Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2: I Am six forty the talkback question today. If you're
Speaker 2: on the iHeart video app, just hit the microphone icon
Speaker 2: that allows you to leave us a message later on
Speaker 2: the show here at the six o'clock hour. There's been
Speaker 2: a shift worldwide. There's a global shift in the views
Speaker 2: on spankings, but in the United States the majority of
Speaker 2: adults still support spanking. So the question is, were you
Speaker 2: spanked as a kid, and then do you did you
Speaker 2: spank your kids or do you spank your kids. I'm
Speaker 2: just curious about what you have to say, and a
Speaker 2: few of you had thoughts.
Speaker 3: Oh boy, oh boy, the threat of getting spanking spanked
Speaker 3: was always there. Yeah, and the way till your father
Speaker 3: gets home was the worst of the worst. But my
Speaker 3: mom did spank me every once in a while. I
Speaker 3: always had it coming, and even as a little kid,
Speaker 3: I felt so bad because my mother would just be
Speaker 3: crying if I don't know why you did this to me.
Speaker 4: Ami feels so horrible.
Speaker 3: Oh man, it didn't even I didn't think about the
Speaker 3: spanking part of it because she felt so bad.
Speaker 4: Yeah, mine did the same thing.
Speaker 5: My mom crying while she's spanking you.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I actually respect his mom for that. I do because
Speaker 2: I think far too many people start spanking because they've
Speaker 2: they don't know what else to do, and they just go,
Speaker 2: I gotta get control, so they just start spanking, right,
Speaker 2: And it sounds like his mother was thoughtful about it,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure it's she was probably spanked as a child.
Speaker 2: You know, we learned from our parents. Doctor Wendy will
Speaker 2: tell you about that later on in her show. But
Speaker 2: I think his mother was probably like, I don't want
Speaker 2: to have to spank you. But this is what I
Speaker 2: know is discipline goes so well.
Speaker 5: I get that I am Dutch in Indonesian and for
Speaker 5: all of the Dutch and Dutch indos in southern California,
Speaker 5: I had the wooden spoon. It wasn't a hand, yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, it wasn't a sandal. It was the wooden spoon.
Speaker 2: Let's I want to get into your Dutch Indonesian thing
Speaker 2: in a little bit, Andrew, because I feel like you
Speaker 2: probably were some sort of descendant of an explorer. But
Speaker 2: aside from that, I had the same thing, except my
Speaker 2: mother started breaking the spoons off on my keyster.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, hit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she broke too many spoons. And so then my
Speaker 2: folks were having some remodeling done and she had the
Speaker 2: carpenter cut her out a paddle that fit her hand,
Speaker 2: and she kept that on top of the refrigerator.
Speaker 4: She didn't do the whole drill the holes through it.
Speaker 5: Wait wait a second, hold on, Yeah, your mom had
Speaker 5: a custom paddle made.
Speaker 2: Yes, wow, yeah, and that was she named it. That
Speaker 2: was Peter paddle. And you're not making this up. I'm
Speaker 2: not making this up. No, your mom leveled up. Wow,
Speaker 2: yeah she did. But she also, like this guy's mom,
Speaker 2: she says that she could never hit us more than
Speaker 2: three times because she felt so horrible about it. So
Speaker 2: I think my mom was in the same boat where
Speaker 2: it was. She kind of felt like, I have to
Speaker 2: do this because this is this is the means of
Speaker 2: getting the behavior out of you that I that I desire.
Speaker 5: And so did you ever have the ghost stand in
Speaker 5: the corner or sit at the table like or write
Speaker 5: sentences out?
Speaker 4: None of that.
Speaker 2: I did that in school, But you know, I do remember.
Speaker 2: I don't think she even remembers this. There was one
Speaker 2: time that I was I must have been I don't know,
Speaker 2: five years old or something. And I remember that she
Speaker 2: told me I had to sit in the chair for
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes, and I remember that being the worst fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2: And it was a comfy chair. It wasn't like I
Speaker 2: was sitting in a hard wooden kitchen chair. But just
Speaker 2: the fact that I couldn't move, I couldn't I wasn't
Speaker 2: allowed to speak, and I couldn't move for fifteen minutes,
Speaker 2: that was worse than any spanking. Looking back on it now,
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sure I would have chosen the chair
Speaker 2: nine times out of ten, or probably ten times out
Speaker 2: of ten back then because the fear of the spanking.
