Financial Issues - 08.19.2025

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 (00:24):
Good morning, Welcome to Financial Issues, folks. Great to be
here with you today, Seth, you dinski here with you
this morning, along with Sam Case the studio, a team
several guests joining me today. We've got a packed show.
Happy to be here with you, Sam Raider, rock and roll.
Let's do it, buddy, excited. I'm a professional, Seth, that's right.
That's always ready. Nine oh five always comes, and Sam
is always ready.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
I actually coned my hair today. If you'll watched yesterday's
morn a wild call it going on. That was just
to make things fun, that's right.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Sam was having a little party, you know, party in
the backup there. But we're all good today, so great stuff, man, Hey,
busy show, folks. Economist Michael Austin of the National Center
for Public Policy Research is Project twenty twenty one. Excuse me,
Project twenty one is going to join me to discuss
the sector ingredient to excuse me. The item the secret

(01:10):
ingredient to economic growth. See, here's the problem, Sam, When
I put things in the show notes wrong, I read
them wrong, and that's what I was doing right there.
The secret ingredient to economic growth betray you, My notes betrayed. Really,
that's the lesson, folks, is don't get chained to your notes. Also,
international speaker and author Nick Vuyachik joins me. He's going
to share his insight on Donald Trump's recent news that

(01:33):
he was debanked. We've had Nick on the program before
and he briefly shared his own experience with d banking.
So he's going to talk a little bit more in
depth with us about that. I'm excited for. You don't
want to miss that. You're calls in questions as well.
Also this question, is friendship too expensive to be worth it?
Apparently a lot of people think so we'll discuss later
on what the friends choose money. That's right, Are you

(01:56):
either choosing money or friendship? We'll talk about that later on. Folks,
be on the lookout for the partner commentary out in
the next couple days, next twenty four hours or so.
If you are a partner and speaking of which partners.
We do have a conference call this Thursday, twelve pm
Central time, one pm Eastern time. You don't want to
miss it. It's going to be a great time hearing
Shanna's wisdom. Of course, that will be posted as well

(02:18):
after the fact, but try to make plans if you
can join us live for that conference call again. That'll
be this Thursday, twelve pm Central time, one pm Eastern time,
and you should expect an email to go out soon
giving you the call in number for that call. All right,
folks in the economy, here, let's start with earnings. So
home Depot reported earnings this morning. They actually missed both
on earnings per share and on revenue. They still expect

(02:41):
a full year total sales growth by two point eight percent,
but this was the first time since May twenty fourteen
that home Depot missed both earnings and revenue expectations. Still,
the company is holding fast, saying it has no plans
to increase prices because of tariffs. So that was kind
of the first of our big retailailers to report. We'll
also get Walmart, we'll get Target. I think we get

(03:03):
Lows later on this week. Sam and Bjay's as well
that's right.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
It'll be interesting to see how Lows compares to home
Depot because they're in very similar markets. So wet to see.
Is this a company problem or is this an industry problem,
perhaps tied to the housing market.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yep, it is encouraging at least to see home Depot
one of them. I know not all businesses are doing this,
but whenever companies say they're not planning at increase prices
in spite of the tariffs, I think that's a good thing.
So good stuff to see there, markets. Let's move there now, folks.
Markets open the week slightly in a downward direction as
they awaited housing numbers from this morning as well as
and we'll get to those in just a moment, by

(03:36):
the way, as well housing numbers and earnings reports, and
of course looming later on this week is the Jackson
Hole Summit speech from FED chair Jerome Pale. So by midday,
indicies just below the flat line. The S and P
and the Nasdaq flirted with a positive day. It ended
up being that the Nasdaq was the loan winner, but
all the indusices finished basically at the flat line. The
Dow and the SMP were just below, and the Nasdaq

(03:57):
slightly above pre markets this morning, We're down slightly following
that earnings call from home Depot. As of right now,
the dal Jones is pricing into open positive about a
fifth of our percent SMP and the Nasdaq looking to
continue in a negative direction like they were yesterday. All right, Sam,
One of the big news stories we've talked about the
last twenty four hours in the new cycle has been

(04:17):
what's going on with Russia and Ukraine. What have you
got for us, Sam, Because we were talking about this
on yesterday's show. There were still some meetings to come
as Trump was meeting with Zelenski and also some of
the other European leaders in the White House. So give
us just a recap of what was going on there.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, I'll give you a quick update. We'll go into
too much detail, but it is important to keep our
eye on this as the markets are also keeping at
least one of their eyes on this, and they're a
little nervous about how this is going to go. So
yesterday that meeting was attended not just by Ukrainian President
Voladimir Zelenski, although he did have a one on one
with President Trump, but also numerous European leaders a couple
fantasy someone.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
I'm told he also wore a suit.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
He did wear a suit, Yes, you know, it looked
pretty good on him. I thought he looked a tad
like Dracula, but he's from you know, Easter from that,
so it checks out, works outly. Sorry about that anyway. Yeah,
so they had their meeting. Trump said the main focus
of the discussion with security guarantees that will, by the way,
be provided by Europe, although the US will coordinate that.
So that is a relief for some in the Maga

(05:14):
bas who say we don't want to get involved too
much with Ukraine. In fact, they say we're already way
too involved as it is. Meanwhile, however, the big news
to come out of the meeting is that Trump did
announce on True's social that he began arranging a trilateral
meeting between Zelenski and Putin that Trump himself will also attend.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Good stuff, Sam, I do appreciate you bringing that up.
I think it is worth noting here, folks that Trump
is dealing with two people who I think might be
a little more similar than they would like to admit.
Everyone knows Ladimir Putin is basically a dictator. But did
you know that elections in Ukraine have actually been suspended

(05:53):
until further notice, So Zelenski keeps his power as long
as Ukraine is at war. That's a little bit dictatorial
to me as well. Trump is dealing with both these guys.
Trump's goal here is peace, and I think that hopefully
that seems to be the goal for the rest of
the world. We'll have to see if that is true
for Ukraine and Russia as well, but hopefully that comes out. Sam.

