Speaker 1: So President Trump and the economy apparently were to believe
he's on an island all by himself. CNN telling us
S and P down to the worst start since well
it was created in nineteen fifty seven, fourteen percent under
parr President Trump to blame Americans are going to blame him.
So what's behind this? And how are we to think
about this? How about if I, hey, you know what,
let's let's call Zach. Let's yeah, that's what we'll do.
We'll call Zach Abraham and have him come on and
explain the whole thing. Praise God, thank you Lord for
wise counsel.
Speaker 2: But Todd Herman show is one disapproved by big pharma,
technocurrats and tyrants everywhere from the highd mountains of Free America.
Here's the Emerald City exile Tod under her moon.
Speaker 1: Today is today the Lord has made in These are
the times to which God has decided we shall live.
Zach Abraham joins us, this is what CNN said. Zach
watched this with me, and then let's figure out the
truth and I'll just take a break, walk off set.
Let you do the rest of the show, since it's
very much your realm. Roll the CNN.
Speaker 3: When the numbers, simply put, weren't anywhere near this. The
stock market is a reflection of the economic state we're in.
The chance of a recession is another reflection of the
stated economy that we are in. The bottom line is
that Trump's tariff wars have taken what was a pretty
gosh dawn good economy and turn into a very uncertain economy,
one in which the stock market has fallen, and one
in which the chance of a recession has gone up considerably.
Speaker 4: K palwock.
Speaker 1: If there is a recession, how much blame is Donald
Trump likely to face?
Speaker 3: The majority of the American public says that the buck
will stop at the White House stop at sixteen hundred
Pennsylvania Avenue, and Donald Trump will not in fact be
able to take blame.
Speaker 1: All right, that's what they say. So let me just
stretch the heavies out for a nap. Ladies and gentlemen, Sack.
Speaker 4: Abram look so, first of all, uh to observations right
out of the gate. This is why I cannot stand
the mainstream media or seeing it in particular, and this
is why I despise the vast majority of financial news because,
like I've took. So it's always been odd to me
because when you're talking about financial news and I've done
this for a while, you know how to show for
almost a decade now and talk about it on a
daily basis, and uh, the approach I've always taken to
it is you're talking about investments, You're talking about somebody's
you know, future, Whether you're giving direct advice or not.
People listening to you are going to be influenced by
what you say. And so we've been a real big stickler.
And I know you are too, and I know I'll understand,
but there's that part of you that is afraid to
say something wrong, and you're always open to the idea
you've been wrong because you know that everything you say
is permanently on record and it's on the internet and
it could influence people. And so when you get something wrong,
you come back and you tell people, hey, we screwed
this up. And it's inevitable in the world of finance.
You're gonna invert some numbers here and there, and you know.
But for some reason, one of the things that surprised
me the most is I started a radio show, was
then going back and listening to other people talk and
being amazed that. I'm like, Okay, maybe you're not intending
to mislead people, but what you just said is ridiculous.
It's patently false. It's misleading, and if you had done
even the most minimal amount of work, you would have
seen it. And that's exactly what that CNN headline is about. Okay. So,
first of all, the SMP isn't down fourteen percent year
to date, it's down eight. Okay. Second, of all, the
SMP on about eight out of ten different valuation metrics,
and on probably the most important valuation metrics, was the
most overvalued it's ever been in history, and a good
chunk of that overvaluation occurred at the end of last
year because Trump got elected, right, So so okay, so
when they say down fourteen percent, they mean from the
high from the year. Okay. The other thing is, if
we look back at one hundred years of market history,
on average, you will see one ten to twelve percent
pullback per year. We're down eight. So it's misleading. It's
Trump that it's just nonsense. The other thing is, you know,
we were talking about a rotation and assets and saying
that we didn't want to be loaded up in US
stocks going into this year. I mean, I remember you
and I discussing it, and we were saying that, look,
US is overpriced. We think they are going to be
happening on the international I think you're going to see
an asset rotation get in gold. A lot of these
things were really were very obvious for a lot of
different reasons. And the other thing I think is just
incredible is Trump was a horrible human being that had
no sympathy for working people when he referenced the stock
market as proof that his policies were winning. And now
that the stock market's down eight percent in the first quarter, okay,
you're still trading. If we look at the stock markets
valuation currently, you're still about fifty percent over the long
term valuation average. Okay, So look, what's happening in the
market happens when you purchase stocks too expensive. Period, It
doesn't it doesn't matter if Pinocchio's president, right, Don't buy
stocks that are too expensive, especially ridiculous companies that aren't
trading anywhere near or that aren't you know, hey, don't
buy a company that's doing three point eight billion in
revenue a year for a two hundred and thirty billion
dollar market cap. Okay, and if you'll lose money betting
on that company, it's not Donald Trump's fault, well said.
Speaker 1: All right, So let's get into now some of the
things the moves the president is making, particularly JD. Vance,
who is clearly out building a foreign policy portfolio so
he can run for presidents and hopefully carry on much
what President Trump's doing. We'll get to this in just
a second. You are going to be my testimony for
a second here, and I just I don't mean to
draw you into this, but we weren't yet recording the show,
and we were visiting as brothers, and you asked me,
how are you feeling after Mexico? No one watching, no
one observing. Did I strike you as questioning? Or did
I strike you as I mean? How did I strike
you in terms of how I'm feeling post renew.
Speaker 4: My wife is currently buying tickets for us. Now that's
the best insert for yeah, yeah, all right that I
mean that in the golf, right, I know there's the
golf guys.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you that people are policy. And I've
talked so much about people having their arthritis cured, Zach,
you and I know someone in common with this about
people hemispherically paralyzed, now walking, about people who couldn't do
their jobs as painters now painting. We've talked about people
with neurological issues there at the end of life, and
we're looking at doubling their lifespan. All of this with
stem cells from placentas, impart me from umbilical cords, and
in my case, they've never touched the MR and A injections.
But people are policy. I had to be sedated for
all of a half an hour to have my lower
lumbar region injected, and pro golfers get this stuff done
all the time. Fred Funk was down there, I interviewed him.