Speaker 4: But honestly, that was worse sitting in the chair.
Speaker 5: When I was growing up, I got spank my my mother,
Speaker 5: my father, and both of my grandmothers.
Speaker 6: In fact, one time my grandmother broke the yard stick.
Speaker 4: Oake me yard stick, amateur. Some kids need it, some
Speaker 4: kids don't. I was definitely a kid that needs a spanking.
Speaker 2: Sounds like they just lined up like the scene from
Speaker 2: Airplane to spank that one. Mom, Dad, grandma, grandma, everybody
Speaker 2: bring their own. It's it be my own stick, all right.
Speaker 7: And then finally, yeah, Chris, you got me thinking about this.
Speaker 7: Uh Menindez brothers with this whole spanking or no spanking situation. Now,
Speaker 7: I'm wondering did they get spanked too much or not enough?
Speaker 7: What caused them to be these killer freaks?
Speaker 4: I don't know. Can you give me some input on that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean according to them, it's the sexual abuse
Speaker 2: is what did it, which is I think worse than spanking.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's what That's why there may be a
Speaker 2: re sentencing hearing. I don't know, but that's what they say.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to weigh in as to whether or
Speaker 2: not it's true. I don't have any idea. I wasn't there.
Speaker 2: Speaking of spankings, there's a Wisconsin judge who's definitely getting
Speaker 2: a slamp on the wrist. I don't know that she's
Speaker 2: going to get a spanking for it. Because this Wisconsin
Speaker 2: judge was protecting an undocumented immigrant and the undocumented immigrant
Speaker 2: was in her courtroom when Ice showed up, and she
Speaker 2: helped usher the undocumented immigrant out of the back door.
Speaker 4: I'm not so sure.
Speaker 2: Because you've probably seen the protests around this, I'm not
Speaker 2: so sure this is the hill people want to die of.
Speaker 8: According to a federal criminal complaint. Judge Dugan is charged
Speaker 8: with two counts of obstruction, including concealing a man illegally
Speaker 8: to prevent his arrest. The thirteen page complaint alleges Dugan
Speaker 8: helped Eduardo Flores Ruiz, an undocumented immigrant, avoid arrest by
Speaker 8: ICE agents at the court building on April eighteen.
Speaker 4: Uh huh.
Speaker 8: Flores Ruiz was before for Judge Dugan for a criminal
Speaker 8: court appearance after he was accused of domestic battery following
Speaker 8: an alleged fight with a roommate. The Department of Homeland
Speaker 8: Security says Flores Ruiz entered the US illegally twice, and
Speaker 8: agents were outside Judge Dugan's courtroom waiting to arrest him
Speaker 8: on an administrative warrant. Witnesses told federal investigators that when
Speaker 8: Dugan learned ICE agents were outside her court she became
Speaker 8: visibly angry, calling the situation absurd. The complaint says Judge
Speaker 8: Dugan then told the arrest team to go to the
Speaker 8: Chief Judge's office to speak with them about the permissibility
Speaker 8: of making the arrest inside the courthouse. According to the complaint,
Speaker 8: Dugan then allegedly escorted Flores Ruiz out of her courtroom
Speaker 8: through a jury door to a non public area.
Speaker 4: Oh she pulled a look over there trick.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but these are courthouses. There's got to be security
Speaker 5: footage of something.
Speaker 4: I'm sure.
Speaker 2: But even if there's even if there's footage, she still
Speaker 2: was just trying to delay the actual the practical action
Speaker 2: of old deal.
Speaker 4: Well alleged. I mean, like you said, it's probably footage.
Speaker 8: An attorney representing the judge issuing a statement saying, in part,
Speaker 8: Hannessy Dugan has committed herself to the rule of law
Speaker 8: and the principles of due process for her entire career
Speaker 8: as a lawyer and a judge. Judge Dugan will defend
Speaker 8: herself vigorously and looks forward to being exonerated.
Speaker 4: All right, I'm sure she will.
