January 6, 2026 • 44 mins
The Christmas Season has come to an end with the celebration of the Epiphany. Nicolas Madura, the illegitimate president of Venezuela, had an epiphany of his own with the FO phase of the FAFO policy of the Trump Presidency during Operation Absolute Resolve; Bank of America CEO, Brian Moynihan offered his view on the U.S. Economy during a recent interview; ABC News takes a look at some holiday shopping season results; Kevin has the details, digs into data, puts the information into historical pespective, offers his insights and opinions.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
This is America's Trucking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Love the able. Thanks for tuning in on this Tuesday morning.
We are now past officially past the Christmas season. The
Christmas season just ended, what about five six minutes ago,
after the end of the Twelfth Night. Again, Christmas season
and the actual Christmas period begins Christmas Day and then
(00:32):
goes for the twelve days after Christmas, not the twelve
days before Christmas. Today is the feast of the Epiphany,
and according to the Bible and according to the legend,
it's today that the Three Wise Men came and recognized
and visited Jesus in the Manger and the Holy Family.
So again, this is the end of the Christmas season
and the Christian religion. It's a very important day. Now
(00:56):
over the weekend, a little bit of excitement down there
in Venezuela. I guess Nicholas Maduro entered the FO stage
as an f A FO talking about the Narco terrorism
down there, and I tell you, I saw the dumbest
(01:16):
interview from what is it, CBS Face the Nation. Margaret
Brennan has this ability to be about as dumb as
a box of rocks. She's talking to Marco Rubio, which
I'm surprised Marco Rubio goes on the show, but you know,
when you know you're going to tear up the host
(01:37):
and that the host can't you know, blow over you,
or you know, confound you or confuse you, or ask
you a question you're not ready for. I guess it's
okay to go on these shows just to embarrass them.
But she's talking to him about this effort, this military
effort that was done and says, I'm confused. There are
(02:04):
two other or three other indicted people down there that
are still in power. Why did you just go after
this one person? And I will say that. At first,
Marco Rubio's face was like, I can't believe that I'm
actually that she's actually asking this question. And he responds
(02:25):
with you're confused. Now, during the Biden administration, they had
put a fifty million dollar bounty on the capture of
Nicholas Maduro, an indicted a drug lord, marco terrorist, head
of a state down there in the country of Venezuela.
(02:46):
So during the Biden administration even they recognized his threat
to the Americans. Now, apparently there are some others. She
put up a charter a picture of somebody who had
a fifteen million dollar bounty on them. So you know,
you know, you don't have to be a mathematician to
understand that the guy that has has the fifty million
(03:07):
bounty on him versus the fifteen million bounty. I would
say the guy with the fifty million is probably a
little bit higher priority. Oh and by the way, the
fact that he was the leader of the country, the
de facto leader. He was the president of the country,
even though sixty European countries and EU and all these
(03:30):
didn't recognize we don't recognize him as the president. Because
there was an election that was supposed to take place
once I was at twenty twenty three and thereabouts, and
this lady her name escapes me, Miccado, Carlos, whatever her name,
She was the one that won the Nobel Peace Prize
(03:53):
for her efforts. Now, she was one of the leading
candidates down there when they were going to do the elections. Well,
Nicholas Maduro said that his government said she was not
allowed to run again. Then she appointed one other person
to go in her stead, and then that person was
(04:17):
pushed aside, and then eventually the candidate that she supported
actually apparently got the majority of the votes, but then
Nicholas Maduro and his thugs said, no way, it's you know,
it wasn't a fair election, and Nicholas Maduro was crowned
or was designated as the winner of the election. So
(04:41):
he's not been recognized by the world down there, and
he's got this fifty million dollar bounty on his head.
And so they go in there and she's going, well,
why didn't you pick up the others? And Marco looks
at her and says, you're confused. We're gonna go in Okay,
(05:03):
And he described this military operation. He said, we landed
helicopters in the middle of the largest military base in Venezuela,
because Nicholas Maduro lived on this army base. Within a
three minute period of time, went to where he was sleeping,
(05:23):
kicked in the door, arrested him, read him his rights,
got him on a helicopter, and with a three minute
period of time, they were gone. And he says, you
expected us to do this five other times in the city,
in the country, with the operations, I mean just in
the attacking the infrastructure and the radar screens and stuff,
(05:46):
so that they couldn't in the communications infrastructure. There was
something like one hundred and fifty aircraft that were involved
in this, not to mention the helicopters that actually went
into the compound. And he said, so you expect us
to be on the ground for like four days, rounding
up all these other people. Look at the howls that
(06:06):
there have been up to this point with what we did.
Can you imagine if we were there for four And
then she goes, but I'm confusing. She even repeated it.
She goes, why didn't you grab these other people? And
it's like, you know, how ignorant can you be? I
mean it's like you go in with she goes in
with this narrative and nothing is going to break her
(06:28):
from I mean, you present them with the facts, give
them with the information, and they still don't understand. I mean,
they got this preconceived idea. But the fact of over
one hundred and fifty different aircraft being around, flying through
the airspace there glanding in the middle of a military compound,
nabbing this guy. Not one US soldier was injured. I
(06:53):
think there was a little bit of damage to one
of the helicopters, but it was a highly successful operation.
Nicholas Maduro is in New York and is going to
be indicted and go on trial. So it is just
absolutely amazing that it was that they didn't understand. Now,
what was funny is that all day Sunday all you
(07:15):
heard was people like Mandani in New York, Zoran Mundani,
the new mayor, the socialist, the communist mayor of New
York condemning the operation. You had China condemning the operation,
Iran condemning the operation, North Korea condemning the operation, and
(07:40):
a wholesalel of democrats. So great company you're in there
when you're siding with Iran, China, North Korea, all enemies
of the of the United States. Well, all these protests
were breaking out, and of course the usual mob of
you know, you know the you know, the Palestinian supporters
(08:02):
that had been protesting and you know, from the river
to the sea. Apparently, since that has resolved and there
has ceasefire over there, they've got nothing to complain about.
I guess the Russia Russia Russia hoax isn't available right now,
So this is the latest thing that they were all
upset about. But Monday morning, I was shocked to see
(08:26):
how many people weren't protesting, weren't criticizing. Different Senate leaders,
different Democratic leaders around the country kind of started tamping down, said, well,
we want to take away and see approach. I guess
they saw all these celebrations in the streets of Caracas, Venezuela,
(08:49):
all the people saying chanting, USA, USA, USA, cheering, just
millions of people in the street applauding the fact that
we went in and took out this brutal dictator who
had ruined their economy. Go back to ten fifteen years ago,
Venezuela was one of the richest countries in the South
(09:11):
America South America area. People were living well. All of
a sudden, Hugo Chavez seizes control, a communist starts doing
the collectivization that Mandani is now doing in New York,
and the economy went to hell in a handbasket. The
grocery stores were empty, just like every other communist country.
(09:33):
The economy failed. The biggest resource that they had there,
their oil, went from was this something like three hundred
million barrels a day down to pretty much zero. And
so the people of there were suffering. And the fact
that now mc nicholas Maduro is out. They are cheering
like crazy Liberation Day, Independence Day for the people of Venezuela.
(09:56):
And I guess the people here saying, well, gee whiz.
If they're so that and we're protesting it, could we
possibly be on the wrong side of this anyway. I'm
Kevin Gordon, americastruck in Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
I need This is the racing reward on America's Drugging
Network on seven hundred WLW.
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Speaker 1 (11:35):
This is the racing report on America's Drugging Network on
seven hundred WLW, Say Dennison a t N.
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This is Jim Hello.
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Jim started advertising with iHeartRadio way back in April.
