Jeff Kikel: So you’ve got Arizona  State University right there. Ron Lang: You know what? I tell a lot of people  this, why’d you move to Arizona and whatever,  

there’s a lot of reasons, but of the top  six, most populous metro areas, right?

Ron Lang: You know who they are. New  York, LA, Chicago, Houston’s number   four. Phoenix is number five. Philly used  to be number three. Now they’re number six.  

Phoenix is number five of the, over the last  three plus years. Phoenix is the only one to  

have population growth. Wow. Wow. As far as metro  area and whatever. Yeah, so this is a great area.

Ron Lang: Obviously people are moving here  a lot of california People are moving out   of california either arizona [00:02:00]  or texas But look this is a great place,  

just standard of living everything  else housing is still reasonably,   price depending on where you’re looking  But they can’t get enough skilled workers.

Ron Lang: You got to be kidding me Jeff Kikel: Yeah, which is crazy. Or you’d think  they’d be able to ship in enough skilled workers  

at that point because they, it’s not,  this is not like we’re paying people,   20 grand a year. A semiconductor manufacturing  person gets paid pretty damn good. Yeah

Ron Lang: and depending on who you talk to,   they said it takes three to five years  To build a plant a semiconductor plant  

because you got to think about that level  of power the all the different Maintenance,  

they’ve got to put into the facility three to  five years hey, we need more semiconductors. Ron Lang: All right. Can you wait three to five  years before we build a plant? So and also from  

what I understand because I have a good friend and  a client that was in a semiconductor industry for   over 30 years I had asked him why can’t they just  ramp up production? He goes, those wafers, looks  

like a big [00:03:00] frisbee He said do you know  how long it takes to make one of those things? Ron Lang: You know how long it takes to fabricate  that and then to go in production And i’m like no,  

so you get a nice little education about what  it really takes for the semiconductor plans to  

get online and to manufacture end up, you  know It doesn’t happen quickly. And look,  

we have all the best technology in the world  and we can’t shorten the manufacturing. Ron Lang: I think it’s well,

Jeff Kikel: and I think if I remember correctly  about two years ago to, the silicate that they use  

to fabricate those things largely comes from China  and they had like a massive fire at one of their  

plants, I think a couple of years ago. And that’s  a large reason what was the downstream effect.

Jeff Kikel: on, when we were having problems with  vehicles, getting chips and things like that,   it was all upstream from there in the raw  material part. So it’s interesting how,  

still as we try and decouple a little bit  [00:04:00] from. The manufacturing side of,  

okay let’s move out of Taiwan  and move it on shore here. Jeff Kikel: The United States.  We still are screwed because,  

if China is the 1 that’s manufacturing the  silicate and everything else that needs to   be done and they’re having supply problems, it  could be. We could still be in the same boat.

Ron Lang: Look, not to talk about  all the geopolitical headwinds that   could be in front of us, but we  all know about China and Taiwan.

Ron Lang: And look, Taiwan. Semiconductor  is the largest semiconductor company in  

the world. Yep. They’re not stupid  and neither is the United States to   know. Hey. You got to build more plants here  because of China decides to just completely  

circle the island. How much do you think is going  to get to Europe and to us for our manufacturing?

Ron Lang: That’ll go down to a slow  trickle or get seized up. Yeah. I don’t   think China’s that stupid, but I think we’ve  seen stranger things happen in the last couple

Jeff Kikel: of years. Oh, I think,  and I think as the, I just see more   and more under. Pinnings of[00:05:00] the  Chinese economy really massively slowing.

Jeff Kikel: They’ve got an aging. I  was watching a thing the other day,   and this guy was talking about the population  of China because they had the 1 child policy  

for so long. Right now. It’s like there’s  not, on 1 end of it. They don’t have.  

The young people enough because  they had the one child policy. Jeff Kikel: And then all of a sudden  they’ve got a ton of old people,  

on the barbell on the other side of it and,  production slowing, everything’s slowing for them,  

and they fake the numbers as it is. And  they’re not even able to fake them as much Ron Lang: anymore. I think one of the  bigger problems in China right now is,  

it’s funny, you correlate. Ron Lang: The one child policy with  China, right in the United States, quick,  

right? Turn that back. So in the United  States, many builders that are building,   let’s say, a 50 50 house development will  build a few spec houses, right? Because  

they want to just show people what it looks  like. And then eventually just sell them. Ron Lang: China has this one child policy, but  they forget about speculation [00:06:00] housing.  