We've got to run that interview about his back, and
then they ended up saving his life because he was
about to have a massive heart attack. So they did
that to my back. When I went in, the managing partner,
his partner, and one of the key guys that renew
went with me, and Hector is a translator in addition
to many other things. When I woke up, here's the
top guy, the money guy, here's his partner, there's Hector.
Within five minutes of me waking up, and I was
embarrassed and said, guys like I hate to be high
maintenance and kid glove and you know, I know we're friends.
And Steve says, no, no, no, no, Todd, this is
what we do. It's not always all three of us,
but when it can be, it is. People are policy.
Their policy is to see you through this treatment. A
lot of people are very freaked out about having treatment
in Mexico. I was freaked out about being sedated in Mexico.
It went better than I've ever had in the United
States of America, honestly, better. Honestly. Then I learned that
the guy who actually did my sedation was Hector's dad.
That was cool and somehow that melted me feel better. Guys,
these people care. They're in this for the right reason. Yes,
they are making money. They want to help you. They
want to help you avoid surgery. I want to help
you heal in ways your insurance company refuses to do so,
call them, or rather go to the website renew r
e n ue dot healthcare. They will tell you after
the analyzer case how much it will cost you. They
will tell you after the analyzer case what the percentage
chance of success is. They will tell you what they've
seen with other people with your condition, and if you
cannot afford it now, you're not going to laugh at you.
They're going to say, hey, we get it. This stuff
can be expensive. It's renew R E, n U E
DOT healthcare, but it might be a lot less expensive
than you think. So zach Jitdivance is out building his portfolio.
Let's watch him as he makes an announcement about what's
India and the United States are doing in terms of
finalizing some trade negotiations, some deal reference points.
Speaker 5: Let's roll that you aware both of our governments are
hard at work on a trade agreement built on shared
priorities like creating new jobs, building durable supply chains, and
achieving prosperity for our workers. In our meeting yesterday, Prime
Minister Mody and I made very good progress on all
of those points, and we were especially excited to formally
announce that America and India have officially finalized the terms
of reference.
Speaker 6: For the trade negotiation. I think this is a vital step.
I believe this is a vital step toward realizing President
Trump's and Prime Minister Moody's vision because it sets a
roadmap toward a final deal between our nations.
Speaker 1: So if you're looking at this, I mean it's basically
he's saying, hey, we've reached reference points. He's celebrating this,
we're near a deal. And obviously India's okay with him
saying this. This is obviously to get this in the
news cycle. But if you look at the economic forecast
India one point four billion people, three for trillion dollar economy,
one hundred and thirty to one hundred and eighty billion
in US exports, five hundred thousand to one million new jobs,
and from one to two billion dollars in agriculture, ten
to twenty billion in defense. And this now coming into
our land, into our world, and a partnership with these
guys and an ability to have actual free trade, not
the China model. I don't know finance like you do,
but to me, that's big.
Speaker 4: It is really big. And this goes to another one
we heard recently is Apple is looking at opening a
Brazilian manufacturing outlet to put to assemble iPhones, right and China. Yeah,
and here's the important part about that. We need we
need better partnerships, specifically in the Americas, because in the
Americas it gives us the ability to do something that
we otherwise couldn't, which is technically we can have production offshore,
right because it's it's in other locales that you can
benefit from cheaper labor and things like that. But we're
also tied via land. So there's you know, you don't
have a you don't have an ocean separate, you know
what I mean, you don't have an ocean separating And
and on top of that, you have companies or you're
dealing with countries you have significantly more leverage with not
that we're going to use them to generate deleterious impacts,
you know, for their economy, but bottom line, when you
have that type of trade arrangement, it is much easier
to make sure that everybody is upholding their end of
the bargain. When when one country is you know, significantly
more powerful than the other, you know what i mean,
especially from especially from our point of view. The the
other thing is that we'd have far more influence. First
of all, it'd be great for Brazilian people, right, it'd
be a wonder And then also because you're not dealing
with a totalitarian state and you also have more influence
on them, as as that as it lifts more people
out of poverty in Brazil, those people are going to
buy things from US like iPhones, right, So they're not
gonna be buying waldweve phones, I mean for the most.
Speaker 1: And they're going to be lesson clients to sneak across
our border.
Speaker 4: Yet right, and you're gonna have And then you look
at India right there too, I mean India. You look,
if you're looking for this city, now you're gonna need India.
The difference is is China made massive infrastructure investments which
enabled that, and I don't think people really understand the
size and scope of it. Meaning a business, I was
a CFO for a manufacturing company that built oil tankers, right,
which is you know trailers that sie haul a hall crewed, right.
And we opened up a manufacturing facility in China. And
what people don't realize is you've got brand new manufacturing
facilities that are effectively like in bubble wrap, or at
least it was at the time where it's like, hey,
we need we need to produce something. They're like, great,
We've got this huge manufacturing floor that nobody's using. Want
to use it? You know, You're like yeah, right, great,
So you're gonna have to get some You're gonna have
to get some domestic investment. But when you look at
the biggest thing when you look at India is do
you have do you have the land, you have the
geography that can facilitate these things? Yes, India is huge.
Do you have the people? Absolutely biggest country in the
world and actually bigger in population than China. A lot
of a lot of the new data suggests that China
probably isn't even over a billion people that they've been
overstating the counts India is. And India is a much
poorer country. So you're gonna have lower right, which is A.
It means it's going to be, you know, exponentially beneficial
to them, but B it's also we're able to develop
a very good trading relationship with a friendly country. Right,
It's going to benefit them massively and give us the same,
if not better labor advantages than we had in China.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: And we're also going to put pressure on China because
China is not all that happy with India. They're not
super super friendly, right, right, And so now you can
have economic pressure in China, and what are we doing
we're setting up this thing with China. Well, I mean,
I guess you don't. Okay, so maybe the tariff thing
didn't work. And Prisident Trump comes back on that and
they have Apple saying, yeah, you know, we're gonna start
building some of her phones down in Brazil and doing
some things in India. And now she has to look
at this, going wait a minute, So now the United
States is going to be exporting food to India. They're
going to be exporting weapons to India. Okay, well, now
that's one of our you know, basically neighbors, and they're
going to be making these things, and all of a
sudden you start to see this leakage. And because China's
been operating on us, Hey, what else are you gonna do?
