John Rush packs this hour with sharp commentary on public policy, economics, and real-world consequences. He examines Colorado’s steep drop in EV sales after subsidies disappeared, arguing government mandates distorted the market from the start. Jersey Joe joins to break down crime, city leadership failures, and headline absurdities, while Scott Garliss provides market insight on stocks, global instability, and why investors are watching U.S. momentum closely. A fast-moving episode covering cars, politics, crime, and money from a practical perspective.
SPEAKER 17 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 05 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it.
SPEAKER 17 :
There are no magical fixes. With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 05 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job, sir. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 10 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 05 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 15 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 16 :
Okay, Hour 3, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Jersey Joe joining us. Joe, what’s up, sir?
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, John, I’ve got a bunch of stuff. Okay. Including, by the way, I got a quote of the week this week, but it’s anonymous, but I think it’s really a great quote in terms of giving yourself credit. And here’s the quote. And the quote was, I am not everything that I wanted to be when I was younger, but I am a lot of things I did want to be years ago. And that is a powerful thing to give yourself credit for. So don’t beat yourself up for the things you haven’t accomplished. Good point. Give yourself credit for the things you have accomplished. Great point. Great point. And I don’t know, I’m sure there are some people who have accomplished everything they wanted to be when they were younger. I’m not one of them, John. I don’t know if you are, but… But the important things like being a good husband, good father, that’s part of being a good provider.
SPEAKER 16 :
Joe, I’ll have to say, and I’ve said this before publicly, but I’ll say it again. I mean, if you would have told me at 17, 18 years of age that I would have accomplished all the things that I have been able to do, including being here talking to you through a microphone on air and thousands and thousands of other people at the same time, I would have told you that you were crazy. It would never happen. You know, what I’ve been able to accomplish and do, and even the home that I live in and cars I drive and so on, Joe, the family I have, et cetera. Yeah. I would have said you were a liar back then.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. So, you know, everybody out there, give yourself, don’t beat yourself up for the things you haven’t accomplished. Give yourself credit for the things you have accomplished.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yep. I feel very blessed, Joe. Thank you for saying all that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, a little trivia before we get into heavy stuff. And I think I may have mentioned this earlier in the week, but, uh, You know, this should have been a question of the week. When did the first online gaming event take place? And I think you know the answer to this, right? Yeah, back in the 1800s, right? 1844, it was a chess match between two people, one in Washington, D.C., one in Baltimore. That’s amazing. 60 miles apart, they held a chess match using telegraph wires. And I don’t know if you play chess, but it’s really easy. Yeah, mm-hmm. Pawn to King, you know, P to King 6, Pawn to King 6. So it’s just like three or four characters. And they held a chess match over telegraph wires in November of 1844. So that was the first trivia. Nice. Online gaming. Nice. All right. Let’s see where we’re going to go. Hey, John, I got the stupidest thing I heard all week. I sent you a clip. We don’t have to play the whole thing. Only I think we can stop after about a minute eight. But this is California. This is Jesse Waters on Fox. interviewing one of the gubernatorial candidates. He’s a Republican, doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of winning. But they’re talking about the special treatment that state prisoners, particularly trans prisoners, get in California penitentiaries. Can we play this? Here we go.
SPEAKER 02 :
Here’s one that we’ve uncovered. Prisoners in California prisons, trans prisoners, the ones that Kamala took such great pride in giving them what they wanted at the taxpayer’s expense, they now get sent to beauty treatments, beauty treatments for trans prisoners, leg waxing, you name it. This is real. And there’s much more to uncover. Two months ago, I set up CalDoge to dig into all this. You’ve got We’re Doing It, Rufus Doing It, James O’Keefe, Nick Shirley, of course, the vice president, Fraud Task Force. It’s all adding up to total rage building in California. This is what they’re doing with our money. We pay the highest taxes in the country for the worst results. And now we know why. This is where it’s going. It’s another reason why I’m really confident I’m going to kick them out this.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, I hope so. I mean, but there’s a lot of guys in California that are like, all right, we’re giving some migrants a new pair. Not that bad, but it adds up. I mean, it’s like, what is it? 10 grand, 20 grand for breast implants. You are going to soak the tax.
SPEAKER 16 :
Unbelievable, Joe.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. And by the way, so this is an elective. This is a non-essential elective cosmetic surgery. So, John, if you’re a trans person in California, you want breast implants. and you can’t afford them, all you have to do is walk up and punch a cop. Yeah, very true. And you’ll do your one year, and you’ll come out with your new breasts.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, good point.
