Speaker 1: This is America's Truck and Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2: Welcome aboard, Thanks for tuning in on this Wednesday morning
Speaker 2: America's Truck and Network, the show that is the exception
Speaker 2: to the rule that nothing good happens after midnight. By
Speaker 2: the way, this came up the other day, my wife
Speaker 2: and I were talking. We were watching a couple of shows,
Speaker 2: and you know, at the beginning of the show, the
Speaker 2: host will say something like, We've got a really great
Speaker 2: show for you today and all this, and I'm thinking, well,
Speaker 2: what was yesterday's show or you know, was that you know,
Speaker 2: kind of a whole home show. At least you'll never
Speaker 2: hear that on this program, because after all, it just
Speaker 2: goes without saying, we're getting all This is kind of
Speaker 2: one of the most confusing weeks I've seen as far
Speaker 2: as news cycle, as far as what's going on in
Speaker 2: the trucking industry, what we're hearing, what we're seeing, what's
Speaker 2: going on. We're hearing reports that for months now. I mean,
Speaker 2: you had all this conversation and I've had conversations with
Speaker 2: you folks at the American at the Mid America Trucking
Speaker 2: Show about over capacity, the driver shortage, and back and
Speaker 2: forth that way, and a lot of people for years
Speaker 2: have been saying there is no such thing as a
Speaker 2: driver shortage. The key is having qualified drivers, having people
Speaker 2: that follow the rules, and we've seen that as a
Speaker 2: result of that, there have been things put in place
Speaker 2: because the scenario, or the political line, or what everybody's
Speaker 2: been pointing at with this driver shortage is that this force.
Speaker 2: When you have a shortage of something and you try
Speaker 2: to fix it, you have to do certain things in
Speaker 2: order to fix it. And what one of the things
Speaker 2: was is what's led to the illegals, the lack of training,
Speaker 2: the significant training of people out on the highway, illegals
Speaker 2: with expired visas actually on the road. Lack of enforcing
Speaker 2: the English language proficiency. Now what we're seeing with the
Speaker 2: enforcement of that and the revocation of those CDLs, all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, everybody is talking about that. Oh well,
Speaker 2: now we know the overcapacity is shrinking and that could
Speaker 2: be a problem as well. Well, it's either one or
Speaker 2: the other. Either you have too many drivers or you
Speaker 2: don't have enough drivers. And if you don't have enough
Speaker 2: drive let's back up a second. Okay, let's use some
Speaker 2: common sense here, all right, if there's a lack of
Speaker 2: if there was a lack of shortage or a lack
Speaker 2: of drivers and a driver shortage, that would mean that
Speaker 2: there's not enough drivers to drive the trucks because of
Speaker 2: the volume that there is in the industry, and that
Speaker 2: shelves would be empty. Certain things aren't getting delivered. Stuff
Speaker 2: is backing up on either the docks coming in from
Speaker 2: the imports or at warehouses, or orders are not being
Speaker 2: filled because there's nobody on the road. We haven't heard
Speaker 2: any of that. There has been plenty with the exception
Speaker 2: of the pandemic obviously, when a lot of businesses were
Speaker 2: shut down, factories were closed, and of course nothing was moving.
Speaker 2: That which was moving, the only way that it was
Speaker 2: moving was by the trucking industry and the heroes that
Speaker 2: you all, we're out there all of a sudden, once
Speaker 2: the pandemic was over, it's just back to normal. It's
Speaker 2: just like, oh, you know, they're just truck drivers, you know,
Speaker 2: not very important. It's just the truck drivers. And so
Speaker 2: now the focus is on when we've seen when there
Speaker 2: are bad drivers out there and those lead to accidents,
Speaker 2: and people dig into that and say that, well, these
Speaker 2: people were unqualified, they shouldn't have been there in the
Speaker 2: first place. Then all of a sudden, the focus goes
Speaker 2: on that, and then start people start talking about what
Speaker 2: we need trained truck drivers out there and people that
Speaker 2: are adequately schooled and capacity tests, which you guys have
Speaker 2: been screaming for for years, but now we're starting to
Speaker 2: hear that the capacity is shrinking, when in fact we're
Speaker 2: talking about whether or not. Again, we're not talking about
Speaker 2: anybody saying that stuff isn't getting delivered. There aren't you know,
Speaker 2: this stuff is stacking up the warehouse. So we've got
Speaker 2: that dynamic going on. We got some numbers yesterday on
Speaker 2: us manufacturing, and on the one hand, the people that
Speaker 2: write the report are saying one thing, and the people
Speaker 2: that are interpreting the report are saying another. We're hearing
Speaker 2: stuff about companies starting to lay people off, and I
Speaker 2: find it interesting that when and the companies we mentioned yesterday,
Speaker 2: and we've got more details on that, and of course
Speaker 2: it'll come up because there's a couple of other companies
Speaker 2: that have been added to the list, and they're included
Speaker 2: in what we talked about yesterday. When you look at
Speaker 2: Amazon and ups, all right, they're talking about layoffs there,
Speaker 2: and in Amazon's case, they're doing more automation. Well, that
Speaker 2: isn't affected by tariffs. If you're moving goods and you're
Speaker 2: moving supplies, you're moving packages from one end of the
Speaker 2: country to the other, that isn't involved in tariffs. So
Speaker 2: people trying to blame any layoffs as opposed with Amazon
Speaker 2: having to do with tariffs or any of those pressures
Speaker 2: there again is unwarranted. But we also saw with Amazon
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago, weren't they at the forefront
Speaker 2: of we are now boosting our employees. We have increased
Speaker 2: their salaries from twelve dollars or whatever up to twenty
Speaker 2: dollars an hour, and we're going to start paying for vacation,
Speaker 2: and we're going to we're gonna be having benefits and
Speaker 2: all this sort of stuff. Well, now all of a
Speaker 2: sudden they're laying people off. Did they not have the
Speaker 2: business plan to look forward and say, gee whiz, if
Speaker 2: we based on our volume based on the number of
Speaker 2: packages that we are delivered, bring on a regular basis,
Speaker 2: based on what we forecast the number of packages that
Speaker 2: we're going to be doing, we need x number of employees.
