Speaker 1: This is America's Trucking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2: Love the able. Thanks for tuning in on this Tuesday morning.
Speaker 2: We are now past officially past the Christmas season. The
Speaker 2: Christmas season just ended, what about five six minutes ago,
Speaker 2: after the end of the Twelfth Night. Again, Christmas season
Speaker 2: and the actual Christmas period begins Christmas Day and then
Speaker 2: goes for the twelve days after Christmas, not the twelve
Speaker 2: days before Christmas. Today is the feast of the Epiphany,
Speaker 2: and according to the Bible and according to the legend,
Speaker 2: it's today that the Three Wise Men came and recognized
Speaker 2: and visited Jesus in the Manger and the Holy Family.
Speaker 2: So again, this is the end of the Christmas season
Speaker 2: and the Christian religion. It's a very important day. Now
Speaker 2: over the weekend, a little bit of excitement down there
Speaker 2: in Venezuela. I guess Nicholas Maduro entered the FO stage
Speaker 2: as an f A FO talking about the Narco terrorism
Speaker 2: down there, and I tell you, I saw the dumbest
Speaker 2: interview from what is it, CBS Face the Nation. Margaret
Speaker 2: Brennan has this ability to be about as dumb as
Speaker 2: a box of rocks. She's talking to Marco Rubio, which
Speaker 2: I'm surprised Marco Rubio goes on the show, but you know,
Speaker 2: when you know you're going to tear up the host
Speaker 2: and that the host can't you know, blow over you,
Speaker 2: or you know, confound you or confuse you, or ask
Speaker 2: you a question you're not ready for. I guess it's
Speaker 2: okay to go on these shows just to embarrass them.
Speaker 2: But she's talking to him about this effort, this military
Speaker 2: effort that was done and says, I'm confused. There are
Speaker 2: two other or three other indicted people down there that
Speaker 2: are still in power. Why did you just go after
Speaker 2: this one person? And I will say that. At first,
Speaker 2: Marco Rubio's face was like, I can't believe that I'm
Speaker 2: actually that she's actually asking this question. And he responds
Speaker 2: with you're confused. Now, during the Biden administration, they had
Speaker 2: put a fifty million dollar bounty on the capture of
Speaker 2: Nicholas Maduro, an indicted a drug lord, marco terrorist, head
Speaker 2: of a state down there in the country of Venezuela.
Speaker 2: So during the Biden administration even they recognized his threat
Speaker 2: to the Americans. Now, apparently there are some others. She
Speaker 2: put up a charter a picture of somebody who had
Speaker 2: a fifteen million dollar bounty on them. So you know,
Speaker 2: you know, you don't have to be a mathematician to
Speaker 2: understand that the guy that has has the fifty million
Speaker 2: bounty on him versus the fifteen million bounty. I would
Speaker 2: say the guy with the fifty million is probably a
Speaker 2: little bit higher priority. Oh and by the way, the
Speaker 2: fact that he was the leader of the country, the
Speaker 2: de facto leader. He was the president of the country,
Speaker 2: even though sixty European countries and EU and all these
Speaker 2: didn't recognize we don't recognize him as the president. Because
Speaker 2: there was an election that was supposed to take place
Speaker 2: once I was at twenty twenty three and thereabouts, and
Speaker 2: this lady her name escapes me, Miccado, Carlos, whatever her name,
Speaker 2: She was the one that won the Nobel Peace Prize
Speaker 2: for her efforts. Now, she was one of the leading
Speaker 2: candidates down there when they were going to do the elections. Well,
Speaker 2: Nicholas Maduro said that his government said she was not
Speaker 2: allowed to run again. Then she appointed one other person
Speaker 2: to go in her stead, and then that person was
Speaker 2: pushed aside, and then eventually the candidate that she supported
Speaker 2: actually apparently got the majority of the votes, but then
Speaker 2: Nicholas Maduro and his thugs said, no way, it's you know,
Speaker 2: it wasn't a fair election, and Nicholas Maduro was crowned
Speaker 2: or was designated as the winner of the election. So
Speaker 2: he's not been recognized by the world down there, and
Speaker 2: he's got this fifty million dollar bounty on his head.
Speaker 2: And so they go in there and she's going, well,
Speaker 2: why didn't you pick up the others? And Marco looks
Speaker 2: at her and says, you're confused. We're gonna go in Okay,
Speaker 2: And he described this military operation. He said, we landed
Speaker 2: helicopters in the middle of the largest military base in Venezuela,
Speaker 2: because Nicholas Maduro lived on this army base. Within a
Speaker 2: three minute period of time, went to where he was sleeping,
Speaker 2: kicked in the door, arrested him, read him his rights,
Speaker 2: got him on a helicopter, and with a three minute
Speaker 2: period of time, they were gone. And he says, you
Speaker 2: expected us to do this five other times in the city,
Speaker 2: in the country, with the operations, I mean just in
Speaker 2: the attacking the infrastructure and the radar screens and stuff,
Speaker 2: so that they couldn't in the communications infrastructure. There was
Speaker 2: something like one hundred and fifty aircraft that were involved
Speaker 2: in this, not to mention the helicopters that actually went
Speaker 2: into the compound. And he said, so you expect us
Speaker 2: to be on the ground for like four days, rounding
Speaker 2: up all these other people. Look at the howls that
Speaker 2: there have been up to this point with what we did.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine if we were there for four And
Speaker 2: then she goes, but I'm confusing. She even repeated it.