SPEAKER 07 :
But how stupid is that?
SPEAKER 16 :
Very.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. Did you talk about the Stop Nick Shirley Act?
SPEAKER 16 :
I talked about that last week with Sonny Kutcher just a little bit, but we didn’t get into the great detail. I did see. I believe it was Nick Shirley himself trying to run down the two sponsors of, and these sponsors of the bill acted like they had no idea what they were. I mean, what a bunch of hypocrites, Joe. like they knew nothing about it.
SPEAKER 07 :
And, John, here’s my point. If, in fact, any of those video exposés were, in fact, to slander or defame, you know, illegally defame, those people have civil remedies.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, I was going to say, there’s already rights against that. There’s already things you can do to take action against that, is what I should say.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, you don’t need to criminalize that. John, if I want to make false claims about you that you’re running a fake hospice or a fake learning center… John, you can sue me. You don’t need the state of Colorado to criminalize that. You have remedies. So let’s hope that one dies in committee. Also, I know we talked briefly about the popular vote compact. I want to dig down just a little bit deeper. So this started about three years ago. I believe Colorado was already a signatory to it.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yes, they were. That’s correct.
SPEAKER 07 :
So for those who didn’t hear earlier, there’s been a movement going around amongst the blue states called the Popular Vote Compact, where the state legislatures in those blue states have said, hey, if we get enough electoral votes to constitute a majority, which would be 270, and the electoral college, you get one vote in the electoral college for each senator and one for each congressman. So I think we talked, John, you’ve got eight congressmen and two senators. So Colorado has 10 votes in the electoral college. So to get a majority, you need 270 electoral college votes. So 18 states, so far 18 states and the District of Columbia, believe it or not, the District of Columbia was awarded three electoral college votes, have signed on to this National Popular Vote Compact that says regardless of what the people of our state vote, it could be 55% for candidate A and 45% for candidate B, and even though the people of your state overwhelmingly voted for candidate A, If candidate B nationally got more votes than candidate A, we’re going to pledge 100 percent of our electoral college votes to candidate B, even though they didn’t win our statewide election. Right. And that’s where we’re at. So with Virginia signing on last week, that brings the total up to 222. So they are 48 votes shy of hitting the 270, which would trigger the compact. Now, it would certainly face legal challenges in the Supreme Court. But if I was a citizen of one of those blue states, which, by the way, it’s all of New England, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Colorado, California, Oregon, Washington, New York State, you know, they’re already signed on. But if I was a citizen of the blue state, you’re basically telling me my vote doesn’t count. Yep, exactly what they’re saying. And I would be outraged. I’d be looking to change the leadership of my state and repeal that legislation that obligated my state to participate in that compact. So that’s the update there. Other fun stuff. Did you talk about the guy that… Was replacing Legos with dry pasta?
SPEAKER 16 :
You know what? I mentioned that. I didn’t say it on air. I did mention that the other day. I was reading the story. I mentioned that to friends of ours the other day. We were at dinner, and I mentioned that. We were all having a good laugh out of that. And here’s the thing we can’t figure out, and maybe you know the idea, or maybe you know the answer to this is what I should say. Was he, like, taking the Legos and reselling them in a different box? Was he using the Legos? That’s the part I can’t understand, Joe.
SPEAKER 07 :
Flea markets. First of all, some of these Lego sets sell for well north of $100 per set.
SPEAKER 16 :
Correct. But he was taking the original box and going back, so you go to the flea market with just a bag or what?
SPEAKER 07 :
No, no, no. What you do, John, is when you open one of these big boxes, it’ll have in it a set of plastic bags from four, five, six, seven, and each bag is numbered and there’s a set of instructions. So all you have to do is take… You know, say the seven bags, seven numbered bags of Legos and the instructions and put them in a cardboard box and go to a flea market. You know, you’ve got them there in Denver.
SPEAKER 16 :
So you’re not selling it in the original box. You’re just sticking it in a different box is what you’re doing.
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, Legos, you know, complete set, you know, with instructions, half price. And people, you know, will buy them. So he did this. He went from… City to city, state to state, he did this, and he went to 70 different targets. He went from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, California, Nevada, 70 target stores. He would buy the box for cash, not a credit card, buy the box for cash, slit open the bottom of the box with a razor knife, slit the cellophane, take out the bags and the instructions, fill them back with dried pasta. like rigatoni or penne pasta, seal the back, tape up the cellophane. The guy at the return desk would shake the box, yep, okay, and give him his cash refund. $34,000 worth of Legos. That’s amazing.
