May 5, 2025 • 27 mins
(May 05,2025)
Does a president need to uphold the Constitution? Trump says 'I don't know' to provisional circumstances. Why there will be another Warren Buffett. Costco’s Kirkland brand is bigger than Nike. Corporate America is leaving more jobs unfilled.
Does a president need to uphold the Constitution? Trump says 'I don't know' to provisional circumstances. Why there will be another Warren Buffett. Costco’s Kirkland brand is bigger than Nike. Corporate America is leaving more jobs unfilled.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty KFI.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
It is a Monday morning, Sinko de Mayo. I mean,
when are you going to a bar and getting drunk today?
It's not Saint Patrick's Day exactly, but uh, you know, no,
Sinka Tomai, I wish it were tomorrow because then it's
Taco Tuesday as well as Sinko de Mayo.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
But today's my anniversary. I'm gonna go home and take
a nap and then maybe have dinner with my husband.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Oh and how long you being married?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Twenty four years? Did you say naked dinner or am I?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Oh? You said maybe dinner.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Maybe I may go to bed because I have to
be back here tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You can't go to a Mexican restaurant. I mean that's
out of the question today. Yeah, it's like going to
a what a pub? The Irish pub on St. Patrick's
Day is crazy?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Okay, moving on? Wow, twenty four years.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Huh yeah, twenty four.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Yeah, it's a long time.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Most murders don't get twenty four years. You know that,
don't you.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
We're hanging in there, we're doing Yeah, we haven't killed
each other yet.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Okay, now some more Trump stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Ann and I talk about how we're going to steer
away from Trump News every single day, and you can't.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
You cannot.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
So yesterday Trump is on, and as I said this morning,
and thank you for laughing very much for that one
on Press the Meat with Kristin Welker, and it was
a fairly far ranging conversation and interview. He's actually doing
pretty good. He's being interviewed by a lot of people
who are not friends of his. Usually when you talk
(01:39):
about people in the administration, it was always Fox News Man,
that's where it was Fox, and then some of the.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Various podcasts that were very much right wing.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
No, he's actually going out there and talking to people
who are not of that ilk and he's getting believe me,
he's getting some backlash on it.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
So a couple of things that happen is he was
asked whether.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
He believes he needs to uphold the Constitution during his presidency,
and this had to do with him wanting to ship
undocumented migrants out of the country, and he said, there's
such a backlash, it's inconceivable to hear millions of cases
in court, and he needed the power to quickly remove people.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
That were murderers and drug dealers.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I guess eleven million of them are murders and drug dealers,
like all the illegal migrants.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Okay, So.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Christin Welker comes back and then he says, I was
elected to get them the hell out of here, and
the courts are holding me from doing it. Those pesky
courts are just not helping him at all.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
And she said, but.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Do you believe you need to uphold the constitution? This
has to do with due process. Do they have a
right to a hearing of some kind? Does the government
when it says that an illegal migrant is a criminal,
is a member of a gang, do they have to
prove anything? Or do they just simply say it like
they did with l. Salvadorian and then move it out
(03:07):
and then say goodbye, and then come in with he
is a danger national security because there was a restraining
order that he beat up his wife. Therefore he's a
dangered national security. Now he goes, ooh, it's a stretch.
So he said, I have brilliant lawyers that work for
me in that regard, and they're going to obviously follow
(03:28):
what the Supreme Court does.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
And then all, how.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
About this business, to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Well, the courts are getting in a way.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
He was dismissive of the higher tariffs, the economic consequences
for consumers, and then how does he describe it, Well,
Americans are going to simply have to make do with
fewer dolls and pencils. That's what it's about. So kids
will have two dolls instead of thirty. I mean, that
made no sense to me, But you know, what the hell?
(04:02):
How about military force to take Greenland? Highly unlikely likely?
I didn't rule that out though. Oh the highly unlikely
was to use force against Canada to make that the
fifty first state. Asking about his pledge to lower cost
and fight inflation, remember day one.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Nah, And I'm not worried about a recession either.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
By the way, if we have a problem this during
this transition period, it's going to be worth it because
look at the long term goals. Everything's okay. I said,
this is a transition period. I think we're going to
do fantastically. Not worried about the economy contracting.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Wait a sec what happened to day one?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
The economy is going to do much better than it
had under Biden.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Day one well, maybe not.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
And then he said anything can happen, but we're going
to have the greatest economy in the history of our country.
Of course, he said, we're going to have the greatest
economic boom in history. Well, you know, we're looking at
what last month, the first quarter economy shrink the PDP
shranker point three percent. We'll see what happens this time around.
(05:12):
And by the way, all the problems with the economy,
and he recognized there were some, but those are all
Joe Biden. The good parts of the Trump economy. The
bad parts are the Biden economy. I'm wondering, how.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Long does this go? You know, I get it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
So you got first his first quarter, the economy goes downhill, Okay,
Biden's fault. Second quarter, if that happens, Biden's fault. What
happens if he goes to the third quarter, Biden's fault.
