August 27, 2024 • 35 mins
Mike Armstrong and Paul Lane discuss Kamala Harris's recent economic proposals and explain why you should take it with a grain of salt. Tesla's rivals still can't use it superchargers. Will the US Gov't be successful in breaking up Google? Beware overly simple financial advice. Teachers are burning out on the job.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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(01:07):
Face is the Financial Exchange with Mike Armstronge and Paul Lane.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Welcome back to the Financial Exchange stop top story.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
The week continues to be in videos.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Earnings which would be coming out tomorrow evening expected to
show just another quarter, another fourth straight quarter of one
hundred plus percent earnings growth sales growth, and we will
see where that comes in after after our expectations have
been quite high.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Market's not moving a whole lot this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
We've got the Dow, SMP, and NAZAC all in positive
territory for the moment, with the Dow up eleven points,
only a little bit less than I mean, basically flat
for the day. S and P up twelve points, fifth
of percent. Na's back up forty four about a quarter
of a percent. Yield on the ten year treasury still
hovering around that three point eight five range three eight
four six price. Barrel of oil down about one and
(01:59):
a half percent this morning, seventy six dollars thirty one cents,
So keep an eye on that as well. Anything else
catching your mind your eyes and markets?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Paul, no all about Nvidia tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So we're as time goes on continuing to get proposals
from different candidates, and I always say to discount those heavily, right.
I mean, what somebody says on the campaign trail oftentimes
can be nothing more than a rallying cry and not.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Result in a whole lot.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And especially when it comes to tax policy, this is
an area that is historically difficult to navigate and change.
The Biden campaign in two thousand and twenty was focusing
heavily on tax reform. They came out with like nine
or ten distinct policy reforms that they wanted to look
(02:53):
at between the step up and cost basis, estate taxes,
capital gains tax rates, corporate and corporate tax changes. They
wanted to raise the top earnings bracket. They wanted to
put in new tax benefits for certain groups.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Do you know how many of the tax increases went
into placeball None?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Zero of those tax changes. So, again I tend to
discount these, but we do have to talk about them
because it is fundamentally what a candidate is going to
attempt to do if they get the office, regardless of
whether or not they are able to. And so we
seem to be getting more of that from the Harris campaign,
mainly because Trump's you know, Trump's specifics are what we've
already known, right, these are already known objectives that he has.
(03:36):
He wants to raise Harris further. He wants to cut
corporate taxes further and if possible, lock in the Trump
tax cuts from a few years ago at these continued
low rates. So Harris's tax plans starting to take some shape.
One of the biggest items that's been talked about has
been the corporate tax rate, so was as high as
thirty five percent under the Obama administration, widely considered even
(04:01):
by Obama himself to be too high, and he attempted
to pass some legislation to lower it slightly, but nothing
was happening back there on any sort of bipartisan basis.
Was then lowered by the Trump administration down to the
current level of where are we twenty one percent percent
and made permanent unlike the sun setting provisions there. And
(04:23):
you know, I haven't looked any sort of studies that
have actually you know, confirmed any of this, but it
certainly seems to me from you know, from somebody that
was doing this program, you know, years ago. We don't
come across a lot of those stories of oh, look
at that pharmaceutical company, or look at that chip maker
that's done the double Dutch Irish and reclocated their headquarters
(04:45):
to this country to avoid the US corporate tax rate.
I haven't covered one of those stories in years, and
I think that, you know, certainly there has been some
effort multinationally to look at corporate taxes and you know,
level the playing field a bit, but largely I think
it probably has to do with a low US corporate
tax rate that we have seen companies reshoring and bringing
(05:07):
profits back, if not necessarily the jobs that come with that,
there's been less of that tax dodging as we saw previously.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, So the proposed rate that Harris has intended to
assess on corporate taxes would be twenty eight percent, so
an increase from the twenty one percent that we were
mentioning today. And then most notably is really the hit
to the higher income households that they would be assessed,
particularly on this all income type. So if you look now,
the highest marginal tax rate I believe is thirty seven
(05:37):
or thirty nine at the highest thirty nine percent of
the highest.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
No, no, I think it is thirty I believe it
is thirty seven that was part of the Trump TAXI.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Okay, yeah, so thirty seven today this would now be
a case where capital gains, the business income, and wages
would be taxed for those in that highest income bracket
at forty four point six percent. That would be the
highest marginal rate since nineteen eighty six. So that one
is very significant in terms of a proposal. In general,
(06:04):
both sides of the aisle, though, are seem to be
in significant favor of keeping these tax cuts in place
from twenty seventeen. And while I said.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
At least for those under four hundred grounds, correct, Yeah,
that's concentration, to be clear, the bulk.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Of Americans right are falling in that in that camp,
which certainly I'm not someone who wants to pay higher taxes.
Though if you look at just the budget and the
deficit that this country runs at, these policies are not
fiscally responsible on either side, to be clear, Democrat or Republican.
And I guess I'm just really flapping my gums because
(06:44):
nothing's going to change by me saying this, but it's
just something that bothers me every time we cover these
is that there's no effort, and I get it. It
doesn't get votes. It's awful politics to run this way,
but it's just not the fiscal discipline like for leaders
in place. But I'm going to just then, I mean,
here's my tick. Let's let's I'm going to depart from
(07:07):
the judgment on you know, do we need to pay
down the deficit? Do we need to fund our programs
like Social Security and Medicare? I spend enough time talking
about that. Quite honestly, I'm just going to look at
it from a practical standpoint.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Let's assume for a.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Moment that you do, in fact need to raise revenue
in the United States in order to stop running these
massive deficits that we've been doing and fund programs like
Social Security and Medicare. Let's assume we're going to do
that through an income tax. I just find it far
less compelling that you're going to be successful by raising
the taxes. On the corporate side, we've talked about how
(07:41):
easy it is for if you are Microsoft to hey,
I'm going to spend thirty million dollars on lawyers fighting
the irs over the years trying to find ways to
find loopholes get my business headquartered elsewhere, move some employees elsewhere,
and on a business like mine, if I can avoid
another there are eight percent in corporate taxes, that's going
(08:02):
to be you know, a payoff in space that is
an incredible investment. If I Microsoft, that's much tougher to do.
If you are an American tax paying individual. I mean, yes,
you can still hire the lawyers to fight the irs
look for the loopholes. But where are you're gonna go
and face a lower tax rate than living in the
United States. On the corporate side, you might, you know,
(08:23):
you might find something like Ireland. You might find somewhere
else out there that has a lower corporate tax rate.
