December 11, 2024 • 24 mins
Luigi Mangione’s dark descent from promising student to murder suspect. Baby boomers are aging and most want to stay at home forever. Trump won’t be able to save the struggling U.S beef industry.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listen Saints KPI AM six forty. The bill handles
show on demand on the iheartradiop handle here. It is
a Wednesday day, Wednesday, December eleventh. Fire still going, but
a little bit of good news. Only seven structures.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Don't know how many homes.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Were burnt and were destroyed, and yet it's certainly not
increasing as rapidly as it was, so I guess okay,
I'll call it good news. Coming up a little bit
later on actually, next segment, I'm going to talk about
baby boomers for those of us that are some stats
and what I'm doing. I want to throw a personal story,
(00:39):
being a boomer of my own. But first, this story
is still going strong after yet a week, and that
is the suspect in the murder. Matter of fact, the
assassination of the United Healthcare a CEO has become a story.
(01:02):
I think it's already international, certainly a major national story.
So now we have this guy who was arrested, Luigi Mangioni,
And whenever anything like this happens, the authorities instantly dive
into motive.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
What happened? Were there are any accessories to this? It's
an interesting he's an interesting guy. First of all, he's
been arrested. He was at a McDonald's.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
He was with his face mask he's been wearing the
whole time, although he blew it a couple of times.
He went to a hustle and took off his mask
and flirted with a clerk, And so the authority has
got a pretty good idea of what he looked like.
And it was a man hunt that it was going
to end.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
His arrest.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Too much out there, too many of his photos being
broadcast constantly, and the authorities were just going out of
their minds.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So we knew this was going to happen.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Major, major manhunt. So there he was yesterday in orange
jumpsuit and he's going into a prison in central Pennsylvania
and he is.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Going to be in front of the court and the
court said no bail.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Of course, on the way in, he's in his jumpsuit,
he is screaming about all the injustice that's going on.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
What the hell is he talking about?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Well, it turns out if you look at his background, man,
is he an interesting guy. Comes from a very very
high end or very successful family, went to one of
the premier.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Boys' schools high schools in the.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Country, was valedictorian at that school, then went to the
University of Pennsylvania undergrad and master's degree in computer sciences.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I mean, he was on his.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Way and then all of a sudden it started going
downhill in a big way. He was engaged, he was
doing well, he had friends, and then what's happening. It
looks like that he underwent a back surgery and somehow
the insurance company I'm assuming United Healthcare was involved in
(03:12):
denying him certain claims, and he just spun off into
this anti insurance industry.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
He went off into that world and he I'm not
going to.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Argue he's a conspiracy theories because this isn't conspiracy other
than the insurance companies all deciding they're not going to
pay they're not going to pay claims. But he really
went deep into that world, fighting the insurance companies and
thinking the insurance companies.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Are evil, evil folks who are there not to pay claims.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
They're there simply to collect money and they care not
a whit about the insured. And by the way, there's
a lot to that argument. And I get questions all
the time handle on the law. I'm having all kinds
of problems with my insurance company, and they won't accept this,
and they did not acclaim here. And I always say,
(04:08):
let me tell you the way insurance works in this country.
The insurance even though by law their duty goes to
the insured, in reality, their duty, because we're a business society,
their duty is to their stockholders.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
That's the facto what really happens.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
No matter what the law says, no matter what court cases,
they care about their stockholders the hell of a lot
more than they care about anybody putting.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
In a claim. And he took that and.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Where most of us wouldn't come up with a silent
skun and shoot an executive in the back of the
head in midtown Manhattan. He's gotten a lot of favorable
I won't say press, but if you go on social media,
he is a hero to a lot of people. And
Eh even said that he apologized for what he had
(05:02):
to do. That's at this point, that's some connection. We're
getting some evidence of what he has written, but somebody
had to do it.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
And that's his position. Right now.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
His attorney is saying, you got the wrong guy. He's
fighting extradition because this happened in Manhattan. They picked him
up in Altuna, Pennsylvania and all kinds that. Well, all
these facts are coming out, and I think I may
be premature here. I think is going to point out
to a real simple premise. You have a bright young
(05:35):
man who was injured, insurance company denied all or most
of his claims. He went into this deep world of
hating the insurance company as many of us do, but
just went way deeper than most of us would, and
he ended up assassinating the CEO of United Healthcare.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
And we're going to hear more and more about that.
