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In this insightful episode, John Rush discusses the ongoing changes in major sports like the NFL and NASCAR, as they navigate the critics and supporters of their evolving policies. Delve into the intricacies of consumer freedom, as John critiques the notion of credit card fees and how businesses might be failing their clientele. This episode also addresses the broader consequences faced by organizations who neglect to recognize their true customer base.
SPEAKER 16 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 06 :
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. There are no magical fixes.
SPEAKER 16 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 14 :
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 12 :
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 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 14 :
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 18 :
All right. Hour number three, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Lots of text messages that came in after my last segment, not only with Sonny, but the one prior to that talking about the male cheerleaders in the NFL. Yeah, it’s multiple teams. I think there’s like eight teams now that have male cheerleaders. I think the Vikings are at the forefront just because of some of the things that have happened with a couple of their teams. And it’s split. Even some conservatives don’t see any problem with it. It’s not a big deal. Others are like me. They think it’s utter nonsense. And, you know, fine. You can have your own opinion. That’s fine. And as I was telling Alex, you know, people can choose to spend their money any way they want to. That’s the great part about it. If you like it, fine. If you don’t, fine. I will say this. I think they’re barking up the wrong tree. That’s my own opinion. I don’t really feel like most people that… And remember, too, the cheerleaders. This is something I didn’t mention with Alex, but remember the cheerleaders, NFL team cheerleaders. They do a lot of things outside of the arena, community events, charity events, things like that. So there’s a lot of things that those cheerleaders do besides just cheer at the game. They’ve actually got a little bit more publicity going on than probably most people understand. They do signing events, and they’ll go out and do pictures and different things along those lines. And the reality is they’re doing a lot more for the team recognition than just what they do online. On the sidelines, for me personally, I want those to be – sorry, I’m just going to say it straight up. I want those to be beautiful women, which is what most of the – all the cheerleaders are. They actually – they discriminate. when they hire said cheerleaders, because you don’t see ugly cheerleaders. You don’t see cheerleaders that are severely overweight. You don’t see obese cheerleaders. There is a criteria for those cheerleaders when these NFL teams put their squads together. I’m sorry. It’s discrimination. It is what it is. Like it or not, that’s what they’re doing. In fact, it happens in a lot of cheerleading squads. It’s just the way it is. It’s an athletic thing. You’ve got to be fairly fit. You’ve got to be able to do certain things. And, sorry, obese individuals or, you know, 60-year-old guys like me and Charlie are not going to be out there on the field doing the things that these gals do, and rightfully so. So, yes, there is discrimination. Left hates it, but the reality is they do discriminate, including even the two guys that probably made it onto the squad. And I don’t know how many male cheerleaders in all there are. Don’t care. I’m not going to go look. Not a big issue to me one way or the other. If teams want to do it, so be it. But I also will tell you that there are fans, like myself, that may not like it and may choose to do something different, just like they did at other times. just like buyers do on a routine basis. It’s called spending money that you want to where you want to. It’s discretionary spending. It’s one of the best things about capitalism is you can decide where to put your money, whether you agree with something, don’t agree with something. And I’m not a big boycott guy. You guys have heard me in the past talk about that. I’m not a huge boycott guy. In fact, I’m probably less of a boycott guy than even Andy is. I’m just one of those where, you know what, I’ll just quietly go spend my money elsewhere. I’m not going to make a big deal out of it. At the end of the day, you do what you want to go do, and it’s up to you. There’s just certain places I’m just not going to spend my money for whatever reason, and it’s my right as a buyer to do so. Del, what’s going on?
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey, John, how you doing?
SPEAKER 18 :
Good, sir.
SPEAKER 03 :
It ain’t only that. NFL, look at what’s happening to NASCAR right now with the woke and the racial crap that’s going on with it. You know, NASCAR has went downhill since Bubba Wallace got him to cancel the Confederate flag, and now he’s wanting them to cancel the white flag because it’s racist.
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, and that’s another one where – and again, each one of these organizations can choose to do whatever they choose to do inside of their organization. But at the end of the day, there will be consequences. It’s something that I talk about, Del, quite often. We’re going to talk to Scott Garlis here at the bottom of the hour. He’s kind of our financial guy that we talk to on a weekly basis. And the reality is these companies, they make decisions, and that’s exactly what NASCAR is. It’s a company, and they make decisions. And what they all tend to forget, Del, is – there’s consequences to those decisions. They can make them. They’re free to make them. That’s fine. But at the end of the day, there may be consequences with those decisions.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I agree.
