Monday-4-7-2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's either Black Monday part due, or it's not, or
it's part of the plan, or it's people taking profits.
Except I was just looking at a chart from last week.
The only billionaire in the US who made money was
Warren Buffett. Among the top I think thirty was what
the list had. So, look, there's a lot of craziness,

(00:22):
a lot of stuff going on, and we're going to
talk about it today. But we're going to talk about
it not in the way that it's being discussed right
now by a bunch of billionaires like Bill Ackman and
Ackerman excuse me, and others. We're going to talk about
it in the way that the media elite and others
are failing to recognize. And I think makes us Ross

(00:44):
and I much better arbiters and analysts of what's going
on because we're just do I know, you think that
we all make millions of dollars here, I think you'd
be very surprised. R We are firmly middle class people.
And when you understand where a middle class is coming from,

(01:05):
not everybody, but you take an honest review of what's
going on out there and where people's heads are at,
which thankfully we get to do every day. Every day
we talk about, you know, twenty different things, and then
we get emails and people call in, and then we
talk to people when we're out and about, And I
think I can lay this out for you this morning

(01:28):
as to what's going on right now where people's heads
are at. And I didn't see any student analysis among
like major broadcasters or some of the you know, the
stock market class. So maybe we'll just start there and
then we'll get into some other stuff and it'll just
kind of be a running undercurrent on the show. Okay,

(01:48):
all right, so here we go. The vast majority of
Americans look at the stock market and don't think it's real.
What do they estimate? I've heard fifty percent of people
are in the stock market, sixty two percent. I mean
your four oh one is in the market. I but

(02:09):
you know, honestly in the market. It's not the majority
of Americans. And that's okay because when you're younger, right,
you're not doing things necessarily to achieve that you're just
trying to survive, and you're recognizing and you're looking at
an economy where the stock market, even though everything feels normal,
can have these wild fluctuations because everybody panics up there.

(02:33):
Meanwhile you're sitting there and you're trying to figure out
how a starter home with poor construction. Have you seen
some of the videos of some of these mass builders
the level equality of construction that's getting turned out, and
they're looking at a starter home that if that if
you adjusted for inflation, and I understand interest rates were different,
all of these things. I get all of that, but again,

(02:55):
you're working on perception and a lot of reality. And
the reality is that I saw at these mass protests
all around the country over the weekend. I saw a
bunch of people, and I understand that there are people
listening to the show that are very much in this
age bracket. And I'm not picking on you, but they
were able to pull more strongly out of that age group. Okay,

(03:19):
that was clearly going on, even if you think they're lunatics,
which most of us do. And the reason they were
able to do that is because you have people that
are on the cusp of retirement. They have done well
for the most part, and good for them. I don't
begrudge them, even if I think they're little looney tunes
or a lot with some of the folks I saw.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
And.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
They're in this position right now, and they're going, I
don't know if I'm gonna have time to recover this,
even though if for a lot of people's four oh ones,
it literally mirrors what it was under the last part
of the Biden administration, But we don't talk about that,
and what and the rest of the folks are sitting

(04:03):
there and they look at buying their first home, especially
in markets like Raleigh.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
How insane.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
How many of you have just got your tax adjustment
and now this home, your home is worth so much more,
and now you're going to pay taxes on that differential,
even though you've never realized any gains from it. And
what's that going to do to your budget? And oh,
by the way, when you actually went and bought the home,
if you went and bought a home here recently, and
even if it was a starter home compared to what

(04:33):
it was in the nineteen seventies and eighties, but let's
talk more eighties, because that's kind of math that's going
to math out here. Even if you adjusted for inflation
and everything else, the cost of a new home far
exceeds what it was back in the day. It's not
even close and the cost of goods. Don't even get
me started. And you ask yourself, how did we get here? Well,

(04:55):
we got here with the current, with the system that
had been in place when Trump came into office. And
here's what I here's who I really want to hear
from today. And I don't care what agr any of that.
I want to hear from people who grew up and
have lived their lives here in the South, in states

(05:17):
like North Carolina, South Carolina, parts of Virginia, West Virginia.
And I want to hear what small town life was
like then versus what it is now, because I think
this is a huge driving force when you get out
into the red parts of the country. I want to

(05:38):
hear what happened that time that Bill Clinton decided NAFTA
was a good idea. What changed in your town? What
did that do to your community? And I know people
would say, well, you know, it's not like people want
to work in garment factor People work in garment factories
here that still exists. People want to build furniture, yes,

(06:01):
people want to People wanted to do energy production. And
you had this global mindset, these agreements with other countries
where we were going to fall in line, or we
were going to open trade to these uh you know,
unmitigated trade, these areas that were able to undercut us
because they do they they pay slave wages. And while

(06:22):
you can sit there and you can make an argument
that well it wasn't sustainable, that was your decision, and
you stuck a knife in it. So now trying to
convince a bunch of people, how many small towns within
the sound of my voice right now are a shell
of their former selves. So you don't have to think

(06:44):
those people are right, but you read you need to
recognize that basically from gen X down, people are willing
to watch it burn because it was never real. I
know that sounds horrible, but I'm giving you the truth.
I'm not giving you my apinion. I'm giving you the truth.
I spend far too many, far too many days and

(07:06):
grew grew up small town myself and I and I
love them. And that's that's where that's why I like
to go vacation, That's where I like to that's why
that's where I have friends. That's where we have interactions
from people listening who are sitting there in towns like Eden,
sitting in in in parts of Harnett County, sitting in

(07:28):
parts of all over North Carolina where if you go
to their main street it's dead. The industry has moved on.
The epidemic of people utilizing drugs, whether it's opiates or
you know, meth or things like that, has skyrocketed because
because Hope left again. You can you can disagree on

(07:50):
the methodology, but you need to understand the mindset and
the motivation. So running around all weekend screaming this is
going to crash the stock market. Most most of those
people don't care because the stock market never represented what
was going on financially in their lives. While people sat

(08:12):
there and watched the brewery close up in Eden during
a period of huge upswing in the stock market. Do
you care what Indev's stock was doing, or do you
care that you and your buddies just all lost your jobs.

Speaker 4 (08:25):
I know it's not just the South either, Like what
you just described is my hometown of Schenectady up in
New York.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
No, and to be fair, I'm sorry, I didn't mean
to leave that out. I just figured that was use
your pool to draw from. But yes, you're absolutely right.
The rust belt and upstate.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
New York absolutely like the home of ge and Main Street.
We lived off Main Street. Completely different from even when
I grew up, you know, in the eighties and nineties,
completely different, And you know, yeah, I watch all this
and I'm apart. I'm just not a I'm not I'm
just not worried. After the past five years and everything
we've been through, I'm just not worried. I'm sorry. I

(08:59):
can't panic. It's not in me. Have I lost money? Listen,
I do have a retirement I have a four one game. Yeah,
you and I both have four oh ones. Our company
offers that. So just to be clear, we do have
skin in the game. It is currently where it was
last August, right, because it's twenty five percent growth year
to year? Is it normal? That isn't natural. But even
though I had it a retirement, I have a retirement

(09:20):
fund or plan or whatever I did. There's no part
of me that thinks that I'm ever going to be
able to retire. It's not possible. My plan, and I've
said this before jokingly, but it's sort of true, is
I will die over the whole die working. That's my
retirement plan. There's no part of me that has any
sort of like belief that I'm going to be able

(09:41):
to retire and live alone and not have to work.
That's never gonna happen for me. It never is going
to happen. So I'm watching all this happen and have
I lost money, Yes? But do it I feel like
the joker looking at the big pile of money marching
it burn correct because, like you said, my house payment
has gone up because everything's building up around it, and
they're increasing taxes and it's ridiculous. Last year went up
for me. It's a lot. It's a lot of money.

(10:03):
Every month they went up like three hundred dollars a
month for me. There's a lot of money because I
don't make a lot of money. So is it concerning?
At is concerning? But I really there's no part of me.
I can't force the panic. I'm not panicking. I believe
that it's Listen, I would not be surprised that by
the midterms the Dow is up over fifty thousand.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Well, I saw that. Lutnick.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
I think was predicting that. I think that that is
that's aspirational, But I don't believe that it's less than
it is or was two weeks ago, right before we
had the two consecutive and the end of the week,
and then whatever happens today. I refuse to believe that.
But also I that's not the numbers that you and

(10:47):
I and others really are are dry the concern.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
What's going on. It's the cost of things.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
And inflation and the willingness of the previous administration as
well as basically all the administrations going back to do
you know who the last Democrat was to lower taxes LBJ.
So if you want to make that our starting point,
we can. Ever since we have seen this and then
it kicked into high gear under NAFTA and Clinton and

(11:16):
everything that was going on there, it just yeah, here
we go. Bought one hundred and forty k house for
in twenty twenty two and just sold it for two
hundred and fifty in rural Johnston County.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
Yes, right, and then you're going to sell it and
then you get into a house that's like, you know,
so much more expensive with a higher interest rate, and
you're gonna be paying that way into retirement.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
Right, you have to live somewhere, So what have you
really gained?

Speaker 4 (11:43):
One thing I keep thinking about is how I keep
thinking about ross Pro in the nineties, watching him. Yeah,
ross Pro in the nineties, watching him, Yeah, with all
the charts, and I'm like, man, that dude was right,
Yeah he was. Remember him going on and on about
NAFTA and how it would completely hollow out the American
workforce and the manufacturer action.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, so that's what I want to hear. I want
to hear your stories. How many of you grew up
in one of these towns? Could be schenected? He could
be could be somewhere right, you know, right here in
the listening areas of North Carolina, western North Carolina. How
hollowed out is that? Go to the town of Sparta,
you know, I like to go up there. Talked about

(12:19):
it here on the show. Go to the town of Sparta.
I'm not picking on.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Sparta, but Sparta is a shell of its former self.

Speaker 4 (12:26):
We can't agree that the middle class, the way things
are going at this point, it's not sustainable.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
No, not, not the costs that you were seeing, Not
for middle America.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
It's not doable.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
So so watching the billionaire class and the stock market
class get into these screaming matches and the and this
chicken little stuff, I don't tell it carry and I,
By the way, do you know what Bill Bill Ackerman
was most famous for.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
This guy is like, I'm I'm investing in America.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
This is the line that like, if I invest in stocks,
I'm investing in America.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
I don't believe that.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
How many of you have worked in a company that
was a publicly traded company where it was nothing but
maximize profit for the shareholders and it decimated parts of
your company or your business, and God help you. A
venture capitalist came in and Bill Ackerman's famous because he

(13:17):
attempted to short one of one of the companies where
they go around and sell door to door. It's a
little bit of a pyramid scheme, but Amway. It was
an Amway. It was one of them. He attempted to
short him, unsuccessfully. There's a whole documentary on this. He
was betting against the futures of everybody who worked there

(13:39):
or made money there. Doesn't mean he was wrong, But
don't give me this holier than now. I only invest
in America. Investing in America is not necessarily the stock market.
It's investing in an economic system that provides the ability
of people to not have to lose their damn minds

(13:59):
and stress every day because they can't figure out how
they're going to make ends meet even though they have
two you have two people working. I mean, that's insane
to me. The transition from a single payer household that
was comfortable could make ends meet. Yes, we didn't have
quite the level of luxuries to you know, to expend
money on.

