Speaker 1: And Financial Report time, Dan Eastman, your host, and today
Speaker 1: is Monday, August tenth, twenty twenty six. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for tuning in. As always, we appreciate your viewership
Speaker 1: here at the Eastman Financial Report as well as throughout
Speaker 1: the day on all of the amazing programming you see
Speaker 1: at Worldviewtube and of course here at Worldview Radio. So
Speaker 1: we appreciate you tuning in, taking your time. And as
Speaker 1: you know, we've been broadcasting in this space since two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, and we broadcast from a very special podium.
Speaker 1: We are a Christian broadcasting network and it is our ministry,
Speaker 1: our mission, our passion, and our goal to take the
Speaker 1: great concepts of the day, the news and information of
Speaker 1: the day, and bring that into the great marketplace of
Speaker 1: ideas from a Christian perspective. And that's what we do,
Speaker 1: and that's what we've been doing since two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: and we shall continue to do that until the Second Coming,
Speaker 1: because this is in fact our ministry, and we walk
Speaker 1: in the steps of basically the Apostles when you think
Speaker 1: about it, two thousand years ago, the Apostles were going
Speaker 1: about the Middle East and sharing the good news of
Speaker 1: the Gospel and that wasn't a paywall, that wasn't a subscription,
Speaker 1: it wasn't entertainment. It was a message really given, but
Speaker 1: a message freely given, a great risk, personal risk and
Speaker 1: health risk to the message, to the deliverers of the message.
Speaker 1: And there's not much that's changed today. That's why we
Speaker 1: follow in the tradition of spreading the gospel message and
Speaker 1: we use this vehicle, worldviewtube dot com and Worldview Radio
Speaker 1: to achieve that goal. And that is our ministry. And
Speaker 1: if you'd like to help us in that ministry, you
Speaker 1: can do that by going to Worldviewfoundation dot com and
Speaker 1: making a donation. You can sign up for a one
Speaker 1: time donation it's very very much appreciated, or you can
Speaker 1: sign up for a monthly plan. And that has the
Speaker 1: added benefit of flattening our revenue curve a bit so
Speaker 1: we can better match our costs to the revenues and
Speaker 1: keep our content free of charge. As you know, we're
Speaker 1: not charging a paywall or a subscription fee to hear
Speaker 1: our daily content. It's a gift, freely given. The address
Speaker 1: is on the bottom of the screen. It's Wvwfoundation dot
Speaker 1: com or you can type in Worldviewfoundation dot com takes
Speaker 1: you to the same place, and oh, you can use
Speaker 1: the HANDQR code and it'll smartly take your smartphone right
Speaker 1: to the website and you can make a donation and
Speaker 1: that goes to our foundation. And the foundation is very
Speaker 1: much a supporting tool of this broadcast ministry. That's why
Speaker 1: it's so important to make that donation to the foundation,
Speaker 1: because this is what keeps our broadcast content free of
Speaker 1: charge and current and up to date and meaningful and relevant.
Speaker 1: And if you've been watching our coverage over the last
Speaker 1: few months of the Iranian situation, you realize that our
Speaker 1: coverage is very very good and very very special because
Speaker 1: we have people on the ground in the Middle East
Speaker 1: with extreme knowledge of the situation. We're sharing that knowledge
Speaker 1: with us almost on a daily basis. So it's a
Speaker 1: really great platform. And that's why when you do support
Speaker 1: our network, you are continuing to help us bring relevant
Speaker 1: content to that great marketplace of ideas. Again, from the
Speaker 1: Christian perspective, you can also help our ministry by doing
Speaker 1: business with the vendors you see advertising throughout the day.
Speaker 1: We're not like the big commercial networks. We don't sell
Speaker 1: blocks of advertising time to advertisers. Rather, we know the
Speaker 1: companies that we deal with. We meet them, we understand them,
Speaker 1: we know them, trust them, and then when they advertise
Speaker 1: on our network, you can be assured that we've vetted
Speaker 1: these companies and we believe in what they're doing. And
Speaker 1: when you make a purchase, either the goods or services,
Speaker 1: a small portion of that proceeds comes back to us
Speaker 1: in the form of a commission, and then also enhances
Speaker 1: our bottom line. It keeps us broadcasting free of charge.