This thing is not going away.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
It's a story that you know what, I'm not surprised
that it has gotten this big and gone on for
so long. I am just noting that this is and
the kind of topic this is, and it affects so
many people.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I'm talking about the insurance.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Side of it all. Right now, I want to share
a story with you. This is out of USA today and.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
It really hit home, and it has.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
To do with a new report from ARP ARP being
that organization, the American Association of Retired Persons and is
what seal say our bar BARP and that's the mosque.
No never mind, I'm not going to go there and anyway,
America is getting older. I mean, we know that that's.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Not new news.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And a survey was just done by ARP found that, again,
this is not news, but it's just it puts it
in writing. It just gives us more solidity when we're
talking about it. Most people want to stay in their
homes as they grow older, and a lot of people
aren't confident that being able to stay in the home
(07:03):
is a possibility.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And here here's some facts. Today.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
It's very difficult to get a single family home, a
single story home. They're expensive, they take up way too
much of the footprint. So built communities that have been
built for the last twenty thirty years have been second
story homes. I mean, I don't even know of a
single story community that's been built. So here we are,
(07:31):
and I'm a baby boomer and I'm you know, at
some point I'm not.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Gonna be able to walk very well because you know,
I'm going to get old. We're all going to get old.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
And if you live in a second story house, a
two story house, what do you do? Now?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Look at those stairs? Those aren't fun.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
And so people have to move out and that gets
to be a real drag because where do they go.
Are they going to move into another two story house,
Are they going to move in with family? Are they
going to move into some assisted living facility, which eventually
they might. So they're kind of stuck. So let me
(08:08):
tell you what I am doing. As a matter of fact, today.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It is happening.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Let me start with when I built the Persian Palace
and I moved in in the year two thousand and
you've heard this story many times.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I put in an elevator. I built the house around
an elevator.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I literally built an elevator in my house, which is,
by the way, if you're going to build in an elevator,
that's the time to do it. If you're building a house.
Here's a takeaway. I always put it in an elevator.
It's not that expensive and it changes your life completely.
So here I am in my new place, sold the
Persian Palace downside, kids are gone, new chapter in my life, etc.
So we bought a home which is a fair amount smaller.
(08:46):
Today my elevator goes in. I'm putting in my elevator
and it happens to be. The technology today is really neat.
It looks like, what are those star trek transporters, those
round cylinders that are clear that go from the floor
right up through the second story in my cases outside
(09:06):
of a landing. And oh my god, how expensive visit.
It's a lot cheaper than remodeling a bathroom. It's a
lot cheaper than putting in a new kitchen. And that
changes your life. And it's going in today. Why because
I don't want to move when I get old and decrepit,
(09:27):
And Neil, please don't tell me how old and decrepit
I am. Now, I get it, but at least I
can walk up the stairs five years from now. That's
going to happen, and I don't want to move again.
Let's say you hit your mid seventies, right or your
late seventies or early eighties, whenever the hell you decided
that you.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Have to move. It's no longer tenable.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Can you imagine the hassle of moving when you're in
your mid seventies. Tell me how that disrupts your life completely?
And I've moved three or four times. That is the
biggest deal I've ever I've ever encountered. It is horrific,
And so more and more people want to stay in
(10:08):
their homes and realize that frankly, they want to die there.
There aren't that many pieces to go. We're getting older,
and so incomes my elevator today, and I'm going to
video it and put it up. By the way, it's
really neat technology. And as I said, I don't know
if I'm going to share the price with you. I
(10:30):
haven't decided yet where I'm going to share the cost,
but I guarantee you.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Because I don't want to, I'll do it.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Let me think about it, but I guarantee, I guarantee
it is just a hell of a lot cheaper.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Well, Neil, let me ask you this. You redid your kitchen, right, Yeah,
what did it cost you?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
It cost it probably was twenty grand, but I paid
half of it because it was with reborn cabinets.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
So you remodeled your kitchen. I went half of it.
And then no, I don't care, it doesn't matter. I'm
talking about total value. Oh yeah, it's twenty grand. Okay,
that's less money than an elevator. Anybody else in this
crowd remodeled their home.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
What's that? Okay? Fair enough?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, it did substantially more than that. But I've seen
a lottery models and we put it this way.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Phil, I'm with you, though. I think.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I have my aunt uncle, my aunt Donna and uncle Bob.