SPEAKER 18 :
And sometimes I don’t think they think that on the front side.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, because I haven’t. I’m pretty well. I raced NASCAR short track for many years. I won’t even watch. Well, of course, they don’t have it on regular TV, and I ain’t watching the Infinity Race. Interesting.
SPEAKER 18 :
Interesting. No, you’re right. And, Del, I’ll let you go. I appreciate the phone call, as always. And you’re spot on. I mean, at the end of the day, these companies have the right to do what they want to, NFL included. But what they, again, what they tend to forget, and my wife just reminded me, too, that her cousin is an NFL cheerleader for the New England Patriots. I always forget that. I think I would remember that on a more routine basis. But at any rate, so we actually have a cheerleader in the family. and not that that matters in the grand scheme of things, but reality is all these teams, they have the ability to do whatever they want to do, but I think at times what some of them don’t think through all the way is what are the repercussions of this going to be? And what is our fan base? I’ll say this. I’m not sure that a lot of NFL teams spend the amount of time that they should And understanding who their fan base actually is. And by the way, they have two different fan bases. They have fan bases that do spend the money on season tickets and go to the games. And they have those fans that will watch them on TV. And they have, I think, and they’re diehards as well. And then they have their fringe fans. You know, fans that, you know, when they’re doing really well, they might follow them. But if they’re not doing really well, they won’t follow them. And I think all of these teams have different ones of those at different times. And what I’m saying is I’m not sure as big as they are and as supposedly as smart as some of these teams are, I’m not sure at times they do as good a job gauging who these particular clients and customers are at any given time because they sure make some stupid moves sometimes. For example, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people at the Bronco Games or some of the other sporting events that we have around town, it’s all cashless now. You can’t go hardly to a concert or anything else in town and spend cash. In fact, there’s machines there that are the opposite of an ATM. You put money in and get a debit card out so you can now go buy something at a concession stand because none of the concession stands take cash. And some of you have even complained about that. There are people out there that want to use cash, period. They don’t want to use a credit card for whatever reason. There’s been some backlash along those lines with some of these things. So, again, you can talk about all sorts of different things business-wise where there may be backlash. And I’ll give you another one. This is me personally. And this is something that I work with my coaching clients that I coach with on an ongoing basis. It really gets under my skin when companies charge you money to use a credit card You can use your card. So one of you today sent me a text message from, I think it was Cheyenne, where there was a big, bold letter, basically, statement that was on top of the front counter of whatever this particular business was they didn’t say, basically telling you they’re going to add 3% to the price of your goods for using a credit card. I hate that. That is another one of those where I will choose to spend money someplace else. I think that’s ridiculous. If you as a business – Cannot factor your 2%, which is pretty much what the average is. If you can’t factor your 2% credit card fee in into your cost of doing business and adjust your prices accordingly, you’re a bad business owner. I’m just saying it straight up. You’re a bad business owner. You don’t know what you’re doing. And for me, as a consumer, I’ll go do business someplace else. I don’t like that. I don’t like having an extra fee to use a credit card, knowing that credit cards are used everywhere today. So I’m one where I coach my clients, if you’re doing that, stop. Figure out how to adjust your prices to include the 2% credit card fee you’re going to be paying and stop charging people. Stop nickel and diming them is where I’m going with this and charging them that fee. Now, some of you may have differences of opinion on that. That’s mine. Again, I’m unique, but my money still spends, folks, at the end of the day. And if I have the choice to go one place or another and not pay the fee, I’ll go to the place I’m not paying the fee, even though the price of the item might be high. And some of you are going to say, well, at the end of the day, John, it’s all going to be the same. That’s not the point. It’s the principle. It’s not the point of what the total cost is. It’s how are they doing business that bugs me. I don’t want to walk up, see some big, huge sign and big, bold letters that say, I’m going to charge you 3% for you to use your credit card. I think that’s ridiculous. All right. Call’s coming in. I’ll come right back. Fleshlock coming up next. Kevin Flesh. Talk to him today if you have any legal problems at all. 303-806-8886.
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SPEAKER 16 :
This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 18 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush. Dan and Blackhawk, you’re next. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, the credit card thing is kind of an irritating thing to me because my company that does credit cards on my portal, they allow you to add that fee if you want to, but in Colorado, you can’t add that fee. It’s against whatever rules, regulations. However, Colorado charges you a convenience fee and the credit card fee. Right. Me as a private business, I can’t do it, but Colorado can do it. So a little bit of hypocrisy there that drives me nuts.