What if we go into a full blown recession, Biden's fault.
(05:53):
I'm just waiting to see how long that goes. That's
the interesting part.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
And it was Greenland.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
He reiterated his criticism the FED shaired Jerome Powell for
not lowering interest rates and suggested it was personal. He
just doesn't like me because I think he's a total stiff.
That's why he won't reduce interest rates because he.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Doesn't like me. Oh man.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
It just went on and on, and he talked about
how car how gas prices are going down, which they
are because the economy around the world is it will
it's shrinking, and when it shrinks, you don't use as
much energy, and that means less oil is bought. And
that's the good part of the economy. Now the rest
(06:47):
of it, I don't know. And then about Canada again
fifty first date, it would be a cherished state. It's
dismissing it is a trade ally, even though it's one
of the as trade partners we have. We don't need
their cars, we don't need their lumber, we don't need
their energy, we don't need anything. We do very little
business with Canada. They do all of their business practically
(07:09):
with us. They need us, We don't need them.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
However, we need Greenland very badly.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Greenland is a very small amount of people which will
take care of We'll cherish them and all that, and
we need that for international security. And when asked would
you invade Greenland, I don't say I'm going to do it,
but I don't rule out anything.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
How much of this do we take seriously, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Well, we know he's going to take the credit for
anything positive, and you know that he's going to blow
off anything negative.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
And by the way, he's not alone. I mean, presidents
tend to do that, just not to this extent. And so.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
We're let me tell you something. I think we're in
for maybe years of a Biden economy.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
You know that.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It may be the Biden economy, and if perchance a
Republican is elected next time out, so there'll be another
four years that person will inherit the Biden economy. Unless
it goes the other way, then no longer. Then it
(08:23):
becomes the Trump economy. And I'm telling you, if it's
in good shape, the Trump economy is going to be
there through the next two or three presidencies. Okay, moving on.
Warren Buffett pulled the plug over the weekend at his
annual meeting, which the oracle of Omaha. A billionaire, not
(08:44):
having done not having created any businesses, but as is
an investor, he is considered the greatest investor in history,
putting together companies, buying companies, rarely selling them, but buying
hire companies or stocks.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Bought Coca Cola at one point.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
I still think he has a lot of coke because
you see those two cokes in front of him, two
cans of coke. Yeah, that wasn't a mistake. That was
a little product placement, to say the least. And he
is just this guy is and was unbelievable. And so
there he is announces he's going to step down as
chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway and it has become literally
(09:28):
probably the most successful investment conglomerate in history. You know,
when he first started Berkshire Hathaway and now we're talking
sixty years ago, you bought into it for a couple
of bucks.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Stock into his company.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I mean today, I don't even know what it's one
hundred thousand dollars a share.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
He's never split the stock.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
The class A is seven hundred and sixty two.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Seven hundred and sixty thousand dollars I share a share.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
It's down six percent today, Oh feel.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Better, And that's because it's down because he is leaving.
So how does he get this way? How was he
so successful?
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Well, from the time he was like eleven years old.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
He was obsessed with the stock market. I mean, he's
an eleven year old and he's buying stocks. All the
other kids are playing, He's looking at stock returns.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
He's looking at the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
From the beginning, he started in nineteen forty two, devoured
information about companies, red corporate reports. That was his reading,
and he started as an investment manager. He'd wander through
his house with his nose in an annual report, bumping
(10:49):
into furniture, oblivious to everything, his nose into those documents.
At the amusement park, his kids would be playing, he
wouldn't talk to the other parent. He sit on the
bench and read financial statements. And that's what he did.
One of the things about him, and I didn't know
this as I read this article from The Atlantic as
(11:10):
sort of a bio.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
About his memory.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
The author had an interview with Buffett, and the author
mentioned a book he was reading, and Buffett said, oh, yeah,
I also read it. It was over fifty years earlier,
and Buffett started describing a passage. The author of the
piece grabbed the book, found the page. Buffett recalled almost
every sentence verbatim of that book fifty years ago. What
(11:39):
Buffett has been able to do is identify little tiny
bits of information and see where a company is going,
long long before anybody else does. The other thing he
does is most corporations come in. You buy a company
(12:00):
and incomes the broom, sweeping out management and the new corporation,
the new owners putting in their own management team.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Buffett doesn't do that.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
He buys well run companies, he keeps management in and
with that he became fabulously rich and taking a lot
of people with him.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
The guy is unbelievable. Now.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I said that there's never going to be another Warren Buffet.
Not only because of Warren Buffett as an individual and
his extraordinary success and his mind and his ability to
discern what's going on in the market. You're never going
to see it again because AI has taken over all
of that, the ability to digest voluminous amounts of information
(12:50):
as to the markets, as to corporate reports. AI now
puts all of that together, and there are algorithms that
are going to be and are able to do what
he did now with his touch.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Don't know yet, we don't know. My guess is probably
not because he's.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
One of those once in a generation maybe once in
a lifetime individuals who has given that kind of a gift.
