Financial Issues - 08.18.2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Financial Issues, where we join reality with truth,
helping you make the most of your money by honoring
God with your investments. Now listen, man, as we give
you the practical tools and advice you need to become
a biblically responsible investor.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome to Financial Issues. I'm your host, Shannibert. Thanks for
tuning in today. We are so glad that you're here.
We hope that you learn something about stewardship today. We
hope that you are educated and edified to do the
good work of stewardship, to participate in the privilege that
God allows us to exercise control over assets that He

(00:48):
gives us.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Time, talent, treasure.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
All of those things we are given from the Lord,
and we are given the opportunity to manage those things
for the good the glory of the Lord. So that's
why we exist as a ministry. Financial Issues is a
ministry that helps to educate people about financial issues from
a biblical worldview. We are a listener and partner supported ministry.

(01:14):
We hope that you will choose or have chosen to
support us in one of those ways where either you
give monthly to the ministry or you pay for an
annual partnership which is just one hundred and thirty two
dollars a year, where you get access to our asset
allocation models, our by lists, and instructions on how you
can build your own biblically responsible portfolio where you're not

(01:36):
being yoped with the woke companies of corporate America. Speaking
of the partners, we do have a partner conference called
this Thursday. We hope that you will tune in. If
you have questions, please email them over to Pat. Please
make sure that there are questions that are edifying to
the group of partners rather than just like specific portfolio questions,

(01:59):
and that is going to happen noon this Thursday. You
should have or will get an email giving you instructions
on how to do that, or you can just log
into the partner side of the website and get the
phone number that you can call in. And of course
after it is reviewed in a compliance approved, it will
be posted to the website so that you can listen

(02:21):
if you happen to miss it. So on today's show,
we're going to answer some of the questions that you
guys have sent in. We're also going to have Jason
McDowell on as we do most mondays to talk about today,
we're going to talk about the Trump administration's plan to
expand four oh one K options and what you may
be able to invest in if you're a four to

(02:42):
one K participant in the near future. We'll also get
encouragement from the scriptures and stewardship wisdom, which we'll start
with now. Our stewardship verst of the day comes from
Isaiah twenty eight twenty nine. This also comes from the
Lord of host He is a wonderful he is wonderful

(03:02):
in council and excellent in wisdom. Sounds like a great
place to get ours se Yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
Sure is, Shanna.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
You know, if we're going to succeed making much the
name of Jesus with our money, which is really much
of what our purpose is here, Shanna, we have to
be wise.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
We have to be wise. We can't do it without wisdom.

Speaker 5 (03:20):
So I do hope that all the listeners today will
seek wisdom from the Lord of Hosts that as this
verse that commands us to do, it's a good.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
One, that's right.

Speaker 6 (03:27):
You know.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
I've often I've often heard the phrase that the b
I B L E means basic instructions before leaving Earth.
And you know, I know, I know you men don't
read instruction books when you get something to see how
it works. I mean, you're kind of hands on. If
you're anything like my husband. I guess you figure it
out the instructions. You know, we wear the instructions.

Speaker 6 (03:50):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
I don't know. It didn't come with any Yes it did.
They're still in the box.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Sometimes, especially when we get stumped, it is really good
to go and get that instruction manual. And that is
the instruction manual for life. That is the place where,
exclusively the place where wisdom is found, because you know,
God made it all, so he knows how it all works,
and he's happy to share with us how we should

(04:18):
how we should use things, and how we should work
with things so that we make sure that we're using
them in the right way. And you know, the scripture
too reminds me of kind of what we talked about
on Friday, I guess because my brain is so geared
towards financial issues, not the ministry itself, but the financial
issues of the day. It's the field that I work in,
the field that I've worked in for decades, so a

(04:41):
lot of times when I hear scripture, I tend to lean.
I tend to be drawn towards the stewardship approach to
what the Bible is trying to tell us. So you know,
it is ingrained in this ministry. One of the things
that you'll often hear said here is that we don't
want to yoke with the woke companies of corporate America.

(05:02):
But what that means on a deeper basis is that
we want to honor God. We believe everything belongs to God.
We want to honor Him in everything that we do,
including the way that we invest.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
And so we've come up with a very practical way.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
That's the partnership that you heard me talk about earlier,
that you can honor God, that you can implement a
practical strategy to show God that you honor him and
that you believe that what he says is true and
that you trust his instructions for life and for godliness.
And we also talked about that getting godly counsel. So

(05:34):
there's no better place than the Word of God to
get godly counsel. And we weave that in to every show.
You know it, I say, we weave it in. But
it is the basis of what we do here at
the ministry. We believe that the Word of God is
gospel truth, and we believe it so much that we
want to find a way to live it out in

(05:55):
our everyday lives. And that's what biblically responsible investing is
all about out that is what this ministry is all about,
the teaching the Body of Christ wisdom in stewardship. So
I just wanted to bring up a little point here.
Last week I saw an article there was there's been

(06:16):
some chatter. You know, Warren Buffett is a well respected
investor that has been doing investing very successfully for decades
and decades now. He does not do biblically responsible investing.
I'll just put that out there up front. But you know,
there's hardly any investor in the world that knows anything

(06:36):
about investing that hasn't heard the name Warren Buffett. And
last week on August the fourteenth, Berkshire Hathway, which is
the company that Warren Buffett, that Warren Buffett started, and
they invest in in publicly traded companies and you can
actually buy shares in that. We don't recommend it because

(06:56):
they're not biblically responsible. But in their thirteen F filing,
which is a filing that publicly traded companies have to
make when they're accumulating large positions, they indicated and there
was much chatter about it ahead of this thirteen F
filing to see which companies. Everybody wants to know which
company's buffets investing in. So interestingly enough, we had put

(07:19):
a company, one of the home builders back on our
buy list. It's CD twenty six. If you guys are
partners and following along, you can go see. If not,
I'm sure you can google enough news to figure out
which one I'm talking about. But we had, incidentally, and
unrelated to this, put CD twenty six on our buy

(07:40):
list two days before this announcement was made. It had
nothing to do with what we thought about whether or
not it would be on this list. It just was
something that we had been talking about for a while,
so just an incidental thing I wanted to mention.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
There. That's all answered some questions running.