(06:14):
I was very encouraged to hear that, because I don't
think we've had this much progress since the war began,
just I mean, at least in terms of those talks.
So I think that's good stuff there. We'll have to
see what comes of that, Sam. Do you know is
there a timetable for when this meeting will be No.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
All we're going off of is Trump's true social He
says he's arranging a meeting, no other details than that.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Okay, sounds good. Sounds good, So we'll keep an eye
on that, Folks. Of any news breaks, you'll be sure
to hear it from here. We did get some housing
data out this morning as well. Sam, you want to
give us the latest on this one. Also, that's right.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
So we did get some housing data, specifically housing starts,
so totally, US housing starts were up five point two
percent in July to an annual rate of one point
four two eight million, twelve percent higher, actually close to
thirteen percent higher than in July twenty twenty four. Single
family home star were up two point eight percent to
over or exactly nine hundred and thirty nine thousand annualized. Meanwhile,

(07:06):
building permits they were actually down two point eight percent,
with single family permits remaining flat.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Thank you so much for that, Sam. Appreciate that existing
home sales are going to come out Thursday morning, so
we'll get a little more insight on what's happening there.
Builders seem to be in wait and see mode, much
like the Federal Reserve. So a lot of people in
wait and see mode. It seems like, all right, Sam,
we got a question yesterday. Keith, who's seventy eight years old,
was asking, so Shanna had mentioned something yesterday, God and

(07:33):
give us Keith's question there and we'll talk about that.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
Yeah, Keith is wondering about how Shanna mentioned a company
that Warren Buffett had recently purchased. He said, I had
trouble hearing you're clearly about what that stock was. I
looked at the broad list for all codes with twenty six.
I'm just not sure which one you're speaking about.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Keith, thanks for asking. Wasn't yesterday's first segment. The company
Shannon was referring to is c D twenty six. C
D twenty six is currently on our by list, one
of our home builders on our buy list right now,
so on August fourteenth, and if you're a partner, you
know what company this is. And if you're not a partner,
you can probably do some research on it and figure
it out anyway. But on August fourteenth, Berkshire Hathaway indicated

(08:10):
they'd be investing in this particular holding as well in
their thirteen F filing. And this is what Shannon was
referencing yesterday. So, Keith, hope that can helpful for you folks.
It's interesting when we talk about Warren Buffett. He's kind
of a strange character for us in biblically responsible investing
because he is not biblically responsible. Berkshire Hathaway is not
biblically responsible. Berkshire Hathaway's investment in this company does not

(08:31):
make it non biblically responsible. That is, this company CD
twenty six Berkshire Hathaway itself is not biblically responsible. Now
that said, Warren Buffett is a great model when it
comes to being well diversified and being very very long term.
I've heard some things, Sam. I'm not sure if it's
exactly true, but I have heard that Warren Buffett has

(08:52):
been investing in certain holdings that he's held since the
nineteen sixties. You imagine that, Imagine how much appreciation he's
had on those.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
He's also really good at not letting his emotions get
the best of them. He made, for sure, quite a
bit of money off of the eight crash because he
saw it as a buying opportunity, yeap, not a selling opportunity,
much like our founder.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Dan Celia, who never got out and never lost money.
That's what happened with Warren Buffett as well. So a
great lesson there also a good model of living well
within your mee and Sam and I've looked into this
a little bit. If you research Warren Buffet's house, it's
not extravagant. The guy's worth like one hundred and forty billion,
and he lives in a rather you know, it's a
nice house, but it's not like your typical mansion that
you might see someone with a over one hundred billion

(09:32):
dollar net worth living in. It's fascinating there, so a
good lesson for us there. Nonetheless, couple quick hitters here
before we moved to our interview with Michael coming up.
In just a moment, Michael Austin Scott Besson said, we
saw us this morning. Interviews for really what he's calling
an incredible group of potential FED chairs will start after
Labor Day, so we'll get some talks there.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
What a big list eleven people so far.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yep, absolutely, and some some you know, more well known names,
some not as well known. All so, the DC Police
Union is saying eight percent crime drop when the Feds arrive,
so crime has already been dropping in DC. Of course,
Democratic politicians are complaining and calling this an overreach of power.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
They are publicly, but Joe Scarborough on MSNBC, a liberal himself,
says all his liberal friends, including politicians and media members,
are privately texting him saying, you know, we can't say
this out loud, but we actually really like that Trump's
doing this. See that's so frustrating. Why can't they say
that out loud? Why can't MSNBC just report what's happening.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
It's because they are owned and bought and really owned
by deep state, left leaning politicians. That's what it is, folks.
It really is frustrating. Just a good reminder that you
need to use good wisdom and truth and keep following us,
because we're going to give you the true news from
a Christian world view here on this show. Coming up next,
Michael Austin of the National Center for Public Policy joins me.

