Speaker 1: Suicide cluster a few years back. Many victims were from
Speaker 1: the same fraternity, and every single line was close friends
Speaker 1: with a mysterious student named Brandon Grossheim.
Speaker 2: The lawsuit says Grossheim was one of the last people
Speaker 2: to see each victim before their deaths.
Speaker 1: Open your free iHeart app and search the peacemaker and
Speaker 1: start listening.
Speaker 3: This is America's Trucking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 4: Welcabbard.
Speaker 2: Thanks for tuning in on this Thursday morning. Before we
Speaker 2: get started, I want to talk a little bit about
Speaker 2: Hurricane Melissa. Hurricane Melissa drifting west northwestward in the Central Caribbean.
Speaker 2: Heavy rainfall and flooding expected over portions of Hispaniola and
Speaker 2: Jamaica over the remainder of the week. So if anybody's
Speaker 2: got any travel plans in that direction, those are probably
Speaker 2: going to be a little bit disrupted.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: I bring this up also the fact that as we approve,
Speaker 2: since we are in the hurricane season, generally what we'll
Speaker 2: see here in the United States is that we don't
Speaker 2: start hearing about these storms until they are like a
Speaker 2: couple of days out or a week out at least
Speaker 2: now when we see this or at least I mention
Speaker 2: it here. We know that it's out there, and as
Speaker 2: it's heading west northwestward, it could possibly go across Cuba.
Speaker 2: And then once it hits Cuba, that's only ninety miles
Speaker 2: away from the southern tip of the United States. They're
Speaker 2: in the Key of Florida, Keys, and so with this
Speaker 2: being that close, I figure I'd bring it up just
Speaker 2: to give kind of a heads up. But the trajectory
Speaker 2: of this, what most of the storms have done this
Speaker 2: year is as they approach the United States, they veer
Speaker 2: off and go back to the east from whence they came,
Speaker 2: so to speak. So just a little bit of a
Speaker 2: heads up there. Saw this story the other day. It's
Speaker 2: very encouraging. Now this has well. The headline is refine
Speaker 2: as demand is eighty one percent higher than it was
Speaker 2: a year ago thanks to falling mortgage rates. Now these
Speaker 2: are people that already have a mortgage and they're looking
Speaker 2: at the interest rates based on what they have and
Speaker 2: what is available, and looking to refinance. Imagine throwing these
Speaker 2: numbers in there and saying, Okay, if interest rates come
Speaker 2: down even further, then new home buyers or people that
Speaker 2: are thinking about getting into buying a home and getting
Speaker 2: out of an apartment.
Speaker 4: What that would do for the economy.
Speaker 2: It's when you look at the interest rates, and as
Speaker 2: I've been saying for most of this year, the falling
Speaker 2: interest rates will spur the economy if they're If the
Speaker 2: Federal Reserve claims that their mandate is to make sure
Speaker 2: that inflation is low and that job market is high, well,
Speaker 2: if you're having high interest rates, then people aren't going
Speaker 2: to expand their businesses. They're not going to buy new equipment,
Speaker 2: they're not going to do certain things to expand the economy.
Speaker 2: And if you're not expanding the economy, you're not creating
Speaker 2: more jobs, and therefore the job market is suffering.
Speaker 4: It seems like the Federal Reserve has this.
Speaker 2: Disconnect between lower interest rates and spurring the economy. They
Speaker 2: seem to think in their minds that lowering interest rates
Speaker 2: will spur inflation instead, which in most every time people
Speaker 2: talk about lowering interest rates, every time we see a
Speaker 2: story from Reuters or some of these other places where
Speaker 2: they talk about how interest rates and more buying power
Speaker 2: from the American public will spur more purchases and more traveling,
Speaker 2: more gasoline purchases, and therefore will be good for the
Speaker 2: oil industry. So if they recognize that, why doesn't the
Speaker 2: Federal Reserve So this story. Mortgage rates last week drop
Speaker 2: to the lowest level in a month, pushing more borrowers
Speaker 2: to refine finance. Potential home buyers, however, were not enthused
Speaker 2: again because it's not that drastic of a drop. The
Speaker 2: average contract interest rate for a thirty year fixed rate
Speaker 2: mortgage with a conforming loan balance of eight hundred and
Speaker 2: six thousand dollars or less decreased last week to six
Speaker 2: point three seven percent from six point four to two percent. Folks,
Speaker 2: that's only a half point h five percentage rate decrease,
Speaker 2: which is not that much, but enough.
Speaker 4: To spur people to possibly.
Speaker 2: Refinance, thinking that rates are going to be coming down.
Speaker 2: The points they're talking about is falling to zero point
Speaker 2: five to nine from point sixty one including origination fees,
Speaker 2: on a twenty percent down. As a result, applications to
Speaker 2: refinance home loans, which are the most sensitive to weekly
Speaker 2: changes in interest rates, rose four percent for the week
Speaker 2: and were eighty one percent higher for the same week
Speaker 2: a year a go. According to Mortgage Bankers Associations seasonally
Speaker 2: adjusted index, the rate on a thirty year fixed rate
Speaker 2: was fifteen basis points higher a year ago a basis
Speaker 2: point is point zero one percent, So again this is down,
Speaker 2: not significantly in my opinion, but enough as far as
Speaker 2: this market is concerned in order to spur people in.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 2: Joel Cohn, an NBA economists, the refinance index increase four percent,
Speaker 2: driven by six percentage rate increase in conventional refinances and
Speaker 2: a twelve percent increase in FHA refinance applications. He talks
Speaker 2: about the different things there, con noted that the demand
Speaker 2: for adjustable rate mortgages rose again. Now, adjustable rate mortgages
Speaker 2: are kind of dangerous from the standpoint that you're betting
Speaker 2: on interest rates coming down, and it's interesting that if
Speaker 2: you're expecting them to come down, your mortgage rate would
Speaker 2: adjust lower, but if those rates go higher, then you're
Speaker 2: going to be stuck with that as opposed to a
Speaker 2: fixed thirty year loan. ARM applications increase sixteen percent over
Speaker 2: the week, which pushed the armshare to eleven percent, with
Speaker 2: ARM rate more than eighty basis points lower than the
Speaker 2: thirty year fixed rate. ARM applications usually rise when overall
Speaker 2: interest rates climb, not when they fall. This increase speaks
Speaker 2: more to currently high mortgage prices than it does to rates.
