Speaker 1: This is America's trunck and Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2: Welcome aboard, Thanks for tuning in on this Thanksgiving Eve.
Speaker 2: There is a lot of economic news that it was
Speaker 2: dumped on us over the last couple of days, which
Speaker 2: is kind of as a result of the shut down
Speaker 2: and some of these reports being delayed in the tract
Speaker 2: on which they normally come out has been pushed up
Speaker 2: or pushed back, depending upon what report it is, and
Speaker 2: so we got a lot of these reports now. The
Speaker 2: American Transportation Research Institute a couple months ago, actually actually
Speaker 2: I think last month published a report talking about what
Speaker 2: was the most important thing as far as the truck's
Speaker 2: trucking industry is concerned. And of course from the owner
Speaker 2: operator standpoint is different from the truck drive themselves versus
Speaker 2: the trucking executives. But as far as the trucking people
Speaker 2: out there, you out in the public that out there
Speaker 2: on the road on a day to day basis, the
Speaker 2: number one thing on your mind is the economy. And
Speaker 2: that's one of the reasons why I spend a lot
Speaker 2: of time talking about the economy, because again, what we
Speaker 2: are hearing from the spoon fed regurgitators in the mainstream media,
Speaker 2: and what we're hearing in terms of these numbers, in
Speaker 2: terms of the headlines, even the difference in the headlines
Speaker 2: for the same story when you go from one report
Speaker 2: to another is just incredible.
Speaker 1: Let me give you an example here.
Speaker 2: All right, three separate companies are three separate reporting agencies.
Speaker 2: Core wholesale prices rose lesson expected in September, which is good,
Speaker 2: right now, that's the NBC from Reuters rising energy costs
Speaker 2: lift producer prices, lift producer prices in September. That would
Speaker 2: say that, okay, well, gee, whiz prices are going up.
Speaker 2: According to another I think this is ap producer price
Speaker 2: to climb in September as gasoline costs surge, wholesale goods
Speaker 2: lead inflation, while service prices hold steady. Now, during those
Speaker 2: three different headlines, you get three different impressions of what's
Speaker 2: going on. Let's start off with c NBC Producer price
Speaker 2: index increase they seasonally adjusted point three percent for September,
Speaker 2: in line with the Dow Jones consensus estment. However, excluding
Speaker 2: energy and food, the index rows just zero point one
Speaker 2: percent below the point two percent estimate. Retail sales increase
Speaker 2: point two percent in September a bit softer than the
Speaker 2: point three percent forecast. However, sales excluding autos rowse point
Speaker 2: three percent. Basically to cut through all the crap there
Speaker 2: in terms of what they're saying, is that the bottom
Speaker 2: line as far as what inflation is doing. As far
Speaker 2: as the producer price index, now this is different than
Speaker 2: the consumer price index. Producer price index. The amount is
Speaker 2: the prices going into these different wholesalers, the manufacturers, etc.
Speaker 2: Going into the production of these items, and then on
Speaker 2: the other end, when that goes out to the consumer,
Speaker 2: that would be those price increases there. So this is
Speaker 2: the increase in prices going to the actual assembly or
Speaker 2: the actual wholesale prices that are affecting the wholesale prices,
Speaker 2: and so when you see those prices go up, that's.
Speaker 1: Kind of an indicator, a leading indicator.
Speaker 2: Of what you're going to expect as far as consumer prices.
Speaker 2: On the other end, but every one of these things,
Speaker 2: they talk about energy costs, they talk about rising gasoline prices. Now,
Speaker 2: the gasoline prices you would expect again during the summer
Speaker 2: driving season, during the tail end when people are on vacation,
Speaker 2: you're going to have a lot of people out on
Speaker 2: the road, And what happens when you have a lot
Speaker 2: of consumers out there, when you have a lot of demand,
Speaker 2: you have the normal amount of supply, you're going to
Speaker 2: have rising prices. Now, if you notice going into this
Speaker 2: Thanksgiving season, they're talking about gasoline prices being the lowest
Speaker 2: they've been in a very long time. As a matter
Speaker 2: of fact, national average for gasoline prices right now well
Speaker 2: as of today, was three dollars and six cents, which
Speaker 2: is a little bit below of where it was a
Speaker 2: year ago, and a couple of pennies below where it
Speaker 2: was a week ago or so. But when you're looking
Speaker 2: at these prices, and again, if you're looking at gasoline prices,
Speaker 2: the same gasoline prices, if they're even within a couple
Speaker 2: of pennies of last year, basically indicates no inflation in
Speaker 2: those prices over that period of time. But if you're
Speaker 2: focusing just on the month of the particular month, especially
Speaker 2: during the summer driving season, when you've got a lot
Speaker 2: of people out there on the road and a lot
Speaker 2: of consumption, you're going to have rising up prices. And
Speaker 2: when you look back over the years, that generally is
Speaker 2: the latter part of and then in August, when people
Speaker 2: are mostly on vacation, is when you see gas prices
Speaker 2: going up during the summer. And then of course at
Speaker 2: the end of the summer there you start switching away
Speaker 2: and some of these refining refineries shut down a little
Speaker 2: bit or closed down for maintenance because they're converting from
Speaker 2: the summer blends to the winter blends. And so when
Speaker 2: you've got that going into it, that shouldn't be a
Speaker 2: situation where people are hitting the panic button. That is
Speaker 2: the seasonality type of thing, and it's a typical thing
Speaker 2: on a regular basis, But in so many instances, the
Speaker 2: spoon fed regurgitators in the mainstream media just can't help
Speaker 2: themselves that they want to portray this economy as terrible
Speaker 2: and that prices are rising, that people are panicking because
Speaker 2: of inflation. As we talked about yesterday, we were talking
Speaker 2: about this story, and in the story itself, they said
Speaker 2: people are frustrated after more than five years of increase inflation. Okay,
Speaker 2: where was the panic four years ago? Where was the
Speaker 2: panic three years ago? Where were these stories two years ago?
