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July 3, 2024 • 35 mins
Paul Lane and Marc Fandetti wonder if property taxes are squeezing out Massachusetts homeowners. The most expensive state for single people is not California, New York, or Hawaii. Your old clothes could be worth billions. The jiggle is up: Bosses bust workers who fake computer activity. What will the Boston Celtics sell for? Fourth of July parties will cost nearly $100 to host this year.
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Episode Transcript

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(00:00):
The Financial Exchanges produced by Money MattersRadio and is hosted by employees of the
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(00:20):
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(00:42):
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(01:02):
five K Boston is presented by VeteransDevelopment Corporation FACE is the Financial Exchange with
Paul Lane and Mark Vandebti. Welcometo the second hour of the Financial Exchinees.
As we head into the holiday longweekend, or for the markets,
what will happen is the markets willbe closed at one o'clock today, closed

(01:23):
entirely tomorrow for July fourth, andthen they'll reopen on Friday. They are
in mixed territory today, with thedowd Jones off about fifty two points,
the S and P five hundreds upabouzero point two percent, and the Nasdaq
is up about a third of vere. Can I just say, we're getting
this is the most interesting Politically,we don't comment, and we're not qualified

(01:44):
too. I'm certainly not qualified tocomment on political matters, but broad developments,
this is the most interesting sequence ofdevelopments. The Biden floundering last week,
the mounting pressure on him to stepaside. New York Times is reporting
right now that he told a keyally he's weighing it, and so if
the Times has it, this meansit's for real. I mean, you've

(02:04):
seen the drumbeat of pressure over thelast week. Again, not my area,
I'm gonna batch the interpretation of someof this. But I know how
to read headlines, and I cansee the dam breaking here. Major liberal
media organs, establishment liberal media organslike The Times pressuring him to get out
now running this story, tying thisinto financial markets. They don't seem to
be responding to the city President ofthe United States. Can I take a

(02:28):
victory lap on that? From ourdispute last week? I know you well,
I was, yeah, you wereright. You said markets? Where
was my position that that my positionwas debates could be consequential? Paul,
Yes, and you were like,no, no, that's gonna matter.
Were you specific though, did weDid you specifically say it was the markets
that wouldn't react to that, therewill be no consequences. I don't recall
Mark, give me the benefit ofthe death. I'll take Oh, you

(02:50):
are right. Markets have totally shruggedthis off. I'm shocked that I was
not. I don't think that hasan impact this. But you're a millennial.
You're apathetic? Or is it Janet? Am I supposed to apathetic?
Which generation is supposed to be indifferent? And I think it's Gen X we're
supposed to be apathetic? Well,pop millennials. We'll have it. Research
that I am millennial. I amrather apathetic when it comes to politics.

(03:14):
I do so you care about howthey infect affect the economy. But I
guess the reason I asked, isthe market behaving more like a millennial or
an apathetic gen x, or maybea little bit of both. Is it
even relevant who's dominating whose sentiment isdominating this? But yeah, I guess
you were right on net yields ofmoves, so it did make a difference
in terms of yields we should bethat's where we say markets. We're equity

(03:36):
centric here, but that's not reallyfair. Their bond market is Is it
bigger? Yeah, it's bigger,both in terms of issues and capitalization,
and it's arguably more important. Interestrates set the stage for stock prices,
not for the most part vice versa. So bond markets have responded, but
stocks, which is really what Iwas thinking of when I read this headline
and looked up at the screen andsaw no real change. They're just yawning

(03:59):
off what is potentially really consequential politicaland thus economic. That is, that's
a significant headline. I'm glad youjumped in and mentioned that. I wonder
when that news would come out ifit became official if you do it.
There's this joke in the sports arenawhere you the NFL or major leagues will

(04:20):
dump really bad news on a Fridayat five o'clock because there'll be politics and
economics, which well you dump badnews out. So I'm just kind of
thinking playing four. So we've gotJuly four, everyone's going to be out
of the office or not really aslocked in on a Friday. You know,
the same sort of thing would applyin politics as that fair Biden goes
to bed at four, so itwould have to if he's going to make