They still live in the two story house. They're in
their eighties that I remember growing up and going over
there and uh, and they seem to move around just fine.
But if there is I would want to stay in
the house that I you know, raised max in and
(11:50):
all those things if we could. It's a single story,
but I think that's a small expense and as luxurious
as it sounds to have an elevator.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
We're not talking about leves either. You're absolutely white. It's
almost part of you know.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Ski is getting older today. Yeah, well, let me give
you a quick story. Marjorie had fallen down and her
femur had ruptured right, and so she had all the
surgery and the doctor was saying, you have to go
into a rehab facility for several weeks because can't have
you going up and down the stairs. She said, I
(12:24):
have an elevator at home, and the doctor said, good
for you. You can stay home and you don't have
to be in a rehab facility.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
That alone made it, well, not.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Quite worth it, because it was for her, But that
alone was worth it. So anyway, I'm gonna video this
whole thing, my elevator coming in. It's kind of neat too,
and I'm gonna be and this is not a oh
my god, a pompous So I have an elevator, let
me tell you how valuable it can and will be.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
You know what, don't do your kitchen. You still can
live in a kitchen.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
You know your bathroom, you still have the toilet and
it still flushes.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
You know what.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
I had our whole bottom floor kitchen and everything turned
into an elevator, so I can just have the whole
thing moved upstairs.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Very strong. All right.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
I want to go into a little bit of politics here,
and this one's kind of fun unless you like beef.
There is a severe shortage of cattle. We have price
hikes in beef that is incredible. It was in Costco
yesterday with a shaker and I look at the beef
(13:33):
prices and I can actually see.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Them go up by the minute.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Remember the Walmart commercials where the prices would roll back
with that rolodex kind of thing they had and you
could actually see the prices roll back. That's sort of
what's happening with beef. Prices going forward. That's going the
prices are going up, and I'm sitting there saying, really.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Sorry about that. It is is that expensive.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And by the way, these hikes have wiped out billions
of meat processing profits. I'm not talking about just us
getting nailed. The processors are getting nailed. And it's going
to get worse before the next election cycle. And I'm
going to make a political statement for a moment. Okay,
let's go back to the herd is the smallest in
(14:23):
nineteen sixty one, the US herd, and now we have
years of depressed prices, severe droughts, surging costs. What's happening
is farmers are now in the beef industry sending more
females to slaughter, which means there are fewer females to
(14:43):
create cabs and young ones and young meat and young steak.
And now comes the possibility of new tariffs and immigration reform,
and how those two are connected big time. The President
to be is saying we're going to nail virtually every
(15:04):
country that imports the United States some kind of tariff.
We import a fair amount of beef, and the reason
that we are going to nail it we want to
make prices here in the United States.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
We don't want to undercut. We want American workers.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
And therefore, if American workers are employed, it's not the
Canadians who are making the money, but we are making.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
The money, which, by the way, is true to a
great extent.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
If it is too expensive to bring something in and
it's created in the United States, that means money is
invested here, workers are higher here, and it's just a
much better, better environment.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
But here's the problem. A tariff can start next week.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Boom, there's your twenty percent increase right there, starts Monday.
To build a twelve billion dollar computer chip factory in
the middle of Ohio takes three years. Now, granted, great
construction jobs, great daily jobs, very high end, well paying jobs,
(16:14):
tax base.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I mean, it's all.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
It's wonderful, and I truly believe in buying and investing
in America.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
But let me go back to the premise.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Tariffs can start next week, that plant comes online three
years from now. Tariffs can start next week. To rebuild
the herd here in the United States amongst the beef
beef producers is years in the making. We're not going
(16:47):
to see the herds if we went balls to the
wall right now and said, let's go for it. Let's
rebuild our herds years before it comes up to where
it was.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
That's the problem. And what does it all translate to?
Speaker 1 (17:03):
A whole lot more money being charged and being paid
for beef and a dwindling supply.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I'm going to come back and dive.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
A little bit deeper into this and get a little
bit into the weeds and talk about how the promise
of lower prices.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Good luck, guys.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And by the way, I don't necessarily disagree because this
is long term. This is Ronald Reagan when he first
came office, and he said, hey, it's going to get
worse before he gets better. It's not simple. Be prepared, guys.
You know, I'm bringing an economic plan to the table,
and you are going to suffer before it gets better.
(17:43):
And of course it did get better. He was right on.