Speaker 2: She goes, why didn't you grab these other people? And
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, how ignorant can you be? I
Speaker 2: mean it's like you go in with she goes in
Speaker 2: with this narrative and nothing is going to break her
Speaker 2: from I mean, you present them with the facts, give
Speaker 2: them with the information, and they still don't understand. I mean,
Speaker 2: they got this preconceived idea. But the fact of over
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty different aircraft being around, flying through
Speaker 2: the airspace there glanding in the middle of a military compound,
Speaker 2: nabbing this guy. Not one US soldier was injured. I
Speaker 2: think there was a little bit of damage to one
Speaker 2: of the helicopters, but it was a highly successful operation.
Speaker 2: Nicholas Maduro is in New York and is going to
Speaker 2: be indicted and go on trial. So it is just
Speaker 2: absolutely amazing that it was that they didn't understand. Now,
Speaker 2: what was funny is that all day Sunday all you
Speaker 2: heard was people like Mandani in New York, Zoran Mundani,
Speaker 2: the new mayor, the socialist, the communist mayor of New
Speaker 2: York condemning the operation. You had China condemning the operation,
Speaker 2: Iran condemning the operation, North Korea condemning the operation, and
Speaker 2: a wholesalel of democrats. So great company you're in there
Speaker 2: when you're siding with Iran, China, North Korea, all enemies
Speaker 2: of the of the United States. Well, all these protests
Speaker 2: were breaking out, and of course the usual mob of
Speaker 2: you know, you know the you know, the Palestinian supporters
Speaker 2: that had been protesting and you know, from the river
Speaker 2: to the sea. Apparently, since that has resolved and there
Speaker 2: has ceasefire over there, they've got nothing to complain about.
Speaker 2: I guess the Russia Russia Russia hoax isn't available right now,
Speaker 2: So this is the latest thing that they were all
Speaker 2: upset about. But Monday morning, I was shocked to see
Speaker 2: how many people weren't protesting, weren't criticizing. Different Senate leaders,
Speaker 2: different Democratic leaders around the country kind of started tamping down, said, well,
Speaker 2: we want to take away and see approach. I guess
Speaker 2: they saw all these celebrations in the streets of Caracas, Venezuela,
Speaker 2: all the people saying chanting, USA, USA, USA, cheering, just
Speaker 2: millions of people in the street applauding the fact that
Speaker 2: we went in and took out this brutal dictator who
Speaker 2: had ruined their economy. Go back to ten fifteen years ago,
Speaker 2: Venezuela was one of the richest countries in the South
Speaker 2: America South America area. People were living well. All of
Speaker 2: a sudden, Hugo Chavez seizes control, a communist starts doing
Speaker 2: the collectivization that Mandani is now doing in New York,
Speaker 2: and the economy went to hell in a handbasket. The
Speaker 2: grocery stores were empty, just like every other communist country.
Speaker 2: The economy failed. The biggest resource that they had there,
Speaker 2: their oil, went from was this something like three hundred
Speaker 2: million barrels a day down to pretty much zero. And
Speaker 2: so the people of there were suffering. And the fact
Speaker 2: that now mc nicholas Maduro is out. They are cheering
Speaker 2: like crazy Liberation Day, Independence Day for the people of Venezuela.
Speaker 2: And I guess the people here saying, well, gee whiz.
Speaker 2: If they're so that and we're protesting it, could we
Speaker 2: possibly be on the wrong side of this anyway. I'm
Speaker 2: Kevin Gordon, americastruck in Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1: I need This is the racing reward on America's Drugging
Speaker 1: Network on seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 3: NHR seventy fifth anniversary season is set for twenty twenty six,
Speaker 3: and with the incredible landmark season comes a wave of
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Speaker 3: the season. The sports most coveted prize, the Wally, will
Speaker 3: get an eye catching makeover for just the anniversary season,
Speaker 3: making it a desired goal for any NHR competitor. For
Speaker 3: the entire year, every racer competing at an NHRA event
Speaker 3: from the NHR Mission Foods Drag Racing Series to the
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Speaker 3: Series and more will get a once in a lifetime
Speaker 3: opportunity to race for a Diamond Wally. The special NHR
Speaker 3: seventy fifth Anniversary Diamond Wally will only be available in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six, starting at the season kickoff at the
Speaker 3: NHR Gator Nationals in March. Some of the special seventy
Speaker 3: fifth Anniversary highlights include commemorative tickets. They're going to honor
Speaker 3: NHRA legends at each event. Top seventy five driver list
Speaker 3: will be announced Top seventy five moments in NHRA history
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty six. There is a seventy fifth anniversary
Speaker 3: coffee table book available, a seventy fifth anniversary website. Seventy
Speaker 3: fifth anniversary apparel is being released at nitromol dot com.
Speaker 1: This is the racing report on America's Drugging Network on
Speaker 1: seven hundred WLW, Say Dennison a t N.
Speaker 2: This is Jim Hello.
Speaker 4: Jim started advertising with iHeartRadio way back in April.