If you are somebody that's making thirty million dollars a
year and you're looking at thirty seven percent versus forty
two percent as the top marginal income tax bracket, I
would challenge you to find me one other country in
the world that you actually want to live and you know,
(08:45):
feel like you have access to healthcare and quality of
life that's going to tax you less on that income
than the United States. And so just from a practical standpoint,
you know, if you're if you're attempting to find ways
to close budget gaps. I just don't find corporate taxes
to be terribly compelling, and you're also putting the risk
of American jobs on the line, right, So I generally
(09:08):
want lower taxes across the board. But I'm also a
realist that, hey, we seem to have a serious budget
deficit problem, and we can talk about all the spending
cuts and you know, we should talk about entitlement reform
and all these sorts of things. But unless there's going
to be some willingness to look at Social Security, Medicare, medicaid,
(09:28):
military spending, and I guess education, unless there's some willingness
to cut on those five areas, then what are your
other options?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
But here's here's the problem that I have with that, Mike,
is that, Okay, let's say you do go and you
hit people who are making over four hundred grand and
they're up to forty four point six on the highest.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
That's a big jump, by the way, I mean, that's
a that's a seven plus percent jump for where we are.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Let's say you get it done, then you're going to
extend the tax cuts at the same point in time.
The impacts of those are going to offset one another too,
where there is no significant benefit that you're driving by
doing it. You're just furthering the deficit because even the
increased revenue that you've picked up from those highest marginal
income tax payers is being offset by the fact that
(10:13):
the rest of us, which is nice, don't get me wrong,
are still going to continue to pay at those lower
rates that have been in since twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
So I haven't seen any of the math done actually
on how much you know you raised by going up
on the thirty seven verses, But is that is that
basically even it out?
Speaker 4 (10:27):
What was outlined here is that it would be five
million of save five trillion of savings for four trillion, sorry,
five trillion of revenue for four trillion in cuts is
what they had Harris's plan had been laid out here. Again,
these are done by budget offices, so it was not,
I guess not as dramatic as an impact.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Just doesn't get the job done for right right, Like again,
everyone says they're serious, but serious about you know, actually
that's that's a lie. Nobody says they're serious about fiscal discipline.
It's just us that talk about it all the time.
And you know this, this would be significant tax change right,
locking in these lower brackets and raising the higher income
tax brackets. I doubt anything like that actually happens. And
(11:09):
even that's not going to raise the revenue much. It's
going to be a drop in the bucket. And so
the answer is, if we're going to actually ever take
this seriously, it's going to require sacrifice, require really painful sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
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Speaker 2 (11:42):
Tesla I think may have missed the boat on an
opportunity here a bit. So if you recall, a little
over a year ago, Tesla announced that they're going to
make plans to allow forward, Rivian and some other car
brands that were rolling out their own electric vehicles to
access the network of superchargers that Tesla has, which is
(12:02):
by far the most robust network in the United States
of charging infrastructure. It's now been over twelve months and
still hasn't happened. And I say they may have missed
the boat here only because I feel like they could
have locked in a hell of a deal with the
likes of Ford, who are willing to spend like crazy
on their EV unit over the last few years and
are now scaling it way back. Nonetheless, they posted on
(12:24):
x on Friday that the charging unit has stepped up
production of a crucial piece of hardware that would be
needed to have adapters for these vehicles, which again, it
can't have taken thirteen months to adapt a piece of
hardware to be able to charge your forward at a
Tesla supercharger, would be my guess. But nonetheless, it seems
(12:47):
like this is still a plan of theirs, and like
I said, I just I don't know if it's as
compelling a case this stage. In one sense, you know,
good for Tesla that Ford is backing out of their
EV plan. It makes them still the dominant EV seller
out there. But on the other hand, you know, how
are you going to monetize this network if nobody else's
(13:08):
is pushing them.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
It's a hard decision to make. You have to toggle
between Mike allowing monetization for the charging network that you
have in place, but also you're allowing new entrants to
utilize your charging networks to potentially lure market share away
from the cars that you sell.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, I gotta tell you, I'm not sure it's a
good idea, right, Like, if you're a Tesla driver and
you show up to a charging network and it's filled
with a bunch of forwards.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I'm gonna be pissed.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Right right, I'm in an exclusive I am paying for
an exclusive club.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
I don't own a Tesla, by the way.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I'm just putting myself in a Tesla vehicle owner's shoes
for a minute here, And you know I'm part of
this exclusive group. I'm an early adapter to EV's and
now you know you're run of the mill. Nissan Leaf
gets to charge at the same place that I do. Like,
this is what I'm paying for. This is why I
bought a sixty thousand dollars electric vehicle. I know they're
a lot cheaper now, but I'm not sure you know
(14:06):
you're you are deteriorating the quality of the Tesla club
if you start allowing the riff raff into your charging station.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
I had looked at a stock it's called chargepund Holdings
that I thought would be a beneficiarya of just they
develop electric vehicle charging stations out there, and then Tesla
came out with this news. I'm like, oh my gosh,
this is just the end. Yeah, and they are down
eighty one percent over the last five years. So it's
a situation where I thought there would be another independent
(14:37):
player on the market in terms of electric vehicle infrastructure,
and Tesla muddy those waters. Who knows really where it
goes from here. It seems like there's been all sorts
of turnover from an employee perspective on Tesla's supercharger network.
Musk has fired five hundred people responsible with the network,
so there's been a lot of turmoil going on behind
(14:58):
the scenes with this, and it's it's a tough one.
It would be best for the EV market in general
if that's what you're looking to do with Tesla, but
you're not. You're trying to sell your own car.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
And I do recognize that like eighty ninety percent of
charging just occurs at home these days because most people
are just using their car for a commuter. But I
wouldn't buy an electric vehicle if it weren't to Tesla today, right,
If I want to go anywhere beyond the range of
that thing. I have zero confidence that I would be
able to find charging infrastructure somewhere to be able to
do it like Tesla's everywhere.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
That's the competitive advantage.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, Tesla's got it. Nobody else does. And I see
I saw a Rivian parking in the parking lot today.
You know, I've seen other evs, but I just I
struggle with the idea of that purchase. Knowing that or
hoping that someday I have access to the Tesla infrastructure,
but in the meantime, knowing that I can't really leave
the area around my home piece of New York Times
(15:56):
breaking up Google isn't nearly enough. So if you missed it,
there's a huge anti trust case that was one against
Google specifically in their search algorithm, naming them monopoly. And
now we're heading to the stage where the judge will
determine what exactly the ramifications and punishments are, and breakup
(16:18):
could be on the table there. We don't really know.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
What's the crux of this peace pot.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I mean, what other direction other than fines and breakups
are there for Google at this stage.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
That's the difficult part is it's hard to discern what
an appropriate punishment would be for a company at Google
size and scale. A fine, as we know, with their
deep pockets, isn't really going to do a whole lot.
But then when you look at it from the other
perspective of, gee, how should we break this thing up?
I don't know if there's really a clear answer on
(16:51):
that side either, particularly because they're just so entrenched in
the overall search engine market. I know Chuck had some
idea is out there, but it's just something that is
easier said than done.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Right, I mean, you know, one of the common ones
would be, hey, Google, you're not allowed to keep paying
Apple billions of dollars to be the default search engine. Right,
But they did that in Europe, and you know what happened.
Everyone still chose Google as the default search engine when
they were asked, like, it was the same results with
a net loss to Apple. So you know, I don't
(17:24):
know that that does anything. They make the case that hey,
Google has all the data that you would need to
develop a competitor to Google in the search space, So
what do you do force them to release their data
to the public. I don't think that's going to happen either.