Speaker 2: Where were these stories a year ago? But we want
Speaker 2: to focus on the last eleven months because somebody can't
Speaker 2: wave a magic wand and bring prices down considerably. You know,
Speaker 2: we've talked in terms of every time they've talked about tariffs,
Speaker 2: the tariffs are going to rise and raise inflation, that
Speaker 2: they're going to add to inflation, and yet we don't
Speaker 2: see it in the numbers.
Speaker 1: It's not reflected in the numbers.
Speaker 2: And then when we looked at the individual costs behind
Speaker 2: these things, one of the things too, let me step
Speaker 2: back a minute, and as far as these gasoline prices
Speaker 2: are concerned, let's not forget the heavy hand of government.
Speaker 2: There have been we've reported on here a couple of
Speaker 2: times over the summer that as of July or as
Speaker 2: of a certain period of time, the gasoline tax from
Speaker 2: these individual states have gone up. So if you take
Speaker 2: a if you take a three dollars gallon of gasoline
Speaker 2: and you add a state sales tax on that or
Speaker 2: a gasoline tax on that from a state of three cents,
Speaker 2: that's basically a one percent increase in that cost of gasoline.
Speaker 2: But see, nobody ever wants to talk about, you know,
Speaker 2: we always want to talk about how companies and the
Speaker 2: corporations are ripping off the American public. That they're gouging
Speaker 2: us as far as prices and concerned. Why doesn't anybody
Speaker 2: ever concern themselves with the gouging that we get from
Speaker 2: the federal government thirty nine percent top end of the
Speaker 2: tax incre of taxes, sales taxes, seven percent, seven percent
Speaker 2: in the state of Kentucky. I think in New York
Speaker 2: or so it's like nine percent. Where is Why don't
Speaker 2: people get concerned about the confiscation of our wealth from
Speaker 2: the federal government or from these governmental agencies. Why don't
Speaker 2: they talk about government greed in terms of wanting our money.
Speaker 2: If you talk to some of these people in the government,
Speaker 2: they will talk about, well, you know we let this,
Speaker 2: you know we have this, we allow this deduction for people,
Speaker 2: and that that really costs the federal I've actually heard
Speaker 2: people talk in terms of the interest rate. You know,
Speaker 2: when you get your taxes and you figure out your
Speaker 2: mortgage and then the interest deduction that you get to
Speaker 2: take on your mortgage, the interest that you get to
Speaker 2: take in deduction from your taxes.
Speaker 1: People talk in terms of that.
Speaker 2: Do you realize that that interest rate deduction on your
Speaker 2: income tax cost the federal government X number of dollars?
Speaker 2: What do you mean you mean where the government has
Speaker 2: to send us back that money or where we reduct
Speaker 2: we deduct that from our taxes. We pay attention to
Speaker 2: what the laws have been created by Congress, and we
Speaker 2: take advantage of that in terms of reducing our taxes,
Speaker 2: and that costs the government. See in that mentality, their
Speaker 2: thought is is that every dime you earn is theirs.
Speaker 1: They own.
Speaker 2: Every dime you earn, what you take home, your take
Speaker 2: home pay. That's not the amount of money that after
Speaker 2: they confiscate your wealth, after they confiscate your taxes, that's
Speaker 2: the money you're left with. No, that is the money
Speaker 2: they let you keep. In their mind, all the money
Speaker 2: you earn is actually theirs. And so when you hear
Speaker 2: them talking about, well we need this for that and
Speaker 2: all this sort of stuff. Again, why doesn't anybody ever
Speaker 2: concentrate on or talk about the greed of government? Anyway,
Speaker 2: we'll pick this story up coming up. I'm Kevin Gordon,
Speaker 2: America's Trucking Network, seven hundred WLW. I'm Kevin Gordon, America'structing Network,
Speaker 2: seven hundred WLW. Talking about these energy prices and talking
Speaker 2: about the producer Price Index and so on and they're
Speaker 2: talking about how energy prices are increasing and so on, Well.