Speaker 5 (07:56):
Out, Yeah, no, let's do it. We've got one from
Joe here. Joe is saying, and shann God bless this ministry.
I'm enjoying learning as I self manage my new portfolio
through a brokerage raw they don't offer options and minimal
mutual funds though. He's got a couple questions. Number one,
if I plan to retire in one to three or
one to five years, are mutual funds still good to
invest in? And then number two related to that, who

(08:18):
should I buy Timothy mutually?

Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, go see whatever time because you'll forget yep.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
So number one, one to five years until you retire, yes,
that still means to me, it means that you have
a long term time horizon. One to three years is
not a long term time horizon, but that's not the
end goal for you. So when you retire, you're just
beginning a stretch. I don't know how old you are.
I don't know if it says there, but you know,
most people's just assum the average retirement age of sixty

(08:44):
five years old. Well, at sixty five years old, you
still have a twenty to thirty year life expectancy. So
twenty to thirty years certainly fits into that long term
time horizon, and it means that mutual funds can still
be appropriated.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
Awesome, Shannon.

Speaker 5 (08:56):
And then the second question here is who should I
buy Timothy mutual funds through since I can't buy them
through Wells Fargo any sixty two by the way.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yeah, So there are some discount brokerage accounts that you
can buy them through if you want to just switch
from Wells Fargo to a different platform.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
You know, some of the ones that you could check out.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
There's no recommendations, but some of the ones that you
could check out are Schwab or Fidelity or Vanguard Brokerage.
Make sure you use the brokerage side of it. Interactive
Brokers is another one, and there's several other ones out there.
Or for the portion that you want to invest in
Timothy Plane, you can go directly with Timothy Plan, so

(09:35):
you can contact them. You can find the information over
there at Timothyplan dot com and there's a phone number
that you can call. There's very very nice people there
that will help you get connected and help you. If
you want to direct invest invest directly through the Timothy Plan.
That is certainly a way that you can do it.

Speaker 5 (09:55):
Awesome, Shanna, real quick one here Linda is asking about
te one risen to five of a portfolio. She's wondering
should I sell some of it? There seems to be
no end of its rising.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Well, it isn't an industry that is heavily under accumulation.
It is an industry that has a very very bright
future and a lot of money to be made. So,
although there could be bumps in the road, I expect
it to be a long term winner. But if it
has risen to more than five percent of your portfolio,
then yes, I would consider taking some money off the table.
There are plenty of other places that you can deploy

(10:28):
that you just don't want to get too concentrated in
any one company. Diversification is a tenant foundational principle of
our strategy.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
All right, folks, I hear the music.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
That means we've got to take a break, But we
hope that you're going to stick with us because Jason
McDowell is coming up and we're going to be talking
about how options for four O one K investing could
be changing in the near future. Figure out, we'll be
right back.

Speaker 7 (11:03):
Securities offered through Ga Reppel and Company, a registered broker
dealer and Investment Advisor member FINRA and SIPC Opinions expressed
by Shanna are hers alone and are for informational purposes only,
and do not necessarily represent those of GA Repel or
the outlet on what you are listening. You should consider
how the information applies to your situation prior to personally

(11:23):
implementing it, and consult any financial professional you work with
to make sure it's applicable to your financial plan.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Welcome back to financial issues. Thanks for hanging around with us.
I'm excited to welcome friend and Colleen Jason McDowell back
for us to have another conversation about a financial issue
that could be impacting you and how you invest in
your four to one K in the coming Oh, I
don't know six months to year and a half. So

(11:54):
President Trump has signed an executive order that could significantly
change what you are allowed to invest in through your
four one K plan. So, for decades, most of us
who participate in a four to one K have been
limited to the pre selected list of mutual fund companies

(12:16):
that our employer chose for us to be able to
invest in. In some cases, companies are now offering self
directed options self directed four to one K accounts that
helps to expand those choices to include things like individual stocks, bonds,
mutual funds, and just about anything ets. Anything that you

(12:39):
can purchase in a self directed account. So this new
policy could open the door to new types of investments
that the average mom and pop investor have not been
exposed to and not have access to on a regular
basis in the past, things like private equity, real estate,

(13:02):
infrastructure projects, commodities, and even certain digital assets yes we're
talking crypto. On the upside, this is about giving everyday
investors these same types of access to investments that have
long been available only to the very wealthy or large institutions.

(13:23):
Are investors that are considered to be accredited investors. Now
done wisely, this could mean greater diversification, potentially higher returns,
and more tools to build wealth over the long term,
especially for younger investors who have many years that they

(13:43):
can commit to making their investment goals come deferition. But
scripture warns us that with greater opportunity comes greater responsibility.
These kinds of investments often often carry higher fees, less liquidity,
and more complex risk than the average person is used
to assessing. So Jason, welcome back, thanks for being here.

(14:07):
You want to get us started on a deeper dive
into this issue.

Speaker 8 (14:11):
Yeah, the issue right now is there's government involvement. So
discussions about potential federal minimum coverage standard that has occurred
in the recent years started with twenty twenty one to
Build Back Better Act, which did not pass, but the
law was looking at requiring businesses with six or more
employees to offer retirement savings plans through payroll reduction automatic enrollment.