Speaker 1: So pay attention to the the commercials you see in
Speaker 1: the advertisements throughout the day, and know that those are
Speaker 1: companies that we know and trust and that you can
Speaker 1: feel comfortable doing business with them. There's a third way
Speaker 1: you can help the network, and of course you can
Speaker 1: help yourself at the same time, and that is to
Speaker 1: subscribe to our new product called the Vault. To go
Speaker 1: to worldviewtube dot com slash Vault, you can subscribe to
Speaker 1: an amazing collection of information. Here's the address on the
Speaker 1: bottom of the screen worldviewtube dot com slash Vault. We
Speaker 1: have been broadcasting since two thousand and six in this space.
Speaker 1: And of course Brandon Howse has written over sixteen books,
Speaker 1: and he has done conferences and events, seminars around the country.
Speaker 1: All of that information is now digitized and it lives
Speaker 1: within the vault. It's over thirty years of content. It's
Speaker 1: an amazing collection, which is effectively the archive of the Ministry.
Speaker 1: So if you are interested in something we talked about
Speaker 1: a week ago, a month ago, a year ago, and
Speaker 1: you can go into the vault and you can find
Speaker 1: that information. Now you might be thinking, wow, thirty years
Speaker 1: of information, that's a lot to rummage through to find
Speaker 1: I'm looking for. Well, fear not. We have developed an
Speaker 1: amazing search engine tool that allows you to search by topic,
Speaker 1: maybe political topic, news topic, financial or economic topic, whatever,
Speaker 1: even the scriptural passages, Bible related versus that will bring
Speaker 1: up the information you're looking for. It's an amazing search
Speaker 1: engine tool and I highly recommend going to the Vault
Speaker 1: and trying it out. Now you think, wow, that's got
Speaker 1: to be pretty expensive all that information, Well, you know
Speaker 1: it's not. It's less than eight dollars a month if
Speaker 1: you subscribe by the year, a really great bargain. It's
Speaker 1: less than a cup of coffee at a fancy coffee shop,
Speaker 1: and certainly less than a lunch anywhere in the United States.
Speaker 1: But The point is for less than eight dollars a month,
Speaker 1: you can subscribe, and if you're not sure, you can
Speaker 1: subscribe on a monthly basis, and that's less than ten
Speaker 1: dollars a month. So again, if you order the extra
Speaker 1: deluxe coffee, it's about the same price. So it's really
Speaker 1: an excellent expenditure for you to have this Vault tool
Speaker 1: in your personal toolbox because it's an amazing collection of information.
Speaker 1: Keep in mind, we all know people in our lives
Speaker 1: who are struggling with issues, maybe a health issue, financial issue,
Speaker 1: a business issue, a career issue, or whatever. Think about
Speaker 1: giving them a gift subscription to the Vault as well,
Speaker 1: because it's a very spiritually and scripturally uplifting experience to
Speaker 1: get into the Vault. And we all know people in
Speaker 1: our lives who can use that. So you can take
Speaker 1: them out for lunch or coffee for ten dollars a
Speaker 1: month or eight dollars a month, or you can just
Speaker 1: get them a subscription of the Vault, or do both.
Speaker 1: But it's really a wonderful gift to give. And also
Speaker 1: in the Vault, we are it's ever expanding. It's a
Speaker 1: dynamic system that we now have Bible courses included. So
Speaker 1: if you go to the Vault, you can see that
Speaker 1: the Book of Revelation is now the first course and
Speaker 1: you can go in and do the dropp down menu.
Speaker 1: But it's an amazing Bible study that's prepared by Brandon
Speaker 1: House himself is lined by and the Book of Revelation.
Speaker 1: It's the first course that we're offering, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: we'll be offering more courses as time goes on. But
Speaker 1: it's an amazing tool, so give it some thought. And certainly,
Speaker 1: if you want to be part of the bigger ministry
Speaker 1: and help the ministry grow and never expand, you should
Speaker 1: join the Vault because it's really the future of ministry,
Speaker 1: more and more digital content, more and more courses, more
Speaker 1: and more explanation, more and more relevance and substance. And
Speaker 1: that's what makes this ministry so impressive and so worth supporting.
