December 4, 2025 • 41 mins
Kevin talks about the early snowfall in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area compared to past records; ADP reported November Private Payrolls; President Trump, during the Dec 2nd Cabinet meeting, commented when he plans to announce his pick for the next Federal Reserve Chairman; the numbers from Black Friday and Cyber Monday have been released; the Trump Administration is expected to announce new fuel efficiency standards; oil and gas prices react to stalled Russia - Ukraine peace talks and anticipated U.S. crude oil inventories; Kevin has the details, sifts through the data, puts the information into historical perspective, offers his insights and a few opinions along the way.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
This is America's Truncking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Wilhelmable.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Thanks for tuning in on this Thursday morning. Now here
in the Greatest inse A, Northern Kentucky area. Beginning what
was it Monday night, we started getting a little bit
of snow and then it ramped up, and then Tuesday
morning we woke up and we had four point five
roughly about four and a half inches of snow on
the in the area, which was interesting because I was
(00:37):
looking at some of the numbers. The previous record for
December the second snowfall was two point two inches in
nineteen twenty nine, and we got four point five inches
on December second in twenty twenty five, which is interesting
because apparently the global warming that is supposed to be
(00:58):
going on, it just isn't quite materializing. But of course,
you know they're going to come up with their own
excuses that you know, it's climate change now instead of
global warming, which is a load of crap, so we
get into that. But anyway, I was a bit disappointed
because I was busy yesterday and I didn't have a
chance to get out and play in the snow like
(01:19):
I normally do. For the last well, basically eighteen years
that we've lived here in this condo, in our condo
in Wilder, Kentucky. The I usually get out We've had
you know, we've got elderly neighbors that still get out
in the morning and one of them goes.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
To work and so on in the early early in
the morning, and.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
So to make sure there's no slipping falls, I usually
get out there and shovel this sidewalk a pathway to
whoever's car is parked out there, so that she can
get out there without falling and so on.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But I got busy and I didn't get a chance
to do that.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
And then when I really have a chance, what I'll
do is I'll do the whole driveway, which is four
cars wide, because there's four different garages there and it's
a fairly decent sized area. But I do it because
a I enjoy a little bit of exercise, a little
bit of fresh air, plus the fact then I get
(02:21):
to smoke a cigar. So normally I do that, but
yesterday was real busy and I didn't get a chance
to do that. So I didn't get a chance to
play in the snow the way I normally do, and
there's a couple of hills in the parking lot where
some kids come by from time to time and go
down this hill and it's you know, we're on this
called a sack type of thing in the condo complex,
(02:43):
and not much traffic, so the parents will stand down
there in the street and they'll come flying down the
hill and into the street and what on. And I
have this this plastic sled that we had when our kids,
when our grandkids were a little bit younger, we used
to take them snow writing and stuff. And I still
(03:05):
have it, and I've lent it to them to our
neighbors a couple of times when I've seen them out
on the street because they're trying. They don't really have
a proper equipment if you're going to do some sled writing.
So generally now when they're out there, they will come
up and actually buzz the door and say, hey, can
we borrow your sled? So that didn't happen yesterday. So
(03:26):
I don't know what the heck's going on. I don't
if the kids are growing out of it or getting
a little bit older and not doing it. But anyway,
disappointed that I didn't get a chance to get out
and play in the snow. We had some numbers from
ADP and they come up with their jobs Report Job
Increases private sector jobs, and that comes out on a
(03:47):
monthly basis, and this month was a little disappointing. But
what's funny is that within the numbers they talk about
how in the previous month they are revised. So this
is the initial number, and I guess when we get
the actual revised number, it could go up or down,
but let's get to it here.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
US Labor Department.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
US labor market rather slowed down intensified in November as
private companies cut thirty two thousand jobs, with small business
hit the hardest. Payroll processing firm ADP reported on Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
For them, since.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
They are a payroll processing company, they generally have a
little bit they should have a better finger on the
pulse of what's going on, because obviously, if you're processing
payroll and you have X number of payrolls that you
have processed and the individual paychecks that you've processed, if
(04:47):
you have a significant number less or significant number more,
you should see that in your current data. And why
this is revised later on is kind of curious, because
either you process those paychecks.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
That week or that month, or you didn't.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
So it's kind of interesting how these numbers get tweaked
and so on. But then later on they will say,
and a lot of the so called experts, these so
called economists, will say that, well, ADP and their numbers
aren't really a reliable gauge in terms of what the
(05:27):
labor market is doing, which then leads me to believe,
why do you report it at all? If it's not
reliable and it's subject to revision, why use it? But again,
everybody talks about it, and so of course then they
run with it and go, oh, you know, thirty two
thousand less. But anyway, but this basically proves my point
(05:50):
in terms of what I've been saying about interest rates
pretty much since the first of the year. With worries
intensifying over the domestic job picture, ADP indicated the issues
were worse than anticipated.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
The payrolls decline.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Marked a sharp step down from October, which saw an
upwardly revised gain of forty seven thousand position, which was
well below the Dow Jones Consenus assessment from economists for
an increase of forty thousand. So the thirty two thousand
less jobs payroll processing from ADP is well below the
(06:30):
forty thousand that the economists had predicted would gain, So
they were only off by seventy two thousand jobs, which
is basically one hundred and twenty five percent off, which
again is indicative of These are the people that we
were supposed to rely on for accurate numbers, accurate details,
(06:50):
and accurate information, and yet they can't even get it right.
They can't even read the tea leaves properly or whatever
method they are us using to determine what they come
up with in terms of their numbers.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Maybe that needs to.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Be tweaked a little bit, because again, how many times,
and this is one of the first reports I've seen
was where it said we're well. Usually the reports will
say unexpectedly in the headlines, and generally that unexpectedly is
for job unexpectedly higher, unexpectedly lower unemployment numbers, unexpectedly high
(07:31):
retail sales. This is one of the few reports I've
seen so far this year was unexpectedly higher or lower
job creation and actually job loss. They did not expect
job losses in the month of November, which again is
kind of interesting and weird because it's one of the
(07:51):
first bad reports along these lines that we've gotten. Now.
Of course, that's been fluctuating over the year, and generally
when that goes down, the following day is when the
US Labor Department comes up with their jobs report, which
is generally followed the next day, and so when they
talk about the ADP report, they say, but the official.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Number will come out tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Well, with the government shutdown and what was going on there,
a lot of these reports have been delayed and therefore
they won't be They've announced that that won't be available
until December the sixteenth, when they're going to be releasing that,
which again is curious and going to be complicated because
the Federal Reserve they have their meeting on I think
(08:35):
it was I think it's December the ninth and tenth,
and they're going to be determining whether or not they're
going to be raising or lowering, and they're probably not
going to raise or hold steady interest rates or actually
reduce interest rates. So it's going to be interesting to
see that because they're not going to have the full picture.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
However, the Federal Reserve has tapped.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Into and has available to them numbers from their various
districts around the country, the twelve different districts, and they
have twenty three thousand employees that can put some of
this numbers together and give them accurate details and accurate
information that they don't necessarily have to rely on Bureau
of Labor Statistics or the Census Bureau or some of
(09:16):
these other numbers that the federal government puts together, because
some of those numbers are available and they can track
those numbers themselves. But I guess, you know, why do
it yourself when you can depend on somebody else to
do it. We'll go into this report a little bit
more detail. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's struck a Network seven
hundred WLW I need.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
This is the racing report on America's drugging network on
seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
John Forrest Racing will expand to four teams in the
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Isaac Hadjar will race for Red Bull into twenty twenty
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(10:02):
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Four time IndyCar champion Alex Polo will race for Meyer
Shank Racing in the twenty twenty six Rolex twenty four
Hours of Daytona in January.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
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Speaker 5 (10:43):
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I'm most proud of what I've done off the field.