What we're hearing now is we're not going to get suffer.
We're not going to suffer. It's going to get better
from day one. Really, all right, I want to go
back to what's going to be happening with tariffs that
are coming. I do believe the tariffs are coming. I mean,
(18:06):
the insane number I do believe is not going to
be happening because I think President elect Trump is using
the bombacity as a negotiating tool, which he does brilliantly.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
But there will be some tariffs.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
And the problem is is tariffs make everything more expensive
right off the bat. So in the world of beef,
and beef is so important to us in America, American
ism and the livestock industry have been entwined since forever.
I mean, that's just simply who we are raising cattle,
(18:43):
and the cowboys and all that. Well, it's become more
and more difficult. And even before Trump's return to Washington,
you've got high interest rates, feed prices, farmer debt, bad weather,
shifting consumer preference to cheaper chicken, where everything tastes like chicken,
and now we're finding out even chicken tastes like chickens,
(19:05):
so we're buying more chicken, and so struggling ranchers have
been calling their hiffers way too fast a clip and
they're simply the herds are declining and declining rapidly. It
should be back, we should be increasing herds.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Ain't happening.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
The federal authority said we should be on a good
clip starting in twenty twenty five. It's not even a
start until twenty twenty seven. And so you combine what's
happening with tariffs. As I said earlier, the problem with
tariffs is, well, the good news are terrorists. It makes
things more expensive coming into the country, which means we
(19:46):
have to buy from American producers, which means it makes
more sense for Americans to build factories, infrastructure, hire people.
But teriffs happen immediately, infrastructure happens over years. And what
happens in the middle and no more jobs and we're
not hearing that. We're hearing that jobs that we're going
(20:07):
to have a great economy walking in day one, great prices,
no inflation.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
When we've sort of gotten rid of inflation.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
But you know, tariffs are not going to help prices,
They're going to go the other way.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Also, you have the.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
The issue of illegal immigration, which was one of the
big points that won Trump the presidency. Look to see
who works in those b plants slaughterhouses. Very very few
cardiovascular surgeons do a weekend job slaughtering cattle or cleaning
up those plants. Just not too many, not too many
(20:44):
college grads. It's unskilled labor and guests. Who is in
there for the most part migrants. Now the big producers
want they want people to show their passports, their residencies,
residency papers. But you want to know something, the fraud
that goes on because these poor people have to work
(21:05):
and they'll come up with anything. And just the number
of illegal migrants that work in the industry is just astronomical.
And the argument is, wait a second, if we don't
have them here, who's going to work the plants?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
There are certain jobs that Americans.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Genuinely don't want, genuinely picking strawberries. Working in the food
industry is go for Tyson Foods and start chopping up
chickens eight hours a day and is thirty five degrees
in the plant.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
These are jobs that Americans won't take in. The argument is,
if they pay high enough money, people will take it.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Probably true, you pay thirty bucks an hour, someone's going
to take up the job cutting off chickens heads, Oh,
grant that. But you pay thirty dollars an hour, how
much you think is going to cost you for that chicken.
Matter of fact, you'll be shopping for the chicken head
versus the rest of the chicken because the prices will
(22:04):
be astronomical, So we're looking at some real issues. There
is good news on the tariffront. I mean a lot
of it is not particularly realistic. But the bad news
is that the good news may take years.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
To actually hit.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
So for those of you that are prepared for lower
prices based on promises that were made, we'll talk again
six months from now, and I'll ask you, you know,
how much less are you paying for your beef? How
much less are you paying for products that are made
out of steel? How much less are you paying for
(22:43):
clothes that you buy at Walmart?
Speaker 3 (22:46):
But you know what, isn't it You say this all
the time with self driving cars that when planes we
first had planes in the air, there were crashes. You
have to expect that if our goal is to bring
men factoring in the like back to the United States,
there's gonna be an uncomfortable cost at the beginning for
(23:07):
something that should pay off in the end.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
By the way, did I hear that? Was that part
of the Trump campaign?
Speaker 1 (23:15):
There's going to be an uncomfortable cost and it will
pay off later or was it costs will drop immediately
when I'm president?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Which one did I hear? I?
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Wasn't asking Trump. I was asking you. I'm not responding.
