Announcer: Wall Street Unplugged looks beyond the regular headlines heard on mainstream financial media to bring you unscripted interviews and breaking commentary direct from Wall Street right to you on main street.

Frank Curzio: What’s going on out there? It’s December 23rd. I’m Frank Curzio, host of the Wall Street Unplugged podcast, where I break down headlines and tell you what’s really moving these markets. Head into the holidays. Chaos. Buying presents. Nuts. However, having this nice Q&A this week for you guys. Glad you taking advantage of it, setting your questions. Let’s get to them right now.

Frank Curzio: First one is from Dove. He says, “Hey, Frank. Loved the interview with Solomon from tZERO. The only problem was that he’s so smart, I couldn’t understand anything he said. Laugh out loud.” I understand that. You will understand everything. For you, what you need to understand is buy our token. You’re going to get an equity stake in the Curzio Equity Owners token. Our company, Curzio Research, it’s called Curzio Equity Owners. It’s going to be trading under CURZ, which is coming out pretty much the first week in February, or last week in January.

Frank Curzio: That’s going to be the best time, as I explained last podcast, I wanted to try to do it earlier, but we want this to be a big event. I’m going to be traveling a lot. Although, we don’t know if the Consumer Electronics Show, if I’m definitely going because, as I’m doing this, I just heard that Facebook and Amazon have pulled out because of COVID concerns. Again, these are California companies that are worried, even though Omicron doesn’t bother anyone at all if you’re vaccinated. But in California, they hear different things over there.

Frank Curzio: And I understand that, which is fine. But yeah, we’ll see if they cancel the CES. Hopefully they don’t, but I’m going to be there the whole first week and then traveling and stuff like that. So, the token’s going to be out and that’s really what you need to know. There’s a lot of technology behind it. That’s my job to understand that, which technologies work. If you want to go ERC 20 Platform or a token, or other, just, structures, which are faster and better, even though Ethereum is the standard right now, and you have to pay gas fees and stuff. But stuff like that, you don’t really have to worry about.

Frank Curzio: Just know that, sign up on tZERO. You’re going to be able to buy this token, and Solomon is a fantastic guy. I’ve known him for a while. He’s unbelievable. He is really, really great. He’s helped us tremendously along this process and just, yeah, really, really good guy. So your question, you mentioned that you’re bullish on oil. What’s a good way for retail investors to invest in physical oil instead of the producers? There’s a few ways. You have some ETFs, USO. USO’s design track performance of WTI, and that’s the future’s spot month contract. Spot is the current price. But the Spot month contract… Spot month contract, while USL is designing track price movements on the rolling average of the NYMEX WTI features 12-month forward contracts.

Frank Curzio: So those are two ways. You could basically do a little research, see which one is better. Both of them are okay. You could go UCO, which is another ETF. I think oil may have the most ETFs in terms of a sector, including leverage ETFs, like UCO is a two times daily performance, which could be dangerous if it moves the wrong way for you. So, I am bullish on oil. Just EVs coming out is huge. And the fact that you have publicly traded companies that… And this is a disadvantage of going public because when you’re not public, like Chick-fil-A and you have communities saying, “Well, we don’t like that you do this, and you do that.” You can give them the finger and say, “Well, don’t go to our store, and don’t go to our restaurants, and everything’s okay.

Frank Curzio: But when you’re Exxon, and you have three of the biggest funds controlling, whatever, 10, 12, 15% stake in the company, or even more than that, because they have everyone else’s money and you have these trillion dollar operations now, right? If you go to this… You look at Vanguard. You look at all of them, right? BlackRock, Fidelity. These are trillion dollar operations, right? So, they’re investing. They’re the largest shareholders. And when you get someone that shouts climate change, and you got to stop drilling, and they stop drilling, even though we don’t have the alternatives to replace it, which I think is hilarious, simply for political purposes. It’s crazy. Do I believe in climate change? Yes. Should we be focusing on it? Yes. But you don’t cut oil right now when we’re energy independent, which basically… Almost every war started because of oil, and now we’re energy independent.

Frank Curzio: Now, we’re not going to be energy independent, making places like Russia much more stronger. China, much, much stronger. We’re going to be dependent on foreign nations, who the rest of the world accounts for… What is it? 89% of global emissions. So, if they decide not to do anything, it doesn’t matter what we do in a climate change front. But again, a lot of this is political and maybe we should wait until we have the alternatives in place before we say that they’re going to stop drilling areas. But yeah, it’s going to result in high prices. It’s going to result in high prices. Who cares if we get into more wars? Who cares if it weakens our country? You know, again, just shout from the top of the roof, “Climate change. We’re going to die tomorrow.” Or just like Al Gore said, and he’s buying houses in the California waterfront that he thought would be underwater by now.