Speaker 2: Buyers are doing everything they can to afford what's available.
Speaker 2: Applications for a mortgage or to purchase a home dropped
Speaker 2: five percent for the week, and we're twenty percent higher
Speaker 2: than the same week, and so on.
Speaker 4: They go onto these numbers.
Speaker 2: I want to emphasize again when you're talking about the
Speaker 2: interest rate in what that does in terms of not
Speaker 2: only your monthly payment but the house you can afford.
Speaker 2: I'm going to bring this up again. I've brought this
Speaker 2: up a couple of times, but it bears repeating. When
Speaker 2: you're looking at an interest rate on a home at
Speaker 2: six point nine five percent, which where it was at
Speaker 2: the beginning of the year, it's now down to somewhere
Speaker 2: in the neighborhood of well it did get down to
Speaker 2: six point eighty six percent. Now the interest rate over
Speaker 2: here in this story is down to six point three
Speaker 2: seven percent, so it's closer to you know, it's chopped
Speaker 2: off about what sixty fifty percent from where it was,
Speaker 2: half a percentage point from where it was at the
Speaker 2: beginning of the year. But again based on the numbers
Speaker 2: that I ran, because they've got these mortgage calculators that
Speaker 2: you can look at the average sales of homes. The
Speaker 2: medium price of homes are now over four hundred thousand dollars,
Speaker 2: but most of the purchases and most of the transactions
Speaker 2: have been handling between three hundred and four hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: So I picked the number in between of three hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty thousand dollars. They talk about twenty percent down,
Speaker 2: which would be seventy thousand, thirty year fixed rate mortgage
Speaker 2: at six point nine five percent, where those mortgage rates
Speaker 2: were at the beginning of the year. Your monthly payment,
Speaker 2: including they figure in property taxes and they figure in
Speaker 2: homeowners insurance and whatnot, would be two thousand, one hundred
Speaker 2: and forty nine dollars. Two thousand, one hundred and forty
Speaker 2: nine dollars now at six point two six percent interest
Speaker 2: rate again the same criteria. Now that six point twenty
Speaker 2: six percentage rate is around that six point three seven
Speaker 2: that they're talking about in the story. But I had
Speaker 2: a story earlier in the year where I was looking
Speaker 2: at that and compared the numbers. So if you're talking
Speaker 2: about six point nine five percent versus six point two
Speaker 2: six percent. Your monthly mortgage payment would go down one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty seven dollars a month. That's one hundred
Speaker 2: and twenty seven dollars in your pocket on an on
Speaker 2: an annual or you know, on a monthly basis. And
Speaker 2: I'm sure that people we could use that where interest rates,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, should be the interest rates on that
Speaker 2: the Federal Reserve charges instead of being at four point
Speaker 2: twenty five percent for that overnight rate that banks borrow
Speaker 2: money from each other if they need money, that number
Speaker 2: is at four point twenty five percent in most of
Speaker 2: the other Western countries, Europe, Japan, all some of these
Speaker 2: other areas, that number is down around two percent, which
Speaker 2: is where our numbers should be. And if our rates
Speaker 2: were down there, the overnight borrowing rate, the interest rates
Speaker 2: on credit cards, mortgages and so on, would come down.
Speaker 2: We'll pick this up on the other side. I'm Kevin Gordon,
Speaker 2: America's truck in Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 3: We need This is the racing report on America's drug
Speaker 3: and Network on seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 5: Daniel Suarez, a two time NASCAR Cup Series race winner
Speaker 5: and nine year veteran of NASCAR's Premier Division will move
Speaker 5: to Spire Motorsports for the twenty twenty six season and
Speaker 5: pilot the team's number seven cheval Sworez has spent the
Speaker 5: last five seasons at the controls of the number ninety
Speaker 5: nine Chevrolet for track House Racing. Freeway Insurance will serve
Speaker 5: as Spire Motorsports new team anchor partner. TV ratings for
Speaker 5: last weekend's motorsports action around the NASCAR Cup Series race
Speaker 5: at Talladega Super Steve Very drew two point five to
Speaker 5: five million viewers. The United States Grand Prix, the Formula
Speaker 5: One race in Austin, Texas, compiled one point five million viewers.
Speaker 5: There is talk of changing the points system and the
Speaker 5: playoff picture for twenty twenty six. Here's the King, Richard
Speaker 5: Petty and his Hall of Fame crew chief Dane Enman
Speaker 5: on the possible changes on the Petty Podcast.
Speaker 6: I've never looked back, and I've never talked to anybody about,
Speaker 6: you know, where they're out of one another. Championship were
Speaker 6: lost a couple as looking the other day of deal
Speaker 6: and if the championships had been canned like what they
Speaker 6: were with me, then Jeff Gordon would have won seven
Speaker 6: championships and Jimmy Johnson would have won four, they would
Speaker 6: have just swapped it back so again, and that kind
Speaker 6: of to me, that kind of shows that the championship
Speaker 6: should be a year long thing, not just one or
Speaker 6: two race deal.