Where else are you gonna go? And I remember a
certain company located in Redmond, Washington who said about mobile phones,
worlds are people going to go? I mean, yeah, the
iPhones for consumers. You know, no one's going to be
using an iPhone for business worlds are they going to go?
They have to use the Windows kernel. And I remember
sitting there going and I heard that phrase. Have to
is like have to So now right, now the dictator
of China has these pressures. And if we do lift
India up, then we also now have pressure on Pakistan
and all of a sudden, now that region has a partner.
And I know this was the big theory with China,
but forget people, forget something about China. It's a Maoist,
committed Maoist, leftist, satanic thing. I don't think that they're
going to turn into Christians in Indian In fact, there's
diligient to Christians, but it's at least not MAOIs. They're
a meritocracy to a terrible degree because they've still got
the cast system, but at least they have some kind
of meritocracy in the business. Plus, all these Indian people
have been brought here to work at lower wages, and
what are this deal points should be? They go home
like the people that have been brought here to work
at sub wages under the special visas. Send them home,
go here. Let's have Americans do this jobs here. There's
so much to this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and and culturally speaking to I mean, it's it's
something that I've paid a bigger attention or paid more
attention to. Is I've you know, gotten older and more
experienced and hopefully more wives. But the cultural matchup is
really important too. And I would not profess to know
the Indian culture inside and out, but what I do
know is that it is decidedly pro West. There is
no right, there is no cultural schism right there where
were you like, look, you know, and I'm telling you nothing,
you nothing, you don't know. But but even when the
relationships were the best with China, there were still tensions,
and there were still tensions because of cultural differences, and
and then government differences too, right, I mean, they never
under Dang Zhao paying it was better, but they never
disavowed communism in any way, shape or form. And then
and you look at India, that's just not you know,
that's just not their thing. And so yeah, I think
I think it makes all the sense in the world
that I've often thought, Look that that should be the
next China, right like, and and maybe it'll take a
little bit more direct investment on our part, where where
the Chinese government and the CCP was responsible for the
mass build up of the majority of that infrastructure, maybe
we need to invest a little bit. But again, let's
say we throw at you know, let's say over the
course of the next five years, the United States throws in,
you know, you know, three quarters of a trillion, a
trillion dollars to help build out infrastructure, just on a
just on a national security basis, you can justify that
investment right then you could look at tach you know,
there's so many different ways you can make that investment
back so quickly. But it's also, like I said, it's
also a national security issue. And you know, usually when
you've got an offshore out of a place like China,
you're looking at permanently higher fixed costs you transition into.
And that doesn't necessarily have to be the case.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I love to deal it all the way around,
particularly because it gives us now a lot more options
to China. In poker, like when you're playing Texas holding
and you talk about possible outs. You know, as you're
holding your your pocket cards and you're looking at your
two cards and everything else is on the table, everybody
sees the same cards, and so you're trying to imagine
what is this guy looking for as an out? You know, hey,
can I make a straight out of this? Can I
make a flush? Can I make three of a kind?
And the more outs you have, the more likely you
are to win out. And we didn't have a lot
of outs with China. Now we've got Brazil, we've got India,
We're building some other countries into this. We've got Nvidia
coming over here, because you know, they're not that wild
about just being party to being taken over by China
and bombed by the way, just by fact of where
they're located. So love that. There's more to talk about,
including a plan to pay people for having fruitful sex.
Oh put it that way. Something so bizarre has started
to happen. You said this. Last time you saw me
before recording, you said, dude, you look lean. And then
I was in Mexico and some people noticed me in
a restaurant and they were down there. They were listeners,
viewers of the cast as in this restaurant. This lady says,
are you Todd? I said, yeah, I'm Todd. Oh my gosh.
We saw you in the lobby at renew Healthcare and
we didn't think it was you. And the gentleman said yeah.
I told my wife, oh, no, he's too big. Todd's
smarter than that. And I saw a friend of mine
the other day I haven't seen at church, and he
walked to me and goes, dude, like, you're yoked. What's
going on? You're jacked. I'm like, what's going You know
what it is? This is since I began using mass simes,
and I got serious about this because the people Bioptimizers
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dabbled in it. So I invested and I subscribed. I
paid for the bioptimizer stuff I get. By the way,
they don't send it to me for free. I mean
they send me some samples for free. I want to
be accurate, but I subscribe to this stuff. And when
I started doing mass symes of two three times a day,
I started to get these compliments, which makes sense because
I eat three hundred and sixty grams of protein every day,
and so how much of that is turning into amino acids?
Not all of it? With mass symes. A side by
side study showed that you increase the amino acids in
your body by sixteen hundred percent when you use mass simes.
So here I am chunked down all this protein and
no one was coming up to me seeing you look
super lean. Six months into mass symes. I'm constantly being
told this, and I don't do this to look good.
I do this because I want to be functional and
good at CrossFit. So there's your little focus group of
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com slash todd promo code todd. So here is an
announcement President Trump is doing and this is through the
mouth of Elon Musk. It has and by the way,
he's a guy to talk to you about this, because
Elon is irresponsibly gone out and done this thing. Five
bucks for a baby bonus.
Speaker 7: Well, there's a lot of things I suppose that I'll
worry about, and some of these things will seem esoteric
to people. You know, the birth rate is very low
in almost every country, and something Unless that changes, civilization
will disappear. America had the lowest birth rate I believe
ever that was last year. Places like Korea the birth
rate is one third replacement rate. That means in three generations,
career will be three or four percent of its current size.
And nothing seems to be turning that Aroundity is dying
and people it's it's just not something we evolved to.
Speaker 2: React to.