Frank Curzio: Again, a lot of this is politics, a lot of this is bull shit. Which sucks, because this is something that’s serious. But it’s hard to take it serious when you have assholes that just make it extremely, extremely political. It’s got to be extreme. You’re going to die. We’re all going to be under… The whole earth is going to end in 10 years if we don’t do something to… To the other extreme, where there’s nothing, nothing wrong. And we shouldn’t do anything. And just, there’s such a massive middle ground there, which would be nice. Anyway, not to go on a little bit of a rant there, but I think all prices are going to go high going forward. They have no place else to go. I think you’ll see well over a hundred dollars a barrel next year. If not, at least over the next 18 months.

Frank Curzio: And those are ways to play it. Or yeah, like you mentioned. You say you want to play physical oils instead of producers, but when oil’s going up and the price of a commodity goes up, the stocks and equities are the best investments. So, if you really believe that, or if I believe that, I want to own stocks. I don’t want… It’s like uranium prices, right? You don’t want to own physical uranium when… What did it go from, 30 to 40? Okay, good move. But we saw 200 to 300, 400% gains in some of these stocks, right? On a flip side, maybe on a downside, yeah, you’re going to be protected. Right. So, you know that’s the good news. If you’re wrong on it, you’re not going to get hurt as much unless you’re buying the leverage products, like the UCOs and stuff like that.

Frank Curzio: But you really want to own stocks, if you really believe that oil prices are going higher. Well, that’s where you maximize your potential and you can even own the Exxons and Chevrons, which will probably go up higher, going forward than… I don’t know if they really tracked oil going up. I know a lot of the smaller names are up tremendously. And that’s what happens, right? When you see a sector move higher, the shit rises the most. And just like when it comes down, you’re going to see the crappy ones get killed the most. And Exxons and Chevrons stay up. So Exxon, Chevron, with their dividends, nice way to play it. There’s tons of ETFs in this industry. They’re going to track the drillers, the producers, there’s natural gas, if you want natural gas, which there’s massive crisis. You got to see what prices are. Holy cow, what prices are in the UK, which are incredible.

Frank Curzio: And I got to have a nice small cap pick for that. And probably in CVO in the coming months, which we’ve done a lot of research on, which is really, really incredible. But holy cow, natural gas prices there are insane, insane. But yeah, you could buy either Exxon Mobile, Chevron, if you think it’s going higher. The ETFs that the drillers produce, they’ll probably outperform or just something conservative, if you want to go with USO or USL. So if that helps… Else, my best friend’s Danish. International, emails me all the time. This dude, Frank, here’s your Danish fan. “Do you think this is true? Bitcoin supply will fall and demand rises equal higher price because of,” and he says, “Number one, supply fall, because the miners keep more Bitcoin for themselves. Normally miners have to sell a big part of their Bitcoin because they have to cover their production cost. But now, more banks are willing to lend miners money with security and Bitcoin. So, miners do that more and more.”

Frank Curzio: True on the bank front, right? That’s true. The cost to recover, it’s very easy if you’re a miner and you’re mining for Bitcoin right now. I think it was like 6,000. It might be like more like 9,000, ten… Depending on how much electricity prices are, but you’re going to make money. And a lot of money. Even if it’s 15,000. You’re going to make a lot of money by mining for Bitcoin. Again, it gets harder and harder, and that the equation gets more difficult. And it’s not going to give you as much Bitcoin going forward. But one thing that you’re wrong in, supply’s not falling. It’s staying the same. So, the supply’s not falling. It’s staying the same there.

Frank Curzio: And then you say, “Number two, demand rises.” So, you have Visa and others now, credit cards, where you get Bitcoin back instead of cash, hotel, fly, stuff like that. So, people that never owned Bitcoin are starting to own it that way. So, if only 1% of all credit cards will be Bitcoin rewards, demand’s going to rise heavily. Because probably after 22 months, I’m allowed to go to my winter home in Florida. Hope I get there before another travel event is coming because the virus is wild here in Denmark.” Stay safe. So, first of all, we’ll go to the Bitcoin part where supply’s not falling. Supply’s going to stay the same, which is great, right? Because if you look at Fiat, you have unlimited supply. You just keep printing and printing and printing, and diluting, diluting, diluting.