But he is the one that's responsible for the tariffs.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
That is a presidential universal directive that he can throw
on there tomorrow. All I'm saying, and by the way,
I'm not saying I disagree. Long term that may be
the answer. Just don't pretend it's going to happen immediately,
all right, KF I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listen Saints KPI AM six forty. The bill handles
show on demand on the iheartradiop handle here. It is
a Wednesday day, Wednesday, December eleventh. Fire still going, but
a little bit of good news. Only seven structures.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Don't know how many homes.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Were burnt and were destroyed, and yet it's certainly not
increasing as rapidly as it was, so I guess okay,
I'll call it good news. Coming up a little bit
later on actually, next segment, I'm going to talk about
baby boomers for those of us that are some stats
and what I'm doing. I want to throw a personal story,
(00:39):
being a boomer of my own. But first, this story
is still going strong after yet a week, and that
is the suspect in the murder. Matter of fact, the
assassination of the United Healthcare a CEO has become a story.
(01:02):
I think it's already international, certainly a major national story.
So now we have this guy who was arrested, Luigi Mangioni,
And whenever anything like this happens, the authorities instantly dive
into motive.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
What happened? Were there are any accessories to this? It's
an interesting he's an interesting guy. First of all, he's
been arrested. He was at a McDonald's.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
He was with his face mask he's been wearing the
whole time, although he blew it a couple of times.
He went to a hustle and took off his mask
and flirted with a clerk, And so the authority has
got a pretty good idea of what he looked like.
And it was a man hunt that it was going
to end.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
His arrest.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Too much out there, too many of his photos being
broadcast constantly, and the authorities were just going out of
their minds.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
So we knew this was going to happen.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Major, major manhunt. So there he was yesterday in orange
jumpsuit and he's going into a prison in central Pennsylvania
and he is.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Going to be in front of the court and the
court said no bail.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Of course, on the way in, he's in his jumpsuit,
he is screaming about all the injustice that's going on.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
What the hell is he talking about?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Well, it turns out if you look at his background, man,
is he an interesting guy. Comes from a very very
high end or very successful family, went to one of
the premier.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Boys' schools high schools in the.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Country, was valedictorian at that school, then went to the
University of Pennsylvania undergrad and master's degree in computer sciences.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I mean, he was on his.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Way and then all of a sudden it started going
downhill in a big way. He was engaged, he was
doing well, he had friends, and then what's happening. It
looks like that he underwent a back surgery and somehow
the insurance company I'm assuming United Healthcare was involved in
(03:12):
denying him certain claims, and he just spun off into
this anti insurance industry.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
He went off into that world and he I'm not
going to.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Argue he's a conspiracy theories because this isn't conspiracy other
than the insurance companies all deciding they're not going to
pay they're not going to pay claims. But he really
went deep into that world, fighting the insurance companies and
thinking the insurance companies.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Are evil, evil folks who are there not to pay claims.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
They're there simply to collect money and they care not
a whit about the insured. And by the way, there's
a lot to that argument. And I get questions all
the time handle on the law. I'm having all kinds
of problems with my insurance company, and they won't accept this,
and they did not acclaim here. And I always say,
(04:08):
let me tell you the way insurance works in this country.
The insurance even though by law their duty goes to
the insured, in reality, their duty, because we're a business society,
their duty is to their stockholders.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
That's the facto what really happens.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
No matter what the law says, no matter what court cases,
they care about their stockholders the hell of a lot
more than they care about anybody putting.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
In a claim. And he took that and.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Where most of us wouldn't come up with a silent
skun and shoot an executive in the back of the
head in midtown Manhattan. He's gotten a lot of favorable
I won't say press, but if you go on social media,
he is a hero to a lot of people. And
Eh even said that he apologized for what he had
(05:02):
to do. That's at this point, that's some connection. We're
getting some evidence of what he has written, but somebody
had to do it.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
And that's his position. Right now.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
His attorney is saying, you got the wrong guy. He's
fighting extradition because this happened in Manhattan. They picked him
up in Altuna, Pennsylvania and all kinds that. Well, all
these facts are coming out, and I think I may
be premature here. I think is going to point out
to a real simple premise. You have a bright young
(05:35):
man who was injured, insurance company denied all or most
of his claims. He went into this deep world of
hating the insurance company as many of us do, but
just went way deeper than most of us would, and
he ended up assassinating the CEO of United Healthcare.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
And we're going to hear more and more about that.