But you're not going to see a Warren Buffett create
a Berkshire Hathaway anymore. And he also said it was
he was born at the right place, right time. It
(13:34):
couldn't have happened if he wasn't born and started investing
when he started investing.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
And was given the opportunity to do so. Quite a guy.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Okay, today, I'll be at Costco doing my twice weekly
Costco run, and inevitably what I end up buying, like
everybody else, I end up buying toilet paper, and I
end up buying paper towels.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
You know what.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
They're number two of the well, their three top sellers
are paper towels, toilet paper, water, and then there's everything
else and everybody knows uh the of course, not the secret,
but the formula that Costco has incorporated into being well
one of the most successful retailers on the planet. And
(14:22):
a couple of things about Costco. It's it's growing relative
to a lot of other stores. Target for example, is
they're in trouble because of their DEI stand there's now
and so they caved in to the Trump plan, and
(14:43):
now the pro DEI people, they're backlashing on Target and
they're not shopping.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Costco continues this DEI policy. This is too bad.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
This is who we are, this is what we're gonna do,
and it doesn't seem to be There doesn't seem to
be enough people that are saying, oh no, no, we
hate it. And there are plenty of people that are
saying good for you, Costco and are starting to buy
even more. Costco's way up thirtieth anniversary this year for Kirkland.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
That's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Kirkland is, as you know, their store brand, and they
took the idea of store branding. And Neil and I
talked about this earlier last week, to a whole new
level where it used to be the white label things
were very expensive. This was back in the seventies. Inflation
was very high. We had to find other ways of
(15:39):
getting food cheaper, and so what the supermarkets did was
started white labeling. Well, it was white boxes with a
blue stripe milk and bread and cereal, and it was
for the most part crap. It was all seconds. I'm convinced, Neil.
Was it different companies that made that white label stuff
(16:02):
or was it the manu the big manufacturers like they
are today.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Back in the seventies, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
You got a mute, someone's got a mute.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Go ahead. Sorry. Back in the seventies, yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
When they were doing white labeling, or was that even
maybe later than that.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, I don't think the white label was the same.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
No, I don't think it was.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, because I remember you could buy, for example, cereal.
It was already chewed cereal, it was used cereal. It
just wasn't as good.
Speaker 5 (16:31):
Well, but flakes of corn or whatever their cereal was,
I could tell that it was always thicker than corn flakes.
Corn flakes always had a crispy or oh.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
You know, I tried what did I do?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I don't know where I bought it, but I tried
a Pringles knockoff and it was horrible. It was inedible.
And for me, when something is inedible for me, I
gotta tell you it is really bad, especially a chip,
especially a chip. You know those people that you know
follow the five second rule, you know when something falls
(17:02):
to the ground. I follow the half hour rule, the
next day rule, even gravy. I mean, it takes a
lot for me not to eat. And this was inedible.
But what Kirkland did is they reinvented that. They reinvented
the whole labeling issue. And the difference is is number one,
(17:27):
it's Costco.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
So they put it.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
They certainly put their brand behind it, but the quality
they insisted on the best quality out there.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
And the other thing is I was reading their Costco book,
is that if.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
They can't do it better or less expensive than one
of the name brands, they'll carry the name brand. So
we just can't do it, and it is just a
neat way of doing it. So you go into Costco
and I see Kirkland, is there any issue that it's
high quality? For example, you always talk about the Kirkland
brand olive oil which is half the price of any
(18:05):
other olive oil out there, and it's as or as
good or better quality. That is, Costco is an extraordinary place.
And then their breads today, what am I gonna get?
I'm out of Chiabata roll so I'm going to go
to Costco and get Chiabata rolls. And I think I'm
out of toilet paper. Usually I keep a palette to
(18:26):
or full in my garage where I fill the garage.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
Up with Kerkland toilet paper. Actually that's not true.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I buy Charmin toilet paper. That's one thing. I don't
buy Kirkland paper towels.
Speaker 5 (18:36):
Certainly, I don't know any any of us that wanted
to know that.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
The other thing is I am going to go buy
a roast, I think, Oh, let me ask you this.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Ne know this.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I'm completely tangential on this. I'm gonna do my big
green egg barbecue once again. I'm gonna smoke, and this time,
hopefully I won't make a hockey puck out of the beat.
Do I do a chuck roast? Or do I spend
the big money into a ribi roast?