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I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network seven hundred WLW to
take a look at transpired in Venezuela late Saturday night,
earlyday morning capture of Nicholas Maduro and his wife being
brought to New York to stand charges for drug trafficking
and so on. I'm not sure of all the charges
(12:11):
against them, but it will be very interesting to see
how it comes out. Code named Operation Absolute resolved A
Chapter A chapter. In a wider campaign against alleged drug trafficking,
US military unleased a wave of air strikes in Venezuela,
neutralized their air defenses, and sent an eleas elite special forces. Result,
(12:32):
Nicholas Maduau and his wife Cela Flores were swiftly captured
in Caracas and whisked away onto the us uss EWOJIMA,
then onto New York for narco terrorism charge. All prices
took at a wild ride, tanking at first, only to
roar back as Wall Street children cheered a strong dollar,
(12:52):
rising stock market and a booming demand. Expert projections the
zero American casual was a plus. Vice President Delsey Rodriguez
was reportedly installed as the interim leader under Washington's watchful
I they are going to do apparently well, try to
(13:13):
move towards elections as soon as possible. Trump administration wasted
no time promising to rebuild Venezuela's energy infrastructure, inviting US
companies to take the reins. Now we had built their
energy structure down there, We had apparently leases with them,
Chevron and a lot of the major oil companies, and
when Hugo Chavez came in and along with Nicholas Maduro,
(13:38):
they nationalized all of the oil fields and the leases
there and basically seize those leases and kicked the American
companies out and said we got it from here, which
apparently they didn't. So again, the infrastructure in place down
there after twenty years about of miss management and so on,
(14:01):
is going to require a little bit of rebuilding. But
Chevron had gone back down there and with the permission
of the US to start doing some of the drilling
down there or some of the well production down there,
because as you recall, back during the Biden administration, when
he came into office, he started stopped selling the or
(14:21):
stopped allowing the oil leases around the country, which is
by law they were supposed to do. Seized oil production
in the Gulf of Mexico, in Canada and a lot
of the different oil fields around the country. And then
all of a sudden, we started importing more oil from
overseas than we were producing here. And from twenty twenty,
(14:42):
when we were energy independent for the first time since
nineteen forty nine, all of a sudden, we became very
energy dependent. Now coming into office, Biden criticized Saudi Arabia,
saying that they were a pariah nation having to do
with that Asam fascination or killing of Kosoji that Washington
(15:03):
supposed Washington Post reporter. But they were saying that we
weren't going to deal with Saudi Arabia. Then also they
put the clamps on Venezuela for being a communist country
and they weren't going to buy oil from them. Well,
all of a sudden, when you stop producing oil or
cut back production in the United States, guess what you
(15:24):
need production of oil. So then all of a sudden
he goes over on bended knee to Saudi Arabia to
bake for oil. They basically told him to pound sand.
And so then he started going to Venezuela, lifted the
sanctions there and started importing oil from there, and allowed
(15:45):
Chevron to go down there and run some of the operations.
So again, back during the Biden administration, fifty million dollars
bounding on Hugo or on Nicholas Maduro done by the
Biden administration started dealing with Venezuela went already they had
add sanctions on them. So the idea that they're wavering,
and you know, as they talk about the the Trump
(16:07):
administration with the late raising of terrorists, lowering of terraces
and so on, the bumpy ride or the inconsistent foreign policy.
We'll just take a look at the inconsistent foreign policy
with the Biden administration. We're not going to deal with
Saudi Arabia. They're a prior. Oh by the way, we
need to grow. Hey, can we have some oil and
we're going to put sanctions on Nicholas Maduro and Venezuela
(16:28):
and oh, by the way, we need that crude oil
in the United States, so hey, can we have some
of it? So, you know, don't talk to me about
how consistent they are. Energy infrastructure Chevron short lived return.
Back in the Biden administration, company ramped up this output
three hundred million barrel three hundred thousand barrels a day,
(16:49):
pushing Venezuela production back over a million, which they had been.
I believe it's somewhere around three million per year per day.
Rather so again, the United Nation Security Council, we hold
an emergency meeting. While they held an emergency meeting on Monday,
I didn't even bother to hear what they had to say,
because you know, they didn't stop Russia from invading Ukraine,
(17:13):
even though there was a year and a half upswing
or troop movement there indicating that they were going to invade.
They didn't do anything to try to stop that, and
they had advanced notice of that. They've done nothing in
order to end that war there. So now all of
a sudden they're gonna, you know, because you know, they're
just gonna condemn us. I would say, shut up, but
(17:34):
I'm not even gonna bother hearing what they had to say.
So again, upheaval in Venezuela pretty much for the good.
It'll be interesting to see how that happens, how the
free and fair elections come about, and whether or not
that country can get back to some sort of normalcy
as a result of being under the cruel thumb of
(17:58):
Nicholas Maduro and previously Hugo Chavez. So again, it'll be
interesting to see what happens down there. Some interesting comments
again before the new year, you know, we're starting to
see this will come well, it'll come as a surprise
(18:18):
to you. I don't know will it come as anyway.
I've been talking about our economy. I've been talking about
the effects of tariff since Liberation Day on April to second.
I because of going back to my days in school
and seeing economics and learning about tariffs and so on,
(18:39):
realized or said that the time, and some of the
other people that I read and respect said tariffs don't
lead to inflation. There are some temporary items that go up,
but then other items go down, so overall inflation pretty
much stays the same. And the way this was explained
as far as Trump talking about the charts that he
had showing that the amount of terifts they charge on
(19:03):
our products going into these countries versus the terriffts we
charge on their products, and said, We're just going to
do reciprocal tariffs. The tariffs that they charge us, We're
going to charge them, and then if they want to
have those are teriffs reduced on their goods, they can
reduce the tariffs on our goods going in there again
a negotiating tool. So all the people with their you know,
(19:27):
hair on fire talking about the economy is going to
go a tank. It's going to be in a recession,
rampant unemployment, rampant inflation, and so on. I guess they
were kind of what was a channeling the Biden administration,
which is that's exactly what happened during the Biden administration.
So all these naysayers started talking about it. Phil Flynn,
(19:48):
who we talked to on this show regularly, was in
the camp that tariffs don't add to inflation, it's the
out of control government spending. Kevin o'lary from Shark Tank,
Larry Kudlow from Fox Business, and Charles Paine, a lot
of these people on Fox Business News and some of
(20:09):
these other economists around the country actually supported the terroriffs.
Mainstream media spoon fed regurgitators, Democrats all condemned it and
so on. But it's interesting to see what has happened
as a result of that in how people have looked
at that. We had the GDP numbers that were above,
(20:30):
way above expectations, and all of these things that have
surprised all these people all along. There was an interview, well,
the Bank of America CEO had an unexpected view on
the economy, and this was an interview with who the
heck was he talking to? Oh yeah, oh I should
(20:53):
be surprised. In an interview with CBS News Faced the
Nation with Margaret Brannan. Bryant moynihan, the chairman CEO actually
CEO a Bank of America, had some very interesting things
and we'll get into that coming up again. And I'm
sure I didn't see the interview itself. I'm reading some
(21:14):
of the transcripts of that. I'm sure that she was
confused about that as well. I'm Kevin Gordon, america'struck in
Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
News Traffic and Weather News Radio seven hundred wl W, Cincinnati.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
The Secretary of Defense responds to the Venezuelan attacks with
your twelve thirty re parts. I'm Lee Mawin breaking now
new information out about the Saturday morning attack that also
resulted in the capturing of Nicholas Maduro.
Speaker 6 (21:45):
Secretary Pete Hegseth saying Maduro and his wife unaware of
what was happening until minutes before.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Nicholas Maduro got to meet Great America's very thank you
you got three nights ago.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
He didn't know they were coming three minutes for the
erav fact twice, I think I hear their craft Health.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
Hun those Special Operations Forces coming under heavy gunfire by
maduro security grabbing Maduro and his wife as they headed
for a safe room.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
ABC News Chief Global Affairs correspondent Bartha Raddits.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
Now the latest forecast from the Train Heating and Cooling
Weather Center on news radio seven hundred WLWS.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
Remit to Tuesday morning. We're mostly cloudy morning, low of
forty one degrees. Now for our Tuesday, we'll see the
clouds hanging around. Little breezy in a chance of sprinkles,
but a high of fifty six at night, still cloudy,
a low down to forty and some more significant rain
coming up on Thursday night. From your severe Weather station,
(22:47):
I'm nine first Warning Chief Meteorologist Steve Rawley, News Radio
seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Still nothing on the radar around the tri State. We're
at forty one degrees. Later, Today's shareholder A Fifth Third
Bang Corp. And Kamerica will vote on approving a ten
point nine billion dollar acquisition deal. It's considered the largest
for the Cincinnati company. The deal was initially agreed upon
October fifth, and it's seen as a virtual lock for
each side. The deal would make Fifth Third the ninth
(23:16):
largest US based bank. Regulators still need to approve this deal.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency already said yes,
we're writing on the Federal reserve boards.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Go ahead.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Fifth third CEO Tim Spence told analysts and investors this
deal should be finalized in the first quarter of twenty
twenty six, that ends March thirty. First your next updates
up one. I'mley Mawen. Who's Radio seven hundred WLW.