Speaker 2: Did they not factor in the fact that if you
Speaker 2: raise people's salary, that's going to cut into your profitability,
Speaker 2: which Amazon's not hurting as far as profit is concerned.
Speaker 2: But now all of a sudden, they're starting to lay
Speaker 2: people off and they want to find some reason to
Speaker 2: blame it, and they're trying to blame it on the
Speaker 2: soft economy, or they're trying to blame it on tariffs,
Speaker 2: or how about blaming it on yourselves by over promising
Speaker 2: and underproducing in terms of what you're doing. UPS mentioning
Speaker 2: that they were going to be laying off some of
Speaker 2: their employees, that they were going to actually not laying
Speaker 2: them off, because layoffs indicate that you're bringing them back,
Speaker 2: but firing and eliminating certain positions. Wasn't it just two
Speaker 2: years ago that UPS signed that big contract with their
Speaker 2: employees about a year and a half ago, I guess,
Speaker 2: and took their out they were Now the truck drivers
Speaker 2: for UPS are making one hundred and seventy five thousand
Speaker 2: dollars a year. Now. I'm not begrudging anybody getting what
Speaker 2: they can, but if you're overpricing yourself out of a
Speaker 2: out of a job and the benefit that that job
Speaker 2: provides to that employer isn't enough to cover the cost.
Speaker 2: I mean, you've got to be able to produce a
Speaker 2: certain number of items, and that certain number of items
Speaker 2: has at retail has to then cover the cost of
Speaker 2: keeping the lights on, of keeping the process moving, keeping
Speaker 2: the trucks maintained, keeping the warehousing up and going, and
Speaker 2: making sure that the renovations and maintenance that needs to
Speaker 2: go on these facilities, and also pay your employees, and
Speaker 2: so that in order to turn a profit, you have
Speaker 2: to sell or you have to produce or deliver enough
Speaker 2: package to cover all those expenses. And if you're going
Speaker 2: to go out and raise your people's salary and under
Speaker 2: this contract by ten percent every year for the next
Speaker 2: six years, at some point in time you're looking at
Speaker 2: that and your profitability isn't as much as it was.
Speaker 2: And now these people are being laid off and they
Speaker 2: want to blame it on the economy. See, these are
Speaker 2: the things that when you dig into the numbers, when
Speaker 2: you understand the numbers and you remember what they've done
Speaker 2: in the past that got them into this position, a
Speaker 2: lot of their arguments that they're using just don't fly.
Speaker 2: I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1: I need this is the Braething reward on America's Trucking
Speaker 1: Network on seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 3: There is a possibility that Britney Forrest takes our last
Speaker 3: ride at a top field dranks. They are two weeks
Speaker 3: from now at the In and Out Burger and HRI
Speaker 3: Finals in Pomota, California. But regardless of what happens at
Speaker 3: our home track, Force can walk away secure in the
Speaker 3: knowledge that she's earned her place among Nitro Racing's all
Speaker 3: time greats. Force won't win a third championship this season,
Speaker 3: but she doesn't need to. With her win in Las Vegas,
Speaker 3: she is now nineteen career victories and has passed Shirley
Speaker 3: Muldowndy as the sports winning as female top fuel racer.
Speaker 3: Brian Barnhart and Kyle Sagan have left Arrow McLaren Racing
Speaker 3: for Ray Hall Letterman Landing and Racing. Barnhart the former
Speaker 3: IndyCar executive who worked underfellow former IndyCar president Jay Frye
Speaker 3: before departing for Harding Racing Andretti Global, and Arrow McLaren
Speaker 3: reunites with fry at RLLL and has been named the
Speaker 3: team's senior VP of Operations. Barnhart will also serve as
Speaker 3: Graham Ray race strategists in the number fifteen Honda. Along
Speaker 3: with Barnhart, the Arrow McLaren team also lost Sagan, who
Speaker 3: will act as rlll's pit stop manager.
Speaker 1: Need This is the racing reward on America's Trucking Network
Speaker 1: on seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 3: Say Dennison reporting for a t and the stock market
Speaker 3: goes up, you make money.
Speaker 2: I'm Kevin Board in America instruct a Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 2: Previous segment, We're talking about how businesses are starting to
Speaker 2: react and we're starting to see a certain number of layoffs,
Speaker 2: and they're trying to blame it on one thing, when
Speaker 2: in fact it probably has a result of something else.
Speaker 2: I'm also hearing a lot of people on certain shows
Speaker 2: starting to talk about inflation, starting to talk about inflation.