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Well, you keep wanting to tackle these big baby steps, buddy,
slowly build yourself up. I said, do a whole chicken,
do some pulled poork? I know, I know, I know
that your wife, lady person doesn't eat pork, but tell
her it's beef.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
You know what I might do is buy one of
their chickens. The Costco chickens still five bucks. They're as
big as a small turkey, and they are insanely good,
such great stuff.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Matter of fact, I wish I had one here. I
could eat it now. Huh, All right, it was a
good segment.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
It made absolutely no sense, Neil, This was just stream
of consciousness.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
This is what I get paid to smile and nods, sir.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
I know now, I know. This is terrific. People are listening.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Oh what the hell are we doing with this is
what's handling Neil talking about toilet paper from Costco.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
A little bit about economy.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Obviously, I spent a lot of time thinking about the economy.
Hopefully you do, because it's pretty important stuff. And let
me tell you what's going on. First of all, we
got a jobs report that just came out last week,
surprisingly strong considering what is going on?
Speaker 4 (20:22):
What is going on?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Well, there are a whole lot of US employers that
are doing something they haven't done in a while and
taking a new approach to jobs. Hire less or don't hire.
T row Price, for example, slowing hiring, Jet Blue reducing
non essential hiring. Polaris, which makes off road vehicles, stopped hiring.
(20:49):
More than a dozen universities Harvard to Duke have hiring freezes.
Robert Mack, who's the chief financial officer of Polaris, that's
a company The Wall Street Journal really looked at this.
We have instituted our recessionary playbook. They're already into recession thinking, why, well,
you have a stop start trade war, which is sending
(21:12):
markets and economies all over the world just roiling, sinking
consumer confidence that's going south very quickly. Then you have
the cuts to federal funding and education and research the sciences.
Those have been piling up, which then comes on top
of these companies, I mean for years desire to embrace
(21:33):
AI to make workers more efficient. And how do you
make workers more efficient? You have fewer of them and
ask more of them. And it is technology coming in
and doing what heretofore workers would do. Jobs are becoming scarcer,
for example, in government because not only is government all
(21:55):
over not hiring both municipal and state and county, but
the Feds at a job with the Feds, white collar
work is going down, the tubes. Research work is going down.
So why are there good numbers? Why did we have
one hundred and seventy seven jobs added in April? Well,
(22:15):
because it really hasn't hit us yet. The tariffs have
not hit yet. I mean I'm dealing with them with
the company that I own with my partner, Savil. We're
dealing because our Cookwaar comes from China.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
And use a stainless steel.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
So we're at the top of the heap with tariffs.
We stopped at cold. I mean, we're effectively not doing
much right now. But in many cases, for example car prices,
you're not going to feel car prices hit for another
month two months, and then if these tariffs don't go away, man.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
You're gonna get nailed.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Jobs in healthcare and finance increase that helps jobs advertise
on indeed are down one point one percent in the
past two weeks.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
That's a big one.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
And don't forget the government wide federal hiring freeze is
happening through mid July.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
No hiring until mid July. Then we start looking at it.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
So you have all these federal workers who hope to
get hired by state and local governments, they can't because
of the hiring freeze.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
There back to Polaris. Polaris make snowmobiles.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
And it has put a quote selective near term pause
on hiring to simply control costs because they're looking they're
looking at tariffs. Fifteen thousand full time employees. Now, these
snow vehicles are made in the US, so you think
fantastic The problem is most of the parts are from China.
(23:50):
And here's what Polaris did, which many many corporations have done,
is they simply stopped making their economic calls.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
That's it. They just said.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Usually you talk to these corporations, the CEOs, major financial
people have calls with investors on a quarterly basis, and
then they give what the company figures it's going to do,
what they think are perspectively, here are plans.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Here is what we think we're going to be doing
in the future.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Here is our growth, our anticipated growth that's stopped. We're
not even going to say. GM just said, we can't
tell you how we're going to do in the future.
We have no idea. The other major car manufacturers, we
have no idea. Companies all over on these calls, these
investor calls are simply saying we don't know.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Now. What does that do for consumer confidence? Not much.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
There's a guy who was interviewed for this article, Roswell Miller.
He graduated from William and Mary College in twenty twenty
four and he wanted to get a an entry level
analyst role in finance or technology or consulting.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
He's done this for weeks and weeks.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Some weeks he sent up to one hundred job applications
per week, and he's been doing this for weeks. In
January and February, I got more interviews than I had
been and folks I was chatted with. Then we're saying,
now we're not hiring aggressively, but we are hiring.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
That's done. That's done. So he's been living with his
grandmother for a while.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
He took a restaurant job to stay afloat, and he said,
with all my frustrations with a white collar job market,
you know what, I got a job and I'll you know,
twenty bucks an hour to do service work of some sort.
Those are available, so you still can get work if
you want to work at Taco Bell.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
What was it yesterday?
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I was, Oh, I was looking at the paper, the
La Times, and I always look at the employment, you know,
the classified ads for employment, just to see what's going
on in the world, to see what prices are, you know, salaries,
and you know what jobs are available. And I noticed
there was a pastry chef opportunity. An experienced pastry chef
(26:23):
thirty six thousand dollars a year. You make more money
working for taco Bell than you do as an experienced
pastry chef. I mean, it is desperate out there. You
think that a lot to do with the fact that
no one's going to restaurants either. It's gonna be a big,
(26:44):
beautiful economy.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
I hope it is.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I hope he's right. Okay, enough of that, We're done
with that. This is KFI A M sixty.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and any time on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty KFI.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
It is a Monday morning, Sinko de Mayo. I mean,
when are you going to a bar and getting drunk today?