Speaker 1: So that's how you help us. You can make a donation,
Speaker 1: you can do business with the vendors you see advertising
Speaker 1: throughout the day, and you should subscribe to the Vault
Speaker 1: for yourself and friends and family who could sure use
Speaker 1: the product as well. Okay, well, let's jump into the
Speaker 1: news today and of course, we're in the middle of August,
Speaker 1: and that is traditionally, at least from the Wall Street
Speaker 1: perspective and even the federal government perspective, the month of
Speaker 1: the year where things slow down. Everybody's trying to we's
Speaker 1: in that last little bit of summer vacation before the
Speaker 1: great Labor Day weekend approaches. And what we find are
Speaker 1: the markets tend to be quiet because so many people
Speaker 1: are relaxing and enjoying a little bit of summer rather
Speaker 1: than trading away and creating all the economic excitement. But
Speaker 1: we will still see government numbers this month, and we're
Speaker 1: actually waiting for the Consumer Price indext number to come
Speaker 1: out this week. It'll come out later this week, and
Speaker 1: that's going to be an important variable because, as we know,
Speaker 1: the Federal Reserve, as it makes its periodic determinations as
Speaker 1: to whether to raise interest rates or lower interest rates,
Speaker 1: or leave them alone, leave them the same, they look
Speaker 1: quite often at the consumer Price Index and the PCE,
Speaker 1: which is a different way of looking at the same
Speaker 1: basket of goods. Effectively, what the government's trying to do
Speaker 1: is figure out what people spend their money on on
Speaker 1: a monthly basis, and are the prices going up or
Speaker 1: are they coming down? And of course they always go up.
Speaker 1: Everyone buys the same basket of goods. Some people might
Speaker 1: like X while other people's prefer why and that's why
Speaker 1: it's always the statistical process. And that's why when you
Speaker 1: hear the consumer Price index the CPI or the PCE
Speaker 1: or those numbers and OUs do, you have to sort
Speaker 1: of take it with just a little bit of grain
Speaker 1: of salt because they are estimates. They are best guesses
Speaker 1: projections of effectively where we think the consumer prices are going,
Speaker 1: or you know, the price index where it's going, And
Speaker 1: it's all basically done bio mathematics and statistical sampling. So
Speaker 1: we have to be a little bit careful when we
Speaker 1: see the consumer price indext numbers come out that keep
Speaker 1: in mind we're getting into that period of the time
Speaker 1: and the period of the year where that number becomes
Speaker 1: very very important to millions and millions of Americans who
Speaker 1: are living on Social Security or benefiting from the Social
Speaker 1: Security program that they paid into all of their lives,
Speaker 1: their working lives, and how they're sort of reaping the
Speaker 1: harvest of the the Social Security benefit. That benefit is
Speaker 1: adjusted for twenty twenty seven based upon the consumer price
Speaker 1: index numbers that roll out in the last four months
Speaker 1: of the prior calendar year, so it started to become meaningful.
Speaker 1: And of course, if you're a retiring on Social Security,
Speaker 1: you want the biggest consumer price in the next number
Speaker 1: you could imagine. And if you're the federal government who
Speaker 1: has to pay the the checks, you want the smallest.
Speaker 1: And of course the federal government is an entity that
Speaker 1: actually puts the numbers out into the marketplace. So we
Speaker 1: will watch and see where the consumer price in next
Speaker 1: is going. And keep in mind it was rather flat
Speaker 1: and actually declining in certain elements the last month. The
Speaker 1: headline declined and we were looking at core consumer price
Speaker 1: index core inflation of like two point six percent, which
Speaker 1: is fairly close to the two percent bogie that the
Speaker 1: Federal Reserve tries to get to through its monetary policy.
Speaker 1: So we'll be watching that number carefully. And of course,
Speaker 1: the moment it's released, the pundits will say this, and
Speaker 1: the other pundits will say that, but I will be
Speaker 1: here to analyze it, and we'll figure out exactly what
Speaker 1: it means together, not only for Social Security increases, but
Speaker 1: what does it mean to the larger general economy, and
Speaker 1: that's what we're going to be looking at. And we
Speaker 1: all know that inflation has been a problem since the
Speaker 1: Biden administration, where it touched nine percent, which was almost
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies vintage inflation numbers, and the Federal Reserve had
Speaker 1: to act rather quickly to slow the economy down by
Speaker 1: raising interest rates. And that's why the mortgage rates went
Speaker 1: from two to two and a half percent mortgages up
Speaker 1: to six and a half percent, which is more traditional
Speaker 1: actually in American mortgage history, but it was such a
Speaker 1: shock to the system going from two percent to six
Speaker 1: percent while housing prices remain fixed. That's suddenly the housing market,
Speaker 1: at least for the three and a half years that
Speaker 1: I've been broadcasting, has been sluggish, to say the least.
