Speaker 1: Well, he's up north in what they call the United States.
They don't know how to say that properly. I'm down
south in Mexico. But Zach Abraham and I are going
to talk and we're going to visit about the economy,
the tariffs, and what's Bulwark doing in comparison to the market.
We'll talk about all of this with the help of
Visible that's go visible dot com and of course God Almighty.
Speaker 2: But Todd Herman show is one percent disapproved by big
pharmer technocrats in tyron severywhere from the high mountains of
Free America. Here's the Emerald City, Exime Todd Herman.
Speaker 1: Today is to day the Lord has made, and these
are the times through which God has decided we shall live.
And it's my joy to look across a screen and
see my friend and brother, Zach Abraham, Chief Investment Officer
Capital Management.
Speaker 3: It's good to see your face. Man.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm telling you you are going to love it
down here. I've had such an incredible time. I know
you've been in Mexico, but man, I just have.
Speaker 3: I've just loved this.
Speaker 4: I we're pumped with my wife and I were actually
talking about it last night. I'm really I'm just I'm
really excited. I love There's something about Mexico and the
Mexican culture that I've always that I've always found really inviting.
I love the people. You know, the country has its problems,
like every country does. There's something so endearing about the
Mexican people in the Mexican culture. I love the food. Yeah,
I'm just I've always I've always been a fan of that,
the Mexican people in the culture.
Speaker 3: It's always same.
Speaker 1: I've never had this heart pull. And I want to
talk with you about this because it relates to tariffs
and our economy and the fakir of our economy.
Speaker 3: Let me just ask you, because I'm just not going.
Speaker 1: To pretend, but you could have just dropped an economic
good bomb for people who use Bulwark. And you are
very honest. When you guys have a down cycle, you
talk about down cycles, but tell us about how bullwork's
doing right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So whenever I talk about this, I need to
be careful because there's there's very tight regulations about you know,
pressing or discussing in public returns and things like that.
But anyway, and this isn't our entire clients accounts. It's
the portfolio that we manage, which makes up the majority
of our client stockholdings, but all of our clients are
positive on the ear and the value portfolio that we
manage that again makes up the lion's share of our
client's equity holdings. We're up five percent maybe a little
more after today on the year, markets down about nine
or ten after today, and I think the importance about
that is we're not in that spot. And this is
what I want people to understand. We're not in that
spot because we're the only ones that ought to do this.
We're not in that spot because we made some really
cool trade that you're going to hear about on CNBC.
That's we're where we're at because we are buying value,
we are buying asset. We are doing fundamental research that
nobody's been doing for a long time because people have
gotten lazy, and we're buying things that make sense. And
I was just talking to my one of my traders
and I head of research, and we were laughing about
how this is the most boring out performance we've ever
had because we've traded less than we have all year long,
Like this isn't active. We're not all over the place.
We just got a bunch of really good things that
are very undervalued. You know, gold. You heard me pounding
the table on gold for the last six months. New
all time highd gold today, So that has helped too.
But again, you know we're talking about gold. This isn't
some sexy tech company that nobody knows about. And you know,
everybody's been on a roller coaster and and and on
this free profit ride for a long time, and people
have forgotten that valuations and cash flows and fundamentals really matter.
And when you're looking at it that through the through
that lens, there's a lot of wonderful stuff to be
had out there. I think it's actually an exciting time
if you're looking at it through the lens of things
that have worked for the last ten to fifteen years.
I think you're in trouble, and I think you're about
to be in more trouble. I don't think that this
is I don't think this has resolved itself. I don't
think the US market's done going down. I don't think
we're on the precipice of a giant black hole. But
really interesting we're looking at charts today, Todd and remember
I've said all along, I don't think that we're going
to have a huge crash. But what I do think
is that it's highly probable that US markets are going
to underperform for a very extended period of time. We
are five percent away from a level on the SMP
five hundred, five or six right in there where if
we get to that level, the US stock market, the
S and P five hundred will have been flat for
four years straight. Okay, yeah, and it makes sense because
you got so overvalued that it's taking time to digest it, right,
But now you've got a situation where Earning's outlooks are
starting to go down, right. So, and I think, look,
I think that that I've longed thought that that's going
to be the way that this resolves, because that buying
the dip. Every time the market drops, you get dip
buyers coming in because it's worked for so long. Right, Well,
well guess what happens. The dips aren't holding right there.
And so what I think you're gonna get is you've
got a bunch of people, and I hate to say it,
but a lot of the listeners listening to your show
are in the same spot because everybody is, but they've
owned these stocks that have worked for so long and
they've quit looking at the fundamentals. We had an investor
come in and he's got about six hundred thousand dollars
just in Applestock, okay, and he's made a ton on it,
and he didn't want to sell it. And he goes, well,
I don't think. He goes, well, it's dropped, it's cheaper.
