WEBVTT - America's Trucking Network 1-1-26 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:12.880 This is America's Truncking Network with Kevin Gordon. 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:20.759 Welcome aboard, thanks for tuning in. Happy New Year, January first, 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:26.680 twenty twenty six. It's also the eighth day of Christmas. 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:29.760 I want to start off thanking all you truckers out 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.640 there on the highway tonight, not being at home with 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:36.000 your families, not being able to celebrate the coming. 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:37.760 Of the new year, the New Year's Eve. 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:41.000 Celebrations and so on, because you are busy out there 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:45.880 keeping the wheels of this economy rolling. Also first responders, 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:47.479 everybody that's on the clock. 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:49.479 Thank you to the police and. 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:54.240 Fire, hospital workers, people that are there taking care of patients, 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:59.960 food service employees all around the area, across the nation, Hotel, 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.480 motel workers, what people are traveling, You've got to be 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:05.440 taken care of. You've got to make sure that the 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.720 people in the hotels are there. Store clerks, convenience store employees. 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.040 As you're out there driving around and stopping by gas stations, 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:16.640 take the time to say thank you to. 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:18.720 Those people, to those people that. 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:22.160 Are working and thank that just say thank you for 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:25.680 being here. I mentioned this is the eighth to day 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:29.240 of Christmas. Again, if you've been listening to the program 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:33.039 of beginning. Well, I've talked about on Christmas Day, the 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:37.600 fact that there's a misconception that the twelve days of 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:41.960 Christmas are actually the twelve days before Christmas, that is, 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:46.440 actually the days before Christmas is what is referred to 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:50.360 well in Christian circles as the ads the advent period. 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.120 It is the fourth Sunday you go back for Sundays 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:58.040 before Christmas, and that is the gearing up and preparation 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.320 for Advent than the twelve days of Christmas. 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:02.480 Then begin. 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:08.679 December fifth or twenty fifth, rather Christmas Day, and then 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:12.440 go for twelve days until the twelfth night of January 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:16.280 the fifth, and then on January the sixth is the 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:23.240 celebration of the Epiphany, which is traditionally or through biblical accounts, 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:27.680 when the Majei the three Wise Men visited Jesus, Mary, 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.960 and Joseph. And so that has to do with the 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:34.960 actual Christmas season itself and is kind of a misconception. 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:37.600 And by the way, we've talked about this several times 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:39.920 over the last week, So if you missed any part 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:42.280 of that or missed any of our shows, make sure 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:45.240 you hit up that iHeartRadio app and everything's right there, 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:47.280 of course, brought to you by our friends at Rush 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:50.440 Truck Centers. Now, as far as New Year's is concerned, 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:55.280 the New Year Day itself, I love digging into some 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:58.400 of these traditions and kind of a lighthearted type of thing, 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:00.880 kind of light loosen things up or lighting things up. 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:04.880 Today looking at the traditions and how this formulation, I'm 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:09.400 always fascinated by how things develop, why things are the 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.680 way they are, how certain words came together, what their 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:15.760 meanings are, where they first appeared, and so on. 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:18.280 This is something that just always fascinates me. 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:22.359 Sivils civilizations around the world celebrating the start of each 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:25.520 new year, or at least have been doing this for 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:28.799 at least for millennia four thousand years. 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:29.519 Today. 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:33.480 Most New Year's celebrations begin, of course, last night to 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:36.080 some of the thirty first New Year's Eve and the 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.320 last day of the Georgian calendar, and continue for the 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.200 early hours of January the first, So people are still 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:45.240 out there having a great time reveling in the new 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:51.280 year while we're here talking to each other here on 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:56.040 the radio. Common traditions include attending parties, eating special New 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.600 Year's foods, making resolutions for the new year and watching 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:04.200 fire works displays. Now going back in history, the earliest 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:07.520 recorded festivities in honor of new Year's date back more 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:11.800 than four thousand years to the ancient Babylon. For the Babylonians, 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:15.600 the first moon following the vernal equinox the day in 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:19.599 late March and again in March, not January. In March, 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.480 when an equal amount of sunlight and darkness heralded the 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.320 start of a new year, they marked the occasion with 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:29.960 massive religious festival called a key to, derived from the 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:34.680 Samarian word for barley, which was cut in the spring 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:39.680 and involved the traditional ritual for last about eleven days. Again, 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:43.680 you know, festivities back then lasted for a long period 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:46.840 of time in order for to realign the Roman calendar 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.680 throughout the anti Let me skip getting ahead of myself here. 