Speaker 2: I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network seven hundred WLW to
Speaker 2: take a look at transpired in Venezuela late Saturday night,
Speaker 2: earlyday morning capture of Nicholas Maduro and his wife being
Speaker 2: brought to New York to stand charges for drug trafficking
Speaker 2: and so on. I'm not sure of all the charges
Speaker 2: against them, but it will be very interesting to see
Speaker 2: how it comes out. Code named Operation Absolute resolved A
Speaker 2: Chapter A chapter. In a wider campaign against alleged drug trafficking,
Speaker 2: US military unleased a wave of air strikes in Venezuela,
Speaker 2: neutralized their air defenses, and sent an eleas elite special forces. Result,
Speaker 2: Nicholas Maduau and his wife Cela Flores were swiftly captured
Speaker 2: in Caracas and whisked away onto the us uss EWOJIMA,
Speaker 2: then onto New York for narco terrorism charge. All prices
Speaker 2: took at a wild ride, tanking at first, only to
Speaker 2: roar back as Wall Street children cheered a strong dollar,
Speaker 2: rising stock market and a booming demand. Expert projections the
Speaker 2: zero American casual was a plus. Vice President Delsey Rodriguez
Speaker 2: was reportedly installed as the interim leader under Washington's watchful
Speaker 2: I they are going to do apparently well, try to
Speaker 2: move towards elections as soon as possible. Trump administration wasted
Speaker 2: no time promising to rebuild Venezuela's energy infrastructure, inviting US
Speaker 2: companies to take the reins. Now we had built their
Speaker 2: energy structure down there, We had apparently leases with them,
Speaker 2: Chevron and a lot of the major oil companies, and
Speaker 2: when Hugo Chavez came in and along with Nicholas Maduro,
Speaker 2: they nationalized all of the oil fields and the leases
Speaker 2: there and basically seize those leases and kicked the American
Speaker 2: companies out and said we got it from here, which
Speaker 2: apparently they didn't. So again, the infrastructure in place down
Speaker 2: there after twenty years about of miss management and so on,
Speaker 2: is going to require a little bit of rebuilding. But
Speaker 2: Chevron had gone back down there and with the permission
Speaker 2: of the US to start doing some of the drilling
Speaker 2: down there or some of the well production down there,
Speaker 2: because as you recall, back during the Biden administration, when
Speaker 2: he came into office, he started stopped selling the or
Speaker 2: stopped allowing the oil leases around the country, which is
Speaker 2: by law they were supposed to do. Seized oil production
Speaker 2: in the Gulf of Mexico, in Canada and a lot
Speaker 2: of the different oil fields around the country. And then
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, we started importing more oil from
Speaker 2: overseas than we were producing here. And from twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: when we were energy independent for the first time since
Speaker 2: nineteen forty nine, all of a sudden, we became very
Speaker 2: energy dependent. Now coming into office, Biden criticized Saudi Arabia,
Speaker 2: saying that they were a pariah nation having to do
Speaker 2: with that Asam fascination or killing of Kosoji that Washington
Speaker 2: supposed Washington Post reporter. But they were saying that we
Speaker 2: weren't going to deal with Saudi Arabia. Then also they
Speaker 2: put the clamps on Venezuela for being a communist country
Speaker 2: and they weren't going to buy oil from them. Well,
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, when you stop producing oil or
Speaker 2: cut back production in the United States, guess what you
Speaker 2: need production of oil. So then all of a sudden
Speaker 2: he goes over on bended knee to Saudi Arabia to
Speaker 2: bake for oil. They basically told him to pound sand.
Speaker 2: And so then he started going to Venezuela, lifted the
Speaker 2: sanctions there and started importing oil from there, and allowed
Speaker 2: Chevron to go down there and run some of the operations.
Speaker 2: So again, back during the Biden administration, fifty million dollars
Speaker 2: bounding on Hugo or on Nicholas Maduro done by the
Speaker 2: Biden administration started dealing with Venezuela went already they had
Speaker 2: add sanctions on them. So the idea that they're wavering,
Speaker 2: and you know, as they talk about the the Trump
Speaker 2: administration with the late raising of terrorists, lowering of terraces
Speaker 2: and so on, the bumpy ride or the inconsistent foreign policy.
Speaker 2: We'll just take a look at the inconsistent foreign policy
Speaker 2: with the Biden administration. We're not going to deal with
Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia. They're a prior. Oh by the way, we
Speaker 2: need to grow. Hey, can we have some oil and
Speaker 2: we're going to put sanctions on Nicholas Maduro and Venezuela
Speaker 2: and oh, by the way, we need that crude oil
Speaker 2: in the United States, so hey, can we have some
Speaker 2: of it? So, you know, don't talk to me about
Speaker 2: how consistent they are. Energy infrastructure Chevron short lived return.
Speaker 2: Back in the Biden administration, company ramped up this output
Speaker 2: three hundred million barrel three hundred thousand barrels a day,
Speaker 2: pushing Venezuela production back over a million, which they had been.
Speaker 2: I believe it's somewhere around three million per year per day.
Speaker 2: Rather so again, the United Nation Security Council, we hold
Speaker 2: an emergency meeting. While they held an emergency meeting on Monday,
Speaker 2: I didn't even bother to hear what they had to say,
Speaker 2: because you know, they didn't stop Russia from invading Ukraine,
Speaker 2: even though there was a year and a half upswing
Speaker 2: or troop movement there indicating that they were going to invade.
Speaker 2: They didn't do anything to try to stop that, and
Speaker 2: they had advanced notice of that. They've done nothing in
Speaker 2: order to end that war there. So now all of
Speaker 2: a sudden they're gonna, you know, because you know, they're
Speaker 2: just gonna condemn us. I would say, shut up, but
Speaker 2: I'm not even gonna bother hearing what they had to say.
Speaker 2: So again, upheaval in Venezuela pretty much for the good.