It's not Saint Patrick's Day exactly, but uh, you know, no,
Sinka Tomai, I wish it were tomorrow because then it's
Taco Tuesday as well as Sinko de Mayo.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
But today's my anniversary. I'm gonna go home and take
a nap and then maybe have dinner with my husband.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Oh and how long you being married?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Twenty four years? Did you say naked dinner or am I?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Oh? You said maybe dinner.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Maybe I may go to bed because I have to
be back here tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You can't go to a Mexican restaurant. I mean that's
out of the question today. Yeah, it's like going to
a what a pub? The Irish pub on St. Patrick's
Day is crazy?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Okay, moving on? Wow, twenty four years.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Huh yeah, twenty four.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Yeah, it's a long time.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Most murders don't get twenty four years. You know that,
don't you.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
We're hanging in there, we're doing Yeah, we haven't killed
each other yet.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Okay, now some more Trump stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Ann and I talk about how we're going to steer
away from Trump News every single day, and you can't.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
You cannot.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
So yesterday Trump is on, and as I said this morning,
and thank you for laughing very much for that one
on Press the Meat with Kristin Welker, and it was
a fairly far ranging conversation and interview. He's actually doing
pretty good. He's being interviewed by a lot of people
who are not friends of his. Usually when you talk
(01:39):
about people in the administration, it was always Fox News Man,
that's where it was Fox, and then some of the.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Various podcasts that were very much right wing.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
No, he's actually going out there and talking to people
who are not of that ilk and he's getting believe me,
he's getting some backlash on it.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
So a couple of things that happen is he was
asked whether.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
He believes he needs to uphold the Constitution during his presidency,
and this had to do with him wanting to ship
undocumented migrants out of the country, and he said, there's
such a backlash, it's inconceivable to hear millions of cases
in court, and he needed the power to quickly remove people.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
That were murderers and drug dealers.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I guess eleven million of them are murders and drug dealers,
like all the illegal migrants.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Okay, So.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Christin Welker comes back and then he says, I was
elected to get them the hell out of here, and
the courts are holding me from doing it. Those pesky
courts are just not helping him at all.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
And she said, but.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Do you believe you need to uphold the constitution? This
has to do with due process. Do they have a
right to a hearing of some kind? Does the government
when it says that an illegal migrant is a criminal,
is a member of a gang, do they have to
prove anything? Or do they just simply say it like
they did with l. Salvadorian and then move it out
(03:07):
and then say goodbye, and then come in with he
is a danger national security because there was a restraining
order that he beat up his wife. Therefore he's a
dangered national security. Now he goes, ooh, it's a stretch.
So he said, I have brilliant lawyers that work for
me in that regard, and they're going to obviously follow
(03:28):
what the Supreme Court does.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
And then all, how.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
About this business, to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Well, the courts are getting in a way.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
He was dismissive of the higher tariffs, the economic consequences
for consumers, and then how does he describe it, Well,
Americans are going to simply have to make do with
fewer dolls and pencils. That's what it's about. So kids
will have two dolls instead of thirty. I mean, that
made no sense to me, But you know, what the hell?
(04:02):
How about military force to take Greenland? Highly unlikely likely?
I didn't rule that out though. Oh the highly unlikely
was to use force against Canada to make that the
fifty first state. Asking about his pledge to lower cost
and fight inflation, remember day one.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Nah, And I'm not worried about a recession either.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
By the way, if we have a problem this during
this transition period, it's going to be worth it because
look at the long term goals. Everything's okay. I said,
this is a transition period. I think we're going to
do fantastically. Not worried about the economy contracting.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Wait a sec what happened to day one?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
The economy is going to do much better than it
had under Biden.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Day one well, maybe not.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
And then he said anything can happen, but we're going
to have the greatest economy in the history of our country.
Of course, he said, we're going to have the greatest
economic boom in history. Well, you know, we're looking at
what last month, the first quarter economy shrink the PDP
shranker point three percent. We'll see what happens this time around.
(05:12):
And by the way, all the problems with the economy,
and he recognized there were some, but those are all
Joe Biden. The good parts of the Trump economy. The
bad parts are the Biden economy. I'm wondering, how.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Long does this go? You know, I get it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
So you got first his first quarter, the economy goes downhill, Okay,
Biden's fault. Second quarter, if that happens, Biden's fault. What
happens if he goes to the third quarter, Biden's fault.
What if we go into a full blown recession, Biden's fault.