Speaker 7: And I mean I worried generally about the the strength
of America. You know, America is the central column that
holds up holds up all the Western civilization. So if
you like, if you've got the example of Western civilization,
America is the central column. If that column fails, it's
all over. You can't run off to New Zealand or
some other places. It's over. So either we strengthen that
column and make sure America is is strong and will
be strong for a long time, or what that roof's
coming down.
Speaker 1: So I'm sorry, is your wife Colin? I thought I'm sorry?
I thought I heard the phone ringing, No.
Speaker 4: We will we. First of all, we're in the middle
of two Little League seasons, so five thousand dollars ain't
that ain't getting cut?
Speaker 2: It.
Speaker 4: You know that you gotta throw some ceru's on there.
That is, anybody that's paying for kids in this environment
realized that's not that's not a great advantage. You know what.
I'm a little indifferent on it. First of all, I
don't think it really changes the calculus. I don't think
it's a bad thing to do. I think that we
should live in a culture, and we should have a
government that supports and you know, pro creation, yeah, and
and and and reproduction, and at least to a rate
where we can replace our our citizenry. I also think
it's an important thing too, because you know, you know, look,
the United States has always been a nation of immigrants,
but I think it's really important that the vast majority
of our citizens are born here. Meaning nothing like I
realized when you say that, boy, that comes out of
my mouth, I'm like, boy, that that kind of sounds
you know, ethnocentric or xenophobic or something like that. And
I don't. I don't mean that. I mean I mean
for the preservation of the culture. And by preservation of
the culture, I don't mean the government the way it
is or anything like that. I mean the American spirit, right,
the unique thing that I was talking to one of
my friends recently who does not live here, lives overseas,
and he was going on and on and on about
how he cannot stand how America gets a bad rap,
how he loves being here, that when he's here he
can feel he just he goes. You can feel the energy,
you can feel the creativity. He goes. It's not like
any other place I've been to. And he goes. I
love where I live, don't get me wrong, But he goes.
I always look forward to all of my trips, especially
work trips to the States, and he goes. There's just
a different feeling in America. There's this different feeling like
anything's possible and you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow,
and it's exciting and right. And that's that's kind of
that American exceptionalism that we talk about where I've always
tied that less to outcomes and more to people's attitudes,
right that you know, devil make care. We're going to
take the risks we believe in and where tomorrow's right.
It's just that it's it's a very it's a very
it's a very American mindset, and uh, so I'm all
about the supporting of you know, pro creation here, I
just and and and as a stop gap measure. I've
got no problem with it. Like I said, I would
rather look at things though, that really impact parents, right,
that really impact the cost first of all, you know,
and maybe that's what they mean by it, but an
increase to the child tax credit right in a meaningful way,
address higher education, right, retooling education the education system, which
they've obviously started with their you know, approach to the
Department of Education. But yeah, those are the things that
I think are the most important. But I don't have
a problem with the five, like any anything you do
that incentivizes what we call family formation. It, like I said,
it's not just a demographics issue. Family formation is extraordinarily
beneficial for uh, the economy because people spend by far,
the largest percentage of their income when they're raising children.
And it also is a you know, it's it's cultural salt.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: The more families you have, the better off things are,
you know, the better off the the culture is. And
I think everybody knows that. So I've got no problem
incentivizing it. We've done enough to punish it and disincentivize it.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, you said a lot. Let me respond because
it's really interesting that you felt the need to apologize for,
you know, wanting more people to be in our country
who are born here. And I understand why you said that,
because I was thinking of the phrase jinguistic, and I
can understand it seems exclusionary are people would say, oh, you're.
Speaker 6: So.
Speaker 1: Let me start though by going backwards to what you
said and go back through this. One thing about people
having kids is it put skin in the game in
ways that usually that the single people don't have. So
you can see these smug and I call them smuggerls.
That's a phrase I made up in trade marks. They
don't even try stealing it. They are uniquely unaffected by
the policies for which they vote. They work in laptop
Land and Ideaville, and they take trains to work and
never need to touch the dirty masses.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 1: So they get to say things like, oh, who cares
about jobs like phishing and logging and you know, we
should that shouldn't be done in our country and it
doesn't affect them, And they get to say things like, oh,
sure crime is so bad, Seattle's just dying when they
don't ever get exposed to it. Something happens when you
have kids. And I used to take a you know,
I used to go downtown a lot while I was
a young guy. Used to go down and drink a
little bit when I still drank. And one night, I'm
downtown and I was walking back from I've been playing
with my band and I had my guitar and I'm
walking back and a guy tries to corner me and
he's big, huge man asked me if I have a smoke.
I don't smoke. I try to get around him, and
he kind of saddles up to me and then he's
kind of casually walking me back into a dark area
and I said stop, and I stepped to the side,
got back out in the light, and he start, did
you do the dance to? Now He's going to move
me back into another shadowed area. I'm like, I know
exactly what's going on. I'm not turning my back on
the guy, because I know you're trying to mug me, right,
you want my guitar, you want my money, to beat
me up. So I got out of there, and I
didn't remember how probably talk my way out of it.
He probably realized, Okay, this is going to be a
long dance. This is a big guy. He's not afraid.
He's smart, he knows what I'm trying to do. You
have kids, that changes. So you go downtown and you
and I was down there with my daughter and there
was a guy who was super aggressive and he came
up to us and I pointed at him, no, no,
get back. There was no dance, there was none of that.
And had my daughter behind my back and I said,
you stand behind me, but I had my hand ready
for my carry.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, right.
Speaker 1: And now that that a tough guy thing. That's a
calculus thing. Now all of a sudden, you're looking at
the government schools and it's not We'll just give more
money to the schools for teaching my kids perverse ideas. Right,
So this this is a buy into the culture. And
then on the topic of culture, a bought in society
of people who says, ude, my kids live here, and
something happens as well when you become parents. I think
that's the way God calls you, because all of a sudden,
you've got these little lives depending on you, and all
of a sudden you're starting to think, Wow, it'd be
nice if I had a father in heaven. And we're
told to be fruitful of multiply And I think, looking
at the little the eyes of a little baby, and
you hold that baby in hand, I don't know a person.