They’ve been building speculation towns now  called ghost towns. All over the country.  

Nobody’s living there, right? So if you think  about it, if you’re building these ghost towns,  

right to eventually populate them at  some point, you have a 1 child policy. Ron Lang: How are you supposed to populate them?  Yeah, so now all those builders are on the brink  

of, if not already in bankruptcy and China’s been  trying to build them, bail them out. It doesn’t,  

it just it just doesn’t make any sense.  Who knows what shoe is going to drop there.   But remember last week you showed the chart  comparing our markets to the European markets,  

to the Chinese, the Chinese markets are doing  worse than the bottom of 2020 COVID low.

Ron Lang: Yeah. What does that tell Jeff Kikel: us? But I mean that, if you look  back over the last 20 years at the perfect,  

everybody talked about China and oh, how great  it’s going to be. And, the bricks and all this.   If you look at the performance of China by  itself, it has been absolutely atrocious.

Jeff Kikel: Over the last  20 years. [00:07:00] Yeah,   it’s not been that tiger economy go.  It’s been this horrid, you basically  

lost money over the last 20 years, having  money invested in it in comparison to,   even the worst of the European markets have  done better. Then China in those cases. So it’s,

Ron Lang: It’s just amazing. Ron Lang: If you think about it, because of  all the build out and all their technology   and everything else. And it doesn’t make any  sense, but I think it’s starting to make some

Jeff Kikel: sense. It is. And I heard an  interesting interview yesterday with the   assistant prime minister of Italy. It  was in New York and they were talking  

a lot about the just about their economy  in general in Italy and things like that. Jeff Kikel: And he was talking very You know, in  depth about the China belt and road initiative,  

which for people that don’t know  what that is really China’s way of   rebuilding the Silk Road. Effectively, so  they’ve been trying to build these little,  

connections with African countries,  and they’ve been trying to get their   foot into [00:08:00] Italy and some of the  European countries in Italy, their previous.

Jeff Kikel: The previous administration to  this one, which was very left leaning they  

just went all in with China and, there’s a  lot of promises on the Chinese side and the  

delivery has not nearly been as much. Because  there’s this promise of, oh if you’ll let us  

kind of trade with you, then we’ll trade with,  we’ll take in imports and things like that. Jeff Kikel: And they pulled the same thing  that they pull with us. And, Italy’s,  

I think I heard him say, he goes, yeah,  he goes, we took in all this stuff that   they wanted to sell us and we got to sell them  tomatoes. Yeah, that was it from the sit on the

Ron Lang: dock and spoil  before they actually pass. Jeff Kikel: Exactly. Jeff Kikel: Correct. It was, it’s  one of those things where it’s okay,  

there they’ve been trying to use that to get  resources in Africa and everything else. Oh,  

we’ll come in and build roads for you. As  long as you sell us your, your resources.   So your [00:09:00] people can go dig in the dirt  or, be underground in these mines doing all this,  

we get it for super cheap, but we’ll  put roads into your country for you. Jeff Kikel: And that’s really been the  whole belt and road initiative. And this  

is Xi Jinping’s like biggest. It’s what he  feels like he can use to take over the world,   but it’s just not working because people are  starting to see behind the curtain and go, eh,  

I see how this is good for you. I don’t  necessarily see how good it is for me. Ron Lang: Talking geopolitically with  all that stuff. Yeah. I don’t know how  

we’re partnering with any of these countries  cause they all want to see us off the map. Jeff Kikel: I do agree with that. It’s  just it’s a never ending thing here.  

Let me let me share my screen  real quick and I will okay. Jeff Kikel: Can Ron Lang: you see that?  Absolutely. MBA mortgage apps,

Jeff Kikel: MBA mortgage apps. So last week we  talked about, I was talking to one of my good  

friends about who’s been in the mortgage  industry for 40 years, and he was like,   We have had the, this week, when I talked to  him the day before that, he [00:10:00] said  

that we had the lowest amount of mortgage  applications ever in his 40 year history, whammo.