Speaker 2: I mean, where were you people back in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: one when Biden took office in twenty twenty one, because
Speaker 2: he started shutting down production of US oil, starting to
Speaker 2: not cancel the oil permitting and the sales of the leases,
Speaker 2: which by the way, were authorized and regulated and done
Speaker 2: by ordered by Congress, and so the Administrative Office, the
Speaker 2: executive branch, ignored the law and said, we're not going
Speaker 2: to do this. And where was the constitutional crisis at
Speaker 2: that point that when something was ordered and you're not
Speaker 2: doing it and you're not following it, where is the
Speaker 2: threat to democracy with that kind of talk. Okay, so
Speaker 2: you start canceling oil leases, you know, stop drilling in
Speaker 2: the in the golf and some of these just take
Speaker 2: Alaska off the table, and gas prices and oil prices
Speaker 2: went up dramatically. Gas prices went up almost a dollar
Speaker 2: a gallon within the first year. Then in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: in February, Russia invaded Ukraine and gas went up another
Speaker 2: dollar twenty five So between the two years, within a
Speaker 2: two year period of time, gas had gone up almost
Speaker 2: two dollars and fifty cents, two dollars and twenty five cents,
Speaker 2: to the point where in June of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: across the board, you know, the average gas across the
Speaker 2: United States was over five dollars a gallon. Today that
Speaker 2: number is three dollars and five cents. So we've gone
Speaker 2: from almost over five dollars a gall was five dollars
Speaker 2: and two cents on June the fourteenth of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: to the point now we're at three dollars and five
Speaker 2: cents nationwide, So gas prices have come down a full
Speaker 2: two dollars. Nobody's talking about that dramatic change, but nobody
Speaker 2: was talking about how dramatically increased it was. And we
Speaker 2: had inflation at nine point one percent in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: We had more inflation in twenty twenty three, and then
Speaker 2: all of a sudden in twenty twenty four, and then
Speaker 2: at the end of twenty twenty four and beginning of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, and for the most of this year,
Speaker 2: we are hearing about prices going up. I started hearing.
Speaker 2: I mean, people were talking about, oh, you know, the
Speaker 2: price of eggs. All right, well, let's look at the
Speaker 2: price of eggs. That has nothing to do with taris,
Speaker 2: That has nothing to do with the economic policy of
Speaker 2: the Trump administration. Has everything to do with the bird flu.
Speaker 2: And the bird flu if it's going in, it's killing
Speaker 2: a flock. You know. I guess people, you know, you know,
Speaker 2: the settled maybe maybe the chicken and eggs science hasn't
Speaker 2: been settled. You know, if you don't have chickens, you're
Speaker 2: not going to have eggs. So I guess the thing
Speaker 2: is is you know what comes first, the chicken or
Speaker 2: the egg. All right, So if there's a less supply
Speaker 2: of eggs, of course the price is going to go up.
Speaker 2: Now that the flocks are coming back, those prices are
Speaker 2: coming down, we start I'm hearing more and more people
Speaker 2: talk about the price of beef. Well, if you've got
Speaker 2: herds that are down in the in the range of
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty one, when the size of the herds were
Speaker 2: that for the population that we had at the time,
Speaker 2: and we pretty much doubled that doubled that pop population
Speaker 2: in that period of time. And now all of a
Speaker 2: sudden we have the same number of herds, and you
Speaker 2: have drought in certain areas and you don't have enough count.
Speaker 2: Of course this price is going to go off. Where's
Speaker 2: that have to do anything with a terrace? Then when
Speaker 2: I start hearing people talking about certain things in terms
Speaker 2: of well, you know, prices are going out of control,
Speaker 2: and the prices are high and all this sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, site examples. Let's look at each one
Speaker 2: of these individual items, item by item. Instead of just
Speaker 2: saying across the board. Now, maybe you know, maybe I'm
Speaker 2: in a bubble here, maybe maybe I am not well.
Speaker 2: I know, I'm not the typical consumer. I'm not the
Speaker 2: first one in line to get the latest and greatest
Speaker 2: electronic item. I'm not the first one in line to
Speaker 2: see the latest movie that was premiered. So I am
Speaker 2: kind of a steady consumer. I know what I like.
Speaker 2: I know the things that I like to eat. I
Speaker 2: know the food that I like to get. I know
Speaker 2: the food that my wife and I we prefer, and
Speaker 2: the food that we prepare here when we well at
Speaker 2: the house. That what we buy. And so I am
Speaker 2: focused on what we buy on a regular basis. Where
Speaker 2: I buy my clothes, where I brought buy my shoes,
Speaker 2: all these kinds of things. And quite honestly, I am
Speaker 2: not seeing the inflation that a lot of people are
Speaker 2: talking about now. If you're talking about a refrigerator, if
Speaker 2: you're talking about a stereo, if you're talking about some
Speaker 2: of this other equipment, but if you've got you're not
Speaker 2: out buying appliances every day. And every time I've ever
Speaker 2: had to buy a refrigerator, I am I have sticker
Speaker 2: shocked by it. Because if you've bought the refrigerator ten
Speaker 2: years ago, and now you're back in the market buying
Speaker 2: a refrigerator. It's going to be a shock. And so
Speaker 2: when you see these items and people talk about that,
Speaker 2: is it stick or shocked from when they first purchased it.
Speaker 2: Now there has been increases in terms as a result
Speaker 2: of terrorists having to do with items coming in from
Speaker 2: Asia and so on. That's been affected in the in
Speaker 2: the furniture, been affected in electronics and those types of things.