SPEAKER 18 :
Well, and again, that’s another one where I get it. It’s a state organization and so on. On the same token, the state could just, you know, they could go in and figure out what those fees need to be to cover those, and it’s the same whether somebody writes a check or whatever. I mean, at the end of the day, everybody pays the same, knowing that 90% are going to use a credit card anyways. Who cares?
SPEAKER 04 :
Right, right. So what I did is I just raised my fees to cover the credit card cost.
SPEAKER 18 :
You have done, Dan, what I coach all of my businesses that I coach to do the exact same thing. And they’re high. I mean, I was paying, you know, boatloads of money back in the day when I had my businesses. And this has been, you know… You know, decades ago, it hasn’t changed. It’s still there. You’re still paying those fees. And for all of you listening, yes, the merchant pays the fee. So at the end of the day, there is a collection there that that merchant is paying for. And typically it’s around two to two point two, two point three percent, depending upon what your transactions are like and whether you’re swiping or, you know, key punching or whatever. Dan, you know how that works at the end of the day, though. Two percent is a pretty decent number. So just factor that into the cost of doing business and be done with it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and just, I mean, you’re in the auto industry, and this is a, I don’t want to say pet peeve, but they always throw in the shop supplies and fees. I don’t care. Just charge me more money to cover your costs. Don’t charge me more. or let me know that you’re charging me for those shop fees or those shop supplies.
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, and some of those, the shop fees you could do that way, some of the state laws and such when it comes to hazmat and so on and tire collection. I mean, again, the state’s got these businesses doing some of the same things they do in their fee collection, which is ridiculous.
SPEAKER 04 :
I know. I know the IRS has me do the same thing on their verification of if people are eligible for credits. So they’re having me do the work and then they want me to get the documentation. I’m like, IRS, you guys do that.
SPEAKER 18 :
I know.
SPEAKER 04 :
And if I don’t do it, if I don’t do it and I get audited, I get penalized a steep amount.
SPEAKER 18 :
Unbelievable.
SPEAKER 04 :
So, you know, so it’s like you guys aren’t willing to do the legwork that you need to do in order to verify that people are actually eligible for these credits.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
But I, you know, and it’s on now. The reason why is because people have abused those credits. So figure out a way to make sure people don’t abuse those credits.
SPEAKER 18 :
Don’t punish everybody. Yeah, I get it. Well, and I feel the same thing happens on the credit card fees as well, Dan. It’s sort of like, okay, I could see if you want to give a cash discount, then, you know, be my guest. But even that, it’s like, okay, just charge the fee. If somebody pays cash, check, credit card, whatever you decide to do, the money’s still, you know, at the end of the day, the price is the price is the price. And as a owner, you know, you’re going to figure out what your costs are and make that work no matter what anyway. So at the end of the day, it all works. I don’t know. It’s just me, Dan. Maybe I’m weird. I don’t know. And I am. I get it. I am weird. No one has to tell me. I know that I am. But at the end of the day, I just hate that little ticky-tack credit card fee.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, I do too. Just raise the price. I don’t care. Raise the price. And if I pay cash, I’m going to pay a little bit more than I would if I do cash. But don’t break it out for me. It’s my license, my gaming license that I got. I forgot my checkbook, so I had to use my credit card, and they charged me two additional dollars. Okay, we’ll just make the stupid fee, whatever, $72, right?
SPEAKER 18 :
Right. I get it. I am with you. I am 100% with you on that one, Dan. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yep. Just my two cents. I agree.