And if you weren't changed the first time you held
your first child, then your sociopath or you were drunk
or sleepy or angry or bad.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So no, that's culture man.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And it's funny because it just like you said,
it transforms you. You know, your your priorities change, you know,
like like, for instance, I look at myself and I
think it's really interesting that I started Bulwark when my
wife was pregnant with our third child. Right, it lights
a fire on you. You you approach things differently, You
think about the world differently, you see it differently, you
see different threats. Yes, and and you know, a perfect
example of what we're talking about. Little a side note,
but you know, we had a long standing family tradition
of going up to Seattle because it it was just
a beautiful place in Christmas time, right Westlake Center, Right,
it was just it was idyllic. It was like a
Norman Rockwell painting. You know, and or no not Norman Rockwell,
who who was the guy that paints anyway.
Speaker 1: This stuff yet?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, kind of the idyllic you know, old old school. Yeah,
but yeah, it was. It was one of those one
of those deals where where you know, I remember it
as a kid. We haven't been able to do with
my kids once we ended the family tradition because I said, like, yeah,
we're gonna go up there and see the tree in
Westlake Center as we're getting mugged, as we're trying not
to step in feces and hair and needles, like not
not interested, right, right, and and and it cracks me
up because, like you said, when you don't have kids,
so much of that stuff slides by you. You don't
notice it, right because you don't need to, right. And
so yeah, there's no question it makes for better citizens,
It makes for a better, better culture. The other thing, too,
is we've got to get to a place of assimilation.
And don't I don't think I don't think the I
don't think it's a legislative thing outside of no better
immigration policy, whereas I think immigration policy is one way
you do it. Yep, But we have to get back
into if you want to come here because you want opportunity.
Speaker 1: Come on in, baby, and you know what I mean,
and come here and take your uniqueness and celebrate it
as you become American and you make your priority. You're
here for life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. You're here because
you've looked at a system that says, Okay, I'm respected
because I was created by God. I have rights because
God gives them to me, not governments. I'm come here
to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. I'm too smart to
know that to think the government can give me anything
that it didn't take from someone else. Please bring us
this Like we were talking about culture and I was.
I was in a small business in Mexico, and I
will take you there. I'm gonna give you the best
street tacos and you're gonna think. I promise you, dude,
because we're gonna be walking up to Maul. I guarantee
you you're gonna do what my friend Brian did. He's
a listener to the show. You're gonna be going Todd,
come on, and I guarantee you it's gonna be like Brian.
As we sat there and goes man, I thought You're
gonna take me the place over the bridge. Nope, Well
Caesar said, I know what Caesar said. But Caesar's only
a Mexican citizen. Is love his his whole life. He
doesn't know street tacos so and then he bites into talk.
He goes, oh oh, And I was trying to order
extra chicken. And I love this because I'm talking to
the lady dos tacos combil double. I'm thinking, I'm being
so clever. Double chicken, okay, homo ah estra chicken, extra hockey.
So she's helping me with the language and our carbone
and I'm doing my very very best. And and uh
espresso a double espresso con dos claim see espresso extra cream.
So we're leaving and I walk up to her. I say,
is delicioso mia more more? I love the place Buenos Noche.
She said, no Buenos and pointing at the watch Buenos Times.
And they do. Actually like there's a thing where you
say this. That's culture. It's this small business. And I've
just had this in major about small business in America
and banks and mid sized businesses. If you're a business owner,
mid sized business, small business, please hear this. If you
don't have an actual corporate credit established and you have
a credit rating. In fact, I have two of them.
You probably haven't looked at it. But listen, please to this.
If you're not stewarding that, you have decided to pierce
your own corporate veil. That's what you've decided to do.
You've decided to be vulnerable in that way. So if
God forbid, you make a mistake, you got to slip
and fall in your business, someone just decides to sue you.
To be mendacious. They can go after your house, your retirement,
your kid's college funds because you decided to leave that
door open. That's what you decided to do. Now you're
a business person, might be like me. I hate the
financial stuff. It is my Achilles heel. It is a problem.
I hate it. So I put it off and I'm
not going to go out and hire a bunch of
lawyers to get me corporate credits. No way. So God
bless the people at Busible. They solve this problem for
you in seven easy steps. It's not a whole bunch
of lawyers they're gonna solve it. They're gonna leave about
ten percent of it for you to do. On your own.
Why because they don't open corporate credit in other people's names,
nor do you want them to save the money, save
the time. What you're gonna spend on this, it's so
worth it. Not the hassle. And I'm gonna make you promise.
Go to the website. It's go bisible dot com. Go
bisible dot com. Go to the website, get a free consultation,
no obligation, and you're gonna learn something about your business.
And this, to me is not just a disclosure. This
is a bragging point. This man, Zach Abraham, is a
minority owner investor in Visible because he saw the vivant.
He's also a client. It's go bisible dot com. So
we were talking about culture, and we were talking about
that small business and there's a small business callure in Mexico,
and you know this of the guys who hustle business.
I went walking through a vendor area and because it
was early to treatment at renew and so they were
on I think, I don't know what day it is.
I think it's Thursday. No it's not, because it was.
It was it was the day before I left. Wednesdays.
They set up a vendors down by Renewest down on
where there's a bunch of sailboats. I'm walking around and
no one's coming up to me but one dude and
he comes up. Ah, Simora is Canadian? I ever thought
it was Canadian. No American? Oh, American, American. Come on.
And he brings me into his shop and Zach, he's
showing me all this, this jewelry, the custom made jewelry,
and I'm looking at it and we're starting to barter,
and he's, you know, uh six hundred paces oh oh
oh oh, you know because the highway Robbert right, the
culture there loves that. And I said, I don't know
how to say ring, and almost a d say ring.
Oh yeah. He shows me this ring and I said,
I'm blocking gos to His son did a little bit
of go throw the ring in and we've got a deal.
And he does this thing. Oh, I don't know. I
guess that is a little calculator and he comes back
with it and then he does this and I love this.