This thing is not going away.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
It's a story that you know what, I'm not surprised
that it has gotten this big and gone on for
so long. I am just noting that this is and
the kind of topic this is, and it affects so
many people.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I'm talking about the insurance.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Side of it all. Right now, I want to share
a story with you. This is out of USA today and.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
It really hit home, and it has.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
To do with a new report from ARP ARP being
that organization, the American Association of Retired Persons and is
what seal say our bar BARP and that's the mosque.
No never mind, I'm not going to go there and anyway,
America is getting older. I mean, we know that that's.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Not new news.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And a survey was just done by ARP found that, again,
this is not news, but it's just it puts it
in writing. It just gives us more solidity when we're
talking about it. Most people want to stay in their
homes as they grow older, and a lot of people
aren't confident that being able to stay in the home
(07:03):
is a possibility.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
And here here's some facts. Today.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
It's very difficult to get a single family home, a
single story home. They're expensive, they take up way too
much of the footprint. So built communities that have been
built for the last twenty thirty years have been second
story homes. I mean, I don't even know of a
single story community that's been built. So here we are,
(07:31):
and I'm a baby boomer and I'm you know, at
some point I'm not.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Gonna be able to walk very well because you know,
I'm going to get old. We're all going to get old.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
And if you live in a second story house, a
two story house, what do you do? Now?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Look at those stairs? Those aren't fun.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
And so people have to move out and that gets
to be a real drag because where do they go.
Are they going to move into another two story house,
Are they going to move in with family? Are they
going to move into some assisted living facility, which eventually
they might. So they're kind of stuck. So let me
(08:08):
tell you what I am doing. As a matter of fact, today.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It is happening.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Let me start with when I built the Persian Palace
and I moved in in the year two thousand and
you've heard this story many times.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I put in an elevator. I built the house around
an elevator.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I literally built an elevator in my house, which is,
by the way, if you're going to build in an elevator,
that's the time to do it. If you're building a house.
Here's a takeaway. I always put it in an elevator.
It's not that expensive and it changes your life completely.
So here I am in my new place, sold the
Persian Palace downside, kids are gone, new chapter in my life, etc.
So we bought a home which is a fair amount smaller.
(08:46):
Today my elevator goes in. I'm putting in my elevator
and it happens to be. The technology today is really neat.
It looks like, what are those star trek transporters, those
round cylinders that are clear that go from the floor
right up through the second story in my cases outside
(09:06):
of a landing. And oh my god, how expensive visit.
It's a lot cheaper than remodeling a bathroom. It's a
lot cheaper than putting in a new kitchen. And that
changes your life. And it's going in today. Why because
I don't want to move when I get old and decrepit,
(09:27):
And Neil, please don't tell me how old and decrepit
I am. Now, I get it, but at least I
can walk up the stairs five years from now. That's
going to happen, and I don't want to move again.
Let's say you hit your mid seventies, right or your
late seventies or early eighties, whenever the hell you decided
that you.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Have to move. It's no longer tenable.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Can you imagine the hassle of moving when you're in
your mid seventies. Tell me how that disrupts your life completely?
And I've moved three or four times. That is the
biggest deal I've ever I've ever encountered. It is horrific,
And so more and more people want to stay in
(10:08):
their homes and realize that frankly, they want to die there.
There aren't that many pieces to go. We're getting older,
and so incomes my elevator today, and I'm going to
video it and put it up. By the way, it's
really neat technology. And as I said, I don't know
if I'm going to share the price with you. I
(10:30):
haven't decided yet where I'm going to share the cost,
but I guarantee you.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Because I don't want to, I'll do it.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Let me think about it, but I guarantee, I guarantee
it is just a hell of a lot cheaper.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Well, Neil, let me ask you this. You redid your kitchen, right, Yeah,
what did it cost you?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
It cost it probably was twenty grand, but I paid
half of it because it was with reborn cabinets.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
So you remodeled your kitchen. I went half of it.
And then no, I don't care, it doesn't matter. I'm
talking about total value. Oh yeah, it's twenty grand. Okay,
that's less money than an elevator. Anybody else in this
crowd remodeled their home.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
What's that? Okay? Fair enough?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, it did substantially more than that. But I've seen
a lottery models and we put it this way.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Phil, I'm with you, though. I think.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I have my aunt uncle, my aunt Donna and uncle Bob.
They still live in the two story house. They're in
their eighties that I remember growing up and going over
there and uh, and they seem to move around just fine.