And we looked at him and said, you own an
uneconomical asset, and he goes, what do you mean? He goes,
the company is no longer growing. It's sales in China
are going to be even worse this year. You can
bank it and it is sporting a growth valuation and
it is not growing. Okay, you need to ring the register.
And we've been playing the same game for so long.
And I think what's going to happen is you're gonna
get these violent upswings where people think, oh, you know,
it's done again, and after a few years they're going
to look back and go, oh my gosh, we're down
forty We're down forty percent, right, and and it kind
of snuck up on you. And and the sad part
about it is there is so much good stuff out there.
They you know, you look at the way gold is run.
Gold miners are up today. The gold the gold miners
are getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper because they're not
keeping up with the pace of gold. Gold isn't teariffed
they anyway. There's so many. That's the tough part about it,
because you go, not only are you walking into a buzzsaw,
but this isn't that complicated. You don't need to do this.
There are a bunch of other things. You're just going
back to the well won too many times, man.
Speaker 1: So that's that's frustrating for you, being the business of
shepherding our money. I do thank you for viewing it
that way. Is shepherding our money and doing you know,
paying attention to and managing their gifts God gave us,
that has to be insanely frustrating. It's like me when
I'm in when I'm in a state where people are
asking me to explain something like why do Democrats think
this makes sense? Why do they concentrate on defending illegal
immigrants versus American you know, citizens and what? And I
will give them all the explanations. They can't afford to
come off that that pitch. They can't afford to come
off that scenario. They are just trying to wait Trump out.
They intend to go back to the same thing. And
it doesn't matter how many times you say it, or
you know someone in Washington State like, oh, well this time.
Speaker 3: We're going to turn it around this and no, no
you're not.
Speaker 1: So let's expand on this a little bit economically, because
my heart is changing in Mexico and I'm I got
to tell you, I'm a little bit afraid of how
it's changing, and you are complimenting me, you know, because
I've been out on the I've been getting treatment at
renew and this has been fantastic and part of ourtivit.
You gave me this compliment that I'm looking lean. Thank
you for that. Muscular I'm going to tell you guys,
the Bioptimizer's product, the mass Simes product, it makes a difference.
Speaker 3: And I'd say this to you too, Zach. This stuff.
Speaker 1: I can tell the difference now that I've been taking
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down because I won't be able to do really insane
CrossFit for a little while because of the injection I
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go to Bioptomizers dot com slash tidg use Pumbo Codade
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point you over there at sitting right on the desk
in the hotel room. I wonder with the with the
the cleaning staff things when they're come into my room,
because there's all these powders and here's a white powder
and I've actually got a tablespoon down here to take
my creatin. I got to wonder when the housekeepers are
going back, and I think we've got you know, remember that.
Speaker 3: This guy's got he's got a spoon and a white
powders room.
Speaker 1: Maybe we should bring in the federal allies. Keep like
to wonder if I'm going to come in, there's be
a federal allies. So let me take what you were
talking about with your economy, with the economy the United States,
we need to talk about the tariffs and Trump coming off.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, he blinked. I'm sorry. Uh, he
backed down. I'm sorry he got scared or and he
came off of the phones and the hot screen TVs
helped me process through this emotionally and economically. I'm troubled
in Mexico, and I will tell you why is because
I see this beautiful resort I'm in and people here
have good work. They're paid to be nice to us,
and I want to believe they're nice people, and I
think they genuinely are. I've I've I know, I've created
friends here at the renew Healthcare Clinic. I know because
of the conversation we've had and the way we hug,
you know, goodbye. And I'm looking at these resorts taking
over the old haciendas Old Mexico. I see downtown part
of Art that they're building these towers that are for
tourists or expat Americans and Canadians. And in the case
of America, so much of our economy is sugar high
conjured Fiat currency driven. This this deal with the devil
of the Chinese Communist Party underwriting these false high profit margins,
and we export that zach down here where we can
come and quote afford things that the Mexican people cannot.
And I'm not the ugly American thing. I'm not embarrassed
in my country. I love my country. Mexican citizens largely
love theirs. But man, I'm feeling a little heartsick of
them down here because we're exporting financial fraud in the way.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I had a very similar feeling the last
time I was down there. I've got an uncle and
Anthet lived down there half of the year, and they
are two of the kindest, most wonderful people in the world.
And because of that they have made friends not with
just dex pats, but with a lot of locals, right,
A lot of people that worked there, not rich locals,
working class locals. And so I got to hang out
with some of those people. The last time I was
down there, and I felt much the same way. I
felt a mixture of sadness and I felt a mixture
of disgust, both things that our government has done to
perpetuate this. Because you go in these areas and you
sit there and you're looking at this country that has
such unbelievable resources, beautiful land, natural resources, metals, gas oil.