SPEAKER 16 :
I mean, it’s amazing, and granted, he’s 34 grand ahead and maybe not quite that because he probably netted less than that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER 16 :
But, man, what a lot of work for that job. Wouldn’t it just be easier to get a job? I mean, when you think about all of what he’s doing and the amount of effort and work he’s putting into it, just go get a job.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, the time, the miles he drove, the time he spent buying them, then going back, and then going back.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, and here’s my take on that. He’s probably doing this with other things he didn’t get caught for. Because you know how thieves are, Joe. He’s doing this in other areas. He just happened to get caught in this one area. That’s my thought. Because there’s no way you would do just that for that kind of money because you could get a job and make more.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, he’s probably got a bunch of other scams going.
SPEAKER 16 :
That’s my thought.
SPEAKER 07 :
But I just thought it’s about freaking time. So they finally got him in California. They had a picture of – somebody opened the box, and they had a picture of his – they were able to go back at surveillance and got his car license plate and able to track him down that way.
SPEAKER 16 :
Awesome.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, John, a big story that should have been national news that wasn’t national news, and I’ve been digging down. Remember last August when Trump deployed the National Guard into Washington, D.C.?
SPEAKER 16 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 07 :
And everybody, no, you don’t need it. We’ve got this under control. You know, we don’t need the National Guard here. Well, they did need the National Guard. Let me give you some statistics. And it’s even more dramatic when you break it down. So in 2024, Washington, D.C., which is a population of just 672,000, reported 187 homicides, which translated to an astounding homicide rate, staggering, 27.8 per 100,000. That’s a lot. 27.8. The national average, John, is 5.1. So they were 500% greater than the national average. It made them one of the top 10 deadliest cities in the United States. So then along comes 2025, and the number of homicides in Washington, D.C., falls by more than 30%, down to 128, which was the lowest level in eight years. So what was different about 2025 versus 2024? Well, Trump deployed the National Guard. But here’s what’s even more amazing. He didn’t deploy the National Guard until August 15th, and we were already seven and a half months into the year. And there had already been 98 homicides in the first seven months. They were averaging 14 homicides. So the annualized drop was only 30%. But when you look at it month by month, they were averaging 14 homicides per month. And after the National Guard was deployed, that number dropped to six. It dropped by more than half.
SPEAKER 1 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 07 :
So it was a staggering – now, yes, two National Guard members got shot. There was a young woman, one of the – she died, which was tragic. But still, when you look at the number of lives that were saved, John, 50, 60 people were saved.
SPEAKER 04 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Didn’t die because of the National Guard. Amazing. And, of course, Trump did that down in Nashville, and both the mayor and governor of Nashville said, yes, we need it. Thanks for coming. It’s done wonders for our city. So it’s just amazing how – How much in denial these blue city mayors are in terms of do we need help? Yes, you need help.
SPEAKER 16 :
Joe, well, is it that they’re in denial or, as I continue to say, is it just the fact that they are through and through Marxist? This is part of their Marxist plan. I don’t think they’re as ignorant as we all think they are. They’re just working the plan like they’re supposed to.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, you know, John, you might be right, and along those lines, let me tell you what’s happening in New York City, if I can find it here. I thought I brought it up. New York City… Here we go.
SPEAKER 16 :
On the ICE detainees?
SPEAKER 07 :
ICE detainees. Have you talked about that?
SPEAKER 16 :
I did not. Go ahead. No, it’s in my notes, but go ahead.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, here we go. Just found it. All right. So as of December… This is for last year.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
From January 20th through December 1st, New York City… had failed to honor ICE detainee requests, and those failures resulted in the release of 6,947 criminal illegal aliens between January 20th and December 1st. The crimes those aliens have been accused of or arrested for included, you ready for this, 29 homicides, 2,509 assaults, 199 burglaries, 305 robberies, 392 dangerous drug offenses, 300 weapon offenses, And 207 sexual predatory offenses. Wow. Just staggering. And so the mayor, obviously, the police department and the court system doesn’t release these people without the blessing of the mayor.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
If you’re a resident of New York City and you knew that 6,900 violent, illegal aliens had been released back into the streets of your city pending, you know, they’d been arraigned. Of course, New York City’s big on no cash bond, by the way.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right, right, right.
SPEAKER 07 :
if you lived in New York City and you know that 6,900 violent felons who also had been released back onto the streets of your city, wouldn’t you be a little bit outraged? I would be.