(04:41):
the announcement, it's got to bebefore markets close our property. Texas squeezing
out Massachusetts homeowners is a headlining aglobe piece here we The one recurring theme
that I feel I capture when meetingwith clients around Massachusetts area or other states
as well that we cover is certainlyno one is thrilled with the property tax
increases that all communities have really beensubject to. If we take a look

(05:05):
in terms of officials seem to likeit. Public sector kind of likes these
tax increases. You notice that whentowns go for overrides, there's always a
little yes movement. They have thesesigns, you know, ready to go
because there will be more. There'salways a public sector group agitating for a
tax increases, so that everybody,we're not thrilled, but yeah, right,

(05:28):
it's a school job. I guessit's understandable. It's their livelihood.
Yeah, there's always a little groupof agitators for a tax increases. I've
noticed I do worry and I'm kindof taking some attangent here about education and
teachers from a This is again froman anecdotal perspective, but every single teacher
that I have bumped into, whetherit be in my personal life, and

(05:50):
my wife was formerly a teacher,so that's why there is some sort of
you know, overlap with her friendsfrom the practice from her profession, as
well as any client that I dealwith that I have yet to really speak
to a teacher who is feels appreciatedin the work that they're doing. We
know the compensation has never been that'snot a reason why you go into teaching,

(06:11):
but all these factors combined of notfeeling satisfied in their work, upset
about the parent interactions that they dealwith, whatever the community may be,
and just the frustration with the professionin general, it getting too bureaucratic and
them having less ability to really connectwith students. I've heard that common refra,
but go over to State Street orany big financial financial services institution.

(06:33):
They have the exact same complaints andconcerns. I wonder, is that objective
reality or is that blinders on.I don't feel as if I had heard
that as much, I don't know, ten or fifteen years ago, So
you're throwing it more now in thosecircles. I feel like that more people
are willing to consider leaving the professionthan I used to hear. It used

(06:56):
to be a job that had reasonablehours, great benefits, and was helpful
for someone who wanted to be,you know, a mother and be involved
with their kids. And it justseems like more and more recently that I'm
hearing that that isn't the case.I mean, feel free to text us
at six one seven three six twoone three five if you feel different.

(07:16):
Probably if you've been in the professionfor like thirty years, has it involved
has it evolved for the worse froman employee's point of view, and how
do you think you compared to atypical private sector employee who would say the
same thing. Yeah, I worksixty hours a week now because I can
work remote, and that as ifanything expanded my workday, even it's even
seeping into weekends. Do you thinkthat your situation is different from the private

(07:39):
sector. I'm not saying it isor isn't. I know, I sound
like I'm chastising teachers here, whichI'm not qualified to do. I don't
understand their challenges or how those havechanged, but I wonder if any of
those complaints couldn't also be heard atany big tech or financial services company in
the Yeah, I'm interested for feedbackin And the reason ties into the story

(08:01):
here is you know, I wasjust thinking about from a funding perspective.
Certainly, when you do have theseteacher compensation wise, their salary increases are
enough to keep up or there's supposedto be enough to keep up with the
cost of living adjustice. But theyare not in the private sector where you
would get a much more significant raisein that line of things. And we'll

(08:22):
forget the teacher's compensation for you know, have private sector employee the whole point
of the current So no, Iknow, at least it's a free lin
No, I'm not making really haven'tbudged, They've gone up a little bit.
I'm not even trying to go downthat rabbit hole. But but yeah,
it's something that I just think aboutfrom a property tax perspective, generating
revenue and you know, luring andtalent for an educator perspective. What we're

(08:46):
seeing here from a property tax perspectivein Massachusetts specifically is in twenty nineteen,
the average single family home was aboutsix thousand dollars in terms of property taxes.
That number now sits at seventy fourone hundred for fiscal twenty twenty four.
That's about a nineteen percent increase.That isn't as much as the property
values have increased or anything like that. You know, home prices are up

(09:09):
about fifty percent over the last fiveyears. Depending on what metric you look
at or from what indicy out there, the median price of a home in
the Greater Boston area now sits atnine hundred and fifty thousand, five hundred
dollars. But it is making itmore and more challenging for senior citizens.
And in this piece in the Globe, they do mention that Massachusetts has seen

