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  • 1 year ago
The Dirhams & Dollars team puts forth their nominations for the best business stories of 2018 as well as other niche and quirky areas of business
Transcript
00:00Hello and welcome to Dirhams and Dollars, the Gulf News business podcast, where we talk
00:08about news affecting the business community in the region and in the world. On Wednesdays
00:13we have in-depth discussions on a topic of the week. You can find us on iTunes and all
00:17the other podcasting apps, and we can be found on gulfnews.com as always. I'm Ed Klaus.
00:23And I'm Scott Shuey.
00:26And I'm Sarah Adia. Merry Christmas.
00:29And a happy New Year.
00:30And a happy Festivus to the rest of us.
00:32Yeah, okay. Well, let's see. It's the end of the year. We just got done listening to
00:37our predictions from last year, and they were all over the place.
00:40Yes.
00:41But we thought we'd go back and talk a little bit about the stories we've seen this year.
00:44And actually, we have some awards we're going to give out starting today.
00:48Not physical awards.
00:49Not physical awards. These are just the silliest, the worst, the best, all that type of stuff.
00:53So we thought we'd go back, and we're each going to nominate a story, and we'll see how
00:57it works out. And we're doing this basically on the fly. No one's seen each other's nominations
01:04yet, so we don't know how this is going to go. So we're going to start off with the silliest
01:08news story of 2018.
01:10Before we go any further, can I just say that next year we should have physical awards made?
01:15And give them out to whom?
01:16To ourselves. Just so something can go in my trophy cabinet.
01:20I want awards. If you want to buy me something, I'll happily accept it. I'll give you until
01:24tomorrow, or next week, or whenever you want. I'll give you two weeks to buy me something.
01:28We'll talk off-air about what might be present.
01:31I just got overexcited about the possibility of getting something.
01:34Yeah, me too. All right. Sorry, Scott. You were saying. So silliest-
01:37On to the silliest story.
01:39Category one.
01:40Yes.
01:41Dum, dum, dum.
01:42Okay, let's start. Not with me. Ed, you go first. What's your silliest story of 2019?
01:45It's always me. It's always me. All right. So I have two nominations in this category.
01:52I know we're meant to have one nomination. I'm not going to throw the rule book out at
01:55this early stage. I don't know if we should discount April Fool's stories because they're,
02:02by their nature, quite silly. If we're including April Fool's stories, then I have the blockchain
02:09car, the blockchain-powered car, which a couple of well-known, well-respected publications
02:14in the UAE fell for and published on April 2nd. That was from Yala Compare, the insurance
02:20comparison guys. So shout out to them for fooling quite a few people. But yeah, that
02:26was basically a car powered on blockchain. If we're not including April 1st, what's the
02:29verdict?
02:30I'm going to say it's got to be a real story.
02:31Got to be a real news story. Okay. Then mine is the car for floating supermarket, which
02:36just really summarized the ridiculous, sort of bizarro news announcements that we sometimes
02:43get here.
02:44Do you want to give us a 10-second pitch of what the story was for those who didn't read
02:46it?
02:47The story was on the tin. It's a floating supermarket for jet skiers, for yacht owners.
02:52So it is...
02:53This is peak Dubai.
02:54There's three of them. It is very much peak Dubai. There's three of them floating off
02:57the coasts of Dubai's most popular beaches. You pull up on your jet ski, you order a pint
03:01of milk and some vegetables and a bit of sun cream, and then you ride off on your own.
03:05Because that's what people want when they're on a jet ski. Just give me a pint of milk,
03:08please.
03:09Apparently, it's really filling that need that no one knew existed. So that's my silly
03:14story for 2018.
03:15Sarah?
03:16I feel like I have a winner. I think my silliest story of 2018 was the 420 tweet by Elon Musk,
03:25the funding secure tweet. That was just a beauty of its own, because it was a lot of
03:31my favorite things at once. It was Twitter, peak Twitter, just going crazy. Peak celebrity
03:36craziness, peak finance craziness, when Elon Musk said he wanted to take...
03:41Cannabis.
03:42Exactly. Yeah.
03:43Yeah, the SEC didn't think it was so silly. They sued him for it.
03:44Well, that's what makes it like a real proper story. It wasn't just this Twitter thing.
03:49It blew up, and the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, they ended up suing Elon
03:57Musk.
03:58He lost his chairmanship over that tweet.
04:01Yep.
04:02And had to pay $20 million.
04:03$20 million fine. And then he later tweeted saying, worth it. And I think that was a beautifully
04:09silly story. Also, I have to mention that I was quite excited about it, because it had
04:13finance people coming in and saying, oh, the 420 number makes sense. It's not just a marijuana
04:18reference, because it's a 10% or 20% premium or whatever. And so there was proper finance.
04:26Name the three models of Tesla. There's the S, there's the E, there's the X. Elon Musk
04:32has a track record of making some type of under the... What do you call it? Off the wall
04:39type of references in his stuff.
04:41Subliminal.
04:42The 420, obviously, is nothing but weed.
04:44Yeah.
04:45Okay, so this is my nomination for silliest story of 2018.
04:48All right. You guys are both going to shout me down on my silliest one. Bitcoin.
04:52Nice.
04:53Bitcoin. Okay, looking back, hindsight is 20-20. What brainiac came up with the idea
04:57of let's spend $20,000 on a little piece of encrypted code with nothing inside of it whatsoever?