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Here's your trucking forecast for the tri State and the
rest of the country. In the Try State, Overnight mostly claudy,
the low only down to forty cloudy Tuesday, with a
slight chance of morning ra highs in the upper fifties. Wednesday,
mostly cloudy, sky's early gradually clear, becoming sunny, a high
a fifty four. Mostly cloudy Thursday with a chance of
afternoon rain be high year sixty. Nationally out west, heavy
snow being seen over parts of the Cascades, Northern inter
(24:13):
Mountain Region, and the Northern Rockies, as monerate to heavy
snow is seen over the northeast Meanwhile, freezing rain possible
from the upper Mississippi Valley into the northeast.
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Seven hundred W lw IM Kevin Gordon. This is America's
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(24:49):
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Talking about this story, Bank of America CEO drops unexpected
view on the economy. Now, all of a sudden, these
people are coming out of the woodwork. And you know
(25:10):
they've been very critical of the administration, very critical or
maybe sitting on the sidelines, not saying anything, not quite
sure where to go. Well again, now all of a sudden,
these people are coming out and it's a surprise to
some of these people. And I'm sure, Margaret Brennan not
only was she confused by Marco Rubio and what the
(25:32):
administration did down in Venezuela. I'm sure back on when
when was this December the twenty sixth, No, no, no,
when was this anyway the Sunday before or whatever. Towards
the end of the year heading into twenty twenty six,
had an interview with the CEO, Brian moynihan, and I'm
sure she was confused by that as well. And it's
(25:56):
no secret tariffs, trade wars, and recession chatter have died
dominated the economic conversation over the past year heading into
twenty twenty six, though Bank of America CEO isn't buying
into the panic welcome aboard. You know. Let's see going
back to January the twentieth, with the economic policy that
(26:19):
the Trump administration was putting into place, then with Liberation
Day on April the second, and one of the people
that was saying back then that hey, by the end
of the year, although these experts, the Federal Reserve and
all these people were saying that the gross domestic product,
which is summation of all the goods and services, we
(26:41):
might hit one point eight percent growth compared to the
two point four percent in the fourth quarter of the
Biden administration, and back then in April, I said that
by the end of the year, our inflation rate would
be now I said at the time would be down
to two percent, which is at two point seven percent.
(27:03):
I also said that the gross domestic product would be
somewhere between four point five and five percent. Now, we
haven't gotten the fourth quarter numbers yet, but we did
get the third quarter numbers, and it was at four
point three percent growth, certainly not one point eight that
was being predicted. So we have been way ahead of
(27:26):
the curve on this, and now late to the game. Brian, jeez,
he's not buying into the panic, the panic that everybody
was buying into back in April. So eight months later,
he's not gonna buy into the panic. Oh my gosh.
So anyway, the predictions of this, and I wonder, and
(27:52):
I've made this comment too that looking at the gross
domestic product of four point three percent, that was smack
dab in the middle of the Schumer shut down, forty
three days of where the military and the air traffic
controllers and many employees of the federal government weren't getting
(28:14):
their paychecks. Even though some of them were still required
to go to work, they weren't getting their paychecks. And
if you're not getting paychecks, chances are you're not out
spending a lot of money. Chances are you're not buying things,
and so that affects the gross domestic product. I'm going
to I'd be curious, and I've not seen anybody talk
(28:34):
about this. I may have to do a little digging
to see what the effects of the Schumer shutdown in
that forty three days was on the GDP. But we'll
certainly see in the fourth quarter what that number is.
But anyway, getting back to this heading into twenty twenty six,
so Bank of America CEO isn't buying into the panic.
In an interview with CBS News Face the Nation with
Margaret Brennan, Brian moynihan made much quieter contrarian argument that
(29:00):
the tariff induced shock englfing the markets last year is
moving toward an end point four perspective. As of December
the twenty sixth, and we talked about this last week.
At the end of the year, Nasdak composite had surged
twenty two point two percent year to date. That is
taking into consideration the twelve percent of thirteen percent dip
(29:23):
as of April the second, so not only did they
make that up, but then surged ahead twenty two point
two percent By the end of the year. S and
P five hundred was up seventeen point nine and the
Dow is up over fourteen point five, contrary to what's
being making the rounds. More and a Hand believes the
terraff situation is starting to settle down. He feels that
(29:45):
once the dust settles around where the rates end up,
landing businesses will adapt swiftly, cost will be cost will
get priced in, and supply chains will adjust. Moreover. More
and Ahan also points to steady consumer spending, ongoing wage expansion,
and the loosening labor market that's far far from broken,
(30:08):
far from broken, not weak. Like lyon Jerry Powell has
been talking about the week week labor market. All these
so called economists talking about the week labor market. And again,
let me remind I love this. Okay. This is a
definition by Lawrence J. Peter. He is a academy from
(30:32):
a professor from up in Canada, and he came up
with the Peter principle. Basically, people rise in business, they
rise to their level of incompetence. And I'm sure anybody's
been involved in corporate America, you see that on a
large scale where you know, it's just amazing that that
people advance. And there's a theory behind that. We won't
(30:52):
get into that now, but he defined an economists. Economist
is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things
he addicted yesterday didn't happen today. So again, economists always
looking in the rearview mirror, trying to explain why stuff
they predicted didn't happen. But they're they're great at telling
you why it didn't happen after it didn't happen. But again,
(31:14):
I love to be well, you know, if they were listening,
America struck a network again, you know, eight months ago,
be so far ahead of the curve, don't even see
your tail lights. Let's see morning hand points city city
consumer spending and the labor market is far from broken.
Even the Federal Reserve, he suggests, matters a lot less
(31:37):
than mister market thinks. Okay, again, the consumers. Now, I
disagree with that to a certain extent, because if you
talk about the Federal Reserve and them involved in interest
rates and how what they do at the federal reserve
level on those interest rates to the individual banks, that
event filters through to our credit cards, into our car loans,
(32:01):
truck loans, business expansion loans, mortgages, and so on. So again,
the focus on the federal reserve because of interest rate cuts,
I think is a lot more important to the people
on the street than it would be to say, uh,
you know, CEO of Bank of America. Again, good comments
he had, but I think he missed the mark a
(32:22):
little bit as far as the Federal Reserve talking about that.
We're too fixated with what the what the Federal Reserve
is doing. Uh, Labor and consumer matters more than consumer.
Labor and consumers matter more than terriffs right now, according
to moynihan. Moinnan is clear that the real economic wildcard
sits elsewhere, with the big uncertainty for business currently being
(32:44):
labor and not trade policy. He notes that for small
and mid sized businesses, the real challenge is figuring out
whether they can hire and retain workers. That means hire
and retain workers, can they afford it because of interest rates?
If they tried to expand labor availability, which is often
linked to immigration policy. Clarity continues getting tougher to plan around.
(33:09):
You know, when you look at the population out there,
when you look at the labor participation rate, there is
a lot of room there. There are people that are
out of the labor market that should be in the
labor market. But because there are certain subsidies, because there
are certain benefits to being out of the labor market,
(33:30):
if some of those were tightened a bit, you might
get people coming back into the labor market. Point a
hand points consumer spending through late November with the again
the healthy four to five December was up four to
five percent, and that's consumer spending. On top of that,
the early season read data now shows it Visas estimating
(33:51):
holiday retail spending was up four point two percent from
November until December. Talking about the job growth and talking
about out other things, he again he talks about the
strength of the American economy, and I think again Margaret
Brennan was probably shocked by that, because, as I've been
saying a long time, the spoon fed rec urgitators in
(34:13):
the mainstream media have been doing everything they can do
to talk down the economy, and in my opinion, manufacturer
recession holiday sales, we'll tell me talking about those coming up.
I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Truck and Network seven hundred W Lwright.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
News Radio seven hundred WLW, and iHeartRadio Station Guaranteed Human
seven hundred WLW, HI.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Heard Radio, Progressive Commercial Insurance, protext truck owners with specialized
coverages for heavy trucks, and sure it com be LW.