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(11:03):
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Speaker 6 (11:14):
Why would you ask a financial advisor permission to spend
your own retirement money?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
There's something report.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Private payrolls unexpectedly fell by thirty two thousand according to
ADP payroll processing company. And as I mentioned in the
previous segment, which if you missed, hit up that iHeartRadio
app brought to you by our friends at Rush Truck Centers.
That it proves my point what I've been saying about
interest rates over the last well several months getting into this, okay,
(11:44):
talking about the course eating. So called experts had predicted
there be forty thousand increase and there were thirty two
thousand losses, so they were only off by seventy two thousand,
so that good for them. Larger businesses and tailing companies
with fifty or moreployees actually reported a net gain of
ninety thousand workers.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
That's good news.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
However, establishments with fewer than fifty workers saw a decline
of one hundred and twenty thousand jobs, including a drop
of seventy four thousand among firms with twenty to twenty
to twenty to forty nine employees. The total loss was
the biggest drop since March of twenty twenty three. Now,
(12:27):
these job losses are being affected with in the most
cases heavily in the companies that have between twenty and
forty nine employees.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Those are very those are.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Small companies, and small companies are more how should we say,
affected by or well just basically affected by interest rates.
They don't have the deep pockets that large corporations have,
that they have money or cash valence set aside that
(13:01):
they can go ahead and expand and increase their capabilities
and increase their workforce. After all, in according to the report,
large companies with fifty or more employees added ninety thousand jobs,
whereas in the sectors where twenty to forty nine employees
(13:22):
they lost seventy four thousand. Now, if you are more
subject to interest rates, because if you're trying to expand,
or if you're trying to keep your company going when
you have uncertainty in terms of the amount of traffic
you're going to have, the amount of sales you may have,
or looking forward, A lot of these companies again at
(13:43):
being in this no no fire position. After what we
experienced back during the pandemic when a lot of companies
will actually all companies shut down, and when they ramped
up trying to get their employees back in and to
fill these positions that they needed to have filled in
order to service the clients that they had. That was
(14:03):
a problem and they didn't want to go through that again.
So they've been holding on to their employees. But as
time goes on and as you're trying to expand your
business to determine what you need to do in terms
of capital expenditures, maybe buy a piece of equipment or
whatever that is being your process is muddied by the
(14:24):
fact that interest rates are so high and you have
to factor that into your return on investment. You get this,
you know well, folks, you know this. In terms of
your own business. You have a point where, if you
have a certain amount of business as far as your
trucking and trucking company is concerned, you have a point where, Okay,
(14:47):
based on what we have in terms of equipment, based
on what we have in terms of employees, we can
handle an increase of maybe ten percent, twenty percent, thirty
Sometimes that gets even stretched to you know, into the
forty percent, and then at that point you have to say, well, okay,
(15:08):
in order to accommodate this, so we don't are late
on any of our deliveries or cannot handle the volume
we have, we have to then buy a new truck,
hire a new driver, or something along those lines.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So you make that determination.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
And when you take into consideration that, okay, the cost
of this truck, are we going to get the return
on investment if we hire this additional employee? Are we
going to have that business that justifies that? And in
some cases you kind of have to make the determination.
And again getting back to my accounting days as a
recovering accountant, you have to make these decisions in terms
(15:45):
of looking into the future and saying, well, you know,
if we we don't have quite the volume in order
to justify hiring an employee, but if we're on the
trajectory of where we are increasing, we can bring on
somebody when we are ten, fifteen, twenty forty percent ahead
(16:05):
of where we were last year. But to have that
break even to where that actually pays off maybe around
fifty percent. But if your trajectory is that you see
your business increasing, you can afford to bring somebody in
or buy that piece of equipment, and then through the
increased volume that you can now produce, you can make
(16:26):
up that and then go on from there. So it's
this balancing effort to make sure that you have the
proper number of employees, the proper amount of equipment in
order to serve the certain clientele. And then as that increases,
then you have to make that determination as to whether
or not you want to make that leap. And small
businesses are more are more affected by that because again
(16:50):
they don't have the deep pockets, they don't have the
big cash reserves that these large corporations have, and so
therefore when they go out and make an expansion, these
small companies then have to borrow money and that increases
the cost in order to bring on that new employee
or bring or add that piece of equipment.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
And this is what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
As far as our interest rates, and when you look
at interest rates around the world, we are a lot
higher than a lot of these other countries. So getting
into the numbers, even further, education and health services gains
with gain we're gainers with thirty three thousand hires, while
leisure and hospitality added thirteen thousand. Now that's a good
(17:32):
sign there because leisure, hospitality and leisure is where people
with disposable income are going to be spending their money,
and if they don't have that money, they're not going
to be participating in that. And with these companies, the
hospitality and leisure industry hiring additional employees, then they know
(17:52):
or they're seeing that people are still coming and still
participating or buying their goods or going to their hotel,
going to the restaurants or whatever. And so with them
seeing that that traffic is there, they are adding jobs,
which means then that there are people out there that
have a lot of or not a lot, but some
(18:12):
disposable income that can spend there. And so the overall,
the overall look that I see as far as the
economy with that going on, is that the customers are
still there, the customers are increasing, therefore they're increasing their employees,
and that's a good sign as far as the economy
is concerned. Let's see hospitality. The biggest losses came in
(18:36):
professional and business services, which saw a decline of twenty
six thousand. Others shedding jobs included information services less minus
twenty thousand. Now the information services area, we are seeing
a lot of changes there in terms of them moving
more and more to AI technology, which then eliminates some
(18:56):
of these jobs that have been done by actual human beings.
And so that's kind of a sign of the time,
so to speak. Manufacturing lost eighteen thousand, financial activities and
construction both which saw losses of nine thousand. The rate
of pay also slowed, as workers staying on the job,
seeing a four point four percent year over year increase,
(19:18):
which was down point one percent from October. Now, according
to the ADP's chief economist Nella Richardson, hiring has been
choppy of late as employers weather cautious consumers and uncertain
macroeconomic environment. And while November slowed down was broad based,
(19:38):
it led was led by a pullback among small businesses.
Again what we're talking about in terms of them being
more affected by interest rates. ADP reported the last jobs
picture of the Federal Reserve before its meeting December. The
ninth and tenth Futures traders are assigning nearly ninety percent
probability Central Rank will approve another quarter percent interest rate cut. Now,
(20:04):
last time that the Federal Reserve met, they said that
they were probably not going to do any more interest
rate cuts before the end of the year. Well, that
has changed tremendously, I think, basically because there's an awful
lot of pressure on the FED to actually pay attention
to what's going on in the economy and stop being
(20:24):
pig headed. As far as this concern, in recent week,
FED policymakers have expressed a divergence of opinions. Some sides
say that it's necessary to head off further job market troubles,
while others worry that additional reductions could aggravate inflation. Well,
I don't buy that. I don't believe that that would
increase inflation. I think it would be good for the
(20:47):
economy and jumpstart the economy. Coming up, well, we've got
a little bit of announcement as far as federal reserve
pick from Donald Trump. I'm Kevin Gordon, America hastruck A
Network seven WL.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Here's your trucking forecast for the tri State and the
rest of the country and the Try State. Overnight, mostly
cloudy skies with snow likely near daybreak. The low down
to thirty four, about a half inch of snow accumulating
snow tapers off early Thursday, then it gradually becomes mostly
sunny a high of thirty one Friday, slight chances of
early snow, otherwise partly sunny, a high of thirty four,
partly sunny sky Saturday, a high of thirty seven. Nationally,
(21:27):
lake effects snow across the Great Lakes, bringing possible swalls
over interior New England, with periods of mountain snow and
parts of the Rockies and High Plains, as well as
the Pacific Northwest moderates. Heavy rain expected along the Gulf
Coast over the next several days, with an isolated risk
of flash flooding. Arctic air forecasts across the Midwest Thursday
and across the northern mid Atlantic to southern New England Friday,
(21:48):
as new record low temperatures could be set. These central
Appalachians and mid Atlantic could see light snow by Friday,
with rain, showers and storms embedded for the southeast.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Seven hundred. I'm Kevin Gordon. This is America's truck a
Network Donald Trump. Actually, last week Scott Besson had kind
of indicated that we were going to possibly get an
early Christmas present from the White House, that possibly the
replacement for lion Jerry Powell would be announced before the
end of the year, and there's been speculation as to
(22:21):
who that was going to be, and Scott Bessant was
saying that the likelihood of that being decided by the
end of the year, which again would boost the economy,
and people would be in terms of looking at that
in terms of what the expansion of the American economy
would actually be. But unfortunately what we're saying what they're
(22:41):
reporting now. Trump sets early twenty twenty six date for
FED chair pick. President Trump said he plans to announce
his selection to lead the Federal Reserve in early twenty
twenty six, fueling further speculation about the next leader of
the US Central Bank. During a cabinet meeting on December
(23:02):
the second, Trump said, we'll be announcing somebody, probably early
next year, for the new chairman of the FED. Trump's
comments offer a clearer timeline for the announcement. Treasury Secretary
Scott bessen who had been overseeing the selection process, previously
said the pick could be revealed around Christmas.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
President on November.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Thirtieth, told reporters that he knew who he would nominate,
without offering for their details. For months, he has been
pressured to pressuring the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates,
which I believe they should be doing. Trump has criticized
Powell as being too slow and timid in pursuing cuts.