(05:53):
I'm just waiting to see how long that goes. That's
the interesting part.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
And it was Greenland.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
He reiterated his criticism the FED shaired Jerome Powell for
not lowering interest rates and suggested it was personal. He
just doesn't like me because I think he's a total stiff.
That's why he won't reduce interest rates because he.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Doesn't like me. Oh man.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
It just went on and on, and he talked about
how car how gas prices are going down, which they
are because the economy around the world is it will
it's shrinking, and when it shrinks, you don't use as
much energy, and that means less oil is bought. And
that's the good part of the economy. Now the rest
(06:47):
of it, I don't know. And then about Canada again
fifty first date, it would be a cherished state. It's
dismissing it is a trade ally, even though it's one
of the as trade partners we have. We don't need
their cars, we don't need their lumber, we don't need
their energy, we don't need anything. We do very little
business with Canada. They do all of their business practically
(07:09):
with us. They need us, We don't need them.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
However, we need Greenland very badly.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Greenland is a very small amount of people which will
take care of We'll cherish them and all that, and
we need that for international security. And when asked would
you invade Greenland, I don't say I'm going to do it,
but I don't rule out anything.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
How much of this do we take seriously, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Well, we know he's going to take the credit for
anything positive, and you know that he's going to blow
off anything negative.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
And by the way, he's not alone. I mean, presidents
tend to do that, just not to this extent. And so.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
We're let me tell you something. I think we're in
for maybe years of a Biden economy.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
You know that.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It may be the Biden economy, and if perchance a
Republican is elected next time out, so there'll be another
four years that person will inherit the Biden economy. Unless
it goes the other way, then no longer. Then it
(08:23):
becomes the Trump economy. And I'm telling you, if it's
in good shape, the Trump economy is going to be
there through the next two or three presidencies. Okay, moving on.
Warren Buffett pulled the plug over the weekend at his
annual meeting, which the oracle of Omaha. A billionaire, not
(08:44):
having done not having created any businesses, but as is
an investor, he is considered the greatest investor in history,
putting together companies, buying companies, rarely selling them, but buying
hire companies or stocks.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Bought Coca Cola at one point.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
I still think he has a lot of coke because
you see those two cokes in front of him, two
cans of coke. Yeah, that wasn't a mistake. That was
a little product placement, to say the least. And he
is just this guy is and was unbelievable. And so
there he is announces he's going to step down as
chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway and it has become literally
(09:28):
probably the most successful investment conglomerate in history. You know,
when he first started Berkshire Hathaway and now we're talking
sixty years ago, you bought into it for a couple
of bucks.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Stock into his company.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I mean today, I don't even know what it's one
hundred thousand dollars a share.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
He's never split the stock.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
The class A is seven hundred and sixty two.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Seven hundred and sixty thousand dollars I share a share.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
It's down six percent today, Oh feel.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Better, And that's because it's down because he is leaving.
So how does he get this way? How was he
so successful?
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Well, from the time he was like eleven years old.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
He was obsessed with the stock market. I mean, he's
an eleven year old and he's buying stocks. All the
other kids are playing, He's looking at stock returns.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
He's looking at the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
From the beginning, he started in nineteen forty two, devoured
information about companies, red corporate reports. That was his reading,
and he started as an investment manager. He'd wander through
his house with his nose in an annual report, bumping
(10:49):
into furniture, oblivious to everything, his nose into those documents.
At the amusement park, his kids would be playing, he
wouldn't talk to the other parent. He sit on the
bench and read financial statements. And that's what he did.
One of the things about him, and I didn't know
this as I read this article from The Atlantic as
(11:10):
sort of a bio.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
About his memory.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
The author had an interview with Buffett, and the author
mentioned a book he was reading, and Buffett said, oh, yeah,
I also read it. It was over fifty years earlier,
and Buffett started describing a passage. The author of the
piece grabbed the book, found the page. Buffett recalled almost
every sentence verbatim of that book fifty years ago. What
(11:39):
Buffett has been able to do is identify little tiny
bits of information and see where a company is going,
long long before anybody else does. The other thing he
does is most corporations come in. You buy a company
(12:00):
and incomes the broom, sweeping out management and the new corporation,
the new owners putting in their own management team.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Buffett doesn't do that.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
He buys well run companies, he keeps management in and
with that he became fabulously rich and taking a lot
of people with him.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
The guy is unbelievable. Now.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I said that there's never going to be another Warren Buffet.
Not only because of Warren Buffett as an individual and
his extraordinary success and his mind and his ability to
discern what's going on in the market. You're never going
to see it again because AI has taken over all
of that, the ability to digest voluminous amounts of information
(12:50):
as to the markets, as to corporate reports. AI now
puts all of that together, and there are algorithms that
are going to be and are able to do what
he did now with his touch.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Don't know yet, we don't know. My guess is probably
not because he's.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
One of those once in a generation maybe once in
a lifetime individuals who has given that kind of a gift.