Speaker 3 (14:18):
But you could feasibly get by, you know, and you did.
And then two people entered the workforce.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
Full time, and you're struggling far more than the generation
before you.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
And that's not in dispute.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
This generation and then the one cropping up are are
worse off than the generations before them.

Speaker 4 (14:36):
These changes had to be made, in my opinion. But
do you think the issue is that band aid was
ripped off too fast?

Speaker 1 (14:41):
That is, that's the only fair argument here, but also
one of the things, and you're seeing it right now. Well,
and I believe this and this is just me. I
don't know if you've seen what's happened in Japan and
China overnight they got absolutely hammered. China stock market lost
ten percent, Japan not much better. Japan had a breaker,

(15:03):
I'm not kidding, like a fuse bust and they suspended
training trading. Nobody believes that. It's a crazy story.

Speaker 4 (15:11):
They had like a water pipe burst, No, a.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
Breaker of some sort. I'm not making this up.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
Japan suspended trading while they were getting hammered because I
don't know, a breaker went out.

Speaker 4 (15:21):
Right, But it's like counting the votes and being like,
we have to stop because the water pipe broke.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
They sent Bob downstairs with a sledge hammer, like hits
something electrical. I don't know, probably not Bob, it's Japan.
But they sat Yashimoto downstairs with a hammer and they're like,
hit that thing, Bro, and he did because he's a ninja.
But whatever. And what what Trump is betting on is
those leaders panic, panic, and agree to what he wants.

(15:51):
And it's kind of working because the US can take
a lot more kick in the teeth than these smaller countries.
That's what you have. So you have people that are
sitting there that are not invested to the extent that
these billionaires are, and they're willing to be the joker
staring at the pile of money. And if they don't

(16:12):
understand this, then they're not good an analysts.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
We'll be back.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
How many of you support construction trade either you do
you work directly in it. Your truck drivers, you drive
materials back and forth, you work in industry that produces
the parts that are necessary for construction.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
How many?

Speaker 1 (16:34):
And development too, So you have people that deal with
water right, the you know, the pipelines, the direct the
people guys, the guys who go out and do directional boring,
which I've done, which is which when you're one of
the shovel guys at the very beginning, sucks till you
can run a piece of machinery. But it's.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
How many of you.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
Have a financial interest in that? What do you think
seven trillion? If I don't know, if you heard the
bottom of the hour newscasts there, the Trump administration says,
thus far they've received commitments for seven trillion dollars in
in investment, so basically establishing businesses inside of the US
which are going to require buildings, they're going to require

(17:19):
you know, manufacturing lines. Automation in many instances, because I
know people are like, well, they're just going to automate stuff.

Speaker 3 (17:24):
Well, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
If if you think China is not really automated, then
you don't you've never seen inside a Chinese plant, and
you should watch some video. Yeah, they have a lot
of people, but the majority of it is automated, especially
when it comes to the production of big things like iPhones. Right,
what do you think? And and countries are going to

(17:45):
be scrambling to make those investments because only once they've
started production and that stuff is being produced in the
US so they can sell to US consumers will they
get the full amount of terror relief unless the countries
want to drop tariffs completely. What do you think a

(18:07):
rapid rush to build six trillion in investment in infrastructure
does for the wages and the profits If you're a
small business owner or even a medium to large business
owner in that slice of the economy, construction is going
to get expensive. Now does that have impacts on people

(18:30):
want to build new homes? Maybe not, because the residential
guys are necessarily going to turn into commercial guys. But
the people who work for them may be more incentivized
to go work from these companies who are begging for
workers and having to pay higher wages so they can
construct these plants. And if you're a company who wants
to produce a manufacturing plant of any sort, are you

(18:53):
going to stick it in downtown Raleigh or Charlotte or Greensboro.
Where are you going to put it? To go somewhere
where you have interstate or close by access for the
purpose of shipping, where the wages at this point are
not so excruciating that it takes a further cut of
what you're doing. And I can give you one hundred

(19:15):
towns in North Carolina that could facilitate that. And you're
gonna put it there, and people there are gonna have
an opportunity to work there. And for those saying, well,
they're not going to work there, you don't know small towns.
You don't You don't know small towns. There's a town
in Minnesota that I used to go down to Coldwood, Nona, Minnesota,

(19:39):
and it's a It's the one of the things that
helps that town hang on, not only because it has
quick access to I ninety. It's right on the river,
right across the river from Wisconsin down by Lacrosse and whatnot.
And they have Fastenal has one of their main facilities there,

(19:59):
and I, I don't know, I couldn't tell you the
number of people I know who work there.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
Are they getting rich?

Speaker 5 (20:03):
No?

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Are they working in a job that they're able to
support their families because fast and All continues to have
this large operation there, and many of you in the
construction trade, you know fasten All. Yeah, all over the
country they got places and that's where you order your
construction supplies and stuff from. And it literally keeps that town.
Trucking man sounds like that they're going to be banging

(20:25):
away and Fasten All. From a corporate standpoint, we probably
do pretty well. So these are the conversations that people
aren't having. And something's or the chance of something's better
than nothing in the minds of so many people. That's
the reality. That's why there is this disconnect with the
conversation that is going on. And this is why I'm

(20:47):
wanting to hear from you, because you guys are the
ones who can tell those stories. I didn't grow up
in rural North Carol. I grow rural Wyoming. And beef's
a pretty sustainable industry. But nobody's getting rich, not really,
but for a lot of towns, they don't have that backbone.

(21:07):
And now you don't live there anymore because you had
to move away because you need a job opportunities and
you wish nothing more, maybe to be able to live
in that town that you grew up in. Why shouldn't
they have a chance And they didn't have a chance
as to where we were going. So the only thing
here's my theory on the band aid thing, and then
we'll get into calls because ross po's the question. And

(21:31):
I think that that's a legitimate argument. But I think
people fail to understand Trump's motivation.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
One. You want the.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
When people are panicking, they're making decisions that might be
more agreeable to you, and that's business stuff, and Trump
loves business stuff. But people people who are tweeting things
like Trump's destroying his own livelihood, see he lost money.
You think that money is the most important thing to Trump?
And I'm not saying that do altruistic. I want you

(22:01):
to hear me out. You think money is the most
important thing to Trump. Money has been to this point
because of what it represents. It's not the money, it's
the power, and more specifically, it's the name recognition. And
I think that Donald Trump would would happily lose half

(22:21):
of his fortune if he is forever seen as the
man who saved the American economy. Does that make sense
to me to you, because he's got an ego and
you can't buy that. You can't buy that you're the
person who saved a country, as I know, as weird
as that sounds, I feel like that is far more

(22:43):
valuable to him, far more valuable. Or else why run
for president at all and continue to slog through this
considering the financial hit you're taking, because this is more
important to him. So understand his motivations. You don't have

(23:04):
to think he's correct, but you have to understand where
people are coming from so that you can have discussions.
And you need to understand where the majority of people,
younger people are kind of coming from. Why do you
think that there wasn't a bunch of twenty somethings out
at those protests. I don't think they've ideologically changed, and
I understand as will. They're not being paid to be there. Look,

(23:25):
everyone's not being paid to be there, but some people
are or or and clearly are with you. When you
see these groups and you see these these text messages,
you get it's like become a can or become an
influencer for two hundred dollars for the Democrat Party. I
got one of those. Those are real and it's a
it's a way of not saying you're paying people for

(23:46):
a vote, kind of doing it. So there's a lot
at play here, George, what's up, Good morning morning.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
You were asking about housing process in nineteen sixty four.
I'm eighty two years old. In nineteen sixty four, I
bought a three bedroom half with a fool basement twelve
hundred square feet and are a three quarter of an
acred lock thirteen thousand thousand dollars.

Speaker 6 (24:19):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
At that time I went to About two years later,
I went to work as a plumber's helper, and I
own a plumbing company now in North Carolina. I want
to work for a plumbing company A dollar twenty five
cents an hour, I'll make over fifty an hour. Nine yeah,

(24:42):
five way, my number one man more than I'm made well.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
And that's that's this good business right there. Let me
ask you a question, if they if they were rushing
to put seven trillion in infrastructure development into the US
and it started shooting off into North Carolina and many
of these towns. I don't know which community you're, sir,
but in your mind and your business mind, having done
this half a century or more, you have to assume

(25:08):
that that would be a net benefit for people that
are in the trade, such as yourself.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, yeah, I think that people are failing to see
this well, George. I appreciate the call this morning. These
this is the stuff that I'm talking about. I'm not
telling you it's right or wrong, but you have to
understand the motivations of folks.

Speaker 4 (25:28):
Right, and you're talking about the younger people like the
Zoomers and stuff, who are just sitting out in the world.
And you've got a rent for over two thousand dollars
craziness a month, and I can't even comprehend that. I
think back in like ninety nine, my first rent I
think was like four hundred, five hundred dollars a month,
and that was that was you know, I'm just starting out.
That was fine. I could do that.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
I called it to ten. I lived on glen Wood
for eight hundred. Yeah, and it wasn't as I had
a nicer apartment. I don't like studios, I'm sorry, but yeah.

Speaker 4 (25:57):
And even getting like an old beater car. I saw
people talking about this, a thread about this on an
X this weekend, and you know, it's hard to find
one of these run down five hundred dollars beater cars
because you get cash for clunkers. Exactly. Yes, they won't
pass emissions because.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
They wanted to get green and they didn't care who
it hurt. This is the death by a thousand cuts
that people remember. They remember that time you decimated the
entire use car market, and now it's trying to get
an entry level cars cost prohibitive in many instances, and
they wanted it that way so they could get mass
transits transit. And they got those ideas because they in

(26:35):
a globalist mindset, went over to Davos, or they went
to Kyoto, the Kyoto Accords, and they sat down as
a bunch of world leaders and said, this is what
we're going to do, and everyone can just deal with
it because they'll have mass transit, even though mass transit
in Japan is far easier than mass transit in a
country the size of the United States, and our leaders

(26:56):
didn't care. And people remembered that.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
And you have the argument like, oh, well, if you
bring back these jobs, these you know the younger generation
won't want to do them. Well, a lot of them
are forced right now. Do you think they'd rather take
a job at McDonald's nothing against that, but or a
job at a factory doing something.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
I mean there's oh, it's like the factories. I just
told you. Maybe it's a job at a factory. But
maybe because you went you got a CAD degree of
some sort, you're the one designing the fact.

