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Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 1: learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,

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Speaker 2: my name is Noah.

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Speaker 3: They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our

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Speaker 3: super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you

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Speaker 3: are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff

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Speaker 3: they don't want you to know. Apologies for my intro there, guys,

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Speaker 3: I'm laughing because I'm imagining how this episode will go.

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Speaker 3: We travel a lot. We're just regular entities, like we

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Speaker 3: were saying in an early episode, I don't know about you, guys.

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Speaker 3: I wake up a sunset just like everybody else, put

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Speaker 3: my skin on one leg at a time, and venture

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Speaker 3: off into the night. Like we're approachable entities.

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Speaker 4: Right, So it's sun sets, got it? Okay? Venturing into

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Speaker 4: the name yeah, because of the you know how it

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Speaker 4: is picture in your routine? Do you do a skincare

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Speaker 4: regimen before you because you're an.

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Speaker 2: Ancient vampire, so it's been around before, You've crossed oceans

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Speaker 2: of time.

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Speaker 3: Before. The thing is before you put the skin away

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Speaker 3: right for your torpor stage. You gotta wash it first,

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Speaker 3: so everybody remember that.

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Speaker 4: Okay, just a little.

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Speaker 3: It starts to smell. Right. So what we're saying is

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Speaker 3: we're approachable regular entities, and we go to the grocery

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Speaker 3: store like anybody else. We go buy a gas station,

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Speaker 3: we get the usual things. Do you guys have a

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Speaker 3: ritual like when you go to the grocery store aside

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Speaker 3: from dice rudo vegas, do you buy uh damn where

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Speaker 3: you get a bad things? Matt figured it out.

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Speaker 4: Okay, Wow, that's a pro tip.

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Speaker 5: I love a kinder Bueno if I if I'm being

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Speaker 5: honest about a thing I like to get during the

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Speaker 5: checkout process, that's yeah, that's a staple.

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Speaker 3: Okay. Yeah, when you go to the gas station, you

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Speaker 3: get a you get a kendri Bueno. I get a

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Speaker 3: I'll get like a bottle of water or iced coffee,

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Speaker 3: you know, if I'm filling up the tank. But let's

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Speaker 3: say we're in that moment and we're walking in the

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Speaker 3: grocery store or the gas station or the cafe or

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Speaker 3: what have you, and for some reason you notice that

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Speaker 3: everything is several dollars more than it was last week.

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Speaker 3: Have you guys run into this.

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Speaker 4: Kinder buenos are going through the roof man, No, nothing

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Speaker 4: is spared.

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Speaker 2: Well, it generally doesn't go up that quickly right overnight,

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Speaker 2: going up a dollar or two. But people, including myself,

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Speaker 2: notice that over time it seems to be going up

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Speaker 2: and up and up and up and up and up

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Speaker 2: by these tiny little increments.

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Speaker 3: M m.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: You might be in a situation where you have that

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Speaker 3: that moment of lucidity and revelation and light bulbs where

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Speaker 3: you say, I remember vaguely hearing news about inflation, but

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Speaker 3: now I'm seeing it in action. And right now, of course,

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Speaker 3: the COVID pandemic is still very much in place. Some

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Speaker 3: new variants just dropped. The coolest name for one of

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Speaker 3: those is Nimbus, which is way cooler than Razor Blade.

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Speaker 4: Sorry, I keep thinking of that Bush album Razor Blade suitcase.

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Speaker 4: That is scary.

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Speaker 2: What a horrible name.

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Speaker 5: And like you said, Ben, I think it's describing the sensation,

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Speaker 5: which sounds awful.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, it sounds non ideal. The but we're this

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Speaker 3: person in this moment like you fellow listeners. And the

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Speaker 3: lockdown is lifted, supply chains are back and so you

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Speaker 3: have that moment you're at the counter, you know you're

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Speaker 3: at the checkout, you look at your coffee. I should

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Speaker 3: have had a better example. I have a mason jar

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Speaker 3: of coffee. I made it home because I'm a cheap skate.

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Speaker 3: But you ask yourself, why haven't prices returned to normal?

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Speaker 3: Didn't they just accelerate because of an emergency? And aren't

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Speaker 3: they supposed to go back down to something that fits

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Speaker 3: my budget and allows me to survive. As we're going

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Speaker 3: to find out, there is a post pandemic price hike conspiracy,

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Speaker 3: and some people think there's something much darker at play.

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Speaker 3: Here are the facts, all right. The rise of the

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Speaker 3: current ongoing pandemic led to serious acute supply shortages, not

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Speaker 3: just in the United States but across the planet, and

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Speaker 3: we saw multiple instances of price gouging. Guys think this

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Speaker 3: was primarily free market reacting stuff.

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Speaker 4: It's that supply chain they were talking about. Yeah, it

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Speaker 4: was disrupted.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, how do you get all the stuff you need

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Speaker 2: to create a big mac? How do you get all

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Speaker 2: of the things and we're not talking just the meat

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Speaker 2: and the bread and all that stuff, all the supplies

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Speaker 2: you need to create one of those things right. The

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Speaker 2: same way with all the packaging that we talked about

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Speaker 2: previously in episodes with cardboard cartels, there's also plastics involved.

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Speaker 2: Think about all of the components you need to create

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Speaker 2: one box of cereal that is not just oats.

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Speaker 3: I think about that pretty constantly. You're walking around in

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Speaker 3: your neck of the global woods, and I think a

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Speaker 3: lot of us have that moment where you say, hey,

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Speaker 3: something that was used to make this or something that

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Speaker 3: is a part of this end user product has traveled

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Speaker 3: the world more than I ever. Will you know what

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Speaker 3: I mean? The palm oil is from Indonesia, right, the

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Speaker 3: packaging is from a factory that has a lower price

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Speaker 3: point than a domestic US factory. And also with the

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Speaker 3: palm oil, sure the world has agreed that orangutang suck

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Speaker 3: apparently and should not be left alive anyway. This in

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Speaker 3: some cases, these price hikes are to your points, they're

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Speaker 3: a legitimate free market reaction SACRASANCT mechanism of supply and demand.

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Speaker 3: SOMA first, right, that's the idea, that's one of the branches.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: I was just in Germany and I was in this

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Speaker 5: little shop selling that sells like bags and stuff. It

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Speaker 5: was like leather, and I, you know, like a good

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Speaker 5: American tourist, was like, are.

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Speaker 4: All these items local?

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Speaker 5: And no, there is no local leather, idiot, it all

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Speaker 5: comes from India only.

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Speaker 4: He said it very charmingly, And I did not know that.

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Speaker 5: And it's actually kind of counterintuitive considering how much India

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Speaker 5: values the cow. It's very interesting. I don't know, maybe

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Speaker 5: I'm being hyperbolic. I guess I just I was surprised

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Speaker 5: by this fact. But sure enough, it is the largest

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Speaker 5: exporter of cow leather in the entire world.

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Speaker 3: That's an awesome statinel. That feels like an episode my

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Speaker 3: spidy sense is tingling. We know that during the during

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Speaker 3: the throes of lockdown and things leading up to it,

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Speaker 3: members of Congress got super crooked and we're definitely doing

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Speaker 3: insider trading, and people on the ground, non politicos, non

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Speaker 3: business tycoons were saying, wait, what happened to my siracha?

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Speaker 3: Stuff like that, and then you would get a message

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Speaker 3: where someone in the community would let you know you

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Speaker 3: could find some siracha, but it's going to be way

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Speaker 3: more expensive. And if there are concerns about the global

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Speaker 3: energy network, the constant hunger of the fossil fuel economy,

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Speaker 3: you'll see that gas prices spike up and down and

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Speaker 3: they're just like pachinko or a better pinball, like how

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Speaker 3: a pinball machine bumps around.

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Speaker 4: And it's funny.

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Speaker 5: I like, you know, certain political kind of temperature checks

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Speaker 5: revolve around prices of stuff like groceries.

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Speaker 4: And all of that.

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Speaker 5: And depending on who you ask, prices or way up

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Speaker 5: or depending on who you ask, prices or way down.

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Speaker 5: They've never been this good ever, and it kind of

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Speaker 5: makes your head spin a little bit.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, depending on who you ask too, which which economist,

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Speaker 3: which adherents and disciples of the dismal science you ask,

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Speaker 3: they might even hit you with a little bit of

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Speaker 3: parkour and say prices are way up and that's very good,

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Speaker 3: and you'll be like, not for me, man, I had

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Speaker 3: to buy gas. Why do gas stations have digital readouts

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Speaker 3: of price per gallon?

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Speaker 5: Well, and it's also like inflation is bad, right when

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Speaker 5: people say we're having inflation, that's not a good thing.

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Speaker 5: And yet we're constantly on our other show, in this

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Speaker 5: show Ridiculous History, having to adjust prices for inflation. It

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Speaker 5: is a constant. It is a thing. There will be inflation.

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Speaker 3: Right, and then also deflation is bad or disinflation. I

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Speaker 3: don't want to get to into the economic weeds, but

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Speaker 3: it feels like a kobyashi maru, which is the Star

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Speaker 3: Trek reference to an unwinnable scenario. This isn't a great situation.

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Speaker 3: You know, the gas rises, the prices on everything pop

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Speaker 3: up incrementally. As you were saying, Matt, the public hates it,

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Speaker 3: and honestly, in most cases, businesses do not care for

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Speaker 3: it either, because you might get a customer at your

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Speaker 3: gas station who says, hey, why is the canned iced

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Speaker 3: coffee four dollars? Now? Sorry? And on I was having

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Speaker 3: a bad, bad day. I should have approached you differently.

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Speaker 3: But you're not trying to make any extra money you

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Speaker 3: were in this case of a supply chain breakdown. You

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Speaker 3: are just trying as a business to stay afloat like

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Speaker 3: everybody else. What we're really talking about when we get

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Speaker 3: into the malevolent aspect of this conspiracy is the concept

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Speaker 3: of price gouging. I think we all know the term.

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Speaker 3: Can we just kick a quick definition?

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Speaker 5: Well, I mean, it's just isn't it just intentional manipulation

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Speaker 5: of prices that would be considered in poor taste, right,

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Speaker 5: I mean, it's as simple as that, kind of like,

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Speaker 5: it's not illegal either technically, or is it?

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Speaker 4: And what constitutes it? Is it a range?

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Speaker 5: I mean, aren't people always trying to make a little more,

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Speaker 5: you know, year over year? Isn't that sort of the

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Speaker 5: nature of our economy is constant growth?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's so it's so weird. I really like

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Speaker 3: the phrase our good friend Robert Evans from Cracked and

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Speaker 3: Behind the Bastards uses when he goes to a sponsor break.

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Speaker 3: It's like, and now we'll hear about some goods and services.

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Speaker 3: Price gouging is where some individual or institution or entity

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Speaker 3: providing goods, services, or commodities skyrockets the price of something

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Speaker 3: way higher than what is normally considered reasonable. And price gouging,

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Speaker 3: as we know, is usually going to be short term.

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Speaker 3: It's usually going to be localized, at least here in

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Speaker 3: the United States, and it often happens directly after a

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Speaker 3: natural disaster. It often targets basic necessities, but.

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Speaker 5: Again not illegal, perhaps in poor taste, not a good look.

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Speaker 4: Right, guys.

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Speaker 2: The way I understand this, this is more of something

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Speaker 2: that occurs at the place of purchase, the point of

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Speaker 2: purchase rather than you make the manufacturer making the good

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Speaker 2: or certain exactly.

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Speaker 3: You nailed it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not Nike raising the prices of the shoes.

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Speaker 2: It's your local shoe store today. Yes, raising the prices

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Speaker 2: because there was a flood a couple of days ago.

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Speaker 2: Now everybody needs new shoes.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, nailed it. And I love that example. That's perfect

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Speaker 3: met So consider the chaos of Hurricane Katrina right out

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Speaker 3: there in New Orleans. Various local businesses were accused of

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Speaker 3: and rightly accused of gouging the prices on things like food, clothing, water, shelter,

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Speaker 3: medical supplies, fuel, and they were doing it because of

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Speaker 3: the inherent what we call supply and demand shock. All

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Speaker 3: of a sudden, the demand outstripped the supply.

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Speaker 5: And can I just say, to answer the question that

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Speaker 5: I posed a couple of times, there are situations where

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Speaker 5: price gouging is illegal.

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Speaker 4: There are anti price gouging laws, and we'll get.

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Speaker 3: To it there in the thirty seven states, and they're

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Speaker 3: only in times of emergency.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

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Speaker 5: It's not completely cut and dry as to what constitutes that.

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Speaker 5: There's a version of it that could probably fly under

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Speaker 5: the radar.

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Speaker 3: Oh, one hundred percent. Yeah, in peacetime when the swords

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Speaker 3: have turned to plowshares for a moment. In some places, yes,

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Speaker 3: in the US, specifically, price gouging is a specific crime

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Speaker 3: only during civil emergencies. But even these laws, these emergency

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Speaker 3: economic laws, are controversial for some of the boffins because

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Speaker 3: they'll tell you with a straight face that what is

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Speaker 3: called gouging is really just people who don't understand supply

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Speaker 3: and demand. And they will tell you the free market

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Speaker 3: will come through for us, very atlas shrugged. They'll say,

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Speaker 3: after things settle down, we'll get back to a state

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Speaker 3: of normalcy supply and demand, they'll balance out, prices returned

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Speaker 3: to their normal, predictable patterns. Yet is that correct?