Frank Curzio: That’s why I like Bitcoin. It’s a store of value, and even much better than gold. Gold is just boring asset that really nobody wants to pay attention to, but they’re going to pay attention to it next year. But… And then demand is rising. Institutions have been late to get in. It’s incredible. So, I see this demand continuing. That’s why I knew it was going to come down. We went up tremendously. We’re still up tremendously on the year for Bitcoin, but you’re going to see this thing go incredibly higher. And you know, this is a massive market. Institutions are getting in. You’re seeing them reward more and more people with Bitcoin. Still, I don’t know if I use the word infancy, I use that a lot. But I’d say second, third inning, second inning, maybe of the amount of people that are going to own Bitcoin over the next five years.

Frank Curzio: Holy cow. So… And that’s a way to do it. And that’s exciting. Why are you going to put your money in cash, interest rates? Yes, they’re going a little bit higher, but still you own nothing. You own nothing leaving in a bank or whatever. People are like, “All right, I want into Bitcoin, instead. I don’t care about the fluctuations, but I’m just going to put in there and I think it’s going to go higher because I’m going to hold it like a lot of people are going to do.” And there’s a limited supply, and there’s usage. This is a currency, now. You can use it for thousands, if not tens of thousands of things. You can go into most major hotels now, and you’ll see a Bitcoin ATM. It’s a currency. Yeah, you can’t use Bitcoin to go into every single store, buy a loaf of bread, but you can go into Starbucks. You can go to a lot of places. You just do your payment services. You can use it through Square. I mean, like Visa.

Frank Curzio: These guys know. They understand that those transaction fees that they generate using Bitcoin, you don’t generate. So hey, let’s get on board this train, this way we’re collecting fees on the tens of trillions of dollars in sales that we achieve every single year, right, that they get a small percentage of through processing. So that’s where you’re seeing DeFi. That’s where you’re seeing so much disruption in crypto. It is. It’s disrupting these industries because when it comes to finance, they’re the middlemen. They make a ton of money being a middleman, and almost every business has been disrupted through the internet, especially if you’re a middleman. They provide better service that are cheaper.

Frank Curzio: And that’s what Bitcoin is. That’s what crypto is. That’s what DeFi is. Security tokens is… When it comes to investment banking, it’s much cheaper, less regulation, allows a company like me to raise money and go public and fund my company, which I would’ve never been able to do without a security token unless I did a traditional private placement, which you’d have to wait until I go public, which most small companies will never get to that point. Maybe they do. Maybe they don’t. Maybe we would, maybe we won’t. But I covered small caps all my life, and most don’t. DOW as well. And you’re looking at the Metaverse. These are amazing trends, but very, very disruptive. And yeah, I think Bitcoin’s going a lot higher.

Frank Curzio: Again, I don’t know what’s going to be in six months and go down 30,000, go 25,000. I just know like in the next three years, you’re going to see six digits on it over a hundred thousand, and it’s probably going to go higher and higher from there, because institutions are late to get it in and they’re starting to get in a lot more, and there’s going to be a lot more people that are going to own Bitcoin going forward. And all the major trends, the innovation… I’m not talking about major trends like cloud or 5G. The innovation when it comes to Metaverse, DOW, DeFi. Again, Security Tokens, NFTs. The innovation is all coming from crypto. It’s coming from the younger generation that understands digital, that provides digital ownership to your content, which is NFTs. I think people don’t really understand that. They’re looking at, “Oh, you’re buying some stupid little thing on the…” Yes, it’s stupid. And people are going to try to take advantage of it, but NFTs going to extend far beyond just artwork and collectibles. Different financial products and tickets to movies and everything.

Frank Curzio: It’s a proof of ownership on a ledger that you get the chance to own your own content. That’s super exciting, right? Everything’s owned. Everything you do. You think you own it. You have all these video. You have a massive following on YouTube. In one second, they could shut you off and you’re gone. They keep it all. We saw that with conservative websites who, everyone was against Trump. Didn’t matter if you reported the truth. Didn’t matter if you had like a regular opinion, right? Freedom of speech, you don’t have freedom of speech on these platforms. We know that now. They’ll ban you for anything. If you’re on the wrong side of whatever. Whether you’re a Trump fan or not. There is a lot of people I hate out there, but I would never say, “Well, ban them and shut them down.” It’s… Then you don’t believe in our constitution.

Frank Curzio: But yet, they control these platforms. They shut down what they want. Now, you have record of ownership. That’s huge. That’s a massive concept for anyone, anyone. A young kid with artwork, you could sell it to the public. Go to the Metaverse and sell it at different places, sell different items through there. It’s exciting times. That’s the innovation. That’s the world changing event that’s going to happen over the next 10, 15, 20 years may happen even sooner, especially when you have Facebook and a lot of these big companies. Even Apple’s going to be getting into it really big. You can see announcements over the next six months, in Metaverse, augmented reality, all this stuff. New worlds created. That’s what you’re going to see. And they have trillions, trillion dollar market caps. Man, $3 trillion market cap. Pretty close for Apple and Microsoft now.