Speaker 2: It'll be interesting to see how that happens, how the
Speaker 2: free and fair elections come about, and whether or not
Speaker 2: that country can get back to some sort of normalcy
Speaker 2: as a result of being under the cruel thumb of
Speaker 2: Nicholas Maduro and previously Hugo Chavez. So again, it'll be
Speaker 2: interesting to see what happens down there. Some interesting comments
Speaker 2: again before the new year, you know, we're starting to
Speaker 2: see this will come well, it'll come as a surprise
Speaker 2: to you. I don't know will it come as anyway.
Speaker 2: I've been talking about our economy. I've been talking about
Speaker 2: the effects of tariff since Liberation Day on April to second.
Speaker 2: I because of going back to my days in school
Speaker 2: and seeing economics and learning about tariffs and so on,
Speaker 2: realized or said that the time, and some of the
Speaker 2: other people that I read and respect said tariffs don't
Speaker 2: lead to inflation. There are some temporary items that go up,
Speaker 2: but then other items go down, so overall inflation pretty
Speaker 2: much stays the same. And the way this was explained
Speaker 2: as far as Trump talking about the charts that he
Speaker 2: had showing that the amount of terifts they charge on
Speaker 2: our products going into these countries versus the terriffts we
Speaker 2: charge on their products, and said, We're just going to
Speaker 2: do reciprocal tariffs. The tariffs that they charge us, We're
Speaker 2: going to charge them, and then if they want to
Speaker 2: have those are teriffs reduced on their goods, they can
Speaker 2: reduce the tariffs on our goods going in there again
Speaker 2: a negotiating tool. So all the people with their you know,
Speaker 2: hair on fire talking about the economy is going to
Speaker 2: go a tank. It's going to be in a recession,
Speaker 2: rampant unemployment, rampant inflation, and so on. I guess they
Speaker 2: were kind of what was a channeling the Biden administration,
Speaker 2: which is that's exactly what happened during the Biden administration.
Speaker 2: So all these naysayers started talking about it. Phil Flynn,
Speaker 2: who we talked to on this show regularly, was in
Speaker 2: the camp that tariffs don't add to inflation, it's the
Speaker 2: out of control government spending. Kevin o'lary from Shark Tank,
Speaker 2: Larry Kudlow from Fox Business, and Charles Paine, a lot
Speaker 2: of these people on Fox Business News and some of
Speaker 2: these other economists around the country actually supported the terroriffs.
Speaker 2: Mainstream media spoon fed regurgitators, Democrats all condemned it and
Speaker 2: so on. But it's interesting to see what has happened
Speaker 2: as a result of that in how people have looked
Speaker 2: at that. We had the GDP numbers that were above,
Speaker 2: way above expectations, and all of these things that have
Speaker 2: surprised all these people all along. There was an interview, well,
Speaker 2: the Bank of America CEO had an unexpected view on
Speaker 2: the economy, and this was an interview with who the
Speaker 2: heck was he talking to? Oh yeah, oh I should
Speaker 2: be surprised. In an interview with CBS News Faced the
Speaker 2: Nation with Margaret Brannan. Bryant moynihan, the chairman CEO actually
Speaker 2: CEO a Bank of America, had some very interesting things
Speaker 2: and we'll get into that coming up again. And I'm
Speaker 2: sure I didn't see the interview itself. I'm reading some
Speaker 2: of the transcripts of that. I'm sure that she was
Speaker 2: confused about that as well. I'm Kevin Gordon, america'struck in
Speaker 2: Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 5: News Traffic and Weather News Radio seven hundred wl W, Cincinnati.
Speaker 4: The Secretary of Defense responds to the Venezuelan attacks with
Speaker 4: your twelve thirty re parts. I'm Lee Mawin breaking now
Speaker 4: new information out about the Saturday morning attack that also
Speaker 4: resulted in the capturing of Nicholas Maduro.
Speaker 6: Secretary Pete Hegseth saying Maduro and his wife unaware of
Speaker 6: what was happening until minutes before.
Speaker 4: Nicholas Maduro got to meet Great America's very thank you
Speaker 4: you got three nights ago.
Speaker 2: He didn't know they were coming three minutes for the
Speaker 2: erav fact twice, I think I hear their craft Health.
Speaker 6: Hun those Special Operations Forces coming under heavy gunfire by
Speaker 6: maduro security grabbing Maduro and his wife as they headed
Speaker 6: for a safe room.
Speaker 4: ABC News Chief Global Affairs correspondent Bartha Raddits.
Speaker 5: Now the latest forecast from the Train Heating and Cooling
Speaker 5: Weather Center on news radio seven hundred WLWS.
Speaker 7: Remit to Tuesday morning. We're mostly cloudy morning, low of
Speaker 7: forty one degrees. Now for our Tuesday, we'll see the
Speaker 7: clouds hanging around. Little breezy in a chance of sprinkles,
Speaker 7: but a high of fifty six at night, still cloudy,
Speaker 7: a low down to forty and some more significant rain
Speaker 7: coming up on Thursday night. From your severe Weather station,
Speaker 7: I'm nine first Warning Chief Meteorologist Steve Rawley, News Radio
Speaker 7: seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4: Still nothing on the radar around the tri State. We're
Speaker 4: at forty one degrees. Later, Today's shareholder A Fifth Third
Speaker 4: Bang Corp. And Kamerica will vote on approving a ten
Speaker 4: point nine billion dollar acquisition deal. It's considered the largest
Speaker 4: for the Cincinnati company. The deal was initially agreed upon
Speaker 4: October fifth, and it's seen as a virtual lock for
Speaker 4: each side. The deal would make Fifth Third the ninth
Speaker 4: largest US based bank. Regulators still need to approve this deal.