SPEAKER 16 :
But on the same token, I mean, I would be, but why would they be? Look at who they’re voting for. Yeah. I mean, how stupid are they, Joe?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, that’s why, John, I think the smart people are leaving in droves.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I agree with you there. Which means it’s going to be Detroit before it’s all said and done.
SPEAKER 07 :
Remember the movie Escape from New York 20 years ago with Kurt Russell? I think that could be not far on the horizon. Have you heard about the $150 train fare for the 8-mile trip from Penn Station to MetLife Stadium?
SPEAKER 16 :
That’s for the soccer thing coming up, right?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, the FIFA World Cup regional. Did you talk about that?
SPEAKER 16 :
I did not talk about it. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right. There’s a train. You can run Penn Station, New York City, which is by Madison Square Garden, to MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands, which is where the New York Giants play in New Jersey. It’s an eight-mile train ride. Normally the fare is $12.90. Let’s call it $13. Okay, $13. Okay. For the eight days of the FIFA World Cup, the head of the New Jersey Transit, at the urging and blessing with our new governor, said the fair, the round-trip fair, will be $150. Nobody’s going to pay that, Joe. Well, I guess, you know, there’s a basic concept in economics called price-volume elasticity. In other words, how much can you change the price without affecting volume?
SPEAKER 04 :
Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
And I used to marvel about that on why nobody used to ride on E-470 because it used to cost like $25 to go round trip from Highlands Ranch to the airport if you wanted to take E-470. That’s why people would go up $25 to $225. And I often pondered, what if they cut the fare in half? How much more volume would they get on E-470? Anyway, I checked, John. You can take – and by the way, now nobody – than I know of ever goes to like a soccer match alone. They go as a couple. Sure, sure, sure.
SPEAKER 16 :
Very, very, very few people go to any event single, Joe, as you know.
SPEAKER 07 :
Single, right. So, John, now, and that $150, if you live on the Upper East Side, first you have to get yourself down from the Upper East Side down to Penn Station, which is in Lower Manhattan. Then you’ve got to wait for the train. Then you’ve got to get on the train with 4,000 other people and then take the hot, smelly train over to MetLife Stadium. So for $150, you can have a black limo pick you up in front door on the Upper East Side, drive you across, you and your companion or maybe your two couples, and the four of you can go in style to the MetLife Stadium in a limo, go both ways in a limo for less money than riding the train. So I’m just wondering how many, when the smoke clears, How much money? Because they think they’re going to clear $6 million a day.
SPEAKER 16 :
They’re not, Joe. They’re going to be lucky if anybody rides it at all at that fee. And I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that, Joe.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. And they’re committed to running the trains. They’re committed to running the trains. I think they’re going to run eight trains in the morning to the stadium and eight trains at night away from the stadium. And so that’s 16. John, I also find it hard to believe. They said it’s going to cost them $6 million a day to run those trains. Like, John, the infrastructure is already there. You’re paying for the engineer and a couple of conductors. Unrealistic.
SPEAKER 16 :
Anyway, so that’s the – I’m just – And this is one where, you know, we were talking a moment ago, you know, is some of this stuff done intentionally or is it just, you know, being blind and dumb at the – And this is one where I honestly think they honestly don’t understand how economics works, and they think that they’re smarter than everybody else, and they’ll just raise these fees and people will pay for it. And they’re sadly mistaken, Joe.
SPEAKER 07 :
John, you mean if you tripled your fees for your snow plowing service, you wouldn’t lose any business?
SPEAKER 16 :
As you know, you’d lose a ton, yes. Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
Price, volume, elasticity, apparently none of them ever went to business school.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, and we talk about this a lot, Joe, on the program. At least I do. That’s the problem that the majority of politicians have. They’ve never, ever in their life had to sell anything, Joe. They don’t understand business. If you put them at the front counter of any store, they wouldn’t know what to do, Joe.
SPEAKER 07 :
And I’m not exaggerating.
SPEAKER 16 :
And by the way, that’s my problem with both sides of the aisle, because the reality is that’s as big a problem on our side as it is the other side. We don’t have enough business people in politics to get things handled. That’s the problem right now, in my opinion.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. And John, you know, I don’t know how it would have accomplished. But if we had if we had more term limits to get some of these people been sitting in the same chair for 40 years. Maybe we could get some more people.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, and as I talked earlier in the week, Joe, I think it was last week I talked about this. On top of that, we’d also need some sort of policy where the aides themselves have to get changed out as well because so many of those aides are entrenched. You could change out the politician, but nothing’s going to change unless you change the aides out.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, because they’re part of the deep state. They’re part of the deep state. They have a vested interest. That’s right.
