Speaker 1: This is the sound going to restore law and order
Speaker 1: of America. Returning to factory settings. Fifty five krc P
Speaker 1: Talkstation eight o five, the fifty five KRCD talk station.
Speaker 1: It is that time of week. We talked money, money
Speaker 1: Monday with Brian.
Speaker 2: James from Allworth Financial.
Speaker 3: Got some good topic to talk about and of course
Speaker 3: number one on the list there tariffs, tariffs, tariffs. Brian James,
Speaker 3: welcome back to the morning show. It's always good having
Speaker 3: you on the program.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's always good to be here with you.
Speaker 4: And it's always good to have a batch of headlines
Speaker 4: from the weekend to discust, don't we.
Speaker 3: Isn't that the truth? And were talking about gross domestic
Speaker 3: product and four point twenty five to four point five
Speaker 3: percent in terms of the FED and its rates, and
Speaker 3: sadly the third topic really is so concerning to me.
Speaker 3: Young families can't able, it can't afford to buy a home.
Speaker 3: But let's dive onto the terroriffs. And if you look
Speaker 3: at the White House dot gov fact sheet in case
Speaker 3: people aren't really aware of exactly why Donald Trump with
Speaker 3: tariffs on Canada and Mexico and China. He cited fentanyl
Speaker 3: and the borders, the illegal immigration. Those are the two
Speaker 3: main things that he is he's promoting these tariffs for. He's,
Speaker 3: you know, shut down the borders or help us with
Speaker 3: border security and quit shipping fentanyl into our country, declaring
Speaker 3: a national emergency based on that under the International Emergency
Speaker 3: Economic Powers Act. I guess I have to ask out loud,
Speaker 3: not knowing really anything about the International Emergency Economic Powers Act,
Speaker 3: is this something that could be subject to legal charge
Speaker 3: or illegal action or Congress could step in and take
Speaker 3: them away.
Speaker 2: I really, I really don't know that. I'll stay out loud. Brian, Yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Know, And I think that there's a lot of us
Speaker 4: who aren't clear exactly on what the what the legal
Speaker 4: implifications are of these decisions, because sometimes we hear that
Speaker 4: decision was made and executive order was issued, and somebody
Speaker 4: else will say, wait a minute, that's completely illegal. In
Speaker 4: some cases they've been declared unconstitutional. But nobody has stepped
Speaker 4: up and actually on any of those perceptions of these
Speaker 4: executive orders. So this is a president we've seen before.
Speaker 4: Obviously we know he's willing to push the envelope. He
Speaker 4: certainly is this time around, with kind of nothing to lose,
Speaker 4: as a basically a lame duck under current rules because
Speaker 4: he can't run for election again. So yeah, that's what
Speaker 4: we've been seeing. And everything has come fast and furious
Speaker 4: sins inauguration.
Speaker 3: Well, and it's going to be across the board. I
Speaker 3: don't know how anybody can say that this will not
Speaker 3: have an in fact on prices. I mean, you're raising
Speaker 3: you're putting tariffs on these goods. I think necessarily the
Speaker 3: price is going to be passed along to the consumer.
Speaker 3: And it's a huge swath of goods. I got a
Speaker 3: kick out of some of the ones that the Wall
Speaker 3: Street Journal identified, like cherry tomatoes, Tanka trucks. They mentioned
Speaker 3: this specifically because they're all made in China, but they
Speaker 3: also pointed out that more than eighty percent of toys
Speaker 3: sold in the United States are made in China. Maple syrup,
Speaker 3: you know, tap your own maple trees in the backyard
Speaker 3: like we did, I guess, tequila, avocados, smartphones from China
Speaker 3: subject to a ten percent increase in tiffin in the
Speaker 3: last one. I really got a kick out of sledgehammers
Speaker 3: made in China. Sledge hammers are already subject to a
Speaker 3: twenty five percent import tax. Although we do have some
Speaker 3: sledgehammer manufacturers here in the United States, but it goes
Speaker 3: way beyond those ones that were identified.