(14:38):
And this plan, since it did not pass, it was
gave indication what the government's looking at. They're putting four
to one k's in the crosshairs. There has been an
updated draft of a bill that's now looking at on
the federal side requiring businesses with ten or more employees
to provide either a state sponsored plan or auto IRA
there for a private four one K plan. So this

(14:58):
is just saying, hey, there's already some state mandates that
are there that exists, but look like the federal government
is wanting more employers to offer these plans for their employees,
no matter how many they have. So right now there's
approximately eight point seven trillion held in four one K plans. So, yeah,
that looks attractive to our government.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, you know, I guess that's because they have the
government has pretty much decimated the Social Security program and
it's a risk of going insolvent, and so now they're
trying to transfer the burden onto the backup companies. So
you know, I'm never a fan of government involvement. In fact,
to President Reagan said in a nineteen eighty six speech
that the non most terrifying words in the English language

(15:41):
are from the government, and I'm here to help.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
So you know, in this case, I.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Would be four more freedom in allowing individuals to choose
the investments that they want in their for one case,
but I sort of begin to wonder, Okay, so why
is this happening? Disibility is the idea that Trump wants
to be a crypto friendly president and he wants America
to benefit from crypto adoption. So Jason talk about the

(16:11):
executive order and how this ball has sort of been
set in motion.

Speaker 8 (16:17):
So on August seventh of twenty twenty five, Trump's executive
Order directed the Department of Labor and the SEC to
review the fuduciary rules to facilitate crypto and other alternative investments,
which you covered a little bit of in for one case.
So this essentially was to unlock access to the almost
nine trillion in the four to one K market. With

(16:39):
this administration, I've seen a lot of what Trump talks about,
or we've all heard what he talks about. It seems
crypto seems to be the forefront. Seemed to slip in
that private equity and those other alternative investments as well.
But this capital, it looks like they want to drive
more capital into crypto and opening up the four to
one k's is accessing it. So the order instructed the

(16:59):
Department of Labor to re examine its guidance to employers
and plan administrators on incorporating such assets into retirement plans.
These are I guess you could say high risk, you know,
or ill liquid. This becomes an issue for you know,
the average investor. Maybe it's just somebody who started in
their twenties, you know, they might be young, or they're

(17:19):
getting close to retirement in a new job. It's just
offering something that is this really going to benefit the
end person? And whose liability is it going to be on?
Is it going to be on the employer?

Speaker 3 (17:29):
So that's an interesting question.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
You know.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
The thought has crossed my mind too, that you know,
perhaps these big institutions, the ones that are already preparing
products to be put in the four on the four
wing k menus the black Rocks of the world that
potentially they may have struck some kind of sweetheart deal
with Trump to get their products into these four one ks.
So I'll just say this, we must continue to pray

(17:53):
for our president that the Lord continues to protect him
and guide him and keep his ways above reproach and
you know, uninfluenced by some potentially bad actors. So talk
about the cryptocurrency a little bit.

Speaker 8 (18:12):
Yeah, right now, just with cryptocurrency and just alternative investments
as a broad category. As you covered real estate, it's
going to include cryptocurrencies, private market assets. I like to
think of some of that might be exploratory oil and
gas trilling, so super high risk and questionable reward, we
don't know. So that usually requires an incredited investor like

(18:33):
you mentioned. So this is an actual regulated proof of
sophistific sophistication deemed accredited investor.

Speaker 7 (18:41):
Or.

Speaker 8 (18:41):
It's someone who has a net worth of over one
million excluding the primary residency, and then individual income exceeding
two hundred thousand or exceeding three hundred thousand in the
household for the previous two years. So you have to
make some money up to be a wealthy investor or
institution in that case. So private equity firms, as you mentioned,
are looking into introducing these new products to be defined,

(19:05):
but they're running into some issues. One is the fees.
So private equity by itself collects about two percent management
fees and has a twenty percent of the profit including
that fee. For one K plans are traditionally known to
have much lower fees. Must be favorable for the employee
and to build a nest egg for retirement. That's traditionally
how they look at it. So PE firms right now

(19:26):
don't necessarily want to be dealing with the retail small investor.
They're used to dealing with the big institutional investors and
the sophisticated ones. So that also comes with cryptocurrency. It's
a very highly uh you know, skeptical, speculative, skeptical skeptical too,
but it's you know, the Genius Act might have been

(19:47):
just passed, but it's not going to implement the regulatory
needs to help protect these individual investors. So you know,
we already know that there is some regulatory means, but
what the car before the horse?

Speaker 4 (19:56):
Who's going to come first?

Speaker 8 (19:57):
The Genius Act regulatory basis or is it going to
be the ARISA, the governing acts for the four to
one K plans that will implement their protections. So you know,
that's kind of what we're sitting.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
The prior rules on.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
It kind of hid behind the reasoning, Hey, we want
to protect investors from their selves, so we're not going
to let let unsophisticated investors into these kinds of investments.
So now I have to wonder, okay, so why would
the government support this? And you know, I think you
alluded to that in the fact of how much money
is in those four one K plans and I raise
in general, well, guess what, folks, That is all money

(20:32):
that is to be taxed in the future. So whether
you know, if these types of investments do off unlocked
potential for higher returns, we'll guess what. That's more money
that is being grown, tax postponed, that's going to be
taxed at some point in the future. So it's future
revenue for the government. And you know, whether anyone realizes
this or not, I think sort of the one of