I'm Kevin Gordon. I have been looking for these numbers
for a long long time. You know, usually you will
see numbers coming out well a couple two three days,
you know, in between Christmas and New Year, because they
(35:02):
have the visa sales, they have the store sales and
all kinds of other metrics that they can look at
and come up with numbers. Didn't see any of that
last week, and some of that is now starting to
trickle in. And I wonder if because we had such
kind of a strange As I explained last week, it
(35:24):
was kind of a strange situation as far as our
working habits or whatever. With that holiday being on Thursday.
It's like people didn't know what to do with Friday.
Should they take off for one day?
Speaker 4 (35:38):
You know?
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Again, you know, I go I was talking last week
about how you know when you have a holiday like
the fourth of July or something like that Independence Day,
I should say, happens like on a Wednesday. So you
have the Monday and Tuesday, you go to work, and
then you're off on Wednesday, and then you come back Thursday,
and it feels like a second Monday during the week. Well,
with the holiday, with being on a Thursday, people were
(36:00):
taking a half day off on Wednesday, and a lot
of instances took off that Thursday and pretty much took
off that Friday, and then you had that short week
the following week for New Year's and some people were in,
some people were out. I noticed that in our office
here at the station, a lot of people. You know,
if you don't if you don't use it, you lose it.
(36:22):
As far as their vacation time, the final week, there
was a very scattered few people in the office because
a lot of people were getting squeezing in their last
few days of vacation time. So a lot of other
companies and a lot of people I tried to talk
to or call on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday of
last week to try to schedule interviews or to try
to get some information. A lot of them were out
(36:44):
of the office and they said, well, I won't be
back in the office until you know, January of the
fifth or whatever. I'm like, my goodness, nice to have
a type of a business that you can shut down
for a week. Some people that was very shocked at
a couple of businesses that were actually very off during
that period of time. So again, people getting back, and
(37:05):
I'm wondering if the people that put together these numbers
were slow to get them together. But one I did
see from AYBC News, holiday shopping season sets forth the
annual gut check for the US economy, prompting buyers to
splurge in a show of optimism or cut back out
of fear of what the next year holds. In twenty
(37:27):
twenty five, shoppers open their wallets with gusto, though consumers
appeared to favor low cost options and discounts, according to
spending data shared with ABC News. Now, you know I've
seen you know, every year, you'll see these stories where
people are saying that, well, you know, what, what are
you going to be spending on Christmas this year? Kind
of the man on the street thing. And almost every
(37:49):
year I'm pretty shocked by that, because when you hear
the number, you're a little shocked at that. But then
when you sit back and you think about it, well,
let me see, we've got the grandkids, we got the kids,
we've got this, and you start adding that all up
and you go, oh, yeah, that's probably where they came
up with that money. But what you you know, when
you're thinking about it in increments of you know, you
buy this gift, and you buy this gift and buy
(38:10):
this gift, you know pretty much it adds up. But
when somebody says, well, I think I'm going to be
spending X and such dollars. Now, what really floors me
is when they will make a comment like, well, I've
got five people, six people to buy for, and I
think I'm going to spend five hundred dollars each on
each one of them. And it's like, whoa, it's a
little excessive there. And I see some of these things
(38:31):
on YouTube or whatever where people are just you know,
thirty gifts under the Christmas tree for like each kid.
So imagine at that time, I think they had like
a family of three, so that was incredible. But anyway,
holiday shopping, people, sports but again, you know, I guess
maybe because I've always been this way. In the first place,
(38:53):
I'm frugal, I don't I'm not an impulse buyer. I
look at things, I look at the value. I compare.
I say, okay, if this if this item is you know,
X and such a price, and this item over here
is half the price. Is this item that you're getting?
And of course, you know, you go on and you
(39:14):
do customer reviews, and you look at them and you think, okay,
what's the what's the benefit? Which one gets a four
star rating or whatever the rating is, and you look
at it and you say, well, okay, this item here
is that's expensive, is good, but is it twice as
good as this item here? And a lot of times
(39:37):
it fails in comparison with that. And so buying the
thing that is a little is less money. Then freeze
up more money so you can spend on other things.
And it's it's a game. I mean, you know, you
look at the trends and you look at what's in,
what's out, or what's the hottest thing. There was a
(39:58):
story last week that when I was on our sister station,
I was talking about some of the dumbest things people
spend money on. And you know, I mean, I'm not
it's dumb money. But if you can afford it, fine.
But when the latest and greatest new gadgets come out,
some people just have to have that latest iPhone, they
have to have that latest piece of electronic equipment, they
(40:20):
have to have that latest game box or whatever. And
when you look at it from that standpoint, it's like,
you know, is it is it really that much better?
Speaker 6 (40:30):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Does it do that much more? And we start seeing
people what I guess what I'm getting at is value shopping,
taking a step back and saying, you know, do I
want to do this. I've talked about this as far
as our grocery, you know, grocery shopping. And oh, by
the way, the Gordon household did hit that threshold. I
mentioned several times that you know, in the years past,
(40:51):
I've always tried to with our family that my wife
and I have a family of two, although we are
pretty much a family of three because I'm I'm a
big eater. But anyway, so trying to save about one
hundred dollars a month in terms of groceries, looking at
the flyers, the circulars that come out at the beginning
(41:12):
of the week, pick and choose what items is going
to buy. Not cheap stuff, but you know, very tasty stuff.
And I'm surprised that we've been able to save as
much money because we have switched over the last couple
of years to more organic stuff and stuff that doesn't
have all the preservatives in it, and that food is
generally a little bit higher. But in terms of wanting
(41:34):
to save one hundred dollars a month, in terms of
our groceries last month last year, we hit a period
because I added up a couple of the things from
the different retailers that we shop at. We saved over
twenty four hundred dollars in groceries last week simply by
using the coupons, simply by buying the buy one, get
(41:56):
one freeze, buying things like I keep talking about the
call I drink sales normally sells on the shelf, you
just walk in and pick it up about fifteen bucks
a canister, and yet if you get it when it's
on sale, it's about ten bucks. And I've actually got
it for about nine bucks at times. So again, hitting
(42:17):
those things when they're on sale is you can save
a lot of money. And we've talked about I mentioned
this on this program, where people will go in and
it's almost like how fast can you get in and
get out of the grocery store? And coming down the aisle,
it's like grab here, grab there, grab here, grab there.
And you know, if you're that type. And again I've
(42:37):
mentioned several times that if you're looking if you're going
down the grocery, just for fun, just look at the
different grocery. If you're looking at something eye level, look
at the tag and it'll tell you how many cents
per ounce or whatever the container is. Look at the
shelf below that or above that, and see the difference
in price. And it's amazing the difference in price per ounce.
(43:00):
So you're the figure that you're going to be looking
at stuff eye level, and so that's what you're going
to grab first. But if you go down to the
next level, or even a couple of shells down, you'll
find a lot the same item, same a better price. Anyway,
they talk here about value shopping. What people were doing holiday.
Let me see, let's get back in here again. Performance
(43:21):
defied concerns overhanging the economy for months as hiring slow
and inflation ticked higher, seeming the underterred undeterred shoppers flex
their's strength at the close of the year, offering some
reassurance that the wider economy. Consumer spending accounts for about
two thirds of the American economy. Holiday sales climbed three
point nine percent compared to last year, according to MasterCard.
(43:46):
Let's see digital spending on Thanksgiving jumped five percent from
the year earlier, totaling six point four billion and exceeding
exceeding expectations. There's that phrase again, exceeding expectations. According to
Adobe Analytics, on Black Friday, shoppers top the previous day's
pace and spending sword about nine percent compared to twenty
(44:08):
twenty four, adding up to eleven point eight billion dollars.
And then so on. For instance, they and then they
talk about in the resurgence of thrift shops or off
price retailers, how well they did and some of the
other other retailers, et cetera. So interesting retail sales. I'm
(44:28):
sure more will matriculate in through or trickle in through
the next couple of days. But well, folks, that does
it for us. Stay tuned for red Eye Radio. We're
up against the hour here. Stay tuned for red Eye Radio.