Speaker 1: Where are the tariffs? As far as that is concerned.
Speaker 2: Aren't some of these energy prices as a result of
Speaker 2: the regulations that the government has put on these and
Speaker 2: the restrictions they put on that creates the tight supply.
Speaker 2: The fact that we haven't built a new refinery in
Speaker 2: the United States in over forty seven years. Forty seven years,
Speaker 2: When was the last time you heard that? Oh, well,
Speaker 2: any manufacturing company hasn't changed their manufacturing process in over
Speaker 2: forty seven years. How many times have you heard that
Speaker 2: a particular company hasn't expanded in forty seven years? Well,
Speaker 2: the refining industry with and again when you look at
Speaker 2: forty seven years, how our population has grown, how many
Speaker 2: more people are out on the highways driving these days,
Speaker 2: And the fact that we have our refining capabilities running
Speaker 2: about ninety five ninety six percent. I don't know that
Speaker 2: there's a business out there that runs at ninety six
Speaker 2: percent efficiency. Now, well, accept americastructure network. We generally operate
Speaker 2: around well, I'd say about ninety nine percent efficiency. But again,
Speaker 2: when you look at different businesses, they don't operate that high.
Speaker 2: And yet the petroleum industry, refining industry, they are operating
Speaker 2: at ninety five ninety six percent capacity and efficiency. So
Speaker 2: when you look at these energy prices, there's a reason
Speaker 2: for them. We explain in the for a previous segment,
Speaker 2: the fact that when you've got these summer blends that
Speaker 2: are in there, they are called they cost more to produce.
Speaker 2: They cost because there's more additives in there to reduce pollution,
Speaker 2: especially during the summer months. So when those additives are
Speaker 2: in there, that increases the cost of gasoline. And of
Speaker 2: course during the summer driving season tail end of the
Speaker 2: summer driving season, you're going to see more people out
Speaker 2: on the road, more people having a vacation, more people
Speaker 2: out there, which is a good sign for the economy,
Speaker 2: which isn't a bad sign because if there's more consumption
Speaker 2: and there's more more consuming of gasoline, that means people
Speaker 2: are out there driving, That means that they're out having fun,
Speaker 2: they're on vacation, they're spending money make keeping the wheels
Speaker 2: of the economy moving along. The cost of energy in
Speaker 2: terms of transportation, as far as diesel prices are concerned,
Speaker 2: or the diesel amount that's consumed, those indicates that there's
Speaker 2: more and more trucks on the road, more and more
Speaker 2: stuff being delivered to stores, more and more stuff being
Speaker 2: delivered all around the country, and so that would be
Speaker 2: a good sign. But these are just seasonal types of things,
Speaker 2: and it seems like as though that they want to
Speaker 2: concentrate on that. And yet when they look at the
Speaker 2: overall producer price index, it is basically unchanged from what
Speaker 2: it was back in August. So when you look at that,
Speaker 2: it's not going up, it may not be going down.
Speaker 2: It's basically the same, and that is not a bad
Speaker 2: thing in the overall context of everything. But I just
Speaker 2: find it interesting when you look at the individual headlines
Speaker 2: rising energy costs, lift producer prices or core or a
Speaker 2: better summary core Core wholesale prices rose less than expected
Speaker 2: in September.
Speaker 1: Retail s also gain.
Speaker 2: Now I saw another headline that people are encouraged or
Speaker 2: talking about despite the tepid retail sales gains. Well, if
Speaker 2: retail sales are going and again it depends on how.
Speaker 1: They are viewing this.
Speaker 2: Are they viewing this as a glass half empty or
Speaker 2: a glass half full? It depends on the news agency.