(09:33):
a significant outflow of residence over thecourse of the last ten or eleven years.
Mark Williams, a researcher and professorout of BU did a study in
which he claimed that there has beena eleven hundred percent increase on those leaving
the state, particularly in the twentysix to thirty four demographic. There's been

(09:54):
a thirty one percent jump there overthe last ten to eleven years in terms
of them leaving to other states likeNew Hampshire, Maine, and North Carolina
as some of the top three thatare listed there. Yeah, I know
my property taxes, which is theonly day that I have, are up.
They're growing at about over the pastseventeen years since I moved into my
house, and this is probably representative, are growing at about two point five

(10:15):
percent a year, which is aboutin line with inflation. Well, it's
funny that you mentioned the two anda half percent because the years that's the
cape. So maybe the maybe,the maybe the explanation is yes, stupid
because that's a statutory gap. Theycan't grow faster. For listeners out there,
there's a nineteen eighty law called Propositiontwo and a half in Massachusetts that

(10:35):
says the tax revenue can only increaseby no more than two and a half
percent without a majority vote override togo at a higher percentage than that.
Yeah, I'm torn when I readstories like this. On the one hand,
property values are high and appreciation ishigh in a relative sense because it's
desirable to live here, because unemploymentis three percent, which is low more

(11:00):
than just about everywhere else, includingFlorida. The prime destination you don't move
to. I don't think Florida insearch of Maybe some people do, but
most move for lifestyle and tax reasonslater in life, not for their great
schools, and they're you know,burgeoning tech industry or something, although maybe
it is up and coming. Idon't really know. But the flip side

(11:22):
to my God, it's so expensiveto live here, and property taxes keep
going up as well. Yeah,it's desirable. There are good job opportunities.
We've got great healthcare and a greateducation system. I'm not saying you
can't have those things without high propertytaxes. Maybe you can, but I
can't think of an example, AndI don't claim to be an authority on

(11:45):
cross sectional differences in state quality ofeducation and services relative to taxes. But
my guess is most high quality INTERMTSstandards of living overall states are in a
citizens find themselves in a similar predicament. Yeah, it's not something that's going
to be resolved likely anytime soon.It's going to continue to be competitive.
There's limited supply here. We've talkedabout that quite frequently, so we'll see

(12:07):
sort of how it bears out ifwe continue to see people leaving the Massachusetts
area. We're going to take aquick break here on the Financial Exchange.
But when we come back where we'redoing trivia as well as talking about are
your old clothes worth billions? Rightafter this break, tune in for trivia
brought to you by Applebee's every dayat eleven twenty for your chance to win

(12:28):
cool prizes. Text us at sixone seven three, six two one three
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(12:52):
is the Financial Exchange Radio Network.Just one fall up to the Massachusetts housing
issues that we were speaking about priorto the break, there was a survey
done through CNBC in which the highestcost of living for single people is not
California, it is the state ofMassachusetts, in which you'll have to earn

(13:16):
at least sixty thousand dollars a yearto live alone in Massachusetts, making it
the most expensive state in the USaccording to a recent smart asset analysis.
Some of the others rounding out thelist Hawaii at two, California at three,
New York at four, and thendropping down to just some of our
local states here. Rhode Island isat number ten, Connecticut at number eleven,

(13:39):
New Hampshire at number thirteen, andthen Georgia and Arizona round out the
top fifteen. So just wanting tobriefly mention that we all know it's expensive
to live here, and now nationally, at least by that metric, the
number one throughout the country to livein from an expense standpoint. I mentioned
before the break, your old clotheswas worth billions. Thrifting has become a

(14:03):
really significant secondhand market and has anticipatedto grow significantly over the next four or
five years. Here, however,it doesn't seem like there's been one company
that's really cornered the market on it. Goodwill has the most market share,
but obviously that's a charitable endeavor.He has a very competitive Is somebody really
trying to corner the thrift market?You think the Salvation Army guys sit around

(14:26):
and think about how to put littlesisters of the poor out of business or
something. I really don't think so, you know that being a cut through.
They do need new bells for thisChristmas season. I know. I
saw something come up on my Instagramyesterday where there was there was this warehouse
not even there's a store in Cambridgethat these younger you know generation were going