SPEAKER 18 :
No, you’re spot on. Thanks, Dan. I appreciate it very much. Thanks for that. I’ve got lots of pet peeves, but the credit card thing for me is one of the big ones because it’s avoidable, and it really is just a matter of being smarter as a businessman than the person that’s next to you. It’s what I always say. You’ve got to outsmart and outwork the next guy. Not that hard. And at the end of the day, you know, make things convenient for your customer. I guess that’s the ultimate thing that I’m trying to say. And that’s one thing that, again, going back to the whole NFL and all of that, there’s times where I don’t think these folk understand who their actual client is. frankly, it’s a problem that a lot of businesses have. It’s what I go over a lot with my, with my own coaching clients and the people that I talk to there, you know, my clients I talk to on a daily basis, you know, who is your client? Are we taking care of them the right way? Are you going after the right client? Who’s your target client? One of the first things I ask a client as soon as I start coaching him is, you know, who’s your customer? Who’s your ideal client? Name, spell that person out for me so we know exactly who we’re going after. Because typically what I usually get is, well, everybody is. Well, no, they’re not. No, everybody’s not your client. Some people you don’t want. As a client, by the way, some don’t even fit what you’re selling. So, no, everybody can’t be your client. And this is where businesses struggle at times to even know who am I really going after at the end of the day. And it’s something, by the way, big businesses forget as well. You think some of these guys have it made like Budweiser and the NFL and so on. Some people think that, yeah, every one of these guys has this all dialed in. I’m going to give you an example of some folks that don’t have it dialed in. I talked about this, I think, last week. There’s an article in Vox, V-O-X, not Fox, but Vox, V-O-X. It’s the liberals’ side of Fox, what it was designed for. But they’re talking about, and I did this last week, the decline of drinking explained in one chart. In other words… Because what I talked about last week was the fact that the whiskey industry down in Kentucky and some other places, Tennessee, are complaining that it’s the tariffs that are killing their business. And it’s not. Now, have they had an impact on their business? Potentially. But is it killing their business? No. What’s killing their business is, and I’ve got a report sitting in front of me, there’s a new Gallup study out that finds the lowest percentage of Americans say that they drink alcohol since 1939. In other words, people are drinking less since 1939 as a percentage. That’s why you’re not selling as much, you know, whiskey and things in Tennessee and other places like what you once were is because people on average are not drinking as much. And by the way, it’s down from just a few years ago, 67 percent to 54 percent. That’s a 13 percent drop, folks. And not only is there a 13% drop, but think about, Joe called in, or we talked to him last Thursday about this, think about how many choices there are for the different types of liquor. I mean, if you don’t think there’s a lot of choices, go look around at some of these big, huge liquor stores that are out there. There’s the one that I pass occasionally, depending upon how I come into the station, that’s down off of 470 and whatever down there, Tipsy’s or whatever it’s called now. I think it was something before that. Anyways, long story short, huge place. It’s like a warehouse. You can go through most of your grocery stores now that now have alcohol because some of the laws have changed in Colorado. Costco’s and Sam’s Clubs and so on. And the reality is there is as many choices for that, more choices for that than there is soft drinks. By and large, more than there are in soft drinks. So not only are people drinking less, but there’s far more choices today than ever, meaning that some of these companies are going to have to get really sharp in how they’re marketing and talking to people. And what Bud Light did in running off customers was really dumb. Really dumb. Because your customer base is already shrinking. Why would you want to run off any more of them? It goes back to what I was talking about earlier. Even some of the largest companies that think they know their clients, that think they know their customers and their customer base, they prove through their marketing endeavors time and time again they don’t know their customer base. They think they do, but they don’t. They stub their toe continually. Jaguar’s done it. Bud Light did it. I think right now the NFL with these male cheerleaders is doing it. It’s stupid. They don’t know their target market like they should, and it will end up costing them in the end in their pocketbook. And it’s really dumb because it’s avoidable money. by just knowing your market. So the biggest thing on this drinking thing that, again, I wanted to report on is this came out not long after I had that conversation last week talking about some of the industry complaining about the tariffs and the fact that’s why their business is down. And no, that’s a very, very small portion. of why their business is down. Overall, people drinking is down 13% from where it was just a few years ago. And it is dropping. If you look at the graph, it’s dropping significantly. We’ve had some drops in the past. 1960, it dropped. And in the mid-80s, it dropped. It’s come back up, but it’s now way down. The height of it was, believe it or not, in the late 70s, it was at its height, 71%. So it’s gone from 71% in the late seventies down to 54% today. So again, big drop folks. And this is where industry needs to know their client, their client base, their spending habits and so on. And I will tell you right now that most businesses don’t focus enough on that. They take far too much for granted thinking that that customer base is always going to be there. And the reality is it changes. Roof Savers of Colorado coming up next. Speaking of change, the weather’s going to be changing here in the not-too-distant future. Make sure that you’re dialed in when it comes to your roof. Dave Hart can help you with that. He can extend the life of your current roof with the RoofMax product. He can also replace your entire roof, fix your roof, and he does commercial roofs as well. Give Dave a call today, 303-710-6916.
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SPEAKER 16 :
The best export we have is Common Sense. You’re listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 18 :
And we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Scott Garlis joining us now. Scott, welcome. How are you today? Hey, John. I’m well. How are you? I’m great. Always good to hear from you. Fed Chair Powell will speak in Jackson Hole this week. What do you think he’s going to say? On Friday, I should say.