Speaker 2: When they're looking at the individual prices in terms of
Speaker 2: retail sales and what's going on there. There's been some
Speaker 2: good news there. Let's see core wholesale prices rose far
Speaker 2: listening expected retail sales gain retail sales, I believe we're
Speaker 2: up two tenths of a percentage point in September, a
Speaker 2: bit softer than the three tenths of a percentage point
Speaker 2: that they expected. However, sales excluding autos rose point three percent,
Speaker 2: in line with estimates. Misscellaneous retailers saw a two point
Speaker 2: nine percent increase on the month, while gas stations, owing
Speaker 2: to the higher prices, increased two percent. Sporting goods, hobby
Speaker 2: and music stores saw two point five percent decline, and
Speaker 2: online sales were off by eight point seven percent. The
Speaker 2: fact the gasoline prices that the gasoline stations are selling
Speaker 2: more gasoline, that's a good indication in terms of the
Speaker 2: strength of the economy. Sales at eating and drinking establishment
Speaker 2: and indicator of discretionary spending, increased a solid point seven
Speaker 2: percent on the month and were up six point seven
Speaker 2: percent from a year ago. Retail sales, which are adjusted
Speaker 2: for seasonality but not inflation, increased four point three percent
Speaker 2: from a year ago, ahead of the three percent CPI
Speaker 2: rate for the month. So the retail sales because of
Speaker 2: that one number, because they were expecting it to go
Speaker 2: up point three percent over all and it only went
Speaker 2: up two point two percent, they were saying that there's
Speaker 2: soft retail sales one tenth of a percentage point. In
Speaker 2: terms of what the sales are versus what people are
Speaker 2: anticipating in terms of an increase that is not that
Speaker 2: far off, and to only concentrate on the negative is
Speaker 2: one of the things that I talk about in terms
Speaker 2: of how the spoon fed regurgitators in the mainstream media
Speaker 2: are trying to manufacture a recession. They are trying to
Speaker 2: downplay the economy. They're trying to put the idea in
Speaker 2: people's head that things are worse than they actually are.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I know that on a regular basis, when you're talking
Speaker 2: about lower income people, they are definitely affected more by
Speaker 2: some of these rising prices. But if you're talking about
Speaker 2: rising gasoline prices, when you're talking about increase regulatory mandates
Speaker 2: on the energy production and that increases the cost, that
Speaker 2: is some of the stuff that's affecting the lower end.
Speaker 2: Because those people on the lower end of the scale
Speaker 2: can't afford that. But when you look at the food
Speaker 2: prices overall and what they're doing, and especially at this
Speaker 2: time of the year, during the holidays and during Thanksgiving,
Speaker 2: as I've said, I'm you know, being out in the
Speaker 2: grocery stores and looking at the numbers from last year
Speaker 2: that we spent in the Gordon household versus what we're
Speaker 2: spending this year. We are below what we were spending
Speaker 2: last year. We were a full seventy cents per pound
Speaker 2: on the on the turkey that we bought, and instead
Speaker 2: of a frozen turkey this year, we bought actually a
Speaker 2: fresh organic turkey, which should have pushed that price higher.
Speaker 2: But because of the turkey prices and the prices that
Speaker 2: are being offered and trying to woo people into the stores,
Speaker 2: these stores have actually been reducing their prices to try
Speaker 2: to accommodate people in these in these times. And when
Speaker 2: you look at Walmart's earnings being up, then you know,
Speaker 2: is it, you know, if they're just trying to if
Speaker 2: the thinking is is that any of the increases and
Speaker 2: prices of stuff from Whole, from Walmart or some of
Speaker 2: these retailers are to cover the increased prices to them
Speaker 2: in terms of tariffs or increasing prices. Wouldn't you think
Speaker 2: that their sales or that their revenue increases would be flat.
Speaker 2: But if their prices are going up, that means that
Speaker 2: they're charging more for their goods that they can Actually
Speaker 2: they've got a bigger cushion because their sales are going up.
Speaker 2: I don't know in terms of the number of items
Speaker 2: that are being sold, but their retail sales are up significantly,
Speaker 2: And so if they are raising their prices, are they
Speaker 2: raising their prices as a result of saying that, Oh well,
Speaker 2: you know, people are talking about terraffs, people are talking
Speaker 2: about the possibility of inflation from that. So if we
Speaker 2: increase prices and blame it on tariffs, we'll have some
Speaker 2: cover there.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what's going on.
Speaker 2: You know, going back to the pandemic, there was things
Speaker 2: going on in the food service industry and different businesses
Speaker 2: where they were blaming things on the supply chain issues.
Speaker 2: But it was a matter of basically not being able
Speaker 2: to get the employees back from being laid off and
Speaker 2: being terminated and so on building back the infrastructure there
Speaker 2: as far as your employees, plus the fact of having
Speaker 2: to retrain people in terms of doing the retail sales
Speaker 2: and so on at being short short staffed, and the
Speaker 2: fact that some of these items that you don't know
Speaker 2: where how much volume were going to have, so you
Speaker 2: didn't order enough, and so when you run out, blame
Speaker 2: it on supply chain issues, when in fact it was.
Speaker 1: Just well, we made a mistake, we didn't order enough.
Speaker 2: And so this business of what I'm seeing in terms
Speaker 2: of some of these profits and as far as some
Speaker 2: of these companies are concerned, when they're talking about, oh, well,
Speaker 2: we had to raise prices because of Terriff's, but they're
Speaker 2: making more of a profit than they did last year,
Speaker 2: that tells me that they're trying to sneak in some increases.
Speaker 1: That aren't related to terroriffts and that aren't related to.
Speaker 2: Inflation, that they're just artificially raising prices just for the
Speaker 2: sake of raising prices. So anyway, that's my two cents worth.
Speaker 2: I keep saying two cents worth, and I can't say
Speaker 2: that anymore because you know, they stop printing pennings. I'm
Speaker 2: Kevin Gordon, america'struck in network. Seven hundred WLW, seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 2: I'm Kevin Gordon. This is America's truck in network. Missing
Speaker 2: any part of our program, any part of our shows.