(14:48):
through and looking through. They don'thave any loads they claim to be their
I feel like an interesting wardrobe.It's just because they don't have any I
know very little about fashion. Mywife will be the first time I can
T shirt and a homemade T shirt. Well, forget about homemade, forget
about that. I'm just trying mydress choice is. I have no idea

(15:09):
what's going on in fashion, butI feel like thrifting is always something that's
in vogue, but never has anyonereally shirt and genes. You look like
John Cougar Mellencamp today no offense.If John Cougar Mellencamp ever wins an Oscar,
I'm going to be a very veryrich man. That's from the office
where Kevin bets. He's like,anytime you get ten thousand and one odds

(15:30):
on something, you have to betit, he says. If John Cougar
Mellencamp ever wins an Oscar, I'mgoing to be a very very rich man.
So I don't feel as if it'sgoing to be a really profitable business.
But seventy pounds of clothes a yearare thrifted, and it's becoming allegedly
more and more popular by the dayfor American for young consumers. I just
don't think that you can make aprofitable business going out there and doing this.

(15:54):
And now I know, really I'mglad my wardrobe. Contrary, why
do you look at me when youlook for comment on a thrift store?
You were coming after I made Tshirt, so it's trying to size you
up. I see if I couldget something the shirts from Target. Purple
purple shirt, nothing wrong, nothingwrong with not quite purpose one of those
in between colors. This is thisis part of the Target lineup. What

(16:17):
do we know about fashion, butit is apparently becoming popular with the under
consumers out there. Taking a quicklook at markets, we've got the S
and P five hundred up about twentyfive quarter of a percent. Here,
the Dow Jones is off about sixtypoints, the US Tenure Treasury seeing a
little bit of significant action where it'stumbled down about eighth basis points to about

(16:38):
four point three five percent. Oil, which had upticked recently as some of
the concerns regarding the upcoming hurricane hadrattled markets a little bit. Sits at
eighty three dollars a barrel for WestTexas Intermediate, and then we have Brent
crude up about a quarter of apercent as well. We're gonna take a

(17:00):
quick break here, but when wecome back, we're talking about the suspicious
activity that has been caught by Wells, Fargar and many others. If you
are a mouse jiggler, you betterwatch out. Bringing the latest financial news
straight to your radio every day.It's the Financial Exchange on the Financial Exchange

(17:23):
Radio network. The Financial Exchange isnow available on your Alexis smart speaker has
to play the Financial Exchange and catchup on anything you might have missed.
This is the Financial Exchange Radio network. The Jiggle is up headline here from
the Wall Street Journal. And forthose of you scratching your heads as to

(17:45):
what is the jiggle and why isit up? This relates to bosses busting
workers who fake computer activity. Sojust to summarize for the listeners out there,
many listeners will be aware of this. Likely what happens at your work
if you're working remotely, you havesome sort of chat system through your work
software programs, whether it's Zoom orMicrosoft Teams or Slack. Basically, what

(18:11):
will happen is you will be monitoredas active if you are on your computer
doing work. After a period oftime, you will be put under away
status. And so what has beenhappening is as remote work has become more
and more prevalent, some scoff lawsout there have taken to buying what's One
of the products is called tech Techeight USA for nineteen ninety nine Amazon,

(18:36):
which will basically replicate sort of amini turnboard to jiggle around a person's mouse
in all sorts of different directions sothat you will not go on unaway status
or be unavailable if your employers tryingto study your activity. You will still
look like you're active while you canbe out playing hooky, doing laundry,

(18:56):
or whatever you want to do withthat free time. Wells Fargo became intertwined
with this story recently where they cameout and fired more than a dozen employees
in their wealth and investment management unitfor allegedly simulating keyboard activity to make the
oppression that the people were actually working. They should have blamed the fake accounts

(19:18):
on the jigglar. We didn't knowit was this damn jiggler was helping accounts.
I was just gonna say, well, Wells Fargo isn't exactly the temple
of rity. Wells are actually promotedthree jigglers. They did such a good
job relative to its to its actualemployees. But I heard their position senior
vice Jggler. Sorry, Paul,you're trying to convey a serious news.