SPEAKER 16 :
Those staffers, some of those staffers, as you know, Joe, they are there with politician A, B, C, D, and E, and they don’t move.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, they don’t move.
SPEAKER 16 :
And by the way, they do as much with policy and what happens with that particular politician as the politician themselves. Because I’m sorry to say, Joe, most politicians are dumb as rocks. I’m trying to be as nice as I can, but I interview these people on a pretty routine basis, Joe. They’re not real bright.
SPEAKER 07 :
And maybe, John, because bright people, unless you’re a billionaire, bright people tend to not want to involve themselves in politics.
SPEAKER 16 :
And even look at Trump. The guy’s extremely smart, has a high IQ, but look at what he sacrificed to actually be president. Most won’t do that, Joe.
SPEAKER 07 :
Exactly. So you don’t get the best and the brightest.
SPEAKER 16 :
No, because we de-incentivize folks like that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 16 :
You know, again, Trump, and that’s where it’s such a struggle for me with the folks on the left that have Trump derangement syndrome, because if you look at what the guy has done to sacrifice to actually do what he’s doing, no other business person in their right mind would do that, Joe.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, no. And you, John, you shake your head and say, how do these people get in office? How do they stay in office? And what were they thinking? When they proposed or voted for that legislation, you just shake your head.
SPEAKER 16 :
I know. I know.
SPEAKER 07 :
It’s depressing.
SPEAKER 16 :
It’s amazing to me, Joe. It really is. Joe, as always, I appreciate it, man.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right. Talk to you next week. You betcha.
SPEAKER 16 :
Have a great week. We’ll talk to you next week. Or have a great night. Have a great week. And we’ll talk to you next week. Dr. Scott coming up next. Again, live your best life. Dr. Scott would love to help you with that by being as healthy as possible. 303-663-6990.
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SPEAKER 16 :
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SPEAKER 16 :
kevin flesh understands the way the jury thinks call now for a free consultation 303-806-8886 this is rush to reason on klz 560 and it is rush to reason welcome back thanks for joining us scott garless now brent bent pine capital scott how are you sir
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, John, I’m well. How are you doing?
SPEAKER 16 :
I’m good. Good to hear from you. Some things going on in the markets that some folks may not have noticed. Two recent trends, I should say. Talk about that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. So over the last couple of weeks, we’ve noticed some really interesting underneath-the-surface trends that tell you a lot about market direction. So they both started around the end of March, and that was sort of when the peace talks started – We should say the beginning of the negotiations between Iran and the U.S. And, you know, we started to see a streak of positive closes. And the first was with the S&P 500. It had seven consecutive days where it closed higher each day. And that streak came to an end, I want to say it was around like a tenth or so of – of April. Um, so I went back and looked at all the numbers since 2000. Uh, this has happened in about 13 years where you’ve seen seven or more positive closes. Um, and what I thought was really interesting though, is I look at when those years, when it happens, what the average percentage gain is for the S and P 500 and on a price basis, it’s, it’s about 17% rounding up a little bit. Okay. That’s good. To me, that’s really significant when you consider on a total return basis, which is dividends reinvested, the index has averaged 9.7% since 1928. So you’re talking about a double average total return. And then it’s only been down one time. That was in 2000. So there’s like a 92% success rate.
SPEAKER 16 :
Okay. I also noticed even today that the stock market itself, we’re almost back up to the 50,000 mark. We’re not far off of that right now.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. And then what you have too is that the S&P is making new all-time highs.
SPEAKER 03 :
I see that.
SPEAKER 06 :
The other trend I thought was even more interesting was what happened with the NASDAQ. Over that same stretch, the NASDAQ started going up, except the NASDAQ extended that stretch out to 13 days before it had a negative close.
SPEAKER 16 :
And really quick, some of this do you feel, and this is more of a question because I don’t know the answer. You may. Is some of this because, and we talked about this some last week, the rest of the world, because of what’s going on in Iran right now, in some cases is really struggling. Asia, other countries, I mean Europe, I mean they’re really struggling with what’s happening oil-wise and so on and to the point where it’s really hurting people. So my question is, is because we’re doing so well, is it attracting more money back into the United States that wouldn’t might not be here otherwise? Is that part of what’s happening?
SPEAKER 06 :
That is part of what’s happening. People are looking at the U.S. economy and because we can be oil independent, they’re looking at the U.S. economy is like, hey, you know, they have less issues from this standpoint. Right.