But if there is I would want to stay in
the house that I you know, raised max in and
(11:50):
all those things if we could. It's a single story,
but I think that's a small expense and as luxurious
as it sounds to have an elevator.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
We're not talking about leves either. You're absolutely white. It's
almost part of you know.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Ski is getting older today. Yeah, well, let me give
you a quick story. Marjorie had fallen down and her
femur had ruptured right, and so she had all the
surgery and the doctor was saying, you have to go
into a rehab facility for several weeks because can't have
you going up and down the stairs. She said, I
(12:24):
have an elevator at home, and the doctor said, good
for you. You can stay home and you don't have
to be in a rehab facility.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
That alone made it, well, not.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Quite worth it, because it was for her, But that
alone was worth it. So anyway, I'm gonna video this
whole thing, my elevator coming in. It's kind of neat too,
and I'm gonna be and this is not a oh
my god, a pompous So I have an elevator, let
me tell you how valuable it can and will be.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
You know what, don't do your kitchen. You still can
live in a kitchen.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
You know your bathroom, you still have the toilet and
it still flushes.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
You know what.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
I had our whole bottom floor kitchen and everything turned
into an elevator, so I can just have the whole
thing moved upstairs.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Very strong. All right.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
I want to go into a little bit of politics here,
and this one's kind of fun unless you like beef.
There is a severe shortage of cattle. We have price
hikes in beef that is incredible. It was in Costco
yesterday with a shaker and I look at the beef
(13:33):
prices and I can actually see.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Them go up by the minute.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Remember the Walmart commercials where the prices would roll back
with that rolodex kind of thing they had and you
could actually see the prices roll back. That's sort of
what's happening with beef. Prices going forward. That's going the
prices are going up, and I'm sitting there saying, really.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Sorry about that. It is is that expensive.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And by the way, these hikes have wiped out billions
of meat processing profits. I'm not talking about just us
getting nailed. The processors are getting nailed. And it's going
to get worse before the next election cycle. And I'm
going to make a political statement for a moment. Okay,
let's go back to the herd is the smallest in
(14:23):
nineteen sixty one, the US herd, and now we have
years of depressed prices, severe droughts, surging costs. What's happening
is farmers are now in the beef industry sending more
females to slaughter, which means there are fewer females to
(14:43):
create cabs and young ones and young meat and young steak.
And now comes the possibility of new tariffs and immigration reform,
and how those two are connected big time. The President
to be is saying we're going to nail virtually every
(15:04):
country that imports the United States some kind of tariff.
We import a fair amount of beef, and the reason
that we are going to nail it we want to
make prices here in the United States.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
We don't want to undercut. We want American workers.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
And therefore, if American workers are employed, it's not the
Canadians who are making the money, but we are making.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
The money, which, by the way, is true to a
great extent.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
If it is too expensive to bring something in and
it's created in the United States, that means money is
invested here, workers are higher here, and it's just a
much better, better environment.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
But here's the problem. A tariff can start next week.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Boom, there's your twenty percent increase right there, starts Monday.
To build a twelve billion dollar computer chip factory in
the middle of Ohio takes three years. Now, granted, great
construction jobs, great daily jobs, very high end, well paying jobs,
(16:14):
tax base.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I mean, it's all.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
It's wonderful, and I truly believe in buying and investing
in America.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
But let me go back to the premise.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Tariffs can start next week, that plant comes online three
years from now. Tariffs can start next week. To rebuild
the herd here in the United States amongst the beef
beef producers is years in the making. We're not going
(16:47):
to see the herds if we went balls to the
wall right now and said, let's go for it. Let's
rebuild our herds years before it comes up to where
it was.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
That's the problem. And what does it all translate to?
Speaker 1 (17:03):
A whole lot more money being charged and being paid
for beef and a dwindling supply.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I'm going to come back and dive.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
A little bit deeper into this and get a little
bit into the weeds and talk about how the promise
of lower prices.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Good luck, guys.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And by the way, I don't necessarily disagree because this
is long term. This is Ronald Reagan when he first
came office, and he said, hey, it's going to get
worse before he gets better. It's not simple. Be prepared, guys.
You know, I'm bringing an economic plan to the table,
and you are going to suffer before it gets better.
(17:43):
And of course it did get better. He was right on.
What we're hearing now is we're not going to get suffer.