Speaker 7: If it come down to the end of the race
Speaker 7: and he had to beat one car, or if he
Speaker 7: had to beat three cars to win, we'd work hard
Speaker 7: to do that.
Speaker 2: I love.
Speaker 3: This is the raething repard on America's Drugging Network on
Speaker 3: seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 8: Sake Dennison, a t N get ready on Tom Quell,
Speaker 8: co founder of the Jack Quell Foundation. Our mission is
Speaker 8: to educate our nation's youth and their parents on the
Speaker 8: dangers of fentanyl. If you would like us to speak
Speaker 8: at your school, community, or company, please contact us at
Speaker 8: do it for Jack dot org.
Speaker 7: You're one stop for advertising called eight four four eight
Speaker 7: four four iHeart.
Speaker 2: I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network, seven hundred WLW, continuing
Speaker 2: this discussion on this particular story. And this is just
Speaker 2: a minor decrease in interest rates. Refinancing demand is eighty
Speaker 2: one percent higher than it was a year ago, and
Speaker 2: we're talking about that the interest rates decreased from six
Speaker 2: point forty two percent down to six point three seven,
Speaker 2: less than half of a percentage point. And for that
Speaker 2: to spur that kind of application increase is incredible. And
Speaker 2: I was just running through some of the numbers where
Speaker 2: I was talking about interest rates at the beginning of
Speaker 2: the year, starting off around six point ninety five percent,
Speaker 2: what the mortgage rate would be on that your payment
Speaker 2: on a monthly basis would be two thousand, forty two
Speaker 2: one hundred and forty nine. At six point twenty six percent,
Speaker 2: that payment would decrease by one hundred and twenty seven
Speaker 2: dollars per month. Now, if interest rates were down where
Speaker 2: they should be, somewhere in the neighborhood of a five
Speaker 2: percent range of same scenario, you're talking about a three
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand dollars home. You're talking about twenty
Speaker 2: percent down. At five percent, your mortgage rate would be
Speaker 2: one thousand, seven hundred and ninety nine dollars three hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty four dollars per month lower than what it
Speaker 2: would have been at the beginning of the year. And
Speaker 2: that's why I have said that Lion Jerry Powell and
Speaker 2: the Federal Reserve as I said in the previous segment,
Speaker 2: they keep talking about whenever you're talking about oil prices,
Speaker 2: and there's always this blurb in there, lower interest rates
Speaker 2: spurs more demand and is good for the economy. Well,
Speaker 2: if it's good for the economy, why aren't the interest
Speaker 2: rates lower. It seems like lion Jerry Powell in the
Speaker 2: Federal Reserve. As I said in the previous segment, they
Speaker 2: seem to think that lower interest rates leads to inflation
Speaker 2: as opposed to lower interest rates spurring the economy. Again,
Speaker 2: if people are jumping out of apartments and into homes
Speaker 2: and buying homes, they are going to be buying furniture,
Speaker 2: more appliances, more durable goods, and also spur you know again,
Speaker 2: spur those durable goods, and they're going to be spending
Speaker 2: that money, and that filters through the rest of the economy. Now,
Speaker 2: the last time Trump was in office, interest rates were
Speaker 2: down below four percent. As a matter of fact, they
Speaker 2: were down in the three percent range. And just for fun,
Speaker 2: let's take a look at that and say, okay, based
Speaker 2: on the same scenario, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 2: home a twenty percent down thirty year fixed mortgage, your
Speaker 2: mortgage payment would be one thousand, four hundred and eighty
Speaker 2: four dollars per month. That is six hundred and forty
Speaker 2: nine dollars per month lower than what that six point
Speaker 2: ninety six percent at the beginning of this year. So
Speaker 2: this is what as a result of the Biden administration,
Speaker 2: interest rates going up, up, up, up up, as far
Speaker 2: as mortgage is concerned. What that does to the individual
Speaker 2: home buyer out there. If you're going to be spending
Speaker 2: six hundred and forty nine dollars more per month this
Speaker 2: year as opposed to four years ago, that's a heck
Speaker 2: of a chunk of change, and most people are going
Speaker 2: to be sitting on the sidelines and not wanting to
Speaker 2: jump into that now. To compound that even further and
Speaker 2: make it even more irritating, if you will, in terms
Speaker 2: of what mortgage rates does as far as the economy
Speaker 2: is concerned, the discussion comes into based on and again
Speaker 2: these are not my numbers. These are numbers from different
Speaker 2: mortgage what is it bank rate, I think is the
Speaker 2: mortgage calculator over there, and from this affirm or this
Speaker 2: website called nerd wallet. When you're talking about interest rates again,
Speaker 2: if you're talking you know, you're talking about the type
Speaker 2: of home that can be purchased. They used it as
Speaker 2: an example. Somebody making our annual income pre tax income
Speaker 2: of one hundred and ten thousand dollars a year. Again
Speaker 2: debt payments, and they go into what the average debt
Speaker 2: payment is across the board, eighty percent or twenty percent
Speaker 2: down payment at a six point eighty six percent interest rate,
Speaker 2: you can afford a home. Again, in that six point
Speaker 2: eighty six percent interest rate, you can afford a home
Speaker 2: that's three hundred and seventy eight thousand dollars. Now, going
Speaker 2: to the scenario that I was talking about before, when
Speaker 2: Trump was in office the last time in interest rates
Speaker 2: were around three point five three point oh five percent,
Speaker 2: Hang onto your hats, folks. At one hundred and ten
Speaker 2: thousand dollars income with a interest rate at three point
Speaker 2: oh five to two percent, the home price that you
Speaker 2: can afford at that interest rate is five hundred and
Speaker 2: forty thousand, almost five hundred and forty one thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: So the difference between a six point eighty six percent
Speaker 2: interest rate and a three point oh five percent is
Speaker 2: you can afford a home that's one hundred and sixty
Speaker 2: two almost one hundred and sixty three thousand dollars higher.