Speaker 4: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency already said yes,
Speaker 4: we're writing on the Federal reserve boards.
Speaker 2: Go ahead.
Speaker 4: Fifth third CEO Tim Spence told analysts and investors this
Speaker 4: deal should be finalized in the first quarter of twenty
Speaker 4: twenty six, that ends March thirty. First your next updates
Speaker 4: up one. I'mley Mawen. Who's Radio seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 5: The free iHeartRadio app is the number one app for radio.
Speaker 1: One tap gets you the most live radio stations from
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Speaker 8: Here's your trucking forecast for the tri State and the
Speaker 8: rest of the country. In the Try State, Overnight mostly claudy,
Speaker 8: the low only down to forty cloudy Tuesday, with a
Speaker 8: slight chance of morning ra highs in the upper fifties. Wednesday,
Speaker 8: mostly cloudy, sky's early gradually clear, becoming sunny, a high
Speaker 8: a fifty four. Mostly cloudy Thursday with a chance of
Speaker 8: afternoon rain be high year sixty. Nationally out west, heavy
Speaker 8: snow being seen over parts of the Cascades, Northern inter
Speaker 8: Mountain Region, and the Northern Rockies, as monerate to heavy
Speaker 8: snow is seen over the northeast Meanwhile, freezing rain possible
Speaker 8: from the upper Mississippi Valley into the northeast.
Speaker 2: Seven hundred W lw IM Kevin Gordon. This is America's
Speaker 2: struck a network, America's trucking network supports a mission and
Speaker 2: Reese across America. You can hear us every truck and
Speaker 2: Tuesday at five am and ten am Eastern on Reese
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Speaker 2: Talking about this story, Bank of America CEO drops unexpected
Speaker 2: view on the economy. Now, all of a sudden, these
Speaker 2: people are coming out of the woodwork. And you know
Speaker 2: they've been very critical of the administration, very critical or
Speaker 2: maybe sitting on the sidelines, not saying anything, not quite
Speaker 2: sure where to go. Well again, now all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: these people are coming out and it's a surprise to
Speaker 2: some of these people. And I'm sure, Margaret Brennan not
Speaker 2: only was she confused by Marco Rubio and what the
Speaker 2: administration did down in Venezuela. I'm sure back on when
Speaker 2: when was this December the twenty sixth, No, no, no,
Speaker 2: when was this anyway the Sunday before or whatever. Towards
Speaker 2: the end of the year heading into twenty twenty six,
Speaker 2: had an interview with the CEO, Brian moynihan, and I'm
Speaker 2: sure she was confused by that as well. And it's
Speaker 2: no secret tariffs, trade wars, and recession chatter have died
Speaker 2: dominated the economic conversation over the past year heading into
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six, though Bank of America CEO isn't buying
Speaker 2: into the panic welcome aboard. You know. Let's see going
Speaker 2: back to January the twentieth, with the economic policy that
Speaker 2: the Trump administration was putting into place, then with Liberation
Speaker 2: Day on April the second, and one of the people
Speaker 2: that was saying back then that hey, by the end
Speaker 2: of the year, although these experts, the Federal Reserve and
Speaker 2: all these people were saying that the gross domestic product,
Speaker 2: which is summation of all the goods and services, we
Speaker 2: might hit one point eight percent growth compared to the
Speaker 2: two point four percent in the fourth quarter of the
Speaker 2: Biden administration, and back then in April, I said that
Speaker 2: by the end of the year, our inflation rate would
Speaker 2: be now I said at the time would be down
Speaker 2: to two percent, which is at two point seven percent.
Speaker 2: I also said that the gross domestic product would be
Speaker 2: somewhere between four point five and five percent. Now, we
Speaker 2: haven't gotten the fourth quarter numbers yet, but we did
Speaker 2: get the third quarter numbers, and it was at four
Speaker 2: point three percent growth, certainly not one point eight that
Speaker 2: was being predicted. So we have been way ahead of
Speaker 2: the curve on this, and now late to the game. Brian, jeez,
Speaker 2: he's not buying into the panic, the panic that everybody
Speaker 2: was buying into back in April. So eight months later,
Speaker 2: he's not gonna buy into the panic. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: So anyway, the predictions of this, and I wonder, and
Speaker 2: I've made this comment too that looking at the gross
Speaker 2: domestic product of four point three percent, that was smack
Speaker 2: dab in the middle of the Schumer shut down, forty
Speaker 2: three days of where the military and the air traffic
Speaker 2: controllers and many employees of the federal government weren't getting
Speaker 2: their paychecks. Even though some of them were still required
Speaker 2: to go to work, they weren't getting their paychecks. And
Speaker 2: if you're not getting paychecks, chances are you're not out
Speaker 2: spending a lot of money. Chances are you're not buying things,
Speaker 2: and so that affects the gross domestic product. I'm going
Speaker 2: to I'd be curious, and I've not seen anybody talk
Speaker 2: about this. I may have to do a little digging
Speaker 2: to see what the effects of the Schumer shutdown in
Speaker 2: that forty three days was on the GDP. But we'll
Speaker 2: certainly see in the fourth quarter what that number is.
Speaker 2: But anyway, getting back to this heading into twenty twenty six,
Speaker 2: so Bank of America CEO isn't buying into the panic.
Speaker 2: In an interview with CBS News Face the Nation with
Speaker 2: Margaret Brennan, Brian moynihan made much quieter contrarian argument that
Speaker 2: the tariff induced shock englfing the markets last year is
Speaker 2: moving toward an end point four perspective. As of December
Speaker 2: the twenty sixth, and we talked about this last week.