Trump repeated those criticisms and on December the second, calling
(23:44):
Powell a stubborn ox who probably doesn't like your President.
Powell's terment as chair ends next month. He could remain
on the board for two more years as governor. I
hope not. And of course they mentioned who the candidates
were and who they're thinking about bringing up. But again
they mentioned in here too that Trump is kind of
(24:05):
kind of makes surprises from time to time. He's known
to make surprise at personal and policy decisions, meaning that
quite possibly he could be announcing this by the end
of the year or around Christmas. Still, so it'll be interesting,
and I think it's a move that's well. And again
I go back to what I heard. I don't really
(24:27):
know who. I wish I could remember who brought this up.
I don't know if it was Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank,
or whether it was Lou Dobbs or some of these
other people. In terms of Larry Cudlow or Charles Payne
or somebody maybe even Scott Bessen that suggested that what
(24:48):
Trump should do is actually nominate ahead of time the
Federal Reserve chair replacement, have the confirmation process be done
by June of this, well this past June, so that
you could actually have somebody who could be there waiting
(25:08):
in the wings and talking about, well, if I was
fed share, now, this is what I would do, which
would then put pressure online Jerry Powell to actually do
what he should be doing. But again, he's kind of
pig headed. I don't think he likes Donald Trump too much,
and quite well, you know, you go back to him
(25:29):
lowering interest rates by half a percentage point six weeks
before the election last year, which I think was an
attempt to boost Kamala Harris and push her across the
finish line because of the interest rate cut. But again,
some people are talking about that, but you know, more
and more people are talking about it, but we've talked
(25:49):
about it here a lot. Cyber Monday remains biggest online
spending day at fourteen point two five billion dollars. What's
interesting thing is that Blackfriday, they talked about Black Friday
has supplanted Cyber Monday in online spending growth for the
second year in a row, according to Adobe, Inc. With
(26:11):
deal hunting consumers getting an early start on their holiday shopping.
US shoppers spent fourteen point two five billion dollars online
during Cyber Monday, up seven point one percent from a
year ago. So much for a sluggish economy, so much
for consumer sentiment being down, So much for people saying that,
(26:33):
you know, we just don't have the money to go
out and spend because the economy is so horrible. All
these things that the spoon fed regurgitators in mainstream media
have been trying to portray, and in my opinion, trying
to manufacture a recession, talk down the economy, talk down
to this administration, like they've done for the last what
(26:53):
is it now, almost a decade.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Everything.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
All the coverage of Donald Trump is ninety four percent negative.
All the comments having to do with the economy and
his economic policy ninety four percent negative. And despite all that,
people have pushed that aside, taken a look at their
own personal finances and say, well, you know, I may
be worried about my neighbor, I may be worried about
the overall economy. But hey, I'm doing pretty good. I'm
(27:20):
going to go out and spend money, up seven point
one percent from a year ago, compared with a nine
point one percent increase on Black Friday, The firm said.
Spending on a five day period from Thanksgiving the Cyber
Monday total forty four point two billion dollars, up seven
point seven percent from a year ago. According to Vivek PANDEA,
(27:44):
lead economists with Adobe Digital Insights, competitive and persistent deals
throughout cyber Cyberweek pushed consumers to shop earlier, creating an
environment well black, We're Black Friday now challenges the dominance
of cyber Monday. Cyber Monday remains the biggest online spending
day of the year at fourteen point twenty five billion,
(28:06):
with Black Friday, as far as cyber sales are concerned,
is closing the gap at eleven point eight billion. Shoppers
started out slower than expected on Cyber Monday, but ramped
up as the day progressed, according to Cali Kayla Schwartz
Salesforce Inc. Let me see she is Salesforce Director of
(28:28):
Consumer Insights.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
She said.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
According to Sales Inc. Which tracks transactions from one point
five billion consumers said, Global online sales, mostly in Europe,
rose seven percent year over year, slightly faster than the
six percent pace in the US. Online holiday spending typically
rises quicker in the United States. Now get this, It's
(28:53):
one of those things that I keep talking about. As
far as interest rates, She attributed this year's results to
tech stung us shoppers, which I think is a bload
of crap. Now, mind you, she's talking about the pace
of increase in Europe and the economic boost European countries
are seeing from a series of interest rate cuts that
(29:16):
began last year.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Do you hear that? Do you hear that, Lion Jerry Powell?
Speaker 3 (29:21):
European countries are benefiting and their economies are seeing from
a series of interest rate cuts that began last year.
The trade war, government shutdown, and weakening labor market are
weighing on consumer confidence and making it hard to predict
how holiday shopping season will go this year. Well, I
would say that if you're at a seven point seven
(29:43):
percent increase from a year ago, I think you're off
to a pretty good start and would probably indicate that
the holiday season is going to be up a little
bit more than I think what the earlier predictions were
from about a two point five to a three percent increase.
I think we're heading in a very good direction there.
Analystas said that relatively robust showing so far suggests wealthier
(30:05):
Americans are spending lavishly, which they do anyway, that's a
typical year for them, while they're less healed counterparts are
shopping more carefully well, which is what I think most
people should do. Anyway. You don't just go out and
waste money. You target, You pay attention to where the bargains.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Are, and you swoop in on it. Why would you?
Speaker 3 (30:26):
This always amazed me at why people want to pay
full retail for stuff. If you can do a little digging,
if you could do a little bit of searching and
get a fifteen, twenty twenty five and in some cases
forty percent or more off the cost of something, why
wouldn't you do that? That's money in your pocket that's
then available for other things you want to purchase.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
I just don't get it.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Coming up, Donald Trump announcing that they're going to ease
mileage rules in a bid to curb rising car prices
again make cars more affordable. I'm Kevin Gordon America'structing Network
seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, Think again,
more Americans listening.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
To Americastructing Network seven hundred WLW. Trump administration is going
to ease the mileage rules in a bid to curb
rising car prices because all of this stuff that the
EPA has mandated in terms of fuel efficiency and putting
more restrictions on these cars. Not only the fact that
(31:32):
they put through these standards and say for your entire fleet,
you have to have x number of miles per gallon
on average. The problem with that is that if they
don't meet those standards, then they get fined and they
have to pay billions of dollars to the federal government
for not meeting those standards. Which if they're having to
pay that to the federal government, they aren't just pulling
(31:54):
that out of their pocket. They're adding that to the
cost of the cars. So if they're adding that to
the car the cars, they already take cars that are
out of the reach for a lot of people and
push them even higher, which then means that people are
not buying those cars. And so they talk about that,
Oh no, the Biden administration didn't put in this ev mandate.