Speaker 4: Now, again, what would that do to you?
Speaker 2: Figure somebody that's got now six hundred and forty nine
Speaker 2: dollars more in their pocket after buying, after paying their
Speaker 2: mortgage rate, also buying the house and moving into that,
Speaker 2: all the stuff that would be purchased as far as furniture,
Speaker 2: and if it's a new home, would spur new home
Speaker 2: construction and all the building materials that would go into that.
Speaker 2: What that would do to stimulate the economy, stimulate the
Speaker 2: transportation industry, getting all this stuff to the job site
Speaker 2: in order to construct the home. And then as you
Speaker 2: go through that, and then you start buying furniture, appliances,
Speaker 2: of carpeting, painting, all that sort of stuff, what that does.
Speaker 4: To the economy.
Speaker 2: And again, you're moving into a house with six hundred
Speaker 2: and six hundred and forty nine dollars per month more
Speaker 2: than as in your pocket in terms of being able
Speaker 2: to spend that on what you want to spend as
Speaker 2: opposed to spending it all on mortgages and that. And again,
Speaker 2: as more people and you younger people are looking at
Speaker 2: getting into homes, interest rates are very sensitive to that
Speaker 2: and affects whether or not they can afford to go
Speaker 2: into a home like that. So again throw that out
Speaker 2: there again. I talk about the Federal Reserve how they are,
Speaker 2: and I can't stress enough the fact that when you
Speaker 2: look at the rate, the overnight rate the banks charge
Speaker 2: each other when they borrow money to handle their cash
Speaker 2: needs for that day, they are paying four percent, which
Speaker 2: is what the Federal Reserve sets that rate. That number
Speaker 2: then equates and adjusts as far as credit cards are concerned,
Speaker 2: then filters over into the mortgage industry and all that
Speaker 2: sort of thing. So if you're talking about spurring the economy,
Speaker 2: I don't think, well, I know that lower interest rates
Speaker 2: because everybody talks about it spurs the economy. People spend more,
Speaker 2: and if they're spending more, then they're going to be
Speaker 2: stimulating the economy as opposed to causing inflation. I saw
Speaker 2: this story and this is almost going to seem like
Speaker 2: a plug for Walmart. And I'm not talking about a
Speaker 2: plug for Walmart here. I'm just talking about that They've
Speaker 2: been in the news over the last couple of days
Speaker 2: over some of the stuff that's being done. One of
Speaker 2: the things I do is I will look at all
Speaker 2: kinds of different websites in terms of getting what news
Speaker 2: that I can. And as I've mentioned before, sometimes when
Speaker 2: you go to some of these more liberal websites, very
Speaker 2: liberal websites, even inside those stories, once in a while,
Speaker 2: those so called journalists do commit journalism and they do
Speaker 2: actually throw in nuggets of truth and you pick that
Speaker 2: out and you can go on that based on the
Speaker 2: stuff that you pick up on other stories and piece
Speaker 2: those together in order to come up with some interesting
Speaker 2: things that people are not talking about in the marketplace.
Speaker 2: And one of the things they're not talking about is
Speaker 2: this conversation. Smart was the CEO of Walmart, was part
Speaker 2: of a panel on CNBC and then he was interviewed
Speaker 2: by George Stephanopoulos and some of the things he had
Speaker 2: to say were very very interesting.
Speaker 4: We'll talk about that coming up.
Speaker 2: I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck In Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 9: Mrikins experience emotional and mental health challenges, but many of
Speaker 9: us do not understand what we are facing or how
Speaker 9: to ask for help.
Speaker 10: At the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, we work every day
Speaker 10: to eliminate stigma, combat mental illness, and substance use disorders,
Speaker 10: and advance mental health.
Speaker 9: If you or someone you love needs help, you are
Speaker 9: not alone. Please visit Mentallyhealthy nation dot org to learn more.
Speaker 7: Here's your trucking forecast the Try State and the rest
Speaker 7: of the country. In the Try State, overnight mostly cleared,
Speaker 7: the low down to thirty eighty frost advisory and affect
Speaker 7: until nine am Thursday. Sunday Sky's Thursday a high of
Speaker 7: fifty eight. Sunday Friday highs again in the upper fifties.
Speaker 7: Saturday partly sunny, a high of sixty one Nationally across
Speaker 7: the Great Lakes Region. Tonight showers and chili conditions meanwhild
Speaker 7: across these South central plains. Thursday night, a heavy rain
Speaker 7: threat emerges.
Speaker 2: Seven hundred WLW. I'm Kevin Gordon. This is America's Trucking Network.
Speaker 2: By the way, if you miss any part of our
Speaker 2: program or any previous segments, hit up that iHeartRadio app
Speaker 2: brought to you by our friends at Rush Truck Centers.
Speaker 2: Now talking about Walmart this They have been in the
Speaker 2: news a lot over the last couple of days, and
Speaker 2: it's interesting. The one website I went to, it's called
Speaker 2: the Street and sometimes when you go to these different
Speaker 2: you know, when you're searching for a particular topic, you know,
Speaker 2: all these different stories will come up. And once in
Speaker 2: a while, I'll go into this website called the Street
Speaker 2: and they have a lot of stories that talking about companies,
Speaker 2: what they're doing in terms of they're increasing, decreasing. A
Speaker 2: lot of bad news in there in terms of companies
Speaker 2: that are filing bankruptcy. And it's one of those things
Speaker 2: where you read the story. Within the story, they'll say, oh,
Speaker 2: for more news, check this one out, and then you
Speaker 2: check out this one, and then you keep going down
Speaker 2: this rabbit hole to where you're seeing about ten different
Speaker 2: stories from the same website, and they are a little
Speaker 2: bubble or two left of center.