(10:51):
We'll be right back after the streat stuff. Welcome back, folks,
going to be here with you today on financial issues. Hey,
I have a special guest joining me on the program
this morning. I've got Michael Austin. Now. Michael is of

(11:13):
the National Center for Public Policy. Our friends over there.
We so appreciate the work that the National Center does
in encouraging the free market and freedom in general for Americans.
Michael serves as the Project twenty twenty one member. He's
a free market economic consultant, President of the Knowledge and
Decisions Economic Counseling excuse me, economic Consulting and he's also

(11:33):
a professor of economics. On with me this morning. Michael,
I appreciate you joining me so much today. Thanks for
taking time out of your busy day.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
Well, thanks for having me. Really appreciate being here.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yes, sir, you're very welcome. Let's begin here. Last week
we saw national debt reaching unfortunately a rather inglorious record, Michael,
thirty seven trillion dollars. Yay, As we all say, you know,
one of the biggest issues that we have seen in
recent days in our nation, no matter the political leaning
of the ruling administration, unfortunately is unchecked fiscal spending and

(12:04):
in many times foolish fiscal spending. Michael. Recently you pend
an article on the National Center's website exploring quote, the
secret ingredient to economic growth, and you shared that this
secret ingredient is spending limits. What does this realistically look
like in our country?

Speaker 4 (12:21):
Well, thank you very much. Let me kind of start
off saying that America grows when prices are stable, when
budgets are honest, when people are free to trade, and
so highlighting exactly what you've talked about. Federal debt has
grown about forty seven trillion. I think the latest CBO
numbers have the most recent deficit now maybe about almost
two trillion dollars. And then if you look at the economy,

(12:45):
while it's resilient, it's also mixed. You know, we had
great GDP growth of three percent on the employment rate
of four point two, Inflation is at two percent, and
yet when you look under the hood, when you see
things like manufacturing, it's not growing as fast as we
would like. It doesn't really have the underpinnings of a
very strong economy. And I think largely that has to

(13:05):
do with federal government still being in the way for
many opportunities of progress for many families and businesses out there.
So when I talk about the secret ingredient to economic growth,
what I'm really talking about is how do we get
government to grow or you need to go out of
the way in order for the private sector to grow.
And maybe that means that we have to implement a
sort of spending limit, not some arbitrary, you know, take

(13:28):
a hatchet to the leg type spending limit, but a
spending limit tied to economic growth. And the US economy grows,
allow government to grow. But when the US economy is not,
government always will make sure that it keeps itself back.
It's a secret ingredient that I believe you want to
make sure that the federal government never grows faster than
the private economy.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
And so, Michael, how does this come about? Does it
start from the top? Is going to start with the
president or does it start at the grassroots? Or is
it somewhere in between.

Speaker 4 (13:57):
Well, I think the best answer for that is probably
be both right. You can well certainly have Donald a
president Donald Trump institute a type of present executive limit
through an executive order, or of course you can get
a groundswall of folks telling their elected congressmen and senators
that they need to institute that type of spending limit.
But clearly, when you want government to change, you need

(14:20):
both a top top and a bottom up approach to
do so. And I think it most certainly can be done.
One of the best reasons why is you can see
it here at the state level. There are many states
across the US that are actually tinkering at it with
this type of plan. Finding is that they can institute
a sort of limit on spending in order to make

(14:40):
sure that state government doesn't grow fast than the private sector.
And if it can be done at the states, and
it's only a matter of time that we can see
that happen at the federal level as well.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Now, let me ask you this, Michael. Every single president
that I can remember of says they want to do this,
they intend to do this, they intend to fix the
issue of unchecked fiscal spending, and then almost none do.
And that's sad that that is the reality. Why is
that and what needs to change from that level?

Speaker 4 (15:08):
Well, perhaps you can make a statement or make an
argument that the issue really comes down to the political level,
But I would say that there are plenty of presidents,
and there are plenty of times where Congress itself, you know,
believe the very same thing. You know, talking about let's say,
research done by economist Thomas ol He talks about for
the first one hundred and fifty years of America's existence,

(15:30):
every time that there was an economic procession, the federal
government did absolutely nothing.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
And yet for.

Speaker 4 (15:37):
Those one hundred and fifty years, those recessions, you know,
reversed themselves as quickly as they came. About how does
the federal government did nothing? And yet what we saw
in the twentieth century with the president's Woodrow Wilson and
then FDR came about this belief that government had to
be involved and had to meddle, and unfortunately it had
to prive out the private sector every time there was

(15:59):
an economic and yet every time it did that, sessions
became longer and longer. So, frankly, we just need to
get out of this mindset that you need, you know,
government in order to fix the problem that most likely
government created in the first place. If you want to
fix processions, if you want to get the geonomy growing again,
you have to start with the source, which is federal

(16:19):
government itself being too big and too onerous for businesses
and payments.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
And you're exactly right, Michael. That of course comes with
us having a stewardship responsibility to elect officials who understand
the danger of government. And it's hard to find people
like that, brother, because I think a lot of people
get into politics, maybe with good intentions, but they see
the power, they see the money, they see the prestige,
and maybe it starts to cloud their judgment a little bit.

(16:44):
What are some other things, Michael, that we as non
political members can do to help move the needle in
the right direction here.

Speaker 4 (16:52):
That's a great point one thing I would say is
work with the government that's close to you.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
Right.