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Speaker 2: May It always makes you think about hotels and just

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Speaker 2: how the price of a hotel room over one night,

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Speaker 2: a one night's stay can change so wildly depending on

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Speaker 2: what's happening in a town or a city, you know,

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Speaker 2: over the weekend, or something that's happening during the week,

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Speaker 2: or the difference when you get that hotel room like

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Speaker 2: a month in advance versus time to happen. And it's

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Speaker 2: just basic supply and demand stuff. But when you look

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Speaker 2: at it and you're looking to get a hotel. It's

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Speaker 2: wild how different the price can be.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's not even with a natural disaster, you know,

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Speaker 3: going back to shelter post Katrina or Hurricane Helene, you

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Speaker 3: can see egregious price rises in all surrounding states as

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Speaker 3: people tried to GTFO. We also we see this another example.

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Speaker 3: A plane flight is not usually considered a basic necessity,

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Speaker 3: but as the lockdown occurred, plane flights just the ticket

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Speaker 3: for a seat, it absolutely skyrocketed because everybody tried to

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Speaker 3: get somewhere safe.

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Speaker 5: In my hometown where I'm heading to you after this podcast, Augusta, Georgia,

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Speaker 5: when the Hurricane Helene came through and devastated that town.

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Speaker 5: When that happened, the cost of tree removal was it

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Speaker 5: was obscene, y'all, like ten x you know what it

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Speaker 5: would normally cost. And that's why it's tricky, because you

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Speaker 5: could argue there's more trees that need removing than there

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Speaker 5: are tree removal companies, so therefore the demand is so

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Speaker 5: high that it warrants a price increase. But it really

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Speaker 5: was in poor taste. I keep using that term because

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Speaker 5: at what point does it cross over into illegality. None

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Speaker 5: of these companies got brought up on any charges or

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Speaker 5: anything that I'm aware of.

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Speaker 4: What would that even look like.

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Speaker 3: That we know of? Yeah, like what law? Under what

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Speaker 3: law would these entities be prosecuted? Now we're going to

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Speaker 3: in this discussion, we'll get to tariffs. But let's put

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Speaker 3: the issue of tariffs in the modern era aside for

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Speaker 3: a moment and acknowledge it's an extra variable. But for

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Speaker 3: this conspiracy, which is not a theory, we are going

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Speaker 3: to focus on what went wrong with the pandemic first

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Speaker 3: and then get into the tariff aspect. For now, let's

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Speaker 3: cast our memory back collectively. We're journeying back to the

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Speaker 3: days of the lockdown and right after, and we're doing this.

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Speaker 3: We're recording this in October of twenty twenty five, October third.

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Speaker 3: It's lovely day here in Atlanta. The lockdown has ended,

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Speaker 3: right but people across the country, across our city, across

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Speaker 3: the country, across a lot of the world, honestly, are

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Speaker 3: still confronting higher prices on what seems like darn near everything.

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Speaker 3: You're housing, your transit, your groceries, your healthcare, your childcare,

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Speaker 3: your restaurants, your concerts, you name it. Prices rose overall

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Speaker 3: nineteen percent between February twenty twenty and November twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 3: and there has not been a correction on that, it

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Speaker 3: has not gone down. Oh and by the way, nobody's

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Speaker 3: getting a raise.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, and like a thing like cost of living rays,

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Speaker 5: isn't that meant to be tied to inflation? Yeah, that

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Speaker 5: the dollar doesn't go as far as it did last

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Speaker 5: year or the last time you got one of these.

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Speaker 5: And it certainly again not like required that companies do this.

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Speaker 5: It's sort of like a courtesy if you're lucky enough

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Speaker 5: to get it, get it.

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Speaker 3: And the shareholders may object, right, so you may end

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Speaker 3: up paying the blood price of a layoff.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: According to CBS News, Americans on average or earning one

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Speaker 2: point two percentage points below the rise and the cost

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Speaker 2: of living over the past four years.

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Speaker 3: So just underneath there are again professional economists with way

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Speaker 3: much more expertise than us, who will argue that nothing

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Speaker 3: is amiss. They'll tell you the market, like some mysterious

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Speaker 3: animal deep in the ocean, simply moves as it will.

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Speaker 3: There are a growing number of other economists, to be fair,

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Speaker 3: including government experts, regulators, politicians, journalists, critics, and the public

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Speaker 3: who don't buy this. Instead, they say, yeah, the pandemic

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Speaker 3: did screw everything up, and yeah, COVID is definitely still

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Speaker 3: around today, shout out nimbus. But they will tell you

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Speaker 3: those businesses that were forced to raise prices amid the

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Speaker 3: lockdown were not acting in good faith. Instead, they were

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Speaker 3: opportunistic predators, scavengers, taking advantage of all this pandemonium to

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Speaker 3: up their profit margins under the big leaf of necessity,

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Speaker 3: and then conspiring to keep those profits the same even

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Speaker 3: as the cost of acquiring supplies decreased or returned back

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Speaker 3: to pre pandemic levels. They were like, screw you, Ben,

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Speaker 3: that iced coffee is still four dollars. I'm sorry. I'm

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Speaker 3: not making it about me. I was just mad about

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Speaker 3: the coffee anyway. The question is could this be true?

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Speaker 3: What say we pause for a word from our sponsors.

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Speaker 3: Here's where it gets crazy. Yes, post pandemic price hike conspiracy.

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Speaker 3: It is absolutely true. Maybe not across the board, but

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Speaker 3: some companies definitely seem to have taken advantage of the situation.

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Speaker 4: And why wouldn't they.

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Speaker 5: Nobody wants to give money back once they've got where

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Speaker 5: they are.

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Speaker 4: I can't imagine that's a.

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Speaker 5: Hard sell for the shareholders. For the brass well, they

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Speaker 5: won't notice. They're used to it, now, what you know,

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Speaker 5: that's the idea.

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Speaker 3: Right In March of twenty twenty four, I think we

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Speaker 3: all read this report with great interest. The Federal Trade Commission,

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Speaker 3: or FTC, which is currently closed, by the way, due

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Speaker 3: to the government shutout, they put a hit out of

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Speaker 3: multiple grocery store chains. In particular, this is our best

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Speaker 3: example of the post pandemic price hike conspiracy, because the

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Speaker 3: government proved the was afoot. Their report is called Feeding

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Speaker 3: America in a Time of Crisis. Maybe we talked a

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Speaker 3: little bit about what they figured out.

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Speaker 2: Well, they figured out that, yes, it was true that

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Speaker 2: prices were more expensive for most grocery chains because they

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Speaker 2: were paying more for the products that they were stalking

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Speaker 2: their stores with. However, those individual grocery chains, many of

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Speaker 2: them the popular ones that you're probably thinking of were

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Speaker 2: just went to, were actually raising the prices of those

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Speaker 2: goods at that point of sale much higher than necessary

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Speaker 2: to cover the cost of those goods plus the operating

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Speaker 2: costs of their stores.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and this happened with blood banks as well as

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Speaker 3: a few of us know, so they never walked back

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Speaker 3: to that price increase, that grift that you described there, Matt.

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Speaker 3: The FDC specifically deems several large companies that will be

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Speaker 3: recognizable to US residents Walmart, Kroger, Tyson Foods practic gamble,

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Speaker 3: the usual suspects right shout out Kaiser, so say, And

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Speaker 3: earlier in twenty twenty one, the FTC had ordered these

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Speaker 3: folks to give more information about their business practices. What

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Speaker 3: are your operating cost? What is your usual revenue? What

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Speaker 3: is your usual profit margin? And this is where we

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Speaker 3: go to a statement that accompanied the report from the

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Speaker 3: FTC chair at the time, Lina Kahn. And it's a

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Speaker 3: quote that's honestly pretty blunt from a government agency.

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Speaker 5: It sure is so con said, as the pandemic illustrated,

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Speaker 5: a major shock to the supply chain has cascading effects

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Speaker 5: on consumers, including the prices they pay for groceries. The

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Speaker 5: FTC report examining US grocery supply chain finds that dom

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Speaker 5: minute firms used this moment to come out ahead at

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Speaker 5: the expense of their competitors and the communities they serve.

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Speaker 3: So non falcon, non falcon.

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Speaker 5: It's very non falcon. It's also very like dry the

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Speaker 5: way the way this is written that it almost doesn't

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Speaker 5: sound as like shocking as it actually is when you

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Speaker 5: drill down into.

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Speaker 4: What's being said. It's and it's also like I said,

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Speaker 4: it's just unsurprising.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and they have the receipts udt because it's a

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Speaker 3: it's a grocery store joke.

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Speaker 5: Oh yeah, with the really long receipts the right aid.

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Speaker 4: There.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, any time you buy a pack of gum or

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Speaker 3: iced coffee at CVS, uh, it looks like the receipt

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Speaker 3: is a very long, angry text message. It should just

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Speaker 3: start first off, and they go for what two feet footnets?

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Speaker 4: It's wild. I guess it's a survey or something.

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Speaker 3: I don't know it is, And we're not detegrating. The

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Speaker 3: people work at CV they need They have to deal

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Speaker 3: with it all the time.

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Speaker 4: That's exactly right.

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Speaker 3: How many times they have to change out that roll

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Speaker 3: of paper for the.

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Speaker 5: Receip massive inside those little kiosks. No, the reality is

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Speaker 5: it's probably the same size as it is that other

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Speaker 5: places where the receipts aren't that long.

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Speaker 4: So you're you're totally right. Then it's probably a real pain.

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Speaker 3: I mean no, maybe they have to pay more for

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Speaker 3: the receipt rolls. The blood price, the blood price. In

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty one, food and beverage retailers saw their revenue

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Speaker 3: increase to six percent, or more than six percent above

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Speaker 3: their total cost. This is per the FDC's report. That

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Speaker 3: was a huge breakthrough because the similar numbers from twenty

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Speaker 3: fifteen or only five point six percent. This sounds small

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Speaker 3: and hair splitty, but we'll get to why it's important.

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Speaker 3: In the first three quarters of twenty twenty three, profits

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Speaker 3: continue to rive and sales were topping the operating costs

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Speaker 3: by something north of seven percent. So the FTC says,

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Speaker 3: we're not buying this smoke and mirror, shuck and jive

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Speaker 3: narrative where the grocery stores say, oh, you know we were.

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Speaker 3: Things are just more expensive. I got paid more of

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Speaker 3: these pie apples they got. You know, this coffee won't

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Speaker 3: ice itself, you know what I'm saying, which is a

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Speaker 3: perfect impression of the CEO of Kroger.

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Speaker 5: And with the price of eggs going through the roof,

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Speaker 5: I can pass it half a dozen out myria. Remember

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Speaker 5: that guess with the dude from the soprano. It was

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Speaker 5: like a yeah, yeah, where he can lay his own eggs.

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Speaker 4: That was a thing.

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Speaker 3: I love it.

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Speaker 2: Do you guys think any of this has to do

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Speaker 2: with some of the major mergers between grocery chains that

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Speaker 2: were occurring around twenty eighteen onward to like last year, Absolutely,

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Speaker 2: of course, because there were so many any of them,

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Speaker 2: And I imagine that thing that happens when a company

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Speaker 2: wants to get acquired, how they will goose their numbers

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Speaker 2: a little bit in order to look really good and

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Speaker 2: really like you've got it. This is a good company.

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Speaker 2: Look how much money they're making. You're gonna need to

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Speaker 2: pay a lot.

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Speaker 5: For if you own all the companies. Is it still

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Speaker 5: price fixing? Is it still collusion if they're all.

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Speaker 4: Under your umbrella, or is it just the price that's yeah, yeah, that's.

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Speaker 2: The Kroger Albertsons thing was in twenty twenty two. That

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Speaker 2: was when it was announced, right October twenty twenty two,

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Speaker 2: which means there were people, you know, executives and board

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Speaker 2: members and all of those groups probably talking for over

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Speaker 2: a year about the potential to be acquired. Let's say

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Speaker 2: Albertson's or Kroger looking for someone to acquire so I

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Speaker 2: can only imagine that in this timeframe we're talking about,

437
00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:00,679
Speaker 2: there's all kinds of shenanigans going on that don't actually

438
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:03,600
Speaker 2: have to do with the prices you know, coming in

439
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:04,640
Speaker 2: from the manufacturer.

440
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:08,679
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, Like we're very bullish on AI

441
00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:11,880
Speaker 3: or in their case, we're very bullish on self checkout,

442
00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:18,359
Speaker 3: which helps us slim down the human expenses of employees. Also,

443
00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:22,000
Speaker 3: it's me from the C suite at Albertson's. I had

444
00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:25,760
Speaker 3: a great conversation with the C suite guy from Kroger

445
00:26:26,119 --> 00:26:32,040
Speaker 3: over at the golf course, right, and yeah, it's insidious, Yeah,

446
00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:32,639
Speaker 3: but it's okay.

447
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:36,520
Speaker 5: We still need one human to oversee the twelve checkout kiosks,

448
00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:39,880
Speaker 5: and then maybe we slim down the actual checkout checkouts

449
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:42,720
Speaker 5: to like three instead of the usual like ten. Like

450
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:44,359
Speaker 5: I was at a Walmart yesterday and I think there

451
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:48,160
Speaker 5: were only three active checker outers and then the rest

452
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 5: were automated and that was all overseen by one employee.