Speaker 4: Let me just put it this way.
Speaker 2: I'll start off and give you the first paragraph of
Speaker 2: this story, a couple of paragraphs that kind of tends
Speaker 2: to tell you where this guy is heading. And again,
Speaker 2: the guy's name is Daniel Klein, and they do have
Speaker 2: this big picture of him, and based on being some
Speaker 2: of a bubble or two left of center, he very
Speaker 2: much looks the part he.
Speaker 4: Starts off with.
Speaker 2: Most CEOs avoid politics if you make a statement even
Speaker 2: seemingly benign, a benign one that seems to favor one
Speaker 2: party or the other, you run the risk of being
Speaker 2: labeled one way or the other.
Speaker 4: And he uses this as an example.
Speaker 2: Target, for example, ended up and broiled in a political
Speaker 2: debate over gender when it decided to add a one person,
Speaker 2: non gendered bathroom in its stores. That bathroom was open
Speaker 2: to shy, people with special needs and anyone who wanted
Speaker 2: to use it. Now he launches in for the next
Speaker 2: half page talking about how conservatives went nuts on this.
Speaker 2: He's absolutely nuts himself if he thinks that's the thing
Speaker 2: that upset people because single used bathrooms, especially for somebody
Speaker 2: trying to change a child or somebody that wants to
Speaker 2: just have a little bit of privacy, and especially you know,
Speaker 2: in the men's room, women's room, whatever.
Speaker 4: No big deal.
Speaker 2: What Target got into problems with is having bathing suits
Speaker 2: for transgender men or transgender women, men being women right
Speaker 2: in front of the stores with the pocket to tuck
Speaker 2: your stuff in. And this was for kids as are
Speaker 2: walking in, going mommy, what's that this? This is the
Speaker 2: thing that it had nothing to do with this bathroom.
Speaker 2: But this is what he's focusing on, saying that, oh,
Speaker 2: you know, Target can say certain things that they get
Speaker 2: into trouble, but the Walmart CEO doesn't, which is a
Speaker 2: bunch of crap. Then he goes into again this is
Speaker 2: very negative for the first page and a half or so,
Speaker 2: but when he gets into the actual meat of what
Speaker 2: this gentleman said, let me see John Ferner was talking
Speaker 2: in this business forum. Ferner actually spoke in favor of
Speaker 2: broad impacts of Trump's tariffs when he was on this
Speaker 2: panel cy NBC Invests in America Forum investing in US
Speaker 2: manufacturing and US operations. Sure, it's great for businesses, but
Speaker 2: it's also great for employment.
Speaker 4: It's great for jobs, it's great for.
Speaker 2: The company a country, and it helps us with our
Speaker 2: supply Chaine chain being flexible and dynamic. Ferner further pointed
Speaker 2: out that over sixty percent of Walmart's goods are sourced
Speaker 2: from a MA American companies operating in the US soil. Now,
Speaker 2: again that has to do more in line with that
Speaker 2: sixty percent of Walmart's sales are in the grocery end
Speaker 2: as opposed to the other sales in their stores. But
Speaker 2: again this is positive, not downplaying the terraces. Does Walmart
Speaker 2: support terraffs essentially. Walmart executives said terraffs have forced companies,
Speaker 2: including his own, to invest in US production. He cited
Speaker 2: a new beef processing facility in o'laith, Kansas that will
Speaker 2: generate over six hundred jobs for Americans. It's, as he said,
Speaker 2: it's a big investment, and having quality products that are
Speaker 2: sourced in a more sustainable way that can deliver to
Speaker 2: customers is really important. Walmart's CEO, however, made it clear
Speaker 2: that terraffs on foreign goods have also increased costs and
Speaker 2: explained his company needs to source globally. But he goes
Speaker 2: into the example when he's talking about this, he's talking
Speaker 2: about how you know, coffee might be an example, and
Speaker 2: if you have if you're a coffee drinker and you've
Speaker 2: bought coffee over the years, and whether it's you know what,
Speaker 2: however you buy coffee, you will notice that there are
Speaker 2: certain times over the years where coffee prices have spiked,
Speaker 2: and it's spiked considerably based on the crop. You know,
Speaker 2: it's an agricultural crop. So if you have a drought
Speaker 2: or you have a heavy rain season, that causes mold
Speaker 2: or causes problems in some of these areas you're going
Speaker 2: to have a bad crop. And so we see this,
Speaker 2: whether it doesn't matter whether it's corn, tomatoes, avocados, or whatever.
Speaker 2: If the growing season is bad and the amounts harvested
Speaker 2: is less than the prices are going to go up.
Speaker 2: And so you know, in terms of what he cites here,
Speaker 2: in terms of even coffee, those prices and we have
Speaker 2: seen over the last year or so coffee price is
Speaker 2: going up considerably because of droughts in those regions, and
Speaker 2: there have been some tariffs added to that, but then
Speaker 2: those have been backed off because of realizing how sensitive
Speaker 2: that is in terms of pricing coming into the United States.
Speaker 2: So that was the story that was in this company
Speaker 2: called The Street. Now something else that popped up the
Speaker 2: other day is the story where Walmart is talking about
Speaker 2: lowering prices this year around Easter, around Thanksgiving, Walmart is
Speaker 2: offering its lowest price in years for butterball turkeys this Thanksgiving,
Speaker 2: as the nation's largest food seller flexes its muscles to
Speaker 2: entice price sensitive consumers with deals. The company said that
Speaker 2: it will sell turkeys for ninety seven cents per pound,
Speaker 2: its cheapest price since twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4: Price is being rolled.