I mean, you name it right, It's a rich country,
and yet there are so many that are destitute. And then,
like you said, to exacerbate that, now US capital is
flying out, and capital from other parts of the world
as well, and it's it's increasing the desperation, or it's
it's it's exacerbating the issues and like you said, gentrifying
it making it even even more expensive for those people,
in pricing those people out even further. And I think
that these are you know, these are obviously multifaceted, really
complicated economic discussions, but there's no question that that what
we've done here in our country by way of monetary
and fiscal policy, I don't think has helped that situation
at all. But you know, I think I think the
biggest issue that we face and this is a little
bit more esoteric and a little bit more philosophical, but
I keep coming back to it because I don't think
that there's a way out or or or a way
back to normal or or or a way to even
the imbalances without no bless obleege. And I was I
was just talking about this with with my with one
of my employees, right with which is with nobility comes obligation, right,
the old French saying, and that is that has disappeared
from society, right, meaning when when when you get rich?
And I'm gonna I'm gonna steal the words of my
one of my coworkers, my head of research, and he said,
you know, look at these tech billionaires. They get rich,
they're not in the inner city helping kids out. They're
in the city building or they're in New Zealand building
exotic underground bunkers to save themselves. Right, And and where
did no bless obliege go? Where did once you get ahead,
when God has blessed you and you've been given more.
I was having a discussion with my boys this morning.
We do a Bible study once once a week, and
we were having this discussion, and we live an extraordinarily
blessed life. And what I was telling them is, I go, guys,
God does not need another rich jerk. If you have
been given more, it has nothing to do with deserving it.
It has nothing to do with being better than anybody else.
The only reason you've been given more is right or wrong.
God is trusting you to take care of his children
with the excess that he has given you, right period.
And if you're doing anything other than that with it,
it's an abomination and it's disgusting. And you look at
so many of the problems we face culturally, you look
at how like you said, those problems are pouring over it,
you know, across borders, right, hurting other people. That that
whole idea that when we get better we pull others
with us, that's just gone.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And it's biblical too, to who much is given, much
is expected.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So there's the French the philosophical view of this, there's
the Christian view of this, and then there is just
the it's flat out the right thing to do view
of this.
Speaker 3: Right, that's common sense.
Speaker 1: And as our economy faced the most, I think promising
pain and I want to make sure that people understand
what I'm saying here promising pain. We are to choose
the Christian pain. Here's what I mean by this. Right,
we can choose a life of pleasure, and you can
have fleshly pleasures throughout this life, and you'll have had
your reward, and then you're going to spend eternity apart
from God, apart from anything that's good. We sometimes choose
Christian pain.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: I would like to be able to cut this corner economically.
I'd like to be able to shave the wages of
my employees because I can't afford to pay payroll. But nope,
the Christian says, hey, I'm not paying myself. Right, they
need to be paid. The laborers must be paid. That's
a painful decision. Sometimes do you struggle through things with
family right where you have to stay if together as
a family, and you do that because you choose the
Christian way, you choose the Christian pain. We were at
a point and President Trump had us there where we
had an opportunity to crack through two of the major
There's the macro problem where China has our companies trapped
into the addiction of high margin based on slave labor
and China's rigged economy, and then as people trapped on
oh my gosh, I'm not going to be able to
buy a smart screen TV that takes up the entire wall.
Speaker 3: How will I ever live?
Speaker 1: How will I ever live if my fourteen year olds
don't have iPhones? And I'm sorry, I can't see this
in any other way than the mockingbird. Media won around
because they scared people about flat screen TVs, and President
Trump came off of this. I know those other products.
I know there's some core energy stuff. I know there's
some core other you know, exchanges with China. But that one,
that one really bothered me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, no, look I get it. Let me throw
another perspective at you, though, please, And it's not one
that I find particularly palatable, but it is one that
I think is nonetheless very true and very relevant, which
is my only real issue with the way they've handled
the teriff so up until this point, my only real
issue with the whole tariff regime is the way they
rolled it out, meaning, in my opinion, had I been
in now when I say this, I am fully aware
of the fact that there are many things that he
knows that I don't, Right, So perhaps if I knew
what he knew, I may not have a differing opinion
or a different opinion in terms of how I would
have approached it. But had I been in his shoes,
I would have approached it differently. I would have had hard,
closed door discussions with all friendly countries and allies, and
I would have built a coalition prior to addressing China, okay,
And I would have done my best to resolve all
of these issues behind closed doors, so by the time
we addressed China, we had shored up our support in
our folks, and I would have applied pariffs in a
more surgical way. Okay. Now having said that, I have
also acknowledged and I still reiterate that regardless of maybe
my difference or discrepancies that I see with how I
would have rolled them out, I still think the most
important thing is that the issue is getting addressed and
it's getting tackled, right, So that's all there. But the
flip side of it is the reality is one of
the reasons that I would have rolled it out in
a more progressive manner is the American people themselves. You
have to if you're dealing politically in this country, you
have to recognize the cold reality, which is we are softer,
more spoiled, and more selfish than we have ever been. Okay,
if you lose the American voter in the process, regardless
if you are if you are pursuing the right track,
but you lose the American voter in the process, you
end up exactly where you are right. And he has
got to be and he has to do it with
the mockingbird media knowing that they're going to negatively spend
no matter what he does right. And this would have
been one of the reasons that I would have approached
it this way because you know, look, it's it's you know,
in war all the time, commanders deal with this all
the time. Right, there's the right strategic move to make,
and then there's the make that. Then there's the move
that you are able to make right. And that to
me is where I think there was a miss on
this one. Meaning I idealistically I love the track he
was on, but realistically, were you going to be able
to keep the troops with you? No? I didn't think so.