Speaker 1: It's just really put a damp around the housing market.
Speaker 1: Fewer homes listing because nobody wants to sell our house,
Speaker 1: set a two percent mortgage and then go buy a
Speaker 1: new house six percent mortgage, and they can't because mortgages
Speaker 1: and mortgage payments, of course, have to fall within certain ratios.
Speaker 1: Those are lending standards. And if you have X dollars
Speaker 1: of take home pay, the bank will calculate some numbers,
Speaker 1: and it will decide what is the largest monthly mortgage
Speaker 1: payment you can make given your take home pay, and
Speaker 1: you can't. They won't go above it. They won't lend
Speaker 1: above that. So you either have to scrape up a
Speaker 1: larger down payment to buy the house that the price
Speaker 1: you're looking at, or you have to find a less
Speaker 1: expensive house because the mortgage has to be either smaller
Speaker 1: or the value of the house is smaller so that
Speaker 1: the mortgage would be smaller so that the mortgage payment
Speaker 1: can be affordable. Then it's that underwriting metric that has
Speaker 1: put the brakes on the housing market. It's not that
Speaker 1: the banks wouldn't lend money. If people walked in to
Speaker 1: the bank with the appropriate take home pay number and
Speaker 1: the appropriate ratio as monthly mortgage payment as a percentage
Speaker 1: of the take home pay, they give you a loan tomorrow.
Speaker 1: It's not that we don't have money in the system
Speaker 1: for lending. It's that the fewer and fewer and fewer
Speaker 1: Americans can afford to borrow the money they need to
Speaker 1: buy the host they need because the prices are too high.
Speaker 1: And this has raised an interesting debate. As I mentioned
Speaker 1: often I'm on X probably more than I should be
Speaker 1: going back and forth with economic minds, since one faction
Speaker 1: is saying they cannot understand why the housing prices just
Speaker 1: haven't reacted by declining given the fact that cateris parabous,
Speaker 1: as we say in economics. The mortgage rates have gone up,
Speaker 1: the mortgage monthly payment has gone up for the same
Speaker 1: amount of money, and it is outside of the purview
Speaker 1: of the average take home pay. So why haven't housing
Speaker 1: prices come down in a in a free functioning market,
Speaker 1: That's exactly what happened if as the costs go up,
Speaker 1: the demand shifts back, and then the price and the
Speaker 1: quantity and the price demanded go down. We're not seeing
Speaker 1: that housing And the question is, will why not wire
Speaker 1: housing prices not just collapsing to bring the housing prices
Speaker 1: down so that a six and a half percent mortgage
Speaker 1: is the same as a two and a half percent mortgage,
Speaker 1: Where a higher house, higher priced house, it should be
Speaker 1: lower priced house six and a half percent mortgage the
Speaker 1: same monthly payment, and it's not. And that's the big question.
Speaker 1: So when you look at the macro forces in the
Speaker 1: housing market, you quickly realize that the average American home buyer,
Speaker 1: whatever whatever average American means, is competing with other buyers
Speaker 1: that are not usually factored into the equations. And I
Speaker 1: think that's where a lot of economists are making a mistake,
Speaker 1: because they're looking at individuals and couples who can buy
Speaker 1: a home based on their take home pay and the
Speaker 1: ratios and how much mortgage monthly payment. They keep in mind,
Speaker 1: when a lender lends money at a house, it's the
Speaker 1: principle and interest. That's your mortgage payment plus the insurance.
Speaker 1: They really like you to keep the play ensured in
Speaker 1: case there's a fire. They don't want to lose their collateral.
Speaker 1: And taxes, real estate taxes, and real estate taxes keep
Speaker 1: going up and up and up. To the great sugar
Speaker 1: in of all of us. It seems like we all
Speaker 1: rent our land from the local municipality and the school
Speaker 1: board rather than own the land, because if you don't
Speaker 1: pay your property taxes, they will certainly take your house.
Speaker 1: So if the question becomes why are these prices not
Speaker 1: coming down, and I postulate that these housing prices are
Speaker 1: being propped up by an influx in America of foreign buyers.
Speaker 1: People can come to the United States and buy a house.