SPEAKER 05 :
Friday, you know, I think Powell’s going to tilt more dovish. And I think he’s going to lean in the direction of rate cuts.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I think, you know, so the last meeting we talked about this, again, most of the media didn’t pick up on this, but one of the things that he did say was that the job numbers were looking really bad when you consider the quarterly consensus, I’m sorry, the quarterly census estimates and wages. And that got passed over by a lot of people for some reason. And then two days later, the jobs numbers came out and got revised massively lower. So, you know, one of the big reasons why Powell keeps saying, I haven’t been cutting, the jobs market’s holding up, I think you’re going to see data that that’s not… Well, because of the data we saw, it’s not the case. I think Powell’s going to tilt more in the rate cut direction.
SPEAKER 18 :
Because it’s not, you know, the job market isn’t as good as what some would think. And I get it. For some of you listening, there are pockets whereby it’s better than others. Every place, you know, you can always go around the country, Scott, as you know, and find exceptions to the rule. But… in general, and I read different articles and different things that are talked about, and kids coming out of college or somebody that’s… I sent you an article today even talking about how people are afraid to move and jump ship with one company because they’re not sure they’ll actually end up and land in another good company. There’s all sorts of articles about that. And by the way, Scott, it’s probably one of the first times that I would agree with most of those articles. I think those are true. I think that’s a lot of what’s going on right now.
SPEAKER 05 :
Totally. And then You know, what was even more puzzling to me, too, is the Fed put out minutes of their July meeting today. And so I started, I was reading through, and then, you know, every meeting what they do is staff prepares a bunch of economic projections for the policymakers, the board members and the regional presidents that vote. Right, right. But one of the, you know, so people said, well, we’re really concerned about what’s going to happen with inflation because of tariffs and imports and all these other things. And, you know, one of the projections that the staff put in there was that the rise in the cost of imported goods, including tariffs in this, would be smaller and occur later than they previously thought.
SPEAKER 18 :
Which is what you and I have been saying, by the way.
SPEAKER 05 :
Exactly. And back to along the lines of what you were just saying, this is what we’ve been talking about. It’s not – and I get it. Everybody keeps saying, well, just you wait. It’s going to show up. Just you wait. It’s going to show up, and it might. But the thing is, the longer you wait, you’ve got to act sort of – if these guys are projecting that it’s not going to be as bad as they originally thought it was going to be, then back to what we’ve been talking about. Why aren’t you going to do something?
SPEAKER 18 :
Well… No, go ahead. Keep going. No, you’re fine. Keep going.
SPEAKER 05 :
I was going to say, on top of that, they even said in there they’re worried about weaker spending data. And they even talked about they expect the labor market to weaken and that the unemployment rate is going to move up to like 4.5% at the end of the year and stay above that rate for at least another year. That just… None of this makes… any sense to me why they didn’t cut.
SPEAKER 18 :
Well, so here’s a question for you. Do you think he’s, you know, Powell has a little bit of remorse in not doing that now that he’s seeing some of these real numbers? And will that be, you know, will that be sort of woven into Friday’s conversation? Or is he the type that’s never going to admit he did wrong?
SPEAKER 05 :
I actually think Powell was trying to use the last press conference after their monetary policy announcement as a meeting or a platform to sort of ease into cutting in September. And then he got punched in the face when these numbers came out a couple days later. And so the good thing about Jackson Hole is is that normally we would have gone from July until September. It would have been like a two-month, month-and-a-half gap with people like, oh, my God, what’s going to happen? But fortunately, Jackson Hole comes on the heels of this, and Powell’s going to talk about the economic outlook and some changes to Fed policy and how they implement things. I think he knew this, and he knew this opportunity was coming, so he was easing into it, and I think now he – If he doesn’t do it, I think that’s going to come as a huge disappointment, not only to Wall Street, but I can only imagine how the White House is going to react.
SPEAKER 18 :
Oh, man. Yeah, I mean, as it is, they’re already, as you know, Adriana Kugler, she stepped down at the start of August. There’s now another investigation into one of the other Fed folk because of some potential wrongdoing with a mortgage application, basically saying that she had two primary residences, which, as you know, you can’t do. I mean, to me, is that petty? Well, it is, although… You’re in a position where they’re going to look at things, so you might as well be above the board. That one, to me, Scott, there’s no excuse for.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, especially when you’re – I mean, not that she’s the one, like the vice chair for supervision of banks, but you’re technically like a bank regulator when you’re the Fed.
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, you’re sort of in charge of those regulations and who gets to do what, and now you’re going to abuse it?