Speaker 4 (27:20):
Or working in the machines at the factory.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
Correct, correct, Yes, And if you've ever worked at a
factory and there's like the dude who can come in
and actually do the mechanical and all your stuff. That
guy's not making minimum wage to check the truck. Guys
like that show up in So there are there are opportunities.
I don't know what it's going to look like, but

(27:42):
I understand why people are willing to sit there and go,
this needs to be done, or I'm willing to watch
what happens because they're going, how could it be worse?

Speaker 3 (27:51):
I can't even afford to do anything.

Speaker 4 (27:53):
But also mean, our economy could be completely decimated, or
the supply chain, right if China says we don't want
to give you this or that anymore, or the semiconductors
in Taiwan, right, Yeah, but.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
The way that you I don't know, if you know
this that happened.

Speaker 4 (28:10):
Before, right, I was saying during COVID, right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, And so a lot of people back then went go,
this is not a good position to be in. And
not just during COVID. We've had conflicts all over the world. Remember,
we didn't have relations with China until the late set,
I mean really not until the eighties. We only had
a president go in there in the seventies and it
was such a big damn deal. So how were things

(28:36):
fine before the you know, mid eighties and really late eighties,
and then all of a sudden they weren't because of
a globalist mindset. I don't I'm not using the conspiratorial way.
I'm just that that is an accurate description of it.
And for too long people have watched others go along
with it, and then they bore the brunt of it
every damn time.

Speaker 7 (28:58):
Say good morning, case it, thanks for taking my call. So,
first thing, I don't think the band aid has been
ripped off too fast. The uh there was a lot
of blood underneath the band aids, so it had to
be taken off. The other side of that is is
the all this stock market crash just shows me how
much money wasn't invested in America, and like all our
four oh one K money is in these foreign governments.

(29:19):
So I mean, I don't understand uh uh. And the
fdi C could ensure our four to one case.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
To where it's not in the foreign governments, but it's
clearly dependent upon them being friendly with us.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
So I think it's yeah, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (29:34):
And I do, Yeah, I do the construction trade, and
you know, and and it's it seems to be booming now,
especially this year. There seems to be a lot more
building going starting. And if you look at the Toyota
plant and the Wolf's Wolf Speed plant in uh, I
think it's Chatham and Randolph Counties, right. People are clamoring

(29:54):
to work there. I mean those Toyota is paying so well,
thirty seven dollars an hour to start, the offer training
and everything.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Oh my god, I have capacity. They have the what's
the in Chattanooga. I think they have thirty percent capacity
being unused. So like some of this stuff is quick.
But to your point, if and it's not just guys
that are literally right in the construction trade, I mean,
can you imagine seven trillion in investment dollars clamoring for

(30:20):
people to build facilities that that.

Speaker 7 (30:23):
I can't even seven trillion dollars. I'm starting to rupew.
I can't even fathom eleven trillion dollars. It's such a
huge amount of money.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, kidding, Yeah, absolutely. And let me say
this because somebody sent me an email and it just
it just basically was like okay, but like, uh, you
don't you don't benefit from construction trade. Sure, I do,
absolutely one. I yes, you know, utilize them. But from
a from a business standpoint, if there are if there

(30:54):
is a huge uptick in people that are necessary to
do these projects or staff these facilities, how do those
companies recruit.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
One of the ways that they recruit.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
You hear the ads that have run on this radio
station for years, whether they need people for medical studies
or they need people for jobs when they expand we
run ads like that all the time. So now you're
buying advertising on my show because we probably had the
biggest swath of people that are in the construction trades
within the market, and so we're the right radio station

(31:28):
to advertise for those people. And so if you need
a bunch of builders for something, or you need a
bunch of workers for something. This is a pretty good
place to advertise, and so now I have received some
sort of renuneration in an ancillary way for this very thing. Here. Again,

(31:50):
I may not be right. I'm doing the analysis as
best I can, but I feel like all of my
years and my childhood where I grew up in Ross's
childhood with what he saw happened to his town. And
I'm arguing against people who do things like post tweets
that when they went to a Walmart outside of DC
they could smell the humanity. What insight do those people

(32:14):
have to what's going on in rural North Carolina? And
the answer is nothing because they detest them and people
picked up on that with the decisions that they made.
All Right, I only got about a minute here, so
ra we'll get into more of it. I'm going to
start the hour with it. I want to play you
a piece of audio here real quick, which although yeah,

(32:38):
actually let me do this because I won't have enough
time to then add what I need to. We don't
know whether we know how billionaire and stock market dudes
feel about it.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
They're not pleased.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
But I'm just trying to provide the perspective or provide
the opportunity so that people can talk about how they
feel about it.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
And I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
The conversations that I've had with folks, whether it's on
social media or just friends of mine in general, is
many of them have watched their whole life in some instances,
decisions that were made that clearly were not in their
best interest by people claiming that they were. And they
watched the expansion of this global thing that folks wanted

(33:22):
to partake in, where instead of saying okay, but understand
that we're the swing and you know what in the
room because we were, we koutout and we did things
where we decided we would take on the majority of
defense spending for partner organizations that primarily benefit Europe, and
that doesn't make sense. They saw all this doze stuff

(33:45):
that still nobody's offered any apologies or explanation for, and
all of a sudden, they can't well up a single
ounce of sympathy for a guy who's got six vacation
homes in a yacht. They don't care, even though it's
not as cut and dry in that, and they do
have skin in the game if they have four to
ones but they've decided the situation is so broken they're

(34:07):
willing to take this drastic thing. And and if Trump's
wanted to do it all at once, arguably it's a
it's a negotiating position because we can withstand the storm
better than any other country. And so in a negotiating standpoint,
if you can get the person, you're negotiating against a
panic that does nothing but benefit you. So you know,

(34:33):
that'll be part of the conversation. And I did ask,
especially if you're out there and you remember what has
happened to all of these communities, so many of these
communities and continues to happen. Look, if you live in
rural North Carolina, are are you happy that the state
has become very business friendly? And you have seen you

(34:54):
have seen a lot of growth. The problem is, it's
not growth that has benefited you unless you're willing to
uproot your life and move to RTP or to Charlotte,
or to a handful of other places in the state.
And you're asking yourself, when are you gonna make decisions
that might benefit me? This is what that looks like

(35:14):
to you. And I hope you're right. I hope you're
right because the decimation of small town North Carolina, South Carolina,
Virginia Schenectady, which is not a small town, but uh,
you know, communities that aren't the you know, the big
ones within their states have been left to the side
because that's how this globalist thing works. That's how it works.

(35:38):
Those are the folks that are feeding at the trough
and people are going enough, I can't afford to pay
these prices that these huge conglomerates which are all in
on this globalism stuff so that they can essentially, you know,
do worldwide business, which I don't begrudge them. If you're
Pepsi Cola and you are Pepsi or Coke and you
know some of the really big players internationally, I understand that.

(36:02):
But it hasn't trickled down radio. The what they pay
radio people is not even close to what they paid
them forty years ago, and that's due to a lot
of things, probably less globalism. But it just shows that
you have these evolving markets and then people are going
to start wondering, well, why is that happening. Within the
media industry, it can be fracturing too much consumer choice.

(36:26):
Within the manufacturing industry, it's it's squarely at the feet
of this idea that this is what we're going to do.
We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna offshore all of these things.
How many of you have had a portion of the
company you work for offshore? Part of it? That was
because we had a scenario where it was it was

(36:47):
financially it was a good fiduciary decision to do that, right,
they made a judgment call, and whenever those pro when
it was time to take profits, it was those who
were the stockholders who were the one that primarily benefited.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
And people saw that when this is insane.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
I'm busting my ass sixty hours a week for this
company with the overtime, and yet I just they offered
me a thirty two cent pay raise over the last
three years.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
Per hour, and yet our stock split last year.

Speaker 4 (37:16):
How does that work?

Speaker 1 (37:18):
That's who's that's who's steering this right now, and you
all better recognize because you're arguing with the wrong people. However,
it does not mean we do not have news that
we do not have news that has nothing to do
with that, and just gave me a big grin over
the weekend, even though I know nothing about it. What
the hell is the Minecraft movie? What am I missing?

(37:40):
And how did that thing make three hundred million dollars?
And how is Rachel Zegler not on suicide?

Speaker 4 (37:45):
I will tell you this much. And we've been planning
on this because it's the weekend after Lincoln's birthday. We're
going to go see it today. We've had this, we
have our tickets, We're ready to go. Road Link is
super excited.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
Because everyone's like, the movie's really bad, but the kids
really love it, which is fine, Like that's not new.

Speaker 4 (38:00):
Right, it doesn't need to be the Godfather or something.
It's a kid, kid's movie about my kids, and I
fully expect to sit down and not understand any of it,
even though I've watched my kid play Minecraft for like
ten years.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
I saw some video of like a Frankenstein looking thing
on a chicken, and then if they had like kids
were losing their crap. They had to throw a bunch
out of a theater because they were, and like people
are just chanting along to the whole movie.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
Which is fine. Yeah, they're saying there's it's like an
experience that they're saying for the kids going to see it,
and it's you see these videos of they called a
chicken jockey? Is that what it's in the game that
I guess you can riote or something, And that might
be totally off on that, But when they show that,
I've seen so many videos like this. It's the reveal

(38:43):
and it's Jack blackowing it's the chicken jockey or whatever
he says, and the crowd goes crazy.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
There means some wrestler actually in there, who's I have
no idea. I'm with you, man, is that the game?
I thought the game was digging holes and stea, I
know that in a ring.

Speaker 4 (38:59):
Yeah, but yeah, Lincoln is super excited about it, super excited,
can't wait.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
So this movie, this movie is gonna be three hundred
million dollars on a pittance of a budget, and everyone
universally agrees for the most part, it's not good. And
it did three times the opening weekend that snow White.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
No, it did more than that. They did more than
three times, yeah, four times.

Speaker 4 (39:22):
Now, the studio was expecting it to be a hit
because of what it is, right, it's the most but
not this.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
I saw I saw the piece that because it's Warner Brothers, right,
and they were thinking, what one hundred and ten million,
was there, hopeful?

Speaker 4 (39:33):
Yeah, and then we had three three hundred million, and
that is to be what they were expecting or projecting.
Is fine because it is the most popular, most downloaded
video game of all time Minecraft. Oh wow, is it okay?

Speaker 1 (39:46):
I tried to play it once because I'm like, I
gotta see what this is. I got so bored within Like.

Speaker 4 (39:54):
There might be older people in the audience that still
don't And I'm sure you do know what it is
because of your grandchildren, but still might not understand. Just
imagine a digital version of Legos where you can build
whatever you want and you can make moving parts, and
you can recreate your favorite things on the TV. Like Lincoln,
I know, has built the Museum of Natural Sciences downtown
and Raleigh. He's built that a million times. He's built

(40:15):
mansion all right.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
So and I don't mean any offense here, but I
have the thing I thought about that game because you
told me Lincoln like it is. I said, I bet
that game. I bet kids on the spectrum.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
Love this game.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
Yeah yeah, yeah, so that's a fair assumption. Yeah, And
there's an adventure mode of creative mode. There's different things
you can do, but you're talking about a generation of
kids brought up on this game, and now it's in
the big screen, so of course they're going to want
to go see it. And let's face it, remember when
they made movies that were targeted our generation. Remember when
The Wizard came out.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
I remember the first time I sat down I saw
a super mar Brother. So that was the first time
in the theater that I ever felt disappointment. Yeah, I
was like, what is this because it was nothing like
the game?