Speaker 2: However, we've heard a bunch of stories about people being
Speaker 2: picked up who don't have any criminal history, about family
Speaker 2: members being deported, about people who have asylum that are
Speaker 2: being deported.
Speaker 4: We've got two people anyway that have been ordered brought back.
Speaker 2: Which of course the administration so far as is planting
Speaker 2: those orders.
Speaker 4: But I don't know that this is the guy.
Speaker 2: I mean, the guy's been deported twice and he's in
Speaker 2: court for beating the hell out of his roommate. I mean,
Speaker 2: when we talk about immigration and fixing the system and
Speaker 2: we say let's deport the bad guys and keep the
Speaker 2: good guys.
Speaker 4: Pretty sure somebody has been deported twice.
Speaker 2: And then is in court for beating the hell out
Speaker 2: of their roommate is one of those that you go
Speaker 2: probably not one of the best and the brightest.
Speaker 1: I just don't know that that.
Speaker 4: I mean, I understand the rule of law.
Speaker 2: I understand the practical the the practical the ideological argument,
Speaker 2: the theoretical argument, the philosophical argument, all of that. I
Speaker 2: get it. I get it, But I don't know that
Speaker 2: this is the one that's gonna that's gonna focus people.
Speaker 2: I just don't think this is gonna focus people very well. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: I feel kind of guilty because a number of people
Speaker 2: got arrested, and I think it might have been my fault.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you why that is. Next.
Speaker 2: Chris Merril caf I AM six forty. We're live everywhere
Speaker 2: on the iHeart Radio app.
Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2: Chris Merril CAFI AM six forty more stimulating talk on
Speaker 2: demand anytime in the iHeart Radio app, you'll find this
Speaker 2: show under the featured Segments podcast I appreciate The producer
Speaker 2: Kaila keeps telling me to remind people of that. Thank
Speaker 2: you kill You're very nice. Coming up here in the
Speaker 2: six o'clock hour, there's a story about how views on
Speaker 2: spanking have shifted globally, but in the United States, the
Speaker 2: majority of people still support being able to wallop your
Speaker 2: kid if you think they need it. So were you
Speaker 2: spanked as a kid and did you or do you
Speaker 2: spank yours? Now that's our talkback question. If you're on
Speaker 2: the kfi ise iHeartRadio app the KFI page on there,
Speaker 2: you'll see the talkback button. Just click on That allows
Speaker 2: you to record a message and if it's worth a crap,
Speaker 2: we might play it on the air.
Speaker 4: It's not, well, that's why you didn't hear yourself.
Speaker 9: Hey guys, jen X here checking in. Yeah, when I
Speaker 9: was younger, my mom would get this wooden spoon out
Speaker 9: and she would spank me with it, and I deserved it,
Speaker 9: and I'll never forget she busted that spoon in half
Speaker 9: one time and I just couldn't stop laughing. I thought
Speaker 9: it was the funniest thing. And then like a week later,
Speaker 9: she had like this, like a set of of twelve.
Speaker 2: All my outstanding really the wooden spoon. Yeah, but they
Speaker 2: never they never broke one on your highnie though.
Speaker 4: Huh No.
Speaker 5: But my mom decided to carry the tradition on to
Speaker 5: my younger brothers, okay, a ten year difference, and one
Speaker 5: of them did break the wooden spoon. Huh and same reaction.
Speaker 5: He laughed so hard.
Speaker 2: Oh man, that's when your mom went out and got
Speaker 2: one of those nice stainless steel sets.
Speaker 4: No. No, the worst.
Speaker 2: Part about the wooden spoon breaking is that mom was
Speaker 2: mad at me after that until she got another wooden spoon,
Speaker 2: not because she didn't get to fulfill the rest of
Speaker 2: the punishment, but because then she didn't have the wooden
Speaker 2: spoon to cook with, so that she had to use
Speaker 2: like a different like, you know, the slotted spoon or
Speaker 2: something she didn't want, So it was kind of a
Speaker 2: double whammy.
Speaker 4: It was not her, Chris, Yeah, my mother withheld the fiber,
Speaker 4: withheld the fiber. Do you know what that means? No, Kayla,
Speaker 4: do you know what that means? Is that is that all?