SPEAKER 05 :
Completely, and I think it said something, too, about she may have even gotten a discounted rate on those mortgages as well.
SPEAKER 18 :
Well, thank you. I was just going to go to that. I mean, for those of you listening where you would say, well, what difference does it make if she put down on two different credit applications or applications that this was her primary residence? Because the way the mortgage world works, Scott, as you know – is you typically get a bigger discount or a better rate on your primary home versus an investment property or a second home. And the reason for that is because most people know that at the end of the day, you can lose your second home, but you’re more than likely to make the payment on the first home. So in turn, that second home is a little higher risk, meaning you’re going to pay a little more for it. Am I correct in my explanation?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, no, that’s exactly right. The risk profile goes up with the second home. So you’re going to charge a higher rate.
SPEAKER 18 :
Meaning, if you can put down as your primary home on both, you save money. Completely. And she knows that, by the way.
SPEAKER 05 :
I mean, no offense, Scott.
SPEAKER 18 :
I mean, anybody that’s been around this at all, I’m not even in her position. I am not that type of person to even end up where she’s at, nor will I ever be. But I know that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, that’s correct. You cannot do that. Okay, so the crazy thing about this, too, is that She crossed state lines, clearly, by doing this, which puts it into a different jurisdiction, right? So it becomes an FBI matter. And obviously, this guy, the FHFA is referring it to the Attorney General.
SPEAKER 18 :
And this is Lisa Cook for all of you that don’t know the whole situation. So it’s Fed Governor Lisa Cook. She is the one that’s now being investigated. Basically, it’s mortgage fraud is what she’s being investigated for. And again, people think, well, it’s not a big deal. She just put down that she had two primary residences. Well, you can’t. That’s the whole point, Scott. You can’t.
SPEAKER 05 :
You can’t. And then back to the other side of this, too, is like, you know, especially being a quote unquote regulator, you’re like, you’re in charge of the banking system. You’re doing a lot of things that then you’re setting interest rates of all things, you know, look, you are supposed to live to a higher standard. I think that’s implicit in taking that job. And you shouldn’t be getting any breaks on anything. Right. And, yeah, yeah, she’s the example setter, and clearly not.
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, well, so, meaning, if this ends up going in a direction that it possibly could, Scott, to where she feels like, yeah, this is probably not going to end well for me, I should probably just bow out now, there could be another position open on the Fed is the point, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
So what’s really interesting is she was appointed, I believe, in like 22 or 23. The expiration date on the seat at the Fed is 2038. Wow. Wow. Yes. That’s a long time. Now, what’s also interesting, though, is Cook has recently made comments in favor of cutting in September.
SPEAKER 18 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
So…
SPEAKER 18 :
So in other words, changing her position probably wouldn’t affect that end of things. And again, folks, I’ll say this for what it is. I don’t care what side of the political aisle she even is on. You cannot do what she just did and stay on the Fed board. I don’t care if you’re Republican, independent, if you’re on the left. At the end of the day, Scott, rules are rules are rules, and those folks especially can’t break the rules, period.
SPEAKER 05 :
Correct. I couldn’t agree more.
SPEAKER 18 :
That’s how I see it. I don’t care where they come from, how she would have voted, if she would have voted for an increase, a decrease, leave it the same. At the end of the day, that’s irrelevant. Point being is she’s in charge of this, you know, quasi, not directly, but she is in a way. She’s in charge of some of these things that are going on, and yet she’s abusing them on her own. It just doesn’t work that way. You can’t do that.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s correct. But so… The interesting thing to your point, too, is like, so now we have, well, one other thing I’d like to go back to, which I also thought is odd, is so with Arianna Coogler, we talked about last week how she left and nobody really knows why. But so it comes down to Fed minutes today. She didn’t even bother to show up for the last monetary policy meeting or vote on it. And it’s kind of like, well, you’ve got one job. And that job is to make sure you show up for these. And then she randomly quit, which, that’s really disappointing.
SPEAKER 18 :
I agree. I agree. These are high, and I think, maybe I’m looking at this wrong, Scott, but these are very high positions. In fact, I’ve said this before, I’ll keep saying it, you know, Jerome Powell and the No, it’s not the president. They’re not meeting with Putin. They’re not setting foreign policy and things like that. But when it comes to the economic end of things and what we as a country do on the world stage, they’re very important. So they’re right up there with the president of the United States in regard to the amount of power that they hold and wield. In other words, my point is these are positions that are not to be taken lightly.