Speaker 4 (16:57):
Yeah, sometimes it could be difficult to get your Congress
to hear your particular email or your senator. But you know,
you as an individual have immense control at your local level,
at your state level, and that's one way where you
can not only see immediate change, but it can serve
as a roadmap for the federal government to follow as well.
So I would say, be involved in your local politics,

(17:18):
of course, be involved in your local economy, and try
to get changes that can make your life better immediately
at either that local level or the state level. And
then let's try to scale that up to what we
can see downe at Washington.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
It's great, Michael, you know, speaking of Washington, d C.
Of course, some of the big news coming out of
DC as it pertains to fiscal spending is the big
beautiful bill. And that's really what I kind of want
to go next here. What do you make of all
of it? In light of what we just discussed. There's
a lot of good stuff in it. I think there
are some things that are unnecessary, and there is also
a hefty price tag. What do you make of the
big beautiful bill.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
Well, sure, let me reiter it again. I think the
US economy still remains resilient, right, three percent GDP growth,
low unemployment, strong markets. But as I said before, I
think that there's more beneath the surface. There's still plenty
of price pressures that are lingering in specific sectors. Business
sentiment is still kind of soft, and I think that
is a call not just for rate relief, but it's

(18:13):
just a call for pro growth policy. And so when
we talk about the one big Beautiful Bill, one couple
of great things I like in that bill is the
massive deregulation it's doing not only that, but it's also
creating a relatively smaller federal footprint. Yeah, there's not much
in terms of spending restraint, but I still think it's
a step in the right direction, opening market, unleashing productivity,

(18:36):
reducing pressures on the federal reserve to solve problems by
monetary policy alone. There's a lot of good things here. Obviously,
the fact that it made permanent the Tax Cuts and
Jobs Act, which is also immense. You're talking about let's say,
folks here in Kansas City, saving about twenty five to
almost three thousand dollars a household just by keeping those

(18:57):
tax cuts permanent. Those are also a good thing. Now
that that has passed, what we need to see is recision,
and we need to see a more paired backed federal government.
Now that we've got great tax policy and good regulator
policy in now we need to make sure we check
the last bastion of federal government growth, which is its unchecked.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
And Michael and your estimation, if you had the presidenc
here right now, how would you advise him to do that?
What does Trump need to do to achieve that goal?

Speaker 4 (19:25):
Well, what I would say is do as much as
you can under the executive level and get Congress to
codify it. Right, So, the president has a mental authority
to scale back, to scale back a lot of discussionary spending,
but it's not going to be permanent. As soon as
he leaves office, the next president, whether it's a Democrat
or maybe even another Republican, will just could just institute

(19:47):
those spending back in. So whatever has done, it has
to be done with the approval of Congress as well.
Not only that, but I would also advise them that
while we're seeing great GDP growth, while the stock market
is at Record Hie. There bill a lot of underlying
productivity issues, particularly in manufacturing, and frankly I would ask
him to, you know, double check and recheck, if not revise,

(20:11):
what he's been doing on tariffs. The fact of the
matter is that terroriffs are still attacked on the American people,
and a lot of manufacturing, whether they know it or not,
are sourcing materials from overseas, and whether you raise prices
overseas or whether they're forced to look at domestic producers,
they're going to be seeing price hikes. Nonetheless, the latest

(20:31):
PPI index unfortunately showed that. So if he really wants
to get manufacturing growing again, he has to find ways
to lower prices across the board, and unfortunately we're i
sting in terms of his terror policies doing the exact opposite.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
Michael, so appreciate your expertise sharing all those things with us.
I'd like to take the time we have left for
you to tell us a little bit about yourself. This
is your first time on the show, and I'm thrilled
that you have a chance to meet our audience and
them you as well. We're familiar with the National Center,
but not as much with Project twenty with Project twenty one.
Can you tell us about this and how you promote
free market economics through it?

Speaker 4 (21:06):
Sure? So Project twenty one is effectively a consortium under
that National Center of African American Conservatives. We really believe,
of course, African Americans are not a monolith, as opposed
to maybe what you might hear the LEF say, and
so they try to promote as many different voices from
African Americans as is possible. And even among our Publican

(21:27):
Party or among conservatism, you'll find a wide array of
different thoughts, a diversity of opinion, if you will. And
so my background of courses in economics, I teach microeconomics
at a university here in Kansas. Obviously I consult with
many organizations and businesses across the state when it comes
to economic development or or budgets or tax policy. And

(21:49):
so I personally believe in free markets, and I really
appreciate Project twenty one for allowing me to use my
voice to speak to many folks across the country about
how we can get government pare itself back and promote
more freedom, because that ultimately is the best key for
human flourishing and consperity.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well said Michael, I appreciate that so much. Tell us
I'd referenced in an article that you had written recently.
How can our audience read more of your work and
how can they learn more about what you do?