Speaker 4: He said? No idea, Chris, Yeah, my mother withheld the fiber.
Speaker 4: Does that mean that his mother made him constipated? That's
Speaker 4: what I would That's what I would think to the.
Speaker 5: Bathroom, I get it right, because fiber makes you, makes
Speaker 5: you go a lot. So maybe he was staying so
Speaker 5: hard that the fiber was like did not work.
Speaker 4: No, No, that that seems pretty made up. Andrew, I
Speaker 4: don't know if that makes sense.
Speaker 5: I'm trying to reach I'm trying to decipher what he's
Speaker 5: trying to say.
Speaker 2: Love when I love when good comedy you have to
Speaker 2: kind of connect a two C and you have to
Speaker 2: sort of fill in the blank.
Speaker 4: But I'm not finding the blank in that one. Yeah, sorry,
Speaker 4: my bad man. His mom didn't starve him. I think
Speaker 4: that that's that's the most important thing.
Speaker 7: Yeah, okay, Yeah, Chris epilogue, the spanking no spanking thing
Speaker 7: and Menendez and the sexual whole scene and ah god,
Speaker 7: the whole thing is just so disgusting. But I just
Speaker 7: want you to think about this particular perspective. Maybe spanking,
Speaker 7: what's part of this sexual abuse.
Speaker 4: Or whatever their claiming.
Speaker 7: I mean, you know, in today's world, it's things possible.
Speaker 2: Well it was the eighties world and it was still
Speaker 2: anything was possible.
Speaker 4: So I don't know, I don't know. I feel kind
Speaker 4: of bad.
Speaker 2: Did you guys happen to see the story about the
Speaker 2: day laborers that got picked up? And I feel like
Speaker 2: this was a suggestion I made a couple of months ago.
Speaker 2: I said, if you just want to go and find
Speaker 2: people to deport, just cruise through the home depot parking
Speaker 2: lot and.
Speaker 10: Lo and behold, several cars abandoned at this home depot
Speaker 10: parking lot in Pomona after a group of day workers
Speaker 10: were rounded up and taken into custady Tuesday. Fabian Paco
Speaker 10: was also a day worker.
Speaker 11: He says he.
Speaker 10: Knows some of the people, but doesn't know where they
Speaker 10: are now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're being the same.
Speaker 2: I feel kind of bad because I thought, I mean,
Speaker 2: if you just want to have some easy wins, you
Speaker 2: want to start patting your numbers a little bit, just
Speaker 2: zip on through the home depot parking lot.
Speaker 4: And sure enough they did. So, Uh, that's my bad. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you gotta stop giving advice on this show, man.
Speaker 2: I know it, I know it. My bad, My bad,
Speaker 2: Sorry about that. I feel feel kind of horrible about that.
Speaker 2: All right, we'll do the tariff tango here in just
Speaker 2: a few moments. And we'll find out if you have
Speaker 2: a small business, just how badly or how well might
Speaker 2: you be affected.
Speaker 4: That is next.
Speaker 2: Chris merril can't f I AM six forty. We're live
Speaker 2: everywhere on the iHeart Radio app.
Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2: AM six forty more stimulating talk on demand anytime in
Speaker 2: the iHeart Radio App.
Speaker 4: I'm Chris merrill U.
Speaker 2: If you have been to any of the tourist destinations
Speaker 2: of late, you may have noticed traffic is a little better.
Speaker 11: Overseas visitors to the US, excluding Canada and Mexico, we're
Speaker 11: down twelve percent this March compared to March of twenty
Speaker 11: twenty four. One country in particular is causing concern for
Speaker 11: California tourism. Any countries you're not seeing as much of
Speaker 11: that you used to see.
Speaker 4: A lot of yeh, Canadians not seeing a lot of Canadians.
Speaker 4: And when they do come down here, they got friction,
Speaker 4: you know, they got a little bit conflicts. Canadians with friction.
Speaker 1: Whoo.
Speaker 4: Sometimes they don't even say thank you more than once
Speaker 4: or twice.
Speaker 11: Visits from Canadians were down twelve percent in February from
Speaker 11: twenty twenty four. According to Visit California, vendors we talked
Speaker 11: to are hoping for an improvement, but not necessarily expecting one.