Speaker 2: Back six years to twenty nineteen, Turkey production has been
Speaker 2: tight due to shrinking flocks and resurgence of avian flu.
Speaker 2: This has nothing to do with terraffs. It has to
Speaker 2: do with the avian flu. We saw that in the
Speaker 2: chicken prices. We saw that as far as the egg prices,
Speaker 2: that that had nothing to do with terrafs, that it
Speaker 2: had everything to do with a certain virus or the
Speaker 2: avian flu going through when we look at beef prices,
Speaker 2: when we start looking at the droughts in certain areas
Speaker 2: of the country and the fact that there's this screw
Speaker 2: warm fly or whatever that it's been infecting cattle and
Speaker 2: even some of the cattle that we used to or
Speaker 2: the meat that we used to import from Mexico, that
Speaker 2: their herds have been devastated by that, and so that's
Speaker 2: causing the prices to go up, not having to do
Speaker 2: with terrats. And when people are like I said a
Speaker 2: few weeks ago, I was at a function and somebody
Speaker 2: that I hadn't seen in a number of years was saying, well,
Speaker 2: you know, you're really as conservative as you are on Facebook, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and every bit much. And she was saying, well, how
Speaker 2: can you be that way I go to the grocery store,
Speaker 2: food prices are out aside, Well, what are you talking about,
Speaker 2: oh talking about meat? Well, meat prices have nothing to
Speaker 2: do with the terroriffs. It has to do with it
Speaker 2: being a commodity, which is something that is it's dependent
Speaker 2: upon route, it's dependent on grain prices, and it's dependent
Speaker 2: upon whether or not these cattle are producing fast enough,
Speaker 2: and whether or not there is a disease that is
Speaker 2: causing some of these herds having to be dwindled. The
Speaker 2: fact that our herds, the number of herds in the
Speaker 2: United States, those size of herds are down to the
Speaker 2: size that they were back in nineteen fifty one. And
Speaker 2: I guarantee you if you take a look at what
Speaker 2: the population of the United States back in nineteen fifty
Speaker 2: one versus today, that is really going to be causing
Speaker 2: those problems. But again Walmart talking about Thanksgiving. Retailers typically
Speaker 2: offer major discounts during the holiday season to grow traffic
Speaker 2: and sales. Walmart deals underscored a height emphasis this year
Speaker 2: as families look to save as they navigate inflation concerns
Speaker 2: fueled by tariffs.
Speaker 4: And of course they have to throw this in again.
Speaker 4: This was from a let me see Bloomberg.
Speaker 2: Of course, expect that grocery inflation ticked up in August
Speaker 2: from July, according to the Labor Department's latest data. That's
Speaker 2: all they do. That's all they say. But when I
Speaker 2: looked into it. The new data will be out on Friday,
Speaker 2: but their reference here to grocery prices going up from
Speaker 2: July to August, it won up a half a percentage point,
Speaker 2: hardly recognizable. Walmart shoppers will have the option of buying
Speaker 2: individual products for the holiday, or an entire Thanksgiving meal
Speaker 2: basket of more than twenty items which costs less than
Speaker 2: forty dollars and serves ten people. That means that you
Speaker 2: can serve ten people for about four dollars apiece. Retailer
Speaker 2: said the basket price tag is the lowest sense it
Speaker 2: began the program back in twenty twenty two. Bentville, Arkansas
Speaker 2: based Walmart has been keeping food prices competitive in a
Speaker 2: bid to pick up more market share. Its grocery business,
Speaker 2: as I mentioned before, contributes about sixty percent of its
Speaker 2: US sales, is less exposed to import duties than consumer
Speaker 2: products like car.
Speaker 4: Seats and apparel.
Speaker 2: Overall, Walmart has said it expects to raise prices due
Speaker 2: to tariffs. But they haven't filtered in yet because they've
Speaker 2: had a built up of items that they bought prior
Speaker 2: to the tariffs taking effect that they're working off now.
Speaker 2: And as these tariff negotiations and trade negotiations are being done,
Speaker 2: those terraffs may not go into effect. I've got a
Speaker 2: little bit more on this on Walmart. I'm Kevin Gordon,
Speaker 2: america'struck in Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 11: With Dve Lapham's enshrinement into the Bengals Ring of Honor,
Speaker 11: we paid tribute to a life of lap presented by Skyline.
Speaker 11: Feeling good keeps Skyline time. Now here's Dan.
Speaker 12: And d lap You famously convinced your fellow offensive lineman
Speaker 12: to go sleeveless in the freezer Bowl where the wind
Speaker 12: show was minus fifty nine degrees? Was it more of
Speaker 12: a psychological advantage or a physical one?
Speaker 4: You know, I think it was both.
Speaker 10: In you know, that's I was thinking initially, was I'm
Speaker 10: from the east, you know, I'm from the New England area.
Speaker 4: I've gone through some winners. I know what cold weather's like.
Speaker 4: Not like that. That was brutality, man.
Speaker 10: And of course the Chargers from the West coast, so
Speaker 10: they really couldn't go anywhere unless they flew in early
Speaker 10: to practice in those kind of conditions. Unbelievable.
Speaker 4: I mean it was it was survival. I never played
Speaker 4: the game of football.
Speaker 10: Like that one, because when you hit that field, oh man,
Speaker 10: it was like, you know, you were falling on a brick,
Speaker 10: you were falling on concrete.
Speaker 11: For more on the life of lap keep it here
Speaker 11: on seven hundred WLW, the home of the best Spangals coverage.
Speaker 4: Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, Think again.
Speaker 6: More Americans listen to podcasts than AD supported streaming music
Speaker 6: from Spotify Alexandria.