(20:54):
the forces behind this is the glut of money that
has been created out of thin air and lack places
to go. So we have continued to create new investment
opportunities and that's where you know, private equity has really
got its footing. That and because the IPO market has
been essentially dead since COVID. Now I will say this too,

(21:14):
and this is a risk to some of these alternative investments,
is that the IPO market is starting to come alive.
That means more shares are coming onto the market, onto
the market where there's transparency, when you can know certain
know a lot of things about a company that you
want to invest in. Also, the money supply is starting
to decline on a negligible basis right now, but the

(21:36):
feed is starting to take money out of the economy
through quantitative tightening. And you know, if company margins come
under pressure, they might not because of maybe the tariffs.
They might not be buying back as much stock as
they used to, which means that there's more you know,
there's more places to go in the traditional market sense

(21:57):
than there are in uh than their use to be.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
So how does this apply to us.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Let's not neglect to get there quickly, so start us
on that conversation.

Speaker 8 (22:07):
Yeah, So what this might open up, Shanna, is it
might lead for more employers to open up options of
self directive four one K. So whether or not this
stuff passes be a good recommendation to ask to see.
If you're four to one K allows you to self direct,
you might be able to be biblically responsible if they
allow for individual stocks and holdings. So as a FISM partner,
that might actually be a good thing because they want

(22:28):
to offload it. The risk might be just a checking
of a box. Like if you're in a retail account.
I know, if you have to move up in your
risk assessment because you want to select a certain holding
in there, and they deem it very risky, then what
you have to do is you just acknowledge you check
a box and that's it, and then it's.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Up to you pay attention. Yeah, let me ask how
many people have ever read a perspectus? Right?

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Right?

Speaker 8 (22:53):
So that will allow that there, But we're really going
to caution the listeners and partners to look at these options.
I mean first that self direct might be really good,
but these are really risky investments hereself.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
So to sum it up, you know, God is in
favor of free will, and so am I. The exercise
of free will does not always end well, I can
attest to that in ways that I have used my
free will but has not ended up well. But it
is not the government's job nor our employer's job to
prevent us from exercising our free will. When they decide

(23:25):
that what we may be doing may not turn out well,
not their place. So unlike public stocks that you can
see price daily, private investments may only be valued a
few times a year. They can be higher in fees,
they can have less transparency, they can have less liquidity.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
So if you do get access.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
To these options, be diligent, count the cost, make sure
that you understand what you're getting yourself into. We got
to go for now. If you're listening to the full show,
hang around. We're going to be back right after this break.

Speaker 4 (24:07):
Welcome back, folks. Great to be here with you. I'll
be taking you the rest of the way. Sethi Dinski
here with the studio a team.

Speaker 5 (24:13):
Always enjoy the wisdom that Shannonburt and Jason McDowell give
on Monday mornings.

Speaker 4 (24:16):
It's a good time. Great to be here with you, folks.

Speaker 5 (24:19):
I hope you had a great weekend and a blessed
day of worship and excited for another week at financial issues.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
I know, we sure are here.

Speaker 5 (24:26):
Hey, just want to remind you our petition for Tesla
is still live right now, so if you haven't gotten
a chance to sign it, please do so. You can
also share that link with your family and friends, people
who care about it, whether they're investors or not. If
you care about pushing back against the darkness of this
world with the light of Christ, this is a great
way to do it, folks.

Speaker 4 (24:44):
So you can sign that petition for Tesla right now.

Speaker 5 (24:47):
Let's get as many signatures on this, Get this to
Elon Musk's desk, to his eyes, and see if we
can't see some real good change happen there. Whether we
see the change or not, we're doing this to be faithful, folks,
So it's exciting. We already have all most five hundred signatures,
which is great. So it's at that five hundred mark today,
all right, Sam, big news over the weekend, uh, the
fallout between Trump and Russia. So Trump was maybe don't

(25:08):
say fall out with Russia, you know, yeah, PTSD, Yeah,
that's exactly people from the eighties, that's exactly right.

Speaker 4 (25:14):
Let's try this. How about the Trump Russia kerfluffle, The tussle.
I don't know anyway, Trump met with Putin.

Speaker 7 (25:23):
That's good, there you go, yeah, yeah, get back on
what it came from that, Sam.

Speaker 5 (25:28):
You know, the best case scenario, you'd see a ceasefire.
Apparently that didn't happen. What are we looking at now
here with this?

Speaker 7 (25:34):
Well, it's all he said, he said. With Putin, you
never really know because he's kind of a snake and
his word doesn't really mean too much. As Trump has said,
he's had good phone calls with him before. He'll get
off the phone and talk to his wife Malania and
say I had the best phone call with Putin and
she'll say, really, did you? Because he just killed like
one hundred people in Ukraine on the TV right now,
And I'll say, you gotta be kidding me, so right now.

(25:57):
So what it seems right now, the idea is that
Russia is going to take some land in Ukraine. It's
not clear what, but presumably at least some of the
land they've already taken, and in return, Ukraine is going
to have some security guarantees just to make sure this
never happens again. So that's still up in the air.
I believe Trump is meeting with Zelensky today, So we'll
have to see in the end. Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, says,

(26:20):
both sides are going to be happy about some things
and not happy about other things.

Speaker 4 (26:24):
It seems about right.