Frank Curzio: But these companies are going to go all into this. They have the money, and you’re going to see this trend accelerate. So, the last part of that is your travel ban. I’m sorry about that. I know it’s going crazy in Denmark in the UK. Just know if you’re looking at statistics, Omicron, it is spreading like wildfire everywhere, which, it’s a nice headline, but bottom line is, 99% of these people are okay. And I would say more than 90% barely know they have it. I’ve heard that from more than 20 people. I haven’t actually seen anyone that has, that knew… That had the shots, either has the two shots, or had the booster, and now I have Omicron because, again, that was supposed to prevent you from getting COVID and it doesn’t, right. Which we all know now. Again, it’s funny when you think of… Not funny, but, I’m being sarcastic. But it’s crazy when you think about that.

Frank Curzio: Forced to get jabbed. And you got to take a… I took the vaccine. I took the vaccine only to go to this freaking conference, which I have to wear mask as well. And now they’re probably going to wind up canceling it, CES. I’m going to be really freaking pissed. I just want to know how long my antibodies last, because there’s not a doctor in the world that could tell you. They don’t know that. But I’d like to know that, before I jab myself when I might not have to, since I have the antibodies. Right? A lot of people with antibodies are not getting Delta. The people who are getting Delta are the people who vaccinated and haven’t got COVID before. Look at statistics. You’re not going to see a lot of statistics in the US because they hide all that shit from us. But if you look at Israel, you look at different studies they get from doctors all the time, real studies, you’re going to see that data.

Frank Curzio: I don’t know why we don’t want to publish this data. Why don’t we want to get it right? Why do we have to wear mask. Where Florida, we really stopped wearing masks here and we have the lowest rate of infection when it comes to COVID. Why aren’t we investigating that? Maybe we don’t have to wear masks anymore. Why? It’s okay to question that. That’s a data point. Maybe I’m wrong on it, but it’s a data point we should… Nope. You’re not allowed to. You’re not allowed to question it. Why is that? Why is that? At this stage, why is that? And you could tell when people going everywhere and having fun, enjoying themselves and not worry about Omicron because they know. They see people that have it. They know they’re going to be okay. They know if they’re… There’s, especially when it comes to COVID, it’s one group that you have to really worry about. It’s if you’re over 60, and you have underlying conditions. That’s the people who need to be worried.

Frank Curzio: And if you’re younger than that, you don’t have to be worried, especially if you’re under 18. I broke down those statistics as well. So it’s sad. It’s crazy. But I’d get to Florida as fast as you can. Everyone I know is going to Florida said, “Holy shit, it’s like going to a brand new world.” And while the whole entire world will report and say, “How irresponsible. And DeSantis is killing people.” It’s all horse shit. You want to sit there with your mask and all the bullshit and listen to all the media who has an agenda. Go ahead, and do it. That’s your right. And that’s fine. I’m just saying, listen, I’m here to help you guys out. I don’t give a shit who’s president. I don’t care. What all I want to do is, again, report accurate information to you guys. What I’m hearing for my sources living in Florida and seeing this, because I went to Baltimore a couple weeks ago.

Frank Curzio: All right. I went there twice in the past month and the first I went there, I was a little nervous going there, because I’m reading stories showing how there’s massive violence and people… I stayed like right in the heart. And I have to tell you, I had a great experience. I forgot to wear my mask in the hotel. Nobody yelled at me. Soon as I went outside, guy rode his bike is like, “Hey, good morning.” I was like, “Hey, good morning.” The other person like, “Hello.” I’m on the impression, like I’m going to get freaking shot because of what you read, which is bullshit. And that’s sad. That’s really freaking sad. Right? So hopefully, you get to Florida. Because when you do, you’re probably going to stay here for a while. Because it’s just, it’s free. It’s open. We’re not being irresponsible. If Omicron was killing people, we would have masks to see if that helped or it’s…

Frank Curzio: We’re not doing something just to say, “Hey F you. We’re not doing it.” It’s looking at the data. That’s all we do. We’re looking at the data. And it’s funny how when you read stories around and just say the DeSantis is killing… They’re going to attack DeSantis because Democrats need Florida as much as they can. They say it’s a swing state. I don’t think it’s going to be a swing state anymore. I think that’s going to lock up for Republican for a very long time. But they want to discredit them, and discredit us here, and it’s sad. I live here and I see it.