SPEAKER 05 :
And then these guys get big jobs after this, too. Right. I mean, it’s very lucrative. So, yeah, I mean, it’s yeah, it’s a big deal and it is a very powerful job.
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah. And my point is it shouldn’t be taken lightly. And I feel like at times in the case of this last one, you’re talking about missing meetings. They are.
SPEAKER 05 :
Clearly. Again, you’ve got one job, and that job is to make sure you show up for the monetary policy meetings and vote. She didn’t.
SPEAKER 18 :
Yeah, I fully agree. Okay, so I was going to ask you this earlier, but a great way to come back around to things, so I appreciate all of that and all the input. And I know we don’t have a crystal ball. I don’t. You don’t. But the Fed chair, Powell, he’ll say some things this Friday at Jackson Hole, quarter or half in September. What are your thoughts?
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, I think I could see the case for a half, but I think it’s probably going to be a quarter. So what’s also interesting, Scott Bassett came out, was it last week or was it the beginning of this week, and said they should go – oh, I think we talked about this last week. He said they should go a half point, and the big reason was they’ve been dealing with bad data – And so now that they know what the correct numbers are, they should have been cutting in June and July. And we have been talking about that. I thought July. But, yeah, I mean, so I think 50 basis points could scare people a bit because they’re like, whoa, what’s wrong?
SPEAKER 18 :
But I think they should – At this point, I don’t think most Americans would say that at all, nor would Wall Street. A question came in really quick, too. This one kind of applies to what we’re talking about. How will this FOMC turmoil support the soon-to-be-released consensus statement from the Fed?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, so I think it’s – what’s interesting about that is how will – the soon-to-be-released – look, these guys are already leaning toward rate cuts anyway. We had Waller and Bowman that said this. Powell has implied he could start cutting in September – Richard, is it Philip Jefferson? He’s the vice chair of the Fed. He’s been on the fence. Cook said she’s ready to go. Muslim, who’s the St. Louis president, who’s currently a voter, he has said he’s ready to go. So you kind of have enough votes right there because you’re down to 11. Okay. And so you only need six. That’s six right there.
SPEAKER 18 :
Gotcha.
SPEAKER 05 :
So, yeah, because Kugler’s gone now. Gotcha. The replacement for Kugler, if he could be put in place… before this meeting, he would clearly vote to cut. Right.
SPEAKER 18 :
Right. Yeah, because you know Trump’s going to put people on there that do that. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. Yeah. And so, look, if Kugler’s gone, you have Cook gone, you’re definitely going to get, I would say, more dovish, meaning inclined to cut, replacements coming onto the Fed. Gotcha. Gotcha.
SPEAKER 18 :
Which you and I have talked many times. I mean, the reality is the article for all of you that were that, you know, kind of opened up with this is an article that’s in Wall Street Journal today. And the headline is nobody’s buying homes, nobody’s switching jobs and America’s mobility is stalling. Yeah. And by the way, Scott, I read through that article. It’s a great article. It sums things up pretty well. I think that there is a paralysis for a lot of different individuals, families and so on. And a lot of it is because of the very thing. they were talking about right now. That paralysis literally could be re-energized and ended with a couple of rate cuts.
SPEAKER 05 :
Completely. It’s too expensive to ditch a 3% mortgage to go get a 7% mortgage.
SPEAKER 18 :
Right. And right now, they have come down. So those of you, again, everybody that’s always out there, I get these text messages quite often. Scott was like, well, you know, those short-term rates don’t affect long-term rates. I know, folks, that they do. They don’t immediately… But they do. Case in point with a lot of what Besant has even done at the Treasury right now this week. I believe I read, Scott, that interest rates right now on mortgages are at the lowest they’ve been in quite some time. They’re down below six and a half right now.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I know. I know they’ve been coming down. I don’t know the exact level, but yes. And I think part of that is in anticipation of the Fed cutting rates later this year, starting the call.
SPEAKER 18 :
Yep. Again, still goes back to what we talk about. No, they don’t directly affect it, but they do because what you’re talking about just now wouldn’t be happening if they didn’t.
SPEAKER 05 :
Correct. And so one of the parts is you’ll have people go try to buy the longer-term bonds, lock in higher rates. They’ll wind up driving those rates down because they look at what’s happening with shorter-term rates with Fed borrowing costs. It all starts to add up.
SPEAKER 18 :
That’s right. It all dovetails back and forth into one another. All right. Any other predictions before I let you go? What’s Wall Street thinking? And I wouldn’t even want to ask this, but I will. If, in fact, the Fed does nothing in September, what does Wall Street do?