Speaker 2: At the end of the year, Nasdak composite had surged
Speaker 2: twenty two point two percent year to date. That is
Speaker 2: taking into consideration the twelve percent of thirteen percent dip
Speaker 2: as of April the second, so not only did they
Speaker 2: make that up, but then surged ahead twenty two point
Speaker 2: two percent By the end of the year. S and
Speaker 2: P five hundred was up seventeen point nine and the
Speaker 2: Dow is up over fourteen point five, contrary to what's
Speaker 2: being making the rounds. More and a Hand believes the
Speaker 2: terraff situation is starting to settle down. He feels that
Speaker 2: once the dust settles around where the rates end up,
Speaker 2: landing businesses will adapt swiftly, cost will be cost will
Speaker 2: get priced in, and supply chains will adjust. Moreover. More
Speaker 2: and Ahan also points to steady consumer spending, ongoing wage expansion,
Speaker 2: and the loosening labor market that's far far from broken,
Speaker 2: far from broken, not weak. Like lyon Jerry Powell has
Speaker 2: been talking about the week week labor market. All these
Speaker 2: so called economists talking about the week labor market. And again,
Speaker 2: let me remind I love this. Okay. This is a
Speaker 2: definition by Lawrence J. Peter. He is a academy from
Speaker 2: a professor from up in Canada, and he came up
Speaker 2: with the Peter principle. Basically, people rise in business, they
Speaker 2: rise to their level of incompetence. And I'm sure anybody's
Speaker 2: been involved in corporate America, you see that on a
Speaker 2: large scale where you know, it's just amazing that that
Speaker 2: people advance. And there's a theory behind that. We won't
Speaker 2: get into that now, but he defined an economists. Economist
Speaker 2: is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things
Speaker 2: he addicted yesterday didn't happen today. So again, economists always
Speaker 2: looking in the rearview mirror, trying to explain why stuff
Speaker 2: they predicted didn't happen. But they're they're great at telling
Speaker 2: you why it didn't happen after it didn't happen. But again,
Speaker 2: I love to be well, you know, if they were listening,
Speaker 2: America struck a network again, you know, eight months ago,
Speaker 2: be so far ahead of the curve, don't even see
Speaker 2: your tail lights. Let's see morning hand points city city
Speaker 2: consumer spending and the labor market is far from broken.
Speaker 2: Even the Federal Reserve, he suggests, matters a lot less
Speaker 2: than mister market thinks. Okay, again, the consumers. Now, I
Speaker 2: disagree with that to a certain extent, because if you
Speaker 2: talk about the Federal Reserve and them involved in interest
Speaker 2: rates and how what they do at the federal reserve
Speaker 2: level on those interest rates to the individual banks, that
Speaker 2: event filters through to our credit cards, into our car loans,
Speaker 2: truck loans, business expansion loans, mortgages, and so on. So again,
Speaker 2: the focus on the federal reserve because of interest rate cuts,
Speaker 2: I think is a lot more important to the people
Speaker 2: on the street than it would be to say, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, CEO of Bank of America. Again, good comments
Speaker 2: he had, but I think he missed the mark a
Speaker 2: little bit as far as the Federal Reserve talking about that.
Speaker 2: We're too fixated with what the what the Federal Reserve
Speaker 2: is doing. Uh, Labor and consumer matters more than consumer.
Speaker 2: Labor and consumers matter more than terriffs right now, according
Speaker 2: to moynihan. Moinnan is clear that the real economic wildcard
Speaker 2: sits elsewhere, with the big uncertainty for business currently being
Speaker 2: labor and not trade policy. He notes that for small
Speaker 2: and mid sized businesses, the real challenge is figuring out
Speaker 2: whether they can hire and retain workers. That means hire
Speaker 2: and retain workers, can they afford it because of interest rates?
Speaker 2: If they tried to expand labor availability, which is often
Speaker 2: linked to immigration policy. Clarity continues getting tougher to plan around.
Speaker 2: You know, when you look at the population out there,
Speaker 2: when you look at the labor participation rate, there is
Speaker 2: a lot of room there. There are people that are
Speaker 2: out of the labor market that should be in the
Speaker 2: labor market. But because there are certain subsidies, because there
Speaker 2: are certain benefits to being out of the labor market,
Speaker 2: if some of those were tightened a bit, you might
Speaker 2: get people coming back into the labor market. Point a
Speaker 2: hand points consumer spending through late November with the again
Speaker 2: the healthy four to five December was up four to
Speaker 2: five percent, and that's consumer spending. On top of that,
Speaker 2: the early season read data now shows it Visas estimating
Speaker 2: holiday retail spending was up four point two percent from
Speaker 2: November until December. Talking about the job growth and talking
Speaker 2: about out other things, he again he talks about the
Speaker 2: strength of the American economy, and I think again Margaret
Speaker 2: Brennan was probably shocked by that, because, as I've been
Speaker 2: saying a long time, the spoon fed rec urgitators in
Speaker 2: the mainstream media have been doing everything they can do
Speaker 2: to talk down the economy, and in my opinion, manufacturer
Speaker 2: recession holiday sales, we'll tell me talking about those coming up.
Speaker 2: I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Truck and Network seven hundred W Lwright.
Speaker 1: News Radio seven hundred WLW, and iHeartRadio Station Guaranteed Human
Speaker 1: seven hundred WLW, HI.
Speaker 2: Heard Radio, Progressive Commercial Insurance, protext truck owners with specialized
Speaker 2: coverages for heavy trucks, and sure it com be LW.