I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck in Network. Seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 5 (44:46):
News Traffic and Weather. News Radio seven hundred WLW Cincinnati Morning.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
More on the attack again
This is America's Trucking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Love the able. Thanks for tuning in on this Tuesday morning.
We are now past officially past the Christmas season. The
Christmas season just ended, what about five six minutes ago,
after the end of the Twelfth Night. Again, Christmas season
and the actual Christmas period begins Christmas Day and then
(00:32):
goes for the twelve days after Christmas, not the twelve
days before Christmas. Today is the feast of the Epiphany,
and according to the Bible and according to the legend,
it's today that the Three Wise Men came and recognized
and visited Jesus in the Manger and the Holy Family.
So again, this is the end of the Christmas season
and the Christian religion. It's a very important day. Now
(00:56):
over the weekend, a little bit of excitement down there
in Venezuela. I guess Nicholas Maduro entered the FO stage
as an f A FO talking about the Narco terrorism
down there, and I tell you, I saw the dumbest
(01:16):
interview from what is it, CBS Face the Nation. Margaret
Brennan has this ability to be about as dumb as
a box of rocks. She's talking to Marco Rubio, which
I'm surprised Marco Rubio goes on the show, but you know,
when you know you're going to tear up the host
(01:37):
and that the host can't you know, blow over you,
or you know, confound you or confuse you, or ask
you a question you're not ready for. I guess it's
okay to go on these shows just to embarrass them.
But she's talking to him about this effort, this military
effort that was done and says, I'm confused. There are
(02:04):
two other or three other indicted people down there that
are still in power. Why did you just go after
this one person? And I will say that. At first,
Marco Rubio's face was like, I can't believe that I'm
actually that she's actually asking this question. And he responds
(02:25):
with you're confused. Now, during the Biden administration, they had
put a fifty million dollar bounty on the capture of
Nicholas Maduro, an indicted a drug lord, marco terrorist, head
of a state down there in the country of Venezuela.
(02:46):
So during the Biden administration even they recognized his threat
to the Americans. Now, apparently there are some others. She
put up a charter a picture of somebody who had
a fifteen million dollar bounty on them. So you know,
you know, you don't have to be a mathematician to
understand that the guy that has has the fifty million
(03:07):
bounty on him versus the fifteen million bounty. I would
say the guy with the fifty million is probably a
little bit higher priority. Oh and by the way, the
fact that he was the leader of the country, the
de facto leader. He was the president of the country,
even though sixty European countries and EU and all these
(03:30):
didn't recognize we don't recognize him as the president. Because
there was an election that was supposed to take place
once I was at twenty twenty three and thereabouts, and
this lady her name escapes me, Miccado, Carlos, whatever her name,
She was the one that won the Nobel Peace Prize
(03:53):
for her efforts. Now, she was one of the leading
candidates down there when they were going to do the elections. Well,
Nicholas Maduro said that his government said she was not
allowed to run again. Then she appointed one other person
to go in her stead, and then that person was
(04:17):
pushed aside, and then eventually the candidate that she supported
actually apparently got the majority of the votes, but then
Nicholas Maduro and his thugs said, no way, it's you know,
it wasn't a fair election, and Nicholas Maduro was crowned
or was designated as the winner of the election. So
(04:41):
he's not been recognized by the world down there, and
he's got this fifty million dollar bounty on his head.
And so they go in there and she's going, well,
why didn't you pick up the others? And Marco looks
at her and says, you're confused. We're gonna go in Okay,
(05:03):
And he described this military operation. He said, we landed
helicopters in the middle of the largest military base in Venezuela,
because Nicholas Maduro lived on this army base. Within a
three minute period of time, went to where he was sleeping,
(05:23):
kicked in the door, arrested him, read him his rights,
got him on a helicopter, and with a three minute
period of time, they were gone. And he says, you
expected us to do this five other times in the city,
in the country, with the operations, I mean just in
the attacking the infrastructure and the radar screens and stuff,
(05:46):
so that they couldn't in the communications infrastructure. There was
something like one hundred and fifty aircraft that were involved
in this, not to mention the helicopters that actually went
into the compound. And he said, so you expect us
to be on the ground for like four days, rounding
up all these other people. Look at the howls that
(06:06):
there have been up to this point with what we did.
Can you imagine if we were there for four And
then she goes, but I'm confusing. She even repeated it.
She goes, why didn't you grab these other people? And
it's like, you know, how ignorant can you be? I
mean it's like you go in with she goes in
with this narrative and nothing is going to break her
(06:28):
from I mean, you present them with the facts, give
them with the information, and they still don't understand. I mean,
they got this preconceived idea. But the fact of over
one hundred and fifty different aircraft being around, flying through
the airspace there glanding in the middle of a military compound,
nabbing this guy. Not one US soldier was injured. I
(06:53):
think there was a little bit of damage to one
of the helicopters, but it was a highly successful operation.
Nicholas Maduro is in New York and is going to
be indicted and go on trial. So it is just
absolutely amazing that it was that they didn't understand. Now,
what was funny is that all day Sunday all you
(07:15):
heard was people like Mandani in New York, Zoran Mundani,
the new mayor, the socialist, the communist mayor of New
York condemning the operation. You had China condemning the operation,
Iran condemning the operation, North Korea condemning the operation, and
(07:40):
a wholesalel of democrats. So great company you're in there
when you're siding with Iran, China, North Korea, all enemies
of the of the United States. Well, all these protests
were breaking out, and of course the usual mob of
you know, you know the you know, the Palestinian supporters
(08:02):
that had been protesting and you know, from the river
to the sea. Apparently, since that has resolved and there
has ceasefire over there, they've got nothing to complain about.
I guess the Russia Russia Russia hoax isn't available right now,
So this is the latest thing that they were all
upset about. But Monday morning, I was shocked to see
(08:26):
how many people weren't protesting, weren't criticizing. Different Senate leaders,
different Democratic leaders around the country kind of started tamping down, said, well,
we want to take away and see approach. I guess
they saw all these celebrations in the streets of Caracas, Venezuela,
(08:49):
all the people saying chanting, USA, USA, USA, cheering, just
millions of people in the street applauding the fact that
we went in and took out this brutal dictator who
had ruined their economy. Go back to ten fifteen years ago,
Venezuela was one of the richest countries in the South
(09:11):
America South America area. People were living well. All of
a sudden, Hugo Chavez seizes control, a communist starts doing
the collectivization that Mandani is now doing in New York,
and the economy went to hell in a handbasket. The
grocery stores were empty, just like every other communist country.
(09:33):
The economy failed. The biggest resource that they had there,
their oil, went from was this something like three hundred
million barrels a day down to pretty much zero. And
so the people of there were suffering. And the fact
that now mc nicholas Maduro is out. They are cheering
like crazy Liberation Day, Independence Day for the people of Venezuela.
(09:56):
And I guess the people here saying, well, gee whiz.