Frank Curzio: And again, if you’re over 60, get it. I’m not anti-vax. Get it. Get the vaccine. You should. If you’re not in good shape, you have underlying conditions. We know who it impacts. And again, I still think you’re absolutely insane unless your kid has underlying conditions, if they’re over 16, 17, I think you’re crazy. I think you’re absolutely crazy to get… That’s just based on the data based on a nine… It was a 0.01% fatality rate for kids under 17 years old that got COVID. That’s insane that they are forcing this on kids and they’re forcing it because I could tell you something about Pfizer. I could tell you something about Moderna. These mother, I’ll say it, fuckers. These guys would never even think of producing this to the public because they’ll never make money on it based on those statistics. The only reason why they’re doing it is because the government’s paying for it.

Frank Curzio: That’s why they’re forcing this through for children. Okay. I’ve seen it. I have children. I have kids in school. I’ve seen their friends get it. I’ve seen their kids get it. And it has not spread in almost any school that you could think of. That’s middle school below. None of them. You see kids get it. And it’s not like the whole entire school gets it and everyone has to stay home. It’s a kid and maybe two kids and that’s it. It’s not this wild spreading event. It’s not like that. So, when I see that for my kids, no, I’m going to avoid as much as I can. And my daughter has Crohn’s. And I just, I don’t want it. I don’t want to… I’m not going to tell her to get it. I just don’t think it’s worth it. I don’t think she needs it.

Frank Curzio: It’s not that I’m super scared of it or it’s going to do anything to her, but why even take that risk when you don’t have to, when I’d rather she probably does get it, and she got COVID already. And was perfectly fine, both my daughters. And you build up your immune system, which is natural in what you should be doing. So for me, again, just the facts and everything. I’m sorry to hear that. Again, in different countries, it’s really crazy. But they’re going on a lockdown. I can’t believe… I’m pissed off that I just heard that Amazon and Facebook are not going to be at the Consumer Electronics Show. Are you kidding me? We have to show proof of vaccination, and we have to wear fucking masks, and you’re still going to cancel this freaking thing. I mean, I got jabbed because of this. And now you’re going to cancel this thing. Why? Because they don’t work, the shots. They don’t work. They were supposed to prevent COVID. Masks supposed to prevent COVID. We know it doesn’t. We know both don’t work, right?

Frank Curzio: Yes. Those vaccines are going to help you out if you do get COVID and reduce those effects where it’s not going to be that bad, but that wasn’t being told to us, right. That wasn’t being told to us. We were told that a 94% or higher effectiveness where you don’t have to worry about getting COVID, which is all BS. And now we know. And just simply by canceling this show, where you have to show a card and you have to wear a mask, which is going to be hard for me to do interviews and everything and going there and you’re still canceling. Holy shit. And you’re going to tell me that these vaccines work? That doesn’t make sense to me.

Frank Curzio: It doesn’t make sense to anyone. There’s no common sense. Okay. You want to debate that? Debate it. Debate it with whoever you want, but again, just throw facts at me. Because I see people try to debate me and people who are on the other side, mostly leftist, that are just like, “Oh, you don’t understand. You don’t understand.” And they provide all bullshit to me. Send me statistics. Send me the facts, and I’ll debate you. That’s fine. And I’m open to anything. Again, my job is to make sure that people know the facts. I’ve been covering this longer than most people. Believe me. Through February, through February 2020, when nobody’s really covering this. And no one said, “It’s not going to hit the US.” And I was interviewing people on lockdown in China, live on our podcast. You could see that on our YouTube channel. Who locked down in Italy, China, and saying, “Holy shit guys, watch out.”

Frank Curzio: And seeing the statistics that were coming out and the stuff that I’m seeing from doctors compared to the stuff that’s seeing on TV, just made me dig, dig, dig, dig, dig. And holy shit. What a different story. How do you politicize something that’s killing people? How do you politicize that? Isn’t it the goal to make everybody safe? Right? Our families, this is what we do everything for. Why can’t we get the facts? Why can’t you give us the real facts? Why can’t give us the real data? Come on guys, give me a fucking break. This is getting crazy. Anyway, little ramp before Christmas. There you go. Let’s get to one last question is from Charles. He goes, “How did you like Bob Iger’s interview on CNBC as he stepped down from the chairman role of Disney?” I thought he was telling the truth. He stepping down at the right time because he found himself disagreeing with a lot of decisions being made.

Frank Curzio: And he said, maybe I just got to hand over control to the innovators. He’s like, I just would do different things during different times and COVID and how they cut costs and stuff like that. But they went balls to the wall, bought Fox’s entertainment assets, and look, they bought Pixar. They bought Marvel. I think it was… Somebody told me how much in another division for like 15 billion total, which is probably what they generated just from the Avengers over the last three, four years franchise, including merchandise sales, which is incredible. But then they went nuts, and they purchased Fox’s entertainment assets because they wanted to get into streaming. They wanted to get into streaming at the exact wrong time because they took on a massive amount of debt. They made that massive… What was it? A hundred billion dollars, whatever. $90 billion, whatever it is to Fox entertainment assets right before COVID.