Speaker 4: It does. Now hold on one second while I check
Speaker 4: sledge hammer futures.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, let's do that.
Speaker 4: But I think know that that's that is a fascinating list,
Speaker 4: and you'll you and I could go find another article
Speaker 4: right now that'll have twenty seven other products that you
Speaker 4: didn't just mention. So I think that's that. This this
Speaker 4: is what what you know, what we've been calling it.
Speaker 4: You know, over the weekend you're starting to hear the
Speaker 4: words trade war. Other countries are now calling it a
Speaker 4: trade war. So this, this is very much so the
Speaker 4: president delivering on the promises that he made. Now, one
Speaker 4: thing he didn't seem to have mentioned until now is that, oh,
Speaker 4: by the way, this is going to cost us. As
Speaker 4: you were hinting, prices are going to go up. There's
Speaker 4: no way to avoid that. Over the weekend he said, yeah,
Speaker 4: price must be paid, but the end result will be
Speaker 4: all worse that but but there could be some pain
Speaker 4: in the near future here. So he didn't really mention
Speaker 4: that during the campaign. That's obviously not something you expect
Speaker 4: to gain any votes by really shining a light on
Speaker 4: But there is no way to slap tariffs on companies
Speaker 4: who are looking to make a profit and force those
Speaker 4: companies to only take it out of their profits. They're
Speaker 4: going to raise prices. This is the United States of
Speaker 4: profit margin companies who are having to deal with these costs.
Speaker 4: And it might might it might be a company that
Speaker 4: you perceive is an American company, but they may be
Speaker 4: bringing parts in from to build. Cars are a great example.
Speaker 4: For one, part inside of a car may literally go
Speaker 4: back across the border of Canada and or Mexico several
Speaker 4: times before it lands in its final car. So it
Speaker 4: may be an American brand. You may be buying it
Speaker 4: from what you feel is in an American dealership, but the
Speaker 4: parts in it could be coming from multiple countries that
Speaker 4: will all add up and wind up on that windowsticker.
Speaker 3: Well, and to some effect, the the threat of terrorists
Speaker 3: has kind of worked, I know in terms of repatriating
Speaker 3: some of the illegal immigrants. Some certain countries have said, Okay,
Speaker 3: we'll take them back under threat of Donald Trump retaliating
Speaker 3: against him. And is that really the impact he's looking for?
Speaker 3: And again going back to the fact sheet. This is
Speaker 3: purely based upon FENTONYL and illegal immigration. Now, we, I think,
Speaker 3: to a large degree, can control the border because obviously
Speaker 3: they're cracking down on it already. We did have a
Speaker 3: more secure border in prior administrations, but more resources went
Speaker 3: down there for walls and security and warm bodies in
Speaker 3: the form of ice agents. I think you could curtail
Speaker 3: one of the two identified problems to a large extent.
Speaker 3: Now Canada represents a more sizable challenge, considering that is
Speaker 3: pretty much a wide open border, and it is a
Speaker 3: big one. But I guess I'm just wondering what resources
Speaker 3: the Mexican government could even bring to bear since their
Speaker 3: country is largely controlled by And feel free to disagree,
Speaker 3: but it's been my conclusion over the years that the
Speaker 3: CAR tells they have a substantial amount of power in Mexico,
Speaker 3: and here's Trump trying to take away one of their
Speaker 3: primary sources of income, which is drugs and varying illegal
Speaker 3: immigrants to the southern border, right, And I.
Speaker 4: Think you raise a great point in terms of there's
Speaker 4: there is a lot of enforcements, or at least much
Speaker 4: more on the south side than there is on north side.
Speaker 4: So I think when when we when we uh lay
Speaker 4: a levy energy tarists, for example, against Canada, and not
Speaker 4: a lot of people know this. I think it's becoming
Speaker 4: a more popular news item where people are going, huh,
Speaker 4: didn't know that Canada is the largest of among the
Speaker 4: countries the United States brings in oil from Canada is
Speaker 4: the largest one. So that that so obviously we were
Speaker 4: trying to poke them in the eye. Of course, that's
Speaker 4: maybe maybe there's better ways to handle up. That's effectively
Speaker 4: what we're doing to get their attention on the fentanyl issue.
