September 3, 2025 • 38 mins
Chuck Zodda and Paul Lane discuss how Google lost its antitrust case but came away with no penalties and likely stronger. Gen Z is expected to slow down holiday spending. Retirees are told to 'work longer' to make ends meet. But what if jobs disappear. GM had a record month of EV sales. Is a collapse coming? How Hollywood missed its mark this summer. The new Blue Apron makes flexibility the star ingredient.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:42):
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(01:02):
This is the Financial Exchange with Chuck Zada and Paul Lane.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Chuck, Paul and Tucker with you, and if you didn't
like yesterday's sell off, the good news is that two
of the three major indices are rallying today. The Dow
is still off ten percent about fifty points, but the
S and P five hundred is up thirty seven points
about half percent of the Nasdaq is up about one
to quarter percent two hundred and fifty seven points. This
(01:31):
largely on the back of a ruling from a judge
in the Google anti trust case who said, hey, we're
not really gonna throw the book at you, will let
you off with basically a slap on the wrist and
a couple of small changes that you need to make,
nothing too big. So you got equities by and large
(01:53):
moving up. Though I will say in the S and
P five hundred right now, ninety five more stocks down
then up. So it's just Google Apple that are dragging
the index higher more than anything else. When we take
a look at the ten year Treasury uh it is
down five basis points to four point two two six
percent right now. If we take a look at commodity markets,
(02:14):
oil reversing a lot of yesterday's gains, now down a
dollar fifty six barrel on West Texas Intermediate to sixty
four to oh three, and we've got Gold continuing it's
strong run up thirty dollars ten cents an ounce to
a new all time high of thirty six twenty two
and thirty cents. So Gold continuing to break out at
the moment here. But Paul, our top store for this
(02:36):
hour is the ruling in this Google anti trust case.
The case was originally started about a couple of years ago.
The verdict was given I want to say, like six
to nine months ago. But now we have the penalty.
What is going to happen to the Googs?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Really a very minor set I has did to even
call it a stepback for Google here. This is a
very lenient ruling here. The punishment is not nearly as
severe as we had once speculated as to what it
would be. The biggest thing that was in sort of
the air was whether or not they would need to
(03:13):
spin off their Chrome browser. And as a result of
this ruling from Judge Meta, they are not going to
have to do that.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
What they are do love The judge's name in the
case is Meta.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, it's very meta, it is, and they will so
they're not gonna have to spin off their Chrome browser.
That's tremendous news for Google. About fifty percent of the
browser market is controlled by Google Chrome in the US,
so that is really significant to have that at its disposal,
particularly as we transition to more of an AI search world.
(03:48):
To be able to have that browser presence, that's tremendous.
That's one of the reasons that you have Google up
close to nine percent today. What they will have to
do is they're going to have to provide more search
data to its competitors, have to be a little bit
more transparent on just all of the search data that
they accumulate, and try to provide their competitors with better
(04:08):
insight as to how they could replicate the sophistication behind
Google Search. Also, they will have to not be a
They will no longer be able to pay for the
exclusivity for search engines on devices and browsers out there.
So kind of important to note two distinctions here. Where
(04:28):
Google pays Apple twenty billion dollars a year to be
the default searcher on your Safari browser for those iPhone
users out there, they're going to be able to continue
to do that. Another reason why you see Apple stock
is up three percent today because about fifteen or sixteen
percent of Apple's profit comes from just every single year
caching that twenty billion dollar check from Google. They're still
(04:50):
gonna be there. It's a big check. They're still gonna
be able to do that. However, they're not gonna be
able to make agreements with other search engines or browsers
out there to say you, you can only have Google
on this browser. There will have to be much more
of an open structure there. Does that really matter? Is
that really detrimental? No, it's not really that significant. Google
(05:11):
has about ninety percent market share of the search engine
the search engine history, so it's not really a huge
concern there. So all in all, there really is not
too much in here that's negative. This is an overwhelming
positive for Google, and it's something that we should talk about.
Is the emergence of AI and shat Gibt in this
(05:34):
punishment or this ultimate ruling and punishment on the case.
I think it was instrumental in making this what is
a pretty small slap on the risk for Google.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah. So here's here's the thing. So the judge said
a couple of things here. Number one, he said, Look,
there are you know, all kinds of changes that are
taking place, and I'm not sure how those changes will
affect Google's business in the future. Okay, that's not really
what was the question here. But fine, okay, it's a
(06:09):
changing environment. I'm not entirely sure that I buy that,
given that Google still is the dominant search engine. But okay,
let's let's let's go with that. So you find that
Google did abuse its position to act as a monopoly
in a number of different areas, and then basically say
(06:32):
they are going to be restricted from doing things that
they don't currently do. And beyond that, we're not going
to require any major changes because the market may be
changing and it's unclear that Google will benefit from those changes.
What was the point of this, great question? What was
the point of this? And by the way, that the
(06:52):
thing about this, this is now a This is a
trial that has gone through three different administrations. This was
started by the Trump administration in twenty twenty, so that's
what kicked this off. The Biden administration continued this during
the prior the subsequent four years, and now the Trump
(07:14):
administration is looking to kind of finish this this trial
at this point. So you've had three different administrations that
have basically said, yes, we want to continue with this
anti trust case. The judge said, yes, there are problems
here from a monopoly perspective, but didn't really do anything
(07:36):
to change that.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I don't recall from the initial ruling last year what
specifically on the monopoly practices was the criticism the twenty
billion dollar payment to Apple basically being a huge impediment
to other search engines making relevancy on search engines for
mobile phones.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I can't recall off the top of my head, so
I don't want to say like.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
It it's a huge about face from where it was
last year. But I just was trying to recall what
the specifics were into the anti competitive practices. I feel
like the payment was perhaps one of the areas of
contention by camp.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I mean, part of this I'll quote here from the
Wall Street Journal. Meta appears to have been guided partly
by testimony that the Justice Department's proposals would produce collateral damage.
Google gives a cut of advertising revenue to Apple and
others in exchange for keeping its search engine in other
apps at the center of devices and deciding to permit
those payments. Meta wrote that barring them would likely lead
to fewer products and less product innovation from Apple. That's
(08:34):
not your job. Your job's not to protect Apple. Like
I think Tim Cooking can protect himself. He's a big boy,
you know, the guy runs Apple. I think they can
figure out how to deal with it. So I don't know,
as someone who is a big believer that hey, we
(08:55):
could we could do with a lot less regulation if
we had more competition, And as such, I'm kind of
a pretty big proponent of anti trust, I don't know.
I tend to think that this is just like, what
a waste of time this was? Why would anyone pursue
an anti trust action? Again? If this is all that
you get from this after a finding that Google abused
(09:18):
its position to do this, you say, Okay, we're gonna
borrow you from doing things that you don't do. What's
the point? Like why why even work for the FTC?
Or like what what are we even doing here? Why
even go work for the Justice Department to try to
do this? It's really like you look at yourself and
(09:40):
you must just be thinking, like what a waste of
five years in my life. I feel awful for those
people because they got the judge said, yes, Google was wrong.