Frank Curzio: Then everything got shut off. Because Disney’s more impacted by COVID than anyone, especially international travel, which is being halted right now because it’s crazy to travel international because you’re not even going to know if you have Omicron. You’re going to take a freaking test. You’re going to be like, I’m okay. And then you take it. They’re like, “Wow, well it says you’re infected. Okay. Now you got to stay there for two weeks.” Do you know how much that cost? In Disney? It’s going to cost you like 10 grand for a family of four, internationally, to go there. What are you going to do? Spend another 15 grand on top of that? Because you’re stuck for two weeks and who knows? Who knows the policies? I don’t even know the policies. Where are they going to put you if you test positive? They’re going to say stay in your hotel maybe over here. They’re not going to say that in other countries, if you travel internationally.

Frank Curzio: But now you get into streaming and now it’s all of a sudden let’s give streaming away absolutely for free. And now you realize, “Wow, streaming’s a really, really tough business,” which I explained yesterday, and it’s crushing you. So, they really have no direction. It’s like, we need to go direct to consumer. But do you? Because I can tell you, Disney made a big mistake here. They could have licensed out all their content to all these freaking platforms that are getting into streaming that are dying for content. You could’ve licensed out for premium prices, sat there and collect royalties and made a fortune and just focused on the parks, focused on movies. Instead, you went all in on this streaming platform, which is killing you as your competitors spend $30 billion each, AT&T for HBO, and Netflix. When you can’t even compete.

Frank Curzio: You have more net debt in your balance sheet than you ever had in the history of the company. No direction. You’re one of the only companies, major companies, in the S&P 500. You won’t find many whose earnings have not gotten back to pre-COVID levels and they’re not going to get back there for another two years. That’s how much money they’re burning through right now. And now, they have no pricing power on their streaming business, which they said, “We’re going all in on.” Iger, good job stepping down right now. That’s good. You stepped down at the perfect time. Just like, who’s that? The GECO, not ML, but who was it before him? Right. The legend, sat down perfectly. ML took over. And then that was it. He like acquisitions, craziness, went nuts. And it was horrible. Right?

Frank Curzio: So yeah, Jack Walt. So, it’s good timing for him. I think it’s great timing, I think. Because Disney has no direction right now. The international sales are going to struggle. They’re going to continue to miss earnings estimates going forward. They had no pricing power on their streaming services because they’re giving away for free. One of the few companies that don’t have pricing power and you know, it’s just… You got take… Hulu. Hulu’s a good example, Hulu, they basically own now and that’s still, they have… They’re generating over 4 billion in revenue and have over 40 million customers, and they’re losing half a billion dollars a year. Think about that for a minute. That’s how tough streaming is. And they don’t have that money to lose. So, and you have more competitors entering the market. Disney needs to go back to what they’re great at.

Frank Curzio: There are marketing… Probably the greatest marketing company on the planet by far. Just, creative, marvel, huge. You could continue. I mean, you could have the Avengers 28, and people are still going to see it, and you’re going to generate a billion dollars. People going back to the movies now, which should be pretty good for them. I don’t know if they’ll… You’ll see the traffic to Broadway, which is an older crowd. I don’t know if you’ll see that too much, but people are going back to the movies. They’re starting to go back to the movies. Look at the numbers to Spiderman. They’re highest grossing weekend of all time behind the two Avenger movies. But go back to what you’re great at doing. Marketing, storytelling. Because this streaming shit is very, very hard. There’s only one company that really got it, right? Hulu hasn’t even gotten it right.

Frank Curzio: But Netflix has gotten it right, but they spent the absolute fortune and took out massive amount of debt and was cash for a negative for what was it, whatever, decade, over a decade to get to where they are now. And now they’re in a great place. But it was very difficult to get there. And Disney’s learning the hard way, because they structured their business around something that was a temporary event, which is COVID, where everything was shut down, locked down, more people in their homes. And it made sense. But even at today’s level’s trading at over 40 times earnings at $150, when you’re not seeing growth at all, you’re seeing, just growth slow right now. Holy cow. You want to pay that premium? Fine. There’s companies that deserve a 50, 60, 70 PE because they’re growing. They’re still growing. If they’re not seeing huge top line sales, they’re seeing it on the bottom line as well.