Speaker 2: But overall, when you look at the inflation, at least
Speaker 2: the inflation that I'm seeing on what we're buying here
Speaker 2: in this area. Now, if inflation is out of control,
Speaker 2: one of the first things you start seeing is people
Speaker 2: not spending, people holding back, and especially if it has
Speaker 2: to do with some sort of a an item that's
Speaker 2: not a necessity. You know, obviously, if it's a necessity,
Speaker 2: you're gonna have to buy it, You're gonna have to
Speaker 2: pay for it no matter what. But when you see
Speaker 2: the luxury items, when you see things, you know, when
Speaker 2: they talk about disposable income, what people spend their money
Speaker 2: on at that point, then you look at those prices
Speaker 2: and if those aren't to your satisfaction, you just don't
Speaker 2: spend it. And what we saw at the end of
Speaker 2: the pandemic you may recall, is that people had had
Speaker 2: this pent up desire, this pent up anticipation, wanting to
Speaker 2: get out and about. They had been stuck at home.
Speaker 2: They were buying stuff having it delivered to the house.
Speaker 2: They were spending money at the big box stores, improving
Speaker 2: their homes, and so those prices went up. Remember, lumber
Speaker 2: started going up. All the stuff that you would use
Speaker 2: to renovate your house, all those prices came up. Why
Speaker 2: because there were stimulus checks coming in. Some people were
Speaker 2: still working, they were working from home, so they had
Speaker 2: this additional income. The fact that they were going to
Speaker 2: be stuck at home, they wanted to improve their living conditions,
Speaker 2: so they did some renovations around the house. But as
Speaker 2: a result of that, you started seeing some of those
Speaker 2: items creep up. Because when you've got more dollars going
Speaker 2: after the same items, aren't raising those prices. I didn't
Speaker 2: hear anybody complaining about They would say, oh wow, did
Speaker 2: you see the price of lumber, and then move on.
Speaker 2: It wasn't like they were fixating. Was my god, the
Speaker 2: world is coming to an end because this piece of
Speaker 2: water or this thing went up tremendously. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: what are we going to do? You know, it was
Speaker 2: just oh okay, at the price went up, I'm going
Speaker 2: to pay for it and move on. But now all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, it seems people are fixated on certain things.
Speaker 2: We just had a couple of weeks ago talking about
Speaker 2: Walmart that them recognizing what's going on, that they are
Speaker 2: making sure that they are sourcing from different organizations, different
Speaker 2: suppliers to get the lowest prices that they can. They
Speaker 2: talked about that the Thanksgiving meal is going to be
Speaker 2: well was it fourteen percent cheaper than it was last year,
Speaker 2: and that they have done a deal with with Butterball
Speaker 2: turkey to get that down in ninety seven cents a pound,
Speaker 2: which is the lowest level since twenty nineteen. So the
Speaker 2: areas and the people that are focused on this and
Speaker 2: the people that are working on this are doing a
Speaker 2: good job. When you see the EV prices, when you
Speaker 2: see that a couple of years ago, when they put
Speaker 2: in the tax credit of seven thousand dollars and then
Speaker 2: overnight the EV manufacturers of the dealers raised the prices
Speaker 2: of those vehicles by seven thousand dollars. I didn't hear
Speaker 2: anybody screaming and yelling about that, I pointed out here
Speaker 2: on the show. But when I see what people are
Speaker 2: complaining about and ask them for specifics, they can't provide
Speaker 2: any I'm Kevin Gordon, America's struck A Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4: News Traffic and Weather News Radio seven hundred WLW, Cincinnati.
Speaker 5: As votes are counted across the country, Democrats celebrating wins
Speaker 5: in key races from coast to coasts with your twelve
Speaker 5: thirty report, I'm Travis Laird breaking now in Virginia. Democrat
Speaker 5: Abigail span Berger flipped the government office. In New Jersey,
Speaker 5: Mikey Cheryl defeated Trump aligned Republican Jack Sattarelli. New York
Speaker 5: City elected Democratic socialist Zoron Mamdanie Mayer, ending Andrew Cuomo's
Speaker 5: attempted political comeback. In California, Prop fifty passed easily, eight
Speaker 5: redistricting measure expected to shift five House seats to Democrats.
Speaker 5: In twenty twenty six, President Trump blamed the government shutdown
Speaker 5: for the losses and insisted, quote Trump wasn't on the ballot.
Speaker 2: Now, let's say a look lad the latest.
Speaker 4: Trafficking the Training, Heating and Cooling Weather Center on news
Speaker 4: radio seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 6: As we look ahead to our daybreak Wednesday, It's clear
Speaker 6: and not as cold. Seven am. Temperature of forty seven
Speaker 6: now rest of our Wednesday sunshine pleasant, a high a
Speaker 6: sixty seven at night, fair skies, and we dropped to
Speaker 6: thirty eight from your severe weather station. I'm nine first Warning,
Speaker 6: Chief Meteorologist Steve Rawley, News Radio seven hundred WLW, Right
Speaker 6: now forty five degrees sinnati here at home. Voters across
Speaker 6: Greater Cincinnati decided a full slate of local races and
Speaker 6: levees tonight. Mayor pure of all, of course, winning re
Speaker 6: election all eight incumbents on Cincinnati City Council of one reelection,
Speaker 6: joined by political Newcrumber newcomer Ryan James, a West End
Speaker 6: residents and nonprofit advocate, who becomes the youngest black man
Speaker 6: to ever be elected to council. Every winning candidate was
Speaker 6: endorsed by the Democratic Party, including Vice Mayor jan Michelle
Speaker 6: lemon Kearney Scotti, Johnson, Mika Owens, Mark Jeffries, Anna Albi,
Speaker 6: Seth Walsh, Jennef Kramerding, and Evan Nolan. Former members Liz
Speaker 6: Keating and Christopher Smitherman failed to regain their seats. Regionally,
Speaker 6: voters rejected Lakota's half billion dollar facilities plan, but approved
Speaker 6: oak Hill's bond issue to build two new schools Cincinnati
Speaker 6: Public Schools ten year Levy renewal past and cole Rain
Speaker 6: Township voters approved a police levee to add seven new officers.