05:03And let's see if we can get more people to do it. And let's spend trillions of dollars
05:07on this stuff and go out and start up a whole... What was it? A buying frenzy of GPUs so we
05:13can process this stuff even more. Looking back, it's like, what the hell were people
05:18thinking?
05:19Can I just say, this was the silliest story of maybe 2017, not 18.
05:22Hold on. This is the next 30 minutes of my life. I knew it was going to go down this
05:29road. First of all, Bitcoin is not a silly story. It's a major news story. And I think
05:35the crash probably does constitute it more as a silly story because it shows how ridiculous
05:39the rise was in 2017. I think people were shown to be silly in 2018. But I'm going to
05:45contest and object for the record that Bitcoin is a silly story. And I know that this is
05:51just the way it's going.
05:52Save your voting for the end of the nominations.
05:54All right.
05:55Okay. I mean, are we just each going to vote on our own stories?
05:58No, no. Actually, no, let's do it. What do you say? I actually go with Musk. I think
06:02Musk is a good one.
06:04Yeah, I'll go with Musk. I, yeah.
06:06All right. Elon Musk wins our silliest story of the year.
06:10Although, I'm trying to keep it local, right, for all of our UAE listeners.
06:14We never agreed this was local.
06:16We're a local podcast. Shout out all my Dubaians. If you feel aggrieved by Sarah's international
06:21choices, then you can email us at sarahdeer.govnews.com. All right, let's go.
06:29We'll dox Ed next. Don't worry about it.
06:31Not my email address, but okay.
06:33Let's go to category number two.
06:35Let's go with what was the most surprising story of 2018?
06:40All right, Sarah, you start off this time.
06:42I have two. I have Qatar leaving OPEC.
06:46I remember when that came out, and I remember thinking,
06:49oh, I did not see that coming. And maybe that's a fault on my part,
06:52because I don't cover energy, and I don't read a lot about energy
06:56as much as I read about other things, and I also don't read a ton about politics.
07:00So maybe other people saw it coming. For me, it was a huge surprise.
07:03The second story I would nominate, and you can take your pick,
07:07is Brett Kavanaugh becoming the Supreme Court Justice.
07:11That was overwhelming for me.
07:15I just couldn't believe they did that.
07:19Surely that goes into the non-business category.
07:21Does it have to be business?
07:23It's a business podcast, business awards.
07:27We're scrubbing that, sorry.
07:30I got emotional for a second. Thanks, guys.
07:32Sorry, you can bring it up again in a few moments.
07:34We have a non-business category coming up.
07:36Ed?
07:38You go for it, Scott. You tell us.
07:40My second surprising story is Abraj.
07:42I did not see that one coming.
07:44We've been looking at Abraj for years.
07:46It kept being promoted as one of the biggest local story.
07:50Yeah, points for that.
07:52One of the biggest private investment companies around for years.
07:56Everyone was invested in it. Bill Gates was invested in it.
07:58Fund was in there. Everything was going fine.
08:00Then all of a sudden, it started unraveling.
08:02It started off with just small commingling of funds
08:04and maybe some errant transactions.
08:06It snowballed into the death of this major company.
08:10I'll be honest.
08:12Bookkeeping in parts of this area of the world
08:16have been a little shoddy over the years.
08:18I did not see it unraveling to that extent
08:20from such a big player.
08:22Yeah, a big company of that size
08:24and such a spectacular fall from grace.
08:27My most surprising story of 2018
08:31was the relative ease with which the UAE introduced VAT.
08:37The relatively smooth rollout.
08:39I anticipated, as I think a lot of people did,
08:41complete carnage.
08:43Panic in the streets.
08:45Panic in the streets.
08:47Tails not working.
08:49Starvation.
08:51Lord of the flies.
08:53Wolves roaming the palm.
08:55Actually, credit to the FDA.
08:57Credit where credit is due.
08:59The rollout was pretty smooth.
09:01Most small businesses,
09:03the fruit and veg guys in the markets
09:05were well consulted and well prepared.
09:07Actually, there have been some hiccups
09:11and obviously some road bumps along the way.
09:14But when you take a country from a completely
09:18no tax environment
09:20to introducing a tax.
09:22It's rare to see a company
09:24Sorry, country. I keep saying company.
09:26It's rare to see a country in this day and age
09:28actually introduce a tax regime.
09:30I think the UAE made a pretty good go of it.
09:33When you look at the other GCC countries
09:35still not anywhere close to doing it.
09:37That to me was quite a surprise.
09:39Especially having covered it so comprehensively in 2017
09:43and heard the fears.
09:45I think that was quite a surprise for me.
09:47Shall we vote?
09:49Call it to a vote. What do you got?
09:51I vote Abraj.
09:54Abraj it is then.
09:56Abraj is our officially most surprising story of 2018.
10:00Alright, the least surprising story of 2018.
10:03The story everyone should have seen coming.
10:06And just if you're curious,
10:08no I didn't put Bitcoin in this category too.
10:10Go on Scott, you tell us. What did you put in this category?
10:12I put down Facebook
10:14and all the data leaks
10:16and the fact that this company has for years
10:18been taking people's data
10:20and on the side, guess what?
10:22To everybody out there
10:24and targeting ads and getting involved in elections
10:26and at the end of the day
10:28they turned out to be just some company
10:30run by some smug
10:32Harvard educated millennial
10:34who's looking to make some money.
10:36I knew the M word was coming.