SPEAKER 16 :
In fact, I mean, I don’t want to say we don’t have any, but other than the global price of oil and raising prices at the pump, Scott, honestly, when it’s all said and done, we really don’t have any issues from the war going on right now. We don’t have supply chain issues. We really, you know, again, other than the the all around the world price of oil. And I keep reminding people of this. It was higher under the Biden administration in 2008.
SPEAKER 06 :
his uh first year or two because of what he did in regards to pipelines and so on so at the end of the day we’re actually faring very well yeah i mean you know where there could be supply chain issues down the road is you know vessels that transport goods here they have to start to jack up rates because they’re paying out more for costs but you yeah i mean that that’s still this is pretty short-term in terms of what’s going on. That remains to be seen. Whether or not companies use the excuse of, hey, prices have gone up, so we have to jack them up, even though they’re not spending more on that stuff lately, that’s also a different ball of wax. But yes, so there is a view that the U.S. is relatively insulated because… Europe, for instance, has to eat a lot of its natural gas through Russia. So the U.S. doesn’t. So Russia can jack up prices. I saw Russia’s even talking about cutting Europe off again, which is a whole other ball of ice.
SPEAKER 16 :
Europe’s in bad shape. I mean, I don’t know that they even realize how bad a shape they’re in, to be honest with you, Scott. I can see it, but I’m not sure they do.
SPEAKER 06 :
It seems like it at times, yes.
SPEAKER 16 :
I mean, they have struggles in, you know, they’ve got a terrible immigration problem going on right now where things are changing, you know, culturally for them. What you just talked about in regards to natural gas, they’ve got an oil supply problem right now. There are places in Europe, I think it’s Ireland especially, where there’s gas stations with empty tanks. There’s just nothing there to fill them up with. I mean, they are in bad shape.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I mean, yes. Yes, they definitely are.
SPEAKER 16 :
And by the way, part of this is because of their own stupidity regarding green energy and what they wanted to do with Iran and the proxy that they were using them for and so on. I mean, no offense. This is what they had coming. They made their own bed. Now they’re lying in it.
SPEAKER 06 :
I was going to say one of the problems could be, you know, like most of the countries in Europe have banned fracking. Right. And so that has been a boon for the U.S. because it’s been another way to get a lot of energy supply. Right. And as a result, yeah, I mean, Europe is probably trying to deal with this and figure it out. And it’s hurting them. And they’ve tried to get rid of coal and they’ve decommissioned power plants that that run off, and it just, yeah, so there’s stress being added to the European system right now. That is correct.
SPEAKER 16 :
And now, double whammy, there’s, as you’re saying, there’s investment now that is being taken away from countries like that and being brought over here now. We’re benefiting.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes. Yes, that is part of what’s going on. So people have been putting a bunch of work, a bunch of money to work in Europe and Asia and other economies because they were like, you know, The thinking last year was there is a catch-up valuation trade here where they were lagging the U.S. markets. And now some of what you’re seeing is, look, there was a massive amount of shorting in equity markets in the U.S. prior to this, prior to the sort of negotiations or the start of negotiations. It was at record levels. Well, I don’t know if it was record levels, but the quant – algos, or basically the quant strategies, they had maxed out the amount of short selling they could do in their books in U.S. equities. So there’s really nothing to do but buy at that point, right? And so now you’re seeing, as these negotiations started and the tide started to turn, you’re seeing all that buying power coming in, and they’re covering those shorts. And now the signals they get in their systems are telling them to start going long, which means not just buy back something they sold, but now to start owning the U.S. equities again. And so that’s a whole other wave that’s coming into this market. Now, what I was going to say really quickly, too, we talked about that S&P 500 signal, the NASDAQ signal, 13 days. I looked at 10 days or more. It’s only happened five times since the year 2000 for the NASDAQ. And those five years when it has happened prior, the NASDAQ has averaged around like 27% gains in that year. And it’s got 100% success rate. Wow. Wow. So what that’s telling us is the thought process and the momentum is shifting under the surface. And I think Wall Street’s trying to look through this and saying, hey, we are getting closer to the end of this and a resolution is than we are at the finish line, if that makes sense. I’m sorry, the starting line, not the finish line.
SPEAKER 16 :
Here’s a question for you. When Europe, which I’m guessing will have to raise interest rates because of their own inflation issues they’ve got, because theirs is higher than ours, what happens then to some of those investments here? Will they go back there because there’s more of a return on a higher rate, or does it really change anything at the end of the day?