Speaker 1 (40:55):
Nothing like the game, but like the little little kids stuff.
Let's face it. You know, my mom had been that's
a horrible movie. Why do you want to watch that
for the twentieth time. Oh, I'm super like because he's
going to Reno and he's gonna win the tournament. Mom,
he's gonna win the turn.

Speaker 4 (41:07):
No, my parents took me to these movies like, yeah,
I sat down and saw I remember going to The
Rocketeer with teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the first live action movie.
That was an incredible experience and that movie still holds up.
That was a great movie. My parents took me to that.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
And the thing that I saw of parents who were
giving reviews is they said there was no politics in it,
and there wasn't you know, they didn't try to shoehorn
any although that's not totally accurate. Isn't Jack Black in it?
And he had that whole thing with his partner down
in Australia.

Speaker 4 (41:38):
Yeah, he had a thing where his partner, like you know, was.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
Joked about hoping Trump they don't miss Trump next time.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
Right, And then Jack Black sort of had a falling
out with him and they canceled that tour because I'm
sure they immediately had people calling them going, what the
hell are you doing?

Speaker 1 (41:50):
Yeah, I think Jack Black properly recovered because with him,
he didn't push back right away, but I think he
just it was caught him so off guard, even though
that's clearly who that Kyle Gas guy is, and maybe
Jack Black is so I but no, I agree, Yeah,
it wasn't. There wasn't a controversy that was going to
be chock full of like weird politics where they were
trying to indoctrinate kids and people.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
They clearly made money from that.

Speaker 4 (42:14):
That's why the Mario Brothers made movie too, because it
stayed clear of politics. That's how it was. It's it's
just the source material. And I don't know what they've
built upon this move, because you know, what is the
source material of Minecraft. If you're playing it in the
venture mode or whatever, you do have the different villains
and things. You have to survive, and you have to
survive through the night. There's a day and night cycle
and during the day it's peaceful and at night the
monsters come out and you got to survive and see

(42:36):
how long you can last. And there is the final
boss called the under Dragon. But this is all common
knowledge that I'm sure you know absolutely.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
Hey, guys, Minecraft's huge, get with the times. I play
it with my kid. It's been around for years, and
it's not political. That's fine. I don't have Look, I
want to understand Ross playing. I just wanted to see
what the hype was about, and I probably aged out
of it, so I don't know.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
Whatever.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
Did they get any political indoctrination to tweets you this weekend?
So for those who don't know, Ross took the fam
up to tweetsy a little cabin up there.

Speaker 4 (43:06):
Yeah, I mean we were like frontiersman, Really.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
Did you settle something?

Speaker 4 (43:10):
I'm not gonna lie. So we're sitting there and I'm
really feeling like We rented the cabin, which was like
five minutes from tweet see, like super close and blowing Rock,
and I felt like Davy Crockett.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
I felt like, wait, did you kill a bar with
your bare hand? I felt like Lewis and Clark, you know,
Abraham Lincoln. And then I hear like this beeping, and
I'm like, the sauna is going off. The sauna had
a Oh no, the cabin was nice. Huh oh, it's
super nice.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
Yeah. Did you go to the basement and pick a
toy or no?

Speaker 4 (43:40):
No basement?

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Oh no, no, no, no, no, was it a cabin, no
basement in the woods? Right, it was a cabin that
was in the woods. You didn't go to the basement
pick a toy. That's what you do, all right. So
no basement on that one. So you had a sauna
you were roughing at like Lewis. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (43:54):
I was sitting there and I felt like my forefathers,
you know, and I really felt this sort of you know,
just this grit.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (44:03):
And then the doorbell rang and it was the door
dash and the food. The food. We got food from
a local Blowing.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
Rock, a Native American guide.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (44:11):
So we got out back and the Outback was so
good of the Outback Steakhouse of Blowing Rocks, so.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Well, they don't have one.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
They have one in Blowing.

Speaker 4 (44:18):
Rock they did.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
Yeah, to do right, it's got to be on the freeway.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
But tweets he was so nice. We're probably gonna go again.
Lincoln had an amazing time. He was smiling the entire time.
The people, there's a lot of the employees there were
so amazing and understanding. I couldn't we couldn't have asked
for a better time. You're talking about one of the
happiest kids on the planet during that span of time
while we were there. It was such a great time
and we went on everything, absolutely everything.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Well, how much is Jack because I know nothing.

Speaker 8 (44:45):
I know.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
There's the train because you can see it from the road.

Speaker 4 (44:48):
The one part everybody's like always gonna he's gonna love
the train, you know, Sony memories. The one part that
we were sort of like, eh, the train. The ride
was great, but in the middle of it, there's like
an interactive thing where it stops and there's like you know,
rob yeah, and there's like a train robbery. It went
on a bit too long for us, where Lincoln was
like can we just get to the top so I
can ride some rides. And that's probably the only the

(45:10):
only critique he would have. It was so fun, and
I went on things that never normally would go on,
like the thing that takes you way up in the air,
looks like a piston and then drops you repeatedly. Right,
I don't want to go on that thing, you know.
I don't like like roller coasters, and I don't like
the rides that go up high.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
But you're a people mover guy.

Speaker 4 (45:25):
Yeah, completely, Yeah, So I enjoyed the train. I was like,
this is not long enough, but.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
Good time there, so fun.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
It was great.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
So you got you're already talking about going back there, were.

Speaker 4 (45:35):
Thinking about getting a season pass because it's only like
three hours away.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
No, it's and it's and it's you know, it's highway.
I mean you just you just take boom boom boom
and then uh you got that highway through uh up
to boom there. So it's it's pretty quick. I'll show
you cut around road too, so you can avoid boone
next time, save you fifteen minutes. All right, all right,
let me grab a Jamal's call real quick here. All right,
Jamal just got a two three minutes.

Speaker 9 (46:00):
What's up, Hey, Ksey. I just want to say this
real quick, Casey. I grew up in the nineteen eighties,
and I've always tried to get people understand that Donald
Trump is a nineteen eighties man. I grew up in
Rocky Mount, North Carolina. We had textile plants like Textifi,
Rocky Mountain Mills, we had Stony Creek, Wilson used to

(46:21):
have Lee Stratus genes and Levi. All those textile plants
are gone. Why because they opened up the markets, They
went to cheaper labor and went to countries where they
didn't have to follow the exact strain Iss safety requirements
they do here in America. When Donald Trump didn't set

(46:41):
it back in nineteen eighty eight about how countries was
ripping us off. Then if you really look at the
Oprah interview with him, this is literally the Donald Trump
that we have. That's why I for them. I knew
in these tests what he is trying to do is
he know we still have these plants here in North Carolina,

(47:02):
here in New York, and they're in New York and
wiscons and all these places, and he's trying to force
these companies to come back, because truth be told, if
they really wanted to stop this, not President Trump, If
they wanted to stop this, all they had to say
is the United States would not import products made by

(47:24):
slave labor. We will. And if you are a company
in the United States and you are in a country,
if you if you're an American company and you are
having your products made in a country that pays people
less than four dollars and twenty five an hour, which
was minimum wage back when in nineteen ninety four, means

(47:46):
use because.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
I hear what you're saying, But that gets a little dicey.
Let me tell you what in a lot of countries
three let's say it's three dollars an hour, is in
no way slave labor would be higher than the prevailing
wage that exists.

Speaker 3 (47:58):
So you'd have to have a lighting.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
Scale as to figure out what constitutes slave labor.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
And it could be.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
And but you could do it as simply as looking
at the cost of living in those countries to make
that determination.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
But some people would say that's a little heavy handed.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
But picking a fixed number doesn't translate to a lot
of countries, is all that I'm saying.

Speaker 9 (48:18):
But see, but But here's my pushback in AINKC. The
reason why they did that, where they went to these
countries where they had two thousand, regardless of what their
costs of living wage is, regardless of what their couset
of living is. If you would have held them the
four twenty five, that would have made those countries and
those people a lot better to where they could be

(48:39):
able to.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
I'm sorry, I mean to cut you out. I totally
think that is the net impact and thank you for
the call. That is the net impact of tariffs. That's
where we are. So anyway, we'll get more calls and
much more to come here in just a few minutes
here on the CaCO Day radio program, the Cacoday Rate program,

(49:02):
and you know, here's the thing, and then we'll grab
a couple of calls. The disingenuous nature of and I look,
I understand this is gonna happen. Like all of these
quote unquote analysts pretending why they didn't understand this may
be so mad on Friday, they're like, oh, look at
these islands that are included on the list. These guys

(49:23):
are idiots. Only penguins live on those islands. Do you
know why they include I immediately knew why immediately. And
I'm not some financial analyst. I'm just a dude who
pays attention a little bit but also understands the manipulation
that happens.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
All right, So the reason that.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
You include islands that may be classified as protectorates or
you know whatever, maybe their own standalone country is you
have to you have to everybody has to be on
notice all at once, because if not, if you only,
if you only decide to tear off half the countries,
then the decision is not whether to restore things to

(49:59):
the United States. Does market want to be in but
is there a workaround that is advantageous. And for all
the jokes about the what was the Johnston and whatever?
These atolls that are essentially out there that are technically
Australian protectorates but not really this is like New Caledonia
and stuff like that, is they have different tariff levels.

(50:23):
And yes, I know what you're saying. You're saying, well
that that doesn't explain an island with penguins on it. Well,
what if I told you that that island with penguins
on it had listed trade in twenty twenty three of
millions of dollars. Do you think it's because the penguins
opened a plant. No, they're too busy running around stealing

(50:43):
eggs or whatever.

Speaker 3 (50:46):
Which remember we.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Learned that with the two gay penguins in the zoo,
where they're like, oh, they just kept stealing eggs. They
want to be parents, and I'm like, they're penguins, bro,
I don't know if it's as deep as that, So
how would that happen would happen? Because you know it's
like drop shipping. Okay, in fact, let me let me
let him explain it to you.

Speaker 4 (51:06):
Uh the uh yeah, here we go.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
All right.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
So Margaret Brennan, of course she's doing the interview. She
thinks she's got Lutnick, right, she got him in a box.
Oh you guys use AI. That's what they literally accused
him of using AI. And the guy just laughs at her,
as he should. And I'm sorry, Margaret Brennan or somebody
around her knows this, and they're being dishonest by pretending
they don't.

Speaker 10 (51:27):
Like, why are the Hurd and MacDonald Islands, which don't
export to the United States and are quite literally inhabited
by penguins, why do they face a ten percent tariffs.
Did you use AI to generate this?