Speaker 2: Hit up that iHeartRadio app and of course that's brought
Speaker 2: to you by our friends at Rest Truck Center. Another
Speaker 2: story that I just saw September retail sales rise despite
Speaker 2: consumer caution. They talk about US retail sales rose modestly
Speaker 2: in September, suggesting some consumers hit the pause button after
Speaker 2: several months of robust spending. Sometimes, you know, when people
Speaker 2: are spending money at certain times, they just hit the
Speaker 2: pause button. And let's not forget that we just had
Speaker 2: the back to school, back to school sales and the
Speaker 2: back to school spending by people getting their kids back
Speaker 2: to school. Let's not for I mean, if you're talking
Speaker 2: about retail sales, if you're talking about luxury items, if
Speaker 2: you're talking about what they call about income that you
Speaker 2: have after you've paid all your discretionary income, the money
Speaker 2: that you have left over, if you have any money
Speaker 2: left over, have to pay all the requirements you spend
Speaker 2: on leisure stuff as far as going out to dinner
Speaker 2: or movies or any of those kinds of things. Well,
Speaker 2: let's not forget the fact. And I'm not seeing any
Speaker 2: of that reflected in these numbers, the fact that you
Speaker 2: had back to school expenses coming into play. You had
Speaker 2: new clothes for the kids, you had the backpacks, you
Speaker 2: had the school supplies, you had the school fees, you
Speaker 2: had some of these other things. You know, every time
Speaker 2: I remember when our kids were young, when they were
Speaker 2: in school, it would always surprise me every year that, Okay,
Speaker 2: here are the school fees that come up that you
Speaker 2: have to pay at the beginning of the year and thereabouts.
Speaker 2: And I was always surprised at how much that went.
Speaker 1: Up year after year after year.
Speaker 2: And it's like you kind of expected, where are you
Speaker 2: going to go to complain about it? What are the
Speaker 2: fees for? What are they spent on any of this
Speaker 2: type of thing. And again, it may be where they're
Speaker 2: trying to because of maybe tax rates not going up
Speaker 2: as much as they'd like them, or a school having
Speaker 2: not being passed, so they're passing along this stuff to
Speaker 2: the to the actual you know, the people that are
Speaker 2: going to the schools, they pass that along to the parents.
Speaker 2: But if going to the back to school and you're
Speaker 2: paying all this stuff as far as again, all the
Speaker 2: supplies going in, the new clothes, all that sort of
Speaker 2: thing that's going to take away from other areas in
Speaker 2: the economy where you would normally be spending your money.
Speaker 2: So if they make a pause in terms of what
Speaker 2: they're saying here, it may be just simply because it's
Speaker 2: the back to school effect.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 2: That's why it's so important to dig into these numbers
Speaker 2: and explain them, because again, if you just go off
Speaker 2: the headlines from the spoon fed regurgitators in the mainstream media,
Speaker 2: I think you're getting a false sense of what's going
Speaker 2: on as far as the economic data is concerned. And
Speaker 2: I find that I find it, how should I say,
Speaker 2: journalistic malpractice so to speak. One of the reports that
Speaker 2: came out also with consumer confidence, and that was from
Speaker 2: the Conference Board, which is the different from the consumer
Speaker 2: Sentiment report we talked about yesterday from the University of Michigan.
Speaker 2: Consumer confidence report comes from the Consumer Confidence Index comes
Speaker 2: from this Census Bureau, and that is the arm of
Speaker 2: the federal government and they come up with their own
Speaker 2: idea in terms of consumer confidence and so on. So
Speaker 2: the interesting thing here is that some of the key
Speaker 2: pieces consumers soured on the current economy and their prospects
Speaker 2: for future with worries growing over the ability to find
Speaker 2: a job. According to the Conference Board survey released on Tuesday,
Speaker 2: the Board's consumer confidence index for November slumped to eighty
Speaker 2: eight point seven, a drop of six point eight points
Speaker 2: from the prior month, for its lowest reading in seven months. Now,
Speaker 2: why would that be, do you suppose could it possibly
Speaker 2: have been this drum beat from the spoon federal gurgitators
Speaker 2: in mainstream media when the Schumer shutdown was going on,
Speaker 2: When this shutdown that should never have been in the
Speaker 2: first place. But as we saw some of the Democrats
Speaker 2: actually talking about this and saying, well, this is the
Speaker 2: only leverage we've got in order to have our issues
Speaker 2: paid attention to. So they admitted that they were causing
Speaker 2: pain as far as some of these food stamp numbers,
Speaker 2: the snap money going out, that they wanted to cause
Speaker 2: pain with certain people, hoping that they wouldn't be blamed
Speaker 2: for it, that they would blame the administration for that
Speaker 2: and not Congress, that they wanted to make a point,
Speaker 2: they wanted to show their leverage. Yes, it's going to
Speaker 2: cause pain, but it's good for us. And as a
Speaker 2: matter of fact, Chuck Show, wasn't it Chuck Schumer that said,
Speaker 2: this shutdown is having a very we're winning on this,
Speaker 2: We're it's having.