What's the penalty, Eh, not much. I'm nervous about upsetting
the Apple cart pun intended. I'm sorry. This kind of
sucks in my opinion, Like you imagine you're found in
(10:05):
wasted resources. It's it's one of the biggest tech companies
on the planet. Yeap who's found guilty of using its
market power to illegally generate, you know, profits for itself.
And and what do you do with it? Well, I'm
not really sure that I understand. Let's just don't do
anything bad, guys.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
I just I don't know if I would go that
far without being able to recall. And we'll have to
look over a break as to what specifically were their violations.
I mean, I know that they have tried to box
out competitors. The creation of the Chrome browser was certainly
a way to further their search capabilities. The payment to
Apple is another one to keep their dominance in there.
(10:49):
But in terms of something that is you know, illegal,
obviously I get what that was, what the ruling was.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
But so here here I'm pulling this up and this
is from University of Miami Law Reviews just because it
was the first.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Thing that came up in search.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
No, I don't. I don't use Google Search because, like, honestly,
like it sucks, which is why whatever. That's the other thing,
Like Google search sucks, like search I used freaking duck
duck going it sucks. Like the search engines are not
good because there's so much SEO and AI generated crap
that you can't find what you're looking for. Half the time.
(11:27):
I had to go down like two pages just to
find this. So it says, look, the problem here was
that Google monopolized the search services and text advertising markets
through its exclusive deal arrangements that made Google the default
search engine on many devices and browsers. So it says
that's the problem. Okay, what are we gonna do about it? Nothing?
Keep doing it? Why did we do this? What are
(11:51):
we doing here? Based on the evidence presented, judgment concluded
that's general search services and text advertising constituted mark It's okay,
so those are actual markets that you know should have
competitive behavior. He applied the factors from Brown Shoe Company
versus the United States, finding that the search engines. Different
search engines had unique uses and characteristics, and that although
(12:14):
people could choose whether to search on any search engine. No,
soorts was interchangeable with the comprehensiveness of you know the platform.
And regarding text ads, only ninety two percent of Google's
advertisers use text ads, so they found you know here
the markets and blah blah blah. Market power alone is
not illegal on its own. The DOJ had to prove
(12:34):
that Google's power was maintained willfully, so the DOJ focused
on Google's exclusive arrangements with browser developers, device manufacturers, and
wireless carriers. Judge Meta agreed that the agreements were exclusive
and had anti competitive effects such as market for closures,
thus rendering them illegal. So he said, these agreements are exclusive.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
And those have to be unwound as part of this rule.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
But then in this he says, you can still pay
those you just can't make them exclusive. What does that mean?
What are you paying for then.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
To be the default? What are we doing here?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
This is why this is stupid, Like the judge said,
I don't like that. This is like how this works,
and then says keep doing it, but just change the
name from the Facebook to Facebook, Like that's basically what
this is. So let's take a quick break and when
we come back we'll talk about something else that, uh
(13:34):
doesn't get me quite so excited. How about holiday shopping
trends for this year. Let's talk about that when we return.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
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Speaker 5 (14:20):
Sam for trivia here in the Financial Exchange on our
look at Famous Ben's continues with the only US president
named ben Benjamin Harrison served as US President from eighteen
eighty nine to eighteen ninety three. He was also the
grandson of the US President with the shortest tenure in
the White House, William Henry Harrison. So trivia question today,
(14:45):
What number president was Benjamin Harrison? Once again, what number
President was Benjamin Harrison. Be the fifth person today to
text us at six one seven three six two thirteen
eighty five with the correct answer, and you'll win a
Financial Exchange Show T shirt.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Once again.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
The fifth correct response to text us to the number
six one seven three six two thirteen eighty five will
win that T shirt. See complete contest rules at Financial
Exchange Show dot.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Com, PCENCNBC. Holidays spending, especially by gen Z, is expected
to drop this year, survey says. According to a study
by PwC, holiday spending by US consumers projected to drop
five percent, but gen Z is projecting and spend twenty
three percent less than they did a year ago. I
(15:37):
don't buy it.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
What You don't think they're gonna spend less?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Nope, why not because they haven't so far.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
I haven't so far.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
We haven't seen any drop in consumer spending this year
like you've seen it in certain categories where Hey, travel
spending has gone down, but it's been repurposed elsewhere, or
the other theory there is, Hey, most of the drop
in travel spending is from international travelers who are not
coming to the US this year. There's nothing out there
when you look at like credit card data, banking data,
(16:08):
anything else suggesting that US consumers are pulling back on
their spending right now. And so I guess my question is,
why should I believe them when they say they're going
to change when their behavior does not indicate they've made
this change.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Oh, you're talking about the five percent drop. I was
ready to come back with the gen Z and say,
thirteen to twenty nine year olds, you know what percentage
do they make?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
No?
Speaker 4 (16:30):
No, no, we're spending.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
But yeah, I'm not buying a five percent drop in
holiday spending.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Where the drop would come from is if you're looking
at the demographics. The way they broke it out, just
based on what the survey says is the baby boomers
are supposed to be spending five percent more on average,
and then the other demographics are supposed to be flat.
And then obviously gen Z we highlighted would be a
twenty three percent drop. Those points on the consumer spending
front are fair. I mean, we're really not seeing the
(16:58):
tariff increase pricing that we anticipated at this time. If
you had asked me back in April May, I probably
would have been more likely to believe this.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
But the fact of.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
The matter is whether it's through front loading of inventory
or just retailers holding back increasing prices. You really haven't
seen the substantial uptick in these costs of different items
out there, and I don't think we're gonna see it
over the course of the next month or two as
we kind of get into the holiday season there. So
(17:29):
five percent does seem like a pretty substantial drop. I
could see it flat, but probably not a five percent
to CLI. And this was four thousand US consumers that
were surveyed in this PwC survey between late June.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
And early July.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
And this is another thing. Think about when this survey
was conducted. It was almost three months ago now, right,
think about, you know, whether psychology is different now as
opposed to you know, in June. I'm just not sure
that I buy this in terms of an actual shift
that we're going to see in behavior if it materializes, Okay,
(18:08):
like fine, it was right then, but we haven't seen
anything of this magnitude as far as a shift in
spending behavior. The general trend, by the way, has been
about a four to five percent jump in consumer spending
year over year, about two thirds of which is attributed
to additional you know, pricing, from inflation, and the remaining
(18:32):
third is because of people actually spending more in you know,
a few key areas. So I just don't buy that
this is going to happen. If you want to tell me, hey,
gen Zers are really stressed about money because everything's expensive
for them. They don't have any savings, they don't have
any capital investment, so they're not benefiting from a rising
stock market. Totally by it. But it's tough for me
(18:55):
to get from there to In the aggregate, Americans are
going to spend five percent less on holiday shopping. There's
nothing out there indicating that right now.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Yeah, the gen Z piece they mentioned more focused on
entertainment and experiences versus actually buying goods, and I believe
that the more wallet share is taken up by concerts
and travel rather than buying items. But I can I
can get down with your premise on the five percent
drop being overstated.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Let's take a quick break. When we return. We got
Wall Street Watch in the trivia.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Answer, bringing the latest financial news straight to your radio.