453
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 4: Dude.

454
00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:57,199
Speaker 3: Oh, one more example to dovetail that one. Just debate

455
00:26:57,280 --> 00:27:01,120
Speaker 3: the picture here. You guys may have seen it. I remember, Oh,

456
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:03,560
Speaker 3: I can't remember which country it was, but I was

457
00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:08,000
Speaker 3: I was in an airport for a thing, and I

458
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:13,840
Speaker 3: found an Amazon store that didn't have employees. It was

459
00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:15,840
Speaker 3: uh yeah, it was a thing where you.

460
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:18,960
Speaker 5: Just heard about the walk in and then it scans

461
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:20,520
Speaker 5: it's like myometrics or something.

462
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:22,919
Speaker 3: Yeah, you have to say like a little prayer to

463
00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:28,680
Speaker 3: Jeff and h then you get your overpriced pack of combos.

464
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 2: Uh special knowledge about those stores, Ben, there is one employee.

465
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:37,879
Speaker 2: He's he's up like above in the ceiling. Yeah, he

466
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:39,119
Speaker 2: has a high powered sniper.

467
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:42,680
Speaker 3: I also heard that in.

468
00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:46,320
Speaker 5: The early days of Amazon rolling those out, there was

469
00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:48,560
Speaker 5: this illusion that it was all automated, but it was

470
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:53,320
Speaker 5: actually somebody like watching everybody and like entering it in manually,

471
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:55,440
Speaker 5: just from a remote location. And it was like sort

472
00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:58,360
Speaker 5: of like almost like trying to trick people into thinking.

473
00:27:58,160 --> 00:27:59,560
Speaker 4: That it was all completely automated.

474
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:03,280
Speaker 5: Sure, those are those Tesla robots that are like remote

475
00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:04,400
Speaker 5: control from another room.

476
00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 3: I know that is true. Nol and Thatt, I one

477
00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:12,119
Speaker 3: hundred percent love your sniper idea. I think podcasting doesn't

478
00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:15,600
Speaker 3: work out, We're going to be for Amazon snipers, Dylan,

479
00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:16,240
Speaker 3: are you in.

480
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:19,200
Speaker 2: Well, it's just their trank darts.

481
00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 6: By the way, I have I have a miniature conspiracy

482
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:25,200
Speaker 6: theory about this. Oh allay, Yeah, so I have first

483
00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:27,320
Speaker 6: experienced thes in New York where you can't get in

484
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:30,160
Speaker 6: and out of somewhere without a debit card a credit card,

485
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,000
Speaker 6: and I think it's to keep on house people out.

486
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:35,800
Speaker 3: Really, I agree with that one hundred percent.

487
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:40,640
Speaker 5: Yeah, whether that's the primary driver, it's certainly a positive

488
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:42,800
Speaker 5: byproduct for those in charge.

489
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:45,360
Speaker 6: Yeah, it just it feels bad, man.

490
00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:48,960
Speaker 3: Yeah it should because it is unclean. You know. It's

491
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:52,800
Speaker 3: like it's like purposely putting in uh little dividers on

492
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:55,840
Speaker 3: benches so you so people can't sleep.

493
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:58,440
Speaker 5: There all right, like the pigeon spikes, but like humans.

494
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:01,680
Speaker 5: And that's another product of the pandemic, y'all.

495
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:04,960
Speaker 2: Cashless that really.

496
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:07,640
Speaker 5: Took off after the pandemic because there was this like

497
00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 5: reason to do it at the time.

498
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:12,040
Speaker 4: And then you'll notice a lot of people just stuck with.

499
00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:17,680
Speaker 2: It because it's all e coin. Now evil corpse taken

500
00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:21,280
Speaker 2: over it. Oh wait, sorry, no, that's a fictional reality.

501
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 3: Okay, everything is only fiction until it's fact. Also, also,

502
00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 3: we are we are four duncleheads who look increasingly paranoid

503
00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:35,720
Speaker 3: and weird when we counting. I'm looking through the various

504
00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:41,040
Speaker 3: currencies and bills that I found in this jackets so

505
00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 3: much cash, ben, it's too suspicious, they're gonna get me.

506
00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:48,120
Speaker 2: But some of it under your hat.

507
00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:51,720
Speaker 3: Geez, it goes in the sock, you guys, don't.

508
00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:54,040
Speaker 4: I do kind of hang on the euros now.

509
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:56,520
Speaker 5: Like I actually found like a decent amount a stash

510
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:59,480
Speaker 5: in my drawer from a previous trip that I obviously

511
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:01,840
Speaker 5: was like, well, I've got another trip this year, so

512
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 5: I'll just keep this and then I end up like,

513
00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:05,560
Speaker 5: you know, having it so I don't have to deal

514
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:06,800
Speaker 5: with you know, getting it later.

515
00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:07,320
Speaker 4: M m.

516
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 3: Yeah. And cashless society, that what a what a phenomenal observation.

517
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 3: Cashlest society increases surveillance, right. I would also argue it

518
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:22,920
Speaker 3: decreases the momentum of an ownership society, pushing a civilization

519
00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:25,720
Speaker 3: further into subscriber mode.

520
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:26,240
Speaker 4: Right.

521
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:31,560
Speaker 3: The FDC, as we said, they're not buying the grocery

522
00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:35,000
Speaker 3: store narrative, and when they came out with this report,

523
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:38,680
Speaker 3: it was one of those kind of nerdy things that

524
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:43,800
Speaker 3: doesn't make a national public splash, but absolutely rocks the industry.

525
00:30:43,840 --> 00:30:48,760
Speaker 3: It's addressing. So trade groups like the Food Marketing Institute,

526
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:53,040
Speaker 3: what do we say about innocuous names. They represent the

527
00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:56,959
Speaker 3: big chains and the wholesalers, and at first when this

528
00:30:57,040 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 3: came out this accusation of conspiracy, grift FMI said, we

529
00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:08,600
Speaker 3: have no comment as they frantically checked with their legal

530
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:13,040
Speaker 3: team and their stakeholders. But other groups really liked it.

531
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:18,920
Speaker 3: The National Grocers Association, they rep smaller indie food sellers,

532
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:21,560
Speaker 3: you know, the co ops, the moms and pops, and

533
00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:24,640
Speaker 3: they loved the study. We've got a statement from their

534
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 3: CEO at the time, Greg Ferrera. Ferrera said, this study

535
00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:35,440
Speaker 3: confirms what independent grossers and their customers experience firsthand. Dominant

536
00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:39,560
Speaker 3: national chains or so called power buyers, are abusing their

537
00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:44,440
Speaker 3: immense economic power to the detriment of competition and American consumers.

538
00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:49,160
Speaker 3: So I'm sorry it'll be so cynical about this, but

539
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 3: I just feel like this.

540
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:55,160
Speaker 5: Is how, you know, free market capitalism is supposed to work,

541
00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:58,280
Speaker 5: Like there are no checks or balances in place to

542
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:00,200
Speaker 5: prevent this kind of thing from happening.

543
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:04,240
Speaker 4: Yeah, son, how why it would you be? Why would

544
00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:06,320
Speaker 4: we expect that it wouldn't.

545
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:11,400
Speaker 3: Right because everything is precedent. So yeah, we get how

546
00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:15,360
Speaker 3: this can feel dry, sort of like our our surprisingly

547
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:18,760
Speaker 3: not dry farm subsidies episode. Do you guys remember that

548
00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:21,400
Speaker 3: we all got heated up about so wet It was

549
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 3: so wet dog anyway, so the grocery store conspiracy does

550
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:30,680
Speaker 3: not face does because he's thinking of the word moist.

551
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:35,400
Speaker 3: The grocery store conspiracy does, per the US government appear

552
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:38,520
Speaker 3: to be true, and we get how that move from

553
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:44,240
Speaker 3: five to six to seven percent over cost may seem small,

554
00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 3: but we get to remember the sheer scale of these enterprises.

555
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:51,680
Speaker 3: This is we're talking millions upon millions of dollars, and

556
00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:54,240
Speaker 3: it's loose price fixing as well. To the earlier point

557
00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:58,280
Speaker 3: about monopolies, right, if you own enough of the things

558
00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:01,560
Speaker 3: that like fingers on a and appear to be distinct,

559
00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 3: if you get enough of the other big players to

560
00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:09,120
Speaker 3: go along with your secret game, customers don't have a

561
00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:11,880
Speaker 3: realistic option. They have to figure out how to readjust

562
00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 3: their own budget and just pray to whatever god they

563
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 3: admire that they can hold on until prices go back

564
00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:23,600
Speaker 3: to normal. But then more and more industries start pulling

565
00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 3: a similar grift. We've all seen the added obscure fees

566
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:31,760
Speaker 3: at restaurants or at coffee chains or on your monthly bill,

567
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:34,920
Speaker 3: you know, for like your phone bill. Have you guys

568
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:39,920
Speaker 3: checked out the weird they're positively cryptic the fees that

569
00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:42,560
Speaker 3: are item line listed on your phone bills.

570
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:45,000
Speaker 5: I should, I don't, and I'm sure that I would

571
00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:46,800
Speaker 5: be surprised at what I might find.

572
00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:51,920
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, dude, phone bills and your I don't know

573
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:56,800
Speaker 2: for me, Mykexfinity bill, like anything you get Internet through

574
00:33:56,920 --> 00:33:59,520
Speaker 2: that ends up being bundled with other things because it's

575
00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:02,720
Speaker 2: actually cheaper somehow for like six months to a year,

576
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:04,720
Speaker 2: and then it balloons again. You got to figure out

577
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:05,320
Speaker 2: what the heck to do.

578
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:08,080
Speaker 3: At that point, you got to call him back and

579
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:11,879
Speaker 3: learn about a new weirdly named plan, like, oh, well,

580
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:17,040
Speaker 3: your Exfinity Signature Plus Premium, but you really want to

581
00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:22,440
Speaker 3: go with Exfinity Signature Plus Premium Pro Classic Edition blast.

582
00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:23,359
Speaker 2: They always put blast in.

583
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:29,600
Speaker 5: Is there a level up from blastmat prolapse.

584
00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:34,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's when you've just been obliterated.

585
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:37,759
Speaker 3: So yeah it souh.

586
00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:42,920
Speaker 5: Please fill me up, daddy, fill me with your glorious Internet,

587
00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:46,840
Speaker 5: give me your obscure Sorry, please take out filming up, daddy.

588
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:48,120
Speaker 4: It was for y'all's benefit.

589
00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:49,640
Speaker 3: Please keep it in, all.

590
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:51,799
Speaker 2: Right, Gonna clip it kinda loop it.

591
00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 3: You gonna keep it, loop it, publicize it at the

592
00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:58,920
Speaker 3: cashless Amazon store. But Matt, as you're as you're saying,

593
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:02,680
Speaker 3: I think this goes back to our earlier point of

594
00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:07,440
Speaker 3: the incremental increase. Right, you can do it by adding

595
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:11,000
Speaker 3: an extra fee, adding an extra expense that's usually going

596
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:15,920
Speaker 3: to be on its own, a relatively small amount of money.

597
00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:18,400
Speaker 3: But it's death by a thousand paper cuts.

598
00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:18,759
Speaker 2: It is.

599
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:22,120
Speaker 5: We live in the era of death by a thousand cuts.

600
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:25,200
Speaker 5: We live in the era of like a what is

601
00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:28,520
Speaker 5: it a frog boiling? You know, it doesn't know it's

602
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:31,160
Speaker 5: dead or it's dying until it's way way too late

603
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:33,080
Speaker 5: because of how slow and gradual it happens.

604
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:34,720
Speaker 2: It's so funny.

605
00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:36,360
Speaker 5: I was talking to somebody about this, how like I

606
00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:41,440
Speaker 5: literally got like rocket money so I could find some

607
00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:44,600
Speaker 5: of these little things, and now I can't figure out

608
00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:46,759
Speaker 5: how to cancel rocket money, and it's become one of

609
00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:47,440
Speaker 5: those things.

610
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:49,640
Speaker 2: It's just outrageous.

611
00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:53,719
Speaker 5: It is like this, this subscription fatigue, and the point

612
00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:56,360
Speaker 5: of it gets such developed, such critical mass that it

613
00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:58,920
Speaker 5: almost becomes like this demon in your closet that you

614
00:35:58,960 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 5: don't want to even mess with.

615
00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 3: It becomes another job just to keep an eye on it.

616
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:07,960
Speaker 3: It's your side gig, right, what are these big companies

617
00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:10,120
Speaker 3: trying to get me on today? You know?

618
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:14,600
Speaker 2: Well, dude, so okay, let's talking about side gigs. Budgeting

619
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:19,520
Speaker 2: for groceries now, and when you're talking about that incremental increase,

620
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:22,960
Speaker 2: you won't notice usually if it's a couple of cents more,

621
00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:25,759
Speaker 2: unless you're one of those people that I used to be,

622
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:29,680
Speaker 2: where you actually write down the individual prices of each thing.

623
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 2: So when you're you're budgeting out what can I go

624
00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:36,160
Speaker 2: get at the grocery store for this week, you actually

625
00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:38,600
Speaker 2: can calculate the whole thing and figure it out and

626
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:41,200
Speaker 2: I'm out the door, you know, at this price. I

627
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:43,960
Speaker 2: stopped doing that a long time ago, but I used

628
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:45,560
Speaker 2: to do that, and I know a lot of people

629
00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:46,319
Speaker 2: who still do that.