So it's going to be a tricky one and I'm
sure it'll be fine. I'm sure it'll be more of
a slap on the wrist, would be my guest. But
only time will tell. Take quick break and then we
(17:47):
come back. C NBC has a piece seventy nine percent
of Americans who make one move won't run out of money.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
We'll cover that when we come back.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
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Speaker 1 (18:19):
In full shows. This is your home for the latest
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Speaker 2 (18:29):
This market really isn't sure what to do ahead of
these earnings. We've now flipped negative on all three major indices,
now off a quarter percent leading the way down. So
we'll continue to update you on on market moves, but
no big swings in either direction, just a lot of
uncertainty about what earnings are going to show tomorrow. Paul
Good News. I think we can hang it up and retire.
(18:49):
There's no more work for us to do because morning
Star has figured it all out. If morning Star finds
from I don't know how they do this study or
what they assume, but morning Star found that in seventy
nine percent of Americans who have at least twenty years
of future participation in a defined contribution plan such as
(19:11):
a four oh one K or four threould be will
have enough money to sustain their expenses in retirement. And
that's without knowing how much you spend in retirement. So
I'm not sure how much they came up with this one,
but there you have it. Hanging up, Paul, We're good.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
The pieces that they here, Mike. I know, obviously you're
giving them a hard time. They just talk about this
idea that obviously the longer that you work, the better off,
the likelihood of success goes up. But really what we
do on an everyday basis is not so much just hey,
if you work till age seventy five, you'll be good.
That's not what anyone wants to hear when you're going
(19:46):
through a career. But I would emphasize that point where I.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Can till you're dead and you'll never run out of money.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
That I would emphasize that point of so many people
that we meet with do not have a good understanding
of their and when you're modeling out from a planning
perspective in retirement, that is really at the core of
what you need to work on. It's many different elements,
but that is one that is so critical and where
planning can actually be a really helpful exercise to get
(20:15):
an understanding of what you spend, because so often we
meet with folks who shoot way under in terms of
what they spend versus what the actual numbers would bear.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, one, we shouldn't all applaud the
you know, morning Star study here. One future twenty years
of retirement savings is a long time to be working
and funding your retirement. Two, even with that, they find
that one fifth of Americans won't have enough money to
fund their retirement here, So that's a big piece too.
But yeah, I think Paul like one of the most
(20:47):
beneficial things that we can do as financial advisors. And
you know, quite maybe it's more beneficial to me personally
because it's the part of the job that I enjoy
the most but sitting down with folks and you know,
developing that retirement plan and then going back to them
and saying, well, I know you wanted to work until
age seventy because that was you know, based on the
(21:07):
CNBC story where you figured you could retire. But if
we do these six things, then we think we might
be able to pull it off at sixty five or
sixty two, or we can't pull it off until seventy five.
But like, those are the less fun conversations. But you know,
if if we can, you know, occasionally find somebody and
say no, like yeah, I know you've been busting your
(21:29):
back here. You can actually retire tomorrow, and you know,
if you follow these set of rules, we think you'll
be okay. And we have those conversations frequently, and the
fact of the matter is if you don't put in
the legwork, you just don't know, and not knowing to me,
I know, getting a negative answer is really scary, right, like,
(21:50):
oh wow, I think I might be undersaving for retirement
and I'd rather just not know. I'd get that, I
get that, we all get the tendency to want to
push off.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Those tough decisions and questions.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
But for me having an answer that I can then
put into place a plan to address problems, no better
feeling once you actually get past that hump of I
need to do something. And so my point here would be,
if you're unsure of your number, if you're unsure of
how much you're going to need to save to get
(22:23):
to retirement and feel comfortable, or how long you're going
to need to work, or how all these benefits are
going to work for you when you do retire, please
work with a financial advisor and give the folks at
Armstrong Advisory Group a call to help guide you through
that process. We have advisors that meet with clients day
in and day out, and this is a key focus
area of what we do on a day to day basis,
(22:43):
and we have the tools to guide you through the
process and come up with an answer that's not just
pulled out of a study that looks at the average person,
but actually is customized to you. We have offices located
throughout New England, from as far north as Portland, Maine,
as far south is near Hartford, New Haven, Connecticut, Wallingford, Connecticut,
(23:05):
and we will sit down with you in person to
really go through those plans and address the concerns that
you have about retirement. Give us a call at eight
hundred three nine three four zero zero one. Again that's
the phone number for the Armstrong Advisory Group, and the
phone number once again eight hundred three nine three for
zero zero one.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
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Speaker 2 (23:40):
Got an email from a listener named Eileen, and she
points out, you know, let's meet.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Where can I pull this quote?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Mike's comments on TAMU and their cheap price on products
as a reason for buying their products is something I
disagree with. Sure, their products are far less even ridiculously
low priced, versus competitors have a captive labor market where
the workers get paid for producing these products what the
government wants to pay them. And I had to tell Eileen,
I don't disagree with the word you've just said. Absolutely
(24:11):
the case. I've considered all of this, and she goes
on to say like, hey, you know, I look at
the labels, and when I can, I don't buy stuff
made in China. And I do applaud that, like I
do genuinely applaud that because I share those concerns. I
share concerns about slave labor in China and all of
these things. I think the point that I would make
(24:33):
these days is it is you actually, to your point,
have to put an effort to not buy stuff from China.
It is hard to live, you know. Try spending forget
about a year. I knew someone that spent a year
trying to buy nothing from China. Try spending one month
buying nothing made in China. It is a genuine challenge.
(24:53):
And so you know, when I was looking at winter jackets,
for example, I struggled to find even a single one
that was manufactured here in the United States. Plenty of
whom you know, had businesses here in the United States,
plenty of sellers that pay taxes in the United States.
But finding a single manufacturer where I could say, oh, yeah,
this is a winter downcoat made here in the United
(25:15):
States was challenging. And I think I did find one
or two of them that were, you know, in the
five hundred dollars range for the quality that I was
looking for, And so I completely agree with you, Eileen,
and I wish we could all make that sacrifice of hey,
we're going to pay more for stuff that's made here
domestically or made in you know, a country that we
(25:36):
see closer eye to eye with. My only counterpoint would be,
I do also understand for folks that don't have the
discretionary income to do that, why they shop at Walmart,
why they go to these places that can save them
money by buying stuff from that Chinese market. And it
is the reality that we face, even with tariffs in place,
a lot of products are significantly cheaper being sourced from
(25:59):
China due to their labor practices and just in general
overall development. So I applaud you, Eileen for going out
there and checking the tags and doing your best to
buy domestic. It is challenging and so it requires more time. Right,
you really can't just shop on Amazon and Walmart with
any expectation that it's going to be feasible to buy
(26:19):
domestic manufactured goods.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Let's take a quick break.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
When we come back, we'll have a full market update
as well as stack Roulette next on the Financial Exchange.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
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(27:21):
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visit USVII dot com to book your trip. That's visit
USVII dot com.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
I have two New Hampshire focused stories for stack Roulette here.