Speaker 1: A positive effect on us.
Speaker 2: So that the hell with you and me, the hell
Speaker 2: with the people out there that depended on the snap benefits.
Speaker 2: They wanted to make sure that whatever, and really it
Speaker 2: boiled down to, they wanted one point five trillion dollars
Speaker 2: of additional spending or spending in the budget to take
Speaker 2: care of illegal immigrants and the illegal immigrants healthcare. Now,
Speaker 2: if we are a U, a Senate, a US Congress,
Speaker 2: wouldn't you think the priority would be the American people,
Speaker 2: But instead they shut the federal government down for forty
Speaker 2: three days, a record, I might add from just for
Speaker 2: them to prove a point. Now, if with the constant
Speaker 2: drum beat from the spoon feder regurgitators and mainstream media
Speaker 2: talking about how this is going to affect families, how
Speaker 2: this is going to change things over here, how this
Speaker 2: is going to affect and especially when you hear about
Speaker 2: air traffic controllers going to work and not getting a paycheck,
Speaker 2: our military not getting a paycheck as a result of
Speaker 2: the government shut down, The number of furloughed workers that
Speaker 2: were out on this, you know that were laid off
Speaker 2: during the government shutdown. You know, those are the things
Speaker 2: that are going to be drawing on people's mind. And
Speaker 2: of course their confidence in terms of the economy is
Speaker 2: going to be going down, because again when they look
Speaker 2: at that, and they constantly hear bad news from the
Speaker 2: spoon federal regurgitators, of course they're going to have a
Speaker 2: sour effect. When they looked at the numbers here, let
Speaker 2: me see the slump to eighty seven eighty eight point
Speaker 2: seven drop a point is six point eight percent points
Speaker 2: from the prior month, lowest reading since April econdom a
Speaker 2: survey by Dow Jones. We're looking for a reading of
Speaker 2: ninety three point two. In addition, the expectations index tumbled
Speaker 2: eight point six percent to sixty three point two, the
Speaker 2: present situation index, and so on. They go on to
Speaker 2: explain the numbers, where the numbers come from, and then
Speaker 2: but also in here and I find this interesting that
Speaker 2: they made a big deal about a job creation and
Speaker 2: jobs going on. Looking at this, they were talking about
Speaker 2: the ADP payrolls the private employers that those results, let
Speaker 2: me see, talking about the share of workers and jobs
Speaker 2: are plentiful, That number was down. People didn't think jobs
Speaker 2: were plentiful. Well, again, they're not because we've been in
Speaker 2: this situation for the last seven months where corporations are
Speaker 2: not firing and they're not hiring, and that's been the case.
Speaker 2: But we're not seeing big swings as far as unemployment
Speaker 2: numbers on a weekly basis. But the ADP numbers came
Speaker 2: out as far as jobs are concerned, the results come
Speaker 2: in the same day that payrolls processing firm ADP reported
Speaker 2: that private companies shed an average of thirteen thousand, five
Speaker 2: hundred jobs over the last four weeks. So thirteen thousand,
Speaker 2: five hundred jobs were lost over the last four weeks. Now,
Speaker 2: every other month, when they talk about ADP and they
Speaker 2: come out with those numbers, they'll say something to the
Speaker 2: effect of, well, these numbers are what are being reported,
Speaker 2: but they are not a good gauge to look on
Speaker 2: because they have not been an indicator of what's going
Speaker 2: on in the economy as much as the jobs report
Speaker 2: that is going to be done the next day by
Speaker 2: the federal government. But nowhere in here in this particular
Speaker 2: story do they talk about that this is not a
Speaker 2: reliable report in order to.
Speaker 1: Gauge the strength of the economy.
Speaker 2: Yet they'll throw it in here, they'll say that there's
Speaker 2: thirteen thirteen, five hundred less jobs over the last four
Speaker 2: weeks and just.
Speaker 1: Leave it at that.
Speaker 2: So what kind of impression does that leave in somebody's
Speaker 2: mind when they're thinking about the economy and the strength
Speaker 2: of the economy. This, again, in my opinion, is journalistic malpractice,
Speaker 2: and it just infuriates me the fact that there are
Speaker 2: people out there that will cause pain and suffering for
Speaker 2: other people and worrisome for people that is unnecessary. I'm
Speaker 2: Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network seven hundred WLW. This is
Speaker 2: America's Trucking Networks seven hundred WLWI and Kevin Gordon one
Speaker 2: of the other reports that came out the other day.