Speaker 3: Check out the Tri States' margest inventory of brand new
Speaker 3: Ford Broncos, Super Duty and Ford Mustang at Mike Kestrucyford
Speaker 3: dot com.
Speaker 4: That's Mike Kees Strucy Ford.
Speaker 2: This is america'struck a network. Seven hundred a WLW. Now
Speaker 2: that's going to seem like I'm talking a lot about
Speaker 2: Walmart what But it was interesting because in three different
Speaker 2: stories that popped up, certain things were talked about how
Speaker 2: Walmart is doing certain things in order to keep prices
Speaker 2: low and so on. But this story here is just
Speaker 2: particularly funnier than heck. Once in a while, these members
Speaker 2: of the spoon feder regurgitators in the mainstream media, they
Speaker 2: are all pompous and they think that, Okay, if I
Speaker 2: just go ahead and say this, then this person's going
Speaker 2: to agree with me and we'll just move on from there.
Speaker 2: George Stephanopolos on ABC. Now they pawn him off as
Speaker 2: some sort of a journalist and they praise him for
Speaker 2: being a journalists. This guy is the furthest thing from
Speaker 2: being a journalist that you can possibly be. He was
Speaker 2: Clinton's wingman. He was during the campaign. He was the
Speaker 2: one that was heading up Him and James Carvel were
Speaker 2: heading up what they called the Bimbo Eruption Room, where
Speaker 2: they tried to find out how many different women that
Speaker 2: Clinton had been with over the years, cheating on his
Speaker 2: wife and so on, and wanted to make sure that
Speaker 2: they pulled up as much dirt on these people as
Speaker 2: possible in order to discredit them if they dared to
Speaker 2: speak up. He was one of the most ruthless individuals.
Speaker 2: In a matter of fact, there was a scene or
Speaker 2: a situation where he was talking to somebody and they
Speaker 2: were going to run a story and he called them,
Speaker 2: and he says, I guarantee you that if you run
Speaker 2: that story, you will never get an interview with this
Speaker 2: person again, and you will be dead to us, and
Speaker 2: all this sort of stuff. And he was yelling and
Speaker 2: screaming at these people, trying to intimidate them not to
Speaker 2: run a true story about somebody. So this guy is
Speaker 2: a journalist, but this was funnier than hell. He was
Speaker 2: talking to Walmart's CEO, John Ferner, and he was saying
Speaker 2: he tried to argue the turkey prices were a up,
Speaker 2: but Ferner replied that Walmart's turkey prices will be back
Speaker 2: down to the twenty nineteen And it was an interesting
Speaker 2: dialogue because George stephanopolis and trying to look real serious
Speaker 2: and says, well, you know, we're going into the holiday
Speaker 2: season and these turkey prices, the prices of turkey are
Speaker 2: way up, and food prices are really up due to inflation.
Speaker 2: And this guy goes, well, not really, We're gonna have
Speaker 2: turkey prices that are down ninety seven cents per pound,
Speaker 2: which is down a round where it was twenty nineteen,
Speaker 2: and the Thanksgiving basket will sell for fourteen dollars. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, it's fourteen dollars cheaper than it was last year.
Speaker 2: So that is a decrease there the cheapest price that
Speaker 2: that basket of stuff we were talking about as far
Speaker 2: as for the turkey dinner, feed a family or feed
Speaker 2: ten people for forty bucks, and that is down fourteen
Speaker 2: dollars from where it was last year and down around
Speaker 2: the prices.
Speaker 4: Where it was in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: Then George steph Alonas has tried to talk about Walmart's
Speaker 2: CEO about harming the economy with teriffs for again disagreed,
Speaker 2: saying two thirds of what we sell is either made, grown,
Speaker 2: or assembled in the United States, and they currently we
Speaker 2: have seven thousand items on Walmart's trademark Rollback pricing a program,
Speaker 2: so if you go into Walmart, you go and you
Speaker 2: see their prices, they will actually show the label there
Speaker 2: and when they reduce the prices, they'll have this either
Speaker 2: yellow tag or whatever on their.
Speaker 4: Price roll back.
Speaker 2: So you push back on the head and you could
Speaker 2: just see George Stephanopolos's face getting worse and worse. It's like,
Speaker 2: wait a minute, you know I had this whole thing,
Speaker 2: this whole scenario is going to you know, bash the
Speaker 2: Trump administration, and this guy's not not cooperating with me.
Speaker 2: Step Monopolis then tried to one last time to have
Speaker 2: Walmart CEO John Ferner attacked Trump administration, arguing Americans are
Speaker 2: tightening their belts right now, borrowing more to pay bills,
Speaker 2: falling behind on credit card payments, and wondered if that's
Speaker 2: affected the company.
Speaker 4: Ferner then started talking about uh.
Speaker 2: He rejected that it's happening, arguing that Americans are very
Speaker 2: resilient while they are wanting quality and value. So they
Speaker 2: are dealing with whatever they have to deal with, and
Speaker 2: they start adjusting their purchases to get more quality and
Speaker 2: more value as opposed to spending more money and then
Speaker 2: piling on either or you know, putting more money on
Speaker 2: their credit cards.
Speaker 4: And so they are the you know, here is.
Speaker 2: A company that is on the front edge of consumerism
Speaker 2: and he's having none of this crap in towards Monopolis
Speaker 2: is trying to talk about.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: I mentioned yesterday as far as the grocery purchases in
Speaker 2: the Gordon household, how I mentioned that back in what
Speaker 2: was it, two thousand and eight, during the Great Recession,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say money was tight, but I was always
Speaker 2: interested in I'm always interested in saving money. People used
Speaker 2: to refer to I've got Scottish background, so they always
Speaker 2: tell me how cheap I am. But back then I
Speaker 2: was looking at different stuff and I was thinking, well,
Speaker 2: you know what, I'm going to try Kroger products just
Speaker 2: for the heck of it instead of the national brands.