Speaker 6: Now let's do some sports.
Speaker 7: Seven hundred w LW Sports Angles trading linebacker Logan Wilson
Speaker 7: to the Cowboys for a seventh round pick red signing
Speaker 7: right handed relief pitcher Keagan Thompson to a one year
Speaker 7: deal the Ohio Bobcats defeating Miami twenty four to twenty
Speaker 7: and in high school girls soccer State semi final action
Speaker 7: in Ohio in Division one, seating over Pickerington North four
Speaker 7: one D two Anthony Wayne shutting out Anderson one nil.
Speaker 7: Baden with a one nil went over Hoban in D
Speaker 7: three in Division four Summit Country Day six, Ottawa Glandorf two,
Speaker 7: and in Division five Madera two, Fairbanks one.
Speaker 5: Thank you as always, Lee Mallen. Your next update is
Speaker 5: at one o'clock. Breaking news anytime I'm Travis Laird News
Speaker 5: Radio seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 2: From NBA Champion Stephen Curry comes shot ready, powerful, never
Speaker 2: before seen. Look at the mindset that changed the game.
Speaker 2: I fell in love with the GC.
Speaker 8: Here's your trucking forecast the Try State in the rest
Speaker 8: of the country. In the Try State, overnight partly cloudy,
Speaker 8: the low dropping forty seven sunny Wednesday, highs into the
Speaker 8: upper sixties Thursday, sunny sky's continuing. It will be cooler,
Speaker 8: a high of fifty eight, rain in a possible storm
Speaker 8: in the afternoon. Friday, a high of sixty four. Nationally,
Speaker 8: the Pacific Northwest and northern California is seen unsettled weather
Speaker 8: with a threat for flash floody Wednesday and Thursday from
Speaker 8: northern California to the Olympic Mountains. A clipper system moving
Speaker 8: through the northeast Wednesday into Thursday, bringing a thread of storms,
Speaker 8: strong winds and snow and higher elevations. The middle of
Speaker 8: the country meanwhile, see mostly above average temperatures.
Speaker 2: Seven hundred wl W im Kevin Gordon. This is America
Speaker 2: is struck in network. By the way, if you miss
Speaker 2: any of our shows or miss any of our previous segments,
Speaker 2: hit up that iHeartRadio app brought to you by our
Speaker 2: friends at rush Throuck Centers. Talked about at the beginning
Speaker 2: of the show talking about some of these reports and
Speaker 2: what's interesting if you look at the report and the
Speaker 2: person or the people that prepare the report versus the
Speaker 2: people that report on the report, it seems like you're
Speaker 2: looking at a comple letely different situation. It almost reminds
Speaker 2: me of when a group of us were going to
Speaker 2: these various city council meetings and county commissioner meetings and
Speaker 2: we were trying to affect some change and get some
Speaker 2: you know, make sure that we were keeping our finger
Speaker 2: on the pulse and making sure that they were spending
Speaker 2: money wisely, asking them questions about the budget, making sure
Speaker 2: that when they put through it we're talking about a
Speaker 2: tax increase, having to justify that and kind of embarrassing
Speaker 2: them and you know, keeping you know, keeping their feet
Speaker 2: to the fire, so to speak. And it was one
Speaker 2: of those things where when you go to a meeting
Speaker 2: and the questions are allowed by the audience, people would
Speaker 2: ask amazing questions, and at the end of the meeting,
Speaker 2: the reporters, instead of going over and asking the person, well,
Speaker 2: you know what, you know what, why'd you bring this up?
Speaker 2: And and were you satisfied with the answer or whatever. No,
Speaker 2: they would make a bee line to go up and
Speaker 2: talk to the head of the county or the mayor
Speaker 2: or some of the city council to get their reaction
Speaker 2: to what was being said. And it's almost like it
Speaker 2: was these again. I mean, I've been calling I've been
Speaker 2: calling reporters spoon fed regurgitators in the mainstream media for kind.
Speaker 2: It seems like I've been twenty years now. And again
Speaker 2: I emphasize the fact that in England they don't call
Speaker 2: them news anchors. They call them news presenters. And if
Speaker 2: you notice when they're doing the news, they are with
Speaker 2: the hands, they're doing the hand gestures of pushing, you know,
Speaker 2: out expressing that like they're presenting the news to you.
Speaker 2: So it's not like they're doing this independent investigation and
Speaker 2: digging into the things. They're just reporting what's there and
Speaker 2: the old saying, if it leads, it bleeds. But these
Speaker 2: spoon fed regurgitators in the mainstream media, and especially the
Speaker 2: journalists with the newspapers and stuff, then make a bee
Speaker 2: line to go up and talk to these people at
Speaker 2: these meetings simply because hey, you know, it's a lot
Speaker 2: easier to pick up the phone and have them report
Speaker 2: the news to you so that you can regurgitate it
Speaker 2: to the American public rather than going out and finding
Speaker 2: out and digging into the story and coming up with
Speaker 2: what the news it is. So they were going up
Speaker 2: to suck up to them to say, well, you know,
Speaker 2: what was your reaction to that question that was asked?