Speaker 4: But I think also what's underlying this to me, this
Speaker 4: is the first shot across the bow of we want
Speaker 4: to be producing much more. We want to import less
Speaker 4: and produce more domestically. So first off, let's just make
Speaker 4: domestic oil more expensive. However we can do it, and
Speaker 4: we'll call it fentanyl, and we'll call it illegal immigration
Speaker 4: or whatever. But let's just slap oil tariffs on Canada.
Speaker 4: That will force us to say, hey, imported oil is
Speaker 4: more expensive. It's going to drive the price up. That
Speaker 4: will get the attention of the domestic drillers and the
Speaker 4: drill baby drill thing. Right now, domestic oil companies don't
Speaker 4: really want to drill so much. They're not super excited
Speaker 4: about it because oil prices are not that high. If
Speaker 4: we drive it up, this is Trump's thinking. I believe
Speaker 4: if we drive that price up, they'll be more attracted
Speaker 4: to go drill. And take into account the executive orders
Speaker 4: he has put out there over the past few weeks
Speaker 4: to make drilling easier. Right now, the profit isn't there
Speaker 4: for them, but based on oil futures from last night
Speaker 4: that bounced about two percent to the upside, it looks
Speaker 4: like it's going to go more attractive for him.
Speaker 3: Well, and doesn't this sort of fly in the face
Speaker 3: of rebuilding or are going back to build the Keystone
Speaker 3: XOL pipeline because that brings oil from Canada into the
Speaker 3: United States?
Speaker 2: Right correct?
Speaker 4: And now I haven't heard him mention it's not in
Speaker 4: a very very long I know. I know, so I
Speaker 4: think I don't think that's a major priority for him.
Speaker 4: It was a hot point because I think that was
Speaker 4: a poke in the eye to the to the liberal
Speaker 4: side that wanted that shut down because of it for
Speaker 4: environmental reasons and so forth, But that was never really
Speaker 4: his objective. I think his objective is for more domestic oil.
Speaker 4: So that's why we haven't heard the word keystone all
Speaker 4: through this. I haven't heard that since the since the election.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and in terms of and I understand, maybe the
Speaker 3: motivating force behind increasing the price of Canadian oil in
Speaker 3: the United States is exactly what you said. But those
Speaker 3: projects don't come online very quickly. I mean, it takes
Speaker 3: a while to ramp up a drilling project, doesn't it exactly.
Speaker 4: And that's why that's the pain he's talking about. He
Speaker 4: can't talk about pain when he's trying to win an election.
Speaker 4: Candidate Trump doesn't have to talk about that. President Trump
Speaker 4: has to give us a heads up that hey, this
Speaker 4: might hurt for a little while, so that six months later,
Speaker 4: when a little while is still happening, because we haven't
Speaker 4: started much of this domestic production yet, he can say
Speaker 4: I told you about this way back in February. It
Speaker 4: was gonna hurt. We got to pay the price, good, bad,
Speaker 4: and different. That's the reality that we're current in, currently in.
Speaker 3: And going back to my question about you know, legal challenges,
Speaker 3: I mean, we currently have a trade agreements and or
Speaker 3: trade agreements in place with Canada and Mexico. Didn't Trump
Speaker 3: negotiate that when he was president the first time around.
Speaker 4: Sure, there's a lot of things he did when he
Speaker 4: was president the first time around that that don't seem
Speaker 4: to hold any bearing. Now look at all the people
Speaker 4: he appointed that now he's firing. A lot of the
Speaker 4: firings you're hearing are his own people from six eight
Speaker 4: years ago. So I don't know that history necessarily means
Speaker 4: much of anything. It's just the reality of you know,
Speaker 4: his his window he looks at is what do I
Speaker 4: see right now?
Speaker 3: What do I need to do about it? The history
Speaker 3: is irrelevant, it sure is. And going back to the
Speaker 3: whole idea about drugs. You know, drugs have been coming
Speaker 3: into this country, I mean since before I was born.