630
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:50,920
Speaker 3: Sure, eighty nine cents to ninety three cents as an increase,

631
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:55,280
Speaker 3: right is for a small can of tomato paste, for instance,

632
00:36:55,800 --> 00:37:01,040
Speaker 3: that will that may seem negligible to portion of people,

633
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:05,280
Speaker 3: But for the folks who get that extra few petties,

634
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:08,800
Speaker 3: that's huge because they do that scalions of time.

635
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:12,359
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, So not only are they profiting like that,

636
00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:16,120
Speaker 2: you are sometimes not even going to be aware that

637
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:18,920
Speaker 2: it's happening, right, And not until you get to the

638
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:22,480
Speaker 2: checkout and you look at that final number, you go, well,

639
00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:25,600
Speaker 2: how in the heck did I spend that much money?

640
00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:28,800
Speaker 2: That like, I can't spend that much money?

641
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:28,960
Speaker 4: What?

642
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:31,720
Speaker 2: Oh, holy crap, and that shock that you feel.

643
00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:32,319
Speaker 3: I was.

644
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:34,000
Speaker 2: I was listening to talk about all this stuff, and

645
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:36,399
Speaker 2: I went, man, you know what, the us needs some

646
00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:39,480
Speaker 2: kind of Department of Food to regulate this kind of stuff.

647
00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:41,640
Speaker 3: But they're closed.

648
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:44,280
Speaker 2: Well yeah, so I thought, oh, there is a USDA,

649
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:47,239
Speaker 2: there's a Department of Agriculture. They can help out with

650
00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:50,960
Speaker 2: this stuff. I went to their website. Have any have

651
00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:53,880
Speaker 2: you guys seen the giant things that are written on

652
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:56,440
Speaker 2: the front of websites now for all these government agencies.

653
00:37:56,800 --> 00:37:58,920
Speaker 4: Yeah, is it like we're working on it.

654
00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:01,040
Speaker 2: Gift No, under construction.

655
00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:05,160
Speaker 3: We'll give you a quote from the FTC. So I

656
00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:08,759
Speaker 3: can't wait any any time, and it's going to be

657
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:13,040
Speaker 3: this similar quote from the from the USDA and so

658
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:18,440
Speaker 3: many agencies. The one you'll see at the top of

659
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:24,279
Speaker 3: the still free online report that we referenced earlier is

660
00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:29,120
Speaker 3: this the FTC is closed due to the lapse in funding.

661
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:33,200
Speaker 3: Learn more about the status of FTC online services and

662
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:37,719
Speaker 3: website information updates during the lapse in funding. So if

663
00:38:37,719 --> 00:38:41,760
Speaker 3: you go there, you'll see you'll see that they close

664
00:38:41,960 --> 00:38:45,160
Speaker 3: like so many other things, on midnight of October first,

665
00:38:45,239 --> 00:38:46,160
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five.

666
00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:48,759
Speaker 2: Well, well, let me read this one to you from

667
00:38:48,800 --> 00:38:53,800
Speaker 2: the USDA's website. Due to the radical left Democrat shutdown,

668
00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:57,520
Speaker 2: this government website will not be updated during the funding laps.

669
00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:00,759
Speaker 2: Has made it clear he wants to the government open

670
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:03,200
Speaker 2: and support those who feed, fuel and clothe the American

671
00:39:03,239 --> 00:39:05,600
Speaker 2: people put in the chatnel.

672
00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:06,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, I see it.

673
00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:07,040
Speaker 4: I believe.

674
00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:12,960
Speaker 3: That is. I mean, they passed the loyalty test, right,

675
00:39:13,040 --> 00:39:19,839
Speaker 3: It's a real red wedding for professional about employees. Yeah, yeah,

676
00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:25,840
Speaker 3: I mean this. Also, these problems are going to get worse,

677
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:29,040
Speaker 3: you know, aside from other industries doing it. We have

678
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:31,719
Speaker 3: to add to the fact here that there are multiple

679
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:36,680
Speaker 3: layoffs hitting multiple industries. There are people, fellow conspiracy realists

680
00:39:36,719 --> 00:39:40,240
Speaker 3: listening to the show right now, who are tremendously skilled,

681
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:43,520
Speaker 3: phenomenally so, but have been forced to search for months

682
00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:47,919
Speaker 3: upon months upon months for a job. And we're with you.

683
00:39:48,239 --> 00:39:51,400
Speaker 3: We're here, we live here, and we wish you the best.

684
00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:54,120
Speaker 3: You know, we have to also add the majority of

685
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:57,759
Speaker 3: people lucky enough to keep their employment are constantly here,

686
00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:02,440
Speaker 3: and talk of furloughs more layo added responsibilities in the

687
00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:09,440
Speaker 3: case of federal agencies, loyalty test that supersede meritocracy or acumen.

688
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:12,640
Speaker 3: Forget about a promotion, a bonus or raise.

689
00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:15,440
Speaker 5: It's one of those things where it becomes this whole like, well,

690
00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:17,080
Speaker 5: I'm just glad to be in the room, you know,

691
00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:19,880
Speaker 5: I'm just glad to be here. And there's no upward

692
00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:23,040
Speaker 5: mobility or there's no even promise of that anymore. People

693
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:25,759
Speaker 5: are so scared about losing this stuff or about not

694
00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:27,839
Speaker 5: being able to afford to live that they're just like,

695
00:40:28,239 --> 00:40:31,319
Speaker 5: stay the course, you know, keep your mouth shut, don't

696
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 5: make a fuss.

697
00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:37,480
Speaker 3: Time. Privatized healthcare to employment was a brilliant and evil move,

698
00:40:37,920 --> 00:40:40,520
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. There's a really solid argument

699
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:44,640
Speaker 3: that that's part of why protests and strikes and power

700
00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:47,600
Speaker 3: to the people movements are so stymied here in the

701
00:40:47,719 --> 00:40:54,319
Speaker 3: United States. Not great, not great, Bob or whatever that

702
00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:58,360
Speaker 3: reference is. Eighty stand up comic voice. Let's see what else?

703
00:40:58,400 --> 00:40:58,880
Speaker 3: What else?

704
00:40:58,920 --> 00:40:59,400
Speaker 4: What else?

705
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:01,560
Speaker 3: What if we take a break for a word from

706
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:04,480
Speaker 3: our sponsors and get further into this because I think

707
00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:07,080
Speaker 3: there are some other industries we wanted to talk about

708
00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:07,480
Speaker 3: as well.

709
00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:18,160
Speaker 5: And we've returned and y'all, just a full disclosure here,

710
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:20,960
Speaker 5: I have to pop off for a parent teacher conference.

711
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:22,520
Speaker 2: Situation parenting.

712
00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:24,359
Speaker 4: It's such as life.

713
00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:28,279
Speaker 5: But this has been thus far and incredibly thought provoking

714
00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:32,000
Speaker 5: and galling conversation and I'm sure it's going to continue

715
00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:34,680
Speaker 5: a pace. But I'm glad to be back up and

716
00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:37,439
Speaker 5: traveling a bit. And apologies for my absence from the show,

717
00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:39,040
Speaker 5: and I'm excited to jump back in.

718
00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:41,040
Speaker 4: And I'm excited. We got this cruise thing coming up.

719
00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:43,040
Speaker 4: You all have the Sudden Can Spira, a cruise.

720
00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:46,720
Speaker 2: That's next week. Yeah, no kids allowed on that sucker.

721
00:41:47,840 --> 00:41:53,040
Speaker 3: Make sure you establish that at the conference, Principal Smith.

722
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:55,080
Speaker 3: One thing I want to be clear on is I

723
00:41:55,080 --> 00:42:00,880
Speaker 3: had an international waters later. Okay, so I'm sure that

724
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:03,759
Speaker 3: won't stress out the teacher, but no. Yeah, it's so

725
00:42:03,840 --> 00:42:04,600
Speaker 3: good to have you back.

726
00:42:04,600 --> 00:42:04,719
Speaker 2: Man.

727
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:08,120
Speaker 3: We're catching up off air about some of your ventures.

728
00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:11,160
Speaker 3: We can't wait to share more of it with our

729
00:42:11,360 --> 00:42:12,480
Speaker 3: fellow listeners.

730
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:15,640
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, but is there anything you want to leave

731
00:42:15,719 --> 00:42:18,160
Speaker 2: us with about your adventures before you take off.

732
00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:21,239
Speaker 5: Just an exciting show that I'm working on about the

733
00:42:21,360 --> 00:42:25,640
Speaker 5: Cold War, about human trafficking, people being smuggled across the

734
00:42:25,680 --> 00:42:29,360
Speaker 5: Berlin Wall from east to west. And there's also a

735
00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:32,480
Speaker 5: death at the center of the story and it is

736
00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:35,279
Speaker 5: involved sexual assault survival. There's just a lot going on.

737
00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:37,680
Speaker 5: I'm hosting the show and working on it and been

738
00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:39,480
Speaker 5: on the road for it and also doing the music

739
00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:41,200
Speaker 5: for it. I'm gonna get to do some like craft worky,

740
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:44,000
Speaker 5: tangerine dreamy kind of stuff. It's based in the exact

741
00:42:44,040 --> 00:42:47,080
Speaker 5: era of music that is my utter wheelhouse. And yeah,

742
00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:49,880
Speaker 5: we've got this amazing on the ground team in Berlin

743
00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:52,719
Speaker 5: and in London and it's a year out.

744
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:54,320
Speaker 4: So I'm very very excited.

745
00:42:54,400 --> 00:42:57,680
Speaker 3: Man. This show so phenomenal, fantastic, well safe travels man.

746
00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:01,000
Speaker 4: Thanks y'all, see ya, And you.

747
00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:04,799
Speaker 3: Can hear a little more about that show in an

748
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:09,839
Speaker 3: upcoming episode of Ridiculous History, Matt, you would have dug

749
00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:14,080
Speaker 3: that when it's the Ridiculous History of North Korea, it's

750
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:19,200
Speaker 3: the origin story thereof wow. So of course Nole's work

751
00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:22,560
Speaker 3: in this new project comes to bear in that conversation.

752
00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:28,960
Speaker 3: Right now, we're talking about other industries. We're talking about

753
00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:34,800
Speaker 3: problems with big laws, like how could you fix price fixing?

754
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:36,640
Speaker 3: How could you fix price gouging?

755
00:43:37,960 --> 00:43:43,920
Speaker 2: Punish you punish these evil corporations? No't, I don't know.

756
00:43:44,239 --> 00:43:45,040
Speaker 2: How would you do it?

757
00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:45,319
Speaker 4: Ben?

758
00:43:46,080 --> 00:43:51,600
Speaker 3: Oh? Oh, I'm unqualified. That's crazy. I basically one suit

759
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:55,200
Speaker 3: of magic armor away from doctor Doom. So I don't

760
00:43:55,239 --> 00:44:02,000
Speaker 3: think my solutions would be democratically platable and I wouldn't

761
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:02,640
Speaker 3: agree with them.

762
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:05,640
Speaker 2: I like forced all of the companies that have profited

763
00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:08,200
Speaker 2: from price gouging to invest that money and some kind

764
00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:10,759
Speaker 2: of fund that would eventually pay for Oh, I don't know,

765
00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:12,560
Speaker 2: groceries or healthcare for everybody.

766
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 3: Well, what are some other I gotta ask you, Matt,

767
00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:19,120
Speaker 3: what were some other industries that stood out to you

768
00:44:19,239 --> 00:44:20,880
Speaker 3: when we were researching this.

769
00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:23,960
Speaker 2: Oh, the biggest one for me was the cost of

770
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:28,920
Speaker 2: construction materials, and a huge one. That's primarily because I

771
00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:31,640
Speaker 2: went through the process of attempting to sell it and

772
00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:35,879
Speaker 2: buy houses in that time because of you know, personal

773
00:44:35,960 --> 00:44:40,800
Speaker 2: life stuff and just seeing how much it costs to,

774
00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:43,520
Speaker 2: you know, for me to make repairs on my house

775
00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:46,680
Speaker 2: and just to buy small amounts of construction materials to

776
00:44:46,719 --> 00:44:49,640
Speaker 2: make repairs and then how much it costs to then

777
00:44:50,040 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 2: purchase a home. So then it became the housing market

778
00:44:53,280 --> 00:44:56,440
Speaker 2: mixed in with the construction market, mixed in with all

779
00:44:56,480 --> 00:45:00,640
Speaker 2: of these rising costs and creating a huge I think

780
00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:04,960
Speaker 2: is another housing bubble. Uh, And we're still in it currently,

781
00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:08,360
Speaker 2: just kind of hanging out in these massively inflated prices.

782
00:45:08,719 --> 00:45:11,359
Speaker 3: I hope it pops real soon.

783
00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:15,000
Speaker 2: No, well, I mean, god, that's the crazy thing. You

784
00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:17,960
Speaker 2: hope it pops. But what does that actually mean and

785
00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:20,160
Speaker 2: what are the consequences of that?

786
00:45:20,719 --> 00:45:20,959
Speaker 4: Right?

787
00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:26,319
Speaker 2: Getting getting back, a normalization of prices often ends up

788
00:45:26,760 --> 00:45:29,000
Speaker 2: meaning disaster for most of us.