Speaker 2: I'm Kevin Gordon. I have been looking for these numbers
Speaker 2: for a long long time. You know, usually you will
Speaker 2: see numbers coming out well a couple two three days,
Speaker 2: you know, in between Christmas and New Year, because they
Speaker 2: have the visa sales, they have the store sales and
Speaker 2: all kinds of other metrics that they can look at
Speaker 2: and come up with numbers. Didn't see any of that
Speaker 2: last week, and some of that is now starting to
Speaker 2: trickle in. And I wonder if because we had such
Speaker 2: kind of a strange As I explained last week, it
Speaker 2: was kind of a strange situation as far as our
Speaker 2: working habits or whatever. With that holiday being on Thursday.
Speaker 2: It's like people didn't know what to do with Friday.
Speaker 2: Should they take off for one day?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 2: Again, you know, I go I was talking last week
Speaker 2: about how you know when you have a holiday like
Speaker 2: the fourth of July or something like that Independence Day,
Speaker 2: I should say, happens like on a Wednesday. So you
Speaker 2: have the Monday and Tuesday, you go to work, and
Speaker 2: then you're off on Wednesday, and then you come back Thursday,
Speaker 2: and it feels like a second Monday during the week. Well,
Speaker 2: with the holiday, with being on a Thursday, people were
Speaker 2: taking a half day off on Wednesday, and a lot
Speaker 2: of instances took off that Thursday and pretty much took
Speaker 2: off that Friday, and then you had that short week
Speaker 2: the following week for New Year's and some people were in,
Speaker 2: some people were out. I noticed that in our office
Speaker 2: here at the station, a lot of people. You know,
Speaker 2: if you don't if you don't use it, you lose it.
Speaker 2: As far as their vacation time, the final week, there
Speaker 2: was a very scattered few people in the office because
Speaker 2: a lot of people were getting squeezing in their last
Speaker 2: few days of vacation time. So a lot of other
Speaker 2: companies and a lot of people I tried to talk
Speaker 2: to or call on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday of
Speaker 2: last week to try to schedule interviews or to try
Speaker 2: to get some information. A lot of them were out
Speaker 2: of the office and they said, well, I won't be
Speaker 2: back in the office until you know, January of the
Speaker 2: fifth or whatever. I'm like, my goodness, nice to have
Speaker 2: a type of a business that you can shut down
Speaker 2: for a week. Some people that was very shocked at
Speaker 2: a couple of businesses that were actually very off during
Speaker 2: that period of time. So again, people getting back, and
Speaker 2: I'm wondering if the people that put together these numbers
Speaker 2: were slow to get them together. But one I did
Speaker 2: see from AYBC News, holiday shopping season sets forth the
Speaker 2: annual gut check for the US economy, prompting buyers to
Speaker 2: splurge in a show of optimism or cut back out
Speaker 2: of fear of what the next year holds. In twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five, shoppers open their wallets with gusto, though consumers
Speaker 2: appeared to favor low cost options and discounts, according to
Speaker 2: spending data shared with ABC News. Now, you know I've
Speaker 2: seen you know, every year, you'll see these stories where
Speaker 2: people are saying that, well, you know, what, what are
Speaker 2: you going to be spending on Christmas this year? Kind
Speaker 2: of the man on the street thing. And almost every
Speaker 2: year I'm pretty shocked by that, because when you hear
Speaker 2: the number, you're a little shocked at that. But then
Speaker 2: when you sit back and you think about it, well,
Speaker 2: let me see, we've got the grandkids, we got the kids,
Speaker 2: we've got this, and you start adding that all up
Speaker 2: and you go, oh, yeah, that's probably where they came
Speaker 2: up with that money. But what you you know, when
Speaker 2: you're thinking about it in increments of you know, you
Speaker 2: buy this gift, and you buy this gift and buy
Speaker 2: this gift, you know pretty much it adds up. But
Speaker 2: when somebody says, well, I think I'm going to be
Speaker 2: spending X and such dollars. Now, what really floors me
Speaker 2: is when they will make a comment like, well, I've
Speaker 2: got five people, six people to buy for, and I
Speaker 2: think I'm going to spend five hundred dollars each on
Speaker 2: each one of them. And it's like, whoa, it's a
Speaker 2: little excessive there. And I see some of these things
Speaker 2: on YouTube or whatever where people are just you know,
Speaker 2: thirty gifts under the Christmas tree for like each kid.
Speaker 2: So imagine at that time, I think they had like
Speaker 2: a family of three, so that was incredible. But anyway,
Speaker 2: holiday shopping, people, sports but again, you know, I guess
Speaker 2: maybe because I've always been this way. In the first place,
Speaker 2: I'm frugal, I don't I'm not an impulse buyer. I
Speaker 2: look at things, I look at the value. I compare.
Speaker 2: I say, okay, if this if this item is you know,
Speaker 2: X and such a price, and this item over here
Speaker 2: is half the price. Is this item that you're getting?
Speaker 2: And of course, you know, you go on and you
Speaker 2: do customer reviews, and you look at them and you think, okay,
Speaker 2: what's the what's the benefit? Which one gets a four
Speaker 2: star rating or whatever the rating is, and you look
Speaker 2: at it and you say, well, okay, this item here
Speaker 2: is that's expensive, is good, but is it twice as
Speaker 2: good as this item here? And a lot of times
Speaker 2: it fails in comparison with that. And so buying the
Speaker 2: thing that is a little is less money. Then freeze
Speaker 2: up more money so you can spend on other things.