The first would be that Forever, New Hampshire has one
single area code six H three and they are finally
getting to the point where the combinations are running out
here and they might have to abandon the single area
code I'm trying to think through. So Main's only two
(27:53):
o seven, right, Are there any other area codes in Maine?
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Look up, don't believe New Hampshire. I've got six three,
Vermont has got and Vermont's eight two, and then what's
Rhode Island because they must have only one.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
There's four to one three, and uh, I don't know
if there's another one.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Nope, you're wrong, low four one. Yeah, yeah, you're a liar.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, four to one three is a mass Chusetts code,
so it must Western mass in Connecticut are the only
New England states with multiple But New Hampshire might be
joined the club. Uh, And that'd be kind of sad.
That would be kind of sad. That's kind of a
unifying thing for New Hampshire being six o three. I
feel like there's a lot of I've seen beers and
all sorts of stuff named after six o three, So
that would be disappointing. The not disappointing story from New Hampshire,
(28:40):
which I just find so incredibly entertaining. There's a seven
to eleven on South Main Street in Manchester, New Hampshire,
that is trying to keep away the riff raft from
loitering around their store, and they have come up with
what is apparently a quite successful strategy of just blasting
opera music twenty four hours a day from their store,
(29:03):
and they have found that, yes, indeed, it does keep
people away. But the neighbors, believe it or not, are
not all that enthusiastic about opera music being blared from
the seven to eleven at three in the morning. I'm
also just imagining, at some point in the future just
a new group of loiterers hanging out there. Is anybody
(29:23):
else you know, imagining a bunch of seventy five year
olds and tuxedos just standing outside the seven older big gulps,
just a giant big gulp, a tuxedo and just breathing in.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
All the wonderful opera music that they have blaring out
of the seven ald.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
It has to work, because I'm ready to leave my
seat right now and get off the show and just
throw my mic down just with this thirty seconds that
we've had of opera background music.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
They have those opera binoculars that they have. There's just
a booth.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
There's just every once in a while a good live,
free or die story coming out in New Hampshire. And yeah,
a seven eleven blaring opera music twenty four hours a
day definitely fits the bill. So I can't imagine this
will last much longer because people will start losing their minds.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
That are neighbors. But I'm already losing them.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
But nonetheless, that's that's what's going on at a Manchester
seven eleven.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
So two good New Hampshire stories. It is interesting.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
I did google that because I thought this was not
unique to just New Hampshire. But yeah, a bunch of stores,
whether it's Michigan.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Or oh this is a seven to eleven thing, not
in New Hampshire Manchester seven.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
I've found several instances of this in Ohio and Michigan.
Others have done the same practice to get rid of
loiterers outside of their their seven eleven. So clearly there's
some tried and true methodology behind that there.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Jam Silent Bob need to make a movie about this.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Yeah, yeah, they do. The story that I have covers
is teachers are burning out on the job. We're getting
back to school season, and something that I have just
found anecdotally when I've run into teachers, whether it's through
meeting existing clients who are teachers, or my wife worked
as a teacher as well, so a lot of her
colleagues that I talked to, just dissatisfaction with the job
(31:08):
has really grown significantly from post pandemic days. And every
teacher I asked this question to seems to have the
same response that after the pandemic, whether it's the behavior
of students, the stresses of their jobs, it just has
been a lot less fulfilling than it was prior to
the pandemic. And there actually is a piece here in
the Wall Street Journal where they put some numbers behind
what I'm just reporting anecdotally where the Department of Education
(31:32):
as well as I believe ran put together a survey
where they found that forty two percent of teachers felt
that the stress and disappointment of their job were quote
unquote worth it, which is twenty one percent lower than
other college educated workers out there. It's a significant drop off,
and if you look at the graph of this data,
it's a much lower percentage than where it stood pre pandemic,
(31:54):
which was seventy plus percent. It's just an unfortunate thing
to report, because these teachers are so important for all
of us, for the kids, you know, going through school,
and it just seems like something has changed with that position,
making it more challenging than it was previously.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Yeah, I mean I think you and I both know
several teachers out there.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
And yeah, I know one who left the classroom during
the pan still works in the school systems, but has
now left the classroom and just couldn't couldn't take the
classroom pressure anymore.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
And yeah, it's a you know, you cite the kids.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
I would cite the parents since COVID as well as
that one comes up a lot, a big role.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
There was an email from my school district just this
week like, we understand that your child might not be
happy with their classroom selection and the other kids in
their classroom. We spend a lot of time on this,
we're not changing them. Please leave us alone, which seems
like a totally reasonable response to all of this, like, yeah, sorry,
you can't pick your own classroom this.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
When did they unveil the classroom assignments for you?
Speaker 3 (32:55):
You got just got ours yesterday and a half ago.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Okay, because I had had some what another school just
is that does it right up until the end because
they want to avoid the amount of you know, complaining
time that is allowed before they come into the school.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Good idea, but you know, it's a look, it is
an incredibly difficult job, and it's a direct conflict. Right
if you're a teacher, you are in charge of what
at least probably fifteen to twenty kids education, and if
you're a parent, your goal is to make one of
them the center of that attention. I shouldn't say that
that's not my goal, but that is clearly the goal
(33:30):
of a lot of parents is you know, fight for
your kid. You do everything you can for that kid,
and that is coming into the classroom far more often
and the only there's two ways I think that this
problem comes to a head, and we're seeing both strategies
get implemented. In some places they are lowering the qualification
standards to become a teacher, and other places they are
(33:52):
keeping the qualification standards and raising wages, and.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Both are challenging. I hope it goes more towards.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
The latter than the former, but nonetheless, both of those
are both those are difficult. One thing that I think
should be. I don't know how this looks at how
this actually works, but I do find the idea that
if I am a license teacher in the state of
New York, that I have to completely, I believe, re educate,
(34:23):
and reapply to be a licensed teacher in Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
I recognize why the unions do this, but there should
be more ease to move that license. I just think
about the number of teachers who you know, are stuck
in one place because they can't.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Do that or move for you know, maybe you're the.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Spouse in a military and you can't get that teaching
credential because you keep moving around. And that's I generally
dislike the state by state licensing requirements. You want to
continuing education all sorts of other requirements to meet state laws.