(32:16):
But if you tell people that you've got to hit
a certain mileage standard, and the way you do that
because you get credits against that mileage standard for evs
that you sell, you're obviously going to sell more evs
and push more evs so that you're in compliance with that. So, no,
it's not a mandate. But in order to save yourself
(32:37):
from paying all these fines, you have to increase that,
which quite honestly is a load of crap, and it's
the federal government forcing evs down the throat of people.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Trump administration is.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Poised to announce new fuel efficiency standards for automobiles and
a bid to undue requirements that have assaled that it
has assailed for driving up the cost of new cars.
According to people familiar with the matter, details of proposed
the proposed requirements weren't immediately clear. However, they are expected
to be less stringent than those finalized under the President
(33:10):
Joe Biden, which by the way, was within the last
six months of the administration, because again they knew that
the new administration was coming. As a matter of fact,
if I'm not mistaken, these standards actually got put in
after the election and prior to the inauguration. So again,
if you're trying to handcuff the incoming administration, this was
(33:30):
a way to do that.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
And since it wasn't a matter of law, this can be.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Undone by the coming incoming administration move as the latest
President Donald Trump to push dismantling the policies that he
has derailed as an EV mandate. Now again people are
complaining about that, or people are criticizing him for that,
but that's what it amounts to.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
No, it's not an official mandate.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
It's not an official but if you put in all
kinds of regulations they kind of force you to do that,
then it is kind of a backhanded mandate. Trump ordered
the elimination of sies and other measures boosting electric vehicles
during her first day back in the White House in January.
His administration and Republican controlled Congress have heated the directive
by moving to ease national fuel economy standards, eliminating federal
(34:14):
tax credits for EV purchasers, and unwinding California's ability to
set its own emission limits. You should not permit a state,
and especially as large as California, to mandate emission limits
because in order to comply with that, as far as
(34:36):
the manufacturers are concerned, that is such a big market
there that they then wind up putting those emission controls
on the cars in every other state that are sold.
And so we are being forced to comply with California,
which is out of control in terms of their emissions control.
(34:56):
And especially now let's not forget the fact that everything
that they have done and for the last twenty to
thirty years was undone completely back in twenty twenty because
of their mismanagement of their forestation and not having the.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Proper water reserves and the wildfires.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
That happened in twenty twenty as a result of that,
it eliminated everything they had done as far as emission
controls and clean energy policies for the last twenty to
thirty years. Then you layer on top of that what
happen in twenty twenty five, and that pushed that back
even more ten to fifteen years there. So you do
what you're supposed to do and stop putting these crazy
(35:36):
fuel efficient things on there. Because if you look at
and I brought this up several times, if you look
at the current semi.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Trucks at the tractor trailers out there.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
It takes sixty of those tractor trailers today to equal
one of the as far as pollution is concerned, match
one truck from back in nineteen eighty eight. If you
look at the tailpipe emissions on cars, we are ninety
eight ninety nine percent less than what it was back
(36:07):
in the early eighties and into the nineties. You look
at the air pollution that's going on, the haze that
you usually see over some of these cities during the summer, it's.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Just not there.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
You can do this in stages and do it reasonably
instead of doing this heavy handed, just kind of clabbering
people over the head with this. So I applaud this,
and hopefully there will be doing something as far as
that's concerned. And I'm kind of curious as to when
they actually announced those those emissions controls what it's actually
(36:41):
going to be. Let's take a quick look at oil
and gas prices, because that has been jumping.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Around a little bit.
Speaker 6 (36:47):
Well.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Let me see currently West Texas Intermedia Crew currently is
a fifty nine dollars and eleven cents of barrel, up
forty seven cents zero point eight percent now just since
the January twenty West Texas Incrued is down seventeen dollars
and seventy eight cents a barrel, which is twenty three
percent lower than what it was January of the twentieth.
(37:10):
Brent crude at sixty two eighty one is thirty six
cents higher again point five to eight thereabouts, but since
the first of the year. Act on the first of
the year, but January of the twentieth is down seventeen
dollars and nine cents a barrel, or twenty one percent,
which is a good sign. We are seeing gas prices
across the board coming down. Current national average is two
(37:34):
ninety nine point nine and diesel is currently across the
board three point seven three three dollars seventy three cents
per gallon. Now again we're starting to see those coming down.
Speaker 5 (37:47):
Now.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
As far as what's going on, we you know, we
keep hearing about this, we keep seeing this, and it
keeps fluctuating as far as oil prices are concerned. Oil
prices climbed almost one percent on Wednesday after Russia said
talks with the US officials in Moscow failed to reach
a compromise on a potential Ukrainian peace deal that could
(38:09):
have eased sanctions on the oil sector.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Oil markets and prediction markets do not appear to price
a large probability of a near term peace agreement and
removal of the sanctions on Russian oil. Russia and the
US failed to reach a compromise after a five hour
meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald
Trump's top envoy. Russian government said on Wednesday oil markets
(38:38):
were awaiting the outcome of the talks to see if
a deal could possibly be in process so that they
could remove these restrictions on Russian oil. Of course, these
sanctions have been on the Russian conglomerate Rosneft and Luke
Oil and would free up restricted oil supply. Putin on
Tuesday said the European powers are hindering the US attempts
(39:02):
to end the war by putting forward proposals they know
would absolutely be unacceptable to Moscow. So the European Union
get that, you know, European Union, which didn't step in,
didn't do anything to prevent the invasion of Russia into
Ukraine back in twenty twenty two, are now sitting there
(39:24):
trying to dictate or trying to muddy the waters in
terms of the negotiations, in terms of what they want
Russia to agree to, which is interesting because you're the
ones that created the problem and now you expect us
to pay attention to you as to how to fix
(39:44):
the problem.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
I don't think so. Again, it shouldn't with NATO, with
the UN, with the buildup of.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
The troops there on the border for over a year,
they absolutely did nothing. And as back in twenty seventeen,
would Trump warn them at the UN, is that your
dependence and closing your coal fired plants and depending more
on natural gas from Russia, you are going to be
(40:14):
held hostage by Russia in order to keep your houses
warm and your people not to freeze. But instead, when
he mentioned that, the East German or the German delegation,
and there's pictures online that you can see of where
they were.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Laughing at him, well, like what an idiot? Can you
believe what this guy is saying?
Speaker 3 (40:35):
And then two years later, during the Biden administration, all
of a sudden, guess what held hostage by the Russians
because of their dependence on there and now because of that,
now they are trying to figure out some way of
doing this in terms of keep and now that they
have started to get more energy independent and try to
(40:57):
break the ties with Russia, now all of a sud
on they're going to back what they should have been
doing back in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
So it's just, you know, European Union.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
You know, we have been hearing for years and years
and years the European model as if that is some
sort of a panacea or some sort of great goal
to attain. And as you go through and you see
what's going on in the European countries, you realize that,
you know what, we don't want any part of that,
and we shouldn't be paying attention to what they're doing
(41:28):
except for their interest rate cuts which is spurring their economy.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Anyway.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Well, folks, we're up against clock here. Stay tuned for
Red Eye Rady at the top the hour. I'm Kevin Gordon.
