Speaker 1: Let's say, good morning too. Someone who knows how a
Speaker 1: lot about money and how those tariffs might affect this.
Speaker 1: It's the host of how to Money on KFI, Joel
Speaker 1: Larsguard Morning, Joel Morning Amy. So one in five Americans
Speaker 1: are giving into doom spending. What is it?
Speaker 2: Oh? Well, I think in large part because of the
Speaker 2: threats of tariffs and now the actual implementation of tariffs.
Speaker 2: A lot of American people have said I should probably
Speaker 2: spend more because I think prices are going up, and
Speaker 2: I get that impulse, but they're essentially saying things are
Speaker 2: going to spiral out of control and because of that,
Speaker 2: I should probably stockpile things now, maybe take the costco mentality,
Speaker 2: but amp it up on steroids or something like that.
Speaker 2: And I guess I'm just worried. I don't think that's
Speaker 2: really actually a good path forward for people. The tariff question, certainly,
Speaker 2: it's been kind of a yo yo thing, and now
Speaker 2: they're actually being implemented. And like you said, the countries
Speaker 2: that were implementing tariffs against are implementing tariffs of their own.
Speaker 2: And the truest reality in economics is that tariffs do
Speaker 2: lead to higher costs. I will say this though the
Speaker 2: first time around, companies had ways of kind of getting
Speaker 2: around those tariffs, whether it was going through a third
Speaker 2: party country or sourcing some materials elsewhere. That I think
Speaker 2: these tariffs are going to be more impactful. But I
Speaker 2: don't want people to go out there and buy stuff
Speaker 2: that maybe they don't actually have the money for, putting
Speaker 2: it on credit cards and stuff like that. I don't
Speaker 2: want people to let fear change their money habits.
Speaker 1: Yeah. In fact, you bring that up, and I was
Speaker 1: going to ask you. I was driving around the other
Speaker 1: day and I was like, Oh, I need to ask
Speaker 1: Joel if he thinks a lot of people are going
Speaker 1: to go and buy cars because of the tariffs.
Speaker 2: I mean, I do think that is one of the places,
Speaker 2: especially as much ink has been spilled about rising car prices,
Speaker 2: and that's we've already experienced that with just inflation in general, right,
Speaker 2: but tariffs could impact car prices even more. And part
Speaker 2: of the reason that tariffs are being implemented it's a
Speaker 2: protectionary instinct to protect I think the American car manufacturers.
Speaker 2: But because cars are essentially built in multiple countries and
Speaker 2: the parts are flying back and forth across borders, the
Speaker 2: tariffs could increase the price of car parts, increase the
Speaker 2: price of cars altogether. And so someone saying, you know what,
Speaker 2: I guess I should buy a car before prices go up.
Speaker 2: It depends on when were you playing on buying a
Speaker 2: car anyway. If you're like I was thinking about buying
Speaker 2: one in like twenty twenty six or twenty seven, I
Speaker 2: should go ahead and front load that purchase even though
Speaker 2: I don't have the cash on hand to buy it,
Speaker 2: I would say, no, that's not why. It's like, pay
Speaker 2: a little more for car parts to repair your car now,
Speaker 2: and don't go ahead and buy a new car. But
Speaker 2: if you're like, no, I was already gonna buy one
Speaker 2: in like May or June, I don't see the harm
Speaker 2: in making that purchase a little bit sooner, although I
Speaker 2: don't know how much you're gonna save. I mean, some
Speaker 2: of the estimates about how much more cars will cost
Speaker 2: because of tariffs are really a few percentage points higher.
Speaker 2: When you talk about the price of a car that
Speaker 2: could be on thy fifteen hundred dollars, that's a lot
Speaker 2: of money. So I don't I'm not against the idea
Speaker 2: of frontloading that purchase a little but just don't look
Speaker 2: so far out and let that doom and gloom color
Speaker 2: your purchases too much.
Speaker 1: Okay, I saw that Starbucks said it's not going to
Speaker 1: raise its prices because of the tariffs. They said, we'll
Speaker 1: eat it.
Speaker 2: Well, that's interesting too, because when you look at what's
Speaker 2: happened with coffee prices, coffee prices have are like a
Speaker 2: fifty year high. So yeah, maybe Starbucks doesn't have to
Speaker 2: raise prices right now. But at some point tariffs become
Speaker 2: a reality that every company has to deal with and
Speaker 2: they either have to find ways to cut back on
Speaker 2: their costs or they have to pass on some of
Speaker 2: the increased pricing onto consumers. And I do think there's
Speaker 2: probably going to be a little bit of both, right
Speaker 2: because companies don't want to shock all of US Americans,
Speaker 2: but tariffs are going to be shocking if they stay
Speaker 2: around for any in a meaningful way, for any meaningful
Speaker 2: length time.
Speaker 1: Okay, and then Joe, one last quick question because we're
Speaker 1: almost out of time. I hate that this is the
Speaker 1: quickest hour in radio. Doge dividends. They've been talking about it,
Speaker 1: but you're saying they're not going to materialize.
Speaker 2: Don't hold your breath.
Speaker 1: What are you talking about specifically.
Speaker 2: So there were headlines last week talking about how, oh
Speaker 2: the Department of Government efficiency. It's look at all the
Speaker 2: money it's going to save us Americans. And I do
Speaker 2: think most Americans can agree that, you know, at least
Speaker 2: cutting a little bit of government waste, fraud, and abuse,
Speaker 2: if that's actually what's happening, is a good thing. And
Speaker 2: the way Doge is going about it that's more debatable.
Speaker 2: But this sort of massive Doge refund to Americans, like
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars per household is kind of what's been touted.
Speaker 2: There's no way that's going to happen. That's essentially saying
Speaker 2: if Doge cuts two trillion dollars in federal spending, that's
Speaker 2: how much households would receive if they got a portion
Speaker 2: of those savings send out and rebate checks to Americans.
Speaker 2: There's just no way Doge is going to be able
Speaker 2: to claw back anything close to that amount of money.
Speaker 2: So if you're saying, oh, another stimmy check, I'm going
Speaker 2: to get a massive government rebate check in the mail
Speaker 2: because Doge is doing such a great job, I would
Speaker 2: just say I don't think that's going to happen. In fact,
Speaker 2: I would. I would bet a lot of money that
Speaker 2: it's not gonna happen. Even a five hundred dollars check
Speaker 2: is just pie in the sky because like, really, when
Speaker 2: it comes down to it, it's entitlements that need to
Speaker 2: be cut to realize significant savings, and the Trump administration
Speaker 2: has said, no way, we're going to cut anything in
Speaker 2: regards to you know, the biggest line items that the
Speaker 2: government has.
Speaker 1: Okay, and guess who's going to talk more about money
Speaker 1: this weekend noon to two on Sunday. Yeah, it's Joel Larsgard.
Speaker 1: The show is How to Money. It's right here on
Speaker 1: KFI Sundays noon to two. You can also follow Joel
Speaker 1: at How to Money. Joel, Thank you, Joel.
Speaker 2: Thanks Amy