Speaker 5 (26:25):
It seems about right, truthfully, And I think that's kind
of the way it goes here when you have Trump
who's trying to clean up the mess of those outside
of his influence and in some ways the administration before
as well. There's going to be there's going to have
to be some give and take for sure for both
sides here. But hopefully they can get that done for sure.
All right, folks. Moving now to the markets. So on Friday,
they were gearing towards closing the week mixed after something

(26:47):
of a mixed bag, though they did finish positive for
the week. By Friday, the Dow Jones finished just above
the flat line, the S and B five hundred was
down about a third, and then ASDAK down about two fifths.
But for the weekending August fifteenth, another good effort, the
dal Jones finished almost two percentage points positive, the S
and B five hundred and the NASDAK just under a
full percentage point positive for their respective indexes. Pre markets

(27:13):
this morning were mixed, and as we open up this morning,
they're still mixed right around the flat line. The Dow
is slightly above same with the Nasdaq. The S and
B five hundred is at the flat line as we
speak right now, So not a whole lot to look
at there. What's coming this week, folks, And I think
this is really kind of what the markets are sort
of waiting for, is we get the Fed's Jackson Whole summit.

Speaker 4 (27:34):
So that's coming.

Speaker 5 (27:35):
I think Friday is when FED Chair Jerome Powell will
be speaking at Jackson Hole. As of right now, there's
roughly an eighty five percent chance of a FED rate
cut in September. That's according to FED Fund's futures produce.

Speaker 7 (27:48):
That dropped over.

Speaker 5 (27:49):
That dropped a little bit, Sam, Yeah, really did I
remember last week? I think it was right around ninety
nine percent. Was about as certain as you could get, yes,
and then you had the PPI numbers came out. Then
it dropped around nine must have really dropped over the weekend.
So it's coming down a little bit. And Sam, again,
my theory with this is, I think that's exactly what
Jerome Palell wants. I think that as that comes down

(28:09):
a little bit, you know, in this power struggle between
him and Trump, He's able to gain a little bit
of the upper hand, which unfortunately kind of you know
my opinion on this, folks, I think that's become what
this is. I think this seems like it's a power
struggle where Jerome Palell, who is in charge of a
whole lot of things when it comes to the monetary
policy of our country, cares a little bit more about
winning this battle with Donald Trump than actually doing what's

(28:31):
best for the cost, or at.

Speaker 7 (28:32):
Least have the appearance I'm standing up to the president
and I'm not going to be bullied by him. I'm
going to stand firmly, even if it's not necessarily best
for the economy.

Speaker 5 (28:40):
Yeah, And unfortunately, that actually just ends up proving Trump's
point all along that pal should be gone, that he's
not fit for the job. If someone is going to
do something like this where they're now allowing personal grudges
to cloud their judgment, they're probably not fit for the job.

Speaker 4 (28:54):
So that's the way it's going. I don't know if
that's true or not.

Speaker 5 (28:57):
I'm just supposing I'm trying to use my common sense here,
but we are seeing that, Sam. I'll be curious to
see what the number is later on, right before the
Jackson Hole Summit later this week. But in terms of numbers,
not a whole lot. We get housing starts and building
permits out tomorrow. We do get the release of the
FOMC meeting minutes from last meeting on Wednesday, and then
we get existing home sales on Thursday, before, of course,

(29:18):
the Jackson Hole Summit on Friday, and POW will be
speaking then as well. We also get to earning season
winding down a little bit now here, folks. So I
saw an interesting stat this morning of more than ninety
two percent of S and P five hundred companies that
have already reported this quarter, almost eighty two percent have
surpassed Wallstreek's expectations.

Speaker 4 (29:38):
So it's been.

Speaker 5 (29:39):
Overwhelmingly a solid earning season thus far. This week, Sam,
we call it retail week, right, this is the big
big retail. So today we got Palo Alto. Tuesday, you
got home Depot, Wednesday got Low's Target and some others.
Thursday got Walmart. That's really the big hitter. I get
Ali Baba others Bjays as well.

Speaker 7 (29:59):
This will be interest too, because out of any of
the sectors, these guys are the ones who are going
to tell you what's going on with tariffs, how that's
affecting their profit margins and so on, because they're the
guys have to import the stuff to sell.

Speaker 5 (30:10):
It exactly that's exactly right. So hopefully that'll bring some
clarity on that for sure, Sam. Couple of interesting quick hitters,
and Sam, I love to get your thoughts on these
before we do a chat run down of the AG report.
So Trump is imposing some steel and chip import tariffs
starting next week. That'll be this week.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
Actually.

Speaker 5 (30:27):
We also get Intel shares skyrocketed late last week after
the report that the trumpemen is mulling taking a steak
in the chip maker.

Speaker 4 (30:34):
I find that pretty fascinating.

Speaker 7 (30:35):
Sam, I'm not sure what I think about that too. Yes, right,
because honestly, it feels like it's kind of like the
government picking winners and losers in the chip industry. I
get what Trump's thinking, he doesn't want to have Chinese
influence in the chip industry because there are questions about
the head of Intel. But still, my gut instinct is
I'm not a huge fan of that, exactly.

Speaker 5 (30:54):
I think I'm with you too, Sam, And actually you'll
tee up a headline we'll get too shortly. If we
don't have time before the agg we'll get to it after.
But there's continual talk of the question of should elected
officials be allowed to trade stocks. Scott Bessett actually spoke
to this last week. But we'll get to that in
a little bit, Sam, But anyway, I found that kind
of fascinating.

Speaker 4 (31:12):
It's kind of that same deal here.

Speaker 7 (31:13):
Well, I will say, with Trump continuing to come up
with these tariffs about in different industries, I think that's
also adding to the uncertainty because we were talking about
that with small businesses, they're quite uncertain at this time,
even though for the most part the trade deals are
about done. Scott bessen says they'll be all wrapped up
by October, but we kind of see all the pieces
coming together and are getting a feel for how this

(31:35):
is going to work. However, Trump keeps coming along with
these sector specific tariffs on different industries and that does
add a kink in the whole market. So I think
they're waiting for those to die down as well.