Speaker 3: It's the demand that is the problem. I mean, if
Speaker 3: we weren't a nation of a bunch of addicts and
Speaker 3: cravers of drugs, then this wouldn't even be an issue.
Speaker 3: I know that's a simple statement to make, but Lord almighty,
Speaker 3: it's just I don't get it. That just seems to
Speaker 3: be there should be another way to skin a cat,
Speaker 3: if you know what I mean, rather than going down
Speaker 3: this road. But here we find ourselves.
Speaker 4: Yeah, when I step back and look at the biggest
Speaker 4: of big pictures. You know, I always use the term
Speaker 4: the United States a profit margin, and we've seen that
Speaker 4: is our number one focus, and it always has been
Speaker 4: how much more money can we make? And the wider
Speaker 4: we spread that the profit margin range, the more people
Speaker 4: get hurt on the bottom end of it. If you're
Speaker 4: born in the top two thirds of wealth in this country,
Speaker 4: you're gonna be okay. But if you're in the bottom third,
Speaker 4: you're gonna struggle. And we tend to, unfortunately take advantage
Speaker 4: of that group of people. And I think that has
Speaker 4: a lot to do with the addiction issues that we've seen.
Speaker 4: I don't know how to fix it, and if you
Speaker 4: and I could push a button right now this morning,
Speaker 4: we do it. But right now, profit margin trump's everything.
Speaker 2: I get it all day long.
Speaker 3: Well, let's talk gross domestic product and fed interest rates
Speaker 3: and we'll finally in the third segment get to the
Speaker 3: sad reality of lack of affordable housing. American dream kind
Speaker 3: of taking a side step here, but first twenty two three.
Speaker 3: You show up at twenty two three on Route forty
Speaker 3: two between Mason eleven. If you have any interest in
Speaker 3: a suppressor, they're doing a demo day this Saturday between
Speaker 3: ten am and four pm. Shaw Armament on hand with
Speaker 3: what are described to some really amazing suppressors that are serviceable,
Speaker 3: modular and chamber or caliber rather changeable. So if you
Speaker 3: know suppressors, that is a big deal. And if you
Speaker 3: don't know them, want to find out what they're all
Speaker 3: about and try one out. Stop by twenty two three
Speaker 3: on Route forty two between Mason and eleven and learn
Speaker 3: straight from the representative. It's a great way to find
Speaker 3: out about them. Check out twenty two to three this
Speaker 3: Saturday beginning a ten again to four pm Rouph forty
Speaker 3: two between Mason and elevenon online. Get other information online
Speaker 3: at the website twenty two to the number followed by
Speaker 3: the word three spelled out twenty two three.
Speaker 4: Dot com fifty five KRC. For more information about contests
Speaker 4: on this station, go to.
Speaker 3: A twenty fifty five KRCD talk station doing that money
Speaker 3: Monday thing with all our financials Brian James, all Right,
Speaker 3: is the R word going to come up in our
Speaker 3: conversation today?
Speaker 2: Brian James.
Speaker 3: A Federal Reserve holding interest rate to four to a
Speaker 3: quarter to four and a half percent plus. We have
Speaker 3: a new gdpeak final quarter review figure. So what's this
Speaker 3: all mean.
Speaker 4: I'm not going to say the R word. I don't
Speaker 4: want to jinx anything, so fair enough, but we would
Speaker 4: not not looking so bad at the moment we do.
Speaker 4: We do seem to be slowing down. So so fourth
Speaker 4: quarter GDP came in at two point three percent. That's
Speaker 4: a deceleration from last quarter, which is three point one percent.
Speaker 4: These are all annualized numbers, so we do is we
Speaker 4: get the number for a three month period, we multiply
Speaker 4: it by four, and we declare that to be what
Speaker 4: the what we think the economy would do over a year.