If they're so that and we're protesting it, could we
possibly be on the wrong side of this anyway. I'm
Kevin Gordon, americastruck in Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
I need This is the racing reward on America's Drugging
Network on seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
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(10:38):
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Speaker 1 (11:35):
This is the racing report on America's Drugging Network on
seven hundred WLW, Say Dennison a t N.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
This is Jim Hello.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Jim started advertising with iHeartRadio way back in April.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network seven hundred WLW to
take a look at transpired in Venezuela late Saturday night,
earlyday morning capture of Nicholas Maduro and his wife being
brought to New York to stand charges for drug trafficking
and so on. I'm not sure of all the charges
(12:11):
against them, but it will be very interesting to see
how it comes out. Code named Operation Absolute resolved A
Chapter A chapter. In a wider campaign against alleged drug trafficking,
US military unleased a wave of air strikes in Venezuela,
neutralized their air defenses, and sent an eleas elite special forces. Result,
(12:32):
Nicholas Maduau and his wife Cela Flores were swiftly captured
in Caracas and whisked away onto the us uss EWOJIMA,
then onto New York for narco terrorism charge. All prices
took at a wild ride, tanking at first, only to
roar back as Wall Street children cheered a strong dollar,
(12:52):
rising stock market and a booming demand. Expert projections the
zero American casual was a plus. Vice President Delsey Rodriguez
was reportedly installed as the interim leader under Washington's watchful
I they are going to do apparently well, try to
(13:13):
move towards elections as soon as possible. Trump administration wasted
no time promising to rebuild Venezuela's energy infrastructure, inviting US
companies to take the reins. Now we had built their
energy structure down there, We had apparently leases with them,
Chevron and a lot of the major oil companies, and
when Hugo Chavez came in and along with Nicholas Maduro,
(13:38):
they nationalized all of the oil fields and the leases
there and basically seize those leases and kicked the American
companies out and said we got it from here, which
apparently they didn't. So again, the infrastructure in place down
there after twenty years about of miss management and so on,
(14:01):
is going to require a little bit of rebuilding. But
Chevron had gone back down there and with the permission
of the US to start doing some of the drilling
down there or some of the well production down there,
because as you recall, back during the Biden administration, when
he came into office, he started stopped selling the or
(14:21):
stopped allowing the oil leases around the country, which is
by law they were supposed to do. Seized oil production
in the Gulf of Mexico, in Canada and a lot
of the different oil fields around the country. And then
all of a sudden, we started importing more oil from
overseas than we were producing here. And from twenty twenty,
(14:42):
when we were energy independent for the first time since
nineteen forty nine, all of a sudden, we became very
energy dependent. Now coming into office, Biden criticized Saudi Arabia,
saying that they were a pariah nation having to do
with that Asam fascination or killing of Kosoji that Washington
(15:03):
supposed Washington Post reporter. But they were saying that we
weren't going to deal with Saudi Arabia. Then also they
put the clamps on Venezuela for being a communist country
and they weren't going to buy oil from them. Well,
all of a sudden, when you stop producing oil or
cut back production in the United States, guess what you
(15:24):
need production of oil. So then all of a sudden
he goes over on bended knee to Saudi Arabia to
bake for oil. They basically told him to pound sand.
And so then he started going to Venezuela, lifted the
sanctions there and started importing oil from there, and allowed
(15:45):
Chevron to go down there and run some of the operations.
So again, back during the Biden administration, fifty million dollars
bounding on Hugo or on Nicholas Maduro done by the
Biden administration started dealing with Venezuela went already they had
add sanctions on them. So the idea that they're wavering,
and you know, as they talk about the the Trump
(16:07):
administration with the late raising of terrorists, lowering of terraces
and so on, the bumpy ride or the inconsistent foreign policy.
We'll just take a look at the inconsistent foreign policy
with the Biden administration. We're not going to deal with
Saudi Arabia. They're a prior. Oh by the way, we
need to grow. Hey, can we have some oil and
we're going to put sanctions on Nicholas Maduro and Venezuela
(16:28):
and oh, by the way, we need that crude oil
in the United States, so hey, can we have some
of it? So, you know, don't talk to me about
how consistent they are. Energy infrastructure Chevron short lived return.
Back in the Biden administration, company ramped up this output
three hundred million barrel three hundred thousand barrels a day,
(16:49):
pushing Venezuela production back over a million, which they had been.
I believe it's somewhere around three million per year per day.
Rather so again, the United Nation Security Council, we hold
an emergency meeting. While they held an emergency meeting on Monday,
I didn't even bother to hear what they had to say,
because you know, they didn't stop Russia from invading Ukraine,
(17:13):
even though there was a year and a half upswing
or troop movement there indicating that they were going to invade.
They didn't do anything to try to stop that, and
they had advanced notice of that. They've done nothing in
order to end that war there. So now all of
a sudden they're gonna, you know, because you know, they're
just gonna condemn us. I would say, shut up, but
(17:34):
I'm not even gonna bother hearing what they had to say.
So again, upheaval in Venezuela pretty much for the good.
It'll be interesting to see how that happens, how the
free and fair elections come about, and whether or not
that country can get back to some sort of normalcy
as a result of being under the cruel thumb of
(17:58):
Nicholas Maduro and previously Hugo Chavez. So again, it'll be
interesting to see what happens down there. Some interesting comments
again before the new year, you know, we're starting to
see this will come well, it'll come as a surprise
(18:18):
to you. I don't know will it come as anyway.
I've been talking about our economy. I've been talking about
the effects of tariff since Liberation Day on April to second.
I because of going back to my days in school
and seeing economics and learning about tariffs and so on,
(18:39):
realized or said that the time, and some of the
other people that I read and respect said tariffs don't
lead to inflation. There are some temporary items that go up,
but then other items go down, so overall inflation pretty
much stays the same. And the way this was explained
as far as Trump talking about the charts that he
had showing that the amount of terifts they charge on
(19:03):
our products going into these countries versus the terriffts we
charge on their products, and said, We're just going to
do reciprocal tariffs. The tariffs that they charge us, We're
going to charge them, and then if they want to
have those are teriffs reduced on their goods, they can
reduce the tariffs on our goods going in there again
a negotiating tool. So all the people with their you know,
(19:27):
hair on fire talking about the economy is going to
go a tank. It's going to be in a recession,
rampant unemployment, rampant inflation, and so on. I guess they
were kind of what was a channeling the Biden administration,
which is that's exactly what happened during the Biden administration.
So all these naysayers started talking about it. Phil Flynn,
(19:48):
who we talked to on this show regularly, was in
the camp that tariffs don't add to inflation, it's the
out of control government spending. Kevin o'lary from Shark Tank,
Larry Kudlow from Fox Business, and Charles Paine, a lot
of these people on Fox Business News and some of
(20:09):
these other economists around the country actually supported the terroriffs.
Mainstream media spoon fed regurgitators, Democrats all condemned it and
so on. But it's interesting to see what has happened
as a result of that in how people have looked
at that. We had the GDP numbers that were above,
(20:30):
way above expectations, and all of these things that have
surprised all these people all along. There was an interview, well,
the Bank of America CEO had an unexpected view on
the economy, and this was an interview with who the
heck was he talking to? Oh yeah, oh I should
(20:53):
be surprised. In an interview with CBS News Faced the
Nation with Margaret Brannan. Bryant moynihan, the chairman CEO actually
CEO a Bank of America, had some very interesting things
and we'll get into that coming up again. And I'm
sure I didn't see the interview itself. I'm reading some
(21:14):
of the transcripts of that. I'm sure that she was
confused about that as well. I'm Kevin Gordon, america'struck in
Network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
News Traffic and Weather News Radio seven hundred wl W, Cincinnati.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
The Secretary of Defense responds to the Venezuelan attacks with
your twelve thirty re parts. I'm Lee Mawin breaking now
new information out about the Saturday morning attack that also
resulted in the capturing of Nicholas Maduro.
Speaker 6 (21:45):
Secretary Pete Hegseth saying Maduro and his wife unaware of
what was happening until minutes before.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Nicholas Maduro got to meet Great America's very thank you
you got three nights ago.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
He didn't know they were coming three minutes for the
erav fact twice, I think I hear their craft Health.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
Hun those Special Operations Forces coming under heavy gunfire by
maduro security grabbing Maduro and his wife as they headed
for a safe room.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
ABC News Chief Global Affairs correspondent Bartha Raddits.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
Now the latest forecast from the Train Heating and Cooling
Weather Center on news radio seven hundred WLWS.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
Remit to Tuesday morning. We're mostly cloudy morning, low of
forty one degrees. Now for our Tuesday, we'll see the
clouds hanging around. Little breezy in a chance of sprinkles,
but a high of fifty six at night, still cloudy,
a low down to forty and some more significant rain
coming up on Thursday night. From your severe Weather station,
(22:47):
I'm nine first Warning Chief Meteorologist Steve Rawley, News Radio
seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Still nothing on the radar around the tri State. We're
at forty one degrees. Later, Today's shareholder A Fifth Third
Bang Corp. And Kamerica will vote on approving a ten
point nine billion dollar acquisition deal. It's considered the largest
for the Cincinnati company. The deal was initially agreed upon
October fifth, and it's seen as a virtual lock for
each side. The deal would make Fifth Third the ninth
(23:16):
largest US based bank. Regulators still need to approve this deal.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency already said yes,
we're writing on the Federal reserve boards.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Go ahead.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Fifth third CEO Tim Spence told analysts and investors this
deal should be finalized in the first quarter of twenty
twenty six, that ends March thirty. First your next updates
up one. I'mley Mawen. Who's Radio seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
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Here's your trucking forecast for the tri State and the
rest of the country. In the Try State, Overnight mostly claudy,
the low only down to forty cloudy Tuesday, with a
slight chance of morning ra highs in the upper fifties. Wednesday,
mostly cloudy, sky's early gradually clear, becoming sunny, a high
a fifty four. Mostly cloudy Thursday with a chance of
afternoon rain be high year sixty. Nationally out west, heavy
snow being seen over parts of the Cascades, Northern inter
(24:13):
Mountain Region, and the Northern Rockies, as monerate to heavy
snow is seen over the northeast Meanwhile, freezing rain possible
from the upper Mississippi Valley into the northeast.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Seven hundred W lw IM Kevin Gordon. This is America's
struck a network, America's trucking network supports a mission and
Reese across America. You can hear us every truck and
Tuesday at five am and ten am Eastern on Reese
Across America Radio. Available on the iHeartRadio app. Search the
word Rese. Now that's wr eaths for Reese Across America Radio.