Every day. It's the Financial Exchange on the Financial Exchange
Radio Network. Time Now for Wall Street Watch, a complete
(19:53):
look at what's moving markets so far today right here
on the Financial Exchange Radio.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
Network, Well markets are a mix this territory, with the
tech sector rebounding on the heels of a major win
for alphabet s.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Google.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
Wall Street's also sifting through weaker than expected jilts, which
showed seven point one eight million openings were in July,
marking only the second reading under the seven point two
million level since the end of twenty twenty. Right now,
the Dow is down by about a third of a percent,
SMP five hundreds down three tenths of one percent or
(20:28):
nineteen excuse me, up nineteen points higher. Nasdaq is up
eight tenths of one percent, or one hundred and seventy
two points higher. Russell two thousand is completely flat. Ten
year Treasure reeled down five basis points now at four
point two one nine percent. In crude oil down nearly
three percent now trading a sixty three dollars in eighty
(20:49):
one cents a barrel. Alphabet shares jumping over eight percent
after a federal judge ruled that the tech giant is
allowed to keep its Chrome browser, dodging significant antitrust PAS penalties. However,
Google won't be able to sign exclusive search deals and
also has to share its data according to the ruling.
Apple stock is seeing gains today in reaction to that ruling,
(21:11):
with Apple receiving Google's payments of twenty billion dollars to
keep Google as the default search engine on its devices. Meanwhile,
Macy's beat second quarter earnings expectations after the department store
chain saw its same store sales grow for the first
time since twenty twenty two. That stock up by sixteen percent.
(21:31):
Sticking with retail, where Dollar Tree shares are down about
eight percent despite the discount retailer beating second quarter earnings
in revenue expectations, the company also upped its annual outlook.
C Scaler is down by one percent after the cybersecurity
company b quarterly Street forecasts on the top and bottom
lines and also offered an optimistic guidance for the current quarter.
(21:54):
And after today's closing bell, we'll see earnings from Salesforce.
I'm Tucker sal and that is Wall Street Watch. And
in the previous segment, we asked you the trivia question
what number president was Benjamin Harrison. That'll be the twenty
third Anthony from Sandwich Mass is our winner today. Taking
on a financial exchange show t shirt and we played
(22:15):
trivia every day here on the Financial Exchange. See complete
contest rules at Financial Exchange show dot com.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Probably got a piece in market Watch today. It's titled
Retirees are told to work longer to make ends meet?
But what if jobs disappear? What are we talking about
in this piece?
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Basically, this piece is done by a freelancer who lost
a couple of their writing jobs this year, and then
just mentions the general struggle that some retirees can find
where perhaps financial advisors say that they should work a
little bit longer just to lessen their reliance on their
nest egg for retirement income purposes. But he outlines here
(22:55):
potential pitfalls to that strategy, just basically that hey, perhaps
the jobs aren't there, whether it be from agism or
just a shift in the landscape of these particular careers.
While is highlighted here perhaps the reduction in staff for
some businesses like freelancing and others, it's important to know
(23:17):
that overall as a whole, on the labor market, like
we were talking about in the first hour of the show, Yes,
the labor market is slow, but it hasn't been a
significantly heavy layoff environment At the moment. For the most part,
you have employers trying to retain their employees. But if
you are in that position that unfortunately you are laid off.
In our older worker, there are a couple strategies that
(23:41):
are outlined here reviewing your cash flow and your budget
and priorities, as well as some different ways to make
some smaller side hustles just to help boost your cash flow.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
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is growing, but Tariff's inflation and jobs numbers are making headlines.
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of us, and even AI is changing how markets move.
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Speaker 1 (25:10):
The proceeding was paid for by Armstrong Advisory Group, a
registered investment advisor. Nothing in the ad or in any
Armstrong guide a specific financial, legal, or tax advice. Consult
your own financial, tax, in estate planning advisors before making
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Speaker 2 (25:26):
Ev sales are spiking in the last month or two,
but it's not because Americans suddenly said, hey, we all
want to buy evs. Rather, it's you have the seventy
five hundred dollars tax credit that is expiring as part
of the big beautiful Bill on at the end of September,
and so Americans who may want to purchase evs are
front loading them right now. In the expectation is that
(25:49):
sales for electric vehicles could get pretty dodgy as we
get towards the fourth quarter when those tax credits are
no longer available.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Yeah, the Q three numbers should be huge, like you mentioned,
because that will encapsulate that sunset of the seventy five
hundred dollars credit for the month of September. But even
in the second quarter, we saw that Americans bought three
hundred and ten thousand all electric vehicles, down six percent
from a year earlier. And then of course you have
just the struggles that Tesla has faced just in the
(26:20):
East EV space. In general, there are certainly a lot
of challenges head particularly domestically, because the United States doesn't
benefit from the infusion of these very low cost evs
that China has unleashed on you know, the European Union
as well as in South America and obviously in China too.
(26:42):
There isn't really that cheaper option here domestically.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
No, it's just something where there's been no there's been
no way to get you know, those cheaper evs that
everyone's talked about. I think you know, you talk to
just about any company out there, whether it's Ford, whether
it is Tesla, everyone wants to build you know, the
thirty five thousand dollars EV or below, and they can't
(27:06):
get there. So you know, we'll see I know Ford's
talking about this, this whole project that they're trying to
get off the ground and you know, produce these in
the next couple of years. I just, you know, you
got to prove it, because to this point, we just
haven't seen it. And so there's a lot of skepticism
that I have that you're going to necessarily get there
(27:27):
when it comes to you know, those cheaper evs actually
making landfall in the US at any particular point in time.
I want to talk a little bit about the box office.
There's a piece from the New York Times behind the numbers,
how Hollywood missed its mark this summer, uh, And what
it's talking about is, look, if you look at the
(27:49):
top five movies by domestic revenue for the summer, you've
been kind of on a decline over the last you know,
five normal years. Obviously strip out twenty twenty and twenty
one because of you know, obvious reasons. But twenty nineteen
you saw about two point six billion dollars for the
top five movies at the box office twenty twenty two
was two point four billion. Twenty three came into two
(28:12):
point one billion last year, two point one billion in
this year one point six billions. So the question that
needs to be asked is what gives Is this, you know,
just a trend towards fewer Americans seeing movies or are
the offerings just not great this year and that is
what is driving this?
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Yeah, you don't have. It's funny.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
When we were covering a top Gun back in twenty
twenty two, there was a lot of chatter about the
movie going experience being back, but like you said, with
these numbers recently, that really hasn't been the case, at
least for twenty twenty five. I mean, if you look
at the list of movies here, none of these are
in particularly, you know, a dominant franchise the movie industry
(28:54):
in general. I'm not saying that going to the movies
is done necessarily, but they certainly have beaten to death
the whole superhero Marvel phase of things, so there needs
to be some sort of innovation there. I don't think
necessarily it's gonna happen because these studios aren't gonna change
their bread and butter and profitability behind those big IP properties.