America Struck a network seven hundred WLW
This is America's Truncking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Wilhelmable.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Thanks for tuning in on this Thursday morning. Now here
in the Greatest inse A, Northern Kentucky area. Beginning what
was it Monday night, we started getting a little bit
of snow and then it ramped up, and then Tuesday
morning we woke up and we had four point five
roughly about four and a half inches of snow on
the in the area, which was interesting because I was
(00:37):
looking at some of the numbers. The previous record for
December the second snowfall was two point two inches in
nineteen twenty nine, and we got four point five inches
on December second in twenty twenty five, which is interesting
because apparently the global warming that is supposed to be
(00:58):
going on, it just isn't quite materializing. But of course,
you know they're going to come up with their own
excuses that you know, it's climate change now instead of
global warming, which is a load of crap, so we
get into that. But anyway, I was a bit disappointed
because I was busy yesterday and I didn't have a
chance to get out and play in the snow like
(01:19):
I normally do. For the last well, basically eighteen years
that we've lived here in this condo, in our condo
in Wilder, Kentucky. The I usually get out We've had
you know, we've got elderly neighbors that still get out
in the morning and one of them goes.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
To work and so on in the early early in
the morning, and.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
So to make sure there's no slipping falls, I usually
get out there and shovel this sidewalk a pathway to
whoever's car is parked out there, so that she can
get out there without falling and so on.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But I got busy and I didn't get a chance
to do that.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
And then when I really have a chance, what I'll
do is I'll do the whole driveway, which is four
cars wide, because there's four different garages there and it's
a fairly decent sized area. But I do it because
a I enjoy a little bit of exercise, a little
bit of fresh air, plus the fact then I get
(02:21):
to smoke a cigar. So normally I do that, but
yesterday was real busy and I didn't get a chance
to do that. So I didn't get a chance to
play in the snow the way I normally do, and
there's a couple of hills in the parking lot where
some kids come by from time to time and go
down this hill and it's you know, we're on this
called a sack type of thing in the condo complex,
(02:43):
and not much traffic, so the parents will stand down
there in the street and they'll come flying down the
hill and into the street and what on. And I
have this this plastic sled that we had when our kids,
when our grandkids were a little bit younger, we used
to take them snow writing and stuff. And I still
(03:05):
have it, and I've lent it to them to our
neighbors a couple of times when I've seen them out
on the street because they're trying. They don't really have
a proper equipment if you're going to do some sled writing.
So generally now when they're out there, they will come
up and actually buzz the door and say, hey, can
we borrow your sled? So that didn't happen yesterday. So
(03:26):
I don't know what the heck's going on. I don't
if the kids are growing out of it or getting
a little bit older and not doing it. But anyway,
disappointed that I didn't get a chance to get out
and play in the snow. We had some numbers from
ADP and they come up with their jobs Report Job
Increases private sector jobs, and that comes out on a
(03:47):
monthly basis, and this month was a little disappointing. But
what's funny is that within the numbers they talk about
how in the previous month they are revised. So this
is the initial number, and I guess when we get
the actual revised number, it could go up or down,
but let's get to it here.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
US Labor Department.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
US labor market rather slowed down intensified in November as
private companies cut thirty two thousand jobs, with small business
hit the hardest. Payroll processing firm ADP reported on Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
For them, since.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
They are a payroll processing company, they generally have a
little bit they should have a better finger on the
pulse of what's going on, because obviously, if you're processing
payroll and you have X number of payrolls that you
have processed and the individual paychecks that you've processed, if
(04:47):
you have a significant number less or significant number more,
you should see that in your current data. And why
this is revised later on is kind of curious, because
either you process those paychecks.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
That week or that month, or you didn't.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
So it's kind of interesting how these numbers get tweaked
and so on. But then later on they will say,
and a lot of the so called experts, these so
called economists, will say that, well, ADP and their numbers
aren't really a reliable gauge in terms of what the
(05:27):
labor market is doing, which then leads me to believe,
why do you report it at all? If it's not
reliable and it's subject to revision, why use it? But again,
everybody talks about it, and so of course then they
run with it and go, oh, you know, thirty two
thousand less. But anyway, but this basically proves my point
(05:50):
in terms of what I've been saying about interest rates
pretty much since the first of the year. With worries
intensifying over the domestic job picture, ADP indicated the issues
were worse than anticipated.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
The payrolls decline.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Marked a sharp step down from October, which saw an
upwardly revised gain of forty seven thousand position, which was
well below the Dow Jones Consenus assessment from economists for
an increase of forty thousand. So the thirty two thousand
less jobs payroll processing from ADP is well below the
(06:30):
forty thousand that the economists had predicted would gain, So
they were only off by seventy two thousand jobs, which
is basically one hundred and twenty five percent off, which
again is indicative of These are the people that we
were supposed to rely on for accurate numbers, accurate details,
(06:50):
and accurate information, and yet they can't even get it right.
They can't even read the tea leaves properly or whatever
method they are us using to determine what they come
up with in terms of their numbers.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Maybe that needs to.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Be tweaked a little bit, because again, how many times,
and this is one of the first reports I've seen
was where it said we're well. Usually the reports will
say unexpectedly in the headlines, and generally that unexpectedly is
for job unexpectedly higher, unexpectedly lower unemployment numbers, unexpectedly high
(07:31):
retail sales. This is one of the few reports I've
seen so far this year was unexpectedly higher or lower
job creation and actually job loss. They did not expect
job losses in the month of November, which again is
kind of interesting and weird because it's one of the
(07:51):
first bad reports along these lines that we've gotten. Now.
Of course, that's been fluctuating over the year, and generally
when that goes down, the following day is when the
US Labor Department comes up with their jobs report, which
is generally followed the next day, and so when they
talk about the ADP report, they say, but the official.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Number will come out tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Well, with the government shutdown and what was going on there,
a lot of these reports have been delayed and therefore
they won't be They've announced that that won't be available
until December the sixteenth, when they're going to be releasing that,
which again is curious and going to be complicated because
the Federal Reserve they have their meeting on I think
(08:35):
it was I think it's December the ninth and tenth,
and they're going to be determining whether or not they're
going to be raising or lowering, and they're probably not
going to raise or hold steady interest rates or actually
reduce interest rates. So it's going to be interesting to
see that because they're not going to have the full picture.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
However, the Federal Reserve has tapped.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Into and has available to them numbers from their various
districts around the country, the twelve different districts, and they
have twenty three thousand employees that can put some of
this numbers together and give them accurate details and accurate
information that they don't necessarily have to rely on Bureau
of Labor Statistics or the Census Bureau or some of
(09:16):
these other numbers that the federal government puts together, because
some of those numbers are available and they can track
those numbers themselves. But I guess, you know, why do
it yourself when you can depend on somebody else to
do it. We'll go into this report a little bit
more detail. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's struck a Network seven
hundred WLW I need.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
This is the racing report on America's drugging network on
seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
John Forrest Racing will expand to four teams in the
twenty twenty six an HR Drag Racing Series season and
beyond with the signing of twenty fourteen NHR US National's
Fundy Car winner Alexis d Joria to a multi year contract.
Isaac Hadjar will race for Red Bull into twenty twenty
six F one season along side Masks for Stappan, replacing
(10:02):
Yuki Sonoda, who becomes a reserve driver for the Red
Bull team. Cadillac F one will announce their livery for
the upcoming season during the Super Bowl on February eighth.
Four time IndyCar champion Alex Polo will race for Meyer
Shank Racing in the twenty twenty six Rolex twenty four
Hours of Daytona in January.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I Need this is the racing reward on America's Drugging
Network on seven hundred WLW, Say Dennison a t N
News Radio seven hundred WLW and iHeartRadio Station Guaranteed Human
seven hundred WLW HI Heard Radio.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
It's former Bengal and Pro Football Hall of Famer Anthony Munos.
You know me from my skills on the field, but
I'm most proud of what I've done off the field.