Speaker 11: According Latin Karment Diggers and NBC four Naws.
Speaker 4: So Canadians are mad.
Speaker 2: Not only are they upset about the whole fifty first
Speaker 2: state thing, but they're all so a little miffed about
Speaker 2: the tariffs. Remember those tariffs that went into effect early
Speaker 2: on with Canada, Mexico and China. Those those are still
Speaker 2: in effect, and in fact, so are the other initial tariffs.
Speaker 2: It's the the reciprocal to recip tariffs. I know, it
Speaker 2: feels like exceptional all of a sudden. Joining us right
Speaker 2: now is Ben Johnston. He is the COO of Capitis,
Speaker 2: which is a small business lender in marketplace.
Speaker 4: Ben, pleasure to have you here.
Speaker 2: I think there still is some confusion about the tariffs
Speaker 2: because there still are.
Speaker 4: We do have tariffs on globally.
Speaker 2: What are you advising to small businesses right now? This
Speaker 2: has got to be This has got to be a
Speaker 2: I don't know, confusing time.
Speaker 6: It's a confusing time and it's an expensive time because
Speaker 6: for a lot of small businesses, tariffs are driving up
Speaker 6: the cost of goods across all of the products that
Speaker 6: they're buying and selling. So this means higher cost to
Speaker 6: purchase equipment used in production, upgrade facilities, purchase inventory. Since
Speaker 6: a lot of small businesses I've used end up financing
Speaker 6: these expenses up front, that means higher financing costs for
Speaker 6: them across the board as well. So we're seeing wholesalers
Speaker 6: and retailers really impacted by this. Manufacturers, construct contractors who
Speaker 6: are importing wood and cement, armers who have to import
Speaker 6: fertilizer and machinery, Restaurants who need to import fruits and vegetables, seafood, wine,
Speaker 6: all the stuff that you know makes going out so exciting.
Speaker 6: And then they're dealing many businesses they're dealing with counter
Speaker 6: tariffs as well. So small businesses that export goods overseas
Speaker 6: are dealing with China's counter tariffs that they've put in.
Speaker 6: They've imposed retaliatory tariffs of one hundred and twenty five
Speaker 6: percent on most US items. They've suspended imports on certain
Speaker 6: agricultural products, and they've imposed export controls on rare interals
Speaker 6: which our companies are using. So you know, we're seeing
Speaker 6: a lot of impact on small business across the board,
Speaker 6: and you know, there are some things that small businesses
Speaker 6: can do to try to lessen this impact, although you know,
Speaker 6: I really don't think there's a silver bullet out there
Speaker 6: for small businesses. One we like to tell our small
Speaker 6: businesses if you can look for domestic substitutes. Now. Admittedly,
Speaker 6: this is pretty hard given how integrated most global supply
Speaker 6: chains are today, and most manufacturers can't easily find a
Speaker 6: substitute being manufactured in the US, and even if they can,
Speaker 6: well everyone's looking for that right now, so you can
Speaker 6: expect the cost of those US manufactured goods to be
Speaker 6: going up as well. Another thing we're telling people is
Speaker 6: to seek suppliers from lower tariff countries if at all possible. Obviously,
Speaker 6: China at one hundred and forty five percent tariffs, that's
Speaker 6: a that's a huge number. Mexico and Canada are somewhat
Speaker 6: more reasonable for most products that are around twenty five percent,
Speaker 6: and then the rest of the global economy is resting
Speaker 6: around ten percent right now. So there are some opportunities
Speaker 6: for supply chain arbitrage out there, but it's really tough
Speaker 6: to make some of those those changes, especially when you're
Speaker 6: not sure how long those tariffs are going to be
Speaker 6: in place, and if these are in fact final tariffs.
Speaker 2: Ben Johnsin is a hang on, Ben, let me just
Speaker 2: bring everybody up to speed here. If they're just joining us.
Speaker 2: Ben Johnson is the chief operating officer as a capitist,
Speaker 2: and they're a small business lender in a marketplace.
Speaker 4: Can they play?