789
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:31,879
Speaker 3: Right, right, because we have to remember again the Kobyashi

790
00:45:32,280 --> 00:45:35,880
Speaker 3: Maru reference I was making earlier is nerdy, but not

791
00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:43,120
Speaker 3: without sand because deflation created the Great Depression, yes, which

792
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:44,759
Speaker 3: is still just a terrible name.

793
00:45:45,880 --> 00:45:49,640
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, but but just sorry, I'm not even answering

794
00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:50,520
Speaker 2: your question fully, ben.

795
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:50,880
Speaker 3: Uh.

796
00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:55,200
Speaker 2: The construction sector, right, raw materials that are purchased often

797
00:45:55,480 --> 00:45:58,600
Speaker 2: from overseas, that again that then get brought over here

798
00:45:58,600 --> 00:46:00,759
Speaker 2: and then you make let's say a house or a

799
00:46:00,920 --> 00:46:03,480
Speaker 2: huge building that's going to house Oh, I don't know,

800
00:46:04,160 --> 00:46:08,160
Speaker 2: AI infrastructure. The cost of those raw materials has gone

801
00:46:08,200 --> 00:46:10,640
Speaker 2: up something like it's wild.

802
00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:14,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can see it. You can see even as

803
00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:18,920
Speaker 3: just a person renovating your home on your lonesome. Right,

804
00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:21,160
Speaker 3: you go to home Depot, you go to Low's, you

805
00:46:21,200 --> 00:46:25,600
Speaker 3: go to Ace Hardware. Uh, the things that you might

806
00:46:25,719 --> 00:46:29,120
Speaker 3: have budgeted out or spect out for, you know, your

807
00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:32,319
Speaker 3: new deck, for instance, decks need a lot of wood. Right,

808
00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 3: you're now the price of all those planks has absolutely escalated.

809
00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:42,360
Speaker 2: Dude, the cost of a new deck, It's not possible.

810
00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:45,840
Speaker 2: It's not gonna happen, sorry in this economy. Sorry, nope.

811
00:46:47,000 --> 00:46:51,200
Speaker 3: Such we're talking to like, so, what's talking to their

812
00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:55,359
Speaker 3: child that are saying, look, yes, you could have made

813
00:46:55,400 --> 00:46:59,160
Speaker 3: it to Harvard, but daddy needs a deck, yeah, for.

814
00:46:59,120 --> 00:47:03,360
Speaker 2: Real, and a green Egg. I guess so, well that

815
00:47:03,520 --> 00:47:06,759
Speaker 2: was the college one. There it goes, there, it goes. Yeah.

816
00:47:06,840 --> 00:47:11,239
Speaker 3: Big companies are a prime target for these accusations, and

817
00:47:11,239 --> 00:47:14,759
Speaker 3: it's mainly because price gouging is a thing big companies

818
00:47:14,840 --> 00:47:17,160
Speaker 3: logically love to do if they can get away with it.

819
00:47:18,200 --> 00:47:23,680
Speaker 3: But we can't forget that this system is so interconnected.

820
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:27,120
Speaker 3: You know, the price of a two by four or

821
00:47:27,160 --> 00:47:29,839
Speaker 3: the price of a sheet of plywood, right, or a

822
00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:33,839
Speaker 3: bag of concrete mix that goes up and everything else

823
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:36,640
Speaker 3: goes up as well to the end user. We also

824
00:47:36,680 --> 00:47:42,600
Speaker 3: can't forget individual drifters got in on this too. Matt Dylan,

825
00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:46,560
Speaker 3: Do you guys remember the story of the Colvin brothers

826
00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:48,320
Speaker 3: some a Tennessee zone.

827
00:47:49,280 --> 00:47:50,359
Speaker 2: I've never heard this.

828
00:47:50,800 --> 00:47:53,200
Speaker 6: Were they the anti bacterial soap guys?

829
00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:53,880
Speaker 3: Yes?

830
00:47:54,000 --> 00:47:57,880
Speaker 2: They are, Yeah, I remember that. Wait what we're talking about?

831
00:47:58,239 --> 00:48:01,560
Speaker 3: All right? So this guy, Alan Wang journals allowing over

832
00:48:01,719 --> 00:48:05,760
Speaker 3: at the Brown Political Review, wrote this excellent, insightful piece

833
00:48:06,160 --> 00:48:09,719
Speaker 3: on the dangers of price gouging in post pandemic America,

834
00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:13,080
Speaker 3: and he opens up with the store of Tennessee's own

835
00:48:13,160 --> 00:48:17,160
Speaker 3: mattin Noah Colvin. It reads like a parable Maybe we

836
00:48:17,280 --> 00:48:21,360
Speaker 3: pulled just directly from him. According to Wig, It's March

837
00:48:21,440 --> 00:48:27,800
Speaker 3: twenty twenty. The Colvin brothers gain some local, then regional,

838
00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:34,719
Speaker 3: the national controversy because they stockpiled over seventeen thousand bottles

839
00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:39,040
Speaker 3: of hand sanitizer. And they were doing the thing that

840
00:48:39,160 --> 00:48:41,680
Speaker 3: scalpers do when they buy a bunch of tickets. They

841
00:48:41,680 --> 00:48:44,480
Speaker 3: wanted to kick up the price make a hefty profit.

842
00:48:45,600 --> 00:48:48,760
Speaker 3: The quote goes like this, the brothers Matt and Noah

843
00:48:48,760 --> 00:48:52,600
Speaker 3: Colvin had driven across Kentucky and Tennessee, buying out hand

844
00:48:52,640 --> 00:48:57,120
Speaker 3: sanitizer and anti bacterial wipes from virtually every store they

845
00:48:57,120 --> 00:49:01,560
Speaker 3: could find. Their operation, however, was almost immediately stopped by

846
00:49:01,640 --> 00:49:06,719
Speaker 3: Tennessee's then Attorney General, Herbert H. Slattery. The third.

847
00:49:08,040 --> 00:49:10,840
Speaker 2: Amazing the name, Herbert H.

848
00:49:10,880 --> 00:49:15,200
Speaker 3: Slattery. The third, Yeah, it feels like something you and

849
00:49:15,239 --> 00:49:16,439
Speaker 3: I would make up if we were.

850
00:49:16,440 --> 00:49:19,800
Speaker 2: Improving herbity Slattery. The third.

851
00:49:22,719 --> 00:49:27,120
Speaker 3: This goes into the legality that we were foreshadowing earlier.

852
00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:29,200
Speaker 2: Well, how did the how did the attorney general even

853
00:49:29,200 --> 00:49:31,359
Speaker 2: stop it? Where were they what were they doing? Did

854
00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:34,279
Speaker 2: they set up shop somewhere in the center of all

855
00:49:34,280 --> 00:49:36,040
Speaker 2: of these stores where they bought from and it just

856
00:49:36,600 --> 00:49:38,400
Speaker 2: it just says hand sanitizer here.

857
00:49:39,040 --> 00:49:39,439
Speaker 4: M hmm.

858
00:49:39,680 --> 00:49:42,480
Speaker 3: It's got a digital readout like a gas station. Yeah,

859
00:49:42,600 --> 00:49:47,840
Speaker 3: the price increases by a penny every time someone buys something. Uh,

860
00:49:47,880 --> 00:49:51,719
Speaker 3: Our buddy, Herbert looked into this, and Tennessee is one

861
00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:54,960
Speaker 3: of those states that does have a law against price

862
00:49:55,040 --> 00:50:00,359
Speaker 3: gouging during emergencies. So due to the terrible pr due

863
00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:05,279
Speaker 3: to the legal consequences they faced, the Colvin brothers eventually

864
00:50:05,360 --> 00:50:09,759
Speaker 3: settled their case and they stayed out of jail or

865
00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:14,920
Speaker 3: serious legal consequences by donating all those hoarded supplies to

866
00:50:15,320 --> 00:50:21,080
Speaker 3: nonprofits and to the Tennessee government, says one parable, that's

867
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:23,719
Speaker 3: one case where it worked out. That's a case where

868
00:50:23,760 --> 00:50:26,319
Speaker 3: the law did help stop the conspiracy.

869
00:50:26,840 --> 00:50:30,640
Speaker 2: Isn't it interesting though, because not only did all of

870
00:50:30,719 --> 00:50:35,480
Speaker 2: the local shops that had those hand sanitizer wipes and

871
00:50:35,520 --> 00:50:38,840
Speaker 2: all that stuff, they profited right at the moment that

872
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:42,239
Speaker 2: the Colvin brothers purchased it. Then through all of this,

873
00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:46,520
Speaker 2: the government itself profited because it was like they got

874
00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:47,440
Speaker 2: it for free.

875
00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:53,719
Speaker 3: Exactly right. So it's just a grift gone down, and

876
00:50:53,760 --> 00:50:57,360
Speaker 3: you kind of have to figure out which grift is

877
00:50:57,480 --> 00:51:00,239
Speaker 3: most ethical to you, which grift.

878
00:50:59,960 --> 00:51:03,040
Speaker 2: Is going to be more okay with the powers that be.

879
00:51:04,120 --> 00:51:06,279
Speaker 3: That's another way to put it. Yeah, for sure, I

880
00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:10,239
Speaker 3: mean this is one case in a vast ocean. If

881
00:51:10,239 --> 00:51:14,600
Speaker 3: we combine this with the good old fashioned inflation of

882
00:51:14,640 --> 00:51:19,320
Speaker 3: the pandemic era, which hit eight percent inflation in twenty

883
00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:22,799
Speaker 3: twenty two, that's the highest since nineteen eighties, we see

884
00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:27,360
Speaker 3: that price gouging on small and large levels through multiple

885
00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:34,439
Speaker 3: industries absolutely wrecked people's day to day lives. It accelerated

886
00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:38,840
Speaker 3: the cost of living to such a cartoonish degree. But

887
00:51:39,120 --> 00:51:43,480
Speaker 3: the legal beagles are going to say and a national

888
00:51:43,680 --> 00:51:48,680
Speaker 3: anti price gouging law would allow much more leverage in

889
00:51:48,680 --> 00:51:54,080
Speaker 3: investigating this Shenanig and re But the laws as they

890
00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:57,719
Speaker 3: exist now are state by state. If you think you're

891
00:51:58,560 --> 00:52:01,919
Speaker 3: Kroger or Albert Sins or whatever is ripping you off,

892
00:52:02,320 --> 00:52:05,319
Speaker 3: the law that might help you, or the law you

893
00:52:05,320 --> 00:52:08,680
Speaker 3: could refer to, only applies in a time of crisis,

894
00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:13,200
Speaker 3: only during an emergency. So if there's not stuff going wrong,

895
00:52:13,719 --> 00:52:16,600
Speaker 3: these laws don't matter. They may have well been just

896
00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:20,000
Speaker 3: traced into the water of a rising tide.

897
00:52:20,560 --> 00:52:23,680
Speaker 2: All you need is an official emergency. Then all you

898
00:52:23,680 --> 00:52:28,520
Speaker 2: gotta do is declare that I don't know, there's domestic

899
00:52:28,640 --> 00:52:32,360
Speaker 2: terrorism occurring in cities across the country and it's a

900
00:52:32,440 --> 00:52:34,160
Speaker 2: state of emergency.

901
00:52:34,080 --> 00:52:38,120
Speaker 3: And asking how terrorism is defined? Is itself an act

902
00:52:38,160 --> 00:52:39,360
Speaker 3: of terrorism and sedition?

903
00:52:39,880 --> 00:52:40,120
Speaker 4: Yeah?

904
00:52:40,360 --> 00:52:43,560
Speaker 2: So, but all you need to know is that it's

905
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:46,080
Speaker 2: an emergency. Okay, that's all you need to know. And

906
00:52:46,480 --> 00:52:49,279
Speaker 2: any these companies can charge whatever they want because we're

907
00:52:49,320 --> 00:52:50,759
Speaker 2: in an emergency.

908
00:52:50,600 --> 00:52:53,560
Speaker 3: And we're not taking questions. By the way, because did

909
00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:55,919
Speaker 3: you guys not just hear us say it's an emergency.

910
00:52:56,480 --> 00:52:57,600
Speaker 2: We're in our gotta go.

911
00:52:58,080 --> 00:53:02,520
Speaker 3: Bananas are ten dollars, deal with it. This conference is over.

912
00:53:02,800 --> 00:53:04,399
Speaker 2: Good luck, stay safe.

913
00:53:05,040 --> 00:53:08,920
Speaker 3: Right, and God bless America. These laws happen used to

914
00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:13,640
Speaker 3: help consumers. We know that New York cracked down on

915
00:53:13,719 --> 00:53:18,000
Speaker 3: a couple of people, notably Hill and Dale Farms, because

916
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:21,520
Speaker 3: they had raised prices on eggs right at the beginning

917
00:53:21,680 --> 00:53:26,600
Speaker 3: of the pandemic. And this lawsuit, similar to the Colvin thing,

918
00:53:27,239 --> 00:53:30,960
Speaker 3: resulted in a settlement where Hill and Dale Farms said,

919
00:53:31,040 --> 00:53:35,480
Speaker 3: all right, we're going to stop ripping people off on eggs.

920
00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:39,200
Speaker 3: We're also, get this, going to donate one point two

921
00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:43,640
Speaker 3: million eggs to food banks across New York the state.