10:38I knew you wanted to say the word millennial.
10:40It would be a podcast without me
10:42dishing on millennials in some way.
10:44Anyway, back to Facebook.
10:46That is one I think everyone should have seen coming.
10:48I never said anything about Elon Musk being a Gen Xer.
10:51Why do you have to go low?
10:53Or McAfee, you know.
10:55You want me to say something about Musk
10:57being a Gen Xer? Trust me, I can dish on Musk.
10:59I wouldn't go that low.
11:01I'm like someone I wouldn't go that low.
11:03Get more fun out of life, Sarah.
11:05You gotta dig down deep.
11:07Alright, anyway, Facebook. What's your nomination?
11:09That's mine.
11:11I have three nominations.
11:13What is it with one nomination apiece?
11:15Alright, let's do the last
11:17of the multi-nomination categories.
11:19I will give mine. I will narrow them down
11:21to one. Brexit.
11:23I think no one should be surprised
11:25no one should have been surprised
11:27that it turned out to be the utter
11:29mess and confusion
11:31that it still is.
11:33The UK is
11:35expected to leave the European Union
11:37in three months and we still
11:39know now as much as we did this time last year
11:41which is just about nothing.
11:43Yeah.
11:45Are we accepting
11:47that as a business story?
11:49It's political.
11:51It is, but it certainly has a business component.
11:53It's quite a hefty business component.
11:55Why are you trying to take me down every time I pitch a story?
11:57Because I need to win.
11:59Oh yes,
12:01you haven't won anyone so far.
12:03Well, because I think
12:05Dirhams and Dollars Awards is going to become
12:07obviously an institution in the coming years
12:09and we need to hammer out the specifics
12:11of it including
12:13local versus international
12:15My choice for least surprising
12:17is unsurprisingly
12:19another local story since
12:21champion of the people here, Ed
12:23Klaus. It is the Kareem
12:25hack of 14 million
12:27users. To me this is actually
12:29if we had the biggest
12:31story of the year locally, I think
12:33it probably would have been my choice
12:35for that as well. Simply because
12:37it was the
12:39first time a major well-known
12:41in the spotlight
12:43company that's very popular
12:45with the day-to-day people
12:47disclosed a hack
12:49basically its entire user base
12:51was compromised in that
12:53hack. They came forward in a
12:55sort of
12:57of their own volition
12:59but it was unsurprising because
13:01Scott and I, we cover
13:03a lot of cyber security stuff
13:05and it's a common
13:07theme that companies are
13:09constantly here in the UA especially under attack
13:11and it's just a matter of time
13:13before a big company is here
13:15and has to disclose. So to me
13:17it wasn't particularly surprising
13:19and you know I think
13:212019, 2020 you're going to see more
13:23of that kind of thing happening so
13:25for me it was the hack of Kareem's user base
13:27Alright
13:29so we got our three contestants there
13:31Alright let's hear the votes
13:33Sorry remind me of Brexit
13:35Facebook and the one you took 20 minutes
13:37explaining. I don't think Facebook is
13:39I think Facebook was a surprise
13:41I think at that scale I think everyone
13:43would have expected it to grow when it grew to that size
13:45to have some controversies but I'm
13:47I'm not sure that it
13:49the complete disaster
13:51of a year it's been
13:53I don't think that would have been seen coming
13:55I mean actually when I said I have three nominations
13:57Facebook was one of them that was surprising
13:59Really? Interesting
14:01So everyone but you Ed. I'm going to go with Kareem
14:03I'm voting for myself
14:05I'm voting for Brexit then if you're voting for yourself
14:07No no I'm voting for Brexit on this one
14:09we're going to avoid the three way. I think Brexit
14:11to be at this point yeah we knew this was a
14:13crap show coming down the pike so
14:15no surprise there. Yeah
14:17How do you feel about that champion of the people? I'm winning so far
14:19Because you just I mean it's easy when you choose
14:21the big internationals but anyway
14:23We never said it was
14:25just local stories genius
14:27We're a local podcast so
14:29we should have had an international category
14:31So we never talked about US China trade right?
14:33We should have had an international category
14:35And on to the next category
14:37moving forward here. Alright we're going
14:39to go with the story
14:41in 2018 the under the radar
14:43award. I don't know
14:45we said this earlier but I'm still not quite sure what it means
14:47this is the most under reported or
14:49just a story that sort of we missed
14:51or. It flew under the radar
14:53It's either it flew under the radar and
14:55was under reported but I think
14:57under the radar also has the connotation of like
14:59the potential to grow into something
15:01much bigger. It's almost like a one
15:03to watch. Alright so you go ahead
15:05with that one and then what do you got?