Get it, but the burdens are pretty high. And the
effort and time in the classroom spent to become a
teacher and move from state to state is I don't know,
(35:05):
that's pretty rough.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Yeah, it seems like the biggest sources of stress to
further go than this survey is student behavior, the compensation,
and the administrative work that's outside of teaching. That feedback,
I hear a lot. There's just a lot of bureaucracy
and reports that are needed to be recorded outside of
school hours that take away from the fun of interacting
with kids.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
We were talking about China earlier.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
I know one teacher in the Framingham district that is
seriously considering taking a private teaching job in China where.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
She will triple her salary. But you'll live in China.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Quick break for the next twenty two hours. We'll be
back at it tomorrow. Market's still in negative territory, but
very slightly so. We'll have a full market recap tomorrow
and then in video earnings after the bell
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(01:07):
Face is the Financial Exchange with Mike Armstronge and Paul Lane.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Welcome back to the Financial Exchange stop top story.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
The week continues to be in videos.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Earnings which would be coming out tomorrow evening expected to
show just another quarter, another fourth straight quarter of one
hundred plus percent earnings growth sales growth, and we will
see where that comes in after after our expectations have
been quite high.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Market's not moving a whole lot this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
We've got the Dow, SMP, and NAZAC all in positive
territory for the moment, with the Dow up eleven points,
only a little bit less than I mean, basically flat
for the day. S and P up twelve points, fifth
of percent. Na's back up forty four about a quarter
of a percent. Yield on the ten year treasury still
hovering around that three point eight five range three eight
four six price. Barrel of oil down about one and
(01:59):
a half percent this morning, seventy six dollars thirty one cents,
So keep an eye on that as well. Anything else
catching your mind your eyes and markets?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Paul, no all about Nvidia tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So we're as time goes on continuing to get proposals
from different candidates, and I always say to discount those heavily, right.
I mean, what somebody says on the campaign trail oftentimes
can be nothing more than a rallying cry and not.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Result in a whole lot.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And especially when it comes to tax policy, this is
an area that is historically difficult to navigate and change.
The Biden campaign in two thousand and twenty was focusing
heavily on tax reform. They came out with like nine
or ten distinct policy reforms that they wanted to look
(02:53):
at between the step up and cost basis, estate taxes,
capital gains tax rates, corporate and corporate tax changes. They
wanted to raise the top earnings bracket. They wanted to
put in new tax benefits for certain groups.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Do you know how many of the tax increases went
into placeball None?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Zero of those tax changes. So, again I tend to
discount these, but we do have to talk about them
because it is fundamentally what a candidate is going to
attempt to do if they get the office, regardless of
whether or not they are able to. And so we
seem to be getting more of that from the Harris campaign,
mainly because Trump's you know, Trump's specifics are what we've
already known, right, these are already known objectives that he has.
(03:36):
He wants to raise Harris further. He wants to cut
corporate taxes further and if possible, lock in the Trump
tax cuts from a few years ago at these continued
low rates. So Harris's tax plans starting to take some shape.
One of the biggest items that's been talked about has
been the corporate tax rate, so was as high as
thirty five percent under the Obama administration, widely considered even
(04:01):
by Obama himself to be too high, and he attempted
to pass some legislation to lower it slightly, but nothing
was happening back there on any sort of bipartisan basis.
Was then lowered by the Trump administration down to the
current level of where are we twenty one percent percent
and made permanent unlike the sun setting provisions there. And
(04:23):
you know, I haven't looked any sort of studies that
have actually you know, confirmed any of this, but it
certainly seems to me from you know, from somebody that
was doing this program, you know, years ago. We don't
come across a lot of those stories of oh, look
at that pharmaceutical company, or look at that chip maker
that's done the double Dutch Irish and reclocated their headquarters
(04:45):
to this country to avoid the US corporate tax rate.
I haven't covered one of those stories in years, and
I think that, you know, certainly there has been some
effort multinationally to look at corporate taxes and you know,
level the playing field a bit, but largely I think
it probably has to do with a low US corporate
tax rate that we have seen companies reshoring and bringing
(05:07):
profits back, if not necessarily the jobs that come with that,
there's been less of that tax dodging as we saw previously.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, So the proposed rate that Harris has intended to
assess on corporate taxes would be twenty eight percent, so
an increase from the twenty one percent that we were
mentioning today. And then most notably is really the hit
to the higher income households that they would be assessed,
particularly on this all income type. So if you look now,
the highest marginal tax rate I believe is thirty seven
(05:37):
or thirty nine at the highest thirty nine percent of
the highest.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
No, no, I think it is thirty I believe it
is thirty seven that was part of the Trump TAXI.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Okay, yeah, so thirty seven today this would now be
a case where capital gains, the business income, and wages
would be taxed for those in that highest income bracket
at forty four point six percent. That would be the
highest marginal rate since nineteen eighty six. So that one
is very significant in terms of a proposal. In general,
(06:04):
both sides of the aisle, though, are seem to be
in significant favor of keeping these tax cuts in place
from twenty seventeen. And while I said.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
At least for those under four hundred grounds, correct, Yeah,
that's concentration, to be clear, the bulk.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Of Americans right are falling in that in that camp,
which certainly I'm not someone who wants to pay higher taxes.
Though if you look at just the budget and the
deficit that this country runs at, these policies are not
fiscally responsible on either side, to be clear, Democrat or Republican.
And I guess I'm just really flapping my gums because
(06:44):
nothing's going to change by me saying this, but it's
just something that bothers me every time we cover these
is that there's no effort, and I get it. It
doesn't get votes. It's awful politics to run this way,
but it's just not the fiscal discipline like for leaders
in place. But I'm going to just then, I mean,
here's my tick. Let's let's I'm going to depart from
(07:07):
the judgment on you know, do we need to pay
down the deficit? Do we need to fund our programs
like Social Security and Medicare? I spend enough time talking
about that. Quite honestly, I'm just going to look at
it from a practical standpoint.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Let's assume for a.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Moment that you do, in fact need to raise revenue
in the United States in order to stop running these
massive deficits that we've been doing and fund programs like
Social Security and Medicare. Let's assume we're going to do
that through an income tax. I just find it far
less compelling that you're going to be successful by raising
the taxes. On the corporate side, we've talked about how
(07:41):
easy it is for if you are Microsoft to hey,
I'm going to spend thirty million dollars on lawyers fighting
the irs over the years trying to find ways to
find loopholes get my business headquartered elsewhere, move some employees elsewhere,
and on a business like mine, if I can avoid
another there are eight percent in corporate taxes, that's going
(08:02):
to be you know, a payoff in space that is
an incredible investment. If I Microsoft, that's much tougher to do.
If you are an American tax paying individual. I mean, yes,
you can still hire the lawyers to fight the irs
look for the loopholes. But where are you're gonna go
and face a lower tax rate than living in the
United States. On the corporate side, you might, you know,
(08:23):
you might find something like Ireland. You might find somewhere
else out there that has a lower corporate tax rate.
If you are somebody that's making thirty million dollars a
year and you're looking at thirty seven percent versus forty
two percent as the top marginal income tax bracket, I
would challenge you to find me one other country in
the world that you actually want to live and you know,
(08:45):
feel like you have access to healthcare and quality of
life that's going to tax you less on that income
than the United States. And so just from a practical standpoint,
you know, if you're if you're attempting to find ways
to close budget gaps. I just don't find corporate taxes
to be terribly compelling, and you're also putting the risk
of American jobs on the line, right, So I generally
(09:08):
want lower taxes across the board. But I'm also a
realist that, hey, we seem to have a serious budget
deficit problem, and we can talk about all the spending
cuts and you know, we should talk about entitlement reform
and all these sorts of things. But unless there's going
to be some willingness to look at Social Security, Medicare, medicaid,
(09:28):
military spending, and I guess education, unless there's some willingness
to cut on those five areas, then what are your
other options?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
But here's here's the problem that I have with that, Mike,
is that, Okay, let's say you do go and you
hit people who are making over four hundred grand and
they're up to forty four point six on the highest.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
That's a big jump, by the way, I mean, that's
a that's a seven plus percent jump for where we are.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Let's say you get it done, then you're going to
extend the tax cuts at the same point in time.