Speaker 5 (31:46):
Yeah, and the libertarian bones in me, which truthfully, there's
not many of them, but some of them are screaming no, no, no,
you can't do that.

Speaker 4 (31:53):
That's government interference, you know.

Speaker 5 (31:55):
So we'll just have to wait and see with that one,
for sure, Sam, I wanted to get your thoughts on
this one. The House Republicans, at least one of them,
is pushing a bill to make it easier for Trump
to fire the FED Chair.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
Now, I don't know if it's going. It might just
be not even worth.

Speaker 7 (32:10):
It, as things like political posturing to me get on
Trump's good side, keep FED Chair Powell in the headlines,
keep him as the punching bag.

Speaker 4 (32:16):
For trumply exactly.

Speaker 5 (32:18):
You know, it could be Listen, might be a dangerous
precedent to set because if something like that were to
go through and you don't have seat. Folks, we're operating
under the Trump administration right now, but we can't forget
just a mere one year ago, we were under a
very different presidential administration, and if that type of administration
has that kind of power, I might not be as

(32:38):
in favor of that, you know. So anyway, it's it's
just interesting things that we're seeing here, folks, as we
see the continuing battle between the White House and.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
The Federal Reserve.

Speaker 5 (32:48):
My hope and prayer, truthfully for both of these men
is that they will choose to operate not by lobbing
insults at each other or having grudges with each other,
but genuinely for what's best for the American people.

Speaker 7 (32:59):
So be a good The Fed needs to work with
the White.

Speaker 4 (33:01):
House exactly, exactly.

Speaker 5 (33:03):
So all right, folks, we got the acroport coming here,
and then we'll talk a little bit more on the
other side of this breakbout what's going on.

Speaker 4 (33:07):
Here's Craig Howard.

Speaker 6 (33:08):
This is Craig Holiguard with your financial issues. AG update
for August eighteen corn balance. As traders reacted to extreme
heat in the western corn belt, we saw a December
corn finished the day eight cents higher at four oh
five and a quarter. Beans also saw a balance from
the heat coming back in the forecast, along with a
better than expected crush report. The July crush came in
at one hundred and ninety five point seven million bushels,

(33:30):
as four million more than the trade was expecting. As
a result, November beans were fourteen cents higher at ten
forty two and a half. We'd also benefited from that
rally in the corn as it pulled winterweed higher. Although
Minneapolis decemberweed was two and three quarters cents lower at
five eighty nine and a quarter, we saw Kansas City
rise by two and a half cents, closing at five
twenty eight and a half, and Chicago was also two
and a half cents higher at five twenty seven. Gotten

(33:52):
futures struggled through another lethargic session to closing belt. We
had December futures fourteen points lower at sixty seven fifty five.
Livestock futures really surged on Friday. Traders have been focused
on the screwworm situation in Mexico, and on Friday, second
Day of Agriculture, Rollins held a press conference regarding the
New World's screwworm. Many across the markets were anticipating the

(34:13):
reopening of the border, which did not happen. The biggest
piece of the announcement was that the US plans to
build a seven hundred and fifty million dollars sterile fly
factory in Texas. Also planned to deploy one hundred million
dollars in technologies such as fly traps, lures, and tick
riders at the border, trying to prevent that screwworm from
coming in and infecting US herds.

Speaker 4 (34:31):
Rollins said the border will.

Speaker 6 (34:33):
Remain closed until the US can see the screworm being
pushed back further from our borders and what's Rollin said
the border was going to remain closed. Futures absolutely screamed higher.
October live cattle were up three dollars eighty two and
a half cents as they settled a two hundred and
thirty dollars and sixty five cents per one hundred way.
September feeder cattle rose by six dollars thirty two and
a half cents closing had three hundred and forty seven

(34:54):
dollars and thirty five cents per one hundred and October
LEENHA futures looked to ride higher as well. They're up
in ninety seven and a half cent closing out today
at ninety dollars and ten cents per one hundredweight. Class
female futures had a bit of a rebound on Friday
at the closed September was twenty points.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
Higher at eighteen thirty four.

Speaker 6 (35:10):
This has been Craig Holguard with your financial issues egg update.
We'll be right back with more financial issues after this.

Speaker 7 (35:28):
The opinions and recommendations expressed on this program do not
necessarily represent the opinions of the station or any of
the program's sponsors. Additionally, all products or services offered by
the program sponsors may not be known by the program.

Speaker 5 (35:45):
Thanks for hanging with us today, folks. Great to be
here with you all this morning. Nelson, Hello to you, George.
Both George is actually Big George and Little George. We've
got James in South Carolina. Good to see you there, James.
Lisa is here with us, John and Alabama's here with us, David,
Darlene from Virginia here with us as well. Who else
do we have on the chat this morning? A lot

(36:06):
of you who I mentioned are posting a lot, which
is great. Daniel from Tennessee, Hello Daniel, Jay in Texas.
Good to see you guys there as well. And I'm
sure our social media crew is popping as well. Uncle
John is there. Happy to have you all this morning.
It's a good time here. On financial issues, the markets here,
take another quick look. Everything slightly positive. Each of the
indices is just above the flat line as we sit

(36:29):
this morning. The US ten year treasury yields seem to
back off a little bit from their highs last week.
They're rried around four point three percent. Oil meanwhile is
sixty two almost and a half sixty two and about
a third dollars a barrel.

Speaker 7 (36:42):
It's called oil.

Speaker 4 (36:43):
That's exactly. That's right.