(29:15):
But something needs to change.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Let me ask a question, and it's not my original question.
I can't remember where I saw this for the first
time because it's again it's not my original thought. Is
it possible that the movie format has just kind of
(29:39):
come and gone? And it's not And there's just nothing
new that you can do under the sun?
Speaker 3 (29:43):
There anymore format in terms of just a standard hour
and a half picture And you're saying half hours migration
to you know, shows on Netflix like a six to
seven hour episodes.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Not even necessarily that, but just the call it two
hour format. There's only so many different beats that you
can get into that in order to produce something, and
have we just kind of exhausted most of them to
the point where there's not much new under the sun
and the stuff that we've already seen people just aren't
(30:19):
willing to pay for anymore. And what I'm getting at
here is, look, the medium of storytelling is always changing. Yeah,
Like there's always a new format that is being used.
If you go back, you know, one hundred and fifty years,
the only way that you could tell stories was either
in a book written down where you had to like
actually pay to have something published because there was no
(30:40):
freeway to do it, or it was spoken word or
live music performance like that was the only way that
you could tell stories. Then as you innovated, you saw
these new things popped up, and certainly with movies. Hey,
the twentieth century was the century of movies. Is that
(31:01):
format just a little too restrictive to be able to
do anything new with? And is that why we're kind
of just a little bit tapped out on actually going
to see these things? There's just not that much that's
interesting there, whereas on the streaming side, there are a
bunch of different ways that you can structure things into,
you know, five to fifteen hours of whatever in order
(31:24):
to you know, hit a story a little bit differently
than you would otherwise. I know that we like to
rip on studios for just being like, Oh, all you're
doing is you know, all these sequels and comic books
and this and that. But when you're paying one hundred
million dollars to make the movie and there are only
fourteen movies this year that have done more than one
hundred million in the US, what are you gonna do?
(31:46):
Because like I look at some of the original stuff
that is, you know, out there, and you got to
go down pretty far on the list to get there.
I mean, the only thing that is an original in
the top fourteen movies is Sinners, which is vampires, right, Like,
(32:07):
it's like an original Vampires that the Michael B. Jordan one,
Yeah exactly, it's awesome, Yeah, which I hear is fantastic.
But otherwise it's Minecraft Movie, Leelan Stitch, Jurassic World, Fantastic Four,
How to Train Your Dragon, Captain, America, Mission Impossible, Thunderbolts
F one, Final Destination Mufasa, and then you finally get
to something called dog Man, which you.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
Skipped over weapons there. That's been getting a lot of Oh,
I didn't see that.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Yes, yep. So you've got like three out of fifteen,
So twenty percent of your top movies are originals.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Right, So I don't think to me that the outer
storytelling through movies is dead necessarily. I do agree with
the point that the streaming emergence allows for much more
flexibility on how you want to construct an arc or
a narrative, and it is probably a little confined to
be stuck in our and a half one, but you
(32:57):
still need them to kind of echo appeared in time.
You still need that storytelling from movies, so I still
feel that there's a place for it, but maybe the
traditional studio, like going to the theater experience to get
that storytelling. Sure, there's just other ways to get at it.
Just take a quick break when we come back. We'll
do a little bit of stack Roulettes.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Or not.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Hold on, we're not doing stack roulette. Stupid computer. Okay,
hold on.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
We're back.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
He want us to keep talking. Okay, So, what's the
last time you went to the movie there?
Speaker 4 (33:35):
It's got to be a couple of years for me.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Uh No, I go I get to like one or
two a year.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
I almost went back. I almost went back to see
The Naked Gun.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
I just didn't. Oh, heck out, how does that? How's
that done? Is that for comedy? Really good?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
I went to Uh. I went to Mission Impossible this
year just because I'm a big fan of the franchise.
But the last two were not particularly great?
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Was this the last one? Finally?
Speaker 2 (33:58):
The last one? Supposedly? Did I see anything last year?
Tune in to find out, because we're really I saw
Twisters last year. I like that a lot. That was
that was a nice ride, quick break and then sacrola. Yeah,
that's the one.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
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Speaker 5 (34:54):
The Financial Exchange is a broad partner of the Disabled
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Speaker 2 (35:32):
What do you got for me for stack roulettes? Chuck.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Blue Apron is expanding its offerings here.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
They're still around.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
I just googled.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
I know you hate Google, but I just searched is
blue Apron still in business because, like many others probably here.
I don't know if you guys went through a phase
in your household where we had signed up for blue
Apron for a period of time. But the subscription model
that they run, which they do still run, they are
now expanding to just have one one offer, one off
(36:04):
offerings where you can just get pre made meals, no subscription,
no subscription, you can do it differently than the subscription model,
which I don't have any numbers to back this up,
but I just feel like they probably saw a lot
of attrition with that, whether you go on vacation or
you just kind of slow down on the subscription train
and just have too many meals that go uncooked and
(36:25):
you stop it and probably never get back on it.
They're now trying to break out fully prepared, chef designed
meals that you can just purchase sort of ad hoc
when you need them for some that you can put
together in five minutes with no prep, or you could
do another one that is ready in the oven in
under five minutes just to put together with pre chopped ingredients.
(36:46):
Did you guys ever go through that phase of the subscription?
Speaker 2 (36:49):
We didn't do Blue Apron. We did I think was
Hello Fresh. Oh maybe that was fun. Yeah, And they're fine,
They're expensive, and they do get a little bit repetitive.
And I'm like, I do know, just based on looking
at like the financials of the publicly traded ones that
were out there, no one can figure out how to
(37:09):
make money on this right, which I think is probably
still the case. So I'm just not sure what there
is from a business perspective there. But Okay, if you
want to do it, and you have venture capitalists subsidize
my eating habits, that's fine. It's cool. Starbucks don't waunch
protein packed cold foam lattes later this month.
Speaker 4 (37:30):
It's all about protein, baby.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
I'm not a coffee person. I am a protein person.
I love some like some good meat, but not in
my coffee. And here's the thing, all this health stuff,
no one knows what they're doing like this whole protein kick.
People are like, oh, like you got to get protein
because of this and that. Well, there's kind of like
(37:52):
a big cause and effect problem as to hey, are
people living longer because they ate more protein or is
there something else going on that, like people eat protein
in large numbers.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
Also does this protein coffee thing though, is taking off Starbucks.
This is a good move for Starbucks for some reason.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
People are actually gonna buy these.