The impacts of those are going to offset one another too,
where there is no significant benefit that you're driving by
doing it. You're just furthering the deficit because even the
increased revenue that you've picked up from those highest marginal
income tax payers is being offset by the fact that
(10:13):
the rest of us, which is nice, don't get me wrong,
are still going to continue to pay at those lower
rates that have been in since twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
So I haven't seen any of the math done actually
on how much you know you raised by going up
on the thirty seven verses, But is that is that
basically even it out?
Speaker 4 (10:27):
What was outlined here is that it would be five
million of save five trillion of savings for four trillion, sorry,
five trillion of revenue for four trillion in cuts is
what they had Harris's plan had been laid out here. Again,
these are done by budget offices, so it was not,
I guess not as dramatic as an impact.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Just doesn't get the job done for right right, Like again,
everyone says they're serious, but serious about you know, actually
that's that's a lie. Nobody says they're serious about fiscal discipline.
It's just us that talk about it all the time.
And you know this, this would be significant tax change right,
locking in these lower brackets and raising the higher income
tax brackets. I doubt anything like that actually happens. And
(11:09):
even that's not going to raise the revenue much. It's
going to be a drop in the bucket. And so
the answer is, if we're going to actually ever take
this seriously, it's going to require sacrifice, require really painful sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
The Financial Exchange streams live on YouTube. Like our page
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Speaker 2 (11:42):
Tesla I think may have missed the boat on an
opportunity here a bit. So if you recall, a little
over a year ago, Tesla announced that they're going to
make plans to allow forward, Rivian and some other car
brands that were rolling out their own electric vehicles to
access the network of superchargers that Tesla has, which is
(12:02):
by far the most robust network in the United States
of charging infrastructure. It's now been over twelve months and
still hasn't happened. And I say they may have missed
the boat here only because I feel like they could
have locked in a hell of a deal with the
likes of Ford, who are willing to spend like crazy
on their EV unit over the last few years and
are now scaling it way back. Nonetheless, they posted on
(12:24):
x on Friday that the charging unit has stepped up
production of a crucial piece of hardware that would be
needed to have adapters for these vehicles, which again, it
can't have taken thirteen months to adapt a piece of
hardware to be able to charge your forward at a
Tesla supercharger, would be my guess. But nonetheless, it seems
(12:47):
like this is still a plan of theirs, and like
I said, I just I don't know if it's as
compelling a case this stage. In one sense, you know,
good for Tesla that Ford is backing out of their
EV plan. It makes them still the dominant EV seller
out there. But on the other hand, you know, how
are you going to monetize this network if nobody else's
(13:08):
is pushing them.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
It's a hard decision to make. You have to toggle
between Mike allowing monetization for the charging network that you
have in place, but also you're allowing new entrants to
utilize your charging networks to potentially lure market share away
from the cars that you sell.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, I gotta tell you, I'm not sure it's a
good idea, right, Like, if you're a Tesla driver and
you show up to a charging network and it's filled
with a bunch of forwards.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I'm gonna be pissed.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Right right, I'm in an exclusive I am paying for
an exclusive club.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
I don't own a Tesla, by the way.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I'm just putting myself in a Tesla vehicle owner's shoes
for a minute here, And you know I'm part of
this exclusive group. I'm an early adapter to EV's and
now you know you're run of the mill. Nissan Leaf
gets to charge at the same place that I do. Like,
this is what I'm paying for. This is why I
bought a sixty thousand dollars electric vehicle. I know they're
a lot cheaper now, but I'm not sure you know
(14:06):
you're you are deteriorating the quality of the Tesla club
if you start allowing the riff raff into your charging station.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
I had looked at a stock it's called chargepund Holdings
that I thought would be a beneficiarya of just they
develop electric vehicle charging stations out there, and then Tesla
came out with this news. I'm like, oh my gosh,
this is just the end. Yeah, and they are down
eighty one percent over the last five years. So it's
a situation where I thought there would be another independent
(14:37):
player on the market in terms of electric vehicle infrastructure,
and Tesla muddy those waters. Who knows really where it
goes from here. It seems like there's been all sorts
of turnover from an employee perspective on Tesla's supercharger network.
Musk has fired five hundred people responsible with the network,
so there's been a lot of turmoil going on behind
(14:58):
the scenes with this, and it's it's a tough one.
It would be best for the EV market in general
if that's what you're looking to do with Tesla, but
you're not. You're trying to sell your own car.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
And I do recognize that like eighty ninety percent of
charging just occurs at home these days because most people
are just using their car for a commuter. But I
wouldn't buy an electric vehicle if it weren't to Tesla today, right,
If I want to go anywhere beyond the range of
that thing. I have zero confidence that I would be
able to find charging infrastructure somewhere to be able to
do it like Tesla's everywhere.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
That's the competitive advantage.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, Tesla's got it. Nobody else does. And I see
I saw a Rivian parking in the parking lot today.
You know, I've seen other evs, but I just I
struggle with the idea of that purchase. Knowing that or
hoping that someday I have access to the Tesla infrastructure,
but in the meantime, knowing that I can't really leave
the area around my home piece of New York Times
(15:56):
breaking up Google isn't nearly enough. So if you missed it,
there's a huge anti trust case that was one against
Google specifically in their search algorithm, naming them monopoly. And
now we're heading to the stage where the judge will
determine what exactly the ramifications and punishments are, and breakup
(16:18):
could be on the table there. We don't really know.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
What's the crux of this peace pot.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I mean, what other direction other than fines and breakups
are there for Google at this stage.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
That's the difficult part is it's hard to discern what
an appropriate punishment would be for a company at Google
size and scale. A fine, as we know, with their
deep pockets, isn't really going to do a whole lot.
But then when you look at it from the other
perspective of, gee, how should we break this thing up?
I don't know if there's really a clear answer on
(16:51):
that side either, particularly because they're just so entrenched in
the overall search engine market. I know Chuck had some
idea is out there, but it's just something that is
easier said than done.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Right, I mean, you know, one of the common ones
would be, hey, Google, you're not allowed to keep paying
Apple billions of dollars to be the default search engine. Right,
But they did that in Europe, and you know what happened.
Everyone still chose Google as the default search engine when
they were asked, like, it was the same results with
a net loss to Apple. So you know, I don't
(17:24):
know that that does anything. They make the case that hey,
Google has all the data that you would need to
develop a competitor to Google in the search space, So
what do you do force them to release their data
to the public. I don't think that's going to happen either.