Speaker 2: And so on. And when I'd get home from these meetings,
Speaker 2: I'd say to my wife, I'd say, God, you know,
Speaker 2: this meeting was really interesting. You know, this guy said this,
Speaker 2: and this guy said that, and this guy said that.
Speaker 2: And this was when we were still subscribing to the newspaper,
Speaker 2: before we realized that it was a rag and it
Speaker 2: was just, you know, nothing but nonsense. So we stopped
Speaker 2: the subscription. But she would read the article and she goes, Okay,
Speaker 2: did you really go to that meeting last night, because
Speaker 2: what you said happened in the meeting certainly isn't reflected
Speaker 2: in this in this article. And it was. We would
Speaker 2: laugh about it because you know, you are witnessing something
Speaker 2: with your own eyes. You are listening to what has
Speaker 2: been said, and then you read the article about that.
Speaker 2: And of course, when i'd bring this up, people kind
Speaker 2: of at first, I mean, I'm talking fifteen twenty years ago.
Speaker 2: I'm well, this is more recent, ten fIF ten years ago.
Speaker 2: But for years I've brought these up and people will say,
Speaker 2: you know, Kevin, you know, you just here, you know,
Speaker 2: you're saying certain things about the news media. And I
Speaker 2: find that hard to believe until somebody is interviewed by
Speaker 2: a reporter and they will say that, well, jeez, this
Speaker 2: person talked to me for like ten minutes and the
Speaker 2: quote that they put in the newspaper wasn't anything near
Speaker 2: what I said. And every time this would happen and
Speaker 2: somebody tell me about it, I'd say, well, welcome to
Speaker 2: my world, because when you look at what's being said
Speaker 2: versus what the person interpreting what was said, it is
Speaker 2: far different. Again, this is what I came to mind
Speaker 2: when I'm looking at this particular report on manufacturing input.
Speaker 2: All right, here's the story. S and P Global US
Speaker 2: Manufacturing PMI. This Purchasing Manager's index. Steady growth of US
Speaker 2: manufacturing sector in October, highest production underpinned by fastest demand
Speaker 2: growth in twenty years. Then they say tariffs way on exports.
Speaker 2: But again that is as we have had in the past.
Speaker 2: When our goods are being sold overseas and they have
Speaker 2: put tariffs on them, we are not selling as much
Speaker 2: over there as we should. And the fact of these
Speaker 2: tariffs are to bring some of those walls down and
Speaker 2: make our goods more appealing or less restrictive in those countries.
Speaker 2: So again tariff's way on exports. Well, they've been weighing
Speaker 2: on exports all along because our trade and balance with
Speaker 2: these other countries we had low terrace, they had high terrace.
Speaker 2: Let me see underpin further steep rising input prices, survey
Speaker 2: record increases, and finished goods. So finished goods are building up.
Speaker 2: But then you go to the report having and I'll
Speaker 2: get into what was said US manufactured mired in weakness
Speaker 2: as tariff gloom spreads. That is the report from Reuters.
Speaker 2: So getting into this, Chris Williamson, chief Business Economic Economists
Speaker 2: at SMP Global, US manufacturers reported a solid start to
Speaker 2: the fourth quarter, with the production rate rising at an
Speaker 2: increase rate in response to encouragingly robust jump in new orders.
Speaker 2: I'm having a problem reading this because the background is gray,
Speaker 2: and the lights in here are kind of dull, So
Speaker 2: go to flip on the light a little bit more.
Speaker 2: All right, that's better. US manufacturing report a solid start
Speaker 2: to the fourth quarter, with production rising at an increased
Speaker 2: rate in response to the encouragingly robust jump in new orders. However,
Speaker 2: lift the hood and the picture is not so healthy,
Speaker 2: and then they start getting into some of the underlying
Speaker 2: things that could cause problems. Most worrying is the unprecedented
Speaker 2: rise in unsold stock reported in October. Well, that would
Speaker 2: have to do not with the prices, but if people
Speaker 2: are not buying things, or if the exports are slowing
Speaker 2: down because these countries over there are balancing back and
Speaker 2: forth between their tariffs and our terraffs, then maybe, well
Speaker 2: we've been having problems selling stuff in those countries in
Speaker 2: the first place, so a build up in some of
Speaker 2: this inventory is not so bad. Plus the fact that
Speaker 2: you had at the beginning of the year you had
Speaker 2: in trying to get ahead of some of these tariffs
Speaker 2: that were going to go into place, people were buying
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff and having that in stock and
Speaker 2: then working off of that stock. So anything else that's
Speaker 2: produced is now building up as well. Companies have also
Speaker 2: become less optimistic about the year ahead, with the sentiment
Speaker 2: back down close to the gloomy levels seen around the
Speaker 2: April tariffs. Now, again, when you're talking about all this
Speaker 2: stuff going on in the economy, when you're talking about
Speaker 2: whether or not this country is going to agree with
Speaker 2: the terraffs or they're going to agree to some of
Speaker 2: the changes and some of the trade deals between the
Speaker 2: individual countries, these things are going to be in flux.