Speaker 4: So we're falling a little bit short of the economists
Speaker 4: want two point wanted two point six percent, so we
Speaker 4: fell a little bit short of that. Things seem to
Speaker 4: be slowing. I do think some of that could be
Speaker 4: accounted for by the idea that, especially toward the end
Speaker 4: of the quarter, companies may have been backing off a
Speaker 4: bit on investments that they were going to make, waiting
Speaker 4: for this inauguration to occur and to see what's coming
Speaker 4: here and first quarter in darn it all, we sure
Speaker 4: are seeing it here in the short run. So Federal
Speaker 4: Reserve as for their position. They held the interest rates
Speaker 4: and we want to keep an interest rates in the
Speaker 4: target right now four and a quarter four and a
Speaker 4: half percent. This wasn't a big surprise. We kind of
Speaker 4: expected this pause really for the same reason Drume Powell
Speaker 4: has said he wants to see how the economy is
Speaker 4: going to respond to the different changes coming out of
Speaker 4: the Trump administration like tariffs. Yeah, such as the things
Speaker 4: we've been talking about.
Speaker 3: Almore, well, let's get that and let's just see see
Speaker 3: we can't tie those two together.
Speaker 2: If as you and I kind of expected, and I think.
Speaker 3: Logical thinking people will expect the same thing, prices is
Speaker 3: going to go up at least for quite a few
Speaker 3: goods and services. What will that be, by way, what
Speaker 3: would the Fed's response to that price increase be in
Speaker 3: terms of interest rate?
Speaker 4: Well, the Fed is going to wait to see inflation.
Speaker 4: Mean that that's their goal is to control inflation. Inflation
Speaker 4: isn't that bad right now? Certainly not where we were
Speaker 4: a few summers ago. At nine percent. It's slightly higher
Speaker 4: than what we've wanted it to be. Core core PC
Speaker 4: came in at two point eight percent, which was right
Speaker 4: around the expectations, but a lot higher than what that
Speaker 4: committee shoots for at two percent. Jobless claims were okay,
Speaker 4: and new home sales are a little better than anticipated,
Speaker 4: So we're not seeing the kind of things yet that
Speaker 4: the Fed would indicate or are going to be inflationary,
Speaker 4: and therefore we need to react at this point. Though
Speaker 4: the market bonds are trading as though we're going to
Speaker 4: see a cut in June. That is a very very
Speaker 4: short term here's what's happening right now type of an update.
Speaker 4: Let's keep an eye on out of the next few
Speaker 4: weeks and see if that holds true.
Speaker 2: And if it does, about it to be more like
Speaker 2: a quarter point, wouldn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, We're not in a situation where we've got raging
Speaker 4: inflation and raging deflation. Nothing's raging, So I would anticipate
Speaker 4: more tapping of the brakes or tapping of the gas
Speaker 4: pedal if we do anything at all in the short run,
Speaker 4: but much more likely very much wait and see approach.
Speaker 4: Jerome Powell is not even reacting to how he's being
Speaker 4: disparaged by the president who actually appointed him in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 4: So Donald Trump would like to see or rates sooner
Speaker 4: rather than later, but he does not appear to be
Speaker 4: ready to get rid of Jeroan Powell to the extent
Speaker 4: that he could at that this point.
Speaker 3: Isn't it kind of a weird faw and ignoring whether
Speaker 3: you're a foe or against Donald Trump's decision to tariff
Speaker 3: that we expect it's gonna increase the prices prices, Well,
Speaker 3: that's an inflationary thing done because tariffs have been put
Speaker 3: in place, and the Federal Reserves job is to manage
Speaker 3: inflations through its interest rates, so that's a completely separate function.
Speaker 3: It's like there's a strange connect slash disconnect that's going
Speaker 3: on here between one side and the other.
Speaker 4: Well, I think the good news for Trump is that
Speaker 4: people are sensitive to inflation. We just had that nine percent,
Speaker 4: as I mentioned, and people still talk about that as
Speaker 4: if it's still here. That's not the case anymore.
Speaker 2: I'm still at the grocery store. But that's good.
Speaker 3: I mean that has there's a lot of layers in
Speaker 3: the grocery store prices.