And part of that is understanding where China is meaning
this is not going to be a quick resolution issue.
It meaning if you're China, you have zero incentive to change.
This is working great for you, right and truthfully, our
greed is as much to blame as there, you know, taking.
Speaker 1: Oh, there's no doubt, there's no doubt the fact that
our companies dove straight into make everything over there, move
things over as quickly as possible, turning up, you know,
refusing to acknowledge what China is doing to human beings. Right,
That's that's the very bite of the so called you know,
poison apple. That's the very the very beginning of that
that then creates this cascading issue of covening even more
margins and turn more things over to China. And it's
extraordinary to me that we still have economists like a
I don't know if you saw Janet Yellen, and she's
been Janet Yellen came out and said it's debatable as
if it's a good idea to bring American manufacturing back here.
She said, hey, I don't think it can be done.
It's a pipe dream. And I'm like, it was done
under President Trump's term.
Speaker 3: It was just done.
Speaker 1: It's happening now. In Vidia just said they're going to
make chips here. It was just done. And then she says,
and it's debatable as to if this is a good idea.
Debatable to you, Janet Yellen, who gets paid enormous amounts
of money to be wrong right when you have p
but like that running the economy, no wonder, No one
has said, hey, do you think it's a good idea
to arm our greatest geopolitical foe who intends to destroy
us with ninety percent of our products?
Speaker 3: It's it's insane.
Speaker 4: Well, and and then that, to me is one of
the most frustrating points about this conversation, because then I
would look at Jenny Ellen and say, okay, Janet, well,
unlike you, most people that haven't had the head of
the FED don't have a four hundred thousand dollars pension
per year, and they don't get paid five hundred thousand
dollars per speaking engagement. So for somebody that gets that
type of setup and who spent their entire career in academia,
I can understand why you're so off course. Okay, but
you you act as if the status quo is acceptable.
It's not. And the only reason why you think the
status quo is acceptable because it's been great for you
it's been great for you and your friends. Right, but again,
take a trip to Detroit, take a trip to Cleveland,
make a trip to West Virginia. Why don't you go
spend some time there. Okay, it not only first and
foremost anybody that says that, I initially revolt because I go,
are you part of the cabal? Meaning you don't think
it's a good idea to bring back? So you think
we should let people who are militarily on the opposite
side of us, right outspokenly our adversaries, they should be
in charge of handling the manufacturing of all of the
goods we need, including to build our own war machine. Again,
like you think that's a good idea, You're an idiot.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, and then she says, but we're pushing we're
pushing the lower economic stata jobs over it to China,
and everyone here's going to learn to be white collar
and then they'll be like me, Janet Yellen, But no,
but no, not everybody's willing to do the things necessary
to go sell their soul to do that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so hey, Janet, newsflash, that was the way that
that was sold to us thirty years ago.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you've been keeping up on current events,
but we just got our kicked right, the old line
from aliens, like Janet, where have you been for the
last thirty years? There was a really hot debate about
this between a guy named Ross Paro and George HW
Bush back in ninety three ninety two. Excuse me, day,
Ross Perot won that debate. I don't know what you're
talking about, right, No, we didn't get a bunch of
white collar workers. What we got is a bunch of
fentanyl and opiate addicted people. We've got a rust belt
instead of a Bible belt. We've got cities melting down
from the inside like a nuclear reactor. Like these people
are so out of check. Like she is completely crystallizes
what I was just saying about these people being out
of touch with reality. Right, she thinks the status quo
is defensible and you liter and go it is not this.
It doesn't work. Look what's happening to our society? Right?
Like you're going to have as many dependence as you
do people that work.
Speaker 3: Like there's a reason we call it the accelic corridor, Zach.