He's unam. He gets out his iPhones. Fuss the key,
p us key, come over here. He shows me his
phone and it's a video shot inside his workshop and
there he is making the rings and the next from
the raw silver, there is implanting the stones, he's twisting
the he's twisting the chains, he's putting them together. I
love it, and that was culture to me. And then
now I'm like, now I feel like, hey, let's go
back higher because.
Speaker 4: He well, no, but I love the fact that he
did that to justify his price. Yes, right, Like that's
really cool because because I'm sitting there going, I'm looking
at that and going, Okay, that's that's worth an extra
ten or twenty bucks, right, Like, you're not just selling
me recycled stuff he bought from China.
Speaker 1: Right, I'm watching you put it together. And this was
so cool because I brought home some crosses for my
wife and daughter, and I thought both of them kind
of match their personality. My daughter's multi colored, my wife's
is sort of this light blue, and so I'm really
proud of the crosses. And it's so funny because both
of them go, oh, look at the chains. Yeah wait,
did you see the cour Yes, no, the cross but
the chains like.
Speaker 4: What the crosses?
Speaker 1: So let me ask you about small business in relation
to macroeconomics, and let me do it this way. There's
this meme. I want you to see this. This is
a meme I picked up online. Be based like Milton Friedman.
Number one, go to communist China. Number two, ask why
workers on the construction site only use shovels. Number three.
Listen to their answers that they do this to maximize
job creation. Number four answer back to the communist officials
they should use spoons instead. Number five use live, learn
to live tale. Macroeconomics a statement about you know, and
unions do this, et cetera. State governments do this, and
federal governments do this. What do you think in terms
of small business macroeconomics? What do you think are the
biggest drivers of downward pressure of harm on small business?
You've spoken about regulation. I think it's downward culture of
the regulators. But what do you think are the biggest
things that Trump could change to really see small business
thrive instead of seeing the Milton Friedman use spoons to
dig holes.
Speaker 4: No, that's a great question. So now part of my
answer is undoubtedly is as impartial as I'm trying to be.
It's undoubtedly been covered colored by my own experiences. But truthfully,
I don't think that there is anything more onerous right
now and more difficult for small businesses to navigate than
than the regulatory environment. And and that is not by accident.
People need to understand when we're talking about pulling back regulations,
we're not talking about making you know, we're not what
what was the name of the what was the name
of the Doctor Seuss book where the guy was chopping
down all the trees? Remember that the They did a.
Speaker 1: Movie about it, Lorax, Yeah, thank you, Alex.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Look, look, look when we're saying we're cutting down
regulate we're not talking about clear cutting Yellowstone. And we're
not talking about setting the Colorado River on fire. Okay.
What we're what we're talking about is similar to how
law fair Right came about. Regulatory capture has been a story.
We've talked about it, and I would I look, if
you don't know what that term means, do yourself a
favor and go watch a fifteen minute video. Go type
in Google Bill Gurley g U R L e Y
regulatory capture. And this is coming from one of the
biggest and most successful tech vcs in all of Silicon Valley,
and he blows it wide open. They these regulations, the
vast majority of them were put in place by the companies.
Right now, the bureaucrats signed on either because they were
crooked and they were their election was getting funded, or
which honestly I think is the most most of them,
they're just dumb and they don't understand business and they're like, oh,
that's a great idea, and they never stopped to think,
Wait a second, why do I have a room full
of Apple executives arguing that I should increase regulation with
Maybe I should ask myself that question, right? And the
reason why is they know that every increased layer of
regulation you put on is another barrier to It's like
the government building a moat around their business. Right Because
the small guy that would come up and challenge them
via innovation, being more nimble, being quicker to pivot all
that stuff, he gets smoked out because he can't afford
a team full of lawyers to navigate the regulatory environment.
He also doesn't have a senator on speed dial. Right,
So that to me is the number one thing. Second
of all, you need to rework under figure out some
type of bracket situation. And if this doesn't apply to
my company, I'm still fine with it. But you need
to figure out a way to make if somebody wants
to start a business that employs other people, especially when
they're small. And why why do we small business is
still the number one provider of jobs in this country, okay,
And and they are also the most culturally and in
communally beneficial type companies, right because because when you got like,
for instance, I'm calling you from our office where we're
sitting here talking for my office in downtown to come up. Okay,
we give a lot of money to charity. It's a
passion of my wife and I all that kind of stuff.
Am I more interested in the plight of folks in Tacoma,
Washington than the Morgans than the guys in the Morgan
Stanley office?
Speaker 1: Of course?
Speaker 4: Of course my clients are here, right, My people are here,
my employees are here. I run a business I'm paying right.
People are like, well, you're saying Morgan Stanley Advisors live. Well,
I'm not saying they don't care about the community. But
they're not paying B and O taxes in it, right
or E in O taxes. They're not you know, they're
not doing all these these types of things that you
have to when you run a business in a community.
So I think you should have tax breaks, I think
under under a certain level. The other thing is, I
think that they should change the corporate status. I think
they should rework it. Meaning, you know, everybody talks about
the Trump corporate tax cuts that only applies to ask corps.
Excuse me, corpses sea corps. Right, So everything's like, oh,
the big carecut. We didn't get it, man, we didn't
get it because as es corps it for most small
businesses you got over fifty employees, and there's other factors
to consider. I'm not an expert on the matter, but
I've gone through it with my own business. There really
is no there's really no viable way for my business
to become a sea corp. It'd be too onerous on
too many other levels, and would you know, cancel on.
But why would we give a tax situation that is
better off if you're big then if you're small. That
doesn't make any sense, right, it should be I mean,
if anything, it should be inverted, right, So yeah, I yeah.
The other thing is, I you know, I think that
you should look at a federal exemption a payroll tax
under under a certain amount of employees.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more on that topic. I couldn't agree more.
I also, every time I have to deal with taxes
and I had to send the IRX like you a check,
and I really struggle with it that every time I
have to sit down and put together the stink and paperwork. Right,
here's what I paid Alex, and here's what I paid Brianna,
and here's what I paid Spencer, and here's what I
pay for rents. And I know the government already knows. Yeah,
I know they know. Oh and here's my bank statements,
and here's my bookkeeper's you know, certified bank statements, and
here's my CPA statements. And I know you have all
these things. Yeah, and I'm gonna go through and I'm
gonna commit this time. And what are you really trying
to do? IRS? I mean, what are you trying to do?