Speaker 5 (38:10):
I'm seeing it a lot on social media right now.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Wow, nothing like a Starbucks coffee after workout.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Yeah, give me a steak culata please. Let's let's load
that puppy up. Quick break here for the rest of
the day. We'll see you tomorrow on the Financial Exchange
The Financial Exchange is produced by Money Matters Radio and
is hosted by employees of the Armstrong Advisory Group, a
registered investment advisor. All opinions expressed are solely those of
the hosts, do not reflect the opinions of Armstrong Advisory
or anyone else. Investments can lose money. This program does
not offer any specific financial or investment advice. Please consult
your own financial, tax, and estate planning advisors before making
(00:20):
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Armstrong and Money Matters Radio do not compensate each other
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Exchange with Chuck Zada and Paul Lane, your exclusive look
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(00:42):
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(01:02):
This is the Financial Exchange with Chuck Zada and Paul Lane.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Chuck, Paul and Tucker with you, and if you didn't
like yesterday's sell off, the good news is that two
of the three major indices are rallying today. The Dow
is still off ten percent about fifty points, but the
S and P five hundred is up thirty seven points
about half percent of the Nasdaq is up about one
to quarter percent two hundred and fifty seven points. This
(01:31):
largely on the back of a ruling from a judge
in the Google anti trust case who said, hey, we're
not really gonna throw the book at you, will let
you off with basically a slap on the wrist and
a couple of small changes that you need to make,
nothing too big. So you got equities by and large
(01:53):
moving up. Though I will say in the S and
P five hundred right now, ninety five more stocks down
then up. So it's just Google Apple that are dragging
the index higher more than anything else. When we take
a look at the ten year Treasury uh it is
down five basis points to four point two two six
percent right now. If we take a look at commodity markets,
(02:14):
oil reversing a lot of yesterday's gains, now down a
dollar fifty six barrel on West Texas Intermediate to sixty
four to oh three, and we've got Gold continuing it's
strong run up thirty dollars ten cents an ounce to
a new all time high of thirty six twenty two
and thirty cents. So Gold continuing to break out at
the moment here. But Paul, our top store for this
(02:36):
hour is the ruling in this Google anti trust case.
The case was originally started about a couple of years ago.
The verdict was given I want to say, like six
to nine months ago. But now we have the penalty.
What is going to happen to the Googs?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Really a very minor set I has did to even
call it a stepback for Google here. This is a
very lenient ruling here. The punishment is not nearly as
severe as we had once speculated as to what it
would be. The biggest thing that was in sort of
the air was whether or not they would need to
(03:13):
spin off their Chrome browser. And as a result of
this ruling from Judge Meta, they are not going to
have to do that.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
What they are do love The judge's name in the
case is Meta.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, it's very meta, it is, and they will so
they're not gonna have to spin off their Chrome browser.
That's tremendous news for Google. About fifty percent of the
browser market is controlled by Google Chrome in the US,
so that is really significant to have that at its disposal,
particularly as we transition to more of an AI search world.
(03:48):
To be able to have that browser presence, that's tremendous.
That's one of the reasons that you have Google up
close to nine percent today. What they will have to
do is they're going to have to provide more search
data to its competitors, have to be a little bit
more transparent on just all of the search data that
they accumulate, and try to provide their competitors with better
(04:08):
insight as to how they could replicate the sophistication behind
Google Search. Also, they will have to not be a
They will no longer be able to pay for the
exclusivity for search engines on devices and browsers out there.
So kind of important to note two distinctions here. Where
(04:28):
Google pays Apple twenty billion dollars a year to be
the default searcher on your Safari browser for those iPhone
users out there, they're going to be able to continue
to do that. Another reason why you see Apple stock
is up three percent today because about fifteen or sixteen
percent of Apple's profit comes from just every single year
caching that twenty billion dollar check from Google. They're still
(04:50):
gonna be there. It's a big check. They're still gonna
be able to do that. However, they're not gonna be
able to make agreements with other search engines or browsers
out there to say you, you can only have Google
on this browser. There will have to be much more
of an open structure there. Does that really matter? Is
that really detrimental? No, it's not really that significant. Google
(05:11):
has about ninety percent market share of the search engine
the search engine history, so it's not really a huge
concern there. So all in all, there really is not
too much in here that's negative. This is an overwhelming
positive for Google, and it's something that we should talk about.
Is the emergence of AI and shat Gibt in this
(05:34):
punishment or this ultimate ruling and punishment on the case.
I think it was instrumental in making this what is
a pretty small slap on the risk for Google.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah. So here's here's the thing. So the judge said
a couple of things here. Number one, he said, Look,
there are you know, all kinds of changes that are
taking place, and I'm not sure how those changes will
affect Google's business in the future. Okay, that's not really
what was the question here. But fine, okay, it's a
(06:09):
changing environment. I'm not entirely sure that I buy that,
given that Google still is the dominant search engine. But okay,
let's let's let's go with that. So you find that
Google did abuse its position to act as a monopoly
in a number of different areas, and then basically say
(06:32):
they are going to be restricted from doing things that
they don't currently do. And beyond that, we're not going
to require any major changes because the market may be
changing and it's unclear that Google will benefit from those changes.
What was the point of this, great question? What was
the point of this? And by the way, that the
(06:52):
thing about this, this is now a This is a
trial that has gone through three different administrations. This was
started by the Trump administration in twenty twenty, so that's
what kicked this off. The Biden administration continued this during
the prior the subsequent four years, and now the Trump
(07:14):
administration is looking to kind of finish this this trial
at this point. So you've had three different administrations that
have basically said, yes, we want to continue with this
anti trust case. The judge said, yes, there are problems
here from a monopoly perspective, but didn't really do anything
(07:36):
to change that.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I don't recall from the initial ruling last year what
specifically on the monopoly practices was the criticism the twenty
billion dollar payment to Apple basically being a huge impediment
to other search engines making relevancy on search engines for
mobile phones.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I can't recall off the top of my head, so
I don't want to say like.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
It it's a huge about face from where it was
last year. But I just was trying to recall what
the specifics were into the anti competitive practices. I feel
like the payment was perhaps one of the areas of
contention by camp.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I mean, part of this I'll quote here from the
Wall Street Journal. Meta appears to have been guided partly
by testimony that the Justice Department's proposals would produce collateral damage.
Google gives a cut of advertising revenue to Apple and
others in exchange for keeping its search engine in other
apps at the center of devices and deciding to permit
those payments. Meta wrote that barring them would likely lead
to fewer products and less product innovation from Apple. That's
(08:34):
not your job. Your job's not to protect Apple. Like
I think Tim Cooking can protect himself. He's a big boy,
you know, the guy runs Apple. I think they can
figure out how to deal with it. So I don't know,
as someone who is a big believer that hey, we
(08:55):
could we could do with a lot less regulation if
we had more competition, And as such, I'm kind of
a pretty big proponent of anti trust, I don't know.
I tend to think that this is just like, what
a waste of time this was? Why would anyone pursue
an anti trust action? Again? If this is all that
you get from this after a finding that Google abused
(09:18):
its position to do this, you say, Okay, we're gonna
borrow you from doing things that you don't do. What's
the point? Like why why even work for the FTC?
Or like what what are we even doing here? Why
even go work for the Justice Department to try to
do this? It's really like you look at yourself and
(09:40):
you must just be thinking, like what a waste of
five years in my life. I feel awful for those
people because they got the judge said, yes, Google was wrong.