Speaker 1: Because you pop onto a train, you sit in first class,
you close the curtains when you go through certain parts
of of Baltimore and certain parts of Philadelphia, just close
the curtains.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: So people don't have they don't have all the walls
in their house. Okay, so some of the brick has
come off. Okay, so there's people sleeping with rain and
snow coming through, but it's not you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're so. I don't mean to cell you. So
economically speaking, long term, if you look at the American
economy for the last one hundred and fifty years, Hey,
the average profit if we looked at and think about
all the changes that have occurred, right, so many industrial Revolution,
World War two, not being the world reserve currency being
the world reserve currency. When you look at our markets,
the average profit margin for the for US corporations historically
is sixteen percent. Okay. We're running at twenty six right now. Okay,
So so you're what that's what seventy five percent above
the long term average? Okay. So what you're telling me
is that if we enact policies that dial that back
to a sixteen to eighteen percent historically normal range, and
the difference is increased labor costs that go to our
people what you're telling me is that what is built
the same scenario that built this entire country. Fifteen to
sixteen percent profit margins are just too onerous for corporate America, Right,
what do we talk? There's a reason why all of
a sudden. Jeremy Grantham, a famous money manager, said that
profit margins are the most mean reverting data set in
the world, meaning they've always been like clockwork until the
last fifteen years. Well what shifted. It's for the first
time in human history that we're manufacturing things offshore. So
the production of goods does not lead to higher incomes
for the country that produces the goods. So all of
a sudden, you have this profit anomaly that will not seed,
and everybody's like, well what could it be? And you're
looking at them going are you joking?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I know, And to explain it that way economically beautifully,
I couldn't have done that that way. To me, the
common sense just this question is not to repeat ourselves,
says Okay, so China wants to destroy us, so let's
do business with them.
Speaker 3: None of it makes any sense. It's the same, it's
not the same thing.
Speaker 1: But I mean, you know, I tend to like the
people at my bank, right, they're not necessarily my friends,
because when it came and said they offered me. You know,
when I went from an LLC to a corporation, they
came along and said, hey, you should get a corporate
credit card, you know, and then it can say the
name of the company on it, and okay, that would
be interesting. So yeah, you know, okay, so maybe I'll
do that. They give me a credit application. I'm like, wait, wait,
why ask it about my house? Right? A, you know
about this? And b wait why asking about my personal income?
That's this is for the business, And oh no, no,
it's just a background thing. And then I learned from
you about your friend Brian mckechney who started Visible, and
had a conversation with him, and he didn't charge me
a dime. He doesn't charge people to die for the
consult And I felt like such a bloom and fool
because in seven easy steps, I can end up having
four reel corporate credit and the rest of it I do,
and I can do.
Speaker 3: It's ten percent. He has you do ninety percent. They
do so many things.
Speaker 1: I mean, I knew I was putting myself at risk
if something bad happened in the business or I got
sued because it made fun of the figurehead and he
got very upset, and people decided to sue me because
that would never happen. You know, they'd never use lawfare
against someone like me this way.
Speaker 3: When I have corporate credit established for Reel through Bisible.
Speaker 1: They can't come after my house, for my retirement fund,
they can't do any of that. But what we're doing
with their banks is we're piercing our own corporate shield.
And then to find out that you're a customer of
Bisible and this is why you became a minority investor.
I mean, you saw the same thing and you're a
very sophisticated guy.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, so it's it was something and I think
I brought this up before. It was something that had
been in the back of my mind for a long time.
But as most entrepreneurs know, you're obsessed with running your
business right and you're used to carrying risk, and sometimes
you take a step back and you realize, I'm carrying
risks that I don't need to carry. And I knew
all along, by definite by the way we started our
business that I was not at all taking it. Look
if you've got a business out there and you have
not established corporate credit, which the vast majority of business
owners haven't for the same reasons I hadn't. And then
on top of it, you're busy running your business, so
you don't have time to take a week off to
try to establish corporate credit and figure out what that
means and monitor it and all that other kind of stuff.
For a really, really reasonable price, you got these people
that do ninety percent of the work for you.
Speaker 5: So for me, it was sort of like saying, hey,
would you like this really really tight, comprehensive indemnity protection,
you know, plan for your business that costs you virtually
nothing or not?
Speaker 2: Right or not?
Speaker 3: And that's the part I like, is the or not part.
Speaker 1: Guys, if you have a debit card with your business
name on it, or a credit card with your business
name on.
Speaker 3: It, that doesn't mean you have corporate credit if.
Speaker 1: You didn't do it this way. So take us up
on this offer. Here's the website, it's go bisible dot com.
And here's my personal guarantee. When you chat with them
in this free NA obligation discussion, you're gonna learn some things.
Speaker 3: Zack and I have time to explain it all.
Speaker 1: It's go bisible uh dot com. So are you, as
I listened to you describe our our economy and what
we put ourselves into in this Gordian knot. I don't
see any other way out of this than getting to
a point where there's gonna have to be some economic
cold Turkey, and there's gonna have to be an economic
you know.
Speaker 3: We have to stop this. If you think of people who.
Speaker 1: Get into addicted behaviors, so people who you know, they
go back to drinking and they know the second they
swallow that, oh my gosh, I've got to stop this.