Speaker 4: I understand that absolutely absolutely. But what I think that
Speaker 4: gives him is some headroom to say, well, yeah, a
Speaker 4: price have gone up here. You know, this hasn't happened yet,
Speaker 4: but I could see it playing out this way. After
Speaker 4: we do see some inflation resulting directly from the tariffs
Speaker 4: in the coming months, he could easily say, Yep, this
Speaker 4: is the price we have to pay that I told
Speaker 4: you about back in February. But at least it's not
Speaker 4: nine percent like it was under the Biden administration. That's
Speaker 4: how that's going to be positioned. So I'm pretty sure
Speaker 4: Trump looks at this as though he's got some headroom
Speaker 4: to work with.
Speaker 3: Well, let's keep our popcorn out. We'll find out together.
Speaker 3: Brian James pause and bring us. I'm to talk about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I know.
Speaker 3: And one more thing we'll be talking about, and I
Speaker 3: just I just just so badly for young people these days,
Speaker 3: home affordability, American dream kind of out of their reach
Speaker 3: at this point. Can anything change this current landscape? It's say,
Speaker 3: twenty five fifty five cars of the Detox station. One
Speaker 3: more with Brian James. We're gonna hear from todd Sledgeman
Speaker 3: since ANYVA some big changes coming to the VA locally.
Speaker 3: I'll be right back after these brief words.
Speaker 4: Fifty five KRC.
Speaker 3: The simply Jennine Weather forecast sunny day to day. Enjoy
Speaker 3: at sixty three for the high down to thirty eight
Speaker 3: every night with clouds. Be cloudy start of the day
Speaker 3: Tomorrow with sun afternoon Sunday afternoon forty five the high
Speaker 3: down to twenty nine Tomorrow night with clouds.
Speaker 2: Thought you on Wednesday as well.
Speaker 3: Showers late in the day thirty nine for the high
Speaker 3: forty seven degrees right now time for traffic from.
Speaker 5: The UCLT Traffic Center. Heart disease is the leading cause
Speaker 5: of death in the US. If you're at risk, trust
Speaker 5: the experts and you see Health for innovative and personalized hardcare.
Speaker 5: Expect more at U see health dot com. There's a
Speaker 5: broken down. He's found on the Reagan Highways ramp southbound
Speaker 5: seventy one left lane of the ramp blocked on. It's
Speaker 5: also an accident in Hamilton that's on North Beat and
Speaker 5: Black car versus LAMB Post Chuck ingram Mon fifty five
Speaker 5: kr C.
Speaker 2: The talk station.
Speaker 3: Ay twenty eight if afy about CAIRCD talk station. Happy Monday,
Speaker 3: Money Monday with Brian James. I'm all worth financial appreciation
Speaker 3: being loaned out every Monday for a few segs, but
Speaker 3: talk about money matters and get yourself a certified or
Speaker 3: financial planner fee based one, so they have a fiduciary
Speaker 3: obligation to you and you can plan for your retirement.
Speaker 3: And I guess in addition to lack of home affordability,
Speaker 3: probably young people can't afford to put money away for
Speaker 3: the retirement either. Brian, this is a sad reality settling
Speaker 3: in here, lack of affordable housing and the American dream elusive,
Speaker 3: a lot of kids still living at home with their parents,
Speaker 3: and I understand that it's just is there any end
Speaker 3: in sight on this and what would it take to
Speaker 3: change this landscape?
Speaker 4: Well, they say that you only dream during rem sleep,
Speaker 4: and I don't think Americans are getting as much rem
Speaker 4: sleep as we used to, So I'm not sure that
Speaker 4: the implications of the American dream are all that wonderful
Speaker 4: right now. It is right, You're right, it's very tough
Speaker 4: out there. Anybody who's got young, young adults trying to
Speaker 4: launch themselves into the world and be independent. It's a
Speaker 4: challenge even if they can afford the house payment that
Speaker 4: almost always comes directly in the face of oh yeah,
Speaker 4: by the way, don't forget, you're gonna have to fund
Speaker 4: your own retirements because social Security is probably not going
Speaker 4: to look much like it does right now. So don't
Speaker 4: forget that mortgage payment and retirement all by the way,
Speaker 4: you got by lunch too, So it's a tough challenge
Speaker 4: right now.