We're not going to suffer. It's going to get better
from day one. Really, all right, I want to go
back to what's going to be happening with tariffs that
are coming. I do believe the tariffs are coming. I mean,
(18:06):
the insane number I do believe is not going to
be happening because I think President elect Trump is using
the bombacity as a negotiating tool, which he does brilliantly.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
But there will be some tariffs.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
And the problem is is tariffs make everything more expensive
right off the bat. So in the world of beef,
and beef is so important to us in America, American
ism and the livestock industry have been entwined since forever.
I mean, that's just simply who we are raising cattle,
(18:43):
and the cowboys and all that. Well, it's become more
and more difficult. And even before Trump's return to Washington,
you've got high interest rates, feed prices, farmer debt, bad weather,
shifting consumer preference to cheaper chicken, where everything tastes like chicken,
and now we're finding out even chicken tastes like chickens,
(19:05):
so we're buying more chicken, and so struggling ranchers have
been calling their hiffers way too fast a clip and
they're simply the herds are declining and declining rapidly. It
should be back, we should be increasing herds.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Ain't happening.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
The federal authority said we should be on a good
clip starting in twenty twenty five. It's not even a
start until twenty twenty seven. And so you combine what's
happening with tariffs. As I said earlier, the problem with
tariffs is, well, the good news are terrorists. It makes
things more expensive coming into the country, which means we
(19:46):
have to buy from American producers, which means it makes
more sense for Americans to build factories, infrastructure, hire people.
But teriffs happen immediately, infrastructure happens over years. And what
happens in the middle and no more jobs and we're
not hearing that. We're hearing that jobs that we're going
(20:07):
to have a great economy walking in day one, great prices,
no inflation.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
When we've sort of gotten rid of inflation.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
But you know, tariffs are not going to help prices,
They're going to go the other way.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Also, you have the.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
The issue of illegal immigration, which was one of the
big points that won Trump the presidency. Look to see
who works in those b plants slaughterhouses. Very very few
cardiovascular surgeons do a weekend job slaughtering cattle or cleaning
up those plants. Just not too many, not too many
(20:44):
college grads. It's unskilled labor and guests. Who is in
there for the most part migrants. Now the big producers
want they want people to show their passports, their residencies,
residency papers. But you want to know something, the fraud
that goes on because these poor people have to work
(21:05):
and they'll come up with anything. And just the number
of illegal migrants that work in the industry is just astronomical.
And the argument is, wait a second, if we don't
have them here, who's going to work the plants?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
There are certain jobs that Americans.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Genuinely don't want, genuinely picking strawberries. Working in the food
industry is go for Tyson Foods and start chopping up
chickens eight hours a day and is thirty five degrees
in the plant.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
These are jobs that Americans won't take in. The argument is,
if they pay high enough money, people will take it.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Probably true, you pay thirty bucks an hour, someone's going
to take up the job cutting off chickens heads, Oh,
grant that. But you pay thirty dollars an hour, how
much you think is going to cost you for that chicken.
Matter of fact, you'll be shopping for the chicken head
versus the rest of the chicken because the prices will
(22:04):
be astronomical, So we're looking at some real issues. There
is good news on the tariffront. I mean a lot
of it is not particularly realistic. But the bad news
is that the good news may take years.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
To actually hit.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
So for those of you that are prepared for lower
prices based on promises that were made, we'll talk again
six months from now, and I'll ask you, you know,
how much less are you paying for your beef? How
much less are you paying for products that are made
out of steel? How much less are you paying for
(22:43):
clothes that you buy at Walmart?
Speaker 3 (22:46):
But you know what, isn't it You say this all
the time with self driving cars that when planes we
first had planes in the air, there were crashes. You
have to expect that if our goal is to bring
men factoring in the like back to the United States,
there's gonna be an uncomfortable cost at the beginning for
(23:07):
something that should pay off in the end.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
By the way, did I hear that? Was that part
of the Trump campaign?
Speaker 1 (23:15):
There's going to be an uncomfortable cost and it will
pay off later or was it costs will drop immediately
when I'm president?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Which one did I hear? I?
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Wasn't asking Trump. I was asking you. I'm not responding.
But he is the one that's responsible for the tariffs.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
That is a presidential universal directive that he can throw
on there tomorrow. All I'm saying, and by the way,
I'm not saying I disagree. Long term that may be
the answer. Just don't pretend it's going to happen immediately,
all right, KF I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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