You know, people who are addicted to porn right, Oh,
every time they do it, they feel horrible, right, and
they feel sleazy, and I got to stop this. It
was that way with me and fast food when I was,
you know, anigally addicted to fast food. You don't think
I felt like a complete loser going to the second
McDonald's in fifteen minutes and pretending I'm buying food for
other people and that's what I did, and hiding the
wrappers because I just ate two double quarter pounders with
cheese and two French fries and two mcfish sandwiches and
shoved out all down to the car and then go
to the next McDonald's.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh, I truly did that.
Speaker 1: What I weighed like four under pounds, almost four and pounds,
and I knew I got to stop this man. And
every time I drive by McDonald's, i'd smell it, Well,
just this one time, and ill you know, and I
won't go to the next one. By the time they
insulin high hat me and I'm chasing, I'm like, well,
but just this time, I'll go to the next one,
but I'll only get one mcfish and they'll get everything.
Speaker 3: All the same.
Speaker 1: So I go home, you know, having consumed six thousand
calories of not food, and people know that they have
to stop it, i'd zach. I don't think corporate America
knows they're destroying their home, that they're destroying the kind
of tree that made them what they are, or didn't
make them, but made it gave them the life, liberty,
pursuit of happiness.
Speaker 3: To get this.
Speaker 1: I don't think they understand they're soiling their own bed.
To put it, you know, in gross terms, they're they're
they're soiling their bed. I don't think they know they're
going to have to stop this, and I don't think
they know that if they don't stop it, it's going
to get stopped for them.
Speaker 4: Yeah. It reminds me of the oro boros, you know,
the sign, the orol boros, the snake swallowing its own tail. Yes,
and quite honestly, and I mean this, I don't mean
it really. Yeah, I do mean it actually. And there's
a part of me that tips my cap to China
because they understood something that I don't think we were
careful about, which was the inherent greed inside of capitalism.
That's a driver that is not a bad thing if
it's used constructively, but when it starts mixing and marrying
with anyway. The Chinese realized something, which was if we
offer them a way to cut their own throat and
we cushing it with higher profits, they will line up
for the privilege to do it. And this goes to
the whole idea of noble less oblege. It also goes
back to the moral vacancy that we have in this country.
Meaning it used to be that any time you were
put in a position of power or supervisory that you
understood that you were being called to be a Steward,
you understood that you had to look out for the
greater good, that you had to look out for your community.
And I think it's just moral decay over time. I
don't really have another way to describe it, because there were,
there are alternatives. There have always been alternatives. You know,
you got to give must credit. You know, with Tesla
being the most vertically integrated automobile manufacturer, and you know
they're buying parts from around the world, but the vast
majority of their cars are still assembled here. You can
do it. Are there constraints yet? Yes, But but greed
has just driven everything to the total disregard of everything else, right,
and the pursuit of profits and all. And people would
be like, oh, so you're saying there's something wrong with capitalism. No,
I'm saying there's something wrong with capitalism when the punishments
or the downside of capitalism gets taken off, right, when
you don't let failed institutions fail, when big business starts
getting in bed with big government. Right, this is where
because now you no longer have you know, I think
it's interesting that Musk is a founder, right, that Musk
is a founder and he is taking the roles and
doing the things that he is doing, whereas opposed you
look at all these other CEOs who weren't founders, most
of them are griping about the tariffs, right yep, And
I think that's interesting, Right. It tells you something. The
people that build something think differently than the people. Look
at the difference between Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, right,
another perfect example.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: I may be wrong in saying this, but I have
a very hard time believing and Jobs was no great
moral panther like he had his issues too, right, He's
but huge. Yeah, had he been running Apple, I still
don't think it would be run the same way. I
think that. I think that they would be. For instance,
I think their manufacturing would be more diverse that That's
the other part of it. If you want to look
at how much greed has overrun it, look at the
way these guys have violated supply chain laws. What if
you're Apple, the world's largest corporation, How does it make
sense that you would marry yourself up with one country
that you know is diametrically opposed to your country. Think
of the business risk inherent in that, Think of the
lack of like that doesn't even make sense on a spreadsheet,
let alone in a boardroom.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: So the next question.
Speaker 1: Is why, well, you know what, I'll put it down
to this and I do this a lot with Silicon Valley.
It's the word gods, right, So I mean, yeah, that's
really risky, but not for Apple. And that's really risky
because you know what, our our MBAs will figure it
out and and we'll get out what it's time to
get out. And plus you know, China needs us and
know and well they're you know, they need our products
and they need no no, no, no no.
Speaker 4: I think it also suggests compromised executives, right, Like, I mean,
you've got you've got people that are highly paid to
make these decisions. And I'm just telling you. Had I
been in a boardroom in any of those meetings, a
natural question would have been, Hey, guys, that seems like
a lot of manufacturing to have in one country, especially
one that doesn't like us. Right, That's that's not a
you don't have to be a scion of industry if
In other.
Speaker 1: Words, and guys, while we're here, can we do some
forensic accounting of your your personal finances. There's some questions
we have about the house as you own in China.