SPEAKER 06 :
No, I don’t think it changes anything at the end of the day. It would make the euro stronger, which is actually usually when you see a stronger euro, believe it or not, it’s good for U.S. investments. Okay. Because the thinking is that the cost of U.S. goods becomes cheaper abroad. Okay. So they have a competitive advantage. And so that winds up benefiting U.S. companies’ earnings. Okay. Okay.
SPEAKER 16 :
All right. Makes sense. Thank you. That’s a good explanation on that. I didn’t know that. Okay. What else? What other things could we potentially see out of all of this? And with the Fed, I mean, again, I know that I think I read, I think you sent it. I saw that what’s our inflation at right now? A little over 3% or where are we at right now?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, it’s 3.4%. I mean, the Fed has said they can look through this unless it lasts for a really long time. I think what we’re seeing right now because of all the back and forth and what I ran saying one day and then changing his mind, I think what you’re seeing is there is a real fracturing that’s going on within their government right now. And there’s one side that really wants to get a deal done and move on because they’re probably driven by revenue and making money. And then you have the other side that’s probably the zealots, the clerics that… They want to take down America, and they will die on the sword to not let anything happen. Yes, exactly. So I think as those two sides figure it out, I think one’s going to have to take out the other most likely. But that seems to be what’s happening. And once that gets resolved, I think we’ll see a resolution sooner than later.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah, and I think, and I did see a post by Trump today, and by the way, I don’t think he’s wrong. Their economy, Iran’s economy right now, is absolutely being crippled. They’re not bringing any money in. He had stated today, and I guarantee you he’s probably correct, that they’ve even got, you know, between the armed forces, police, and so on, they are struggling. They’re not getting paid. I mean, you’re going to start seeing a lot of tension, probably already there right now, but it’s probably going to get worse given what I just said in Iran. Meaning there’s got to be a close to this fairly soon, I would think.
SPEAKER 06 :
I mean, another thing to consider that some of the stuff I’ve looked at is Iran imports about a third of all their food. If there’s a blockade stopping anything coming into Iranian ports, like, say, food, that could become – I’m not saying that’s a good thing – for the people there, but that could become another issue that, you know, yeah, it’s going to cause a lot of unrest. And there will be people wondering, you know, why are we still doing this?
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah. And, again, I think that is getting to a breaking point. Again, I’m not there. I’m not on the ground. I don’t know that for sure, but that’s my gut feeling, Scott, that it’s getting to the point of being a breaking point.
SPEAKER 06 :
It certainly seems like it.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah. All right. What else, Scott? And all of what we’ve talked about, if folks are looking to do something investment-wise and so on, what should they be looking at right now?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, look, I think there’s another big trend we’re seeing right now with agentic AI, that data centers are running out of capacity for computing power. And so I think you’re really going to see tech take off even more. I would look at semiconductors. I think software companies have gotten really cheap, and fears there are overblown. But if I were an everyday investor, which I am, I would say, I would look to put money to work in the S&P 500. I would look at the SPY. It’s a ticker symbol. It’s a simple ETF to invest in, and I would dividend reinvest. I think, you know, you keep plugging away there, you’re going to do really well long term.
SPEAKER 16 :
Okay. Scott, as always, I appreciate it. What’s the best way for folks to get a hold of you?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, sure. Bed Pine Capital, Twitter, Substack, or LinkedIn. You can follow me under C. Scott Garlis.
SPEAKER 16 :
Scott, as always, I appreciate it. Wealth of information. Appreciate you very much. John, thanks so much for your time. You bet. Have a great night. And again, Scott Garlis, I always appreciate him. Roof Savers of Colorado coming up next. Make sure that you and your roof both are dialed in. And what I mean by that is you can extend the life of your current roof up to 15 years. If that roof needs replaced, Dave can do that and analyze it and tell you what your best options are. And again, at the end of the day, deductibles are changing. Talk to Dave today, 303-710-6916.