Speaker 2: Can people play the game and import from not China
Speaker 2: by making the you know, the Chinese goods that they
Speaker 2: need and then having them shipped, say to Singapore first
Speaker 2: and then come to the United States.
Speaker 6: Well, technically that could be possible, but there has to
Speaker 6: be some material work done in Singapore in your example,
Speaker 6: before it can be legally renamed, retagged, and brought into
Speaker 6: the United States. So it's you know, I think people
Speaker 6: are trying to play that game, and I definitely think
Speaker 6: people are trying to cheat the system by relabeling things
Speaker 6: and shipping them to different parts of the world. But
Speaker 6: if you want to do it legally, that is a
Speaker 6: much more challenging option.
Speaker 2: Ben, you talked about some of the small businesses that
Speaker 2: are delaying excuse me that you know they're upgrades the
Speaker 2: materials that they need in order to upgrade their facilities,
Speaker 2: whether it's a planned whether it's a restaurant, whatever that
Speaker 2: might be.
Speaker 4: Those costs are going up.
Speaker 2: Are their businesses you're that you're seeing are slowing expansion
Speaker 2: as a result of the the I mean there's an
Speaker 2: increased cost now, but also all that uncertainty.
Speaker 4: That's the word.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's going to be the word of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty times, uncertainty, right, I mean, are they delayed?
Speaker 4: Are they delaying that?
Speaker 6: It's certainly the word of the hour. I think responsible
Speaker 6: businesses are pausing a lot of their growth plans for
Speaker 6: the moment and trying to understand what the tariffs are
Speaker 6: going to be and mean for them long term. They're
Speaker 6: exploring their supply chains and trying to figure out where
Speaker 6: to position their supply chains for the future. But right now,
Speaker 6: given so much uncertainty around tariffs and interest rates and
Speaker 6: the state of the global economy, I think a lot
Speaker 6: of people are putting expansion plans on pause, and they're
Speaker 6: just trying to retrench and make sure that their core
Speaker 6: goods that they're selling are profitable and that they can
Speaker 6: maintain their bottom line as they are today.
Speaker 2: Is there anybody, and maybe this is harder for small businesses.
Speaker 2: Is there anybody that's eating some of the cost on
Speaker 2: the tariffs? I've heard about early on that you may
Speaker 2: have some companies that say, well, we'll absorb this to
Speaker 2: start with, but we can't do that forever. Are you
Speaker 2: seeing that that? Is that something that can even be
Speaker 2: done on a small business scale.
Speaker 6: I think it all depends on the magnitude of the
Speaker 6: tariff that's being handled by the small business. I think
Speaker 6: if the tariff is a ten percent tariff, they can
Speaker 6: probably eat a portion of that. Really depending on the
Speaker 6: business's margins. Some businesses a very wide margins, other businesses
Speaker 6: of very small margins. I do think that businesses are
Speaker 6: trying to tighten their belts as tightly as they can
Speaker 6: to limit what they pass on to their customers. But
Speaker 6: for someone who's importing from China and has just been
Speaker 6: hit by one hundred and forty five percent tariff, you know,
Speaker 6: I don't know about business that imports from China that
Speaker 6: could withstand that type of tariff and not need to
Speaker 6: pass it on to their customer base. I just don't
Speaker 6: think that's realistic.
Speaker 2: Ben Johnston is the chief operating officer of Capitists, or
Speaker 2: a small business lender in a marketplace. Ben, sit tight here.
Speaker 2: I got to check on traffic and we'll get a
Speaker 2: news update here in just a moment. But I gotta
Speaker 2: wonder if if anybody's doing okay right now? In fact,
Speaker 2: are we actually seeing a tariff bump for some people?
Speaker 2: And you heard Ben say some places are tightening the belt.
Speaker 2: What does that look like and what does that mean
Speaker 2: to your future with your company? That is next Chris
Speaker 2: merrilf I AM six forty. We live everywhere on the
Speaker 2: iHeart Radio app.
Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand Chris.
Speaker 2: Merrill six forty more stimulating talk on demand anytime in
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app, and our show featured under the featured
Speaker 2: segments section of the podcast pages or whatever it is
Speaker 2: at KFI AM six forty dot com. The tariff tango
Speaker 2: continues on. Some people are trying to figure out their
Speaker 2: way around it, and they're getting suckered.