Speaker 1: Not they don't have to sneak in, they're not illegals.
Speaker 1: You can do that if you're here legitimately, you can
Speaker 1: buy property, just like if you're an American and you
Speaker 1: want to buy property, and other jurisdictions, you can go
Speaker 1: to Canada and buy property. You can go to Europe
Speaker 1: and buy property. Now there are restrictions, like in Mexico
Speaker 1: they don't let you buy an ocean front property because
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be any left for the Mexicans, so there
Speaker 1: are leases. But the point is you can go and
Speaker 1: buy properties around the world, and so can other people,
Speaker 1: and they come here, and as wealth is generated globally,
Speaker 1: it was much more wealth globally than there ever has
Speaker 1: been in history. They come to the United States to
Speaker 1: buy a house and that puts access demand pressure, which
Speaker 1: keeps prices up. The second thing we're competing with, and
Speaker 1: this has been subject of congressional inquiry, is that you're
Speaker 1: competing with the great, big, great, big institutionalized money who
Speaker 1: buy single family homes for the purpose of renting them out.
Speaker 1: And when a big, gigantic hedge fund or big institutional
Speaker 1: money will come into a community and buy up a
Speaker 1: bunch of houses and then rent them out. That aggregate
Speaker 1: that stimulates aggregate demand. So you have the local people
Speaker 1: who want to buy and own a home, you have
Speaker 1: foreign money coming in, and you got these great, big
Speaker 1: institutional investors demanding houses so they can turn around to
Speaker 1: rent them out and on behold, the aggregate demand for
Speaker 1: housing does not drop even though the price goes up,
Speaker 1: which is counterintuitive to classical economic thought, but it's what's happening.
Speaker 1: Because you're not calculating the gross demand for housing. You're
Speaker 1: only looking at the individual and couples that are trying
Speaker 1: to buy a house. You're now looking at the influx
Speaker 1: of foreign buyers and you're certainly not looking at you know,
Speaker 1: I don't want to mention any big names, but they
Speaker 1: tend to be named after minerals and they buy, you know,
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of houses in a market, and then
Speaker 1: they rent them out. Well, those houses aren't available for sale,
Speaker 1: and that's the problem. So aggregate demand in housing is
Speaker 1: not dropping in a time when interest rates are up,
Speaker 1: and that is really squelched. Now from the foreign buyer's perspective,
Speaker 1: they're coming in with cash. That's usually how that works,
Speaker 1: and certainly from the big institutional investor. They're coming in
Speaker 1: with cash, and the cash probably came from your four
Speaker 1: oh one K, your pension plan or your IRA, you know,
Speaker 1: your mutual funds. But that's that's the difference. While you're
Speaker 1: out there trying to qualify for a mortgage and showing
Speaker 1: your mortgage stubs and how old your car is and
Speaker 1: qualifying for a mortgage, the cash buyers are just coming
Speaker 1: in and raising the prices. Now, it's not a uniform
Speaker 1: across the US. I mean, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: markets that aren't starting to show signs of deterioration in
Speaker 1: average home pricing. But when we look at the macro
Speaker 1: number or year over year, we're still at about one
Speaker 1: point and six percent appreciation overall across the United States.
Speaker 1: So that macro number continues to go up. Well, I've
Speaker 1: got to take a break here. We'll come back and
Speaker 1: I'll talk about other economic issues. Be right back.
Speaker 2: Banks Introducing Worldviewtube Vault. Over thirty five years of radio broadcasts,
Speaker 2: television programs, documentaries and ebooks, plus Worldviewpedia, our powerful search
Speaker 2: engine for instant Worldview and Bible research. Join for as
Speaker 2: little as seven to ninety nine a month, and now
Speaker 2: Vault members get something brand new courses. Our very first
Speaker 2: courses here the Book of Revelation with Brandon House fifty
Speaker 2: three in depth lessons complete with overview quizzes, walking you
Speaker 2: verse by verse through one of the most important books
Speaker 2: in scripture. Getting started is simple. Go to Worldviewtube dot
Speaker 2: com slash vault and join today. Already a member, visit
Speaker 2: worldvietube dot com, click the person icon in the top
Speaker 2: right and log in. Then hover over Vault in the
Speaker 2: menu and select courses. That's it. You're in. Join Worldviewtube
Speaker 2: Vault today at worldviewtube dot com slash vault.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm back. You should really take a look at
Speaker 1: the vault. It's a great product and just go to
Speaker 1: Worldviewtube dot com slash vault and check it out. It's
Speaker 1: well worth your time and it's certainly well worth your
Speaker 1: money to be part of that bigger ministry, and the
Speaker 1: coursework is great. Let's talk about oil. This is of course,
Speaker 1: not only the Eastman Financial Report, but more and more
Speaker 1: of the Eastman Petroleum Report. And the news in oil
Speaker 1: today is there's no news in oil today. West Texas
Speaker 1: at eighty good good, better than seventies, but it certainly
Speaker 1: as one hundred and fifty to two hundred as some
Speaker 1: protagonists who are promising us to the grin by the
Speaker 1: way of the folks, the good people in the Permian basin,
Speaker 1: who would probably would prefer a hundred dollars oil right now.