15:07So I've got two
15:09I've got the
15:11loosening of
15:13visa regulations in the UAE
15:15so 10 year residencies
15:17and so on. It's still yet to be sort
15:19of formally implemented. Did you really go
15:21local in every category? Yeah
15:23I mean that's what the champion of the
15:25people does you know internationally known locally
15:27recognized and so
15:29By the way I don't like this passive aggressive
15:31bashing us both
15:33It's all good
15:35I think the visa regulations
15:37are certainly one to watch going
15:39ahead but I think they're one that
15:41sort of this year flew under the radar
15:43because they weren't sort of formalized into
15:45law and were simply announced by
15:47the cabinet so I think
15:49that was a sort of under reported story that
15:51could have major major
15:53sort of major knock on
15:55One flew east, one flew west, one flew under
15:57the cuckoo's radar? Exactly
15:59Alright Sarah, you go first
16:01or next. Under the radar
16:03I would definitely without a doubt
16:05easily say that mine is the
16:07Dubai financial market
16:09The index, the financial, the Dubai financial
16:11market index is year to date down 24%
16:13which is probably
16:15bear market and when I hear people talk about
16:17bear markets they talk about emerging markets
16:19obviously Dubai is an emerging market
16:21but they don't talk about Dubai
16:23they don't talk about the fact that this
16:25is an index that has fallen so much
16:27and continued to fall from the beginning
16:29of the year because of several
16:31reasons
16:33You know what, I'm not even gonna
16:35I'll call this to a vote right now because
16:37DFM is probably
16:39the most surprising story for the year
16:41Most surprising? Sorry, most under
16:43the radar
16:45But it's been covered pretty comprehensively
16:47It's in Bloomberg like every
16:49couple of weeks. It was a creeping story
16:51all year long and it was never like
16:53oh my god the market crashed yesterday, it never really did that
16:55It was like a little bit here, a little bit here
16:57and it continued all year long
16:59And also, I mean
17:01I'm not trying to pitch this further
17:03but I think it's fair to say that
17:05like as someone who follows finance
17:07I didn't see people from other countries
17:09talk about this and give it the
17:11buzz that Turkey for example got or
17:13Argentina and I realize these are different scales
17:15but like China for example obviously
17:17one of the largest economies in the world, the second largest
17:19not the case with the UAE
17:21but you know when these markets
17:23would fall into bear territory
17:25everyone around the world, everyone on finance twitter
17:27would flip about it
17:29and no one ever mentioned Dubai and it's kind of like
17:31what? Yeah, the first few
17:33stories I've seen, the big focus stories
17:35from the big international wires, just in the last
17:37few weeks. So yeah, alright
17:39so officially then we're kind of
17:41called out one for the under the radar story
17:43of the year is the DFM, right?
17:45That's a 3 out of 4 or 3 out of 5
17:47What was yours?
17:49Mine was the most surprising
17:51No, what was, no
17:53What was your under the radar?
17:55My DFM, I mean I was looking at VAT
17:57too but quite frankly DFM is the one that
17:59really... This is the one you had in mind when you came in?
18:01No, I had VAT in mind when I came in
18:03because VAT sort of started off
18:05like Ed said, it was like alright hey
18:07you know, pitchforks and torches
18:09and oh my god we're going to be fighting in the street for
18:11tomorrow's lunch and... Yeah, it was the most
18:13over reported or it was the most
18:15reported story in 2017
18:17it was the most reported story in 2017 and it was probably
18:19completely, it was kind of under reported in 2018
18:21And I have to say it gets points
18:23also for the fact that
18:25there was a bit of like confusion in the
18:27first couple of days or the first few days
18:29of January when everyone was getting receipts
18:31of like x.13
18:33or x.26
18:35like denominations that don't exist
18:37in the currency but then the central bank
18:39said you have to round it up and like
18:41you pay what's closest to you. Yeah, there was all kinds of
18:43fun stuff. I remember paying for stuff online for shipping
18:45and the guy would still show up and say you still owe
18:47two dirhams. Why?
18:49Well because we didn't put the VAT in the online
18:51computation for your
18:53delivery fees. I mean that type of stuff was going on
18:55for like a few weeks. Right. But after that
18:57it went away. Okay.
18:59Alright, so I'm the winner so far, that's what counts?
19:01Yes, that's the most important thing
19:03in all this rehashing of this year's story
19:05that you win. Yes, spot the only child.
19:09Alright, next category
19:11before Ed gets slapped
19:13The non-business story
19:15of the year. Take it away, Scott.
19:17Alright, I'm going to go with the U.S. elections.
19:19I mean it seemed to be
19:21the most. The midterms? The midterm elections.
19:23Okay. I don't want to say all consuming
19:25but it seemed like all I heard about
19:27for six months of the elections was
19:29the ongoing fight with Donald
19:31Trump and the Republicans and the blue wave
19:33and the red wave and
19:35it sort of is more than just that
19:37because it ties in everything. It brings in
19:39the China-U.S.
19:41trade war. It brings in Russian involvement
19:43in the U.S.
19:45elections in 2016. I mean it pretty much
19:47encompasses everything. The U.S. election
19:49was everything that's gone wrong over the
19:51last two years and who's to blame
19:53for it? So,
19:55by simply looking at the scale
19:57I call the elections.
19:59I wouldn't
20:01class Brexit as a business story
20:03to me it's more of a political story so
20:05Brexit would be my choice but if we're going
20:07to call Brexit a business story then my biggest
20:09non-business story of the year would be
20:11the
20:13gathering pace of the Mueller investigations
20:15simply just because the
20:17implications of those
20:19indictments and investigations surrounding
20:21Trump and
20:23more broadly not just the Mueller indictments
20:25but the other ongoing investigations
20:27there's currently 17
20:29concurrent investigations into
20:31Trump and his businesses and the election
20:33he ran in 2016 so
20:35that to me simply, you know, the size
20:37of America's economy, the consequences
20:39those investigations could have and
20:41just the sort of undeniability at
20:43this point of Trump's sort of
20:45abhorrent criminality and his
20:47campaign's criminality. So you agree with me?
20:49About what? It's the U.S. elections.
20:51Not quite, he says Mueller.