(24:49):
And thank you to all our truckers for supporting the
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Talking about this story, Bank of America CEO drops unexpected
view on the economy. Now, all of a sudden, these
people are coming out of the woodwork. And you know
(25:10):
they've been very critical of the administration, very critical or
maybe sitting on the sidelines, not saying anything, not quite
sure where to go. Well again, now all of a sudden,
these people are coming out and it's a surprise to
some of these people. And I'm sure, Margaret Brennan not
only was she confused by Marco Rubio and what the
(25:32):
administration did down in Venezuela. I'm sure back on when
when was this December the twenty sixth, No, no, no,
when was this anyway the Sunday before or whatever. Towards
the end of the year heading into twenty twenty six,
had an interview with the CEO, Brian moynihan, and I'm
sure she was confused by that as well. And it's
(25:56):
no secret tariffs, trade wars, and recession chatter have died
dominated the economic conversation over the past year heading into
twenty twenty six, though Bank of America CEO isn't buying
into the panic welcome aboard. You know. Let's see going
back to January the twentieth, with the economic policy that
(26:19):
the Trump administration was putting into place, then with Liberation
Day on April the second, and one of the people
that was saying back then that hey, by the end
of the year, although these experts, the Federal Reserve and
all these people were saying that the gross domestic product,
which is summation of all the goods and services, we
(26:41):
might hit one point eight percent growth compared to the
two point four percent in the fourth quarter of the
Biden administration, and back then in April, I said that
by the end of the year, our inflation rate would
be now I said at the time would be down
to two percent, which is at two point seven percent.
(27:03):
I also said that the gross domestic product would be
somewhere between four point five and five percent. Now, we
haven't gotten the fourth quarter numbers yet, but we did
get the third quarter numbers, and it was at four
point three percent growth, certainly not one point eight that
was being predicted. So we have been way ahead of
(27:26):
the curve on this, and now late to the game. Brian, jeez,
he's not buying into the panic, the panic that everybody
was buying into back in April. So eight months later,
he's not gonna buy into the panic. Oh my gosh.
So anyway, the predictions of this, and I wonder, and
(27:52):
I've made this comment too that looking at the gross
domestic product of four point three percent, that was smack
dab in the middle of the Schumer shut down, forty
three days of where the military and the air traffic
controllers and many employees of the federal government weren't getting
(28:14):
their paychecks. Even though some of them were still required
to go to work, they weren't getting their paychecks. And
if you're not getting paychecks, chances are you're not out
spending a lot of money. Chances are you're not buying things,
and so that affects the gross domestic product. I'm going
to I'd be curious, and I've not seen anybody talk
(28:34):
about this. I may have to do a little digging
to see what the effects of the Schumer shutdown in
that forty three days was on the GDP. But we'll
certainly see in the fourth quarter what that number is.
But anyway, getting back to this heading into twenty twenty six,
so Bank of America CEO isn't buying into the panic.
In an interview with CBS News Face the Nation with
Margaret Brennan, Brian moynihan made much quieter contrarian argument that
(29:00):
the tariff induced shock englfing the markets last year is
moving toward an end point four perspective. As of December
the twenty sixth, and we talked about this last week.
At the end of the year, Nasdak composite had surged
twenty two point two percent year to date. That is
taking into consideration the twelve percent of thirteen percent dip
(29:23):
as of April the second, so not only did they
make that up, but then surged ahead twenty two point
two percent By the end of the year. S and
P five hundred was up seventeen point nine and the
Dow is up over fourteen point five, contrary to what's
being making the rounds. More and a Hand believes the
terraff situation is starting to settle down. He feels that
(29:45):
once the dust settles around where the rates end up,
landing businesses will adapt swiftly, cost will be cost will
get priced in, and supply chains will adjust. Moreover. More
and Ahan also points to steady consumer spending, ongoing wage expansion,
and the loosening labor market that's far far from broken,
(30:08):
far from broken, not weak. Like lyon Jerry Powell has
been talking about the week week labor market. All these
so called economists talking about the week labor market. And again,
let me remind I love this. Okay. This is a
definition by Lawrence J. Peter. He is a academy from
(30:32):
a professor from up in Canada, and he came up
with the Peter principle. Basically, people rise in business, they
rise to their level of incompetence. And I'm sure anybody's
been involved in corporate America, you see that on a
large scale where you know, it's just amazing that that
people advance. And there's a theory behind that. We won't
(30:52):
get into that now, but he defined an economists. Economist
is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things
he addicted yesterday didn't happen today. So again, economists always
looking in the rearview mirror, trying to explain why stuff
they predicted didn't happen. But they're they're great at telling
you why it didn't happen after it didn't happen. But again,
(31:14):
I love to be well, you know, if they were listening,
America struck a network again, you know, eight months ago,
be so far ahead of the curve, don't even see
your tail lights. Let's see morning hand points city city
consumer spending and the labor market is far from broken.
Even the Federal Reserve, he suggests, matters a lot less
(31:37):
than mister market thinks. Okay, again, the consumers. Now, I
disagree with that to a certain extent, because if you
talk about the Federal Reserve and them involved in interest
rates and how what they do at the federal reserve
level on those interest rates to the individual banks, that
event filters through to our credit cards, into our car loans,
(32:01):
truck loans, business expansion loans, mortgages, and so on. So again,
the focus on the federal reserve because of interest rate cuts,
I think is a lot more important to the people
on the street than it would be to say, uh,
you know, CEO of Bank of America. Again, good comments
he had, but I think he missed the mark a
(32:22):
little bit as far as the Federal Reserve talking about that.
We're too fixated with what the what the Federal Reserve
is doing. Uh, Labor and consumer matters more than consumer.
Labor and consumers matter more than terriffs right now, according
to moynihan. Moinnan is clear that the real economic wildcard
sits elsewhere, with the big uncertainty for business currently being
(32:44):
labor and not trade policy. He notes that for small
and mid sized businesses, the real challenge is figuring out
whether they can hire and retain workers. That means hire
and retain workers, can they afford it because of interest rates?
If they tried to expand labor availability, which is often
linked to immigration policy. Clarity continues getting tougher to plan around.
(33:09):
You know, when you look at the population out there,
when you look at the labor participation rate, there is
a lot of room there. There are people that are
out of the labor market that should be in the
labor market. But because there are certain subsidies, because there
are certain benefits to being out of the labor market,
(33:30):
if some of those were tightened a bit, you might
get people coming back into the labor market. Point a
hand points consumer spending through late November with the again
the healthy four to five December was up four to
five percent, and that's consumer spending. On top of that,
the early season read data now shows it Visas estimating
(33:51):
holiday retail spending was up four point two percent from
November until December. Talking about the job growth and talking
about out other things, he again he talks about the
strength of the American economy, and I think again Margaret
Brennan was probably shocked by that, because, as I've been
saying a long time, the spoon fed rec urgitators in
(34:13):
the mainstream media have been doing everything they can do
to talk down the economy, and in my opinion, manufacturer
recession holiday sales, we'll tell me talking about those coming up.
I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Truck and Network seven hundred W Lwright.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
News Radio seven hundred WLW, and iHeartRadio Station Guaranteed Human
seven hundred WLW, HI.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Heard Radio, Progressive Commercial Insurance, protext truck owners with specialized
coverages for heavy trucks, and sure it com be LW.