What's the penalty, Eh, not much. I'm nervous about upsetting
the Apple cart pun intended. I'm sorry. This kind of
sucks in my opinion, Like you imagine you're found in
(10:05):
wasted resources. It's it's one of the biggest tech companies
on the planet. Yeap who's found guilty of using its
market power to illegally generate, you know, profits for itself.
And and what do you do with it? Well, I'm
not really sure that I understand. Let's just don't do
anything bad, guys.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
I just I don't know if I would go that
far without being able to recall. And we'll have to
look over a break as to what specifically were their violations.
I mean, I know that they have tried to box
out competitors. The creation of the Chrome browser was certainly
a way to further their search capabilities. The payment to
Apple is another one to keep their dominance in there.
(10:49):
But in terms of something that is you know, illegal,
obviously I get what that was, what the ruling was.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
But so here here I'm pulling this up and this
is from University of Miami Law Reviews just because it
was the first.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Thing that came up in search.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
No, I don't. I don't use Google Search because, like, honestly,
like it sucks, which is why whatever. That's the other thing,
Like Google search sucks, like search I used freaking duck
duck going it sucks. Like the search engines are not
good because there's so much SEO and AI generated crap
that you can't find what you're looking for. Half the time.
(11:27):
I had to go down like two pages just to
find this. So it says, look, the problem here was
that Google monopolized the search services and text advertising markets
through its exclusive deal arrangements that made Google the default
search engine on many devices and browsers. So it says
that's the problem. Okay, what are we gonna do about it? Nothing?
Keep doing it? Why did we do this? What are
(11:51):
we doing here? Based on the evidence presented, judgment concluded
that's general search services and text advertising constituted mark It's okay,
so those are actual markets that you know should have
competitive behavior. He applied the factors from Brown Shoe Company
versus the United States, finding that the search engines. Different
search engines had unique uses and characteristics, and that although
(12:14):
people could choose whether to search on any search engine. No,
soorts was interchangeable with the comprehensiveness of you know the platform.
And regarding text ads, only ninety two percent of Google's
advertisers use text ads, so they found you know here
the markets and blah blah blah. Market power alone is
not illegal on its own. The DOJ had to prove
(12:34):
that Google's power was maintained willfully, so the DOJ focused
on Google's exclusive arrangements with browser developers, device manufacturers, and
wireless carriers. Judge Meta agreed that the agreements were exclusive
and had anti competitive effects such as market for closures,
thus rendering them illegal. So he said, these agreements are exclusive.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
And those have to be unwound as part of this rule.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
But then in this he says, you can still pay
those you just can't make them exclusive. What does that mean?
What are you paying for then.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
To be the default? What are we doing here?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
This is why this is stupid, Like the judge said,
I don't like that. This is like how this works,
and then says keep doing it, but just change the
name from the Facebook to Facebook, Like that's basically what
this is. So let's take a quick break and when
we come back we'll talk about something else that, uh
(13:34):
doesn't get me quite so excited. How about holiday shopping
trends for this year. Let's talk about that when we return.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
The Financial Exchange is now available every day from eleven
to noon non Serious XMS Business Radio Channel one thirty two.
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(14:03):
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Speaker 5 (14:20):
Sam for trivia here in the Financial Exchange on our
look at Famous Ben's continues with the only US president
named ben Benjamin Harrison served as US President from eighteen
eighty nine to eighteen ninety three. He was also the
grandson of the US President with the shortest tenure in
the White House, William Henry Harrison. So trivia question today,
(14:45):
What number president was Benjamin Harrison? Once again, what number
President was Benjamin Harrison. Be the fifth person today to
text us at six one seven three six two thirteen
eighty five with the correct answer, and you'll win a
Financial Exchange Show T shirt.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Once again.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
The fifth correct response to text us to the number
six one seven three six two thirteen eighty five will
win that T shirt. See complete contest rules at Financial
Exchange Show dot.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Com, PCENCNBC. Holidays spending, especially by gen Z, is expected
to drop this year, survey says. According to a study
by PwC, holiday spending by US consumers projected to drop
five percent, but gen Z is projecting and spend twenty
three percent less than they did a year ago. I
(15:37):
don't buy it.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
What You don't think they're gonna spend less?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Nope, why not because they haven't so far.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
I haven't so far.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
We haven't seen any drop in consumer spending this year
like you've seen it in certain categories where Hey, travel
spending has gone down, but it's been repurposed elsewhere, or
the other theory there is, Hey, most of the drop
in travel spending is from international travelers who are not
coming to the US this year. There's nothing out there
when you look at like credit card data, banking data,
(16:08):
anything else suggesting that US consumers are pulling back on
their spending right now. And so I guess my question is,
why should I believe them when they say they're going
to change when their behavior does not indicate they've made
this change.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Oh, you're talking about the five percent drop. I was
ready to come back with the gen Z and say,
thirteen to twenty nine year olds, you know what percentage
do they make?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
No?
Speaker 4 (16:30):
No, no, we're spending.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
But yeah, I'm not buying a five percent drop in
holiday spending.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Where the drop would come from is if you're looking
at the demographics. The way they broke it out, just
based on what the survey says is the baby boomers
are supposed to be spending five percent more on average,
and then the other demographics are supposed to be flat.
And then obviously gen Z we highlighted would be a
twenty three percent drop. Those points on the consumer spending
front are fair. I mean, we're really not seeing the
(16:58):
tariff increase pricing that we anticipated at this time. If
you had asked me back in April May, I probably
would have been more likely to believe this.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
But the fact of.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
The matter is whether it's through front loading of inventory
or just retailers holding back increasing prices. You really haven't
seen the substantial uptick in these costs of different items
out there, and I don't think we're gonna see it
over the course of the next month or two as
we kind of get into the holiday season there. So
(17:29):
five percent does seem like a pretty substantial drop. I
could see it flat, but probably not a five percent
to CLI. And this was four thousand US consumers that
were surveyed in this PwC survey between late June.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
And early July.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
And this is another thing. Think about when this survey
was conducted. It was almost three months ago now, right,
think about, you know, whether psychology is different now as
opposed to you know, in June. I'm just not sure
that I buy this in terms of an actual shift
that we're going to see in behavior if it materializes, Okay,
(18:08):
like fine, it was right then, but we haven't seen
anything of this magnitude as far as a shift in
spending behavior. The general trend, by the way, has been
about a four to five percent jump in consumer spending
year over year, about two thirds of which is attributed
to additional you know, pricing, from inflation, and the remaining
(18:32):
third is because of people actually spending more in you know,
a few key areas. So I just don't buy that
this is going to happen. If you want to tell me, hey,
gen Zers are really stressed about money because everything's expensive
for them. They don't have any savings, they don't have
any capital investment, so they're not benefiting from a rising
stock market. Totally by it. But it's tough for me
(18:55):
to get from there to In the aggregate, Americans are
going to spend five percent less on holiday shopping. There's
nothing out there indicating that right now.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Yeah, the gen Z piece they mentioned more focused on
entertainment and experiences versus actually buying goods, and I believe
that the more wallet share is taken up by concerts
and travel rather than buying items. But I can I
can get down with your premise on the five percent
drop being overstated.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Let's take a quick break. When we return. We got
Wall Street Watch in the trivia.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Answer, bringing the latest financial news straight to your radio.