(19:45):
No, this is not a andI are just ridiculing. This is not
a serious episty. This is aperfect story for you know, heading into
July fourth. But what's happening inresponse to these jigglers out there is companies
are starting to you pick up surveillancesystems. The spending on those has surged
about fifty percent. In twenty twentythree, the sorry the share of that

(20:08):
has reached about fifty percent. Ofcompanies have some sort of tracking to determine
whether or not your mouse activity islegitimate or if it's being used from one
of these Jogeras well. Managers justmonitor quality or quantity depending on the job
of output. You know somebody's puttingthe work in, if the job's getting
done satisfactorily, and I suppose youknow when they're not, I guess for

(20:30):
are a pure processing job would beideal for that type of system. How
can somebody fake getting their work done? And if they're able to do the
job in two hours a day,you're overstaffed. That's true. That's true.
You think there'd be many symptom ofa bigger problem. You'd think there'd
be many ways to really test thisout there, whether it's just sending the
person emails, see how quickly theyget back to you, calling them.

(20:52):
There should be a lot of waysto sniff this out rather than the surveillance
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com. Can we continue with theGiggler story for just a second here?
It sounds like a serial something orother. It sounds like a lot of

(21:59):
things. Finally capture the Jiggler whatdo you got on? Well? To
me, it's symptomatic of bigger problems, maybe at this particular I don't want
to pick on Wells Fargo, butif they say they got twelve in this
jiggling dragnet of theirs, there's probablyscores more. And what are their managers
doing that? You let your peopleare jiggling all day and maybe you're jiggling

(22:22):
too, I don't know. You'reall jiggling away the time in that department.
You didn't catch them for six months. To me, it's symptomatic potentially
of deeper cultural problems. Are theynot monitoring people's output, people's productivity?
That's what managers are supposed to be. It's not specifying this piece how much
time during a day this is goingon. Perhaps it's just an hour or
two. I'm not saying that's right. I'm not saying that that's right to

(22:45):
be doing. But are there employeesout there who probably could shave an hour
or two off their day and stillget their work done. Yeah, I'm
sure that's probably the case. Idon't condone it. You should be in
a job where there's just unlimited alllaned is not condoned jiggling. I do
not, I do not good foryou, Paul. To me, you
spend so much time at work.You want to enjoy the work that you're

(23:07):
doing, and hopefully that there's enoughof it that you shouldn't be finding yourself
Yeah, sitting there having to killan hour, but you shouldn't. I
definitely know there's some internships I've donein the past where if I had the
ability to work remotely, I'm notsaying that something like this. You're there
when I did wealth management around andsee a lot of potential jigglers, and

(23:29):
we're all it's just it disgusted you. We were all in office, you
said, when we were doing this, when I was doing these internships.
But let's be let's be honest.For anyone who has interns working offices,
how often do they have a fullplate of work on their on their sect.
There's just that just doesn't happen unlessyou have you seen interns that have
certainly not here I'm kidding. Yeah, I think we're lucky. We're a

(23:53):
small business, so everybody needs tobe a utility player, and our interns
are usually industrious, I think.But I'm sure at a big come anywhere
they hire classes of interns. Thereoften is a very narrow project spectrum that
in those larger companies, and I'vebeen at it's, hey, here's your
one project to tackle. But overthe course of six to eight weeks or
however long the anternship runs, there'snot enough time to fill the day.

(24:18):
So anyway, that's that's enough onthe Ben can Ben? Ben? Enough?
Am I allowed to go to break? Here? Sure you've had enough
jiggling this segment. I've had enoughjiggling. It's time to bounce on out
of here for a quick break.We're gonna take a quick break. When
we come back, we're going wetalk about the sale of the Celtics as
well as Florida Panthers games moving tolocal broadcast stations. That's right after this

(24:41):
break. Find daily interviews and fullshows of the Financial Exchange on our YouTube
page. Like us on YouTube andget caught up on anything and everything you
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(25:06):
Exchange Radio Network. The Financial Exchangehas built an incredible partnership with the Disabled
American Veterans Department of Massachusetts. Wecan't wait to take part in this year's
DAV five K, set for SaturdayNovember a little bit Saturday November ninth at
Fort Independence on Castle Island, andregistration is now open. You can help

(25:30):
our great American heroes by walking,running, or simply making a donation.
Your gifts will support services such asthe Veteran Advancement Program, which offers permanent
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dot Boston. The DAV five KBoston is presented by Veterans Development Corporation.
It's time for a little bit ofa stock roulette, but we're gonna spend