Speaker 4: Yeah, or I also know that you just spent two
weeks in Beijing. When you checked into your hotel, there
weren't four young girls waiting in your room, were.
Speaker 3: There, right, And they could look at you and go, well.
Speaker 4: Not four, yeah, they were only three?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah?
Speaker 1: And if you think China didn't do the honeypot stuff,
I mean, this is my friend Michael Rore.
Speaker 3: Whose he retired Special Forces operative.
Speaker 1: This is one of the things that he finds constantly
when he gets called into companies where there's fraud, that
he constantly is coming out and going, yeah, you know what,
your executives got caught in a honeytrap and so they've
been compromised this way. I need to ask you a
financial question on the good side of things, and it's
about Nvidia and bringing a bunch of manufacturing here and
Apple bringing a bunch of manufacturing back. I do want
to close out there making sure that we honor the
fact that Good Friday's coming, and it said earlier people
are going to hear this in Good Friday. I'm wrong,
They're going to hear this in the Thursday before Good Friday.
Speaker 4: But it is.
Speaker 1: Coming up to Resurrection Sundays. We need to spend some
time on that. Zach Abram's with me, of course, No,
you're riskrated dot com. So we're talking about God and
Country and Team. Can't do anything without mentioning Bone Frog Coffee,
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that company, knows exactly what it's like to be in
a real war.
Speaker 3: Remember that in the Hunger Games. Tell me, Miss Everdeen,
would you like to be in a real war? No,
I would not.
Speaker 1: Tim didn't want to either, but he served his country
and he said he'd go back, even though it's been
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The insignia is a fallen seal, That's what it stands for.
The bag say God Country Team on him.
Speaker 3: That is the classic bags.
Speaker 1: The new bag, which is limited time, honors President Trump's
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It's called Golden Age. Yes, it says God Country Team
on all of them. Do go to Bonefrog Coffee dot
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off your first purchase fifteen percent off subscription coffee. It's
Bonefrog Coffee dot com slash todd, so Zach and Vidia
has said that they're going to move a ton of money.
If I read it correctly, it was something on the
order of magnitude of five billion dollars of manufacturing over here.
Speaker 3: Apple has said.
Speaker 1: They're bringing a lot of stuff back. There's been auto
manufacturers who've wisely stepped up to say, hey, we're going
to give employee discounts to customers over the next ninety days.
Ford did that super super wise. So this pressure is
having an effect. And when we get in Nvidia investing here,
how much better is that for us than all that
stuff being made in Taiwan. I mean it's jobs, and
it's people investing here and people able to buy houses
and products, And I mean that's helpful for us, is
it not?
Speaker 4: It is? It is, And it's helpful for us on
a national security basis, and it's also helpful for us
on a employment basis. And like I was talking to
you about the excess profits you know, you and I
both from businesses. We're not a verse to processing profits
at all. Right, I manage money for bit. I love
high profits. Okay, but what we're seeing I look at
those profits seventy percent above seventy eighty percent whatever, that
number is above the long term average, and I'm like, look,
there's your cushion, right, Can we make them as profitably
her as? No, you can't. But again, you and I
have had this conversation one hundred times. Let's be adults
and acknowledge there are costs and benefits. So your computer
that you buy might be thirty nine bucks more expensive. Okay.
The flip side of that is Ed isn't going to
be sleeping on the slightest side of the street anymore
because he's no longer addicted to opiates and going to
the bathroom in the street because he's got a job. Okay.
And that's the thing that makes me so angry about.
Where as at owning the biggest consumer base and the
richest consumer base in the world, you you have to
protect that. You have to sit people go, well, that's
not free trade. Nobody's free trading with you anyway. You're
the only ones doing it effectively, right, and so you
go look, if you want to access our markets, you know,
for instance, go look at the automobile industry. Look at
how many you look at how many restrictions we have
around the world with different nations about which cars and
which models we can send them, and then look at
the ones that we've got on them. I'll tell you
it's lopsided. We've got a couple of restrictions, but it's
very lopsided. My whole point is saying, why are we
still doing these things? Right? There was a time where
you could argue it made some sense because we were
so US based manufacturing that offshoring some of that, right.
What it did it took a little bit from here,
but it helped build a consumer base in another country,
meanwhile lowering cost of production, which actually ended up benefiting
US workers. Because now we're right, that's the whole idea.
If you take that part out of it, right, we
can do global trade quote unquote if it's done on
a basis, like on a fair basis, like what I'm
talking about, Because yes, their middle class or their lower
class is benefiting, but that lower in middle class turns
around and buys things from you, right, so it helps
offset that pain that you feel. Well, we just went
and said, well, let's send it all and you're like, whoa,
that doesn't work, guys, No, no, now, you just now
you just literally cut the gooses. You cut the golden
goose's head off to pull the eggs off from inside
of it, right, And that's and that's where we're at,
and so like, yes, things are going to be a
little more expensive. I am willing.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 4: I also understand that I'm in an economic place to
where you know, inflation really hasn't bothered me personally, right,
hasn't impacted my spending decisions. So I understand that I'm
a little bit different in that way, and I admit that.
