11-17-25 JORDAN GOODMAN

America's Money Answers Man joined Todd to discuss the end of the shutdown and the havoc it caused in the economy. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
America's money answers man Jordan. Goodman joins us, and the
shutdown is over. Jordan, we're open for business.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yay. Right after forty three days, the longest shutdown in history,
finally eight Democratic senators agreed to do it, and the
Democratic parties screaming at each other. It's not happy, but
they got it done and it passed the House as well.
So yes, it's a continuing resolution that continues until first

(00:29):
and then we start it all over again. Probably we'll
have another battle to keep the coming up at that time.
This is a very impactful shutdown. It all kinds of
economic impacts of it. It was really not necessary, but
that's what happens.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, highly unnecessary and pointless and detrimental, but that's what
Democrats were shooting for. Chaos. Jordan detail some of the
detrimental effects of the shutdown.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Okay, so it cost roughly seven billion dollars a week
in economic activity, put enormous stress on about a million
federal workers who weren't getting paid, and allow them we're
having to work, like the air traffic controllers under tremendous stress,
not be able to pay their bills, and just all

(01:20):
those federal workers were really hurting here. Snap benefits expired
on November one, which is forty two million Americans who
could not get the food they needed, overwhelming food pantries
around the country. Health insurance premiums went up dramatically one
hundred percent of more in many cases because the tax

(01:41):
credit subsidies expired. Air travel was obviously terribly disrupted over
this whole thing. Thousands of flights delayed or canceled. So
and the fourth quarter we're in now, it's probably going
to be negative. At this point, we had positive growth
of three percent in the second quarter, but all this
took a toll. I think we're probably going to have

(02:02):
a negative quarter because of all this.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, hopefully things will return to normal soon. But Jordan,
this does bring up another point, sort of off topic,
about getting air traffic control out from under the federal
government auspices taking it private. What about that?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
I don't think so. Remember the security people used to
be private contractors and that didn't work, so that the
TSA was formed to do all the check ins at
the airport. So I think it's the same thing with
the air traffic controls. That's never going to be privatized.
We need a lot more of them, like three thousand
more of them. They're burned out as it is right now,
so at least they're going to get paid.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Well, that's interesting because I've heard a lot of people
rave about the way they do it in Canada and
other places where it is basically privatized and not government run.
But perhaps a discussion for another day. Jordan interest rate
cut next month with the Fed. We're now looking at
a fifty fifty chance.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Huh it is. I mean, they have not had the
data the Center reserves, none have the data that they
would normally need to make these kind of decisions, and
it's going to take a while to kind of ramp
up the statistical bureaucracy at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
They weren't collecting the data on unemployment and inflation, all
these things. So we'll have to see. I mean, I

(03:22):
think it's clear that the labor market has deteriorated a
lot because of the shutdown was part of it. But
just because the shutdown is going to be over doesn't
mean that everything's going to bounce back the way it was,
So we'll have to see. I think the FED board
is split. Last time they were two descents, which we
haven't had in thirty years. This could be even more descents.

(03:45):
I think half of them want to lower rates than
half of them don't. And powells on the fence with
no data. You know, we always say he's data driven,
and now he's data driven with no data.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
All right, Jordan, let's turn our attention to housing. Of course,
the market has been struggling for a while, and recently
President Trump floated the idea of putting out a new
fifty year term for a mortgage. Take me through this
pros and cons here.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well, fifty year mortgage, the monthly payments would be lower,
but the amount of interest that you would pay over
the fifty years would be dramatically higher. To add twenty
more years after the traditional thirty year mortgage, you'd not
have that much principle, you wouldn't be gaining equity at
a very very very slow rate for a very long time.
So to get the payments down cost people a ton

(04:33):
more into so long run, and I'm not sure that's
a particularly good deal.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well, you know, Jordan, when I think about the housing problem,
I really think the only way to improve things is
to get more houses built and of course, a lot
of regulations and such have deterred home building down through
these last few decades. But that's really the answer, Jordan.
Can we do anything to improve the supply?

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Well, I mean, just build houses, but they build them
for middle and upper income people that they're not building
starter homes or you know, entry level. That's where a
lot of people are needed the first time on the ladder.
So to make those kind of homes profitable would not
be easy with the current costs of insurance and materials

(05:19):
and labor and everything else. So you know, I just
think that's going to be very difficult to get a
lot of starter homes built.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Jordan. Let's move to Venezuela. The US assembling troops and
naval power around there, talk of maybe a ground incursion.
This could upend the oil markets. Perhaps, take me through
what's happening here.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Well, yeah, we've gathered a lot of troops. We've gathered
the gerald Ford, which is the largest aircraft carrier in
the world, and all kinds of ships and planes and submarines.
We're right on the border in Venezuela here, and you're
never going to telegraph these things exactly, but it looks
likely that we're we are going to have a ground
incursion there. That Venezuela's completely impoverished, messed up country, but

(06:07):
they do have a lot of oil and they would
disrupt the oil markets if it flows from Venezuela stops.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, we will be keeping an eye on that for sure. Jordan,
and we also had some news last week. The final
penny to be produced by the US mint was cranked out.
They're going to stop producing pennies. And I guess when
it costs what two or three times more than what
something's worth to make it, that's a good case for
stopping production, right.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
It costs about three cents to make one penny. That's
correct for the copper, everything that goes in it. So
after two hundred and thirty two years, the penny is dead.
At least they're not making any new ones. It's going
to take a long time to get the pennies we
have out of the system. I mean, to some extent
you could say it's inflationary. If you're at the store,
it's going to you know, something's with three cents now

(06:56):
it's going to be with five cents because there are
no pennies to pay it. So it's going to take
a while to work through its system that one of
our longest held currencies is now not being made anymore.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Jordan, I think some people might not realize that this
is obviously rare. We haven't done it in a long time.
But the idea of taking a coin or currency out
of circulation or stopping its production is not unprecedented. It
is something that you do as your economy grows, right,
because it's happened before.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
It has happened before. But the penny has survived through
all changes except until now. And I think it makes sense.
I mean, pennies are almost worthless when you get down
to it, so we're going to have to adapt to
a world of nichols. It's going to become a new
world instead of a penny world.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, Jordan. I had heard a report that said the
last time the US discontinued to coin was the half
penny or half sent back in the seventeen hundreds sometime
what they call.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
It, haypenny, right, a halfpenny.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
There you go, glad we got rid of that would be.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Even more ridiculous. The penny itself is worth us, never
mind a halfpenny.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, No, doubt about that. That's America's Money Answers Man,
Jordan Goodman. You can reach him via email jordanat Moneyanswers
dot com. As always, Jordan, thanks for checking in

Speaker 2 (08:19):
All right, Thank you to appreciate it.