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SPEAKER 18 :
The best export we have is common sense. You’re listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 16 :
All right. And again, we are back, folks. Got another segment here left. And here’s an article I noticed and not shocked at this. And we talked about this all the way through, you know, talking about energy and green vehicles and all of that. And kind of dovetailing into what Scott was talking about a moment ago with what’s happened even around. But the loss of electric vehicle subsidies, EV subsidies, has sent Colorado car sales off a cliff. This is an article coming out of Colorado Sun. So new EV sales currently right now are down 64%. Plug-in hybrid sales are down 73%. last year, dragging down overall vehicle sales in Colorado by nearly 20%. Now, this article talks about new tariffs and the loss of key subsidies. Folks, the tariffs have nothing to do with car sales in Colorado. That is not affecting things. It’s the fact that people are no longer buying electric vehicles with the subsidies that were once there, with the credits, the tax credits that were once there. And I predicted this happening and had said all along that, unfortunately, manufacturers… because they were pushed literally by the federal government into selling more EVs. Now, some did it naturally, Tesla, even GM to a large extent, but the majority of the other manufacturers were really not even encouraged, but in a lot of ways forced to do EV production. The only buddy that didn’t fall into that was Toyota, which is now finally getting into some of it naturally, but they’re doing it on their own, not because Uncle Sam said to, or the Democrat Party, I should say, said to. So it’s interesting that nobody else could see what was coming other than folks like myself, which I’ve predicted this all along. It wasn’t hard to tell what was really driving EV sales because it didn’t happen naturally. I’ve talked about this over and over and over again. Anytime you force something onto somebody, it typically doesn’t work. And when I say force, yeah, people bought EVs because there was a nice subsidy there, a nice tax credit. It made it worthwhile and they took advantage of that. But the minute that went away, so did the sale of the car. They decided, well, gosh, I’m not getting that subsidy. The EV is actually more expensive than its gas counterpart. Since there’s no longer a credit there, I might as well just go buy its gas counterpart. And in fact, then I don’t even have to worry about having a charge station installed in my home. I don’t have to go look for electricity. I can just put gas in and off I go. And it’s ease. Now, I understand because I own an EV, drive one. I understand the benefits of owning it. And probably would own one, in my case, tax credits or not. Doesn’t matter to me one way or the other. I understand the convenience in that aspect of it. But I’m unique. Most don’t. In fact, most that have never owned one don’t understand. And no, they’re not for everyone. I’ve said that numerous times. EVs are not for everyone. They are for a select group of individuals that understand how they work and the benefits of it and so on. Now, do I think more people could own them and justify their use? Sure, but some people won’t get over the stigma, especially a lot of folks on the right will not get over the stigma. They just won’t do it. And to each his own. I feel like, and I’ve said this over and over again, that if the manufacturers – had been allowed to market and do things naturally much like Tesla did and even GM to a large extent did all the way back to the Volt, V as in Victor, Volt. I think you would have seen EVs much, much different today than they are. But again, when government meddles and they get involved in business, which they shouldn’t, and I know they are in a lot of aspects, but they really got involved in this area. And they wanted to push EV sales, and they did through you and I tax dollars. That’s how they did it. Through us paying taxes, they then gave that tax money back out, and we borrowed money as well, so it wasn’t all done with taxes. We borrowed money as well to give tax credits to not only the manufacturers and incentives there, but to the owners of. And then once those went away, so did the sales, to the point that some of these manufacturers have written off billions of dollars in losses because they’re never going to recoup that. Honda, others, I mean, they just can’t forward, they can’t recoup it. It’s just not going to happen. So, again, these are things that I would have predicted, did predict from day one. Exactly what I said would happen did. Once the credits went away, so did the sales. And now what’s happening is the manufacturers are re-looking at this saying, is this a viable option for us? Can we make money in this line? And if we can’t, we’ll just shut it down. And some of them are saying they can’t, so they’re shutting it down. They haven’t gone all in like GM and Tesla have. which I believe will probably be two people or two manufacturers, I should say, that continue down the path of EVs. There’ll be a few others, Toyotas, you know, dabbling in it right now and even building some cars for some other manufacturers. So I think they’re going to be fine, but they’re not going to jump all the way into it like some other manufacturers have. And, again, it’s going to be interesting to see. But here in Colorado, yes, overall car sales are down for several reasons. But EV sales is one of them because, once again, we have proven or we are proving that when you take away something that incentivizes somebody to buy it, they’ll go buy something else. because they can buy it for less money and better convenience and a lot of other factors. And then I’m going to add on top of that the manufacturers have done a very, very poor job of giving the features and benefits of an EV. I have done a better job of telling you guys what those are than the manufacturers have, and that’s sad in and of itself. They just haven’t trained the public on the advantages of EVs. I don’t know why. It’s just it’s not in their wheelhouse, I guess. They just haven’t done it. All right. Speaking of finances, Golden Eagle Financial coming up next, Al Smith. And, yes, Al wants to help you with all of your future finances. Call Al today, and you can find him at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 13 :
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SPEAKER 17 :
This isn’t rage radio. This is real, relatable radio. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 16 :
That’s it for today, folks. Tomorrow, draft, or say mock draft day with the guys. Tune in then. Otherwise, have a great evening. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
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