But you're not going to see a Warren Buffett create
a Berkshire Hathaway anymore. And he also said it was
he was born at the right place, right time. It
(13:34):
couldn't have happened if he wasn't born and started investing
when he started investing.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
And was given the opportunity to do so. Quite a guy.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Okay, today, I'll be at Costco doing my twice weekly
Costco run, and inevitably what I end up buying, like
everybody else, I end up buying toilet paper, and I
end up buying paper towels.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
You know what.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
They're number two of the well, their three top sellers
are paper towels, toilet paper, water, and then there's everything
else and everybody knows uh the of course, not the secret,
but the formula that Costco has incorporated into being well
one of the most successful retailers on the planet. And
(14:22):
a couple of things about Costco. It's it's growing relative
to a lot of other stores. Target for example, is
they're in trouble because of their DEI stand there's now
and so they caved in to the Trump plan, and
(14:43):
now the pro DEI people, they're backlashing on Target and
they're not shopping.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Costco continues this DEI policy. This is too bad.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
This is who we are, this is what we're gonna do,
and it doesn't seem to be There doesn't seem to
be enough people that are saying, oh no, no, we
hate it. And there are plenty of people that are
saying good for you, Costco and are starting to buy
even more. Costco's way up thirtieth anniversary this year for Kirkland.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
That's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Kirkland is, as you know, their store brand, and they
took the idea of store branding. And Neil and I
talked about this earlier last week, to a whole new
level where it used to be the white label things
were very expensive. This was back in the seventies. Inflation
was very high. We had to find other ways of
(15:39):
getting food cheaper, and so what the supermarkets did was
started white labeling. Well, it was white boxes with a
blue stripe milk and bread and cereal, and it was
for the most part crap. It was all seconds. I'm convinced, Neil.
Was it different companies that made that white label stuff
(16:02):
or was it the manu the big manufacturers like they
are today.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Back in the seventies, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
You got a mute, someone's got a mute.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Go ahead. Sorry. Back in the seventies, yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
When they were doing white labeling, or was that even
maybe later than that.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, I don't think the white label was the same.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
No, I don't think it was.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, because I remember you could buy, for example, cereal.
It was already chewed cereal, it was used cereal. It
just wasn't as good.
Speaker 5 (16:31):
Well, but flakes of corn or whatever their cereal was,
I could tell that it was always thicker than corn flakes.
Corn flakes always had a crispy or oh.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
You know, I tried what did I do?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I don't know where I bought it, but I tried
a Pringles knockoff and it was horrible. It was inedible.
And for me, when something is inedible for me, I
gotta tell you it is really bad, especially a chip,
especially a chip. You know those people that you know
follow the five second rule, you know when something falls
(17:02):
to the ground. I follow the half hour rule, the
next day rule, even gravy. I mean, it takes a
lot for me not to eat. And this was inedible.
But what Kirkland did is they reinvented that. They reinvented
the whole labeling issue. And the difference is is number one,
(17:27):
it's Costco.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
So they put it.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
They certainly put their brand behind it, but the quality
they insisted on the best quality out there.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
And the other thing is I was reading their Costco book,
is that if.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
They can't do it better or less expensive than one
of the name brands, they'll carry the name brand. So
we just can't do it, and it is just a
neat way of doing it. So you go into Costco
and I see Kirkland, is there any issue that it's
high quality? For example, you always talk about the Kirkland
brand olive oil which is half the price of any
(18:05):
other olive oil out there, and it's as or as
good or better quality. That is, Costco is an extraordinary place.
And then their breads today, what am I gonna get?
I'm out of Chiabata roll so I'm going to go
to Costco and get Chiabata rolls. And I think I'm
out of toilet paper. Usually I keep a palette to
(18:26):
or full in my garage where I fill the garage.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
Up with Kerkland toilet paper. Actually that's not true.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I buy Charmin toilet paper. That's one thing. I don't
buy Kirkland paper towels.
Speaker 5 (18:36):
Certainly, I don't know any any of us that wanted
to know that.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
The other thing is I am going to go buy
a roast, I think, Oh, let me ask you this.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Ne know this.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I'm completely tangential on this. I'm gonna do my big
green egg barbecue once again. I'm gonna smoke, and this time,
hopefully I won't make a hockey puck out of the beat.
Do I do a chuck roast? Or do I spend
the big money into a ribi roast?
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Well, you keep wanting to tackle these big baby steps, buddy,
slowly build yourself up. I said, do a whole chicken,
do some pulled poork? I know, I know, I know
that your wife, lady person doesn't eat pork, but tell
her it's beef.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
You know what I might do is buy one of
their chickens. The Costco chickens still five bucks. They're as
big as a small turkey, and they are insanely good,
such great stuff.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Matter of fact, I wish I had one here. I
could eat it now. Huh, All right, it was a
good segment.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
It made absolutely no sense, Neil, This was just stream
of consciousness.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
This is what I get paid to smile and nods, sir.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
I know now, I know. This is terrific. People are listening.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Oh what the hell are we doing with this is
what's handling Neil talking about toilet paper from Costco.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
A little bit about economy.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Obviously, I spent a lot of time thinking about the economy.