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:56.920 Throughout antiquity, civilization around the world developed increasingly sophisticated calendars, 0:04:57.160 --> 0:04:59.400 typically pinning the first day of the year to the 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.480 agri culture or astronomical event. 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.239 In Egypt, for instance, the year. 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:10.120 Began with the annual flooding of the Nile, which coincided 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:13.480 with the rising of the stars serious the first. 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:14.520 Day of the lunar new year. 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:19.240 Meanwhile, occurred with the second new moon after the winter solstice. 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.320 So going back to even Egypt, they had a different 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:25.599 way of determining when the new year was after the 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:27.120 centuries the calendar. 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:29.360 Let me see early. I'm sorry, let's go here. 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.520 The early Roman calendar consisted of ten months and three 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.719 hundred and four days, with each new year beginning in 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:41.240 the vernal equinox. According to tradition, it was created by Romulus, 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:46.040 the founder of Rome, in the eighth century. Over the centuries, 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:50.599 calendars fell out of sync these old calendars with the sun. 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:53.640 In sync with the sun, and in. 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:58.839 Forty six BC, Julius Caesar decided to solve the problem. 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.800 By consulting with the most prominent astronomers and mathematicians of 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:07.400 his time, he introduced the Julian calendar, which closely resembles 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:12.039 the more modern Gregorian calendar that most countries around. 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:12.920 The world use today. 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:17.200 As part of his reform, Caesar instituted January first is 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:19.400 the first day of the year, and that is pretty 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.880 much caught on in terms of the celebrations. Tod of 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:27.599 the month's name Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, whose 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:30.480 two faces allow him to look back in the past 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.720 and forward to the future. Now New Year's traditions and 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.520 celebrations around the world previously mentioned going on for four 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:42.280 thousand years. Revelers enjoy snacks for good luck. In Spain 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:47.640 several other Spanish speaking countries, people bolt down a dozen grapes, 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:51.880 symbolizing their hopes of the months ahead right before midnight. 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:56.200 In many parts of the world, traditional New Year's dishes 0:06:56.400 --> 0:07:02.359 feature legoomes, which are thought to resemble coins and herald 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:06.479 future financial success. Now I land to look this up, 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:14.760 excuse me. Legomes basically include lentils. In Italy, black eyed 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:20.120 peas and southern states. Also beans, peas, chickpeas, and soybeans 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:24.760 are considered these legomes, so they resemble coins and are 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:26.640 supposed to be doing with wealth. 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:28.840 I found this fascinating. 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:34.000 Because pigs represent progress and prosperity in some cultures. Pork 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:38.720 appears on the New Year's eve table in Cuba, Austria, Hungary, 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:42.000 Portugal and other countries. Now I thought that was kind 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:45.840 of weird in terms of pigs being symbol of progress, 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.720 But it goes back to if you look at chickens, 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:54.160 if you look at cows and horses, how they scratch 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:57.040 the earth. They are always doing it in a backwards 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:01.240 motion pigs because the way they root, they actually put 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:05.520 their snoot down and actually push forward to scratch the earth, 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:10.080 and so a symbol of progress going forward instead of backwards. 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:14.679 Of course, ring shaped cakes, pastries sign of the year, continuing. 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:17.080 As far as what Mexico and elsewhere. 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:21.200 In Sweden and Norway. Meanwhile, rice pudding with almond inside 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.760 is served. Whoever finds that almonds can expect twelve months 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:28.440 of good luck. Let's see what other things other customers 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:31.960 are coming around the world. Of course, watching fireworks, all 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:35.280 lang sign the all traditions that we do here in 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:39.320 the United States, and so a lot of traditions. And 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:41.800 I always, again, like I said, I always geek out 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.199 on these kind of things. I always find it fascinating 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:49.120 how traditions begin, how they evolve over the period of time, 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.319 why they started in the first place, and just you know, 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.959 how things happen and evolved. I just always find that 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:58.720 very interesting. Coming up, we're going to be speaking with 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.680 Phil Flynn. Of course, he is Price Futures Group. 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:05.400 We quote him very often on this program. 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:10.320 And he is the author of the Energy Report. He 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.800 is a frequent contributor to Fox Business News as well 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:17.160 as once in a while on the Fox Weather Channel. 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:20.240 So looking forward to talking with him, talking about some 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:22.960 of the things going on in the economy and kind 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.560 of gear up for what we can expect in the 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:29.240 new year. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's struck In Network seven 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:31.360 hundred WLW. 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:33.040 I want to. 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.640 Welcome back to the program Phil Flynn. He is the 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:40.520 senior analyst Price Futures Group, author of the Energy Report, 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.480 and a contributor to Fox Business News. And I've actually 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:46.960 seen him on the Fox Weather Channel. Phil, Welcome to 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:48.680 the program, or welcome back to the program. 