on Budweiser on a trip to Germany
The hosts' bottom line is that a country can lead the world on the price of the things it does not need and trail it on the things it does, and that until mortgage rates and drug prices move, that gap — not artificial intelligence — is the American economic story.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games (The listed publisher, valued at $44 billion, and the studio whose November release the hosts expect to dominate the holiday quarter)
Netflix (Took the game's premiere as a scheduled event, part of a strategy of buying the calendar rather than the catalogue)
Kering (Gucci's French listed owner, and the stock that rose 24% in one session last month)
Gucci (12 straight quarters of falling sales, and a heritage story its own family says was invented)
Meta (The metaverse that did not sell, because it made the player the main character)
Apple (Tim Cook's last day, a stock up more than 10x in 15 years, and a folding phone expected within a week of the handover)
Starbucks (Pulling the blending powder from its Refreshers after it made baristas cough)
Hugging Face and Nvidia (The AI company reportedly selling for $13 billion, and the buyer)
McDonald's (Supplier of the world's most standardized product, and therefore the instrument of the index)
Minecraft (The only game to have outsold the last Grand Theft Auto)
Books & Resources Mentioned
House of Gucci – Sara Gay Forden (The 2000 book behind the whole Gucci segment, which became a film in 2021 the hosts do not rate)
The Big Mac Index – The Economist (Published its 40th anniversary edition last week, with the United States first on purchasing power)
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