Speaker 2: But as it works out, and what we've seen over
Speaker 2: the entire year is that some of the stuff that
Speaker 2: was being predicted hasn't come true, and they keep putting
Speaker 2: it off. Again. They're talking in here about off to
Speaker 2: a good start, but the worrysome and again this being
Speaker 2: a survey of what you're seeing in the future when
Speaker 2: you don't know what the future is and there are
Speaker 2: certain things that are in there that still have to
Speaker 2: be unresolved. This whole concept of when you're being told
Speaker 2: by the spoon fed regurgitators in the mainstream media that
Speaker 2: this isn't going to happen, this isn't going to happen,
Speaker 2: and then it does happen and things turn around then
Speaker 2: you look kind of foolish. But again with a survey
Speaker 2: and asking somebody to predict ahead what's going to be
Speaker 2: like next year, that's kind of next to them possible
Speaker 2: because you don't know what the factors are going to be.
Speaker 2: You don't know what's going to happen with the war
Speaker 2: in Ukraine, you don't know what's going to happen as
Speaker 2: far as trade deals with China and all that stuff
Speaker 2: being in the mix at this particular point in time
Speaker 2: kind of clouds what you're thinking about in the future.
Speaker 2: We'll pick this up. I'm Kevin Gordon, America Struck a
Speaker 2: network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 3: You've got a ton of equity in your home.
Speaker 2: You're sitting on a gold mine.
Speaker 3: You could do so much with all that cash, like.
Speaker 2: Short the PMI, the Purchasing Manager's Index, and how they
Speaker 2: are seeing now. Reuters is reporting in their story of
Speaker 2: this report, so they're reporting on the report. The title
Speaker 2: is US manufacturing mired and weakness as tariff gloom spreads
Speaker 2: all right in here. They start off with US manufacturing
Speaker 2: contracted for an eighth straight month in October, as new
Speaker 2: orders remained subdued and supplies and suppliers were taking longer
Speaker 2: to deliver materials to factories against the backdrop of tariffs
Speaker 2: on imported goods. Counts from the manufacturers in the Institute
Speaker 2: for Supply Management survey on Monday painted a dire picture
Speaker 2: of the factory sector. They didn't say dire in the report.
Speaker 2: They were saying that they were concerned. Not dire, but concerned, Okay,
Speaker 2: dire picture of the factory sector, which, ironically, President Donald
Speaker 2: Trump's sweeping duties are intended to stimulate. Economists have long
Speaker 2: argued it was impossible to restore manufacturing to its former
Speaker 2: glory because of structural issues, including worker shortages. Now, now
Speaker 2: that we've had all this, we've had one, two, three,
Speaker 2: and then four paragraphs in where they're talking about all
Speaker 2: this dire stuff and stuff not going so well, the
Speaker 2: ism said it's manufacturing. PMI fell to forty eight point
Speaker 2: seven last month from forty nine point one. Folks, that's
Speaker 2: a four tenths of a percentage point drop. Okay, so
Speaker 2: it's not like the sky is falling from the September number.
Speaker 2: A reading below fifty indicates contraction and manufacturing, which accounts
Speaker 2: for ten point one percent of the economy. Then in
Speaker 2: the following paragraph, PMI remained above forty two point three.
Speaker 2: So if it's at forty eight point seven, remain above
Speaker 2: forty two point three. So it's six point four percentage
Speaker 2: points higher than that, a forty two point three level
Speaker 2: that the ism said over time was consistent with an
Speaker 2: expansion of the overall economy. So it's come down four
Speaker 2: tenths of one percentage point and they want you to
Speaker 2: think that the sky is falling, but we're still six
Speaker 2: point four percent above where it shows consistent with the
Speaker 2: expansion of the overall economy. Economists pulled by Reuters had
Speaker 2: forecasts at PMI, and they go into what the economists
Speaker 2: had predicted. But again that to me, it's almost like
Speaker 2: they have contradicted themselves in the same story. Not only
Speaker 2: they didn't even bother going a couple of paragraphs later,
Speaker 2: it was the very next paragraph. And this is the
Speaker 2: thing that I keep stressing when you go to these headlines,
Speaker 2: Like I said, if you were just rolling through your
Speaker 2: headlines or the headlines, if you get your phone and
Speaker 2: you pull that up, which was a lot of people,
Speaker 2: a lot of young people and you know some people,
Speaker 2: older people. They scroll through their phones and they see
Speaker 2: the headlines. So if you see a headline US manufacturing
Speaker 2: mired in weakness as tariff glooms, gloom spreads. Okay, where
Speaker 2: is that in this comment here about the expansion of
Speaker 2: the manufacturing See the headline doesn't match the story. Okay.
Speaker 2: Then they talk about a month long shutdown US government
Speaker 2: is making it difficult to get a good read of
Speaker 2: the economy. The shutdown, on track to be the longest
Speaker 2: on record, has caused a government economic data blackout. Prior
Speaker 2: to the shutdown, the economy appeared to be on solid
Speaker 2: footing for much of the third quarter, spurred by consumer
Speaker 2: spending and to some extent, business investment in artificial intelligence.
Speaker 2: But the shutdown could undercut consumer spending. As food aid
Speaker 2: to nearly forty two million people lapsed on Saturday. That
Speaker 2: has been taken care of. Something like sixty percent of
Speaker 2: those benefits have been done, and it will be And
Speaker 2: now that the election is over and we don't have
Speaker 2: to worry about all those people talking about the economy
Speaker 2: and of focus on that, and then how horrible the
Speaker 2: Trump administration is because they're trying to get themselves elected.