Twenty three years ago, I started the Anthony Munyas Foundation,
and since then we've been able to impact over fifty
five thousand trice date you through deploying life changing college scholarships,
leadership divilopment opportunities, empowering football camps in our Wiz Kids
(11:03):
tutoring program. Be part of our impact for eternity by
visiting Munos Foundation dot org or calling five one three,
seven seven two forty nine hundred to learn more, get
involved and give back.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
Why would you ask a financial advisor permission to spend
your own retirement money?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
There's something report.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Private payrolls unexpectedly fell by thirty two thousand according to
ADP payroll processing company. And as I mentioned in the
previous segment, which if you missed, hit up that iHeartRadio
app brought to you by our friends at Rush Truck Centers.
That it proves my point what I've been saying about
interest rates over the last well several months getting into this, okay,
(11:44):
talking about the course eating. So called experts had predicted
there be forty thousand increase and there were thirty two
thousand losses, so they were only off by seventy two thousand,
so that good for them. Larger businesses and tailing companies
with fifty or moreployees actually reported a net gain of
ninety thousand workers.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
That's good news.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
However, establishments with fewer than fifty workers saw a decline
of one hundred and twenty thousand jobs, including a drop
of seventy four thousand among firms with twenty to twenty
to twenty to forty nine employees. The total loss was
the biggest drop since March of twenty twenty three. Now,
(12:27):
these job losses are being affected with in the most
cases heavily in the companies that have between twenty and
forty nine employees.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Those are very those are.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Small companies, and small companies are more how should we say,
affected by or well just basically affected by interest rates.
They don't have the deep pockets that large corporations have,
that they have money or cash valence set aside that
(13:01):
they can go ahead and expand and increase their capabilities
and increase their workforce. After all, in according to the report,
large companies with fifty or more employees added ninety thousand jobs,
whereas in the sectors where twenty to forty nine employees
(13:22):
they lost seventy four thousand. Now, if you are more
subject to interest rates, because if you're trying to expand,
or if you're trying to keep your company going when
you have uncertainty in terms of the amount of traffic
you're going to have, the amount of sales you may have,
or looking forward, A lot of these companies again at
(13:43):
being in this no no fire position. After what we
experienced back during the pandemic when a lot of companies
will actually all companies shut down, and when they ramped
up trying to get their employees back in and to
fill these positions that they needed to have filled in
order to service the clients that they had. That was
(14:03):
a problem and they didn't want to go through that again.
So they've been holding on to their employees. But as
time goes on and as you're trying to expand your
business to determine what you need to do in terms
of capital expenditures, maybe buy a piece of equipment or
whatever that is being your process is muddied by the
(14:24):
fact that interest rates are so high and you have
to factor that into your return on investment. You get this,
you know well, folks, you know this. In terms of
your own business. You have a point where, if you
have a certain amount of business as far as your
trucking and trucking company is concerned, you have a point where, Okay,
(14:47):
based on what we have in terms of equipment, based
on what we have in terms of employees, we can
handle an increase of maybe ten percent, twenty percent, thirty
Sometimes that gets even stretched to you know, into the
forty percent, and then at that point you have to say, well, okay,
(15:08):
in order to accommodate this, so we don't are late
on any of our deliveries or cannot handle the volume
we have, we have to then buy a new truck,
hire a new driver, or something along those lines.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So you make that determination.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
And when you take into consideration that, okay, the cost
of this truck, are we going to get the return
on investment if we hire this additional employee? Are we
going to have that business that justifies that? And in
some cases you kind of have to make the determination.
And again getting back to my accounting days as a
recovering accountant, you have to make these decisions in terms
(15:45):
of looking into the future and saying, well, you know,
if we we don't have quite the volume in order
to justify hiring an employee, but if we're on the
trajectory of where we are increasing, we can bring on
somebody when we are ten, fifteen, twenty forty percent ahead
(16:05):
of where we were last year. But to have that
break even to where that actually pays off maybe around
fifty percent. But if your trajectory is that you see
your business increasing, you can afford to bring somebody in
or buy that piece of equipment, and then through the
increased volume that you can now produce, you can make
(16:26):
up that and then go on from there. So it's
this balancing effort to make sure that you have the
proper number of employees, the proper amount of equipment in
order to serve the certain clientele. And then as that increases,
then you have to make that determination as to whether
or not you want to make that leap. And small
businesses are more are more affected by that because again
(16:50):
they don't have the deep pockets, they don't have the
big cash reserves that these large corporations have, and so
therefore when they go out and make an expansion, these
small companies then have to borrow money and that increases
the cost in order to bring on that new employee
or bring or add that piece of equipment.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
And this is what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
As far as our interest rates, and when you look
at interest rates around the world, we are a lot
higher than a lot of these other countries. So getting
into the numbers, even further, education and health services gains
with gain we're gainers with thirty three thousand hires, while
leisure and hospitality added thirteen thousand. Now that's a good
(17:32):
sign there because leisure, hospitality and leisure is where people
with disposable income are going to be spending their money,
and if they don't have that money, they're not going
to be participating in that. And with these companies, the
hospitality and leisure industry hiring additional employees, then they know
(17:52):
or they're seeing that people are still coming and still
participating or buying their goods or going to their hotel,
going to the restaurants or whatever. And so with them
seeing that that traffic is there, they are adding jobs,
which means then that there are people out there that
have a lot of or not a lot, but some
(18:12):
disposable income that can spend there. And so the overall,
the overall look that I see as far as the
economy with that going on, is that the customers are
still there, the customers are increasing, therefore they're increasing their employees,
and that's a good sign as far as the economy
is concerned. Let's see hospitality. The biggest losses came in
(18:36):
professional and business services, which saw a decline of twenty
six thousand. Others shedding jobs included information services less minus
twenty thousand. Now the information services area, we are seeing
a lot of changes there in terms of them moving
more and more to AI technology, which then eliminates some
(18:56):
of these jobs that have been done by actual human beings.
And so that's kind of a sign of the time,
so to speak. Manufacturing lost eighteen thousand, financial activities and
construction both which saw losses of nine thousand. The rate
of pay also slowed, as workers staying on the job,
seeing a four point four percent year over year increase,
(19:18):
which was down point one percent from October. Now, according
to the ADP's chief economist Nella Richardson, hiring has been
choppy of late as employers weather cautious consumers and uncertain
macroeconomic environment. And while November slowed down was broad based,
(19:38):
it led was led by a pullback among small businesses.