(25:52):
a little bit of time here tokick it off with my choice. Here
it's Wick Grossbeck selling the Celtics.The Celtics were crowned with their eighteenth banner
just recently here by winning this year'sNBA Championship, and it was shortly after
announced that WICC Grosspec would be sellinghis majority steak in the team. Wick

(26:12):
has owned had on an ownership stakein the Celtics dating back to two thousand
and two, valuations you could arguefor NBA teams are just at meteoric levels.
They've absolutely skyrocketed. They his group, him and his group wic Rospbec
bought the Celtics back in two thousandand two for I believe around three hundred

(26:33):
and fifty million as a ballpark figure, I can confirm that. Sorry,
yeah, three hundred and sixty millionin two thousand and two. The value
of the Celtics at the moment,as estimated by Forbes is four point seven
billion. I would estimate that thisteam, the ownership would sell for five
and a half billion, perhaps sixbillion, just because there's such a limited

(26:55):
amount of NBA teams that are upfor sale, and let's be quite honest
all personals, aside as being ahuge fan of the team, it's one
of the most valuable properties within theNBA. It's really the Lakers are probably
the front runner, but the Celticsin terms of their brand, recognition and
reputation, is right behind them.And the question to me that arose when

(27:15):
the announcement was made is why,I mean, he just won the championship.
They're really positioned strongly for the future, locking down Jalen Brown and Jason
Tatum who are both twenty six andtwenty seven for the next four to five
years, fantastic players there, andthen securing a lot of their roster to

(27:36):
be under contract for the next threeto four years. And what it comes
down to, and what I've heardfrom feedback is this is going to be
a really expensive team from a payrollperspective, and you also have an investment
that he's made almost twenty two timeshis money on over the last twenty two
years. So he's getting out andselling while it's high. It's going to
cost about two hundred and fifty tothree hundred million to run payroll for the

(27:57):
Celtics next year. That number thefollowing year is going to skyrocket to about
five hundred millions, So it's goingto be a lot of cash flow that's
strained from the team. Doing themultiple on the Celtics at those values versus
yeah, I mean that's you know, fourteen times time times the initial value

(28:19):
of the investment. So for everydollar he put in, you'll get about
fourteen out versus nine. On thestock market, I would have thought stocks
appreciation because you're buying a diversified basketof stuff, and were you doing that
as the four point five hundred,we're using four point seven billion as a
sale price. I did five okay, got it? So I actually did
five point one. One of thechallenges for them is they don't own the
building, right, whereas most ownershipgroups typically own the building, and that's

(28:42):
one of the prize possessions because thenoff season, hey, concerts, we
can make a lot of money withthis. They don't. The Bruins do,
so I wonder if that's limiting fora potential new owner of the team,
because there's not a lot of spacein the city to try and build
a money If your reaction to fivepoint one or four point point nine that
that seems a little low relative toother franchises like Dallas, I'll call him

(29:03):
second tier, even though people takegreat offense of that. Probably, But
in terms of global franchise value,Celtics is probably it's probably New York Yankees.
It's have to be top five globalfranchise. Cowboys Cowboys, No,
not really, okay, okay,it's soccer. Yeah, it's usually the
Cowboys. Sorry, Can we justput soccer to the like Real Madrid Celtics

(29:26):
would probably be then maybe nine orten at best. But let's go to
mes football teams. Let's go towell, let's go okay, yeah,
right, okay, then just Massachusettstop three, thank you. I would
go Lakers, Yankees and Cowboys.In terms of the American ones, the

(29:47):
Lakers are working more than the seasonright now. It's their bigger brand.
It's l a bigger brand, muchmore global recognition and uh and it's just
a great market to be in.Steve hag Luca is rumored as a front
runner to perhaps take over the ownershipsteake. He already has a ownership steak
in the comp in the Celtics,and he would become the majority shareholder,

(30:10):
it's rumored, but I'm not sureif he's gonna have the caps to do
it, Billy, be interesting tosee. It's been a tremendous run.
They've done a great job with thefront office. So we will see.
You know who comes out of thecap figure to do this, and well
Bezos does. And he just soldfive billion dollars worth of Amazon stock.
Oh wow, freed up just theright amount. No, but the curious