Every day. It's the Financial Exchange on the Financial Exchange
Radio Network. Time Now for Wall Street Watch, a complete
(19:53):
look at what's moving markets so far today right here
on the Financial Exchange Radio.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
Network, Well markets are a mix this territory, with the
tech sector rebounding on the heels of a major win
for alphabet s.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Google.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
Wall Street's also sifting through weaker than expected jilts, which
showed seven point one eight million openings were in July,
marking only the second reading under the seven point two
million level since the end of twenty twenty. Right now,
the Dow is down by about a third of a percent,
SMP five hundreds down three tenths of one percent or
(20:28):
nineteen excuse me, up nineteen points higher. Nasdaq is up
eight tenths of one percent, or one hundred and seventy
two points higher. Russell two thousand is completely flat. Ten
year Treasure reeled down five basis points now at four
point two one nine percent. In crude oil down nearly
three percent now trading a sixty three dollars in eighty
(20:49):
one cents a barrel. Alphabet shares jumping over eight percent
after a federal judge ruled that the tech giant is
allowed to keep its Chrome browser, dodging significant antitrust PAS penalties. However,
Google won't be able to sign exclusive search deals and
also has to share its data according to the ruling.
Apple stock is seeing gains today in reaction to that ruling,
(21:11):
with Apple receiving Google's payments of twenty billion dollars to
keep Google as the default search engine on its devices. Meanwhile,
Macy's beat second quarter earnings expectations after the department store
chain saw its same store sales grow for the first
time since twenty twenty two. That stock up by sixteen percent.
(21:31):
Sticking with retail, where Dollar Tree shares are down about
eight percent despite the discount retailer beating second quarter earnings
in revenue expectations, the company also upped its annual outlook.
C Scaler is down by one percent after the cybersecurity
company b quarterly Street forecasts on the top and bottom
lines and also offered an optimistic guidance for the current quarter.
(21:54):
And after today's closing bell, we'll see earnings from Salesforce.
I'm Tucker sal and that is Wall Street Watch. And
in the previous segment, we asked you the trivia question
what number president was Benjamin Harrison. That'll be the twenty
third Anthony from Sandwich Mass is our winner today. Taking
on a financial exchange show t shirt and we played
(22:15):
trivia every day here on the Financial Exchange. See complete
contest rules at Financial Exchange show dot com.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Probably got a piece in market Watch today. It's titled
Retirees are told to work longer to make ends meet?
But what if jobs disappear? What are we talking about
in this piece?
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Basically, this piece is done by a freelancer who lost
a couple of their writing jobs this year, and then
just mentions the general struggle that some retirees can find
where perhaps financial advisors say that they should work a
little bit longer just to lessen their reliance on their
nest egg for retirement income purposes. But he outlines here
(22:55):
potential pitfalls to that strategy, just basically that hey, perhaps
the jobs aren't there, whether it be from agism or
just a shift in the landscape of these particular careers.
While is highlighted here perhaps the reduction in staff for
some businesses like freelancing and others, it's important to know
(23:17):
that overall as a whole, on the labor market, like
we were talking about in the first hour of the show, Yes,
the labor market is slow, but it hasn't been a
significantly heavy layoff environment At the moment. For the most part,
you have employers trying to retain their employees. But if
you are in that position that unfortunately you are laid off.
In our older worker, there are a couple strategies that
(23:41):
are outlined here reviewing your cash flow and your budget
and priorities, as well as some different ways to make
some smaller side hustles just to help boost your cash flow.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
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is growing, but Tariff's inflation and jobs numbers are making headlines.
Interest rates, housing costs and policy changes are impacting all
of us, and even AI is changing how markets move.
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Speaker 1 (25:10):
The proceeding was paid for by Armstrong Advisory Group, a
registered investment advisor. Nothing in the ad or in any
Armstrong guide a specific financial, legal, or tax advice. Consult
your own financial, tax, in estate planning advisors before making
any investment decisions. Armstrong may contact you to offer investment
advisory services.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Ev sales are spiking in the last month or two,
but it's not because Americans suddenly said, hey, we all
want to buy evs. Rather, it's you have the seventy
five hundred dollars tax credit that is expiring as part
of the big beautiful Bill on at the end of September,
and so Americans who may want to purchase evs are
front loading them right now. In the expectation is that
(25:49):
sales for electric vehicles could get pretty dodgy as we
get towards the fourth quarter when those tax credits are
no longer available.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Yeah, the Q three numbers should be huge, like you mentioned,
because that will encapsulate that sunset of the seventy five
hundred dollars credit for the month of September. But even
in the second quarter, we saw that Americans bought three
hundred and ten thousand all electric vehicles, down six percent
from a year earlier. And then of course you have
just the struggles that Tesla has faced just in the
(26:20):
East EV space. In general, there are certainly a lot
of challenges head particularly domestically, because the United States doesn't
benefit from the infusion of these very low cost evs
that China has unleashed on you know, the European Union
as well as in South America and obviously in China too.
(26:42):
There isn't really that cheaper option here domestically.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
No, it's just something where there's been no there's been
no way to get you know, those cheaper evs that
everyone's talked about. I think you know, you talk to
just about any company out there, whether it's Ford, whether
it is Tesla, everyone wants to build you know, the
thirty five thousand dollars EV or below, and they can't
(27:06):
get there. So you know, we'll see I know Ford's
talking about this, this whole project that they're trying to
get off the ground and you know, produce these in
the next couple of years. I just, you know, you
got to prove it, because to this point, we just
haven't seen it. And so there's a lot of skepticism
that I have that you're going to necessarily get there
(27:27):
when it comes to you know, those cheaper evs actually
making landfall in the US at any particular point in time.
I want to talk a little bit about the box office.
There's a piece from the New York Times behind the numbers,
how Hollywood missed its mark this summer, uh, And what
it's talking about is, look, if you look at the
(27:49):
top five movies by domestic revenue for the summer, you've
been kind of on a decline over the last you know,
five normal years. Obviously strip out twenty twenty and twenty
one because of you know, obvious reasons. But twenty nineteen
you saw about two point six billion dollars for the
top five movies at the box office twenty twenty two
was two point four billion. Twenty three came into two
(28:12):
point one billion last year, two point one billion in
this year one point six billions. So the question that
needs to be asked is what gives Is this, you know,
just a trend towards fewer Americans seeing movies or are
the offerings just not great this year and that is
what is driving this?
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Yeah, you don't have. It's funny.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
When we were covering a top Gun back in twenty
twenty two, there was a lot of chatter about the
movie going experience being back, but like you said, with
these numbers recently, that really hasn't been the case, at
least for twenty twenty five. I mean, if you look
at the list of movies here, none of these are
in particularly, you know, a dominant franchise the movie industry
(28:54):
in general. I'm not saying that going to the movies
is done necessarily, but they certainly have beaten to death
the whole superhero Marvel phase of things, so there needs
to be some sort of innovation there. I don't think
necessarily it's gonna happen because these studios aren't gonna change
their bread and butter and profitability behind those big IP properties.