Speaker 2: And it's interesting you go to some of these websites
Speaker 2: that are towards the trucking industry and what they're talking
Speaker 2: about on there. It's interesting that a lot of this
Speaker 2: economic news is more and more being filtered through their
Speaker 2: websites and being released in terms of their audience so
Speaker 2: that people know what's going on. And I dig into
Speaker 2: these numbers, I dig into the stuff behind the numbers,
Speaker 2: I dig into to find the bits and pieces of
Speaker 2: the stuff that they're leaving out of these stories that
Speaker 2: really kind of either change what the headline is saying
Speaker 2: or that makes that headline meaningless. And so many times
Speaker 2: what we've done over the last several months is looking
Speaker 2: at some of these stories and some of the headlines
Speaker 2: just don't match the story. And I can't emphasize that enough.
Speaker 2: I was looking at this one particular report today. It
Speaker 2: talked about home prices. They were talking about the national
Speaker 2: growth and home values continues to accelerate, but in some
Speaker 2: of these areas, all they did was focus on home
Speaker 2: prices go up one point three percent. That was their
Speaker 2: big headline, the headline. And what was interesting is, as
Speaker 2: I was looking through this, I thought, well, you know what,
Speaker 2: I wonder what the realtor dot com or what the
Speaker 2: National Association Realtors.
Speaker 1: Because if you're.
Speaker 2: Depending upon Bloomberg Er, you're depending upon Reuters or AP,
Speaker 2: Fox Business or any of these, they are interpreting the
Speaker 2: news themselves. But when you're looking at something like home
Speaker 2: sale prices, go to the source in terms of the realtors,
Speaker 2: because they're the ones that are seeing on a regular basis,
Speaker 2: and they will indicate what's a problem and what's not
Speaker 2: necessarily a problem. So, going through this particular story from
Speaker 2: realtor dot com, national growth and home sales continues to accelerate,
Speaker 2: with prices now falling in more than half of the
Speaker 2: twenty metro areas tracked by a key index. Now, what
Speaker 2: do we keep hearing about over and all, over and over.
Speaker 2: We have seen and we talked about this last week
Speaker 2: one of the sales reports, one of the stories focusing
Speaker 2: on the housing sector. The fact that where you saw
Speaker 2: after the pandemic, or as I call it, the plandemic,
Speaker 2: how you saw some of these cities that are in
Speaker 2: the South that people move there because during the pandemic,
Speaker 2: if people could work remotely and weren't going to be
Speaker 2: called back into the office, they could work from anywhere,
Speaker 2: and so they decided that, well, rather than living in
Speaker 2: an area that's extremely cold, will move to a southern
Speaker 2: climate or to a more of a resort area such
Speaker 2: as Denver or something. So you saw this big influx
Speaker 2: of people going into those particular markets, and those markets
Speaker 2: were rising five, ten, fifteen percent on a yearly basis
Speaker 2: because of all the people coming in. Again, a situation
Speaker 2: a supply and demand. You have only a certain number
Speaker 2: of houses that are available, you have a bigger amount
Speaker 2: of demand for that. So those prices are going to
Speaker 2: go up tremendously, and then after a while, those prices
Speaker 2: are going to come down. The story we had last
Speaker 2: week that showed that since the last time a person
Speaker 2: sold a house, they had seen a sixty seven percent
Speaker 2: increase in their home value. Now they were talking about
Speaker 2: in that same story, and the big headline was nationally,
Speaker 2: home sales or home prices are down in nearly fifty
Speaker 2: three percent of all the more than fifty three percent
Speaker 2: of all homes are now worth less than they were
Speaker 2: a couple of months ago. Again, a correction or return,
Speaker 2: as somebody pointed out in that article, a return to normalization.
Speaker 2: When you have, as I said, into these individual cities
Speaker 2: that were very popular during the pandemic and people were
Speaker 2: working from home, they were working remotely and weren't working
Speaker 2: in the office. They could work from anywhere. So again,
Speaker 2: if they move into these areas and those home prices
Speaker 2: go up tremendously, at some point in time they're going
Speaker 2: to come back down. There's going to be, you know,
Speaker 2: basically a market correction like we see in the stock
Speaker 2: market from time to time. Sometimes the stock market just
Speaker 2: gets hot and people just jump in there because they're
Speaker 2: making money and they think we'll shoot. Everybody's got to
Speaker 2: jump in here. And then those prices go up, and
Speaker 2: at some point in time they level off. People take
Speaker 2: some of their earnings off the table, they sell some
Speaker 2: of the stock, which then reduces the price, and then
Speaker 2: you see a market correction. You're seeing that in the
Speaker 2: housing industry. So where you see the single family home
Speaker 2: going down in value in some of these cities, it's
Speaker 2: because of the rapid increase. And as that story pointed
Speaker 2: out last week, the fact that these home values have
Speaker 2: gone up about one hundred and sixty seven percent since
Speaker 2: the I'm sorry, sixty seven percent since the last time
Speaker 2: that home has been sold, and that if the price
Speaker 2: reduced by five to seven percent, people are.
Speaker 1: Still way ahead of where they were before.