(30:30):
thing to me is do the Saudisget involved? They've been making this big
push into sports and taking over alot of things, splashing money around.
I wonder if they get involved inthis at all, and how the reaction
would be from us if that doeshappen. Upset, very upset. I
think my reaction would be upset towhy is that? Why? Why is
that? My gut reaction? Isthat just being parochial and a little chauvinist

(30:53):
broke? I want an American toown this damn team? I do too?
Is that selfish? Are narrow minded? How are they gonna have any
How are they gonna have any businessaptitude onto how to run the Sultan?
They're gonna delegate it to some competentperson. They'll still be There's certainly no
limits to what they can spend onthe business. I wonder if the other

(31:14):
other the other ownership's groups have tovet off the purchase. Don't they have
to vet a potential to it?Yeah? So, I but just the
money's coming in, they're gonna belike, okay, they all I don't
think. I don't think it's concernedon this one. But maybe I'm proven
wrong, But I don't think thatwill lead. I don't think they'll be
an emerging bid or for just becauseI do think that there will be obstacles

(31:34):
into getting approval from all the otherowners of the team, owners of the
other respective teams allowing Saudi investment.I'm just not sure we're there yet.
But they're supposed to be two expansionteams coming out, so maybe maybe that
will be the case. What doyou got for us mark cost of a
barbecue? In twenty twenty four?Obviously tomorrow being the fourth July, Yahoo
Finance did a story on the stickershock as they aptly I think, call

(31:59):
it on typical items and fourth ofJuly festivities shopping basket. Now, overall
food inflation is overall inflation, let'sstart. There is up about three percent
year over year. That's the ConsumerPrice Index. There are other measures,
but CPI Consumer Price Index, Ithink is the most widely followed food inflation.
Again, this is overall, onaverage, a little bit less than

(32:21):
that two point one percent that surprisedme. I would have said food was
in line with or higher than averageprices. But things like ground beef five
percent year over year, hot dogswhich they call frankfurters for some reason,
right, nobody who calls it thatGermans, and that shouldn't be mentioned in
a fourth July piece. I'm withyou. There's this little group of mercenaries

(32:43):
called the Hessians that we don't havegreat memories of on the fourth of July
anyway. Yeah, that's that's anexcellent point. Paul Frankfurter is up seven
point three percent year over year,Chicken down down relative to CPI up only
one point four percent year over year. So if you're looking to I guess
save money in a relative since chickenwould be the food of choice. It's

(33:06):
estimated that wopping nine and a halfbillion will be spent by Americans on food
alone this fourth of July. Accordingto the National Retail Federation. Wells Fargo
did report that if you're grilling Hamburgersat home for a party of ten,
which when Mark was referencing that onehundred dollars that is the assumed cost for
a group of ten for a barbecueto pay for that does seem really low

(33:30):
because they're mentioning beer, beef,soda, and lettuce. But this is
according to Wells Fargo. So somejiggler might have no this is a rub
rabobank group. They were the oneswho came up with the one hundred dollars
for the cost, and oh thekey fixings beer, beef, soda,

(33:51):
and lettuce are two thirds of thatoverall cost. Wells Fargo though they report
that if you're grilling hamburgers at home, well that was just yeah, that
is a really small slice of thepie. If you're grilling hammers at home
for a party of ten, you'llsay fifty bucks compared to dining out,
not including taxes and tips. It'sa fantastic holiday. It's great for everyone

(34:12):
to get together and enjoy some foodand festivities and fireworks as well. So
we hope that everyone has a greatone here as we take a look around
at markets at the moment. LikeI mentioned, the market will be closing
at one o'clock today, will beclosed on Thursday, and we'll reopen on
Friday. Again, this tends tobe a pretty low volume time for trading

(34:32):
activity. We've got the S andP five hundred up over a quarter of
a percent, and the Dow Jonesoff about eighty points, and the Nasdaq
is up about two thirds of apercent. That's all the time that we
have for this July third episode ofthe Financial Exchange. All of our listeners
out there, A fantastic fourth ofJuly will be black with you on Friday

(34:53):
at ten am. Have a greatfourth everyone,
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