922
00:53:44,680 --> 00:53:48,719
Speaker 3: That's kind of cool, but also reminds me of God,

923
00:53:48,760 --> 00:53:52,600
Speaker 3: where were we? Where was I? Okay, So, Matt, do

924
00:53:52,640 --> 00:53:56,120
Speaker 3: you remember when eggs were gold?

925
00:53:56,480 --> 00:54:03,680
Speaker 2: Apparently this year or during the pandemic during Yeah, no,

926
00:54:03,800 --> 00:54:05,640
Speaker 2: I do, I do. And now if you go and

927
00:54:05,680 --> 00:54:07,960
Speaker 2: look at the price of eggs, it really is insane,

928
00:54:09,520 --> 00:54:13,400
Speaker 2: And it's so funny how it becomes an ethical choice

929
00:54:13,560 --> 00:54:16,880
Speaker 2: in some way because of what we learned about factory farming.

930
00:54:16,920 --> 00:54:20,120
Speaker 2: We all all of us learned about what it means, right,

931
00:54:20,200 --> 00:54:22,680
Speaker 2: So then you want to make the choice to buy

932
00:54:22,719 --> 00:54:26,440
Speaker 2: eggs that have those words on them, like free range

933
00:54:26,719 --> 00:54:29,719
Speaker 2: or case. Yeah, you want to do that, But then

934
00:54:29,760 --> 00:54:34,640
Speaker 2: you realize, oh, that that's like seven dollars twelve dollars

935
00:54:34,760 --> 00:54:38,239
Speaker 2: for twelve eggs. How could I possibly afford that and

936
00:54:38,320 --> 00:54:40,640
Speaker 2: make that make sense for me and you?

937
00:54:40,680 --> 00:54:45,600
Speaker 3: Producers are often lying purpose or being purposely misleading with

938
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:48,520
Speaker 3: those phrases. If your day is going too well, if

939
00:54:48,560 --> 00:54:51,640
Speaker 3: your evening's going too well, folks, check out our farm

940
00:54:51,680 --> 00:54:53,279
Speaker 3: factory episodes.

941
00:54:53,600 --> 00:54:58,000
Speaker 2: Or yeah, or just don't, cause there're so many of

942
00:54:58,000 --> 00:55:01,759
Speaker 2: our episodes are just straight up. But we always try

943
00:55:01,760 --> 00:55:04,239
Speaker 2: and put this little positive thing in the end. But

944
00:55:04,360 --> 00:55:10,200
Speaker 2: sometimes sometimes it's just it's kind of like this episode.

945
00:55:10,200 --> 00:55:14,719
Speaker 2: For me, I don't see a way to force companies

946
00:55:14,760 --> 00:55:18,120
Speaker 2: that engage in this kind of price gouging, this kind

947
00:55:18,480 --> 00:55:22,239
Speaker 2: and even it's not officially price gouging, it's inflating their

948
00:55:22,239 --> 00:55:25,480
Speaker 2: own prices artificially because it's going to be way better

949
00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:27,400
Speaker 2: for them on a quarterly basis, or it's going to

950
00:55:27,440 --> 00:55:29,840
Speaker 2: be way better for them in some kind of merger

951
00:55:29,920 --> 00:55:32,240
Speaker 2: or acquisition deal in the near.

952
00:55:32,160 --> 00:55:35,160
Speaker 3: Future, right, And I love that you're bringing that up,

953
00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:38,960
Speaker 3: because here's why it's a sticky wicket, folks. Here's why

954
00:55:39,080 --> 00:55:41,920
Speaker 3: people have to be careful about the legislation. It becomes

955
00:55:41,960 --> 00:55:46,640
Speaker 3: a bag of badgers incredibly quickly price gouging laws, which

956
00:55:46,680 --> 00:55:50,799
Speaker 3: would be defined as government regulation on how much a

957
00:55:50,880 --> 00:55:54,279
Speaker 3: good or service is allowed to cost, usually putting a

958
00:55:54,400 --> 00:55:58,480
Speaker 3: ceiling on it. Right, That is a huge hot button issue.

959
00:55:58,640 --> 00:56:03,799
Speaker 3: Companies obvious generally hate this idea. Makes sense from their perspective,

960
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:06,480
Speaker 3: they got to pay the blood price every quarter, but

961
00:56:06,600 --> 00:56:09,920
Speaker 3: a ton of consumers are also icked out by this

962
00:56:10,320 --> 00:56:13,160
Speaker 3: because it can be seen as a slippery slope into

963
00:56:13,239 --> 00:56:16,440
Speaker 3: a world of Big Brother encroaching on the market. You know,

964
00:56:16,760 --> 00:56:20,279
Speaker 3: it could become a distant cousin of a command economy,

965
00:56:20,440 --> 00:56:24,400
Speaker 3: which leads to rationing and privation. It just I'm not

966
00:56:24,480 --> 00:56:28,799
Speaker 3: saying that it's absolutely correct, but I am saying I

967
00:56:28,920 --> 00:56:30,120
Speaker 3: get where they're coming from.

968
00:56:30,520 --> 00:56:32,600
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, because it ends up putting constraints on the

969
00:56:32,600 --> 00:56:38,560
Speaker 2: folks that actually generate the food, right, or whatever it is.

970
00:56:38,880 --> 00:56:42,239
Speaker 2: But the people who own the farms, who actually have

971
00:56:42,360 --> 00:56:44,120
Speaker 2: the chickens and take care of the chickens that get

972
00:56:44,160 --> 00:56:48,520
Speaker 2: the eggs and now you can only sell those eggs

973
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:51,400
Speaker 2: for a certain price, and you can only make a

974
00:56:51,440 --> 00:56:55,320
Speaker 2: certain amount of money, right, no matter what happens, unless

975
00:56:55,360 --> 00:56:58,000
Speaker 2: you get government subsidies, which again go to our government,

976
00:56:58,320 --> 00:57:01,920
Speaker 2: our subsidies. Episode, was that part of that farm subsidies.

977
00:57:01,360 --> 00:57:04,959
Speaker 3: Farm subsidies? Yeah, yeah, which still like, if you haven't

978
00:57:05,000 --> 00:57:07,719
Speaker 3: heard it, you're not ready, by the way, just dive

979
00:57:07,800 --> 00:57:11,800
Speaker 3: in blind. We promise it's not as boring as it sounds.

980
00:57:11,840 --> 00:57:13,799
Speaker 3: You'll be kind of upset at the end.

981
00:57:13,880 --> 00:57:17,760
Speaker 2: Actually, yeah, Well, and I think the problem with regulation

982
00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:21,160
Speaker 2: like that is because it is all this connected ecosystem,

983
00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:24,640
Speaker 2: and each part affects another part, and each the whole thing.

984
00:57:25,920 --> 00:57:27,600
Speaker 2: Get if you alter it just a little bit, and

985
00:57:27,640 --> 00:57:30,960
Speaker 2: you try and do something like put a ceiling on

986
00:57:31,000 --> 00:57:33,480
Speaker 2: the price of something, it's gonna affect everything else down

987
00:57:33,560 --> 00:57:36,760
Speaker 2: the line, which then makes another problem that somebody has

988
00:57:36,800 --> 00:57:37,840
Speaker 2: to step in and fix.

989
00:57:38,440 --> 00:57:41,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like pooping in the ocean. Beat me hereor Dylan,

990
00:57:41,520 --> 00:57:48,360
Speaker 3: that goes somewhere else. So great, best, oh god, best,

991
00:57:48,640 --> 00:57:51,520
Speaker 3: I can't believe it. We can vote geez all right, Well,

992
00:57:51,560 --> 00:57:55,360
Speaker 3: we know exactly what you're describing their Matt, because during

993
00:57:55,520 --> 00:58:02,120
Speaker 3: the last presidential campaign, the then Vice President Harris floated

994
00:58:02,160 --> 00:58:06,480
Speaker 3: the idea of national price gouging laws. She was also adamant,

995
00:58:06,520 --> 00:58:09,800
Speaker 3: like so many others in Washington, that this could only

996
00:58:09,840 --> 00:58:14,880
Speaker 3: apply during an emergency, because everybody kind of agreed tacitly

997
00:58:15,280 --> 00:58:22,000
Speaker 3: that a non emergency, peacetime price gouging law could really complicate,

998
00:58:22,240 --> 00:58:26,480
Speaker 3: as you described, an already unwieldy economic structure.

999
00:58:26,200 --> 00:58:28,040
Speaker 2: Because that's how we do things round here.

1000
00:58:28,720 --> 00:58:31,360
Speaker 3: Just band aid it, just band it ship a thesis,

1001
00:58:31,600 --> 00:58:34,080
Speaker 3: this thing all the way to the horizon.

1002
00:58:34,400 --> 00:58:37,400
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, temporary price gouging is just how It's

1003
00:58:37,440 --> 00:58:38,920
Speaker 2: how the sausage is made.

1004
00:58:39,600 --> 00:58:41,880
Speaker 3: The game's the game, you know what I mean, what

1005
00:58:42,360 --> 00:58:44,520
Speaker 3: are you going to do? The game's a game. So

1006
00:58:44,760 --> 00:58:50,080
Speaker 3: most economists, also, despite their differences, which are quite strident

1007
00:58:50,120 --> 00:58:54,680
Speaker 3: at times, they concluded a plan like what the Harris

1008
00:58:54,680 --> 00:59:00,240
Speaker 3: campaign proposed probably wouldn't work, also in that it would

1009
00:59:00,280 --> 00:59:04,280
Speaker 3: not lower grocery prices. It's so difficult to claw back

1010
00:59:04,320 --> 00:59:09,040
Speaker 3: those tasty year over year profits. And if the religion

1011
00:59:09,120 --> 00:59:14,160
Speaker 3: of capitalism has a prime commandment, it's that profit shall

1012
00:59:14,240 --> 00:59:19,000
Speaker 3: increase at a constant rate quarter over quarter, year after year,

1013
00:59:19,280 --> 00:59:22,000
Speaker 3: by hook or by crook, one way or another.

1014
00:59:22,680 --> 00:59:26,520
Speaker 2: Well, because you need dividends. What would the shareholders think

1015
00:59:26,560 --> 00:59:29,720
Speaker 2: if you did not increase quarter over quarter. Well, and

1016
00:59:29,760 --> 00:59:32,280
Speaker 2: that mostly applies to public companies, companies that are big

1017
00:59:32,400 --> 00:59:36,560
Speaker 2: enough to be shared within the stock market, where everyone

1018
00:59:36,680 --> 00:59:39,440
Speaker 2: gets a bit of that sweet sweet ownership.

1019
00:59:39,640 --> 00:59:42,280
Speaker 3: I picture the we might get in trouble for this one,

1020
00:59:42,360 --> 00:59:47,440
Speaker 3: but just fictionally, I'm picturing the shareholders who are often

1021
00:59:47,440 --> 00:59:51,200
Speaker 3: on multiple boards, right, the board members. I picture them

1022
00:59:51,560 --> 00:59:59,000
Speaker 3: as purposefully not being experts nor particularly intelligent, Like they're

1023
00:59:59,160 --> 01:00:03,040
Speaker 3: Cla lloy at Morlocks in the time machine. They're a

1024
01:00:03,040 --> 01:00:06,560
Speaker 3: class that's been bred to just agree to this crazy grift.

1025
01:00:07,240 --> 01:00:11,040
Speaker 3: So the CEO walks in and says, all right, we've

1026
01:00:11,040 --> 01:00:13,840
Speaker 3: got our Q three numbers. And then it's a bunch

1027
01:00:13,920 --> 01:00:19,560
Speaker 3: of very strange, habsburg looking baby people like wear babies,

1028
01:00:19,840 --> 01:00:24,160
Speaker 3: and they're just going farem divvys were my dvvs.

1029
01:00:25,200 --> 01:00:30,280
Speaker 2: There's much ivy. You gotta get them their divvy's dude,

1030
01:00:30,320 --> 01:00:33,120
Speaker 2: I know, I was imagining the folks over it. What

1031
01:00:33,200 --> 01:00:39,280
Speaker 2: was the name Hargill Farms, So oh yeah, Hillendale, Hillendale Farms.

1032
01:00:39,280 --> 01:00:43,560
Speaker 2: And they're like, oh man, guys, Vita Farm is on

1033
01:00:43,600 --> 01:00:46,720
Speaker 2: the line and they're they're looking to acquire another Company're like, oh,

1034
01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:48,880
Speaker 2: I've got Cargill on the line over here. They're looking

1035
01:00:48,880 --> 01:00:51,320
Speaker 2: for somebody. Oh oh, what are we gonna do. We

1036
01:00:51,360 --> 01:00:52,800
Speaker 2: got to raise the price of these eggs a little bit.

1037
01:00:52,840 --> 01:00:54,240
Speaker 2: We need to get the profits up by at least

1038
01:00:54,320 --> 01:00:56,080
Speaker 2: one and a half percent by next Wednesday.

1039
01:00:56,920 --> 01:01:05,880
Speaker 3: Just oh no, the Habsburg baby he's calling. Oh man,

1040
01:01:05,960 --> 01:01:09,240
Speaker 3: I hope we okay, I hope that. Surely after all

1041
01:01:09,280 --> 01:01:11,600
Speaker 3: these years, that's not the joke that's going to black

1042
01:01:11,640 --> 01:01:15,000
Speaker 3: bag us. But we do have to take a moment here.