20:53I'm talking investigations.
20:55I think the midterms is a good
20:57choice. I think it's a referendum on Trump
20:59and it shows the Democrats can do well in
21:012020 which will have very
21:03far-ranging consequences so
21:05but I'm not saying that's how
21:07I'm going to vote. Let's hear Sarah's.
21:09I have two, is that okay?
21:11Alright, go on.
21:13One is, I just wrote
21:15Trump, everything Trump-related.
21:17No, not acceptable.
21:19You've got to be specific.
21:21Trump is not a story.
21:23Okay, I think how many people
21:25have been fired from the White House and from
21:27his administration over this year
21:29would
21:31take my non-business story
21:33pick of the year
21:35and also I'm going to go back again and say
21:37Brett Kavanaugh winning the seat as the
21:39Supreme Court Justice. Okay, can I make
21:41a suggestion here before we
21:43all basically vote on our own version
21:45of which Trump story is the non-business
21:47story of the year because everything we just
21:49mentioned boils down to
21:51it's Trump. So,
21:53can we just all agree? We'll say
21:55that the non-business story of the year
21:57is the chaotic
21:59presidency of Donald Trump
22:01in 2018
22:03because that hits Mueller, that
22:05hits Kavanaugh, that hits
22:07the election, whole thing, what did we say?
22:09Or are we going to dig our heels in on each call?
22:11No, no, I mean it makes
22:13sense. I do feel like
22:15you're trying to sort of slide into that one
22:17a little bit since the
22:19guy who hasn't won a category all night.
22:21Listen, I'm not here to win, I'm just here to win the hearts
22:23and minds of the people. Yeah, how are you doing that
22:25with these zero wins? He's doing that with the local
22:27stories.
22:29I think the midterms are
22:31not a Trump story, really, they're
22:33Democrats and Republicans story, but I
22:35agree with generally. Fine, let's take it for a vote.
22:37Who votes with Ed?
22:39I vote, obviously. Alright, who votes with Sarah?
22:41I do.
22:43Who votes with me?
22:45We got a tie, now what do we do? Tiebreaker.
22:47Logan?
22:49I go with Ed.
22:51He says I go with Ed. So our off-camera
22:53producer today
22:55casts the deciding vote.
22:57Hold on, is this a pity vote?
22:59Logan?
23:01I'm all about the champion of the people.
23:03Yes, mate.
23:05Okay, essentially it's a half-pity vote.
23:07Alright, so Ed gets
23:09his first one on a non-local
23:11story.
23:13So much for the champion of the people.
23:15So we got
23:17the Mueller investigation into
23:19Donald Trump is our non-business story
23:21of the year. No, no, no.
23:23That is so wrong.
23:25It's way more consequential than the
23:27White House comings and goings, for sure.
23:29For sure. Because it's about the
23:31presidency potentially coming to an end.
23:33You know, we're going to play some music in the background when they play people off
23:35on the Oscars. We're going to introduce that when we do.
23:37Alright,
23:39the next category is the best
23:41tech gadget of 2018.
23:43Yeah.
23:45Alright, I'm going to go last because
23:47I think you guys pretty much guessed which company
23:49made my tech gadget of the year. Ed, you're
23:51first up this time. You haven't gone first yet.
23:53I have, I went first on the first category.
23:55Mine's the
23:572018-2019 MacBook Air.
23:59Tim Cook called it
24:01the greenest MacBook
24:03ever. It's made from
24:0535%
24:07post-consumer plastic.
24:09What, are you getting a kickback for this?
24:11Recycled aluminum
24:13and recycled tin motherboard.
24:15I think it's the biggest consumer tech
24:17company in the world making a
24:19laptop that's totally of the
24:21minute. You know, green, environmentally
24:23friendly, sustainable.
24:25I think it's my top tech pick
24:27of the year.
24:29Me? So, you two know
24:31tech gadgets are not my thing.
24:33So, just to annoy you, Scott, I said
24:35Nokia's 8.1 phone.
24:39Okay, throw away your vote. Go ahead.
24:43Alright, my
24:45choice here is
24:47the Apple Watch Series 4 of the year
24:49because this is not just a watch. It's a
24:51medical device. I mean, it has all different things
24:53you can be built into. I think, to a large extent,
24:55phones and smartphones across the
24:57board are sort of a
24:59they've peaked. They're no longer going to be the
25:01device where you go for innovation and to find
25:03new things in technology.
25:05Wearables, we've been talking about that for years.
25:07They're finally starting to come into their own.
25:09Apple Watch now, you're walking down the street,
25:11you trip, you knock your head, you knock yourself unconscious,
25:13it can actually dial emergency
25:15services for you. You can actually
25:17monitor your heart rate or your
25:19EKG. There's all different new
25:21things coming on with the watch which actually have
25:23real-world benefits. Whether or not
25:25just, you know, can
25:27post good enough likes. I mean, this is
25:29real-world consequences stuff.
25:31So, I'm going to go with the watch on that one.
25:33I think it's finally time we've got
25:35some innovation that moves beyond the phone,
25:37moves it into a new category, and
25:39actually brings some great benefits to the
25:41individual. Okay, I know who my vote is going
25:43to. Alright, well, you're going to decide because
25:45neither one of us are voting for Nokia.
25:47Ouch!
25:49So, you get to call. Is it me or Ed?
25:51Ed. Ed. Thank you.