I'm Kevin Gordon. I have been looking for these numbers
for a long long time. You know, usually you will
see numbers coming out well a couple two three days,
you know, in between Christmas and New Year, because they
(35:02):
have the visa sales, they have the store sales and
all kinds of other metrics that they can look at
and come up with numbers. Didn't see any of that
last week, and some of that is now starting to
trickle in. And I wonder if because we had such
kind of a strange As I explained last week, it
(35:24):
was kind of a strange situation as far as our
working habits or whatever. With that holiday being on Thursday.
It's like people didn't know what to do with Friday.
Should they take off for one day?
Speaker 4 (35:38):
You know?
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Again, you know, I go I was talking last week
about how you know when you have a holiday like
the fourth of July or something like that Independence Day,
I should say, happens like on a Wednesday. So you
have the Monday and Tuesday, you go to work, and
then you're off on Wednesday, and then you come back Thursday,
and it feels like a second Monday during the week. Well,
with the holiday, with being on a Thursday, people were
(36:00):
taking a half day off on Wednesday, and a lot
of instances took off that Thursday and pretty much took
off that Friday, and then you had that short week
the following week for New Year's and some people were in,
some people were out. I noticed that in our office
here at the station, a lot of people. You know,
if you don't if you don't use it, you lose it.
(36:22):
As far as their vacation time, the final week, there
was a very scattered few people in the office because
a lot of people were getting squeezing in their last
few days of vacation time. So a lot of other
companies and a lot of people I tried to talk
to or call on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday of
last week to try to schedule interviews or to try
to get some information. A lot of them were out
(36:44):
of the office and they said, well, I won't be
back in the office until you know, January of the
fifth or whatever. I'm like, my goodness, nice to have
a type of a business that you can shut down
for a week. Some people that was very shocked at
a couple of businesses that were actually very off during
that period of time. So again, people getting back, and
(37:05):
I'm wondering if the people that put together these numbers
were slow to get them together. But one I did
see from AYBC News, holiday shopping season sets forth the
annual gut check for the US economy, prompting buyers to
splurge in a show of optimism or cut back out
of fear of what the next year holds. In twenty
(37:27):
twenty five, shoppers open their wallets with gusto, though consumers
appeared to favor low cost options and discounts, according to
spending data shared with ABC News. Now, you know I've
seen you know, every year, you'll see these stories where
people are saying that, well, you know, what, what are
you going to be spending on Christmas this year? Kind
of the man on the street thing. And almost every
(37:49):
year I'm pretty shocked by that, because when you hear
the number, you're a little shocked at that. But then
when you sit back and you think about it, well,
let me see, we've got the grandkids, we got the kids,
we've got this, and you start adding that all up
and you go, oh, yeah, that's probably where they came
up with that money. But what you you know, when
you're thinking about it in increments of you know, you
buy this gift, and you buy this gift and buy
(38:10):
this gift, you know pretty much it adds up. But
when somebody says, well, I think I'm going to be
spending X and such dollars. Now, what really floors me
is when they will make a comment like, well, I've
got five people, six people to buy for, and I
think I'm going to spend five hundred dollars each on
each one of them. And it's like, whoa, it's a
little excessive there. And I see some of these things
(38:31):
on YouTube or whatever where people are just you know,
thirty gifts under the Christmas tree for like each kid.
So imagine at that time, I think they had like
a family of three, so that was incredible. But anyway,
holiday shopping, people, sports but again, you know, I guess
maybe because I've always been this way. In the first place,
(38:53):
I'm frugal, I don't I'm not an impulse buyer. I
look at things, I look at the value. I compare.
I say, okay, if this if this item is you know,
X and such a price, and this item over here
is half the price. Is this item that you're getting?
And of course, you know, you go on and you
(39:14):
do customer reviews, and you look at them and you think, okay,
what's the what's the benefit? Which one gets a four
star rating or whatever the rating is, and you look
at it and you say, well, okay, this item here
is that's expensive, is good, but is it twice as
good as this item here? And a lot of times
(39:37):
it fails in comparison with that. And so buying the
thing that is a little is less money. Then freeze
up more money so you can spend on other things.
And it's it's a game. I mean, you know, you
look at the trends and you look at what's in,
what's out, or what's the hottest thing. There was a
(39:58):
story last week that when I was on our sister station,
I was talking about some of the dumbest things people
spend money on. And you know, I mean, I'm not
it's dumb money. But if you can afford it, fine.
But when the latest and greatest new gadgets come out,
some people just have to have that latest iPhone, they
have to have that latest piece of electronic equipment, they
(40:20):
have to have that latest game box or whatever. And
when you look at it from that standpoint, it's like,
you know, is it is it really that much better?
Speaker 6 (40:30):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Does it do that much more? And we start seeing
people what I guess what I'm getting at is value shopping,
taking a step back and saying, you know, do I
want to do this. I've talked about this as far
as our grocery, you know, grocery shopping. And oh, by
the way, the Gordon household did hit that threshold. I
mentioned several times that you know, in the years past,
(40:51):
I've always tried to with our family that my wife
and I have a family of two, although we are
pretty much a family of three because I'm I'm a
big eater. But anyway, so trying to save about one
hundred dollars a month in terms of groceries, looking at
the flyers, the circulars that come out at the beginning
(41:12):
of the week, pick and choose what items is going
to buy. Not cheap stuff, but you know, very tasty stuff.
And I'm surprised that we've been able to save as
much money because we have switched over the last couple
of years to more organic stuff and stuff that doesn't
have all the preservatives in it, and that food is
generally a little bit higher. But in terms of wanting
(41:34):
to save one hundred dollars a month, in terms of
our groceries last month last year, we hit a period
because I added up a couple of the things from
the different retailers that we shop at. We saved over
twenty four hundred dollars in groceries last week simply by
using the coupons, simply by buying the buy one, get
(41:56):
one freeze, buying things like I keep talking about the
call I drink sales normally sells on the shelf, you
just walk in and pick it up about fifteen bucks
a canister, and yet if you get it when it's
on sale, it's about ten bucks. And I've actually got
it for about nine bucks at times. So again, hitting
(42:17):
those things when they're on sale is you can save
a lot of money. And we've talked about I mentioned
this on this program, where people will go in and
it's almost like how fast can you get in and
get out of the grocery store? And coming down the aisle,
it's like grab here, grab there, grab here, grab there.
And you know, if you're that type. And again I've
(42:37):
mentioned several times that if you're looking if you're going
down the grocery, just for fun, just look at the
different grocery. If you're looking at something eye level, look
at the tag and it'll tell you how many cents
per ounce or whatever the container is. Look at the
shelf below that or above that, and see the difference
in price. And it's amazing the difference in price per ounce.
(43:00):
So you're the figure that you're going to be looking
at stuff eye level, and so that's what you're going
to grab first. But if you go down to the
next level, or even a couple of shells down, you'll
find a lot the same item, same a better price. Anyway,
they talk here about value shopping. What people were doing holiday.
Let me see, let's get back in here again. Performance
(43:21):
defied concerns overhanging the economy for months as hiring slow
and inflation ticked higher, seeming the underterred undeterred shoppers flex
their's strength at the close of the year, offering some
reassurance that the wider economy. Consumer spending accounts for about
two thirds of the American economy. Holiday sales climbed three
point nine percent compared to last year, according to MasterCard.
(43:46):
Let's see digital spending on Thanksgiving jumped five percent from
the year earlier, totaling six point four billion and exceeding
exceeding expectations. There's that phrase again, exceeding expectations. According to
Adobe Analytics, on Black Friday, shoppers top the previous day's
pace and spending sword about nine percent compared to twenty
(44:08):
twenty four, adding up to eleven point eight billion dollars.
And then so on. For instance, they and then they
talk about in the resurgence of thrift shops or off
price retailers, how well they did and some of the
other other retailers, et cetera. So interesting retail sales. I'm
(44:28):
sure more will matriculate in through or trickle in through
the next couple of days. But well, folks, that does
it for us. Stay tuned for red Eye Radio. We're
up against the hour here. Stay tuned for red Eye Radio.
I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck in Network. Seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 5 (44:46):
News Traffic and Weather. News Radio seven hundred WLW Cincinnati Morning.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
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