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:53.000 Hey kick, Hey, thank you Kevin. So this is day 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:55.400 five of Christmas. Do I get five golden rings for 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:55.920 being here? 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:58.840 Yes? Absolutely, absolutely. 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:00.319 Good. 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.120 With the way the gold prices are going today, that's 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:07.400 going to be pretty good. But oh man, I've been 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.840 watching the sewer market for the last twenty Oh my gosh, 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:14.160 it's unlike anything I've ever seen before. I mean, we 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:17.040 hit a record high last night eighty four dollars. We 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:21.280 fallowed ten dollars and ounce, and even with that volatility, 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:25.200 we're still cheap compared to gold. So the precious metals 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:26.600 have been unbelievable. 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:29.120 Absolutely. Well, by the way, how is your Christmas? 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.400 It was wonderful. I must have got on the nice list. 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:34.320 Thanks for whatever you did. 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:38.160 Well, it was because of all your fantastic reporting and 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:40.120 all of the stuff that you talk about in terms 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.520 of your energy report and the economy. 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:47.560 I'll tell you what, this economy is on fire. 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:52.240 And what I'm seeing is that the only in my opinion, 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.040 the only thing holding it back are these interest rates 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.040 that I think people are sitting on the sidelines and saying, gee, 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:00.160 do I make this investment? Do I do this so 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.960 I incur that amount of money with a return on 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.360 investment and so on. But I mean, you look at 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:08.760 I mean, every time we turn around, there's a report 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.760 that comes out, retail sales higher than expected, unemployment lower 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:15.400 than expect. We had that jobs report on well, I 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:19.599 guess it was Wednesday day early, the initial job is 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:23.600 claims less than expected. And yet we have this drum 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:26.800 beat from the spoon feder regurgitators in the mainstream media 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:31.120 that we're actually on the precipice of a recession, and 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:34.000 in my opinion, they're trying to manufacture a recession. 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:35.560 You know, I think you're right. 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:39.120 You know, a lot of times, you know, the mainstream press. 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:42.880 You know, it's amazing some of the people that they 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:45.920 have on the mainstream press really don't understand the economics. 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.960 And I think you see that more and more when 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:51.280 you see the type of questions you get. For example, 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:54.240 one of the things that bothered me is when the 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.520 mainstream press is saying, no, as soon as Donald Trump 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.480 puts on sanctions, we're going to go on through a 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.880 recession and an inflation is going to go through the roof. 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:06.040 And of course that hasn't happened, you know, if you 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:10.079 look at the historically inflationary Yeah. 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:14.120 Yeah, well, and credit to you, and then credit to 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.760 my economics professor. Way back in the day when I 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:20.680 was at Xavier University. One of the things that was 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.400 talked about the tariffs were the main driving force of 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.080 income to the United States and it was only in 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.920 the period of after the war World War two that 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:32.320 tariffs on our goods going into the other countries kind 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:36.079 of a protectionism mechanism for them. But the tariffs necessarily 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:39.480 don't lead to inflation. And I think you was that 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.719 Kevin O'Leary, Larry Kudlow and a couple of people in 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.400 Fox business are some of the only people that I 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.160 have heard other than you know, you and me saying 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:50.800 that tariffs don't lead to inflation. It's out of control 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:51.800 government spending. 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:54.600 It's absolutely correct. That's in fact, that's the only way 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:57.880 that cause inflation. And listen, when. 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.080 There's tariffs to some prices go up. They absolutely do. 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.080 But I can give you for every price increase, I 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:06.280 can give you a price decrease as well. And we 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:09.079 saw that for example, you know, in the price of grains. 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.199 You know, the farmers don't like to hear that, obviously, 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.520 but that's the truth. And grain prices went down when 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:18.720 we had tariffs. So yeah, for every increase, there's a decrease. 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.760 And what we're finding right now is that it's actually 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:26.040 lowering inflation because when we take in more money to 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:29.240 the government, it reduces our deficit, and when we have 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.480 a smaller deficit, the government has to borrow less money. 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:35.320 We're already seeing that. And when we borrow less money, 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:37.680 we don't have to tax people as much to pay 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:39.720 for it, and we don't have to print as much 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:40.920 money to pay our bills. 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:43.040 So you get into it, you're going to have to 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:43.640 that's amazing. 