Again what we're talking about in terms of them being
more affected by interest rates. ADP reported the last jobs
picture of the Federal Reserve before its meeting December. The
ninth and tenth Futures traders are assigning nearly ninety percent
probability Central Rank will approve another quarter percent interest rate cut. Now,
(20:04):
last time that the Federal Reserve met, they said that
they were probably not going to do any more interest
rate cuts before the end of the year. Well, that
has changed tremendously, I think, basically because there's an awful
lot of pressure on the FED to actually pay attention
to what's going on in the economy and stop being
(20:24):
pig headed. As far as this concern, in recent week,
FED policymakers have expressed a divergence of opinions. Some sides
say that it's necessary to head off further job market troubles,
while others worry that additional reductions could aggravate inflation. Well,
I don't buy that. I don't believe that that would
increase inflation. I think it would be good for the
(20:47):
economy and jumpstart the economy. Coming up, well, we've got
a little bit of announcement as far as federal reserve
pick from Donald Trump. I'm Kevin Gordon, America hastruck A
Network seven WL.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Here's your trucking forecast for the tri State and the
rest of the country and the Try State. Overnight, mostly
cloudy skies with snow likely near daybreak. The low down
to thirty four, about a half inch of snow accumulating
snow tapers off early Thursday, then it gradually becomes mostly
sunny a high of thirty one Friday, slight chances of
early snow, otherwise partly sunny, a high of thirty four,
partly sunny sky Saturday, a high of thirty seven. Nationally,
(21:27):
lake effects snow across the Great Lakes, bringing possible swalls
over interior New England, with periods of mountain snow and
parts of the Rockies and High Plains, as well as
the Pacific Northwest moderates. Heavy rain expected along the Gulf
Coast over the next several days, with an isolated risk
of flash flooding. Arctic air forecasts across the Midwest Thursday
and across the northern mid Atlantic to southern New England Friday,
(21:48):
as new record low temperatures could be set. These central
Appalachians and mid Atlantic could see light snow by Friday,
with rain, showers and storms embedded for the southeast.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Seven hundred. I'm Kevin Gordon. This is America's truck a
Network Donald Trump. Actually, last week Scott Besson had kind
of indicated that we were going to possibly get an
early Christmas present from the White House, that possibly the
replacement for lion Jerry Powell would be announced before the
end of the year, and there's been speculation as to
(22:21):
who that was going to be, and Scott Bessant was
saying that the likelihood of that being decided by the
end of the year, which again would boost the economy,
and people would be in terms of looking at that
in terms of what the expansion of the American economy
would actually be. But unfortunately what we're saying what they're
(22:41):
reporting now. Trump sets early twenty twenty six date for
FED chair pick. President Trump said he plans to announce
his selection to lead the Federal Reserve in early twenty
twenty six, fueling further speculation about the next leader of
the US Central Bank. During a cabinet meeting on December
(23:02):
the second, Trump said, we'll be announcing somebody, probably early
next year, for the new chairman of the FED. Trump's
comments offer a clearer timeline for the announcement. Treasury Secretary
Scott bessen who had been overseeing the selection process, previously
said the pick could be revealed around Christmas.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
President on November.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Thirtieth, told reporters that he knew who he would nominate,
without offering for their details. For months, he has been
pressured to pressuring the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates,
which I believe they should be doing. Trump has criticized
Powell as being too slow and timid in pursuing cuts.
Trump repeated those criticisms and on December the second, calling
(23:44):
Powell a stubborn ox who probably doesn't like your President.
Powell's terment as chair ends next month. He could remain
on the board for two more years as governor. I
hope not. And of course they mentioned who the candidates
were and who they're thinking about bringing up. But again
they mentioned in here too that Trump is kind of
(24:05):
kind of makes surprises from time to time. He's known
to make surprise at personal and policy decisions, meaning that
quite possibly he could be announcing this by the end
of the year or around Christmas. Still, so it'll be interesting,
and I think it's a move that's well. And again
I go back to what I heard. I don't really
(24:27):
know who. I wish I could remember who brought this up.
I don't know if it was Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank,
or whether it was Lou Dobbs or some of these
other people. In terms of Larry Cudlow or Charles Payne
or somebody maybe even Scott Bessen that suggested that what
(24:48):
Trump should do is actually nominate ahead of time the
Federal Reserve chair replacement, have the confirmation process be done
by June of this, well this past June, so that
you could actually have somebody who could be there waiting
(25:08):
in the wings and talking about, well, if I was
fed share, now, this is what I would do, which
would then put pressure online Jerry Powell to actually do
what he should be doing. But again, he's kind of
pig headed. I don't think he likes Donald Trump too much,
and quite well, you know, you go back to him
(25:29):
lowering interest rates by half a percentage point six weeks
before the election last year, which I think was an
attempt to boost Kamala Harris and push her across the
finish line because of the interest rate cut. But again,
some people are talking about that, but you know, more
and more people are talking about it, but we've talked
(25:49):
about it here a lot. Cyber Monday remains biggest online
spending day at fourteen point two five billion dollars. What's
interesting thing is that Blackfriday, they talked about Black Friday
has supplanted Cyber Monday in online spending growth for the
second year in a row, according to Adobe, Inc. With
(26:11):
deal hunting consumers getting an early start on their holiday shopping.
US shoppers spent fourteen point two five billion dollars online
during Cyber Monday, up seven point one percent from a
year ago. So much for a sluggish economy, so much
for consumer sentiment being down, So much for people saying that,
(26:33):
you know, we just don't have the money to go
out and spend because the economy is so horrible. All
these things that the spoon fed regurgitators in mainstream media
have been trying to portray, and in my opinion, trying
to manufacture a recession, talk down the economy, talk down
to this administration, like they've done for the last what
(26:53):
is it now, almost a decade.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Everything.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
All the coverage of Donald Trump is ninety four percent negative.
All the comments having to do with the economy and
his economic policy ninety four percent negative. And despite all that,
people have pushed that aside, taken a look at their
own personal finances and say, well, you know, I may
be worried about my neighbor, I may be worried about
the overall economy. But hey, I'm doing pretty good. I'm
(27:20):
going to go out and spend money, up seven point
one percent from a year ago, compared with a nine
point one percent increase on Black Friday, The firm said.
Spending on a five day period from Thanksgiving the Cyber
Monday total forty four point two billion dollars, up seven
point seven percent from a year ago. According to Vivek PANDEA,
(27:44):
lead economists with Adobe Digital Insights, competitive and persistent deals
throughout cyber Cyberweek pushed consumers to shop earlier, creating an
environment well black, We're Black Friday now challenges the dominance
of cyber Monday. Cyber Monday remains the biggest online spending
day of the year at fourteen point twenty five billion,
(28:06):
with Black Friday, as far as cyber sales are concerned,
is closing the gap at eleven point eight billion. Shoppers
started out slower than expected on Cyber Monday, but ramped
up as the day progressed, according to Cali Kayla Schwartz
Salesforce Inc. Let me see she is Salesforce Director of
(28:28):
Consumer Insights.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
She said.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
According to Sales Inc. Which tracks transactions from one point
five billion consumers said, Global online sales, mostly in Europe,
rose seven percent year over year, slightly faster than the
six percent pace in the US. Online holiday spending typically
rises quicker in the United States. Now get this, It's
(28:53):
one of those things that I keep talking about. As
far as interest rates, She attributed this year's results to
tech stung us shoppers, which I think is a bload
of crap. Now, mind you, she's talking about the pace
of increase in Europe and the economic boost European countries
are seeing from a series of interest rate cuts that
(29:16):
began last year.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Do you hear that? Do you hear that, Lion Jerry Powell?
Speaker 3 (29:21):
European countries are benefiting and their economies are seeing from
a series of interest rate cuts that began last year.
The trade war, government shutdown, and weakening labor market are
weighing on consumer confidence and making it hard to predict
how holiday shopping season will go this year. Well, I
would say that if you're at a seven point seven
(29:43):
percent increase from a year ago, I think you're off
to a pretty good start and would probably indicate that
the holiday season is going to be up a little
bit more than I think what the earlier predictions were
from about a two point five to a three percent increase.
I think we're heading in a very good direction there.
Analystas said that relatively robust showing so far suggests wealthier
(30:05):
Americans are spending lavishly, which they do anyway, that's a
typical year for them, while they're less healed counterparts are
shopping more carefully well, which is what I think most
people should do. Anyway. You don't just go out and
waste money. You target, You pay attention to where the bargains.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Are, and you swoop in on it. Why would you?
Speaker 3 (30:26):
This always amazed me at why people want to pay
full retail for stuff. If you can do a little digging,
if you could do a little bit of searching and
get a fifteen, twenty twenty five and in some cases
forty percent or more off the cost of something, why
wouldn't you do that? That's money in your pocket that's
then available for other things you want to purchase.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
I just don't get it.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Coming up, Donald Trump announcing that they're going to ease
mileage rules in a bid to curb rising car prices
again make cars more affordable. I'm Kevin Gordon America'structing Network
seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, Think again,
more Americans listening.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
To Americastructing Network seven hundred WLW. Trump administration is going
to ease the mileage rules in a bid to curb
rising car prices because all of this stuff that the
EPA has mandated in terms of fuel efficiency and putting
more restrictions on these cars. Not only the fact that
(31:32):
they put through these standards and say for your entire fleet,
you have to have x number of miles per gallon
on average. The problem with that is that if they
don't meet those standards, then they get fined and they
have to pay billions of dollars to the federal government
for not meeting those standards. Which if they're having to
pay that to the federal government, they aren't just pulling
(31:54):
that out of their pocket. They're adding that to the
cost of the cars. So if they're adding that to
the car the cars, they already take cars that are
out of the reach for a lot of people and
push them even higher, which then means that people are
not buying those cars. And so they talk about that,
Oh no, the Biden administration didn't put in this ev mandate.