Speaker 12: Chinese merchants claiming to either manufacture actual designer goods or
Speaker 12: to repro to make things that are out of the
Speaker 12: same factories of those are now green, taking to TikTok
Speaker 12: and saying we've got the stuff you want and you
Speaker 12: can avoid tariffs by coming straight to us, and we'll
Speaker 12: send it straight to you. A very appealing offer. There's
Speaker 12: several problems here. First of all, there's a lot of
Speaker 12: scams going on here. I mean, these are people who
Speaker 12: you don't know, merchants you've never dealt with directly, who
Speaker 12: are asking you to send them money. That's always a
Speaker 12: red flag, and that alone should end this conversation.
Speaker 4: But yep, that alone should end the conversation.
Speaker 2: People are still doing it is we all want to
Speaker 2: save a few dollars, and this feels like an opportunity
Speaker 2: for scammers. Ben Johnston is the COO of Capitis, which
Speaker 2: is a small business lender in a marketplace, and Ben, well,
Speaker 2: we do have scammers that are out there. One of
Speaker 2: the things that I'm seeing are actually American companies that
Speaker 2: are trying to capitalize on this, not the least of
Speaker 2: which are the auto manufacturers. Ford comes out and says,
Speaker 2: we do more in the United States than anybody else.
Speaker 2: And then they say, and we're offering employee pricing. I
Speaker 2: just saw an ad for I think it was Jeep
Speaker 2: that said they're offering something like seven grand off or
Speaker 2: employee pricing or something.
Speaker 4: Of that nature are these car companies.
Speaker 2: I mean, they make it sound like they're not hurting
Speaker 2: at all, but we thought that they were. We thought
Speaker 2: the car companies were going to get hurt as much
Speaker 2: or more than most anywhere else.
Speaker 6: Well, I think they'll be hurt if some of the
Speaker 6: threatened tariffs between Canada, Mexico and the United States are
Speaker 6: truly implemented. For the automakers, I think the automakers recently
Speaker 6: got a reprieve from some of those announced tariffs, least
Speaker 6: for a period of time. And while tariffs therefore have
Speaker 6: gone up on the rest of the world by ten
Speaker 6: percent and that would limit imports from Japan or from Europe,
Speaker 6: that certainly is going to help out the Big three
Speaker 6: in the United States. But you know, it's a matter
Speaker 6: of what will happen next in terms of how tariffs
Speaker 6: impact the automakers.
Speaker 2: Here, I see that a couple of companies from China,
Speaker 2: Shean and Timu, are both staying their prices are going
Speaker 2: up because of the tariffs. That, however, I would say,
Speaker 2: is an argument for the administration that well, their prices
Speaker 2: are going up, which means that that's going to be
Speaker 2: good for American companies, right. I mean, could you make
Speaker 2: the argument that some of these American companies that were
Speaker 2: being undercut by the cheap manufacturers overseas now have a
Speaker 2: more level playing field.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, I mean, I think this could be a if
Speaker 6: there are if there are manufacturers in the United States
Speaker 6: who are directly competing against manufacturers in China, that could
Speaker 6: be a boon for any US manufacturer who is manufacturing
Speaker 6: for a domestic audience. Okay, The problem is a lot
Speaker 6: of US manufacturers actually import their raw materials and their
Speaker 6: component parts that they then assemble and put the finishing
Speaker 6: touches on in the United States before selling. And if
Speaker 6: their raw materials are going up dramatically, you know, that's
Speaker 6: almost having the same impact on them as being a
Speaker 6: wholesaleer bringing that those goods into the US.
Speaker 2: What does it look like, Ben, you mentioned that some
Speaker 2: places are tightening the belt right now. They're being cautious
Speaker 2: because of the uncertainty that we have in the environment
Speaker 2: right now. So what does that look like tightening the belt?
Speaker 2: Does that mean layoffs? Does that mean? I mean we
Speaker 2: talked about delaying some upgrades or expansion might be delayed
Speaker 2: for a while, But I mean, were we talking about
Speaker 2: the potential for jobs being at risk here.