Speaker 1: But it's eighty and that's the global market price for
Speaker 1: spot oil. This is a spot These are long term
Speaker 1: delivery contracts our friends and the Brent that's in the
Speaker 1: North Sea. Of course, they drilled down to the bottom
Speaker 1: of the North Sea and pump the oil through pipes
Speaker 1: to Scotland and send it off into global commerce. They're
Speaker 1: at eighty six that it used to be one hundred
Speaker 1: and fourteen two weeks ago. Mexico has come off its
Speaker 1: lofty perch eighty to eighty dollars a barrel last week,
Speaker 1: now down to seventy two because the supply and the
Speaker 1: demand of adjusted and of course there's more supply hits
Speaker 1: the market brings the price down, so they're at seventy two,
Speaker 1: which is good for the US because, like I point out,
Speaker 1: American gasoline is primarily made from Mexican oil, US oil,
Speaker 1: which is Permian and Dakotas, and Canadian oil and to
Speaker 1: some extent, coming all as well. So the point is
Speaker 1: Mexico is coming off of that eighty dollars a barrel
Speaker 1: o rush of last week, but it's back to seventy two,
Speaker 1: which of course is below the West Texas, and it's
Speaker 1: by the delta is about eight and eight dollars spread,
Speaker 1: and our dear friends in Canada are at sixty five,
Speaker 1: which is where they should be. So the point is
Speaker 1: that with all the excitement going on and then in
Speaker 1: the Persian Gulf, the oil market care lesson. It just
Speaker 1: is ignoring the whole thing. Because as you noticed, if
Speaker 1: you don't buy your favorite gas station this morning, there
Speaker 1: are no lines. You can pull in, only you might
Speaker 1: have to wait for the guy in front of you
Speaker 1: to finish cleaning his windshield off, but there's no lines,
Speaker 1: and you can buy gasoline and drive off happily ever after.
Speaker 1: So what it tells us is the oil business for
Speaker 1: all of the news, and there's a lot of political news.
Speaker 1: And of course this is not a political show. It's
Speaker 1: an economics show, so I tend to not dabble in politics.
Speaker 1: And of course, if you've been watching me the last
Speaker 1: three and a half years, to some of my viewers said,
Speaker 1: I'm a little frustrated, Professor Eastman, you should be talking
Speaker 1: more about politics, and I said, no, that's Brandon's job.
Speaker 1: My job was to talk about economics. But every once
Speaker 1: in a while they touch, and this is one of
Speaker 1: the big places that that that war and economics touch
Speaker 1: at the gas pump, and that's what we talk about it.
Speaker 1: There is a rather interesting story floating around which doesn't
Speaker 1: lead me to the political side, a bit that the
Speaker 1: United States is running out of missiles. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: reading this stuff. And of course there was a little
Speaker 1: bit of a snaff who or if somebody had leaked
Speaker 1: something out of a cabinet meeting and caught the ire
Speaker 1: and a wrath of President Trump himself, which is a
Speaker 1: good thing because those meetings, if you can't talk freely
Speaker 1: amongst your your your top learned advisors, senior advisors, and
Speaker 1: what if some brainstorming and worst case scenarios and really
Speaker 1: have an open discussion of where we are, where we go,
Speaker 1: and what do we need? What are we going to do?
Speaker 1: And then you know, there's there's always some dutiful soul
Speaker 1: chirping away to the media. Runs great, big false story.