Speaker 4 (22:18):
Sure you can find me for some social media at
KS Economists, and that's either x or Facebook at KS economist.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Awesome, Well, Michael, we appreciate you joining us so much
on the program here. Brother. I'm so grateful for you
sharing your expertise with us, and you know, it was
very helpful for me to think kind of holistically about
everything that's going on here. A lot of good things
that the Trump administration is doing. They of course, are
merely a human instituted presidential administration, and so of course

(22:48):
that's such a good reminder for us here at our ministry.
And I'm sure you share these sentiments as well, Michael,
that we need to first place our trust in God
Almighty and do our best to steward our country. Well, so, Michael,
thank you very much, Yes, sir, absolutely thank you for
joining us today on the program. Michael, and I really
do look forward to the next time that I get

(23:08):
to have you back on brother. It was a blessing.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
I hope to be back soon. It was It was.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
Fun, absolutely, folks. Again, that's Michael Austin. You can check
out his work. Best place to go is the Nationalcenter
dot org and then on that page you can click
on the Project twenty the Project twenty one button and
that takes you to you know, Michael's profile and some
of the work that he has done as well. So
go and check that out today at the National Center
for Public Policy Research. We've got more financial issues coming

(23:33):
up right after this break, folks. You don't want to
miss it. We'll be right back after this. Welcome back, folks,

(24:06):
going to be here with you today. I've got another
special guest on the program with me. Very delighted and
honored to have Nick Vuyachik on the program. Nick is
the founder of Nick v Ministries. You can learn more
about them at Nick Vministries dot org. Nick is a
international speaker, author and is actually going to be traveling

(24:27):
very soon to Central America to bring the gospel to
several different countries down there. We're so excited to hear
about that. He's also the founder of the Pro Life
Bank pro Life Fintech, and so he was born with
a very unique physical challenge, of course, but it has
not stopped him from bringing the message of the Gospel
to the nations. Nick, it's a pleasure to have you
back on our show. Brother welcome, So thank you so
much for having me. I appreciate you absolutely. Let's jump

(24:49):
in right away, Nick. Several weeks ago, we heard some
news that Donald Trump apparently had been debanked by not
just one, but several big name banks. Now I know, Nick,
that is a recent addition to your very fascinating testimony
of having been d banked as well. It's obvious with
Donald Trump that this was probably because of his conservative
political leaning. Let's start here, Nick, speak to this as

(25:12):
someone who got d banked yourself. What's your reaction to
know that even the President of the United States can
also be subject to this.

Speaker 5 (25:19):
Well, it's not surprising, you know. Once we started speaking
about my experience in April twenty nineteen, before cancel culture
was coined, there were many people that reached out to us,
and we had many conversations with actually some large ministries
as well, who started gathering databases of small and medium
sized businesses being canceled by some of the large banks,

(25:42):
and unfortunately even with the current administration, we're still hearing
that even in Q one of twenty twenty five, there
is one of these larger banks that's going just going
left right with churches actually and not being so discreen
as they used to be actually, And so it's it's

(26:05):
interesting to also learn that it's this common now that
five state legislators have actually made a law that no
longer can banks cancel a client without course. So when
when we have to now start putting this in state legislation, Uh,
it's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
Well said brother. So it seems like, as you said,
President Trump, the administration taking action to stop this. I
found this interesting, Nick. You know, banks are actually putting
the blame on FDIC rules relating to reputational risk. Can
you speak to that for just a moment. How does
that play into the d banking issue?

Speaker 5 (26:45):
You know, the only way that that kind of plays
into it is if you're doing wiring, you know, with
these close countries and you know, as we've seen countries
that were open and then closed and kind of like
the red flag oh go zones it we're only like
four or five countries at that point, and it's it's

(27:05):
interesting to understand that, no, it's not really FDICE in
our opinion. In fact, the first kind of company that
was debanked was back in twenty sixteen, and it was
more of the ammunition companies. And if you go back,
there are some things that people could say, well, it's

(27:28):
framed as FDIC, and we know, we don't believe it is.
We just believe it's actually the private companies that can
click and click buttons. And actually we have seen quite
a wave of conservative Christians and Christian owned companies and
churches being targeted. And I think it's it's I think

(27:52):
it started back in twenty sixteen, and no, I don't
believe it's FDIC. And yeah, we have our own d IS.
We can't prove of anything right now, but yeah, it's interesting.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Sure, and Nick, speak to those those churches now who
went through this experience as you did. Also, what kind
of encouragement would you give to someone who is fearful
of being debanked or is going through has gone through
the process. What would you tell them?

Speaker 5 (28:16):
Yeah, look, just take one day at a time. But honestly,
there's one message here Seth where it's about you know,
not being d banked.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
But the other real.

Speaker 5 (28:26):
Most core message is actually being good stewards of God's wealth.
So we imagine Jesus prayed that we'd all come together
in unity. Imagine all the Christian Church as Christian schools
coming together and moving away from woke large banks that
actually take then God's money, make money on God's money,

(28:49):
and then they do their own tithing, but they actually tithe,
if you will, if we can use the Christianese word,
they feel and properly give to nonprofit organizations that do
not line up with biblical or Judeo Christian values. And
so when we've realized that the larger banks were supportive,
very generous support to pro choice planned parenthood abortion providing

(29:13):
organizations as well, now Planned Parenthood now being the biggest
funder of hormone altering drugs for minors. And so it
actually comes back to a conviction are we being good
stewards with God's wealth, whether that's in investments, whether that's
trading stocks, but now even with banking choices, why not

(29:36):
see a unity coming on a conservative Christian fund affront
where ten percent, as an example, pro life fintech, we
actually give to biblically aligned nonprofit organizations and making Kingdom
impact without banking choices.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
And Nick, that was where I really wanted to go next.
This whole experience led you to start pro life fintech
as really kind of a CounterPunch to this. How did
you go about this and what are the values that
pro life fintech stands for. I think obviously the name
kind of gives it away a little bit that you
are pro life, but it's not just that you're a
Christian bank. How do you guys operate?