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:45.720 You're going to have to talk slower because there's a 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.800 lot of my frontemies that listen to this program and 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:53.000 they're liberals, so they may not understand that real quick. 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:54.160 So not just. 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:58.640 You know, they don't understand as you said, they don't 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.720 understand economic and so the things that you just said, 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:06.800 you would think it would be common sense, but apparently not. 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:09.880 Well, the news is, I think liberals are still sleepy, 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:12.840 most of them at the tower. I don't know for sure, 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:15.760 that could be a guest. No, No, I think you're right, 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.480 you know, and and it's it's hard to you know, 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:20.840 I you know, I think sometimes I think when you 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:23.520 hear you know, people on the other side when they 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:28.760 talk about uh economics, it's about emotional economics, It's like, okay, 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.800 well you know that, you know, they're you know, Elion 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:33.160 Musk is a billionaire. 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:35.200 You know, everything's wrong with the economy. 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:37.400 He or you know, it's like, okay, this guy, you know, 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.280 invented a rocket to go to Mars. You know, he 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:44.480 invented electric car industry, which wouldn't exist if if if 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:47.720 it wasn't for his genius, you know. And but then 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.400 of course they want to tell everybody to buy electric cars, 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.400 enforcing to buy cars. U listen, I mean the whole 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:55.960 thing when you look at the emotional side of economics. 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.600 I think we have to try to remove the politics 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.520 from thatomics, which is really hard to do because I 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.240 think a lot of these politicians on the other side, 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:07.520 you know, keep trying to tell us, hey, the economy's bad, 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.160 the economy's bad, you know when and it's all Trump's fault, 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.400 you know, when you know the previous administration, you know, 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.640 was there for four years and ran up, you know, 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:20.360 some of the biggest debt and inflation numbers in history. 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.040 So you know, yeah, they blamed COVID, but you know, 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:25.520 we know what really caused it, and that's out of 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:26.400 control spending. 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:26.880 Yeah. 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.880 I mean, we had the Inflation Reduction Act that added 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:33.640 billions of actually trillions of dollars to the deficit. We 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:38.160 had the government subsidies that that latest round of well, 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:41.400 we had the what was it the what was it 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:45.200 the Green New Steel Bill that went through that it 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.360 was was it the Inflation Reduction Act or something else 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:50.400 that was supposed to be all this but it was 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:53.320 all this green technology that they wanted to fund and 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:57.480 a slush fund for them, which was out of control spending. 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.880 But when you look at what has gone on, I mean, 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:04.600 when Trump left office, inflation was at one point four percent, 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:08.760 the thirty year fixed rate was somewhere around two point 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:15.960 eight seven thereabouts, and people were making money, people wages 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:19.320 were higher, was out pacing inflation. And then the first 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:21.640 year of the Biden administration, boom. We're up to two 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:24.360 point five, two point six, up to nine point one 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:28.240 percent in June of twenty twenty two. Gasoline prices up 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:30.560 to five dollars a gallon, and all of a sudden, 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.600 the guys that broke the system, they're going to tell 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:34.680 us how to fix it. 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:38.480 Yeah, it's pretty amazing, right, It pretty is, you know. 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:40.760 I mean, and when you think about, you know, some 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:42.840 of the things that President Trump said when it came 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:45.440 into office, one of them was energy. Right, We're going 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.160 to make gasoline prices cheap. And people say you can't 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:51.680 do that, you know, but President Trump did it. And 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:56.280 I think it's a combination of smart economic policy, smart 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:58.240 drill baby drill policy. 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:00.840 But also politics. 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:06.919 Right by neutralizing Iran, you know, by showing strength against Venezuela, 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:13.000 by you know, really getting control of the geopolitical picture. 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:16.200 You know, even the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:18.680 wherever they go anywhere or not. All of this has 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.920 reduced the risk premium to oil. And I can't tell 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.320 you what leadership means when you talk to a barrel oil. 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:27.639 When the market's confident that we have a leader in 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:30.919 place that is not going to allow you know, major 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.879 oil price disruption. You know, a president that is not 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:36.560 going to sit back and allow Hooti rebels to start 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:40.119 taking over oil tankers. You know, that's a huge change 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:42.119 to the market and that shows up in the price. 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:46.360 And I think that's one of the unheralded successes when 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:48.040 it comes to these low oil prices. 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:50.960 Yeah, that war premium that you were talking about, a 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.639 risk premium that has been one of the major considerations. 