Speaker 1: I'd like to set that story aside, and the story
Speaker 1: is that we're running out of missiles. Well, I can
Speaker 1: assure you these gentlemen, the United States is not running
Speaker 1: out of firepower. And the good people have around should
Speaker 1: be and I'm sure are very thankful that the United
Speaker 1: States States is taking a very reasonable and cautious approach
Speaker 1: to settling the issue of the Iranian situation in the
Speaker 1: Persian golf and the horror moves straight now, mind you,
Speaker 1: the Horrormon strait's only twenty percent of oil in the
Speaker 1: good times, and once the good times return, that'll be
Speaker 1: dramatically reduced because we know the President Trump's efforts are
Speaker 1: basically to shift oil production to the Western Hemisphere and
Speaker 1: other places. There's ninety five countries on the planet Earth
Speaker 1: that are producing and selling oil, and the idea is
Speaker 1: to break the crazy terroristic gridlock of the Persian golf
Speaker 1: and Middle East oil, where we pump that refined gasoline
Speaker 1: in rsuvs and they use the money to commit terrorism
Speaker 1: that horrifies the world. Forty seven years, we're trying to
Speaker 1: turn that off, and it's a slow process, but I
Speaker 1: can assure you the United States of America hasn't even
Speaker 1: begun to engage the Iranians. You're trying to get them
Speaker 1: to regime change, to join the modern world and set
Speaker 1: the hysteria of the six hundred. It's beyond us. Aside
Speaker 1: as the rest of the globe enters into a modern year.
Speaker 1: We talk about data centers, we talk about all sorts
Speaker 1: of artificial intelligence. The future is a purely digital, interconnected future.
Speaker 1: And here we got this part of the globe that's
Speaker 1: still living in the six hundred. It's doing horrible things
Speaker 1: to people for no other reason that you don't want
Speaker 1: to sign out of their program. And I think President
Speaker 1: Trump is probably one of the bravest presidents in a
Speaker 1: very long time that steps in and says, you know what,
Speaker 1: we can fix this, and we will, and we'll do
Speaker 1: it on our terms. So when you see the prognosticators
Speaker 1: and all of them naysayers on X saying we're although
Speaker 1: just about out of missiles and President Trump is out
Speaker 1: of tricks and he's scrambling around and looking for the exit.
Speaker 1: No he's not. No, he's not. And you know, I
Speaker 1: know that if you look at the numbers, you look
Speaker 1: at the economics, to look at the oil markets, and
Speaker 1: what you will see is that the oil businesses are
Speaker 1: written at place off production is shifting, and whatever happens
Speaker 1: politically is not in the numbers. So that's why I
Speaker 1: wouldn't get too franked up about reading these stories about
Speaker 1: some of the United States of America losing the war
Speaker 1: or failing. It's not we're not. That's just not the
Speaker 1: way it is. War has changed. And I don't mean
Speaker 1: the lecture on war an economics program, but war is
Speaker 1: not World War. War is not Napoleon on horses. War
Speaker 1: is not the Civil war with cannons and troops. War
Speaker 1: is not the Vietnam War, thank god. War is not
Speaker 1: even what we saw in the Iraq War back in
Speaker 1: the day. Today, war is a much more asymmetric process.
Speaker 1: It has to do with economics. It has to do
Speaker 1: with the ability to interfere with the country's operation. That
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily require to march in and send in the
Speaker 1: cavalry and white muff the map and all of that.
Speaker 1: And that's not productive because you build generations of hatred
Speaker 1: when doing that. It's much better to be smart. And
Speaker 1: if you read the book you know, Art of War
Speaker 1: by Sunsu the Chinese, you know, Chinese guy who wrote
Speaker 1: that book. It's a different world today, and that's why
Speaker 1: we talk about AI, and that's why we talk about
Speaker 1: data centers. So that's why we talk about all of
Speaker 1: this technological stuff because we've entered into a different realm.
Speaker 1: And that's why it's so very interesting to see so
Speaker 1: many economic commentators fixated on, you know, with the store
Speaker 1: horror moves is closed and oil is going to two
Speaker 1: hundred dollars up barrel. It's just not it's just not.