Speaker 6: I certainly think jobs are at risk in the long
Speaker 6: run if we stay on the current path. One thing
Speaker 6: I would say is that we haven't seen a real
Speaker 6: pullback in the economic numbers as of yet.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 6: Most of these tariffs have only been in for less
Speaker 6: than a month right now, and so I think there's
Speaker 6: a wait and see going on to see how the
Speaker 6: tariffs are truly impacting the bottom line and how consumer
Speaker 6: spending reacts to all of this. At the moment, you know,
Speaker 6: we haven't seen CPI numbers spike yet, but I think
Speaker 6: we're all waiting to see what the April numbers look
Speaker 6: like when they're published in early May, to see if
Speaker 6: we start to see some spike in the overall cost
Speaker 6: of goods and a pullback from the American consumer. If
Speaker 6: we see those things, I definitely expect businesses to start
Speaker 6: belt tightening. Maybe that doesn't mean layoffs immediately, but if
Speaker 6: a contraction continues to progress throughout the year, for sure
Speaker 6: we're going to start seeing layoffs.
Speaker 2: Ben Johnson is the chief operating officer at Capitist of
Speaker 2: small business lender in a marketplace.
Speaker 4: What does this do for somebody like you?
Speaker 2: I mean your whole You lend money to small businesses
Speaker 2: in one to expand this is going to be tricky
Speaker 2: for you to navigate.
Speaker 6: It is tricky for us. Fortunately, we have a stable
Speaker 6: and strong group of small businesses who have been through
Speaker 6: cycles in the past and are doing the prudent thing
Speaker 6: and doing the math that we're talking about doing right now,
Speaker 6: and we want to be there to support them now.
Speaker 6: No matter what happens. Small business owners are incredibly creative
Speaker 6: and incredibly flexible, and whenever there is a challenge posed,
Speaker 6: they are the first ones to find a creative solution
Speaker 6: and a way to work through the issue. And it's
Speaker 6: going to be our job to be there for them,
Speaker 6: hopefully to help finance what may be a large repatriation
Speaker 6: and manufacturing back to the United States. So in the
Speaker 6: coming years, certainly that type of work is going to
Speaker 6: create a need for tremendous capital and the small business community,
Speaker 6: and we want to be there to support them. But
Speaker 6: certainly we have to keep an eye on the numbers,
Speaker 6: as does everyone else.
Speaker 4: Who's going to do those jobs. Are we doing all
Speaker 4: robots now?
Speaker 6: That is an excellent question, you know, especially given the
Speaker 6: curtail and of immigration simultaneous to these tariff changes. You know,
Speaker 6: it's hard to imagine bringing back millions of jobs to
Speaker 6: the United States when you have an unemployment rate of
Speaker 6: four percent and doing it without automation. So I think
Speaker 6: automation has to be core to the success of the
Speaker 6: future of the US manufacturing space. But certainly it will
Speaker 6: also bring jobs back to the United States.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think those all those geeks from the robotics club
Speaker 2: in high school are going to have all the jobs
Speaker 2: in the future. They're going to be the ones in
Speaker 2: charge of making sure the manufacturing plans run.
Speaker 4: That should be the that's the future, man.
Speaker 6: They've been in high demand for years now, and I
Speaker 6: don't see that slowing down.
Speaker 4: Even higher now.
Speaker 2: Ben Johnson, the chief operating officer of Capitist Ben Pleasure
Speaker 2: talking with you, man. I hope, I hope you get
Speaker 2: a chance to do it again. We're gonna keep you
Speaker 2: in the rollodex, my man.
Speaker 6: Thank you very much.
Speaker 4: Real enjoyed it, yep, thank you? All right?
Speaker 2: All right, geeks, hear that, Raoul, all those guys that
Speaker 2: that used to stuff me in the locker, all those
Speaker 2: geeks in high school that used to give me the wedgies,
Speaker 2: and whatnot because I was actually below them on the
Speaker 2: totem pole.
Speaker 4: You know, you had, you had the jocks, the geeks,
Speaker 4: and then me.
Speaker 2: They're gonna be running the world, man, just like their
Speaker 2: mother's always told them.
Speaker 4: All right in just a moment. There's no business like
Speaker 4: show business. Great heads. Kim six forty. We live everywhere
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