1043
01:01:15,360 --> 01:01:18,400
Speaker 3: We have to emphasize this is not a hip piece

1044
01:01:18,440 --> 01:01:22,640
Speaker 3: on small business owners right. Just like how the US

1045
01:01:22,640 --> 01:01:28,320
Speaker 3: socioeconomic hierarchy has a pyramid structure with a very few

1046
01:01:28,520 --> 01:01:31,120
Speaker 3: people at the top doing very well and most other

1047
01:01:31,200 --> 01:01:36,439
Speaker 3: people encountering some degree of challenge. Industries have that too.

1048
01:01:36,720 --> 01:01:41,560
Speaker 3: Industries have strange pyramid structures. And if you are the

1049
01:01:41,600 --> 01:01:45,400
Speaker 3: owner of a small business, first off, congratulations and we

1050
01:01:45,480 --> 01:01:48,240
Speaker 3: wish you well. We know it's a very difficult environment.

1051
01:01:49,360 --> 01:01:52,000
Speaker 3: We also know that you're often going to be struggling

1052
01:01:52,040 --> 01:01:54,760
Speaker 3: to keep your head above water as the big dogs

1053
01:01:54,880 --> 01:01:59,960
Speaker 3: relentlessly leverage power to drive the smaller operations into extinction

1054
01:02:00,360 --> 01:02:03,320
Speaker 3: or like you said, Matt, buy them out completely.

1055
01:02:03,680 --> 01:02:04,920
Speaker 2: Yep, y yep.

1056
01:02:05,240 --> 01:02:08,760
Speaker 3: And this leads to you know, this leads to things

1057
01:02:08,840 --> 01:02:13,880
Speaker 3: like food deserts. This has knock on consequences. We know

1058
01:02:14,120 --> 01:02:19,960
Speaker 3: there are various predatory processes that predate the pandemic, but

1059
01:02:19,960 --> 01:02:26,600
Speaker 3: it's no secret the pandemic massively accelerated these conspiracies, these shenanigans,

1060
01:02:26,920 --> 01:02:30,280
Speaker 3: this big business corruption, I mean business is one big

1061
01:02:30,360 --> 01:02:32,640
Speaker 3: during the pandemic, and they did so at the cost

1062
01:02:32,760 --> 01:02:36,560
Speaker 3: of the average customer, which leads us to I don't know, man,

1063
01:02:36,600 --> 01:02:38,400
Speaker 3: what do you think a couple of things we can

1064
01:02:38,720 --> 01:02:40,640
Speaker 3: laundry list toward the end here.

1065
01:02:41,400 --> 01:02:47,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll give you one. Okay, changing climates and the

1066
01:02:47,960 --> 01:02:50,600
Speaker 2: way a lot of food crops in particular have been

1067
01:02:50,640 --> 01:02:57,000
Speaker 2: affected everywhere from Brazil to Mexico to places where a

1068
01:02:57,040 --> 01:03:00,160
Speaker 2: lot of American produce is produced.

1069
01:03:00,080 --> 01:03:02,640
Speaker 3: Eastern Europe as well, you know what I mean, the

1070
01:03:02,680 --> 01:03:03,600
Speaker 3: African continent.

1071
01:03:03,680 --> 01:03:07,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, that kind of thing. When crops are destroyed and

1072
01:03:07,560 --> 01:03:09,880
Speaker 2: now you don't have as much, then the prices of

1073
01:03:09,920 --> 01:03:13,720
Speaker 2: those crops, those goods, when they get sent somewhere else

1074
01:03:14,080 --> 01:03:18,960
Speaker 2: become more expensive. Right then what if man, what do

1075
01:03:19,000 --> 01:03:22,360
Speaker 2: you say, we've already got that issue happening. What if

1076
01:03:22,360 --> 01:03:25,040
Speaker 2: there was a problem with I don't know, shipping costs.

1077
01:03:26,200 --> 01:03:28,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, there we go. Yes, because what we're seeing is

1078
01:03:28,720 --> 01:03:32,480
Speaker 3: compounding factors. That's a great point. Yeah, we mentioned tariffs

1079
01:03:32,520 --> 01:03:35,480
Speaker 3: briefly at the top, and like Jack White said, once

1080
01:03:35,520 --> 01:03:38,160
Speaker 3: upon a time, I said it once before, but it

1081
01:03:38,240 --> 01:03:41,720
Speaker 3: bears repeating. Learn more in our episode. The trouble with

1082
01:03:41,960 --> 01:03:46,120
Speaker 3: tariffs that was from March I think of earlier this year,

1083
01:03:46,520 --> 01:03:53,120
Speaker 3: and that's that's one of the big divisive, controversial additive

1084
01:03:53,240 --> 01:03:57,640
Speaker 3: shipping cost right. It's directly impacting end users. Even as

1085
01:03:57,720 --> 01:04:04,320
Speaker 3: arable land is increasingly less arable, this is all pressing

1086
01:04:04,400 --> 01:04:08,280
Speaker 3: domestic companies. Those costs rolled down the hill to consumers

1087
01:04:08,280 --> 01:04:11,520
Speaker 3: buying their stuff, just like when you're looking at house construction.

1088
01:04:11,760 --> 01:04:15,720
Speaker 3: As you said, logically, this makes a second opportunity for

1089
01:04:15,960 --> 01:04:20,760
Speaker 3: price gouging. This has not been conclusively proven yet, but

1090
01:04:21,040 --> 01:04:24,160
Speaker 3: I would say, Matt and Dylan, all of us at home,

1091
01:04:24,440 --> 01:04:28,040
Speaker 3: it is not unreasonable to assume at least a few

1092
01:04:28,120 --> 01:04:34,640
Speaker 3: companies will act on the opportunity if they have the means. Well,

1093
01:04:34,680 --> 01:04:39,440
Speaker 3: let's imagine there's a tariff that increases the material cost

1094
01:04:39,640 --> 01:04:43,320
Speaker 3: of something like steel, and you're a company that builds

1095
01:04:43,360 --> 01:04:48,000
Speaker 3: stuff from steel, and you say, oh, our price went

1096
01:04:48,080 --> 01:04:51,480
Speaker 3: up x percent, so to make money, we would have

1097
01:04:51,760 --> 01:04:57,800
Speaker 3: normally sold this for a y percent increase. But now, guys,

1098
01:04:58,640 --> 01:05:01,320
Speaker 3: Q three numbers are coming up. Uh, let's sell it

1099
01:05:01,360 --> 01:05:03,800
Speaker 3: for z percent and just see how long we can

1100
01:05:03,880 --> 01:05:04,640
Speaker 3: let it ride.

1101
01:05:05,200 --> 01:05:07,160
Speaker 2: Hmic, way to do it.

1102
01:05:07,360 --> 01:05:10,360
Speaker 3: I think that's what's happening. And I like that we're

1103
01:05:10,440 --> 01:05:12,840
Speaker 3: using our sexy radio voices on that one.

1104
01:05:12,920 --> 01:05:15,240
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I think of the Porsches Man.

1105
01:05:15,880 --> 01:05:23,640
Speaker 3: You're listening to the Quiet Crisis Solution. Yeah, welcome back

1106
01:05:23,680 --> 01:05:28,760
Speaker 3: to blood price. Then we got to mention shrinkflation. I'm

1107
01:05:28,840 --> 01:05:32,560
Speaker 3: still so Larry David Levell irritated by this where prices

1108
01:05:32,760 --> 01:05:35,160
Speaker 3: appear to stay the same but the amount of actual

1109
01:05:35,200 --> 01:05:38,880
Speaker 3: stuff you're purchasing gets smaller and smaller. Do you guys

1110
01:05:38,920 --> 01:05:41,720
Speaker 3: have examples of that? You ran into? I don't know,

1111
01:05:42,680 --> 01:05:45,320
Speaker 3: cereal boxes. Do you guys mess with cereal?

1112
01:05:45,960 --> 01:05:46,160
Speaker 4: Oh?

1113
01:05:46,240 --> 01:05:49,200
Speaker 6: Yeah, Well it's weird because there's like giant size now

1114
01:05:49,600 --> 01:05:53,320
Speaker 6: and you just can't really get some cereals and a

1115
01:05:53,400 --> 01:05:54,920
Speaker 6: container that makes any sense.

1116
01:05:55,680 --> 01:06:00,800
Speaker 2: Hmmm. I'm genuinely racking my brain if I know. We've

1117
01:06:00,800 --> 01:06:06,400
Speaker 2: talked about several examples in the past. They've been alleged, right, yeah,

1118
01:06:06,440 --> 01:06:07,960
Speaker 2: but I don't know if there's one. I don't know

1119
01:06:08,000 --> 01:06:12,280
Speaker 2: if there's uh orange juice. I know, for a while there,

1120
01:06:12,760 --> 01:06:14,800
Speaker 2: I thought I was buying the same amount of orange

1121
01:06:14,880 --> 01:06:18,560
Speaker 2: juice when I bring it home because my son loves it.

1122
01:06:18,640 --> 01:06:20,840
Speaker 2: But it was a smaller container and I had no

1123
01:06:20,920 --> 01:06:23,640
Speaker 2: idea because it looked really similar when it's all lined

1124
01:06:23,720 --> 01:06:24,760
Speaker 2: up in the shelf like that.

1125
01:06:25,120 --> 01:06:29,320
Speaker 3: Incremental changes, yeah, or even if you look at the

1126
01:06:29,360 --> 01:06:32,720
Speaker 3: bottom of some especially with beverages, the bottom of some

1127
01:06:32,800 --> 01:06:36,520
Speaker 3: of those, the little scoop at the at the butt

1128
01:06:36,840 --> 01:06:40,000
Speaker 3: is going to be bigger, so that there's actually less

1129
01:06:40,080 --> 01:06:43,480
Speaker 3: juice now currently, at least back when they were open.

1130
01:06:43,880 --> 01:06:47,200
Speaker 3: The FDA require I hate that we have to say

1131
01:06:47,240 --> 01:06:52,600
Speaker 3: that the FDA required manufacturers to put the actual measurements

1132
01:06:52,640 --> 01:06:57,680
Speaker 3: on stuff, but they're not a big part of the branding.

1133
01:06:57,800 --> 01:06:59,560
Speaker 3: So you have to actually pick it up and look

1134
01:06:59,600 --> 01:07:02,959
Speaker 3: and say, oh, this used to be twelve ounces. Now

1135
01:07:03,080 --> 01:07:08,600
Speaker 3: for some reason, it's eleven point three. And that's happening.

1136
01:07:09,000 --> 01:07:11,000
Speaker 3: That's happening across the grocery store.

1137
01:07:11,760 --> 01:07:14,360
Speaker 2: If you head to the FDA website FDA dot up.

1138
01:07:14,360 --> 01:07:17,360
Speaker 2: It says mission critical activities of FDA will continue during

1139
01:07:17,400 --> 01:07:20,640
Speaker 2: the Democrat led government shutdown. Please use the site as

1140
01:07:20,640 --> 01:07:24,600
Speaker 2: a resource as the administration works to reopen the government

1141
01:07:24,600 --> 01:07:25,600
Speaker 2: for the American people.

1142
01:07:26,840 --> 01:07:28,280
Speaker 3: Cool, go hustle, guys.

1143
01:07:28,600 --> 01:07:33,800
Speaker 2: Thanks uh not not politicizing anything about that, nopebody.

1144
01:07:33,880 --> 01:07:38,760
Speaker 3: Congrats on passing that loyalty test. So there is one

1145
01:07:38,800 --> 01:07:42,680
Speaker 3: scary thing. I don't know if we've really gamed this out,

1146
01:07:42,720 --> 01:07:44,160
Speaker 3: and I don't know how many of us have thought

1147
01:07:44,160 --> 01:07:48,320
Speaker 3: about this, but price gouging had an extra hidden cost

1148
01:07:48,800 --> 01:07:55,600
Speaker 3: that went well beyond finances. It literally spread COVID. This

1149
01:07:55,680 --> 01:07:59,919
Speaker 3: is the most lethal, if unintentional, hidden cost of the conspiracy.

1150
01:08:00,320 --> 01:08:03,240
Speaker 3: So let's think about it. Various groups or companies are

1151
01:08:03,240 --> 01:08:08,720
Speaker 3: gouging prices. Consumers who have the means decide to travel

1152
01:08:08,760 --> 01:08:11,360
Speaker 3: to another place. Maybe you live in a neighborhood that

1153
01:08:11,440 --> 01:08:14,919
Speaker 3: has two grocery stores and you say this is way

1154
01:08:14,920 --> 01:08:17,880
Speaker 3: too much for a pack of bacon. They're also selling

1155
01:08:18,120 --> 01:08:20,320
Speaker 3: less bacon than they used to. So I'm gonna go

1156
01:08:20,760 --> 01:08:24,439
Speaker 3: to the other store across town, right, I'll get bacon there.

1157
01:08:25,600 --> 01:08:28,559
Speaker 3: What this means is that people are traveling more to

1158
01:08:28,880 --> 01:08:34,200
Speaker 3: logically search for alternatives, which rapidly, which means they rapidly

1159
01:08:34,240 --> 01:08:38,919
Speaker 3: increase their chances of both contracting and spreading COVID nineteen.

1160
01:08:40,720 --> 01:08:42,280
Speaker 2: Hopefully that wasn't what they were going for.