Hopefully you do, because it's pretty important stuff. And let
me tell you what's going on. First of all, we
got a jobs report that just came out last week,
surprisingly strong considering what is going on?
Speaker 4 (20:22):
What is going on?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Well, there are a whole lot of US employers that
are doing something they haven't done in a while and
taking a new approach to jobs. Hire less or don't hire.
T row Price, for example, slowing hiring, Jet Blue reducing
non essential hiring. Polaris, which makes off road vehicles, stopped hiring.
(20:49):
More than a dozen universities Harvard to Duke have hiring freezes.
Robert Mack, who's the chief financial officer of Polaris, that's
a company The Wall Street Journal really looked at this.
We have instituted our recessionary playbook. They're already into recession thinking, why, well,
you have a stop start trade war, which is sending
(21:12):
markets and economies all over the world just roiling, sinking
consumer confidence that's going south very quickly. Then you have
the cuts to federal funding and education and research the sciences.
Those have been piling up, which then comes on top
of these companies, I mean for years desire to embrace
(21:33):
AI to make workers more efficient. And how do you
make workers more efficient? You have fewer of them and
ask more of them. And it is technology coming in
and doing what heretofore workers would do. Jobs are becoming scarcer,
for example, in government because not only is government all
(21:55):
over not hiring both municipal and state and county, but
the Feds at a job with the Feds, white collar
work is going down, the tubes. Research work is going down.
So why are there good numbers? Why did we have
one hundred and seventy seven jobs added in April? Well,
(22:15):
because it really hasn't hit us yet. The tariffs have
not hit yet. I mean I'm dealing with them with
the company that I own with my partner, Savil. We're
dealing because our Cookwaar comes from China.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
And use a stainless steel.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
So we're at the top of the heap with tariffs.
We stopped at cold. I mean, we're effectively not doing
much right now. But in many cases, for example car prices,
you're not going to feel car prices hit for another
month two months, and then if these tariffs don't go away, man.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
You're gonna get nailed.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Jobs in healthcare and finance increase that helps jobs advertise
on indeed are down one point one percent in the
past two weeks.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
That's a big one.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
And don't forget the government wide federal hiring freeze is
happening through mid July.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
No hiring until mid July. Then we start looking at it.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
So you have all these federal workers who hope to
get hired by state and local governments, they can't because
of the hiring freeze.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
There back to Polaris. Polaris make snowmobiles.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
And it has put a quote selective near term pause
on hiring to simply control costs because they're looking they're
looking at tariffs. Fifteen thousand full time employees. Now, these
snow vehicles are made in the US, so you think
fantastic The problem is most of the parts are from China.
(23:50):
And here's what Polaris did, which many many corporations have done,
is they simply stopped making their economic calls.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
That's it. They just said.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Usually you talk to these corporations, the CEOs, major financial
people have calls with investors on a quarterly basis, and
then they give what the company figures it's going to do,
what they think are perspectively, here are plans.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Here is what we think we're going to be doing
in the future.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Here is our growth, our anticipated growth that's stopped. We're
not even going to say. GM just said, we can't
tell you how we're going to do in the future.
We have no idea. The other major car manufacturers, we
have no idea. Companies all over on these calls, these
investor calls are simply saying we don't know.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Now. What does that do for consumer confidence? Not much.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
There's a guy who was interviewed for this article, Roswell Miller.
He graduated from William and Mary College in twenty twenty
four and he wanted to get a an entry level
analyst role in finance or technology or consulting.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
He's done this for weeks and weeks.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Some weeks he sent up to one hundred job applications
per week, and he's been doing this for weeks. In
January and February, I got more interviews than I had
been and folks I was chatted with. Then we're saying,
now we're not hiring aggressively, but we are hiring.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
That's done. That's done. So he's been living with his
grandmother for a while.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
He took a restaurant job to stay afloat, and he said,
with all my frustrations with a white collar job market,
you know what, I got a job and I'll you know,
twenty bucks an hour to do service work of some sort.
Those are available, so you still can get work if
you want to work at Taco Bell.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
What was it yesterday?
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I was, Oh, I was looking at the paper, the
La Times, and I always look at the employment, you know,
the classified ads for employment, just to see what's going
on in the world, to see what prices are, you know, salaries,
and you know what jobs are available. And I noticed
there was a pastry chef opportunity. An experienced pastry chef
(26:23):
thirty six thousand dollars a year. You make more money
working for taco Bell than you do as an experienced
pastry chef. I mean, it is desperate out there. You
think that a lot to do with the fact that
no one's going to restaurants either. It's gonna be a big,
(26:44):
beautiful economy.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
I hope it is.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I hope he's right. Okay, enough of that, We're done
with that. This is KFI A M sixty.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and any time on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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