Speaker 5 (36:45):
If I was in the South, that's how I would sound,
and I would sound probably much more pleasing to the
years than I do with my sort of off brand
Philadelphia accent. But anyway, we're surviving, aren't we, folks. So Sam,
let's get to that headline what we teased at the
beginning there, right right before the AG report there. So
Scott Besson is now backing stock trading bands in Congress.

(37:07):
What can you tell us about this, Sam?

Speaker 7 (37:08):
Yeah, he's keeping this whole conversation alive about whether or
not lawmakers are allowed to or should be allowed to
trade stock, saying that, you know, the whole point of
Congress is to serve the people, yep, not to get
rich off of it. He's citing people like Nancy Pelosi
who have eye popping returns because of their time in Congress.
Probably all he can't prove it because of insider trading.

(37:29):
He said, the American people deserve much better than this.
I didn't say it, you know, No, no, no, he
implied it. He didn't say it, though. It's plausible deniabilities, right, absolutely. Yeah,
This of course comes as Republican Senator Josh Hollies currently
considering a bill we talked about it on the show
that would require newly elected or even re elected members
of Congress to divest their individual equities along with future

(37:52):
presidents and vice presidents. So that would not apply to
Donald Trump or jd Vance, that is, unless Jade Vance
becomes the next president. Trump has said he's at least
open to the idea at this time.

Speaker 5 (38:03):
Yeah, And you know what, it's interesting several of you
in the chat Nelson, I know you post the chat there,
George as well, talking about you know, the possibility of
can they trade stocks if there's basically full on accountability
for them, so they trade and they have to post
it right away.

Speaker 7 (38:15):
That's been an idea, right because that gives full transparency
and you could even let's say there is insider trading,
you could even theoretically benefit off of that if you're
watching how these lawmakers are trading, so in a weird way,
it's insider trading for the masses, so that could be
an idea. Currently, lawmakers are supposed to explain or share
what stocks they sell within thirty days. The problem is

(38:37):
thirty days doesn't mean too much in this rapidly moving market.

Speaker 4 (38:40):
Exactly, that's exactly right.

Speaker 5 (38:42):
So listen, here's the I might take a little more
of a hardline stance for this than most people do.
And I fully get, you know, the individual freedom of
all Americans. They should be allowed to do things like that,
like trade stocks. But I think I fall more in
the camp of I would rather my elected officials just
not be allowed to do that at all, or have
serious safeguards.

Speaker 4 (39:02):
For it, simply because Sam you know, think about this.

Speaker 5 (39:05):
As as a as a congressman, or as some kind
of elected official. You get a lot of benefits with that,
you also have to give some things up.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
It's the same with any kind of career.

Speaker 5 (39:17):
As a pastor, you give up having an off day
on Sundays. Sunday is now your workday. You preach on Sundays,
you do ministry on Sundays. Sunday's a work day. You
have to give certain things up if you pick certain careers.
And I do think that This could be a really
good thing, you know, it could be a really good
thing to have a president Trump had.

Speaker 7 (39:34):
To give up his businesses to become president.

Speaker 5 (39:36):
That's exactly right, That's exactly right, Sam, Am I am
I off base there?

Speaker 4 (39:40):
Do you think it's am? I am? I missing anything here?

Speaker 7 (39:42):
You know, I'd kind of want to split the baby. Personally,
I'm not opposed to saying that lawmakers can't trade stocks.
I think I take issue with Holly's bill where he
says they actually have to divest, get rid of all
their stuffs. I think a much better solution would be
to say, set up blind trust so that lawmakers can
own individual stocks. It's just they have no ability to
know what's being traded or what's being done with them.

(40:04):
Because I said this last week, we talked about it.
My issue is not even with insider trading. I really
don't care if you're gonna get rich off of these things.
My problem is are your individual stocks impacting your political decisions?
So I think if you have someone else managing your finances,
you're not allowed to know. You make a steel wall
around that, set up major safeguards. I think that's a

(40:25):
much better solution that.

Speaker 5 (40:26):
Could be a way to do it. I'm totally with you.
I would never be in favor of a forced liquidation
for something like that. So yeah, it's you know, it's
an interesting conversation, folks, speaking of interesting conversations.

Speaker 4 (40:36):
Sam and I.

Speaker 5 (40:37):
Even as we're getting into this, I'm questioning if we
should anyway, But you know what, we're going to do
it because we've got time to do it. Social Security
for security, Thank you, Sam, thank you so much. Barently
it's becoming more and more of a burden. What a surprise.
What can you tell us right down? The ninetieth anniversary?

Speaker 7 (40:53):
That was? That was last Thursday. So happy social Security.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
Happy birthday social Security.

Speaker 7 (40:57):
How do you celebrate Bye.

Speaker 5 (41:00):
Let's see cowering in a corner and just weeping as
I see my social Security tax being robbed for my
pay check.

Speaker 7 (41:07):
We get paid next week, this country week. Then you'll
get to sell. I'll save the weeping for that point,
belated social Security deb Yes, so yes, it was the
ninetieth anniversary of Social Security last week. And of course
the big question is is Social Security going to make
it to the one hundredth anniversary because insolvency is on
the horizon in the next ten years. And to avoid it, well,

(41:31):
it's not going to be too much fun for you
and I set It's estimated that Congress to keep it
afloat would need to increase the payroll tax by three
point six five percent. So what does that actually mean
in a vacuum. Doesn't mean too much. But analysis conducted
by the Cato Institute found that such a tax increase
would reduce lifetime earnings for twenty two year olds, so

(41:53):
people just entering the workforce right now this year by
over one hundred thousand dollars. So that's in present value.
So of course relation that could expand much much more.
And the question is how much are you going to
have to keep jacking up those prices over time? So
it could just get worse and worse to keep this
thing going. Yeah, absolutely, boy, Sam, here we go. You

(42:16):
did it, didn't you? You set me up here. I
have to poke the bear.