So it's going to be a tricky one and I'm
sure it'll be fine. I'm sure it'll be more of
a slap on the wrist, would be my guest. But
only time will tell. Take quick break and then we
(17:47):
come back. C NBC has a piece seventy nine percent
of Americans who make one move won't run out of money.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
We'll cover that when we come back.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
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Speaker 1 (18:19):
In full shows. This is your home for the latest
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Speaker 2 (18:29):
This market really isn't sure what to do ahead of
these earnings. We've now flipped negative on all three major indices,
now off a quarter percent leading the way down. So
we'll continue to update you on on market moves, but
no big swings in either direction, just a lot of
uncertainty about what earnings are going to show tomorrow. Paul
Good News. I think we can hang it up and retire.
(18:49):
There's no more work for us to do because morning
Star has figured it all out. If morning Star finds
from I don't know how they do this study or
what they assume, but morning Star found that in seventy
nine percent of Americans who have at least twenty years
of future participation in a defined contribution plan such as
(19:11):
a four oh one K or four threould be will
have enough money to sustain their expenses in retirement. And
that's without knowing how much you spend in retirement. So
I'm not sure how much they came up with this one,
but there you have it. Hanging up, Paul, We're good.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
The pieces that they here, Mike. I know, obviously you're
giving them a hard time. They just talk about this
idea that obviously the longer that you work, the better off,
the likelihood of success goes up. But really what we
do on an everyday basis is not so much just hey,
if you work till age seventy five, you'll be good.
That's not what anyone wants to hear when you're going
(19:46):
through a career. But I would emphasize that point where I.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Can till you're dead and you'll never run out of money.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
That I would emphasize that point of so many people
that we meet with do not have a good understanding
of their and when you're modeling out from a planning
perspective in retirement, that is really at the core of
what you need to work on. It's many different elements,
but that is one that is so critical and where
planning can actually be a really helpful exercise to get
(20:15):
an understanding of what you spend, because so often we
meet with folks who shoot way under in terms of
what they spend versus what the actual numbers would bear.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, one, we shouldn't all applaud the
you know, morning Star study here. One future twenty years
of retirement savings is a long time to be working
and funding your retirement. Two, even with that, they find
that one fifth of Americans won't have enough money to
fund their retirement here, So that's a big piece too.
But yeah, I think Paul like one of the most
(20:47):
beneficial things that we can do as financial advisors. And
you know, quite maybe it's more beneficial to me personally
because it's the part of the job that I enjoy
the most but sitting down with folks and you know,
developing that retirement plan and then going back to them
and saying, well, I know you wanted to work until
age seventy because that was you know, based on the
(21:07):
CNBC story where you figured you could retire. But if
we do these six things, then we think we might
be able to pull it off at sixty five or
sixty two, or we can't pull it off until seventy five.
But like, those are the less fun conversations. But you know,
if if we can, you know, occasionally find somebody and
say no, like yeah, I know you've been busting your
(21:29):
back here. You can actually retire tomorrow, and you know,
if you follow these set of rules, we think you'll
be okay. And we have those conversations frequently, and the
fact of the matter is if you don't put in
the legwork, you just don't know, and not knowing to me,
I know, getting a negative answer is really scary, right, like,
(21:50):
oh wow, I think I might be undersaving for retirement
and I'd rather just not know. I'd get that, I
get that, we all get the tendency to want to
push off.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Those tough decisions and questions.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
But for me having an answer that I can then
put into place a plan to address problems, no better
feeling once you actually get past that hump of I
need to do something. And so my point here would be,
if you're unsure of your number, if you're unsure of
how much you're going to need to save to get
(22:23):
to retirement and feel comfortable, or how long you're going
to need to work, or how all these benefits are
going to work for you when you do retire, please
work with a financial advisor and give the folks at
Armstrong Advisory Group a call to help guide you through
that process. We have advisors that meet with clients day
in and day out, and this is a key focus
area of what we do on a day to day basis,
(22:43):
and we have the tools to guide you through the
process and come up with an answer that's not just
pulled out of a study that looks at the average person,
but actually is customized to you. We have offices located
throughout New England, from as far north as Portland, Maine,
as far south is near Hartford, New Haven, Connecticut, Wallingford, Connecticut,
(23:05):
and we will sit down with you in person to
really go through those plans and address the concerns that
you have about retirement. Give us a call at eight
hundred three nine three four zero zero one. Again that's
the phone number for the Armstrong Advisory Group, and the
phone number once again eight hundred three nine three for
zero zero one.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
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 into state planning advisors before making
any investment decisions. Armstrong may contact you to offer investment
advisory services.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Got an email from a listener named Eileen, and she
points out, you know, let's meet.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Where can I pull this quote?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Mike's comments on TAMU and their cheap price on products
as a reason for buying their products is something I
disagree with. Sure, their products are far less even ridiculously
low priced, versus competitors have a captive labor market where
the workers get paid for producing these products what the
government wants to pay them. And I had to tell Eileen,
I don't disagree with the word you've just said. Absolutely
(24:11):
the case. I've considered all of this, and she goes
on to say like, hey, you know, I look at
the labels, and when I can, I don't buy stuff
made in China. And I do applaud that, like I
do genuinely applaud that because I share those concerns. I
share concerns about slave labor in China and all of
these things. I think the point that I would make
(24:33):
these days is it is you actually, to your point,
have to put an effort to not buy stuff from China.
It is hard to live, you know. Try spending forget
about a year. I knew someone that spent a year
trying to buy nothing from China. Try spending one month
buying nothing made in China. It is a genuine challenge.
(24:53):
And so you know, when I was looking at winter jackets,
for example, I struggled to find even a single one
that was manufactured here in the United States. Plenty of
whom you know, had businesses here in the United States,
plenty of sellers that pay taxes in the United States.
But finding a single manufacturer where I could say, oh, yeah,
this is a winter downcoat made here in the United
(25:15):
States was challenging. And I think I did find one
or two of them that were, you know, in the
five hundred dollars range for the quality that I was
looking for, And so I completely agree with you, Eileen,
and I wish we could all make that sacrifice of hey,
we're going to pay more for stuff that's made here
domestically or made in you know, a country that we
(25:36):
see closer eye to eye with. My only counterpoint would be,
I do also understand for folks that don't have the
discretionary income to do that, why they shop at Walmart,
why they go to these places that can save them
money by buying stuff from that Chinese market. And it
is the reality that we face, even with tariffs in place,
a lot of products are significantly cheaper being sourced from
(25:59):
China due to their labor practices and just in general
overall development. So I applaud you, Eileen for going out
there and checking the tags and doing your best to
buy domestic. It is challenging and so it requires more time. Right,
you really can't just shop on Amazon and Walmart with
any expectation that it's going to be feasible to buy
(26:19):
domestic manufactured goods.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Let's take a quick break.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
When we come back, we'll have a full market update
as well as stack Roulette next on the Financial Exchange.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Find daily interviews and full shows of the Financial Exchange
on our YouTube page. Like us on YouTube and get
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This is the Financial Exchange Radio Network. Missed one of
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(26:48):
Exchange Radio Network.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
This segment of the Financial Exchange is brought to you
in part by the US Virgin Islands Department of Tourism.
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Saint John. Enjoy perfect weather, world class dining, incredible beaches
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(27:21):
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Speaker 2 (27:30):
I have two New Hampshire focused stories for stack Roulette here.