SPEAKER 05 :
Wall Street, you’re going to see the stock market drop. I wouldn’t be surprised if they do nothing in September. You’re probably looking at a 5% to 10% sell-off.
SPEAKER 18 :
Okay. And by the way, I would agree with you on that. I think you’re 100% correct. So hopefully that won’t happen. Hopefully we’ll talk after all that’s done. And I didn’t look. I’m sorry. I should have looked at this before we came on today. When is the next Fed meeting? Is it the second week of September or third? I don’t remember.
SPEAKER 05 :
I believe it’s September 17th, 18th. And I will add one other thing I thought was really interesting. Rafael Bostic, he’s the Atlanta Fed president. He has been saying he doesn’t see the case for rate cuts this year. He still believes we should be on hold. He went out and did a community tour in his district recently. And what I was reading was he got blasted by people, by small businesses and homeowners. They were talking about how high rates are really hurting them. and they’re really eating into discretionary income. And he changed his tune and came back and said, well, you know, maybe we need to start cutting rates now.
SPEAKER 18 :
Okay. All right. Scott, good to know. How do folks find you?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, sure. LinkedIn, Substack, or Twitter, cscottgarless, bentpuncapital.
SPEAKER 18 :
Always great, Scott. Appreciate you very much. Have a great night. John, thanks for your time. All right, we’ll do it. And I appreciate Scott greatly. Always a level head when we talk about these things. Golden Eagle Financial is next. Al Smith, where if you want direct help when it comes to your portfolio investing, where do you go? How do you handle things? How do you get to retirement? Al is there for you. You can sit down and talk face-to-face. klzradio.com is where you find him.
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SPEAKER 16 :
This isn’t Rage Radio. This is Real Relatable Radio. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 18 :
All right, in closing today, lots of text messages. I had no idea talking about credit card fees was going to open up the can of worms that I did with a lot of you texting in things that you have encountered, which I am appalled at some of these. Some of you listening, other states, Nebraska, all the way down to Tennessee and places whereby they are charging anywhere from 3.5% to 5%. to use a credit card, which, by the way, is highway robbery. It’s not costing them half of that. And I would question that if I were you, by the way. Somebody mentioned all the way down in Tennessee, Pigeon Ford area, that some bar down there that they went and stopped at had a flat $20 fee for using a credit card.
SPEAKER 1 :
$20.
SPEAKER 18 :
And in this particular case, they said it came out of the tip. You know what? I’m not normally somebody that would do that. In this case, I think I would. That’s ridiculous. So some of you that are out there and some of these things happen, I guess first things first, start reporting some of this back because I’m going to start talking about this more. These merchants that are doing that, they’re making money on credit card fees, and they’re being dishonest about it, by the way. They’re telling you that’s what it’s costing them, and it’s not. I can tell you that straight up. It is not. There are very, very, very few places that are paying the kind of fees that you guys are talking about. And typically those are high risk places where they’re not able to actually have the physical card on hand and they’re having to do different types of transactions and hand punch, if you would, quote unquote, the credit card number and so on. It’s rare, rare for any regular merchant that has the card in hand and is swiping it using the chip and so on. Because it’s more secure, there’s less fraud, meaning there’s less risk for the credit card company, meaning their fees are going to be less for that. There are very few places out there that are paying those kinds of fees when they’ve got the card in hand, which in all the cases of what you guys were saying to me, the card is in their hand. So I would balk at that. If I saw that as a one-line item that it was going to be that high, I would question that on the front side, and frankly, I wouldn’t agree to do it. I would say, you’ve got to keep your feet down. I’m not doing this. This is ridiculous. So, again, as I train all of my clients to do is to not – do that and this is something where i just don’t think most businesses even know what the fee is they’re paying they’re assuming that that fee is much higher than it is they’ve never sat down and figured out what the actual percentage rate of what they’re paying is across the board and then dividing that out on a per transaction basis they’re not doing that meaning they’re guessing at what their fees are and most of them have no idea so Thank you, by the way, for all the feedback. I had no idea I was going to get as much feedback on credit card fees as I did, nor did I realize there’s as many dishonest merchants out there doing what they’re doing. And I say dishonest because they’re telling you that it’s 4% and 5%. That’s their cost. It’s nowhere as close to that, folks. I can guarantee you that. So, guys, have a great night. Keep reporting that back to me. I’ll talk more about it in the future. I had no idea it was that big of a topic, but I will continue to talk about it. Have a great night. We’ll see you tomorrow. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
Bye.