25:53Alright. Although,
25:55twist in the tail, I'm going to vote
25:57for Scott. No, I'm not. I'm just joking.
25:59Thank you, Sarah.
26:01No, I was...
26:03What do you have against me today? Nothing!
26:05I'm grateful for you handing me the second
26:07story of the hour. I appreciate that. Thank you.
26:09But I do think that the watch is a good...
26:11I genuinely think the watch is a good choice.
26:13I agree with Scott's assessment. It's a
26:15good step forward. So, this was the AirBook
26:17or the MacBook Pro? The MacBook Air.
26:19MacBook Air is then our gadget
26:21of the year. The greenest ever, man.
26:23Really?
26:25Ha, ha, ha! Logan off
26:27camera.
26:29Oh, no! What would you have?
26:31If anything comes...
26:35I agree. MacBook
26:37Pro with the i9 chip and the
26:39Vega dedicated graphic. Yeah, I'm down
26:41with that one. Alright, I'm down with that too.
26:43Alright, I give up my vote. One to
26:45Logan. I literally have
26:47no clue what gadget you're talking about. We're talking about the new
26:49high-end Apple's
26:51MacBook Pro. But wait, was that announced
26:53this year? They're all the same to me.
26:55In the same round as the... So, we're cancelling
26:57it. It's now the MacBook
26:59the i9
27:01version of the MacBook Pro. Alright, I'm
27:03down with that one. That's a good call. So, that one goes
27:05to Logan. So, you're still... Thanks for not
27:07asking for my vote, by the way.
27:09Two to whatever you got.
27:11Yeah. Okay.
27:13Nokia 8.1 much? Yeah.
27:15I'm sorry. You lost credit
27:17on that one. Alright.
27:19So, this is our last
27:21story of the year. And
27:23I think it's pretty clear cut.
27:25But, you know, we'll wait to see what the other two
27:27have to say here. What is the biggest story
27:29of 2018?
27:312019. No, let's do 2018
27:33real quick. I'm throwing in a new
27:35category at the last minute. Yeah, well, we should have all...
27:37I mean, we really should have had a biggest story of 2018
27:39since we didn't actually have, like, the
27:41top story of the year. So, I think we should have
27:43that as a category. Okay,
27:45you go first before I think, so I can think.
27:47Okay. Mine is going to be US
27:49China trade war. Sorry,
27:51but this is going to be top business story of
27:532018. Top business
27:55story of 2018. US China
27:57trade war is massive.
27:59It's massive. It's hitting everybody. It's
28:01hitting everything. And it's not just
28:03US China. It's the oil
28:05market. It's OPEC. It's
28:07North America, NAFTA. It's
28:09aluminum and steel. I mean, there's so many
28:11different angles out there. Aluminum, aluminum,
28:13aluminum. Biggest loser of
28:152018, Scott's pronunciation of
28:17aluminum. I vote for that.
28:19Sarah,
28:21do you want me to go first? Yes,
28:23please, so I can still think about it.
28:25My top story
28:27of 2018 would
28:29be the downfall of Facebook.
28:31I think it encapsulates
28:33the biggest industry in
28:35our world today, or the largest growing
28:37industry, which is the tech sector.
28:39So much money flooding into
28:41the sector. So much
28:43of it is overvalued. People are calling it
28:45a bubble. And Facebook is really
28:47at the front of the pack of
28:49those tech companies. It's one of the highest
28:51valued, and I think
28:53the downfall, scandal after
28:55scandal, and the wider questions it's
28:57brought up around privacy, data protection
28:59and how much
29:01of our information, our personal lives
29:03we're willing to share with the internet
29:05companies that monetize that data
29:07I think has been just
29:09so much coverage of it this
29:11year, and so many discussions around the
29:13dinner table and all that kind of stuff.
29:15To me, it has to be that.
29:17Wrap
29:19it up. We're meant to pitch the story, right?
29:21And we're meant to give people who are listening a bit of background on why
29:23we believe in that story. So Facebook for me.
29:25Honorary mention, Canada legalizing marijuana.
29:27I think that's a huge story.
29:29Oh
29:31God, this is such a difficult one.
29:33I mean, my first instinct was to say
29:35Elon Musk just being
29:37incredibly entertaining on Twitter
29:39and as a result
29:41kind of messing up Tesla's
29:43share prices incredibly with
29:45just massive fluctuations and volatility.
29:47But I also feel
29:49definitely the Tesla story is quite
29:51a niche, company-related one.
29:53And so if I were to think macro
29:55about the biggest story of 2018,
29:57I'm inclined to go with
29:59trade wars as well because it's
30:01something that now increasingly more people
30:03that I'm talking to, more analysts
30:05and economists are saying like
30:07we are keeping our eyes on this one for
30:092019. Companies from all sectors
30:11really saying
30:13depending on how this goes,
30:15our sales could be impacted
30:17in 2019. So I'm gonna
30:19go with use code and say the
30:21US-China trade war.
30:23I think Facebook created more discussions
30:25with normal people. Trade war is quite
30:27not niche, but
30:29it is among the kind of business
30:31communities and so on.
30:33You just called a global trade war niche?
30:35Just lose with grace.
30:37I'm not losing without grace.
30:39I'm not upset. I'm just saying I think Facebook
30:41was a bigger story.
30:43So that's it though. We got two to one
30:45here. We have
30:47the US trade war with China, the biggest
30:49story of 2018.
30:51Alright, one last category
30:53then. 2019.