The first would be that Forever, New Hampshire has one
single area code six H three and they are finally
getting to the point where the combinations are running out
here and they might have to abandon the single area
code I'm trying to think through. So Main's only two
(27:53):
o seven, right, Are there any other area codes in Maine?
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Look up, don't believe New Hampshire. I've got six three,
Vermont has got and Vermont's eight two, and then what's
Rhode Island because they must have only one.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
There's four to one three, and uh, I don't know
if there's another one.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Nope, you're wrong, low four one. Yeah, yeah, you're a liar.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, four to one three is a mass Chusetts code,
so it must Western mass in Connecticut are the only
New England states with multiple But New Hampshire might be
joined the club. Uh, And that'd be kind of sad.
That would be kind of sad. That's kind of a
unifying thing for New Hampshire being six o three. I
feel like there's a lot of I've seen beers and
all sorts of stuff named after six o three, So
that would be disappointing. The not disappointing story from New Hampshire,
(28:40):
which I just find so incredibly entertaining. There's a seven
to eleven on South Main Street in Manchester, New Hampshire,
that is trying to keep away the riff raft from
loitering around their store, and they have come up with
what is apparently a quite successful strategy of just blasting
opera music twenty four hours a day from their store,
(29:03):
and they have found that, yes, indeed, it does keep
people away. But the neighbors, believe it or not, are
not all that enthusiastic about opera music being blared from
the seven to eleven at three in the morning. I'm
also just imagining, at some point in the future just
a new group of loiterers hanging out there. Is anybody
(29:23):
else you know, imagining a bunch of seventy five year
olds and tuxedos just standing outside the seven older big gulps,
just a giant big gulp, a tuxedo and just breathing in.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
All the wonderful opera music that they have blaring out
of the seven ald.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
It has to work, because I'm ready to leave my
seat right now and get off the show and just
throw my mic down just with this thirty seconds that
we've had of opera background music.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
They have those opera binoculars that they have. There's just
a booth.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
There's just every once in a while a good live,
free or die story coming out in New Hampshire. And yeah,
a seven eleven blaring opera music twenty four hours a
day definitely fits the bill. So I can't imagine this
will last much longer because people will start losing their minds.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
That are neighbors. But I'm already losing them.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
But nonetheless, that's that's what's going on at a Manchester
seven eleven.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
So two good New Hampshire stories. It is interesting.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
I did google that because I thought this was not
unique to just New Hampshire. But yeah, a bunch of stores,
whether it's Michigan.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Or oh this is a seven to eleven thing, not
in New Hampshire Manchester seven.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
I've found several instances of this in Ohio and Michigan.
Others have done the same practice to get rid of
loiterers outside of their their seven eleven. So clearly there's
some tried and true methodology behind that there.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Jam Silent Bob need to make a movie about this.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Yeah, yeah, they do. The story that I have covers
is teachers are burning out on the job. We're getting
back to school season, and something that I have just
found anecdotally when I've run into teachers, whether it's through
meeting existing clients who are teachers, or my wife worked
as a teacher as well, so a lot of her
colleagues that I talked to, just dissatisfaction with the job
(31:08):
has really grown significantly from post pandemic days. And every
teacher I asked this question to seems to have the
same response that after the pandemic, whether it's the behavior
of students, the stresses of their jobs, it just has
been a lot less fulfilling than it was prior to
the pandemic. And there actually is a piece here in
the Wall Street Journal where they put some numbers behind
what I'm just reporting anecdotally where the Department of Education
(31:32):
as well as I believe ran put together a survey
where they found that forty two percent of teachers felt
that the stress and disappointment of their job were quote
unquote worth it, which is twenty one percent lower than
other college educated workers out there. It's a significant drop off,
and if you look at the graph of this data,
it's a much lower percentage than where it stood pre pandemic,
(31:54):
which was seventy plus percent. It's just an unfortunate thing
to report, because these teachers are so important for all
of us, for the kids, you know, going through school,
and it just seems like something has changed with that position,
making it more challenging than it was previously.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Yeah, I mean I think you and I both know
several teachers out there.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
And yeah, I know one who left the classroom during
the pan still works in the school systems, but has
now left the classroom and just couldn't couldn't take the
classroom pressure anymore.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
And yeah, it's a you know, you cite the kids.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
I would cite the parents since COVID as well as
that one comes up a lot, a big role.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
There was an email from my school district just this
week like, we understand that your child might not be
happy with their classroom selection and the other kids in
their classroom. We spend a lot of time on this,
we're not changing them. Please leave us alone, which seems
like a totally reasonable response to all of this, like, yeah, sorry,
you can't pick your own classroom this.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
When did they unveil the classroom assignments for you?
Speaker 3 (32:55):
You got just got ours yesterday and a half ago.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Okay, because I had had some what another school just
is that does it right up until the end because
they want to avoid the amount of you know, complaining
time that is allowed before they come into the school.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Good idea, but you know, it's a look, it is
an incredibly difficult job, and it's a direct conflict. Right
if you're a teacher, you are in charge of what
at least probably fifteen to twenty kids education, and if
you're a parent, your goal is to make one of
them the center of that attention. I shouldn't say that
that's not my goal, but that is clearly the goal
(33:30):
of a lot of parents is you know, fight for
your kid. You do everything you can for that kid,
and that is coming into the classroom far more often
and the only there's two ways I think that this
problem comes to a head, and we're seeing both strategies
get implemented. In some places they are lowering the qualification
standards to become a teacher, and other places they are
(33:52):
keeping the qualification standards and raising wages, and.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Both are challenging. I hope it goes more towards.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
The latter than the former, but nonetheless, both of those
are both those are difficult. One thing that I think
should be. I don't know how this looks at how
this actually works, but I do find the idea that
if I am a license teacher in the state of
New York, that I have to completely, I believe, re educate,
(34:23):
and reapply to be a licensed teacher in Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
I recognize why the unions do this, but there should
be more ease to move that license. I just think
about the number of teachers who you know, are stuck
in one place because they can't.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Do that or move for you know, maybe you're the.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Spouse in a military and you can't get that teaching
credential because you keep moving around. And that's I generally
dislike the state by state licensing requirements. You want to
continuing education all sorts of other requirements to meet state laws.
Get it, but the burdens are pretty high. And the
effort and time in the classroom spent to become a
teacher and move from state to state is I don't know,
(35:05):
that's pretty rough.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Yeah, it seems like the biggest sources of stress to
further go than this survey is student behavior, the compensation,
and the administrative work that's outside of teaching. That feedback,
I hear a lot. There's just a lot of bureaucracy
and reports that are needed to be recorded outside of
school hours that take away from the fun of interacting
with kids.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
We were talking about China earlier.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
I know one teacher in the Framingham district that is
seriously considering taking a private teaching job in China where.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
She will triple her salary. But you'll live in China.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Quick break for the next twenty two hours. We'll be
back at it tomorrow. Market's still in negative territory, but
very slightly so. We'll have a full market recap tomorrow
and then in video earnings after the bell
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