(29:15):
But something needs to change.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Let me ask a question, and it's not my original question.
I can't remember where I saw this for the first
time because it's again it's not my original thought. Is
it possible that the movie format has just kind of
(29:39):
come and gone? And it's not And there's just nothing
new that you can do under the sun?
Speaker 3 (29:43):
There anymore format in terms of just a standard hour
and a half picture And you're saying half hours migration
to you know, shows on Netflix like a six to
seven hour episodes.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Not even necessarily that, but just the call it two
hour format. There's only so many different beats that you
can get into that in order to produce something, and
have we just kind of exhausted most of them to
the point where there's not much new under the sun
and the stuff that we've already seen people just aren't
(30:19):
willing to pay for anymore. And what I'm getting at
here is, look, the medium of storytelling is always changing. Yeah,
Like there's always a new format that is being used.
If you go back, you know, one hundred and fifty years,
the only way that you could tell stories was either
in a book written down where you had to like
actually pay to have something published because there was no
(30:40):
freeway to do it, or it was spoken word or
live music performance like that was the only way that
you could tell stories. Then as you innovated, you saw
these new things popped up, and certainly with movies. Hey,
the twentieth century was the century of movies. Is that
(31:01):
format just a little too restrictive to be able to
do anything new with? And is that why we're kind
of just a little bit tapped out on actually going
to see these things? There's just not that much that's
interesting there, whereas on the streaming side, there are a
bunch of different ways that you can structure things into,
you know, five to fifteen hours of whatever in order
(31:24):
to you know, hit a story a little bit differently
than you would otherwise. I know that we like to
rip on studios for just being like, Oh, all you're
doing is you know, all these sequels and comic books
and this and that. But when you're paying one hundred
million dollars to make the movie and there are only
fourteen movies this year that have done more than one
hundred million in the US, what are you gonna do?
(31:46):
Because like I look at some of the original stuff
that is, you know, out there, and you got to
go down pretty far on the list to get there.
I mean, the only thing that is an original in
the top fourteen movies is Sinners, which is vampires, right, Like,
(32:07):
it's like an original Vampires that the Michael B. Jordan one,
Yeah exactly, it's awesome, Yeah, which I hear is fantastic.
But otherwise it's Minecraft Movie, Leelan Stitch, Jurassic World, Fantastic Four,
How to Train Your Dragon, Captain, America, Mission Impossible, Thunderbolts
F one, Final Destination Mufasa, and then you finally get
to something called dog Man, which you.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
Skipped over weapons there. That's been getting a lot of Oh,
I didn't see that.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Yes, yep. So you've got like three out of fifteen,
So twenty percent of your top movies are originals.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Right, So I don't think to me that the outer
storytelling through movies is dead necessarily. I do agree with
the point that the streaming emergence allows for much more
flexibility on how you want to construct an arc or
a narrative, and it is probably a little confined to
be stuck in our and a half one, but you
(32:57):
still need them to kind of echo appeared in time.
You still need that storytelling from movies, so I still
feel that there's a place for it, but maybe the
traditional studio, like going to the theater experience to get
that storytelling. Sure, there's just other ways to get at it.
Just take a quick break when we come back. We'll
do a little bit of stack Roulettes.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Or not.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Hold on, we're not doing stack roulette. Stupid computer. Okay,
hold on.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
We're back.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
He want us to keep talking. Okay, So, what's the
last time you went to the movie there?
Speaker 4 (33:35):
It's got to be a couple of years for me.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Uh No, I go I get to like one or
two a year.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
I almost went back. I almost went back to see
The Naked Gun.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
I just didn't. Oh, heck out, how does that? How's
that done? Is that for comedy? Really good?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
I went to Uh. I went to Mission Impossible this
year just because I'm a big fan of the franchise.
But the last two were not particularly great?
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Was this the last one? Finally?
Speaker 2 (33:58):
The last one? Supposedly? Did I see anything last year?
Tune in to find out, because we're really I saw
Twisters last year. I like that a lot. That was
that was a nice ride, quick break and then sacrola. Yeah,
that's the one.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
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how it might affect your wallet. That's the Financial Exchange
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(34:38):
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Speaker 5 (34:54):
The Financial Exchange is a broad partner of the Disabled
American Veterans Department of Massachusetts. Register now for this year's
DAV five K on Saturday, November eighth, a Castle Island
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donate today at dav fivek dot Boston. That's dav five
k dot Boston, Paul.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
What do you got for me for stack roulettes? Chuck.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Blue Apron is expanding its offerings here.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
They're still around.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
I just googled.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
I know you hate Google, but I just searched is
blue Apron still in business because, like many others probably here.
I don't know if you guys went through a phase
in your household where we had signed up for blue
Apron for a period of time. But the subscription model
that they run, which they do still run, they are
now expanding to just have one one offer, one off
(36:04):
offerings where you can just get pre made meals, no subscription,
no subscription, you can do it differently than the subscription model,
which I don't have any numbers to back this up,
but I just feel like they probably saw a lot
of attrition with that, whether you go on vacation or
you just kind of slow down on the subscription train
and just have too many meals that go uncooked and
(36:25):
you stop it and probably never get back on it.
They're now trying to break out fully prepared, chef designed
meals that you can just purchase sort of ad hoc
when you need them for some that you can put
together in five minutes with no prep, or you could
do another one that is ready in the oven in
under five minutes just to put together with pre chopped ingredients.
(36:46):
Did you guys ever go through that phase of the subscription?
Speaker 2 (36:49):
We didn't do Blue Apron. We did I think was
Hello Fresh. Oh maybe that was fun. Yeah, And they're fine,
They're expensive, and they do get a little bit repetitive.
And I'm like, I do know, just based on looking
at like the financials of the publicly traded ones that
were out there, no one can figure out how to
(37:09):
make money on this right, which I think is probably
still the case. So I'm just not sure what there
is from a business perspective there. But Okay, if you
want to do it, and you have venture capitalists subsidize
my eating habits, that's fine. It's cool. Starbucks don't waunch
protein packed cold foam lattes later this month.
Speaker 4 (37:30):
It's all about protein, baby.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
I'm not a coffee person. I am a protein person.
I love some like some good meat, but not in
my coffee. And here's the thing, all this health stuff,
no one knows what they're doing like this whole protein kick.
People are like, oh, like you got to get protein
because of this and that. Well, there's kind of like
(37:52):
a big cause and effect problem as to hey, are
people living longer because they ate more protein or is
there something else going on that, like people eat protein
in large numbers.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
Also does this protein coffee thing though, is taking off Starbucks.
This is a good move for Starbucks for some reason.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
People are actually gonna buy these.
Speaker 5 (38:10):
I'm seeing it a lot on social media right now.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Wow, nothing like a Starbucks coffee after workout.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Yeah, give me a steak culata please. Let's let's load
that puppy up. Quick break here for the rest of
the day. We'll see you tomorrow on the Financial Exchange
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