Speaker 3: And energy bills and repair cost. You know, the furnace
Speaker 3: is going to go out at some point, the roof
Speaker 3: is going to have to be replaced at some point.
Speaker 3: It's just you know, I've owned the homes since nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety and I know exactly how much it can cost.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then the problem is not too much avocado
Speaker 4: toast either. That's the fun Sully headliner, sledgehammers exactly. Young
Speaker 4: people can't afford sledghammers. However, will they make it now
Speaker 4: that these are real issues? And I don't mean to
Speaker 4: make light of them. No. Since since nineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 4: middle wage workers have gone up, have seen their wages
Speaker 4: increase only about sixteen point eight percent. That's an annualized
Speaker 4: growth rate of zero point four percent per year. Now,
Speaker 4: if you look at home prices, one hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 4: home in the late seventies would be something like three
Speaker 4: quarters from a million to eight hundred thousand dollars right now.
Speaker 4: So wages have simply not come up with homes. Homes
Speaker 4: stopped being the American dream. They became an investment, just
Speaker 4: like anything else, a speculative, commoditized investment, sometime in the past,
Speaker 4: well really slowly over the past several decades. So nobody,
Speaker 4: the economy as a whole, doesn't really care that it
Speaker 4: costs young people an awful lot more as a percentage
Speaker 4: of their paycheck to own a home. All we really
Speaker 4: care about is, hey, that's an investment I can throw
Speaker 4: money at and it will grow, and I don't really
Speaker 4: have to worry about the side impacts on other people
Speaker 4: because I'll just blame them on spending too much on
Speaker 4: avocado toast. Well that's our philosophy right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but there was a time, and I know there
Speaker 3: always have been big houses being built. But I remember
Speaker 3: my grandpa marsh my mom's dad and grandma. They had
Speaker 3: a little house on Cooper Drive in Lexington, and I
Speaker 3: don't know how many square feet it was, but it
Speaker 3: was not a very large home. Three boys, she had
Speaker 3: three brothers. They all slept in one room in the roofline.
Speaker 3: You know, it was a walk up, but it was
Speaker 3: just one big room, three beds in it. You know,
Speaker 3: nobody had their own bedroom. My mom had a separate
Speaker 3: one downstairs, but very modest. And you know, I never
Speaker 3: remember my grandfather being upset or unhappy. He always had
Speaker 3: a you know, contented view of life. And you know,
Speaker 3: they just work for IBM, and I just I think
Speaker 3: our expectations on what we're supposed to have by way
Speaker 3: of house has changed dramatically, and they start churning out
Speaker 3: these big houses, these mega mansions, and even the smaller
Speaker 3: homes are much much much bigger than they used to be,
Speaker 3: and of course that's going to directly impact affordability. You
Speaker 3: see some sort of perhaps sea change in how we
Speaker 3: perceive housing, like the smaller houses being becoming more popular.
Speaker 3: Obviously they're cheaper to build.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I absolutely do. Smaller houses are becoming more popular.
Speaker 4: Not because people go, hey, I want to live in
Speaker 4: a smaller house. People go, hey, I can't afford a
Speaker 4: bigger house. This is the best I can do. And
Speaker 4: I think that drives a lot of conflict really between
Speaker 4: the generations. I don't ever remember. I'm fifty years old,
Speaker 4: so I've been around a couple of blocks. I don't
Speaker 4: ever remember there being conflict between generations. Like there is now.
Speaker 4: I think what you're referring to, though, is that some
Speaker 4: generation at some point is going to have to be
Speaker 4: the one to capitulate and say, you know what, we
Speaker 4: simply will not have it as good as our four.
Speaker 4: We're going to have to take the hit before we
Speaker 4: get to move forward. And I'm fortunate not to be
Speaker 4: in that situation, and I'm trying to guide my kids
Speaker 4: away from getting too hung up on that because the
Speaker 4: world is just plain changing. But I can see where
Speaker 4: I would be extremely frustrated and bitter if I was
Speaker 4: the one told you know what, it's just not going
Speaker 4: to be as good as what you grew up watching.