Speaker 2: Now that that's all behind us, maybe now the Democrats
Speaker 2: will say, you know what, we're going to end the
Speaker 2: Schumer shut down. We're going to stop insisting on you
Speaker 2: know what, do we keep hearing We kept hearing that,
Speaker 2: you know, our budget deficit is now over our debt
Speaker 2: is now over thirty seven trillion dollars. It's unsustainable. We're
Speaker 2: going to go bankrupt as a country. But oh, by
Speaker 2: the way, let's add one point five trillion more dollars
Speaker 2: to that, because we want to provide all kinds of
Speaker 2: services to people that aren't even citizens of this country.
Speaker 2: While our veterans are out on the street. Our veterans
Speaker 2: aren't getting the care that they need. And we spent
Speaker 2: one point what is it, one point five trillion dollars
Speaker 2: on the Green News steal over the last several years,
Speaker 2: when we could have been spending that on infrastructure, repairing
Speaker 2: our roads. So we're not damaging our suspensions, and we
Speaker 2: could provide more for our veterans. But let's spend one
Speaker 2: point five trillion dollars on people that have invaded this country.
Speaker 2: And we want to spend that money rather than and
Speaker 2: we'll grow the deficit, but not to do anything for
Speaker 2: our veterans. Unbelievable. So anyway, maybe now that the election
Speaker 2: has passed and those are still settled and whatever, the
Speaker 2: numbers are going to be coming out. As far as that,
Speaker 2: I honestly didn't want to even look well, I did
Speaker 2: look at it a little bit, but just you know,
Speaker 2: it's like I just I'll deal with it later on,
Speaker 2: you know, when we get home, because I did I
Speaker 2: didn't make I did record some of it just so
Speaker 2: I could get an idea of what they were talking
Speaker 2: about at the time. So it's amazing when you look
Speaker 2: at these numbers. Now. What we've been hearing also along
Speaker 2: the way, is that China is not cooperating China. We've
Speaker 2: had this problem. Trump met with the Jijingpang last week
Speaker 2: and already as a result of that, you know, they
Speaker 2: were talking about, well, they did not buy as much
Speaker 2: soybeans this year as they did last year, and they're
Speaker 2: not buying wheat all right. Well, what I'm not hearing
Speaker 2: is that where are they buying it, because there's if
Speaker 2: you're talking about soybean and wheat, you're still going to
Speaker 2: have to feed your people. Your people are going to
Speaker 2: have to eat something now where they're working off the
Speaker 2: stockpiles that they've built up because as we've seen that
Speaker 2: with the oil supplies and stuff their economy, their economy
Speaker 2: is not as strong as everybody likes to think. And
Speaker 2: the cracks in this economy come about periodic. When you
Speaker 2: see some of their production coming down, when you see
Speaker 2: their manufacturing stalling, when you see their GDP falling, when
Speaker 2: you see the fact that the property values within the
Speaker 2: country are falling and those aren't coming back, those are
Speaker 2: not good signs. But what they have been doing is
Speaker 2: they have still been buying a lot of oil, and
Speaker 2: people are trying to say, well, the economy must not
Speaker 2: be too bad because they're built buying a lot of oil.
Speaker 2: They're buying the same amount of oil that they were
Speaker 2: over the last few years. But all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: even though you know, even though it's a closed society
Speaker 2: over there and we don't get free flow of information,
Speaker 2: the words have come out that they have been building
Speaker 2: up their stockpiles. Now my question is what are they
Speaker 2: building up those stockpiles for. Are they building up for
Speaker 2: a stockpile to the point where if they want to
Speaker 2: do some oh, I don't know, maybe try to invade
Speaker 2: Taiwan or do some sort of expansion of their country
Speaker 2: or try to take over more territory or whatever that
Speaker 2: they're worried about that if the oil supplies are cut
Speaker 2: that they won't be able to fund that. So what
Speaker 2: they're doing is building up over the years, they bought
Speaker 2: a certain amount of grain. Maybe they've stored dataup because
Speaker 2: obviously if they're not buying it from US, if they're
Speaker 2: not indicating that they've bought it from anybody else. So
Speaker 2: now that they're buying the soybeans and the wheat, maybe
Speaker 2: they've been working off of their supplies that they've had.
Speaker 2: So now all of a sudden, all this concern that
Speaker 2: our farmers are going to have a problem with their crops,
Speaker 2: which is going to be subsidized by the federal government
Speaker 2: because if they're not being bought by China, they will
Speaker 2: subsidize that. But now China's saying that they're going to
Speaker 2: start buying all this stuff from the United States now.
Speaker 2: So as a result of last week's trip to Asia
Speaker 2: and sitting down with Jijingping, the ball has been moving
Speaker 2: and the needle has been moving as far as trade
Speaker 2: with China and raising getting to a certain deal. So
Speaker 2: it's been a weird week and it's a weird and
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's going to get any clearer
Speaker 2: by the end of the week. But what we're seeing
Speaker 2: on one end is being counterbalanced by something else. For
Speaker 2: every bit of good news we're seeing, we're seeing a
Speaker 2: little bit of possible bad news. And you know it'll
Speaker 2: straighten itself out. But folks, we're up against clock here. Time,
Speaker 2: fresh suit out the door. Stay tuned for Red Eye
Speaker 2: Radio The Top the Hour. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network.
Speaker 2: Trucking Network seven hundred w LW.
Speaker 4: News, Traffic and Weather. News Radio seven hundred w l
Speaker 4: W Cincinnati.
Speaker 3: Pure Vaul Davits Bowman.
Speaker 7: If your Top of the Hour reports, I'mley Mallin Breaking Now,
Speaker 7: that is