30:55What will the biggest
30:57story of 2019 be?
30:59I'm gonna go with the
31:01IPO of tech companies.
31:03Again, people calling it a bubble
31:05in the tech sector. I think the IPOs
31:07of Uber and Airbnb will be
31:09referendums on that.
31:11Massive valuation. Uber's
31:13gonna be the largest IPO in a long time.
31:15Airbnb, likewise.
31:17Huge valuation, huge IPO.
31:19I think it's gonna be a real temperature
31:21check of the tech sector and whether it's
31:23overheated and how much Uber
31:25is actually worth. It hasn't been able to make
31:27any money yet, so an IPO will be
31:29a big, big story. They're both
31:31targeted around spring of next year, so I think that's gonna
31:33really dominate headlines.
31:35I think my biggest
31:37story pick for 2019
31:39is going to be recession bells.
31:41More and more recession bells ringing. People
31:43warning about a possible recession and maybe an
31:45actual recession happening in 2019.
31:47And more signs such as
31:49more volatility in stock markets,
31:51increasing concerns about
31:53fiscal debt, the debt
31:55of the U.S. government, and
31:57more stories about the
31:59niche and the beauty that is
32:01the yield curve.
32:03I tend to agree with that one, because it's
32:05gonna continue. The markets right now,
32:07we've seen in the last week, are not doing particularly
32:09well, and I don't think it's gonna
32:11stop anytime soon. I think it's gonna
32:13get worse. But I'm actually gonna pull a story
32:15from 2018 and call it the story
32:17of 2019. That's Facebook.
32:19Facebook's not done yet. They are
32:21still out there making massive
32:23amounts of money on advertising. They are unrepentant,
32:25and Mark Zuckerberg
32:27must fry. So
32:29I hope that Facebook
32:31having a massive meltdown
32:33and possibly even
32:35getting antitrust
32:37lawsuits against it and broken
32:39up is the story
32:41of 2019.
32:43It's been a while since we've had a major
32:45you know, what do you call it, when you break a company up
32:47you know, deregulation
32:49steps in and really cracks it up.
32:51It's been a while since we've seen that, so I'm hoping to see that in
32:532019 with them. Yeah, I think the broader
32:55question about whether they're publishers or
32:57businesses, you know, the Facebook... The platform
32:59versus content creators.
33:01Yeah, I think that's a huge question and will impact
33:03Twitter, will impact, you know, could impact
33:05all of them. So yeah,
33:07I'm surprised no one said
33:09China-U.S. trade war continuing
33:11in 2019. Unfortunately, I just
33:13don't know where to call that one. I see that one going forward
33:15for a while. With the Huawei CFO
33:17in jail, I mean, that could get seriously
33:19ugly or it could get resolved at the sort of
33:21drop of a dime, so. But I mean,
33:23let's diversify a bit from our 2018
33:25pick. Yeah. So are we
33:27voting on this or are we just keeping it here?
33:29What do we think is the story? Or shall we just
33:31keep it here?
33:33Since they're all going to be stories anyway.
33:35Let's vote. I think
33:37recession
33:39probably would be the
33:41biggest story of next year.
33:43I vote recession, too. I'm sorry
33:45I didn't vote back for you. You know what?
33:47Actually, I'm getting... No, no, no, no, no.
33:49No, because I'm getting really bad, like,
33:51memories. Like, I can
33:53imagine us sitting here in a year and, like,
33:55the economy's doing great and Trump's
33:57like, I'm presiding over the best economy
33:59ever and then we'll play back me going,
34:01yeah, there's going to be, like, talk of recession and it's just going to look bad.
34:03I'm the one who said it. You're just supporting me. It's okay.
34:05Keep it, keep it, keep it. I'm on Twitter.
34:07You'll get used to it after a while.
34:09Well, I mean, we have you on tape last year
34:11saying that you expect Bitcoin to be at $50,000
34:13this time. What did you say?
34:15What did you say? I said $40,000.
34:17Right, okay, well, alright then.
34:19$10,000. You said $50,000.
34:21So, I mean, if we're going to use something
34:23against you, it's that. We both look like
34:25mugs.
34:27And on that note, I think, so we're calling
34:29Are we not voting? What's your vote?
34:31Well, actually, I was going to vote for
34:33what you did, but you started off with
34:35the markets more than anything else.
34:37You calling that the recession vote then?
34:39No, I'm saying recession in general.
34:41Okay, I'll go with that one. I think we have a
34:43unanimous call
34:45for 2019. We think an upcoming
34:47recession, because of all the economic factors
34:49going on, will be the big story of
34:512019. Good. Very happy, cheerful
34:53news for everyone looking forward to the new year.
34:55Just a quick one word.
34:57Biggest local story of
34:592019. Wow.
35:03Okay, you go for a sec and mull it over.
35:05I haven't really thought about it because it wasn't a category.
35:07I guess the
35:11maybe what happens to the DFM
35:13what happens to it
35:15in 2019 or what happens to
35:17Kareem, whether it merges with Uber
35:19or is acquired by Uber, whether
35:21it makes moves to IPO.
35:23Are we still talking business?
35:25Yeah, like local business story.
35:27I wanted to say like
35:29Qatar's position in the GCC
35:31and I guess that has some business implications.
35:33It certainly does.
35:35Does anything make you think that
35:37that will shift in 2019?