Frank Curzio: 15, 20, 30% growth. That’s fine. As long as you’re growing, that’s fine. That’s okay. Tesla, just production. More and more cars being released. You see the growth, right? You constantly see the growth. When the growth slows, you get Peloton. You get DocuSign and goodbye. You haven’t seen that goodbye. I mean, it’s down 25% from its highs, but the stock went from 85 to like 175, 150, basically because of streaming and that’s a business model. It’s not going to work for Disney. When you can’t put your best content on streaming and launch your best content on streaming, which is Avengers. You have to come out in the movies with that stuff. That’s a major problem, that Netflix doesn’t have that problem. Ozark’s coming out. What is that? Cobra Kai coming out. You just, you binge watch this stuff.

Frank Curzio: They got it right. People love it. And they’re talking about it all the time, and Squid Game and stuff. It’s not easy. Netflix has figured it out. But Iger has done wonders for that company. It is still one of the greatest companies in the world. I don’t know if the stocks are going to come down a lot further from here. It’s down 25% already. Some of it might be factored in, but Disney has to come up with a plan. I think go back to the original roots. These guys the greatest marketers in the world. The greatest at storytelling. Greatest creators. Go back to that because now you just went to a money losing business that’s going to suck so much capital. It’s going to suck… Just the culture. You’re going to see the culture, which I’ve gotten emails from people within Disney who have left that told me that things are different now.

Frank Curzio: It’s freaking not fun there anymore. And that sucks. Disney should be the greatest, funnest company to work for. I love the company. I take my kids there. It’s awesome. But it’s sad, what I see and the bullshit that they’re telling everybody. Because you looked at that number, they couldn’t fudge those numbers last quarter. Holy cow, are they bad. And everybody still… Every freaking analyst because they have so much debt. They know they’re going to have to raise money, were like defending them. “This is going to be great.” It’s not a 2022 story. It’s 2023 story. Really? AT&T is a 2022 story. Wasn’t a 2021 story. And look how much that fell. And that’s going to be, I think, one the best picks, large cap picks, I think, going forward. The perfect position, price is right. Split into two different companies.

Frank Curzio: They got streaming right. HBO Max producing amazing content right now. And people watching like crazy. Massive free cash flow that they generate, which Disney does not. Disney does not have that free cash flow that Comcast has. It’s constant payments, monthly payments. You’re trying to get that through streaming and they’re not. And when your average revenue per user is four bucks, a little over four bucks, compared to wherever it is. What was it, 14, $15 for Netflix, and a lot higher place else. People are not paying for that content. And they’re trying to get all those free subscribers over to paid, and it’s not working. So, you could have 500 million subscribers to your platform, but if nobody’s paying for it, hey, you better find a way to monetize those names. Disney hasn’t yet. Maybe they figure it out, but it’s not going to be through streaming.

Frank Curzio: And hopefully, they’re willing to change, willing to look themselves in a mirror and say, “Okay, we fucked up. Let’s change our business model. And let’s go back to what we used to be the best in the world at doing and being creative in storytelling.” That’s what they need to do. Because they’re going to continue with this streaming thing, Disney, it’s going to be a disaster for them. And I hope they don’t, because I have nothing against company personally, I’m talking about the stock price. It’s incredibly… You’re paying 40 times plus, for a company whose earnings are barely growing, barely growing, which is insane. You don’t deserve that, especially in this market, raising rates, cost of debt’s going to go higher, more leverage coming out of the market. I would just be careful. I don’t see the catalyst at all for Disney. I’ll say, come out and say, “Hey, we messed up, and this is what we’re going to do to fix it.” And that’s what you need.

Frank Curzio: So, you know, I agree he does a great job. I think the timing couldn’t be more perfect for him to step down because I really, I don’t know what Disney’s business model is right now. Because of its streaming, they’re dead. Their stocks going to go down to a hundred if they maintain and keep going all in on streaming… They can’t. They don’t know how to do. It’s evident now. People aren’t paying for that platform. Their best content can’t be put on that site, which is insane to me. So… And you’re still going to see a lot that they generate off internationally and all the money they come in. And again, you go to Disney Park in Florida or California, half the people there are speaking different, different languages. Massive international presence and you’re not going to see that because companies are kind of shutting down, lock down and that’s going to be like that for the next few years.

Frank Curzio: So, Disney’s going to have some trouble, but if they’re smart, they figure it out. Hopefully, they do. They’ve got some smart people over there, but I don’t know. Sometimes stubbornness is an incredible, incredible weakness. And you got to be humble sometimes and say, “Hey, I messed up.” And I’ve seen that numerous times. I’ve always be like that. If there’s better ideas, I’m open to it. I’m open to change. I’m open to innovation in a second. In a second, I’m open to innovation, no matter what. If I think this something’s going to be great for our shareholders in our business, I’ll change in one second, and you always have to be willing to do that. Disney has to change its business model because streaming’s not working. And I think Bob Iger actually knows that.