Speaker 2: And they were a lot cheaper. And I was shocked
Speaker 2: at how much better some of their products are as
Speaker 2: opposed to the national brands. Now, I made the comment
Speaker 2: about certain items like peanut butter and some of the cereal,
Speaker 2: and if you look at the products and themselves the cereal,
Speaker 2: the components in there are less harmful, a are more
Speaker 2: natural than the national brands. And as far as the
Speaker 2: taste and the quality and that sort of stuff is
Speaker 2: very much up there. Now when you get into stuff
Speaker 2: like ketchup and mustard and stuff like that, man, you
Speaker 2: got to go with the national brand in my opinion.
Speaker 2: But again it's it's it pays to take a look
Speaker 2: at sometimes the Kroger or the store brands and just
Speaker 2: do a product comparison ingredient comparison.
Speaker 4: As to what those do.
Speaker 2: And it's very interesting when you when you look at
Speaker 2: that what and really save on your grocery bill and
Speaker 2: be a little bit more of a savvy, savvy shopper.
Speaker 2: And I keep referencing this I because it was it
Speaker 2: was so funny when somebody was doing an interview with
Speaker 2: somebody about how they're trying, you know, grocery prices are
Speaker 2: going up, How are you going to do that? And
Speaker 2: what are you going to how are you going to
Speaker 2: handle that? And persons, why may I have to start
Speaker 2: taking drastic measures like using coupons. That's a drastic measure.
Speaker 2: Let's take a look quick look at oil and gas prices,
Speaker 2: because they have been bouncing around a little bit, and
Speaker 2: we really haven't talked a lot about those over the
Speaker 2: last couple of days. West sax Is intermediate crewed crolling
Speaker 2: is fifty eight dollars and fifty cents a barrel. That
Speaker 2: is up a dollars twenty six, So it was actually
Speaker 2: even lower than you know, lower than.
Speaker 4: Fifty eight dollars and fifty cents.
Speaker 2: People were saying earlier that they didn't think gas or
Speaker 2: oil prices we're going to get down below sixty dollars
Speaker 2: a barrel, and here this is even now a dollar
Speaker 2: fifty below sixty dollars range, and was even a two
Speaker 2: dollars and seventy six cents below that sixty dollars range
Speaker 2: the other day. But anyway, currently fifty eight dollars and
Speaker 2: fifty cents up a dollar twenty six, up two point
Speaker 2: two percent. Brent crude currently is a sixty two dollars
Speaker 2: and fifty eight cents a barrel. That is up a
Speaker 2: dollar twenty six. Again, even Brent crude was down in
Speaker 2: that sixty dollars range just since the first of the year.
Speaker 2: Oil prices, even at this rate, are down eight West
Speaker 2: Texas intermediate crude is down eighteen dollars and thirty nine cents.
Speaker 2: That is a twenty four percent drop. Brent crude is
Speaker 2: down seventeen dollars and thirty two cents. That is a
Speaker 2: twenty two percent drop.
Speaker 4: Again. I'm waiting, I'm anxious.
Speaker 2: I want to see that price filter through into the
Speaker 2: gas prices. Gas prices nationwide now are three dollars and
Speaker 2: seven cents a gallon. A couple of weeks ago they
Speaker 2: were up to three dollars and fourteen three dollars and
Speaker 2: sixteen cents a gallon. So it is coming down a
Speaker 2: little bit. Last year, at this time gas was at
Speaker 2: three dollars and sixteen cents a gallon, so it's down
Speaker 2: ten cents from that. Needs to be down even further
Speaker 2: than that. If you look at diesel Diesel cross the
Speaker 2: board national average is three dollars and sixty three cents
Speaker 2: a gallon. That is only about four or five cents
Speaker 2: a gallon less than what was this time last year,
Speaker 2: but it is coming down locally here. I found this
Speaker 2: interesting and this it pays to check those gas apps
Speaker 2: that you have. There are several different websites that you
Speaker 2: can go out there and check in terms of gas
Speaker 2: prices in an area if you're looking for gas prices,
Speaker 2: I just do this on my zip code in the
Speaker 2: entire county. In my neighborhood, gas prices were at two
Speaker 2: dollars and seventy six cents, which is up seven cents
Speaker 2: a gallon from last week.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: Last night, when my wife and I were out driving around,
Speaker 2: we were looking at different gas prices as high as
Speaker 2: three dollars and nine cents in certain areas. So when
Speaker 2: you're talking about gas prices on the low end at
Speaker 2: two dollars and seventy six cents and the high end
Speaker 2: at three dollars and nine cents. That thirty some cent difference,
Speaker 2: thirty four cent difference is a big number, and behoove
Speaker 2: you to go and check some of these prices. Diesel
Speaker 2: prices are three dollars in my neck of the woods
Speaker 2: three dollars and thirty eight cents. Now, that's up nine
Speaker 2: cents from last week. And surprisingly there's usually about a
Speaker 2: ten or fifteen cent gap between the lowest and the highest.
Speaker 4: But in my zip.
Speaker 2: Code the highest gas diesel price is only three thirty nine,
Speaker 2: so there's only a penny difference. But again it would
Speaker 2: behoove you to if you're going to pay gaps. You know,
Speaker 2: if you're going to pay for gas, you might as
Speaker 2: well pay for it as cheap as you can. So
Speaker 2: check those apps and get the bargains where you can
Speaker 2: get the bargains. Well, folks, that does it for us.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned for ATI Radio atop the hour. I'm Kevin Gordon,
Speaker 2: America's Trucking Network seven hundred WLW