Speaker 2: And it's it's a game. I mean, you know, you
Speaker 2: look at the trends and you look at what's in,
Speaker 2: what's out, or what's the hottest thing. There was a
Speaker 2: story last week that when I was on our sister station,
Speaker 2: I was talking about some of the dumbest things people
Speaker 2: spend money on. And you know, I mean, I'm not
Speaker 2: it's dumb money. But if you can afford it, fine.
Speaker 2: But when the latest and greatest new gadgets come out,
Speaker 2: some people just have to have that latest iPhone, they
Speaker 2: have to have that latest piece of electronic equipment, they
Speaker 2: have to have that latest game box or whatever. And
Speaker 2: when you look at it from that standpoint, it's like,
Speaker 2: you know, is it is it really that much better?
Speaker 6: Is it?
Speaker 2: Does it do that much more? And we start seeing
Speaker 2: people what I guess what I'm getting at is value shopping,
Speaker 2: taking a step back and saying, you know, do I
Speaker 2: want to do this. I've talked about this as far
Speaker 2: as our grocery, you know, grocery shopping. And oh, by
Speaker 2: the way, the Gordon household did hit that threshold. I
Speaker 2: mentioned several times that you know, in the years past,
Speaker 2: I've always tried to with our family that my wife
Speaker 2: and I have a family of two, although we are
Speaker 2: pretty much a family of three because I'm I'm a
Speaker 2: big eater. But anyway, so trying to save about one
Speaker 2: hundred dollars a month in terms of groceries, looking at
Speaker 2: the flyers, the circulars that come out at the beginning
Speaker 2: of the week, pick and choose what items is going
Speaker 2: to buy. Not cheap stuff, but you know, very tasty stuff.
Speaker 2: And I'm surprised that we've been able to save as
Speaker 2: much money because we have switched over the last couple
Speaker 2: of years to more organic stuff and stuff that doesn't
Speaker 2: have all the preservatives in it, and that food is
Speaker 2: generally a little bit higher. But in terms of wanting
Speaker 2: to save one hundred dollars a month, in terms of
Speaker 2: our groceries last month last year, we hit a period
Speaker 2: because I added up a couple of the things from
Speaker 2: the different retailers that we shop at. We saved over
Speaker 2: twenty four hundred dollars in groceries last week simply by
Speaker 2: using the coupons, simply by buying the buy one, get
Speaker 2: one freeze, buying things like I keep talking about the
Speaker 2: call I drink sales normally sells on the shelf, you
Speaker 2: just walk in and pick it up about fifteen bucks
Speaker 2: a canister, and yet if you get it when it's
Speaker 2: on sale, it's about ten bucks. And I've actually got
Speaker 2: it for about nine bucks at times. So again, hitting
Speaker 2: those things when they're on sale is you can save
Speaker 2: a lot of money. And we've talked about I mentioned
Speaker 2: this on this program, where people will go in and
Speaker 2: it's almost like how fast can you get in and
Speaker 2: get out of the grocery store? And coming down the aisle,
Speaker 2: it's like grab here, grab there, grab here, grab there.
Speaker 2: And you know, if you're that type. And again I've
Speaker 2: mentioned several times that if you're looking if you're going
Speaker 2: down the grocery, just for fun, just look at the
Speaker 2: different grocery. If you're looking at something eye level, look
Speaker 2: at the tag and it'll tell you how many cents
Speaker 2: per ounce or whatever the container is. Look at the
Speaker 2: shelf below that or above that, and see the difference
Speaker 2: in price. And it's amazing the difference in price per ounce.
Speaker 2: So you're the figure that you're going to be looking
Speaker 2: at stuff eye level, and so that's what you're going
Speaker 2: to grab first. But if you go down to the
Speaker 2: next level, or even a couple of shells down, you'll
Speaker 2: find a lot the same item, same a better price. Anyway,
Speaker 2: they talk here about value shopping. What people were doing holiday.
Speaker 2: Let me see, let's get back in here again. Performance
Speaker 2: defied concerns overhanging the economy for months as hiring slow
Speaker 2: and inflation ticked higher, seeming the underterred undeterred shoppers flex
Speaker 2: their's strength at the close of the year, offering some
Speaker 2: reassurance that the wider economy. Consumer spending accounts for about
Speaker 2: two thirds of the American economy. Holiday sales climbed three
Speaker 2: point nine percent compared to last year, according to MasterCard.
Speaker 2: Let's see digital spending on Thanksgiving jumped five percent from
Speaker 2: the year earlier, totaling six point four billion and exceeding
Speaker 2: exceeding expectations. There's that phrase again, exceeding expectations. According to
Speaker 2: Adobe Analytics, on Black Friday, shoppers top the previous day's
Speaker 2: pace and spending sword about nine percent compared to twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four, adding up to eleven point eight billion dollars.
Speaker 2: And then so on. For instance, they and then they
Speaker 2: talk about in the resurgence of thrift shops or off
Speaker 2: price retailers, how well they did and some of the
Speaker 2: other other retailers, et cetera. So interesting retail sales. I'm
Speaker 2: sure more will matriculate in through or trickle in through
Speaker 2: the next couple of days. But well, folks, that does
Speaker 2: it for us. Stay tuned for red Eye Radio. We're
Speaker 2: up against the hour here. Stay tuned for red Eye Radio.
Speaker 2: I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck in Network. Seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 5: News Traffic and Weather. News Radio seven hundred WLW Cincinnati Morning.
Speaker 2: More on the attack again