Speaker 1 (51:42):
No, she's being intentionally dishonest. She's being she knows and
she's being intentionally dishonest. And that's what's gonna make this
even harder because all these people are going to continue
to lie to you.

Speaker 8 (51:53):
No, the idea, Look, the idea.

Speaker 11 (51:54):
Is why are they on the list?

Speaker 12 (51:56):
Off?

Speaker 8 (51:57):
Because the idea what happens is it if you leave
anything off the list, the countries that try to basically
arbitrage America go through those countries to US, any country,
like we had tariffs.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
The President put tariffs.

Speaker 8 (52:12):
On China right in twenty eighteen, and then what China
started doing is they started going through other countries to America.
They just built through other countries through America.

Speaker 1 (52:21):
And so the.

Speaker 13 (52:22):
President knows that he's tired of it.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
And he's going to fix that.

Speaker 8 (52:26):
So basically he said, look, I can't let any part
of the world be a place where China or other
countries can ship through them. So he ended those loopholes,
these ridiculous loopholes. And now what he's trying to say
is I'm going to fix the trade deficit of the
United States of America. It's a national security issue. We

(52:46):
need to make medicine. We need to make seven conductors,
we need to make ships, we need to have steel
in aluminum. Come on, we need the greatness of America
to actually be built in America. And he's tired of
getting ripped off by the rest of the world.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
Yeah, it's just had to explained to her, and like it's
this is so simple. This is so because China. Remember,
China is willing to do whatever they're willing to do.
They've been manipulating the steel market for years, manipulating their
own currency. Because here's what happens when China suffers financially,
and I have no sympathy for him.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
They have so over extended themselves.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
The brunt of the financial kick in Sri Lanka was
a result of China took the majority of that. From
an outside investor standpoint, they took her right on the chin.
And when China's economy flails and they're entering very dark times,
do you know what happens to world currency investments? US

(53:42):
T bills? Look it up every time you have had
China or any of the major economies downward trend. You know,
when Soros was able to come in and others like him.
He was not the only one to do it and
short the British pound. It was a mass influx out
of investments that had been in parts of Europe that

(54:03):
came through to the US.

Speaker 3 (54:06):
Because people, when things.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
Are crazy, people crave security, and there has been no
instrument as secure as a US Treasury bond in modern history.
There may be better deals at times, but not when
China's on the ropes, because China really is the number
two player with that stuff. So I mean, this is
it's it's almost an act of war what he's doing

(54:28):
to China because he's putting China in a box. Man,
they're in a box. I don't know how they're going
to react, who knows. But if you're gonna, if you're
gonna just pretend that you're not even attempt to understand it,
then I don't want to hear you voice concerns about
it because you may know it. You're just sitting there
doing penguin memes, which were funny. I even retweeted one,

(54:50):
but they're not reality. The reality is if let's say
that rossis Stan is some country and they're dangerous because
they're always trying to dominate the worlds, you're all going to.

Speaker 3 (55:02):
Pay all right.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
See that's literally their country slogan. Right do you want
to do you want to do business with them?

Speaker 3 (55:07):
Do you want to know? You don't want a better
important comany?

Speaker 4 (55:10):
You bet well?

Speaker 1 (55:12):
Okay, but let's say that America is like, all right,
we're not gonna so that Rosa Stan comes over to uh,
you know, Caseyville, which is it doesn't have a stand
in it, so it's a lot better than like, hey man,
we can't get our goods in there. How about if
we grease the skids and then you export it from
your country because you have very low low tariffs, and
now you're a drop shipper. It's drop shipping, that's what's happening.

(55:34):
It's essentially drop shipping, right and and Chinese fentanyls suppliers
do this where because they realize if stuff comes in
from China, they really scrutinize it through the ports of entry.
But if you want to mail a box and it's
actually coming from Italy, because China was able to have
these close connections with Wuhan and northern Italy, which is
why COVID went to Italy first. After China, then all

(55:58):
of a sudden, there's less scrutiny there. That's what you
saw on a global scale.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
All right, Lee, what's up?

Speaker 14 (56:06):
Thanks?

Speaker 6 (56:07):
Hey, guys that were all doing this morning?

Speaker 1 (56:09):
Pretty good, sir, just analyzing the entirety of the world
economics system and making fun of Rachel's for you.

Speaker 6 (56:16):
I hear you, man, I Hey, I First, I want
to say I appreciate what you guys do. Listen to
you every day, and us North Carolinians really appreciate what
you guys do and everybody around the country. But I
got something a little lighthearted to talk to you about
this morning.

Speaker 5 (56:30):
Ross.

Speaker 6 (56:31):
I heard you took get your family to three three
railroads this morning obvious weekend.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
Yep, did y'all have a good don dude?

Speaker 4 (56:41):
It was so nice and yeah, like I said, the
people that worked there were so understanding and welcoming, because
sometimes when you go to a place like that and
your child is autism, you don't know what to expect.
You could go one way or the other. And it
was fantastic.

Speaker 9 (56:52):
Man.

Speaker 6 (56:52):
Just that hit me real hard and my heart. My
wife is the special education director at Northfield Strict In
School in Saulisbury, North Carolina, and just doing God's work
working with kids with special needs. And you know, we
love these kids. I mean, they're they are they're just
like every other kid, and they need a safe place
to go. Man, And we see Railroad also holds a

(57:16):
place in my heart. I've been going my entire life.

Speaker 5 (57:19):
My mom and my aunt were both in the Magic
Show and tang Can Girls, and the employees there have
been great since since I can remember. And my boys,
Oliver and Maverick, they love it, man.

Speaker 6 (57:32):
They dress up like cowboys, they get the red bandits
every time.

Speaker 14 (57:36):
Man.

Speaker 6 (57:37):
It's and it's just a great place for kids to
go and have fun and be kids and and live
that American dream of you know, conquering the West or
conquering the frontier, and it just it's truly a great place.
And I'm very happy that you guys had a good
time and your son had a blast and and a man,
it just say here it makes me feel great, feel
good about this state and something that's part of this

(58:00):
state doing well and people are still enjoying going to it.
That just makes me really happy. As in North Carolinia.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
Sure, you're making it hard for me to continue to
have my beef with it, you understand, that right.

Speaker 6 (58:10):
Yeah, Well, you know, Texas claims to be the big
cowboys state, but let me tell you, North Carolina were
cowboys first and and we uh and if it weren't
for us, we wouldn't have Texas. So you got to
remember that cowboys were in North Carolina way before they
were in in Texas.

Speaker 1 (58:30):
So would you know, you want a fun fact, sir,
just as from somebody who's kind of up on the
cowboy lord? Do you know the first group that was
that was essentially called cowboys where they were and they
were cattle.

Speaker 3 (58:41):
Punched a telling, get me wrong?

Speaker 1 (58:43):
Yeah, Florida, I remember, correct, Florida?

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Was it Florida? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (58:49):
I hate that.

Speaker 7 (58:49):
Well I don't.

Speaker 6 (58:53):
I don't have any beef with Florida to be honest,
but yeah, that is a little upsetting that Florida first.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
Cowboys because that was really the land used that you
know that they can thanks for the call therely, I
got to go to weather, but that was the you know,
that's what they were using that because it wasn't really
you know, until we were from a modern perspective to
really dive into Florida and create the Florida that we
understand it was.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
It was really good for livestock.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
So yeah, anyway, raced agic, he's a cowboy. You standing
by maybe hey at that just checking their phone. I'm like,
oh my gosh, are we on the phone?

Speaker 4 (59:26):
You never know where?

Speaker 3 (59:27):
Right?

Speaker 1 (59:28):
So uh okay, all right, happy Monday. How you doing this?

Speaker 2 (59:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (59:32):
This fine day? You know, doing well? I'm happy.

Speaker 15 (59:35):
I want to I'm doing better and yes, yes, and
I put that on the players. Unfortunately, that was sloppy
at the end the game.

Speaker 3 (59:43):
Saw that that call on Cooper flag was.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
Yeah, that was too bad.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
But you got to make free throws.

Speaker 15 (59:50):
Too, So you do you doing that, especially when you
need them. I know that from experience. I missed too
with a we were down by I forget it.

Speaker 3 (59:58):
I miss it was yeah, my whole bracket, but I'm
sure it did.

Speaker 15 (01:00:02):
I don't know if anybody has.

Speaker 4 (01:00:05):
Houston Florida.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Yeah, well I have Florida. My other bracket is well.

Speaker 15 (01:00:08):
You're okay, okay, Now I didn't realize it. I didn't
realize Houston was h that's strong of a of a
basketball program, but I guess so.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
Yeah, well, you know there are I don't know, I
look this up. There are a SEC teams that can
beat them in the final four.

Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
You know that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
No, yeah, yeah, okay, it's weird.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
Couldn't get it done?

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
No, no, yeah, what's up? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Uh?

Speaker 15 (01:00:34):
Damp and if anything, we get wetter before we get
drier in the short term, meaning today, rains now started
to come in through the Triangle and Try has already
getting it. Even some areas of yellow showing up around
Brown's Summit and Stokesdale. Some heavier rain, so we'll be
in and out of it today. Rain and showers, even
the occasional thunderstorm could be some locally heavy rain. Might

(01:00:55):
get to the little bit seventies. That might be a
little bit of a stretch, so we'll see. We may
stay in the up sixties in some areas, depends on
how much train you get. But we could see an
inch maybe more in spots, showers, maybe even a thunderstorm
until early tonight. But it gets better as we get
into tomorrow. We will clear. We'll be in sunshine. But
I got a cool northwest breeze mid upper fifties tomorrow

(01:01:16):
and then Wednesday morning we're back to maybe some heavier
jackets that you probably packed the way for the wintertime,
especially on the kids. I'm kind of catering to the
little ones. Low to mid thirties, so little chili Wednesday morning,
maybe some patchy frost and closer to sixty in the afternoon,
and then seventy or close to it on Thursday, and
then another frontal come in late week, some more showers.

(01:01:38):
But the weekend right now, if we want to go
that far ahead, looks beautiful. Sixty to sixty five with
lows in the forties, kind of that deep blue sky
you know you love to see. We're gonna have that
tomorrow too, and Wednesday, but instead of this kind of
early season humidity and rain that we've had, we'll get Tuesday,
Wednesday looking real good. Thursdays not bad after the rain today.
End of the week doesn't look great. If the upcoming weekend,

(01:01:58):
if it holds away, looks right now, Casey, it's really nice.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Okay, all right, appreciate it talking an hour, Thank you
very much. All right, coming up on the show, Oh
I saw dude, did you see the video of what
happened to the Hooti rebels over the weekend? Did you
see this latest strike? I have some thoughts and if
you have it, I'll describe it to you. Coming up
Kcoday radio program and just really our lives have evolved,

(01:02:23):
whether it's the hometown you grew up and being decimated
by NAFTA, changes that you've made, industries that you've entered
and gotten out of, and what all the you know,
the financial stuff really means for people and how they're
approaching how they feel about it. And I think that
there was a grave miscalculation among the quote unquote ruling
class of how people feel, even people regardless of politics,

(01:02:48):
where they just feel that they have been they have
not been for decades, the ones who were in any
position to benefit unless they were able to. Really it
turns into classes at some point, but at some point
also the majority is the lower classes, and so this
is them kind of seizing that ring right now. One

(01:03:10):
of the other evolutions that I remember growing up as
a kid who was became news aware during the First
Gulf War is being able to watch them stick missiles
down chimneys or up camel's butts, right, and then you
could just watch that on the news every night, which
was kind of crazy, man. Right, It's just like, yeah, do.