(32:16):
But if you tell people that you've got to hit
a certain mileage standard, and the way you do that
because you get credits against that mileage standard for evs
that you sell, you're obviously going to sell more evs
and push more evs so that you're in compliance with that. So, no,
it's not a mandate. But in order to save yourself
(32:37):
from paying all these fines, you have to increase that,
which quite honestly is a load of crap, and it's
the federal government forcing evs down the throat of people.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Trump administration is.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Poised to announce new fuel efficiency standards for automobiles and
a bid to undue requirements that have assaled that it
has assailed for driving up the cost of new cars.
According to people familiar with the matter, details of proposed
the proposed requirements weren't immediately clear. However, they are expected
to be less stringent than those finalized under the President
(33:10):
Joe Biden, which by the way, was within the last
six months of the administration, because again they knew that
the new administration was coming. As a matter of fact,
if I'm not mistaken, these standards actually got put in
after the election and prior to the inauguration. So again,
if you're trying to handcuff the incoming administration, this was
(33:30):
a way to do that.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
And since it wasn't a matter of law, this can be.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Undone by the coming incoming administration move as the latest
President Donald Trump to push dismantling the policies that he
has derailed as an EV mandate. Now again people are
complaining about that, or people are criticizing him for that,
but that's what it amounts to.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
No, it's not an official mandate.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
It's not an official but if you put in all
kinds of regulations they kind of force you to do that,
then it is kind of a backhanded mandate. Trump ordered
the elimination of sies and other measures boosting electric vehicles
during her first day back in the White House in January.
His administration and Republican controlled Congress have heated the directive
by moving to ease national fuel economy standards, eliminating federal
(34:14):
tax credits for EV purchasers, and unwinding California's ability to
set its own emission limits. You should not permit a state,
and especially as large as California, to mandate emission limits
because in order to comply with that, as far as
(34:36):
the manufacturers are concerned, that is such a big market
there that they then wind up putting those emission controls
on the cars in every other state that are sold.
And so we are being forced to comply with California,
which is out of control in terms of their emissions control.
(34:56):
And especially now let's not forget the fact that everything
that they have done and for the last twenty to
thirty years was undone completely back in twenty twenty because
of their mismanagement of their forestation and not having the.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Proper water reserves and the wildfires.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
That happened in twenty twenty as a result of that,
it eliminated everything they had done as far as emission
controls and clean energy policies for the last twenty to
thirty years. Then you layer on top of that what
happen in twenty twenty five, and that pushed that back
even more ten to fifteen years there. So you do
what you're supposed to do and stop putting these crazy
(35:36):
fuel efficient things on there. Because if you look at
and I brought this up several times, if you look
at the current semi.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Trucks at the tractor trailers out there.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
It takes sixty of those tractor trailers today to equal
one of the as far as pollution is concerned, match
one truck from back in nineteen eighty eight. If you
look at the tailpipe emissions on cars, we are ninety
eight ninety nine percent less than what it was back
(36:07):
in the early eighties and into the nineties. You look
at the air pollution that's going on, the haze that
you usually see over some of these cities during the summer, it's.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Just not there.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
You can do this in stages and do it reasonably
instead of doing this heavy handed, just kind of clabbering
people over the head with this. So I applaud this,
and hopefully there will be doing something as far as
that's concerned. And I'm kind of curious as to when
they actually announced those those emissions controls what it's actually
(36:41):
going to be. Let's take a quick look at oil
and gas prices, because that has been jumping.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Around a little bit.
Speaker 6 (36:47):
Well.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Let me see currently West Texas Intermedia Crew currently is
a fifty nine dollars and eleven cents of barrel, up
forty seven cents zero point eight percent now just since
the January twenty West Texas Incrued is down seventeen dollars
and seventy eight cents a barrel, which is twenty three
percent lower than what it was January of the twentieth.
(37:10):
Brent crude at sixty two eighty one is thirty six
cents higher again point five to eight thereabouts, but since
the first of the year. Act on the first of
the year, but January of the twentieth is down seventeen
dollars and nine cents a barrel, or twenty one percent,
which is a good sign. We are seeing gas prices
across the board coming down. Current national average is two
(37:34):
ninety nine point nine and diesel is currently across the
board three point seven three three dollars seventy three cents
per gallon. Now again we're starting to see those coming down.
Speaker 5 (37:47):
Now.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
As far as what's going on, we you know, we
keep hearing about this, we keep seeing this, and it
keeps fluctuating as far as oil prices are concerned. Oil
prices climbed almost one percent on Wednesday after Russia said
talks with the US officials in Moscow failed to reach
a compromise on a potential Ukrainian peace deal that could
(38:09):
have eased sanctions on the oil sector.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Oil markets and prediction markets do not appear to price
a large probability of a near term peace agreement and
removal of the sanctions on Russian oil. Russia and the
US failed to reach a compromise after a five hour
meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald
Trump's top envoy. Russian government said on Wednesday oil markets
(38:38):
were awaiting the outcome of the talks to see if
a deal could possibly be in process so that they
could remove these restrictions on Russian oil. Of course, these
sanctions have been on the Russian conglomerate Rosneft and Luke
Oil and would free up restricted oil supply. Putin on
Tuesday said the European powers are hindering the US attempts
(39:02):
to end the war by putting forward proposals they know
would absolutely be unacceptable to Moscow. So the European Union
get that, you know, European Union, which didn't step in,
didn't do anything to prevent the invasion of Russia into
Ukraine back in twenty twenty two, are now sitting there
(39:24):
trying to dictate or trying to muddy the waters in
terms of the negotiations, in terms of what they want
Russia to agree to, which is interesting because you're the
ones that created the problem and now you expect us
to pay attention to you as to how to fix
(39:44):
the problem.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
I don't think so. Again, it shouldn't with NATO, with
the UN, with the buildup of.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
The troops there on the border for over a year,
they absolutely did nothing. And as back in twenty seventeen,
would Trump warn them at the UN, is that your
dependence and closing your coal fired plants and depending more
on natural gas from Russia, you are going to be
(40:14):
held hostage by Russia in order to keep your houses
warm and your people not to freeze. But instead, when
he mentioned that, the East German or the German delegation,
and there's pictures online that you can see of where
they were.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Laughing at him, well, like what an idiot? Can you
believe what this guy is saying?
Speaker 3 (40:35):
And then two years later, during the Biden administration, all
of a sudden, guess what held hostage by the Russians
because of their dependence on there and now because of that,
now they are trying to figure out some way of
doing this in terms of keep and now that they
have started to get more energy independent and try to
(40:57):
break the ties with Russia, now all of a sud
on they're going to back what they should have been
doing back in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
So it's just, you know, European Union.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
You know, we have been hearing for years and years
and years the European model as if that is some
sort of a panacea or some sort of great goal
to attain. And as you go through and you see
what's going on in the European countries, you realize that,
you know what, we don't want any part of that,
and we shouldn't be paying attention to what they're doing
(41:28):
except for their interest rate cuts which is spurring their economy.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Anyway.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Well, folks, we're up against clock here. Stay tuned for
Red Eye Rady at the top the hour. I'm Kevin Gordon.
America Struck a network seven hundred WLW
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