But at the same time, yes, guys, we should all
be willing to pay a little bit more if it
means greater levels of national security and it means better
things here at home. Again, we've averaged sixteen percent profits,
we're at twenty six, and the country's coming apart. I
don't think a return to sixteen would be the worst
thing that ever happened.
Speaker 3: To with me, I totally agree.
Speaker 1: And to who much is given much as expected, which
brings us now coming to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.
And I wanted to ask you a question, and I'll
go first, but I wanted you to ask I want
to ask you, when was the time that you thought
about Jesus and the sacrifice and the gift of eternal
life and coming off the cross and you had an
epiphany of Oh, my gosh, it was for me that
he did this for me. We used to do a
thing at our Lutheran church where I thought was really
effective before it completely went to the left and fell apart.
Of course, we used to have to go up and
nail or we got the opportunity to put nails into
the cross on Good Friday US and that was difficult, man,
that was really really hard.
Speaker 3: It occurred to.
Speaker 1: Me just this past couple days that we so often
talk about Jesus going to the cross for I mean,
the redemption of mankind, appreciation of sins, part of the plan,
a debt we couldn't pay. But we think of that
in the past tense and did Hebrews. I think it's
a Hebrew six. It reminds us that when we choose
to sin, and this isn't mistake making, I mean we
are broken and we have with sin nature. Sometimes we
make mistake, but when we choose to practice sin as
if to get good at it, or we know there's
a sin that we're just managing versus letting God conquer it.
So it's sin management every time.
Speaker 3: We do that.
Speaker 1: Jesus paid for those two. So everything we're going to
sin in the future he went to the cross for.
And a way to look at this is every time
you do that, you kind of recrucify him. So you're
kind of saying, hey, Jesus, could you get up on
the cross and well and get scourged and spit upon
and tortured again because I'm having I don't want to
get rid of the sin. I just want to management.
I just want to contain it. And that, to me,
that's breathtaking. Like if you were walking with Jesus and
he I just imagine him carrying the cross and he's
beaten and he's bleeding and he's not breathing. Well, probably
one of you know, lung lungs could be collapsing given
what they did to him. And you're on a smartphone
and you're walking next to him, and he says, what
are you looking at? And you say porn. Oh okay, Well,
I'm doing this for you and every the time you're
going to do this. So I think we need to
recognize that every sin we're going to commit in the future,
Jesus is paying for it. If that's not an incentive
when you're in the sin management business, if that's not
an incentive, if you're tempted by something, that's not an
incentive to picture. Oh wait, do I want to ask
Jesus to get on the cross again? Then I don't
know what the incentive that would be. That that hit me
pretty heavy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's starting to hit me heavy. Were sitting
here having a conversation about it, so I'm trying to
I'm trying to hold it together. But it reminds me
of one of my favorite songs that that I think
everybody should download and listen to, and it's called because
You Loved Me Anyway. Oh man, you're getting emotional exactly
because a lot of the things that you said, I've done.
You know, I've done a lot of things that I'm
not proud of. And there's a line in that song
where uh, he says, a man, I am the nail
in your wrist. And you love me anyway, And I was,
it's not a can't It's not far from what I
was talking to my boys about this morning, which is
and and and it goes back to no bless oblige
that we were talking about earlier, right of it. Our
whole life is about repaying, you know what, weather whether
we've been blessed economically or with children or whatever the
case is, we are deeply loved. We were designed specifically
with a purpose in mind. We are not an accident.
We were wonderfully and fearfully made. And there's a better
way to do things. There's a there's a there's a
there is freedom, there is relief, and uh, you know,
I yeah, I think about my life and the good
Friday is. I wouldn't say it's my favorite day of
the holiday because or you know, I'm a Christmas guy
just I love Christmas. But uh, but I think it's
the most important for me, just because without this day,
I certainly wouldn't be here having this conversation with you.
And I don't even want to know what my life
would look like. But I would encourage everybody download that song.
I think it's I think it's I think it's by
casting crowns. I want to say, but you love me anyway.
And it's a great reminder that you just brought up,
which is every time we do it, every time you
do something, you know, yeah, just it keeps showing your toes.
Speaker 3: Man and just it should it should. We got to
do this better.
Speaker 1: Always enjoy to talk with you, and I wish you
the most beautiful, beautiful Easter morning with your family and
reflective time on Good Friday.
Speaker 3: And thank you for being emotional and vulnerable with us.
Speaker 1: Zach Abraham, Chief of the Best Officer Boat Captain Management,
Know Your Risk Radio dot com.
Speaker 3: This is a Todd Herman show.
Speaker 1: Please go, be well, be strong, be kind, and please
make every effort to walk in the life of Christ.