Speaker 5 (30:16):
Yeah, we're not a Christian bank per se, a bank bank.
We're not a brick and mortar. We have the brick
and mortar bank, Regent Bank, that has footprints in several states,
including Oklahoma, which is where they were founded. In Texas,
they just opened up one in Frisco here and I
live in Texas, and I feel like there is an
incredible movement of people understanding that this is a pioneering

(30:40):
CounterPunch where we can use incredible technology.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
It being continually morphing in a.

Speaker 5 (30:49):
Very normally a slow evolving industry. In the banking industry
has now become supersonic and it's just being crazy fast
seeing fintech financial technologies at play where Normally a brick
and mortar would digitize a side core banking system to
have a digital online platform. We, on the other hand,

(31:12):
Pro Life Fintech is more like an island popping up
out of the middle of the ocean and then building
a bridge to the mainland to the brick and mortar.
And when we have a brick and mortar charter sponsor
region Bank, we're also providing that FDIC insurance coverage for
our customers and clients, and we have personal checkings, money
market and savings accounts. And then with our joint venture

(31:35):
agreement with Regent, we're able to open up corporate accounts
with them, trust accounts with them, and we earmark them
as PLF pro Life Intech. And this is the beginning,
we believe of an alignment of like minded Christian bankers
all across the country and actually forming an alliance together

(31:57):
where we can see God honored in our banking decisions
like ever before. So this is just the beginning. We
believe one day we'll have a brick and mortar, not
that we need it, but we feel that would be
one step and also in step in the right direction
of wealth management. One day as well. We really believe
that gen Z, especially when they're really understand that, yes,

(32:18):
we need to be great stewards of every dollar of guards.
I think this is going to be quite a giant movement.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
Well, Nick, it's right in line with what we talk
about often on the show, Brother, And it's exciting to
get to promote you guys here and get to hold
you guys up a little bit to kind of see
how that works. That's fantastic, man, Hey, Nick, tell us
quickly here, how can our listeners learn more about pro
life Fintech.

Speaker 5 (32:40):
Yeah, if you go to prolifefintech dot com, you'll see
our board, our information, some videos there, are listing of
products there as well, and you can click on open
an account and you can choose either opening up a
business account with Regent or personal checking savings money market
account with And we're really excited about the beginnings of

(33:02):
where we're at. And yeah, go check it out for
life fintech dot com.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Absolutely, Brother, And as we were just talking during that
break there, you were sharing with me some of what
you're you're doing personally as you're going to be traveling
to Central America to preach the gospel. Tell our listeners
about this, This is so exciting.

Speaker 5 (33:18):
Yeah, Nickfeministries dot org will actually be doing on our
social media handles an incredible opportunity that opened up. We're
doing five countries over six days when in Guatemala, Honduras,
Costa Rica and Belize and Al Salvador and God Willing
will be meeting to presidents this week and preaching the
gospel of forty percent of the population of these countries

(33:40):
in a week. And so Nickfeministries dot org, we're actually
celebrating our twentieth anniversary as the ministry and we're really
excited about that. And check it out Nickbeministries dot org.
And for you to send us two more missions, you
can go to send map dot org.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
That's awesome. And last thing, Nick, I know you guys
are working on a dot documentary right now and we
had John last time. He told us a little bit
about it. Just remind our listeners about this process, how
it's going and how we can watch this documentary once it,
you know, comes out.

Speaker 5 (34:09):
Thank you Seth so much. Yeah, go to Nick Vteam
dot com and you can check out the trailer of
No Limbs, No Limits. It's a film that's a documentary
about my life in the beginnings, and my mum's in it,
my genitor is in it. Who's the first person to
actually say that I'm going to be a speaker and
organize my first speech. And so it's a beautiful showing
of that no limbs, no limits. Nickbteam dot com. Go

(34:32):
there and there's updates there as well. So not only
can you share the trailer, but there's going to be
some announcements in how we can all participate in the
p and A funding as well. We're really excited. Twenty
fifth and September twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
That's awesome. Well, Nick, you're a blessing and an inspiration
to all of us. You know, obviously having no limbs
has not stopped you from preaching the gospel worldwide, brother,
and so keep on doing it. Man, it's wonderful to
have you on the show.

Speaker 4 (34:55):
Nick.

Speaker 5 (34:55):
Thank you so much, brother, Thank you, Seth, God bless
you and everyone there.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Absolutely, folks again, that's Nick buya chicking. Check them out
Nickvministries dot Org Again, Nickbministries dot Org. I'll be sure
to put those links that Nick mentioned there in the
chat for pro Life Viintech for the documentary as well.
Great to have Nick joining me on the show today.
More financial issues right around the corner after this break.

Speaker 6 (35:15):
Stick with us.

Speaker 7 (35:34):
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 2 (35:51):
Thanks for being with us here on financial issues, folks.
It was great to have those guests there. Steven from
Oklahoma and the chat saying, I love having great guests
on the program. I need to Steve, and it's really
nice to be able to have people like that who
we can hold up and champion and see what they're
doing and hopefully, you know, present to you some of
the things that they're doing.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
As well than bad guests on them.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
That's right, that's right. We don't have bad guests or
even goofy guests. We want good guests. And so it
was great to have both Michael and Nick on the show.
Just now. Hey, James, I appreciate you asking your question
brother about the tracker there. I'm going to follow up
with you there.