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:56.720 I mean, every time there was some sort of disruption, 0:17:56.800 --> 0:17:59.680 the Huti rebels trying to choke off the straits and 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:03.160 form those seeking ships in the Red Sea and so on, 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:07.239 oil tankers and such and trying to choke trade. That 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:10.359 is a risk premium. And when you don't have that 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:13.240 risk premium, the free flow of trade. And we're not 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:15.679 talking about just well, we're talking about free trade, but 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.600 we're also talking about fair trade as opposed to these 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:22.199 talking about these tariffs. It kind of gives everything a 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.280 more level playing field. And I think what people. 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:29.400 Are go ahead, Yeah, no, I'm gonna Figu're absolutely right now. 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:31.439 I think you know, when we get back to the 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:34.240 level of pay. Listen, I'm a free market guy. 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:35.040 You know that, Kevin. 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:38.800 I would love a world with no tariffs, right, you know, 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:40.760 and I would love a war with peace and love 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:42.560 and rock and roll and all that stuff, you know. 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:44.880 But you know, we've got to face reality. I mean, 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.760 in the real world, you know, every other country had 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:50.840 tariffs on us, and we were trying to be the 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.639 nice guy, right, and by being the nice guy, we 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.800 gave up so many jobs, so many factories, you know, 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.920 we lost so many industries overseas. Right, And so now 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.679 we're going back to a policy that stands up to 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:06.800 that in the real world. Right, when you stand up 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:10.040 to you know, countries like China that steal our intellectual 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.720 property or steal our businesses or steal you know that 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.440 kind of thing, and people say, oh my gosh, well 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:17.639 you know what's going to happen. 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:20.200 You know, all the goods we're getting from China. People 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:21.639 are going to you know, we're going to you know, 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:22.800 they're going to cost so much more. 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:25.600 And it's like there's so many goods from China that 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:28.119 we buy that the only reason we buy them is 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:30.240 because they're so darn cheap. And the reason why they're 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:33.639 so cheap, you know, they're using cheap labor, they're using 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.320 you know, cheap you know, materials, and if they try 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:38.520 to raise the prices on those things, nobody's going to 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:40.840 buy it. People are going to buy you know, name 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:43.320 brand goods as opposed to Chinese knockoffs. 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:44.240 Yeah, exactly. 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:46.760 I mean when you look at the average what is it, 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:50.560 the average salary in the United States factory workers, et cetera. 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:54.560 Is somewhere around thirty seven dollars per hour when you 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:57.119 add in the benefits and so on. And then you 0:19:57.160 --> 0:19:59.919 go over to China, they have no benefits whatsoever, and 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:05.840 average hourly wages five to seven dollars. There's no vacation time, 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:09.560 there's none of the employee benefits. Of course, the wages 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:12.200 are going to be cheaper, and yet there's this big 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.960 gap between what they manufacture and then what they sell, 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.360 and of course that can be eaten into. 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:20.000 By these as. 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:22.920 I think you pointed out in your energy report that 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:27.679 the tariffs are absorbed by the manufacturer, the import or 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:33.359 the exporter, the importer, the wholesaler, and in some cases 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:36.520 the retailer. So there's all these levels where those tariffs 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:40.040 can be absorbed that it doesn't hit us at the 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.320 level at the consumer level. And we've seen that as 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:44.920 far as inflation is concerned. 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:48.040 No, you're absolutely right. And listen, you're going to hear 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:51.760 from some buyers of Chinese goods saying, hey, we're going 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:54.440 to have to raise prices because of tariffs, right, I mean, yeah, 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.480 that's going to happen to a certain degree. But what 0:20:57.560 --> 0:20:59.720 you're also going to see on the flip side of that, 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:01.960 other goods are going to go down in price, right 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:05.640 because they have to move goods, and you know, and 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:09.000 and then you're going to see alternatives become more competitive. 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:09.320 Right. 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:12.919 So you know, for example, I think everybody was outraged 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:16.919 because we were going to put a tariff on you know, 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:20.560 European pastas. Oh my gosh, we can't get we can't 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:22.840 get our pastas from you know, and it's like wait 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:24.760 a second, you know, it's how do you make pasta 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:27.880 like flour and water, you know, don't we have companies 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:30.000 in America because they can figure out how to do that. 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:32.320 You know, we really need it from Italy. 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:33.520 I mean, yeah, it. 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:35.719 Looks kind of nice and the boxes are pretty, but 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:38.040 I think we make as good as pasta in America. 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:39.840 I say, buy America a positive. 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:42.359 Yeah, and we didn't see a click break. Can you 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:44.080 hang with us through the break and we'll pick up 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:46.320