I think you're trying to justify a bunch of employees.
Because you've got all this data. I'd love to see
that streamlined and made very very simple. How much money
did you make, how much should you pay out? What
percentage do you us? And if you think I'm committing fraud,
then come and say, okay, now we need to see
receipts right, yeah, and on a small business basis, like
I hesitated to be a corporation, which was stupid, financially
desperately stupid. I was an lc WY. Don't know why
because I have to do stinking quarterly reports. So all
the partners get together. In other words, I get together
with myself and we look at the state to the business,
and we have it and my report reads. Examine the
shareholder votes, yep, you always have the shareholder vote. Shareholders vote,
things are rosy. No, look at the state of the business,
business as well. Discussion ensues, vote continue as is, And
now I have a website that does that, and they're
write a stupid report and the state of Idaho gets this,
and the government gets this. Did you really have a
corporate meeting? No, I'm not gonna lie because then it's perjury.
So yes, I sat down and met with myself and
I argued it to myself. So I want to wrap
this back over to where we began here in a second, Zach,
and that is at the macro level. I want you
to give President Trump a grade at this point in
on economics, at this point, in a grade of an
A to an F. And we'll do that in just
a second. Small businesses right heart of the economy, is
often said. It's also what I love about small businesses
is it's the person out of that taco place that
I was talking about in Mexico that I love. No
one there speaks English period. I mean they have words,
but they have no sentences, and I think they're proud
of it. I think there are tacos are so good,
you're going to come in and point out our menu
and we don't really care if you. I bet once
you leave they have like fluent English. That guy's kind
of cool, like he really tried. Think I'm anne. They'll
say no, but I think that's part of their mystique.
In my case of my friend Tim Krukshank, founder and
CEO Bone Frog Coffee, it says God, Country, team on
the bag because that is Tim. That's how he runs
his life. The Lord, the country, the team. Team to
him means family and then something else. He was on
the seal teams bone Frog. That insignia that is the
sign of a fallen seal. In fact, if you doubt me,
go buy the bone Frog merch and the one with
the fallen seal on it and wear that around a
Navy seal and I promise you you're going to get
the stink eye of does that company? Is it Sealans?
And when you say yes, they'll say something along the
lines of it better be it better be? Then you
say it's owned by guy named Tim Crookshank. He did
three tours. He was a Buds instructor. Okay, and I
get you. I guarantee you your seal acquaintance of friends's gonna go.
I'm gonna check on that. I'm gonna check on that,
and he will. He's put out a special bag. It's
called Golden Age. It's to celebrate the economy and the
chance to find the right size or economy to cut waste,
to cut fraud, to cut abuse, to do what we
can to restructure the global trade scene. Maybe this deal
from India is the beginning of that iPhone coming back here,
Nvidia investing here. And it's a beautiful bag. You can
see the Golden Eagle on its its wings once again,
spread over America and of course God Country team. So
make this your first bag. This is a great excuse
to try bone frog because of the very very limited
nature of these bags. Go to Bonefrog Coffee dot com
Sash Todd. Use promo code Todds to get temper sent
off your first purchase once you're converted, because the coffee
is great. To go to bone Frog Coffee dot com,
Sash Todd you use promo card todd you get fifteen
percent off subscription coffee. So Zach, let's wrap this all up.
Speaker 4: Yep, let me let me let me a quick comment
on that, because on the Coffee Talk the Mexico, Yeah,
on Tim on Tim on Tim crookshanking guys, if you're
listening to this, I mean I've been on the I've
been on the other side a hundred times where I'm
listening to something. You know, you just kind of pass
over the eye. First of all, you're not going to
meet a better guy, right like, just the humility you
you he's you'd have no First of all, you'd have
no idea. The guy's navycal not because he doesn't look dangerous,
but just he's so understated and quiet and just you know,
he's he's one of those silent assassins types, you know,
and couldn't be more down to earth when and the
coffee's outstanding as well, Yes, when when you do this,
when you switch from Folders Folders or Starbucks or whatever
it is to bone Frog, you're not just getting better coffee.
But that really makes a difference. It really matter And
I'm I'm again this might seem self serving because I
market on here as well, but it really matters. Right,
those dollars are not going to corporations that are going
to be using them against you in the next election cycle. Yeah, right,
And it's going to be building solid families of people
that have similar values. And just keep in mind, as
a community, that's that's one of our strengths, right, is
buying from each other. I mean, look at you know,
look at so many of these cultures that do that,
and you know that, you know, they take heat from it.
I think of the Mormons, you know what I mean
some I've got some amazing Mormons as clients and good
friends too, but but you know, I've heard him take
heat from that. And I'm always like, why is keeping
money in business inside your community of like minded people?
Why is that a bad thing? You know, I think
I think it's a I think it's a wonderful thing.
And then also think about if you don't take advantage
of some of these people liked him. Think about where
your dollars are going. You don't know what they're doing
with them, right, well, or you do right, they're probably
using them against you. But anyway, I just had to
say that because Tim's just.
Speaker 1: So beautiful that you said that, And I would add that,
you know, in the case of Bone Frog, ten percent
of proceeds go to the Navy Seal Foundation. But I'll
let you it on something. I don't know if you've
ever heard this story. Now you know Tim, obviously we
just talked about that, that he's a Navy Seal. I've
told you before his technique when he's a BUDS instructor.
He didn't yell at guys. He wasn't calling him names,
he wasn't screaming at him. I've told you his technique
about it's he would wait until you failed an evolution,
until you had the worst performance in something, and it
often happened at four o'clock in the morning, and he
jog up next to you and go, hey, hey, listen,
I really take it a liking to you while you're here,
and between you and me, you're not gonna make it
seriously your wash out. So I don't want you to
have to go ring the bell and everybody see. I
mean you have to ring the bell. But listen, you
can come back next year and maybe I'll make it then.