Speaker 8 (36:25):
Man.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
I'm not sure how much more help I'll be able
to give in the chat, but I'll follow up after
the show and try to get to the bottom of
your tracker issue there. So I appreciate you asking that
and bringing that up. Folks, Just remind her partner conference
call is this Thursday. That's August twenty first, Thursday, twelve
pm Central time, one pm Eastern time. We also have

(36:47):
a petition right now by the way up on Financial
Issues dot org. This is very important. Make sure to
make a note of this. Our petition for Tesla. We
got almost five hundred signatures on it right now. We
are going to close that petition down on Friday of
this week, so you've got about four days left. If
you have not signed that petition, please go do so.
The clock is ticking, that's right pressure, so you got

(37:08):
to go sign it right now. Folks. I know we
have several thousand listeners every day, so the large portion
of you who are listening right now have not signed
the petition, So go do it right now. Make sure
you get it signed before Friday. We'll close the petition
down on Friday because eventually we got to send this
thing over to Elon Musk, so we're gonna do that
on Friday. But make sure that you sign it, folks,
as soon as you get the chance, Tell your friends,
tell your church, tell your family, and let's really make

(37:31):
an impact here, trying to change the course of what
Tesla's doing. So many on the chat. We mentioned Steven,
We mentioned James Nelson, Daryl. Good to see you guys.
Uncle John there as well, Brian and Kara, George, good
to see you. Also on the chat Jason and Oklahoma.
Great to see you there as well. My friend Lisa's
there also. Let's see here, we've got the AG report
coming here, Craig Halgard, and then we'll ask the question

(37:53):
is friendship just getting a little too expensive? Before that,
here's Craig Halgard.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
Actually, we don't have the we don't have a past
bubble shocker.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
We're still back now. That's okay, I can do it
right now. No, actually, yea, I used to try to
do the AG Sam and it's tough man. Craig really
does a good job. Way back in the day, Dan
used to try to do the AG too. This was
back before we ever known.

Speaker 3 (38:15):
Okay, good news, we have it now.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
We do have the AG okay, so why don't we
do the AGG report now? And then we'll talk about
friendship being too expensive. Here's Craig Howard with today's ad.

Speaker 8 (38:24):
This is Craig Howguard with your financial issues. AGG update
for August nineteenth. Well, the past few days have seen
big rains in Minnesota through western Wisconsin as well as
across much of northern Iowa, and much of the rest
of the corn belt has been and then kill them
like weather, making traders wonder if this corn crop is
cooking off the top end of its potential now. The
pro Farmer crop Tour started yesterday and traders are going

(38:45):
to spend this week eagerly looking at the updates coming
from that tour and seeing how they match up with
the USDA's record crop projections. There was just enough uncertainty
yesterday to give us a higher close with December corn
a penny in a quarter higher at four oh six
and a half sub means in the middle of a
tuckle war that's ongoing in the product space. Soybeans are
pulling up by soybeans oil value to the biofuel industry

(39:07):
and being pulled down by soybean meals value to the
export and feeding industries. Yesterday, meal was leading the tug
of war with November beans opennion a quarter lower at
ten forty one and a quarter. We was lower, with
all three classes hoovering near contract lows. Traders seemed to
be reacting to the peace talks with Russia and Ukraine,
as an end of the war is seen as opening
up more wheat flow from the Black Sea region heading

(39:29):
to an already berry sweet market. Minneapolis December week was
three cents lower at five eighty six, and a quarter.
Kansas City was a quarter of a cent lower at
five twenty eight in a quarter in Chicago job by
two cents, closing at five twenty five. Cotton futures just
continued to slide sideways. Yesterday saw the December futures ending
the session twenty seven points higher as I settled at
sixty seven eighty one. Live staw futures saw Friday's rally continue.

(39:52):
We had October live cattle fifty two and a half
cents higher two hundred and thirty one dollars seventeen and
a half cents per one hundredweight. September feeeder cattle row
by three dollars fifty seven and a half cents as
they ended the day at three hundred and fifty dollars
ninety two and a half cents per one hundred, and
our October Lee hog futures were two and a half
cents higher at ninety dollars twelve and a half cents
per one Hundredweight Class milk futures were sharply higher the

(40:13):
closing well. We had September futures up forty two points,
closing out today at eighteen seventy six. This has been
Craig Hollguard with your financial issues.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Egg update.

Speaker 8 (40:22):
We'll be right back with more financial issues after this, there.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Is, folks. Craig Howgard quickly before we talk about friendship
and being too expensive. The market's just opened about fifteen
minutes ago. Dal Jones is up third of a percent,
The SMB five hundred is down a tenth of a
percent in the Nasdaq, the one that's bleeding the most
right now, down about six tenths of a percent. All right, Sam, So,
we saw this survey recently showing young adults believing friendship

(40:52):
is just getting too expensive.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
Well, ships are expensive. They're even more expensive than boats.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
That's right, absolutely, absolutely, this isn't ships, This is friendships.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Okay, slightly different, Yeah, Okay, there is a distinction there. Yes,
But according to a study commissioned by Ally Bank, they
found that forty four percent of Gen Z and millennials
say lately they've been skipping major social events because of
the cost. So when I first read that, I thought, well,
that's not so good. Are people skipping out on friendship
altogether because they're penny pinching, But that's not actually what's

(41:23):
happening here. On average, people spend about two hundred and
fifty dollars every month on activities with friends. So apparently
they're spending too much on those activities, with a more
than forty percent of younger Americans saying they overspend on
these activities a few months out of the year, with
of course the most popular activity being going to a
restaurant or a bar with their friends, which I think