Speaker 2: So it's not time to be as they kept stressing
Speaker 2: in that story, it's not a matter of a panic.
Speaker 2: It's not a matter of going back to the housing
Speaker 2: crisis like we saw back in two thousand and eight,
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine. This is a normalization of what's
Speaker 2: going on in the market value single family homes the
Speaker 2: US as a measure of repeat transaction rose one point
Speaker 2: three percent in September compared to a year earlier. According
Speaker 2: to the data from S and P Coe Tilly Cooda
Speaker 2: Lidy Case Shiller Index. It marked the weakest annual gain
Speaker 2: in home prices since mid twenty twenty three, and was
Speaker 2: down from the one point four percent annual gain recorded
Speaker 2: in August. So they went up one point three percent
Speaker 2: from last from the previous period, but was down one
Speaker 2: tenth of a percent from the increase that they had expected.
Speaker 2: That is not an in casion the roof is caving
Speaker 2: in or the sky is falling. Among the twenty major
Speaker 2: metro areas tracked by Case Shiller, home prices fell on
Speaker 2: an annual basis in eleven. In eleven, all located in
Speaker 2: the south and west. Tampa, Florida. Phoenix continued to see
Speaker 2: the largest ever year over year declines in homes prices,
Speaker 2: with prices falling four point one four percent. Again, you
Speaker 2: have these areas Tampa Phoenix, where people flocked to during
Speaker 2: the pandemic. Prices rose exponentially there, way above what the
Speaker 2: industry average was at the time, and now there's a
Speaker 2: certain amount of correction coming into the play, had nothing
Speaker 2: to panic about. And of course, if you bought that
Speaker 2: home last year and you now are finding in that
Speaker 2: it's four percent less than what it was last year
Speaker 2: in terms of value, again it's a matter of well,
Speaker 2: when you bought the home, you know, you watch these
Speaker 2: shows from time to time and you see these people
Speaker 2: going in and you've got the asking price, and then
Speaker 2: because there's such a demand that they actually get over
Speaker 2: the asking price for that home. Well, if you're getting me,
Speaker 2: and generally the home is valued when they put the
Speaker 2: house on the market at what the comps are going
Speaker 2: to say that that house is worth. And then because
Speaker 2: of people being in a bidding war, they drive that
Speaker 2: price up. And if people can afford that, you know,
Speaker 2: if they've got the amount of down payment, because it
Speaker 2: all is all based on you know, the banks looking
Speaker 2: at it and appraising it for what it's worth. And
Speaker 2: then you know, if people are bidding that up and
Speaker 2: having to pay more for it, they're paying an inflated
Speaker 2: amount for that item. But it's simply because of something
Speaker 2: they want. And unless you're planning on selling that house
Speaker 2: you bought last year, right now, you're going to be
Speaker 2: in good shape going forward because eventually this price is
Speaker 2: going to come back up. So this report, you know,
Speaker 2: the way they indicated, at least as far as on
Speaker 2: some of the websites that I was looking at, it
Speaker 2: was almost like, oh, you know, there's a real panic
Speaker 2: going on now again. Tampa is down four percent, Phoenix
Speaker 2: is down two percent. But you have certain areas like Minneapolis, Cleveland, Boston,
Speaker 2: New York, and Chicago those prices are up. So again, overall,
Speaker 2: it seems like things are balancing out. Things are moving
Speaker 2: along in the way that they do seasonally within these
Speaker 2: certain areas. And because the influx in some of these
Speaker 2: more populated areas, more popular areas I should say, during
Speaker 2: the pandemic and because of remote work, those things are
Speaker 2: leveling off. So again, nothing too much to panic about there.
Speaker 2: Gas prices, oil prices, and gas prices. As I said,
Speaker 2: going into this holiday season, current average current average of
Speaker 2: gasoline is about three dollars and six cents a gallon.
Speaker 2: Diesel is at three dollars and seventy nine cents a gallon.
Speaker 2: When you look at the last year, diesel prices are
Speaker 2: actually up about twenty five cents from this time last year,
Speaker 2: while gasoline prices are down about a penny and a half,
Speaker 2: so overall they're pretty much the same as they were
Speaker 2: last year. And I keep mentioning this the fact that
Speaker 2: when you look at the petroleum prices, what is going
Speaker 2: into the actual refineries. At the beginnings oil prices are down.
Speaker 2: West Texas intermediate crud is down nineteen dollars and ten
Speaker 2: cents from the beginning of the year, a twenty five
Speaker 2: percent decrease. Brent crude is down seventeen dollars and sixty
Speaker 2: cents a barrel, and that's down twenty two percent since
Speaker 2: the beginning of the year. I wish some of those
Speaker 2: energy costs were reflected into the gasoline prices and bring
Speaker 2: those prices down. So again, a lot of economic news
Speaker 2: out there, but sorting through it depending upon what the
Speaker 2: headline is saying as opposed to