1161
01:08:42,920 --> 01:08:46,080
Speaker 3: Hopefully it was not the intent. You know what, I mean,

1162
01:08:46,280 --> 01:08:48,760
Speaker 3: we can forgive a up, we just don't like to

1163
01:08:48,760 --> 01:08:49,800
Speaker 3: forgive malevolence.

1164
01:08:50,240 --> 01:08:54,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's not cool. Well man, what if that

1165
01:08:54,560 --> 01:08:57,320
Speaker 2: was the plan, We'll use the grocery stores.

1166
01:08:58,080 --> 01:09:02,479
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so straight forward, right, nothing mousetrap or rupe

1167
01:09:02,479 --> 01:09:06,559
Speaker 3: goldberg about that. But it's still no matter what their intent,

1168
01:09:06,600 --> 01:09:09,680
Speaker 3: it is very non falcon of them. I mean, this

1169
01:09:10,040 --> 01:09:14,960
Speaker 3: tells us it is provable that price gouging practices, whatever

1170
01:09:15,000 --> 01:09:20,120
Speaker 3: the intent, did have a cost beyond financial profits of corporations.

1171
01:09:20,160 --> 01:09:22,519
Speaker 3: It was a cost in human lives. That's a debt

1172
01:09:22,560 --> 01:09:26,840
Speaker 3: that you can't really repay. I don't know. Yeah, we're

1173
01:09:26,880 --> 01:09:29,360
Speaker 3: fun at parties. I mean, but what happens, Matt. Do

1174
01:09:30,120 --> 01:09:36,240
Speaker 3: we push for a law that says this thing, these

1175
01:09:36,320 --> 01:09:42,240
Speaker 3: eggs can only be this price forever and ever and ever. Amen, No,

1176
01:09:42,680 --> 01:09:43,160
Speaker 3: you can't.

1177
01:09:43,280 --> 01:09:47,280
Speaker 2: I don't think you can do that. Man. I don't

1178
01:09:47,280 --> 01:09:49,160
Speaker 2: know how you fix this, and I don't even have

1179
01:09:49,200 --> 01:09:51,120
Speaker 2: some fun, silly, creative way to do it.

1180
01:09:51,160 --> 01:09:54,760
Speaker 3: I genuinely don't I feel you. I remember I was

1181
01:09:54,800 --> 01:09:59,800
Speaker 3: in gosh, I must have been in Europe at that time.

1182
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:02,920
Speaker 3: Maybe I was kicking around Belgium during the egg crisis,

1183
01:10:03,760 --> 01:10:07,000
Speaker 3: or as you said, one of the egg crisis moments.

1184
01:10:07,640 --> 01:10:11,880
Speaker 3: And I remember being stunned and having such a It's

1185
01:10:11,920 --> 01:10:15,160
Speaker 3: like a kid who leaves the cult compound and learns

1186
01:10:15,200 --> 01:10:19,600
Speaker 3: there's a better world outside. I remember walking into a

1187
01:10:19,720 --> 01:10:22,599
Speaker 3: supermarket in Western Europe generally is going to be more

1188
01:10:22,640 --> 01:10:24,759
Speaker 3: expensive than a lot of parts of the United States.

1189
01:10:25,280 --> 01:10:29,600
Speaker 3: And I had this thought Matt Dylan in my inner monologue.

1190
01:10:30,160 --> 01:10:36,639
Speaker 3: I remember thinking, these people are so loose with their eggs. Oh,

1191
01:10:37,479 --> 01:10:42,840
Speaker 3: it didn't apply anywhere like the United States. Concern was

1192
01:10:42,920 --> 01:10:46,479
Speaker 3: not universal, was not global. It makes me wonder whether

1193
01:10:46,600 --> 01:10:49,800
Speaker 3: the problem had been manufactured for a profit motive and

1194
01:10:49,840 --> 01:10:50,640
Speaker 3: a conspiracy.

1195
01:10:51,640 --> 01:10:55,840
Speaker 2: Well, maybe I did find a solution, and it's because

1196
01:10:55,840 --> 01:10:58,840
Speaker 2: of something that you said, Ben. You start a cult

1197
01:10:58,880 --> 01:11:02,640
Speaker 2: compounds get around all this, all right, I mean, excuse me.

1198
01:11:02,680 --> 01:11:05,639
Speaker 2: Our community, a small community of you and like minded

1199
01:11:05,640 --> 01:11:09,280
Speaker 2: people others who are agree with the same stuff. You

1200
01:11:09,960 --> 01:11:13,960
Speaker 2: start a cult and you buy some land and then

1201
01:11:14,000 --> 01:11:17,559
Speaker 2: you just make your own eggs and milk and all

1202
01:11:17,560 --> 01:11:20,200
Speaker 2: other necessities. You chop down your own wood and you

1203
01:11:20,240 --> 01:11:23,720
Speaker 2: do it sustainably by planting more trees. And you could

1204
01:11:23,760 --> 01:11:26,880
Speaker 2: do this. You just you don't get things like the

1205
01:11:26,880 --> 01:11:28,400
Speaker 2: Internet and stuff like that. And that's fine.

1206
01:11:28,880 --> 01:11:31,599
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, you know, you're it's funny you say that

1207
01:11:31,640 --> 01:11:35,800
Speaker 3: map because that we all admire self reliance, right, that

1208
01:11:35,960 --> 01:11:38,960
Speaker 3: is also kind of beat for beat what Kim mill

1209
01:11:39,040 --> 01:11:43,280
Speaker 3: Sung said when he founded the Democratic People's Republic of

1210
01:11:43,360 --> 01:11:45,000
Speaker 3: Korea and it worked out for a while.

1211
01:11:45,600 --> 01:11:47,960
Speaker 2: That sounds amazing. I'd like to check that place out.

1212
01:11:48,320 --> 01:11:53,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh my god, all right, we gotta end this.

1213
01:11:53,520 --> 01:11:56,760
Speaker 3: We gotta end this. This is the issue. The brightest

1214
01:11:56,880 --> 01:12:02,519
Speaker 3: minds of the dismal science or worried that legal means

1215
01:12:02,520 --> 01:12:08,600
Speaker 3: to enforce regulations on accusations of price gouging during peacetime,

1216
01:12:08,760 --> 01:12:14,120
Speaker 3: during non emergency situations will wreck the economy, cause deflation,

1217
01:12:14,280 --> 01:12:18,200
Speaker 3: maybe another great depression. But we have to ask, at

1218
01:12:18,200 --> 01:12:22,920
Speaker 3: this point, is there not already an emergency afoot, not

1219
01:12:23,000 --> 01:12:26,760
Speaker 3: counting the false flag stuff that is probably on the

1220
01:12:26,800 --> 01:12:29,640
Speaker 3: way right to prevent the next election, not counting that

1221
01:12:29,760 --> 01:12:36,200
Speaker 3: stuff is there not already a silent disaster. It's not

1222
01:12:36,280 --> 01:12:40,599
Speaker 3: as cinematic as a hurricane or a tornado. It's taken

1223
01:12:40,680 --> 01:12:43,439
Speaker 3: a longer amount of time. But small towns are dying,

1224
01:12:43,600 --> 01:12:47,599
Speaker 3: people are going hungry in this country. Education is going

1225
01:12:47,720 --> 01:12:50,559
Speaker 3: into the toilet. And I would say it is a

1226
01:12:50,680 --> 01:12:57,680
Speaker 3: silent emergency, but an emergency nonetheless. I don't know, man,

1227
01:12:57,880 --> 01:13:00,400
Speaker 3: I don't know how we're gonna feel about this one

1228
01:13:01,520 --> 01:13:02,840
Speaker 3: five or six years from now.

1229
01:13:03,240 --> 01:13:08,479
Speaker 2: What do you think, Well, when the food starts getting

1230
01:13:08,520 --> 01:13:13,120
Speaker 2: divvied out in portions, you know, because we're in that big,

1231
01:13:13,120 --> 01:13:15,720
Speaker 2: grand emergency that we're all kind of just holding our

1232
01:13:15,760 --> 01:13:19,880
Speaker 2: breath until it comes. When that happens, I think we'll

1233
01:13:19,880 --> 01:13:22,280
Speaker 2: look back at this and say, oh, remember the fanciful

1234
01:13:22,360 --> 01:13:26,880
Speaker 2: times of price gouging, and how great that was. Guys.

1235
01:13:26,920 --> 01:13:29,720
Speaker 3: Remember we used to have those fun hangouts where we

1236
01:13:29,720 --> 01:13:32,000
Speaker 3: would all get in the car together back when it

1237
01:13:32,040 --> 01:13:34,280
Speaker 3: was legal to drive, and we would try to find

1238
01:13:34,320 --> 01:13:36,439
Speaker 3: the grocery store with the cheapest eggs.

1239
01:13:36,800 --> 01:13:39,559
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it was it was a struggle to figure

1240
01:13:39,560 --> 01:13:41,960
Speaker 2: out how to pay for some of those essentials, but

1241
01:13:42,400 --> 01:13:45,280
Speaker 2: at least you could get them, and at least they

1242
01:13:45,280 --> 01:13:46,320
Speaker 2: weren't you know, rotten.

1243
01:13:47,439 --> 01:13:53,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not necessarily when the prices skyrocket. It's when

1244
01:13:53,360 --> 01:13:55,720
Speaker 3: the price doesn't matter because the thing is not there.

1245
01:13:56,400 --> 01:14:02,640
Speaker 3: There you go, shout out to very crisises in Latin America.

1246
01:14:03,080 --> 01:14:07,160
Speaker 3: Everybody who's listening here affiliated with Venezuela. Be safe, dude.

1247
01:14:07,400 --> 01:14:09,800
Speaker 3: There's a coup in the wind, and I know we've

1248
01:14:09,800 --> 01:14:11,200
Speaker 3: been tracking that pretty closely.

1249
01:14:12,479 --> 01:14:17,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's there either. And if there's not a you know,

1250
01:14:17,360 --> 01:14:20,679
Speaker 2: an active coup happening from an outside source, the young

1251
01:14:20,720 --> 01:14:24,320
Speaker 2: people are starting to get pretty angry across the world.

1252
01:14:25,200 --> 01:14:29,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the world is ending for someone somewhere every day.

1253
01:14:29,960 --> 01:14:32,400
Speaker 3: This is going to be the end of our show

1254
01:14:32,600 --> 01:14:36,559
Speaker 3: for now, for this episode. Are there certain entities and

1255
01:14:36,760 --> 01:14:42,200
Speaker 3: institutions benefiting from this silent disaster? Yes, that is the

1256
01:14:42,240 --> 01:14:44,800
Speaker 3: stuff they don't want you to know. And you know

1257
01:14:44,880 --> 01:14:48,520
Speaker 3: what we want to know, folks, Your thoughts, your opinions,

1258
01:14:48,640 --> 01:14:52,799
Speaker 3: your inspiration for previous episodes, your experience on the ground

1259
01:14:52,840 --> 01:14:55,519
Speaker 3: in your neck of the global woods, what do you think?

1260
01:14:55,800 --> 01:14:57,920
Speaker 3: Let us know. You can find us online at all

1261
01:14:57,920 --> 01:15:01,559
Speaker 3: the usual social meds that may. You can also call

1262
01:15:01,640 --> 01:15:03,479
Speaker 3: us directly on a telephonic device.

1263
01:15:04,640 --> 01:15:09,040
Speaker 2: Use that device to translate this into numbers one, eight,

1264
01:15:09,200 --> 01:15:14,240
Speaker 2: three three st d WYTK. When you call in, find

1265
01:15:14,280 --> 01:15:18,120
Speaker 2: yourself if you will in a quiet place, find yourself

1266
01:15:18,479 --> 01:15:21,519
Speaker 2: in a good space to tell us what you think.

1267
01:15:21,840 --> 01:15:24,519
Speaker 2: Give us a suggestion for another episode that's related to

1268
01:15:24,560 --> 01:15:26,599
Speaker 2: this topic. What else do you want to learn about?

1269
01:15:26,600 --> 01:15:29,040
Speaker 2: What do you think about this stuff? Anything you want

1270
01:15:29,040 --> 01:15:31,920
Speaker 2: to say, call and tell us. If you'd instead like

1271
01:15:32,000 --> 01:15:32,960
Speaker 2: to write us an email.

1272
01:15:33,120 --> 01:15:36,880
Speaker 3: We are the entities that read each piece of correspondence

1273
01:15:36,920 --> 01:15:41,040
Speaker 3: we receive, so long as literacy remains legal. Be well aware,

1274
01:15:41,120 --> 01:15:44,400
Speaker 3: Yet I'm afraid Sometimes the void writes back. We can't

1275
01:15:44,400 --> 01:15:47,160
Speaker 3: wait to hear from you. We've got so many random

1276
01:15:47,320 --> 01:15:50,439
Speaker 3: facts if you want to. If you want to learn

1277
01:15:50,520 --> 01:15:55,040
Speaker 3: something useless for your dex, shindig or soiree, just hit

1278
01:15:55,120 --> 01:15:58,160
Speaker 3: us up. We're here till the lights go out. Conspiracy

1279
01:15:58,280 --> 01:16:18,440
Speaker 3: at iHeartRadio dot com.

1280
01:16:18,560 --> 01:16:20,639
Speaker 2: Stuff they Don't Want you to Know is a production

1281
01:16:20,720 --> 01:16:25,280
Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1282
01:16:25,360 --> 01:16:28,200
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.