Speaker 3: Yeah, or maybe the perception of what equals good. Going
Speaker 3: back to the cost of maintaining and up keeping a home,
Speaker 3: you know, you have to furnish it, you got to
Speaker 3: clean it, and you know, the smaller you have, smaller
Speaker 3: space you have to deal with, the less there is
Speaker 3: of that. So comparatively speaking, the cost of voting a
Speaker 3: smaller home is less than a big home, you know.
Speaker 3: I mean there's some pus sides to it all, there.
Speaker 4: Absolutely are, but I think that doesn't really settle in
Speaker 4: until somebody is truly in that situation then putting themselves.
Speaker 4: And I'm guess I'm picturing for a young family that
Speaker 4: first trip around with the real estate agent looking at
Speaker 4: what they can afford versus what they had in their
Speaker 4: heads before they got in the car that morning. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I think that is a cold water shed.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 3: And my wife regularly points back to the eighties with
Speaker 3: lifestyles of the rich and famous, which she thinks was
Speaker 3: a turning point and what really between what truly really
Speaker 3: matters and what people just get envious of and look
Speaker 3: to and believe that they are not going to be
Speaker 3: happy unless they have what the Joneses have down the street,
Speaker 3: if you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And it's so much easier to see what the
Speaker 4: Joneses have nowadays, and this is harder. Obviously, we've got
Speaker 4: social media, so you can't get away from it even
Speaker 4: if you want to, and you're trying to do the
Speaker 4: same thing that This is how we drive profit profit
Speaker 4: in the United States of profit margin. Get people excited
Speaker 4: about something, whether they can afford it or not, and
Speaker 4: take advantage of it, of the rush when it happens.
Speaker 3: Well, and here's one other thing I've observe over the years,
Speaker 3: you know, the idea that we're all going to live
Speaker 3: in a house and have our own stuff and things
Speaker 3: like that. If everybody in China, and I know they
Speaker 3: have a housing issue in China of a different type,
Speaker 3: but if every one of the one point two or
Speaker 3: four billion people in China had felt that they had
Speaker 3: to build a three thousand and four thousand, five thousand
Speaker 3: square foot house, I think that would cause a problem
Speaker 3: in terms of like natural resources and the ability to
Speaker 3: even accomplish that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've thought of that a lot recently too, as
Speaker 4: we you know, because the big pushback here can be
Speaker 4: against suburban sprawl, because you know, every year there's a
Speaker 4: new call to sat going up in a cornfield somewhere
Speaker 4: that that's especially happening around here, and there are people
Speaker 4: who object to that and say we shouldn't be doing that,
Speaker 4: We should be conserving, conserving, And I'm always thinking, wherever
Speaker 4: that person lives, do you do you want to live
Speaker 4: in a skyscraper with five thousand other families? You should
Speaker 4: we all stay inside some little pasture somewhere. So, I mean,
Speaker 4: I think there's logic to both sides. Yeah, But I
Speaker 4: don't think the extremes are ever going to play a
Speaker 4: role here.
Speaker 3: Complicated it is, and we can only hope that at
Speaker 3: least the home interest rates go down at least to
Speaker 3: provide some measure of affordability for young people. I don't know, Brian.
Speaker 3: Always a distinct pleasure having you on the program. We'll
Speaker 3: look forward to next Monday, another edition of Money Monday,
Speaker 3: and best to you and everybody at all Worth.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, stay warm out there, and fake Spring.
Speaker 3: We'll talk to you next week, Fake Spring. Indeed, it'll
Speaker 3: last a moment. Enjoy it at last. See thirty five
Speaker 3: ffty five krs to de talk station Todd Sledge since
Speaker 3: Anava some significant Cincinnativa facility improvements. Todd's gonna be talking
Speaker 3: about that coming up next. For my veteran friends out there,
Speaker 3: stick around.
Speaker 1: This is fifty five karc an iHeartRadio station.
Speaker 2: I'm Marto Castro and I've been lucky enough