(41:44):
these studies said people do about once a week.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
Wow, that's that can get pretty expensive. Folks in the chat,
so let me say this. You know, Sam and I
are younger, we're in the millennial generation. I know we
have a lot of listeners who are older Gen xers
or who are boomers. Did you spend time with your
friends when you were our age? Did you spend a
lot of money with them, or did you do other
things that didn't require money. Obviously, back then things didn't
cost as much because of inflation, but still, you know,

(42:11):
things still cost money back then as well. How did
you spend time with your friends? I'd love to hear
your thoughts on that, Sam, This is really interesting. You know,
I've had this happen to me before, where it's that
awkward situation comes up where you're planning to hang out
with a friend and then somehow, or maybe it's a
group of friends, and somehow, the conversation comes up to
you know, what do you want to do? And almost
always it involves money. You're you're exactly right, Sam. I

(42:32):
think seventy two percent of the most popular activities are
going to a restaurant or a bar, especially for guys.
We love food. We just love food. We love to eat.
It's it's delightful. But then all of a sudden you're like, uh, oh,
I got to cancel now because it's too expensive, it's
not in the budget, especially if you're married and you
have a budget with your wife, and then you have

(42:53):
to tell your wife, Hey, uh, the guys want to
go out and grab some grab some food. Is that
if I do that, it's realized it's not in the budget. Listen,
it's it's fascinating because it's it's pretty much expected now
that if you hang out with someone it has to
revolve around purchasing something to eat. Sam, Have you noticed that.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
Yeah, I've my life.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
I think you always have to go.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
I want to hang out with so and so, but
that's going to cost money. I was just having this
conversation in my head the other day, and I thought,
why why does it have to involve money? So it's
a problem with my own making? I think it is.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
I think a couple of things that we can say
in response to this. First of all, the elites don't
want you to know this. You don't have to spend
money to hang out with your friends. What a crazy idea.
You actually don't have to spend money to cultivate deep friendships.
I get the poll, especially for guys. I wonder if
it's because we're almost afraid of, like getting into the

(43:48):
emotional stuff like girls can talk and talk and to.
I'm gonna sound like such a chauvinist about this, but frankly,
I don't care. Girls can talk and talk and talk
about their emotions. Guys are a little more guarded with that,
but when you've got your food in front of you,
that's almost like a natural barrier.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
No, this is this is sociologists talked about this. Guys
always need something to do, something, some kind of activity,
a vessel that justifies the conversation.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Can just talk to each other, you know. I'll say this,
Some of our most delightful time that we've had hanging
out outside of work has been doing house projects together.
Sam and our head of video Luke Brubaker, came over
and helped me remove some bamboo over the summer last year.
It was a blast. It was delightful, but we had
an activity that we were doing. I think for guys
that's really important. But folks, listen, you don't have to
spend money to cultivate deep friendships. You can go outside.

(44:33):
You could just go outside and hang out. You can
go on a walk, you can pick a house project,
you can invite the boys over, you can do that
house project. It's cool to do that stuff, and that
doesn't cost money. I think second that.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
House project might cost that's a different kind.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Of different kind of you're choosing that then rather than
having to make the thing that makes you hang out
be the thing that costs money. I think secondly, what's
important is I do think sometimes you have to ask
your question, is this friendship work spending a little bit
of money over and I think that's really important is
I would also say, don't be afraid to spend a
little extra money on a friendship, especially when it's a

(45:07):
person who encourages you in your walk, someone who builds
you up, someone who's maybe an accountability for you at
the end of the day. Listen, this is a super
generalization here, Sam, and I want to even be careful
saying this, but twenty dollars for a meal, even with
those inflated prices, is still just not that much. If
you're someone who you know is middle class and if
someone's maybe older, you've made a decent living, you can

(45:30):
spend twenty bucks. You can spend twenty bucks on a meeting,
can spend thirty bucks on a meal. I think this
is really important when you're talking, especially about the number
one friendship in the world that married people need to cultivate,
which is with your spouse. Spend spend money on your spouse. Guys,
I'm talking to you, and I'm talking to myself too.
You gotta be willing to spend money on your wife.
She is more worth it than saving that money or

(45:51):
even putting it away for investing. Spend it on your
wife's trust me, it's worth it. And I think third,
maybe perhaps a new line in the budget is in order.
Maybe now the time to say friendship budget. Yep, it's
time for the friendship budget. If you've got one friendship
or several friendships that mean something to you, and I
find sam, you know, the older you get, you don't
need as many like you know, I feel like in
high school you have so many friends if you're at

(46:12):
school or youth group or something like that. The older
I get two or three really good solidies.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
On that list, one of the top activities was attending
birthday parties. I'm thinking, how many firsthday you have that
you're going to birthday parties all the time and spending
money on them.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
Great, that's a great point, but it might be exactly yeah,
exactly right, it might be worth it to add a
line in the budget that that way, you're you're not
feeling like you're spending extra money for something, but you're
creating something where you can spend that money for it
if it means something to you. So interesting stuff there, folks.
I think it's a good reminder on the importance of friendship,

(46:48):
especially biblical friendship, and how we spend our money is
very important. Great to be here with you today, folks.
It was a joy. We'll do it again tomorrow. God will,
and remember it's all his. Let's be found good and
faithful stewards with what God has given to us.

Speaker 6 (47:00):
To see you next time.

Speaker 4 (47:15):
If we ever forget that we're one nation under God,
then we will be a nation gone under