Frank Curzio: So, he stepped down from the CEO position and was chairman. Now, he stepped down from the chairman. Very, very good timing. And I’m sure he’s going to sell a lot more stock because Disney insiders have been selling their stock here, even though they’re telling you how great they think business is going to be over the next couple of years. So, interesting. All right, guys. Now, before I go. Real quick, no podcasts next week. If you are a subscriber to any of our paid products, you are going to get our Frankly Speaking podcast, right, which is exclusive. It’s just for our paid… Anyone who owns a paid product Curzio Research. So, that gets sent to you. It’s not on iTunes. So… But today’s podcast will be the last until the new year, but I’m getting tons of questions. If I have any holiday deals. And they want to buy a product and for a third party or a family member, I’ve gotten a lot of emails on that.

Frank Curzio: And yes, we’re selling Moneyflow Trader, and you have that option, which is cool. One of our best deals, 40% off in a year for free. But here’s what I’m going to do for you as a way of giving back. On our website, there’s going to be a banner on there. Every one of our front end products, every single one of them, I’m offering a 60% discount. Which means you’re going to get every single one of them for under a hundred dollars. So that’s our front-end products, low price products. That’s Curzio Research Advisory, Unlimited Income, Dollar Stock Club, Big Money Report. You can get all those. Dollar Stock Club’s a lot cheaper than that, but all of them for other a hundred dollar and all of our backend products, I’m going to offer a 50% discount. Every single one of them. So, Curzio Venture Opportunities, Crypto Intelligence, Moneyflow Trader, and Big Money Trader. All those 50% discounts, of course take advantage of Moneyflow Trader because you’re going to get a year for free in a 40% discount.

Frank Curzio: So, that’s a special offer just for, Moneyflow Trader, that we’re offering now. Because I really want people to be in that newsletter because I think it’s going to protect you. I think you’re going to thank me for it a million times over. And Genia is already starting to kill it because of the volatility in the market. It’s just going to be a perfect market for that newsletter next year and over the next 18 months, if the Fed’s raise rates, and it’s more variance hit the market, inflation. We don’t know where it’s going to go. A lot of uncertainty next year. It’s different market. Definitely a different market. I think she’s going to kill it next year. And she’s starting already, which is cool. So, 50% off of all of our backend products, every single one of them. Just click that link, whatever product you want. There it is. We’re going to do that to the 31st, just for you guys.

Frank Curzio: This way, if you want something for Christmas, you could do it or send it a gift to somebody. That’s awesome. Any questions or comments, email me at frank@curzioresearch.com. But after the 31st, everything goes by to normal. Only available to you guys, Curzio Research members. We’re not doing that outside of our list. They need to pay full price. I do that for our best customers and that’s you. That’s you guys. So, I appreciate all the support. Want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays. Again, we’re going to be off next week. So, I just want to say, thank you for all support. It was a wonderful year. It was awesome. I loved the challenges. I love the grind, man. I really do love the grind and how hard everyone’s responded.

Frank Curzio: And so, I’m giving everybody off for the week and stuff and because they deserve it. I know you see my face on here, my name on the wall behind me and stuff like that. But without my team, I’m nothing. Okay, and you need your team. You need a very, very good team that you trust. And that’s not easy when you start your business. Start trusting people to take stuff off your plate. This way you could do what you’re good at doing. Whether it’s innovating, being creative, being out there. I like traveling and finding new ideas and stuff like that. And I can’t do that unless I have a team I trust, and they’ve been fantastic this year, and I’m really looking forward to going into next year because there’s lots and lots of fun things.

Frank Curzio: Lots of exciting things in the pipeline that I think you guys are going to be really hot, especially with the launch of our token, which not the launch of it. It was launched, but our… This is going to be really an official launch in US where anyone could trade that on a tZERO platform, which is coming out in the new year. So early Q1, because we’re going to have a nice marketing campaign behind it and really let everyone know because that’s a very, very cool event for us. That is something that we’re excited about. So questions, comments, I’m here for you, frank@curzioresearch.com. Happy holidays. Enjoy it with your family. And I’ll see you in the New Year. Take care.

Announcer: Wall Street Unplugged is produced by Curzio Research, one of the most respected financial media companies in the industry. The information presented on Wall Street Unplugged is the opinion of its host and guests. You should not base your investment decision solely on this broadcast. Remember, it’s your money and your responsibility.