Speaker 5 (42:19):
That's right, you poke the bear. Listen, folks, let me
just remind you here. I have no problem. I have
no problem. If you're of the age of social security
and you can withdraw, go ahead and do it.

Speaker 4 (42:27):
Get it. Get it. While the getting's good, it might
not be there in a couple of years. Go for it.

Speaker 7 (42:31):
It's legal.

Speaker 5 (42:32):
You're not violating the commands of the law of God.
Knock yourself out. That said, here's my belief on it.
Social Security is a government handout that needs to be
done away with immediately.

Speaker 7 (42:43):
Should I mute him? Folks?

Speaker 4 (42:44):
Yeah right, it's.

Speaker 5 (42:47):
Yea.

Speaker 7 (42:48):
Let us know.

Speaker 5 (42:48):
I'm not I'm not saying it's a charity, all right.
I don't believe it's a charity. I think it's a handout.
Here's what happens. The US government legally robs you, steals
a portion of your paycheck throughout your work life, and
then gives you a tiny fraction of it back when
you're in your sixties and seven, which.

Speaker 7 (43:04):
They tax you.

Speaker 5 (43:04):
That is what happens, and they tax you on it
as well. Absolutely, and it's diminishing obviously, folks. I'm talking Listen.
People may hear this and think, oh, you know, Seth
is such a selfish millennialice.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
I'm actually thinking about my children more often.

Speaker 5 (43:18):
If there's going to be Social Security when my children
and grandchildren get to this age and the taxes have
to keep going up, how much of a burden is
it going to be on them. It's terrible. It's absolutely terrible.
It is a handout. The government steals it then hands
it back for less than it's worth. It needs to
be gone, folks, just has to. It's socialist by nature.
It reeks of what happens far too often when the

(43:39):
government sticks its nose and it's sticky fingers into something
that it does not belong, which is taking care of
the elderly. I am all for the elderly being taken
care of. I have family members who I love deeply,
who I want them to be taken care of. Biblically,
there's a solution for that. By the way, the first
response is family members. And if family can't take care

(44:00):
of elderly family members, then that burden falls to the
local church. That's according to First Timothy five. The government
is never mentioned in there once as the as the
the solution for this. It also, by the way, punishes
people for working hard. I really don't want that. So look, look, listen, folks,
I have no problem again, please hear me say this.

(44:21):
I have no problem with you drawing on it. You
paid into it, interestingly enough, just remember when you were
paying into it, someone else was drawing on it. And
now that you are drawing on it, it's someone else
who's paying into it, So you're technically not paying into
You're not getting the funds that you paid into.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
It's a it's a Ponzi s.

Speaker 7 (44:36):
It's built on other people buying into it, and they
have to buy into it. They're forced to.

Speaker 5 (44:40):
Yet what you are drawing on is from someone else,
not from what you drew into it. You paid for
those who went before you, and now it's your turn. Basically,
I have no problem with that, folks, It is what
it is. The problem I have is us being forced
to pay into it in the first place. It needs
to be addressed. It has to stop somewhere. How it stops,
I'm not exactly sure. Again, I think some kind of
cut off has to happen, and I think we need

(45:01):
a politician also who is courageous enough to make the tough.

Speaker 7 (45:04):
And Sadly, as much as I love Donald Trump, this
is where his populist instincts, which tend to do him
a lot of good, are getting in the way. He
knows that it's an unpopular thing to talk about.

Speaker 4 (45:13):
Exactly.

Speaker 7 (45:14):
I'm not for cutting people off from Social Security, but
I think we need to have a serious adult conversation
about this to because this is just not sustainable in
really anyone, both the people drawing on Social Security and
people like you and me who are paying.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
Into it right now, exactly exactly.

Speaker 5 (45:30):
I never want to cut someone's funding off, especially if
they're relying on it willy nilly. But Sam, you're right,
adult conversations need to happen, and it's the adults in
the room that need to make those conversations. We as
young adults, are trying to have those conversations and trying
to you know, figure that out. But I would prefer
not to have a system that undercuts individual freedom, that
punishes success, punishes innovation, encourages people to rely on the

(45:53):
all powerful government rather than on the God ordained system
that God himself set up, which is in your old age,
if you can't provide for yourself, family steps up and
provides for you. And if they can't or won't, then
the local church does. That's first Timothy five. You can
go read it right now if you want to. I
think far better options for relying on Social Security would
be investing well.

Speaker 4 (46:13):
I think saving well.

Speaker 5 (46:14):
I think working as long as you possibly can that
work is good, and let the government be government, and
let families and churches be families and churches what they're
supposed to be.

Speaker 4 (46:22):
Folks, Again, look, I want the elderly.

Speaker 5 (46:24):
To be cared for, but not not never from a defunct,
not working, frankly stupid government socialist program. I hope I
didn't make somebody really say out there, But folks, listen,
I hope you can hear me say that with all
charity and love.

Speaker 4 (46:38):
For sure.

Speaker 5 (46:39):
Obviously I'm not saying don't pay your taxes. I think
those taxes are foolish, but I think we do need
to pay them. Nonetheless, render unto Caesar that which is
Caesar's but hopefully would be a good steward of our
country to get people in office that can make good
laws that can be a benefit to everyone in the country.

Speaker 4 (46:54):
God bless you all. It was great to be here
with you, Lord Willing, we'll do it again tomorrow. Until then,
remember it's all his and faithful steward's.

Speaker 8 (47:00):
See, if we ever forget that we're one nation under God,
then we will be a nation gone under