Speaker 3 (01:03:29):
You remember those videos?

Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
Do they were just bunker busting bag Dad?

Speaker 4 (01:03:33):
Like, yeah, exactly. Remember that like the black and white
we see, like the missiles going up, it looks like
fireworks and coming to.

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
It was crazy, absolutely crazy. So that continues to be
a thing. I think I have seen the dumbest one
of those, now not on the part of the US
military doing the missilin, but rather the people they missiled.
How many of you saw the video? You probably heard
the story, but how many of you saw the video
of US air strike over the weekend? I saw numbers

(01:04:00):
as high as one hundred. This report says seventy. So
we'll call it somewhere in between of boothy rebels along
with Iranian Revolutionary Guard consultants or whatever. They needed to
have a meeting, right because they've been they've been kind
of getting their butts handed to them the last couple
of weeks, and for some reason I will never understand,

(01:04:22):
they decide to hold the meeting outside nothing covering over them,
in a giant circle, like they're at some corporate synergy retreat. Right, Well,
what do you think happens as they're standing around in
their diversity circle or whatever the hell that thing is
getting the plans for which ships are going to shoot
out and how many drones are going to take out

(01:04:44):
they meet, they all get turned to mist.

Speaker 4 (01:04:46):
I mean it could have been worse. They could have
been in like an ex formation instead of a circle.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
You're just asking for it that point.

Speaker 4 (01:04:53):
Maybe they were inflatables.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
Really you think they were doing the Calai thing.

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
There's if you longer VI shows them arriving in trucks
and getting in that formation. But is how who makes
that calla We're gonna get into more of this year
just because I'm running up against time, Like like who decided, Hey.

Speaker 3 (01:05:14):
You know what we should do this?

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
Like they're down in the bunker and they're like, oh,
it's very stuffy in here, and Abdul has gas and wow,
this is gross. Let's go outside. Well hey he had
some bad goat or whatever, I don't know, and they're like, hey,
we should hold this outside.

Speaker 3 (01:05:28):
It's so nice.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
You know they do that at the Highwoods Building for
the one company where they have like the bean bag tournament.

Speaker 3 (01:05:34):
They're all working outside.

Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
Ye have a corn hole and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. There's one of the other
companies the building that does that every year. So but
the problem is you're not the people who are do
property management or whatever that company is.

Speaker 3 (01:05:47):
You're the hoothy rebels.

Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
So if you stand outside, we can see you, like
even the vehicle. Even the North Vietnamese realized that they
really had to do their business down in tunnels, as
as did Hamas. For God's sakes, right, Look, we don't
know what's gonna happen here in about an hour when
we get rolling on the stock market. A lot of
people have a lot of predictions. I don't expect from

(01:06:09):
a stock market perspective, it's going to be good. But
as the running theme has been on this show, people
who are deciding that the only way to evaluate the
economy is based on the stock market are the reason
largely that we're here and these things are happening right
now because long ago the majority of Americans, even those
who might have some skin in the game, you know,

(01:06:31):
like four O ones or whatever, have divorced themselves of
the notion that the stock market is financial reality. Why
because theirs has been so upturned versus what they may
remember growing up. If you grew up in a small
town in North Carolina that had some sort of industry
pre NAFTA, probably doesn't now, and it's a shell of

(01:06:54):
its former self, and it's not just little ones, you know.
One of the things that I really I'm really happy
that we did when we were relocating our headquarters for
our Triad Radio group was to move it into Downtown
high Point. I know that sounds crazy, and it kind
of did to me when our market manager at the
time said this is where they were looking. And then

(01:07:14):
I had a chance to go down there. And for
those of you who have never been to downtown high Point,
North Carolina, it's one of the weirdest places where it
was and it's getting but it's getting remarkably better. But
it was. I remember going the first time I went
to our Triad stations when they first decided to carry
the show in both markets. And I'm there and one

(01:07:35):
of the things I do is I familiarize myself with
the areas best I can.

Speaker 9 (01:07:39):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
I don't just go over and do visits. I want
to figure out. I want to make friends over there,
business acquaintances, play a little golf because I like to
play golf and I like losing golf balls. Thank you
to several of the courses around the Triad for accommodating
my needs and just really get to know the area
because a lot of times people broadcast in multiple cities.

(01:08:01):
It's the way that radio is, and and but they
don't know anything about where they're broadcasting, and I don't.
I would never want that. So I see triad triangle
in this broadcast area as I have an obligation to
understand it. And I remember the first time I went
to downtown high Point in the middle of a business
day and I thought, you know, that's the Twilight Zone

(01:08:22):
episode where everyone just disappears except to do with glasses, right,
and he just wants to read books. And it was
that weird fe It was like the Rapture. It happened,
and it was because high Point was a city that
was built on pre dafta, the current that you know,
the current version of it. It's why when you go

(01:08:43):
down there, they had all of these really nice storefronts
that were only doing anything what twice a year when
he had furniture markets and a few other things.

Speaker 3 (01:08:53):
You have high Point Theater down there and some others.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
But really, if you want to talk about a pretty
decent side city that was decimated by the offshoring of
furniture manufacturing, that's it. Go look at high Point, North Carolina,
and they have struggled and they have done things to
try to rebuild. And the building that they put up
next to the baseball stadium there, which is where our

(01:09:15):
headquarters are now for the Triad, has a full food
haul in it. It's got the key key realties in there.
Cold Well Insurance, big insurance thing, and other things are
coming back. There's some nice restaurants that have opened down there.
They're building a new hotel literally right next to that

(01:09:36):
baseball stadium here as we speak, and they're figuring out
ways to have to reinvent themselves. But that was a
town that felt the brunt of what was going on,
and the communities around it where people may have commuted
in there. Those people give zero flips about whether your
stock portfolio as a billionaire is doing okay today because

(01:09:56):
they feel like you sold them out, and to some extent,
you did, whether you knew it or not. So that
is why, and this is what the media fails to comprehend.
And these people ruh, scream and bloody murder like Bill
Ackerman and these guys fail to comprehend is they don't
have any sympathy for you. And many, many folks from

(01:10:18):
that are in their fifties all the way down to
the current crop coming out are telling themselves, I can't
afford this the path to success. And we get in
these arguments like you need to pull up your bootstraps,
but the numbers don't reflect that. Even when you just
for inflationment, the path to having what you need has

(01:10:39):
been continually chipped away, and even when financial times are good,
Ultimately the largest of the profits within a company are bored,
are won by the investors rather than the workers. And
I'm not telling you to go full COMMI here, but
the expectation is you may not make the investment, but

(01:11:00):
if the company's doing well and they're making more money,
then maybe you should pay people more, or maybe things
shouldn't outpace the growth of pay because the very same
companies are then charging more and people see that and
they don't have sympathy. And the fact that, as I
think Kylon News said it, a bunch of protests that

(01:11:20):
looked like AARP conferences were banging around the US over
the weekend. I understand why those people are upset. They're
on the cusp of retirement or they're in retirement. They're
also the ones that went and speculated and bought three
air and B properties and have turned Florida into likely
a property value collapse here in the near future. And

(01:11:43):
these big companies, these big, big companies that went in
and started buying up all the residential speculating on that
and have decimated while they driven up home prices. And
if you own a home, that doesn't do you any good.
Either you don't realize the profit from it and you
pay higher property tax which have gone up significantly for
so many of our listeners, or you do sell it

(01:12:05):
and then you got to buy another home and it
chews up any equity because the other.

Speaker 3 (01:12:08):
Home you're buying's more expensive.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
The only people benefit from that, or maybe people who
lived in the I have a guy from down the
street from me and moved from San Francisco Bay Area
and was able to buy just with the little bit
of equity he had because the home price differential was
so different. So those folks are the majority of people,
and they've said enough is enough. The grocery prices are

(01:12:31):
out of control. I can't afford to do the extra
little things that my parents were able to provide for us,
even though maybe only my dad work. But now we
have two incomes in our household and they're willing to
watch this happen. What's happening here, You don't have to
agree with it, but you need to understand it. And
I feel like it should be simple to understand. This

(01:12:55):
is largely the fault of the people who are screaming
the loudest right now, and many folks are not going
to care.

Speaker 3 (01:13:02):
You know why.

Speaker 1 (01:13:03):
It is the very same portfolio they're looking at, a
four to one right now, was what it was a
year ago, and you all didn't there was none of
this chicken little sky is falling because Biden was in
charge all of the expert class.

Speaker 3 (01:13:16):
Nobody cares anymore. They don't believe you because.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
You've lied to them, or you've just been fundamentally wrong.
In the same way that whatever consultant they hired for
the Hoothy Rebels and was like, all right, you know,
they brought in some outside consulting and said, all right,
we're gonna go outside. We're gonna have a team building exercise.
Everybody get in a circle just so some dude can
get the most amazing video at the Drone Center. Right

(01:13:42):
because seventy of these idiots decided to stand in a
circle within satellite view, Like how dumb is that? Holy
hell man, and just just turn him to mist and
now we get to see it times they are a changing.
Ross was asking if the guy was wearing headphones? What

(01:14:03):
were you?

Speaker 3 (01:14:04):
Was asking me some weird questions during the break.

Speaker 4 (01:14:06):
Now you're saying, what could have made it better than
the you know, the X pattern on the ground of
the circle pattern, and probably if they were listening to
a walkman while they were bombing?

Speaker 3 (01:14:13):
Right, you have that in the system.

Speaker 1 (01:14:18):
This isle, I am the flight leader of an America's
SOULT course sent to.

Speaker 11 (01:14:23):
Recover Colonel Ted Masters, whom you are lawfully holding prisoner.

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
Why do you have that in the system.

Speaker 4 (01:14:31):
It's amazing to me how much I do have in
the system. That just comes in handy. I've known.

Speaker 1 (01:14:35):
First, I thought you were referencing that Russell Clod Crow
Drone movie. It just came out, which, by the way,
if anyone in the military would watch that did like
the whole I wasn't even in the military, And I'm like,
there's no way that it runs like that. Like Crow
just ignores his CEOs, listens to walkman's while he's bombing people, ignores,

(01:14:55):
refuses to do anything, and just does whatever he wants.