Speaker 1: You're living in the past. Those models were great in
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies where if you own an automobile, you
Speaker 1: need a gasoline. Well, today that's not the case. You
Speaker 1: have five percent plus and growing electric cars. Who have
Speaker 1: a you know, they get the last laugh driving right
Speaker 1: past the gas station. You know, they may be plugging
Speaker 1: into the grid, but they're not playing the Middle Eastern
Speaker 1: game anymore. If you're tired at the gas prices going up,
Speaker 1: you're tied in the Middle East. Buy a luntric car,
Speaker 1: or buy an ethanol car. We have e eighty five
Speaker 1: out here in the Midwest. Grow lots of corn, makes
Speaker 1: really good fuel, e eighty five fuels, and of course
Speaker 1: with the fifteen percent dilution of petroleum by ethanol very controversial,
Speaker 1: but there are alternatives to being held hostage by the
Speaker 1: Middle East, and you know, that's how markets change. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of people back in the day who
Speaker 1: simply didn't want to give up that horse and buggy.
Speaker 1: That's how we've done it for millennia. We've ridden around
Speaker 1: townel and a horse and buggy. I don't want to
Speaker 1: use that new fangled thing. Well that was then. Today
Speaker 1: we love to see a horse and buggy at the
Speaker 1: fair or perhaps in the Amish country because it's quaint
Speaker 1: and it's a reminder of yesterday. But you're cruising along
Speaker 1: in a very sophisticated machine while you're watching. And that's
Speaker 1: the point we have to be thinking about economics. And
Speaker 1: it's like I talk about the silver mindo floating by.
Speaker 1: You know, if you're hungry, you want to eat the minnow,
Speaker 1: but you've got to look for the filment on the
Speaker 1: nose because that's what catches you. And that's why these
Speaker 1: numbers matter. And that's why when we look at the
Speaker 1: petroleum numbers, and that's all you have to do, look
Speaker 1: at the oil prices every day. If these numbers jump
Speaker 1: to the moon, and we were suddenly looking at two
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a barrel. That's the time to start worrying.
Speaker 1: But we have yet to see that in five months,
Speaker 1: and we won't because there's just it's just that different
Speaker 1: of a game. I also want to mention, of course,
Speaker 1: in my last minute here, that the United States Treasury
Speaker 1: still issuing debt. We have to fund our two point
Speaker 1: five trillion dollars annual deficit again this year, and our
Speaker 1: fiscal year is ending September thirtieth, so we'll get the
Speaker 1: final numbers in about six months after that, but it'll
Speaker 1: be around two point five trillion, give or take. And
Speaker 1: we have our forty trillion dollars in debt, so on
Speaker 1: top of that, we're pretty much running on an insolvent basis.
Speaker 1: But then along comes the Savers Match program, which is
Speaker 1: very interesting because the federal government is going to give
Speaker 1: people who make thirty five thousand dollars a year or less,
Speaker 1: or seventy one thousand for a married couple, or less
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars to put into an IRA or a
Speaker 1: four to one kre sav these account. And that's it's
Speaker 1: a wonderful thing because the social goal is so let's
Speaker 1: get everybody saving and get some get a little equity
Speaker 1: cushion under your balance sheet there. You want to have
Speaker 1: a little bit of equity, you want to have a
Speaker 1: little wealth skin in the game. And it's a good
Speaker 1: thing and people should do that. But the question I have,
Speaker 1: and I'm not criticizing the program, I'm just fearful, is
Speaker 1: that with a two point five trillion dollar deficit and
Speaker 1: forty trillion in debt, where are we getting the money
Speaker 1: to do that? And that's a question that we don't
Speaker 1: have an answer to other than for a second, for
Speaker 1: the Treasury Secretary is going to be writing more checks. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I want to talk more about it. It's important that
Speaker 1: people have savings and savings base and it's a good
Speaker 1: program and they're offering you a thousand dollars take it,
Speaker 1: but keep in mind there's a macroeconomic problem that's attached
Speaker 1: to it, and that's our deficits and our dat and
Speaker 1: I think that's something that we really need to to discuss,
Speaker 1: and we'll discuss that over time. Anyway, I'm out of
Speaker 1: time for today. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Speaker 1: Please go to Worldviefoundation dot com and make a donation
Speaker 1: and subscribe to the Vault. It's the best thing you'll
Speaker 1: do all week, is subscribe to the Vault and get
Speaker 1: in there and start clicking around, and you can watch
Speaker 1: all the Eastern Financial Report reruns along with all the
Speaker 1: other great programming you see throughout the day on our network.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I have a great afternoon and I will
Speaker 1: talk to you tomorrow. Bye.