But you're out, So why don't you just peel off
with me? And you and I was just privately.
Speaker 4: Go up.
Speaker 1: I'll put you in the hot get you some donuts,
and you can ring out and go get some sleep.
Like did that work? He is sadly it did. Oh,
but I'll tell you something else now. I want you
to picture this. So and Tim is, I've told the
story with Tim on the air, so I know it's okay.
When his wife, Liz was was at a point where
she looked like she was going to die, and Tim
was a position's assistant and he knew and she made
it out of this one. But a medical professional came
in to him and said to Tim, and he knew
Tim's background. He goes, you are being selfish. Let her
go die, and he said, I don't. She doesn't want
to die. Yeah, but being selfish. And then a doctor
made the decision to put his finger into the chest
of a Navy seal jabbed him in the chest.
Speaker 4: Where's that doctor?
Speaker 2: Buried.
Speaker 1: No, but I know, I know what you're saying. No, no, no, no, no.
But the guy says that he's he's stabbing a Navy
seal in the chest with his finger, a paper pushing
doctor let her go die, and Tim's responded to us
leave yeah, And the doctor said what he goes leave
leave leave, And I think at that point the doctor
realized with his hand on Tim's chest like whoops, yeah, whoops, and.
Speaker 4: Not yeah not three D chess, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: No. I was telling this story the other day about
my friend Cody, who is well retired seal, and my
friend Mark who's deceased and lost his life but not
in Russia. And there was a scene they were at
a bar that tide the story, and some guys got
rude with the waitress, probably the bartender, and they got
rude with her and and and Mark said a couple
of different times, hey guys, this woman's earning a living,
Please be polite, and they wouldn't. And hey, I'm going
to ask you again nicely, please be polite. And then
one guy decided to stand the Mark to stand out,
and Mark stepped to him, and there was a guy
but like sitting there between them, and he realized Mark
size looked at Mark and still made the decision to
come at him, and Mark pushed him back, face to
the bar, hand behind the back and inches from breaking
his arm. And he's holding them and Mark says, I
told you be nice. I'm going to let you go,
and he let him go, and Cody then turns and
Cody's smaller than Mark and Mark was. And Cody turns
to this other guy's friend and he goes, you have
ever been in your death experience? And they goes now,
he goes, yes, yes, yeah, he just did right right,
and then and it always happens that. Then guys start
to look at their arms and they see the trident right,
and in the case of Mark, it was on his neck. Oh,
oh gosh, We're sorry. All right, so sorry with that distraction.
How do you treate how do you rate President Trump on?
How do you rate him A through F on the economy?
Speaker 4: This far?
Speaker 1: And I know it's very early, but this farest.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I would look at it and separate it
in two different categories. So a first category would be, uh, principles, right,
so like what ideas if you are what parts are
you attacking? What are you going at? What are you
addressing on that? I give him an a meaning, you're like,
only try, Like only Trump can. His willingness to attack
these monstrosity type third rail issues that nobody else has
the stones to tackle and to do it all at
the same time is is you know if if you're
if you're a spectator of these kinds of things, it's
sort of shocking, right, meaning even his post election thing
where where you're like, well, I wonder what his first
ninety days are going to be, and you're like, well,
what did he say they were, Because they're going to
be exactly like that, right. It's not yeah, you don't,
you don't. It's it doesn't. It's does day a rocket
scientists figure it out. On the flip side, though, it's
funny you asked, because I was having this conversation coffee
with my wife this morning on the implementation side subject
to the way it all turns out, because I think
that's the other thing with Trump is you have to
leave he is going to do things in a very
non conventional way, especially as it relates to mainstream thought,
right he is He's just not going to And I
actually like that about. So there's a part of me
that's like, look, you've got to leave time to see
because you know, there could be certain things that I
think he did incredibly wrong. And if it if it
ends up with a really good trade deal or something
like that with China, then you're like, you know, it's
kind of like a team running a crazy trick play
that you never think is gonna work, but it goes
for a touchdown, right Like you're like, hey, well, good call.
On the implementation side of it, though, I'd probably give
him like a C minus. And the reason why is
because of what you've seen today, meaning yes, meaning I wouldn't.
From the very beginning, I thought it made most sense
to go to all the people that you've got serious
leverage with, including good trading partners, allies, all that kind
of stuff, rework the things that need to be done
behind closed doors, talk about how all these unfair trade practices,
and Americas say all that stuff without referencing somebody in particular,
right just And the reason I say that is specifically
as it relates to China. You and I both both
know that, but I think the average American does not
understand saving face and all that kind is a huge
cultural deal there. So when you attack frontally like that,
you start to limit the outcomes in a real way
that I don't think makes sense to us as Americans culturally.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: But then you go to China, in my opinion, with
more of a coalition approach and do it like look,
do it in a friendly way, and people are like
friendly with China, Yes, because guys, war is not an
outcome that anybody wants. If we can get China, even
if they're not happy about it, to come along and
at least play by the rules that that is the
best outcome right now. It may not mean that we
don't have to deal with them at some point down
the road anyway, but bottom line, it buys us time,
It helps heal our cup. Right, There's there's there's so
I would have preferred he roll it out differently, But
that being said, I would much rather have an A
and implementation and a C minus or excuse me, an
A in principles and A and a C minus and
implementation than A than an NA. Right, And and we've
had na's for thirty years.
Speaker 1: Absolutely well said absolutely, did not attend class, did not
show up, did not write a paper, did not participate.
No participation in trophy for you love it. Yeah, well,
said God bless wise counsel day. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Zach.
Speaker 1: Always employ a joy, know your Riskgraded dot com is
where you go get Zach's podcasts. And I can't say
the other thing because then I have to do the disclaimer.
But there might be an entry form there for a
thing you could do, and then you could talk to
Zach and he could look at some stuff and help
you figure out your life and your money. And that
did not have to stop there, because otherwise I have
to say the whole fact. I'm not gonna say, all right,
this is Todd, don't do it. This is the Todd Hermanshew.
Please go, be well, be strong, be kind, Please make
every effort to walk in the light of Christ.