Speaker 4 (01:14:58):
I think I think he'd be surprised that the people
in the military would call and I would say probably
ninety percent of them would say that what helps them
when they fly is their walkman and eighties rock.

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
And then I thought you were making the Guardians of
the Galaxy reference, which that kind of sounded like too.
So okay, I don't know, man, but that video's absolutely bonkers.
You should check it out. All right, let me grab
a call here on the furniture thing, Jim, what's up? Hello, Jim?

Speaker 12 (01:15:27):
Hey, how you doing today?

Speaker 3 (01:15:29):
What can I do for you?

Speaker 12 (01:15:30):
For people who've moved here in the last twenty twenty
five years, Back when Kuwait was invaded and you know,
there was a lot of destruction and buildings were destroyed,
people were harassed that went into their apartments and homes

(01:15:51):
and just trashed the interior of the homes. Well, after
they were freed by US, they had to rebuild and
one of the things they needed to do is buy
a lot of furniture. What did they do? Kuwait put
a twenty five percent tariff on the furniture coming in

(01:16:11):
from the United States, and it did not help. It
did not help high Point at all. And before the
NAFTA got signed, high Point was doing well enough. They
had a Rolls Royce dealership on Main Street.

Speaker 3 (01:16:31):
You know, I think it's still I think they still
have one.

Speaker 1 (01:16:34):
Actually, I know seen some high end something or other
dealership there. I can't remember which what it was. I
was a little surprised to see it.

Speaker 12 (01:16:46):
The next time I go down there, I'll have to
take a look.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
Yeah again up Main Street past instead of turning right
on Eastchester, just keep going north. It's I don't know,
not too much further up there by that breakfast joining
up there. So how you look it up? Yeah, but
to your point, yes, but but you get you brought
up another good example. It's also the American consumer sees

(01:17:10):
stuff like that. They see us go waste blood and
treasure in the in the in the deserts of Kuwait
in Iraq, and then the immediate thing after it's done
is Kuwait to essentially restrict the ability to buy, make
it financially restrictive to buy anything from the country that
just saved them.

Speaker 3 (01:17:29):
And then people look at that and.

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
They see it a thousand times over with the way
that all of these different countries treat us, and they
get mad about it, and they should, they absolutely should.
So all right, thank you for the history there, Jim.
This is this is why we do what we do.
Man Russell, what's up, hey.

Speaker 14 (01:17:49):
Good morning.

Speaker 16 (01:17:49):
Uh, you're absolutely correct about the City high Point. I
worked at City hop Point fire for thirty years and
I can remember absolutely you can remember going in, going
in and duty and seeing just lines and lines of
cars going to the industrial area of high Point and
after Napaok Place, all these furniture factories just they just disappeared.

(01:18:13):
It was like, you know, we've got areas and iPoint
now that are basically a ghost town. There's hundreds of
buildings that are empty that were textile and furniture and
you know family members that was in the furniture industry
that you know that made really good money because there
were highly skilled jobs and uh, NAFTA, NAFTA just absolutely

(01:18:33):
destroyed those industries.

Speaker 1 (01:18:35):
And you know, here's the other canard. Were you as
somebody so you worked as a fireman there. I don't
know what you made, but uh, you know, middle class
salary there were you unable to afford American furniture at
that time, it was.

Speaker 16 (01:18:52):
It was expensive, but you were getting the quality that
you got with the furniture was was unprecedented.

Speaker 4 (01:18:59):
Now there your.

Speaker 1 (01:19:00):
Union is that you could never manufacture and people be
able to purchase it there. And I would reject will
because it kinds of more to where you manufactured, and
I'm sorry, you could pay wages that'd be very livable
wages in cities like Sparta, Tarborough, many of these communities
that absolutely got slammed where people would be happy to
have those jobs. They would outpace the medium salary there

(01:19:22):
and the furniture would still be affordable. So I reject
this idea that if it's a factured here, it's unaffordable.

Speaker 16 (01:19:28):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:19:29):
Uh.

Speaker 16 (01:19:30):
If fire Barters worked a Functure market twice a year
and one of the biggest complaints that we heard through
you know, through personalel there was you know now they're
shipping his farms are in now you know they opened
the crates and it's busted all the pieces, you know,
or it's it needs repair or the quality. So you're
absolutely right, it is. It has devastated hick Ory, High Point, Lexington, Thomasville.

(01:19:54):
Those brands are no longer no longer there.

Speaker 1 (01:19:56):
So I knew the Thomasville brand growing up in Wyom
like that that was such a huge brand. And so
it was really interesting, what I mean to North Carolina, like, oh,
that's the thomas still they're talking about were they used to.

Speaker 16 (01:20:07):
There were you know, there were skilled jobs. I mean
my fam all my family working furniture, and there were
skilled jobs. And today you know those those uh you
know those that that skill labor is not available now.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
And those folks, it is those folks who are sitting
there and they're watching what Trump's doing and they're like, well,
it couldn't get any worse, could it? And maybe that
we love it, you get the nail on the head.

Speaker 16 (01:20:32):
I mean it's me, you know, America first, and you know,
you're you know, you're you know, stock portfolio is great,
but you know when you're you know, you know, when
you're struggling to uh, you know, put the food on
the table because you know, because of your jobs and
taken away and and so we're seas. I mean, I
don't care about the stock portfolio. It's somebody else. I want,

(01:20:54):
you know, I want to take care of my family.

Speaker 1 (01:20:56):
Yeah, what what is one of the first things that
people will cut if they get into financial arrears.

Speaker 16 (01:21:04):
Retirement, retirement, retirement. You don't buy. You don't buy. D
was often you don't.

Speaker 9 (01:21:10):
You don't buy.

Speaker 16 (01:21:12):
You know, you don't buy the luxuries that you know
what you think of them as luxuries, but you don't
you don't have to, you know, have the money to
buy those. So but thank you for thank you for
bringing them up.

Speaker 1 (01:21:23):
All right, Russell, thanks for the call there. I really
appreciate it. And and remember and a lot of these
beefs are just they want to level playing field. So
you know, when you go to Europe and you see
very few Chevies and Fords, yet you drive around any
state in this in the in the States, and there's
BMW's and Mercedes everywhere, and you realize that their their
or their tariffs so differentially, Like they won't even give

(01:21:45):
American products a fair shake, let them compete abouts the
quality of German products in Germany, but they won't do it.
And it is because of their own protectionism. So some
of this is less just about an equal playing field financially,
but just from an opportunity stick standpoint. Anyway, all right,
we can get some more calls on this, I get
some more audio to play you, and we finally have

(01:22:07):
an explanation I think makes sense on how that reporter
got added speaking of the hoothy rebels to that signal discussion,
and it really clicks if you have an iPhone. So
hang on, we'll get to it. This is why I
want to have these discussions. So somebody sent me a
pretty lengthy message, or sent the show account pretty lengthy
message pushing back on they feel that I am mischaracterizing

(01:22:30):
what happened in High Point, and I would only say this,
some of it is my perception, but a lot of
it is based on what I think people's perception is,
which is what the larger discussion was about. I'm simply
trying to explain the psychology of why people are sitting
there and ignoring anything that Wall Street folks have to

(01:22:51):
say versus versus what is actually happening, Meaning they're willing
to go all right, well, you know what was happening
wasn't working for us. Us our buying power was being decimated,
and the perceptions High Point may not be the best
example due to its size, but it is undeniable that
their communities all across North Carolina and all across this

(01:23:11):
country that absolutely have been decimated because the very lifehood
of that city were moved overseas. Okay, but this is
why I want to have conversations with people locally, because
that's more that's more interesting to me. So Tom wrote,
I'm not going to read.

Speaker 3 (01:23:30):
The whole thing.

Speaker 1 (01:23:30):
It's very, very very long, and he says, I've lived
in a high Point my whole life. I'm going to
paraphrase a little of this. The downtown retail started leaving
in the sixties, just like most cities with the advent
of shopping malls, and that's not altogether unfair. But the
downtown of high Point is also pretty unique in that
they have these boutiques for all these furniture manufacturers that

(01:23:51):
largely don't operate all year, so that that is undeniable.

Speaker 3 (01:23:58):
Let's see the twy I don't know what you meant
to say here, sir.

Speaker 1 (01:24:01):
The twice of the furniture or the twice a year
furniture market was not affected by NAFTA because it is
not about retail sales. It's it may be less the market,
but it's undeniable that furniture manufacturing in North Carolina and
many of it largely around the triad Hickory, Thomasville areas
like that is absolutely lower than it was, while the

(01:24:23):
sheer volume of deals that may be struck may be higher,
which is what Tom contends here and I don't he
may be right. How does that then impact all of
the other ancillary businesses.

Speaker 3 (01:24:38):
Well?

Speaker 1 (01:24:38):
And when it comes to furniture manufacturing, there's still less
of it.

Speaker 3 (01:24:43):
However, the industry in and of.

Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
Itself, if it's the sales of it, involves a lot
less people to accomplish it. And yes, I recognize that
the city of high Point actually has grown the number
of businesses it has, and that's because you know, the
outlying parts of the city have grown. H Point University
has grown, other things have grown there. And so yeah,
you get need more cafes, more breakfast places, more places

(01:25:07):
to shop. But it has creeped out of the interior
part of the city as you go out. And yes,
the iHeart facility is now right in the middle of
the south part of it, whereas most of the commerce
is conducted on the far north side of high Point.
And in fact, even we were about ten feet outside
of high Point with our old offices up on the

(01:25:28):
highway towards the airport there and you know, you get
down to chop House, that's high Point right there if
you need a visual for people just vaguely familiar with
the area. And yeah, there is a lot of growth.
But the hell that mall went out of business. That's
on the north side there, what was that a few
years ago? The mall that's over of course, the main

(01:25:49):
mall or the high Point mall over by where the
Marriotte is where I stay when I come over and visit.
The target in the back is still going and I
think one or two anchor stores, but that's gone. So yes,
there's been a lot of evolution. However, the one thing
that you add in here, sir, that I don't agree

(01:26:10):
with is none of this had anything to do with NAFTA.
I've sat with city leaders, you know, with city leaders
in high Point and folks that are in charge of
like the high Point Theater there, people who have been
lifelong residents, who who We've had a lot of conversations
about this, and at the very least it did evolve stuff.

(01:26:31):
But I really appreciate your perspective there. So I mean,
that's again that's why we're having this conversation. But the
larger part of what I'm breaking down is not necessarily
even one hundred percent how I feel about it. But
I am recognizing how I feel, the majority of people
that I talk to and deal with, the North Carolina feel.

(01:26:52):
And I think it's undeniable that there are generations of
people think and they got a raw deal, and they
kind of did because through all this evolution, it was
their oxes getting gord And so I'm trying to explain
human behavior, but appreciate you sending the message there.

Speaker 3 (01:27:10):
All right, Jamie, what's up?

Speaker 5 (01:27:13):
Hey?