35:39Yes, the fact that it seems to be
35:41well
35:43I mean, I don't know. There are things that make me
35:45a bit optimistic and there are things that make me
35:47pessimistic. So what makes me optimistic
35:49for example are things like
35:51the joint communique that was
35:53signed between all GCC members and the fact
35:55that Qatar showed up to that
35:57summit in Saudi Arabia. That's more of a
35:59formality though. No, I know, but they could
36:01have showed up, which would have signaled
36:03like a pull out of
36:05the GCC. But what makes
36:07me pessimistic is the fact that they
36:09pulled out of OPEC for example.
36:11So
36:13I'm not sure.
36:17Locally, I don't know. I mean
36:19just to be off in something different
36:21I'm going to say the tech revolution
36:23here in the
36:25UAE. We've been talking about
36:27the adoption of artificial intelligence. We've
36:29been talking about the adoption of blockchain, which I still
36:31say is probably a little bit of an overblown
36:33technology, but they've been pushing very
36:35hard. So maybe we'll see a rise in
36:37consumer technology along the lines of
36:39local apps, local technology, local
36:41startups. I think that might be the best
36:43story for 2019. Fingers
36:45crossed. If I get that one wrong
36:47I'm not going to feel bad about it. Can I nominate something else
36:49for 2019 that I think might be the biggest story?
36:51Sure.
36:53Why do you say that reluctantly?
36:55Go on. Because it was
36:57supposed to be one suggestion
36:59per category. Now we've voted and you're still
37:01bringing up categories. Well this is
37:03a good one. This is one I think that you
37:05both will like and everyone will like. I think we're
37:07going to see more ease of regulations
37:09in terms of things like visas, in terms
37:11of things like ability to
37:13invest foreign ownership, things like that
37:15in the UAE and in the GCC in general.
37:17Probably going to come this way
37:19be interesting to see how it develops.
37:21So I'm not sure of that story of the year yet, but we'll certainly
37:23be watching it. I'm glad no one said oil
37:25because that's such an obvious choice for local
37:27stories of the year. I'm so sick of oil.
37:29You, I've been covering since 2014.
37:31I know far
37:33more about oil than I ever thought I would in life.
37:35And yeah, it's going
37:37to be a story in 2019. But isn't that interesting
37:39as an American who has come
37:41to the UAE and you know like UAE's big
37:43here and now it's turning into like a huge thing
37:45in the U.S. as well. Yeah, it's been very
37:47interesting to watch. So you can go back
37:49to the U.S. and be like, oh yeah, I was like in the hard
37:51I've tried that. Trust me, people are like, yeah, we don't
37:53want to hear about it. It's still a boring
37:55oil story.
37:57Alright, so I think that's it then. So this is
37:59our last podcast for the year.
38:01We're done. We'll be back next year.
38:03Correct. Can you believe
38:05we made it through a whole year?
38:07Each year.
38:09Why not?
38:11No, I mean, you know. We made it through, this is not
38:13our first year, this is our second year, so I'm not
38:15entirely surprised.
38:17We must have done well over a thousand podcasts
38:19by now. What?
38:21What?
38:23No, dude. We haven't even reached 200.
38:25Have we not reached 200?
38:27No. We do two a week.
38:29We did two a week since April
38:312017.
38:33So there must be, we must be like
38:35Okay, there's 52 weeks in a year. Yeah.
38:37So that's 104.
38:39So we were doing two podcasts for the majority of the year.
38:41I feel like this is the part where the music fades out.
38:43So that's about 200 podcasts. Yeah, I'm sure.
38:45Yeah, we must be close. I'm sure. 200 is just like
38:47a thousand. Yeah, yeah, no, not a thousand.
38:49Sorry, I meant 200.
38:51Anyway, it's been fun. Apparently, Ed has already
38:53partaken of the holiday cheer.
38:55Already got on the Obama one.
38:57This was my way of being festive and being like
38:59Oh, it was nice working with you all year round.
39:01Yeah, it's been good. I appreciate it.
39:03And thank you for all our listeners, everyone who is out there
39:05listening throughout the year and checking
39:07back and downloading us and thanks to
39:09Logan Fish for all his help with the podcast
39:11and getting us on video and putting up
39:13with our endless demands of where's this, where's that
39:15and what else can we get out of you.
39:17And everyone else who helped out and all the guests
39:19we had on the show over the years. Absolutely.
39:21Over the years. Over the years. Over the months.
39:23Over the thousands of
39:25episodes we've done.
39:27Yeah, thanks everyone. Alright, so for one
39:29final time, if you don't know where to find us already
39:31you can always find the latest episodes of
39:33Derms and Dollars on iTunes and of
39:35course you can also find us from now
39:37on attached to our
39:39snaps on Snapchat where you
39:41can look us up under the business rap.
39:43Yeah, the podcast
39:45is not going away by the way. Scott's words
39:47had a sort of finality to them. This is not for
39:49one last time. We're not retiring.
39:51Just for a couple of weeks until the beginning of
39:53the channel. Actually no, Ed's out
39:55to go back home but me and
39:57Sarah will still be here so we'll still be doing this.
39:59You'll still be rocking and rolling.
40:01Alright, I'm on Twitter at Ed Klaus.
40:03Thanks again for listening. Everyone have a great Christmas.
40:05And I'm on Twitter at
40:07the Sarah Deer. Merry Christmas
40:09to you and yours. Happy Festivus. Happy
40:11everything you celebrate. See you next year.
40:13Alright everyone, thank you for listening.
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