Speaker 14 (01:27:14):
I grew up in Soviet, which is just down the
road from High Boyd, and the whole my whole family
worked in the furniture industry. Oh my neighbors working in
the furniture industry at High Boyd. And it wasn't just
the furnature plants and sales. There was little flame shops.
There were people that sold material falls, there were people

(01:27:36):
that sold leather, people to sold nails, recliner mechanisms. All
of those are feeder industries too, the furniture industries, and
they all went out of business also.

Speaker 1 (01:27:51):
Yeah, especially when you get into like the metallic parts
and whatnot. That was one of the first things that
they started manufacturing outside of the US.

Speaker 14 (01:27:59):
And that stuff you need to have a state back down.

Speaker 1 (01:28:03):
Well, it's probably look like everything else. There's a lot
of complexity to it. But again, this is about public perception.

Speaker 3 (01:28:10):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:28:11):
You don't have to know the exact numbers in differential
of furniture manufacturing from nineteen seventy to twenty twenty, right,
but you know because you lived it. It's lived experience
with you. It's your friends, family and what you saw,
and that's that is what is influencing people. I'm just
warning these I'm just warning these people that are further
squandering their credibility out there, who are who are very

(01:28:34):
self serving and probably make a crap ton of money
when the stock markets up. That while that's good for you,
and most people are willing to cut a wide berth
because the American dream is a mindset that we have.
The more you train people that the American dream is
less achievable and you guys are really the only ones achieving,
the more animosity builds, and that's why you get things

(01:28:55):
like this. So I put part of it on them
not recognizing that maybe, just maybe, and thanks for the
call there, sir. Some of the decisions, some of the
decisions that were made clearly were not in the best
interest of the majority of people, and they recognized that.
And then we got into the other stuff with like
cash for clunkers. Were people one of their green new

(01:29:17):
deal stuff, and they were willing to decimate the ability
for people to purchase starter cars. How many of you
bought a car for like five six hundred bucks the
damn thing maybe ran a couple of years, you bought
another one. It was just the reality of really starting
out as a kid or as a young adult man,
and those opportunities have gone away. So if we're not

(01:29:37):
willing to talk about the evolution and whether it's been
for the for the better or for the worse for
the majority of people, then the majority of people are like,
all right, you don't want to talk, then we're gonna
go do this thing and you're not gonna like it.
But maybe you should have listened, Maira, go right ahead.

Speaker 11 (01:29:54):
Hey, Casey, First of all, I congratulate and thank you
for drawing attention to this in the Triad area. I
have worked in high Point for thirty eight years, and
we are suppliers to the furniture industry, so we supplied
a specialty material that a lot of these contractors that

(01:30:14):
then in turn sold Lexington, Thomasville, Baker, et cetera parts
for predominantly upholstered things. And so I lived the destruction
or the removal of all these businesses. Now my company
was able to look for other outlets to sell material

(01:30:35):
and we have survived. But the devastation to the furniture
industry and all the people and impacted it was horrible
to watch. If it personally, I think High Point University
saved high Point. There are a lot more places to eat,
like you were saying earlier than there were when we

(01:30:57):
were in our heyday with the furniture industry. But it's
it's just been devastating. And a lot of people have
been asking me how I feel about these tariffs, and
I've been hey, even the playing field, it's ridiculous. So
thank you for doing this today.

Speaker 1 (01:31:15):
Well, it's and it's good because I have equal number
of people that are happy and equal that are irritated,
and that's probably a good conversation and one that clearly
wasn't happening before. So it is a little weird though.
It is a little weird because I drive it around
high Points just like, all of a sudden, I see
the high Point University signs on, Like, am I back
on the campus? What the heck happened? Just because they've
they've bought like they bought the ball right or part

(01:31:37):
of the mall like high Point University.

Speaker 11 (01:31:40):
I think I think they are part of the mall.
I'm not really sure. My son went to West Westland,
which is right across the street.

Speaker 2 (01:31:46):
From the mall.

Speaker 11 (01:31:47):
Yeah, and I know that that, yeah, yeah, yeah, I
know right, so I mean high Point just I mean
you can tell the purple placards and colors are everywhere.
But it's brought businesses to town. The baseball soccer is there now, right,
We've got a yeah, I guess you'd call it like

(01:32:09):
an MLA.

Speaker 9 (01:32:10):
I mean, what do you call it?

Speaker 11 (01:32:13):
A farm soccer team? Now that just came to town
and a lot of people are excited about that. Look,
manufacturing is is how rural Americans can get really good
jobs with really good benefits. And that's who was hurt
by the pull up of the furniture industry. I'm in sales.

(01:32:33):
I'm a chemist. I was really I mean I saw
these people every day. They were my clients, they were
my friends, right, and they lost their careers. It's just
so sad. So it'll be interesting to see what happens.
I saw last week on Twitter there was a company
that was pulling up the roots. I think it was

(01:32:56):
from Canada and bringing furniture back to North Carolina.

Speaker 12 (01:32:59):
And I celebright and.

Speaker 11 (01:33:01):
Then and then the same time, right, and then I
saw a woman or another post on Twitter sorry that
said I'm devastated. I'm in the furniture industry and this
is going to destroy us. And I'm thinking to myself,
either you aren't alive in the late eighties to know
what happened, or you have blinders on because this has
already happened once.

Speaker 1 (01:33:22):
So yeah, and that was a company. Just sorry, my ride.
I'm really tight on time, but I really appreciate your
phone called. The company in question was based out of
British Columbia. They did have small amount of manufacturing in
North Carolina and they basically moved a bunch of it
down because of what's going on. So we'll see if
there's more of that. I appreciate the call. Race stagic
from the weather Channel with a quick look at a

(01:33:45):
I guess that we're positive week coming. No, yeah, I mean,
but yeah, I'm credibly hopeful. Okaytimistic, mister negative.

Speaker 3 (01:33:53):
Yeah yeah, that's me always right.

Speaker 1 (01:33:56):
Well, it gets worse before it gets better.

Speaker 15 (01:33:58):
Already start to see some of the heavier rain come
across I seventy seven as we speak, and heading east
into the Try had already seen some heavier rain showers
through Forsyth. So be prepared to get titty to spread
in here this morning, slaw your roll to do not
cross water covered roadways and all that turn around, don't drown,
don't want a hydroplane, and all that low seventies today

(01:34:19):
For most of us tonight, the showers and thunderstorms will
come to an end, so we don't think severe storms,
but a stronger storm or two may produce some not
only heavier rainfall, but maybe some gusty winds. So what
this rain coming in is certainly gonna get worse before
we get better. And then finally this front's going to
go through, there'll be some changes, big changes in temperatures.
Beautiful day Tuesday Wednesday, probably mid upper fifties to near

(01:34:41):
sixty each day. Low's though by Wednesday morning in the
low to mid thirties. Thursday drive before we get more
showers Friday, and already looking forward to the weekend.

Speaker 4 (01:34:49):
Case he looks sunny and pleasant.

Speaker 1 (01:34:51):
Love it, Thank you. We'll talk tomorrow and we'll come
back with Jeff Bellinger, who may be on suicide watch. Next,
go to Jeff Bellinger up on Wall Street where I'm sure.

Speaker 3 (01:34:59):
It's going to be a slow what's up, Jeff.

Speaker 13 (01:35:01):
Yes, lo Ande, that's right, Good morning, Casey. The futures
indicate last week's market misery will continue, though there's been
some improvement in the futures as we get closer to
the opening bell Believe it or not, The adow is
down seven hundred and twenty two points, and that is
an improvement from earlier on. Now jpmore can Chase. CEO
Jamie Diamond has joined the Coorus, urging President Trump to

(01:35:24):
work toward an early resolution to the teriff issue. Some
Wall Street analysts see signs that stocks are nearing a
floor that could be good news, and the bets are
increasing that the Fed will step in with interest rate
cuts to try to keep the economy.

Speaker 3 (01:35:38):
Out of recession.

Speaker 13 (01:35:39):
So far, though President Trump and his administration officials are
digging in saying tariffs on American trading partners will remain
in place and will lead to an economic boom. Eventually,
Apple reportedly moved quickly to avoid tariffs on products that
were assembled overseas. The Times of India sas it was
told by senior in officials that Apple shipped five planeloads

(01:36:03):
of iPhones and other technology products from India to the
US at the end of last month. There is late
word Republic Airlines has agreed to take over troubled Mesa Air.
It's an all stock transaction. The combined carrier will have
a fleet of more than three hundred regional jets. Republic
CEO Brian Bedford has been nominated by President Trump to

(01:36:24):
take over as head of the Federal Aviation Administration and
KSE movie theater operators finally have something to celebrate. A
Minecraft movie debuted in first place over the weekend. The
Warner Brothers Discovery film took in one hundred and fifty
seven million dollars. It was the biggest opening weekend for
any movie so far this year.

Speaker 1 (01:36:45):
Casey, how mad do you think Disney is? After the
tank snow White and a Minecraft movie just quadrupled them up.
Holy cow.

Speaker 3 (01:36:52):
All right, thanks Jeff appreciation. Okay, have a good day.

Speaker 1 (01:36:55):
All right, there you go, Jeff Bellinger. Real quick, I
mentioned that we may know how that all of that
signal thing happened with the name you guys. I know
it works on iPhone. I'm not sure Android. I don't
have an Android, but on iPhone there's suggested contacts. So
if somebody sends me an email and it's got a
signature in it and a phone number, so it's like,
you know, somebody I work with so and so the

(01:37:17):
next time that I may go interact with that person
in the contacts. If you allow it to scour your
email for potential contacts, it may suggest creating a contact
and be able to extract the phone numbers and email
addresses into a contact. I'm sure some of you may
have used that feature. That's how signal works. And so

(01:37:38):
they suspect or they they've traced it back to an
email where somebody who was supposed to be on that
meeting emailed Waltz saying, hey, this reporter reached out to you.
Here's their email address that was in the body of
the email. So when Waltz's staff member created the contact
for the other staff member, it incorrect assigned that phone

(01:38:02):
number because I had the guy's phone number and email
address to a contact within signal, which was then inadvertently added.
Does that make sense? So it actually makes perfect sense
to me. But still you gotta you need to do
better than that, clearly. But the technology is explained and
real quickly. This U a Rhode Island man is crediting

(01:38:23):
Chick fil A for saving his life, claiming that he
lost one hundred and thirty two pounds eating nothing but
Chick fil A every day for over a year. And
so they're given a bunch of pub We're not going
to do this again, are we We're not gonna I mean,
good for this dude. And I got like, we're not.
If you're Chick fil A, there's no way you're making

(01:38:46):
this guy the face of your marketing. I mean maybe
that one time.

Speaker 4 (01:38:49):
Like a background check first, right, check all the.

Speaker 1 (01:38:51):
Hard drives ever ever ever, because and it's too bad
because if that you know that it is one of
those stories that's a great marketing opera oor tunity. It's
just you know that one guy, that one time, who
was buying children to rape with his subway dollars kind
of probably ruined that for everybody, so