Jeff Kikel: This week goes off the  charts the other way. Up 5%, up  

2. 2, 2. 3%. Refi’s are up.  This is a very volatile. Ron Lang: Are people at 10 percent  mortgages, the refinancing?

Jeff Kikel: I guess. I think when, we  had a few. A few years ago. We had a few  

like six months ago where we  were much higher in mortgages. Jeff Kikel: I guess people  are refining I don’t know

Ron Lang: the highest rate in 30 years or  whatever it’s been How are people refinancing?

Jeff Kikel: I don’t get it. I don’t  get it I mean probably it might be Ron Lang: people 1981. Is that what it is?

Jeff Kikel: Yeah, either that or they’re refining   out of 5 year floating rates or  something like that at this point.

Jeff Kikel: Oh, my gosh. Only thing I can  think of. But, yeah, just sometimes what   a difference a week makes keep it on the  [00:11:00] housing market side. Housing  

starts and permits. Starts were down, but I  guess the good part is the permits. Are up  

when we look at this for August. Yeah, we’re  not starting as many as had been expected.

Jeff Kikel: The consensus and we’re way below  consensus range, but the permits were there.  

So that means that at least stuff is coming  online at this point. Existing home sales  

and this from talking to my realtor friends,  is right on the money. We’re, they were in  

there in the range. Year over year though is  down existing home sales are down about 15%.

Jeff Kikel: I’m seeing like in my neighborhood,  which is typically 1 that, if a house comes up,  

it’s gone. I’m seeing houses for sale, in my  neighborhood now for 6, 7 months now. And prices  

are coming down. My friend Richard, we’re that  we, we do a another podcast together about Austin.

Jeff Kikel: And he was telling me, I  guess there [00:12:00] was a house in   his neighborhood that he sold last year for  605, 000, like a four bedroom house. The very  

comparable house this year is selling for almost  a hundred thousand dollars less. Less, which is,  

it’s finally coming back to some reality at  this point because people were just holding out. Jeff Kikel: They were keeping  their prices too high. So I think,  

it’s very likely at least here in Austin  with the froth that we saw over the last   couple of years that we might see home prices  starting to come back into reason a little bit.

Ron Lang: Yeah, but a 17 to an 18  percent decline in one year. Yep. Jeff Kikel: Yep. Crazy.

Jeff Kikel: This is another one of, we, we  talked about this a couple of weeks ago on   the show of some of these really squidgy numbers  that are coming out of the government. And, here’s  

jobless claims just came in this morning at 830 am  consensus estimates were 225. We came in at 201.

Jeff Kikel: And down, [00:13:00] 20, 000 initial  claims. I’m sorry, I don’t buy this one. I have a  

feeling this one’s going to be one of those that  miraculously gets adjusted somewhere a few months  

down the road. Because it’s, this is no way, we’ve  got all this stuff going on with UAW and all that.

Jeff Kikel: That’s probably going to  increase this pretty significantly. Yeah, but Ron Lang: the furloughs that, they didn’t furlough  

they I don’t think the furloughs and  the retrenchment was as high. It look,  

if this continues to go on,  it’ll definitely go up. Oh yeah. Jeff Kikel: Yeah. Cause it’s going to  affect more than just the big three,  

it’s going to affect all the downstream folks,   all the people that make parts for them and  everything else and the other companies.

Jeff Kikel: This is, this was interesting and  this is staying on trend for what we’ve seen   over this year when it comes to the manufacturing  indexes. You’ve got multiple of these. Throughout  

the different feds and, the manufacturing index,  the Philly fed has been [00:14:00] bad this year,  

but it was really bad, and I, this is somewhat of  a forward looking index and a lot of cases and,

Ron Lang: I talk about being  out of consensus range. Jeff Kikel: Yeah. It’s like consensus was  0. 5 and this thing came in at negative 13.  

So I have a feeling that when we start  to see the empire state 1 and all that,  

you’re going to continue to see  more of this trend of these guys   looking at. Okay. Things don’t look  good. Looking out into the future,

Ron Lang: that’s where the retrenchment  will happen is in manufacturing. Jeff Kikel: Yep. Yeah. And you’ll start seeing  the layoffs in the manufacturing side is my  

guess at this point. All right, so we talked  about it a little bit a few weeks ago. Today  

was the number for August. Continued  down if. I were a chartist, which I am.  

And I look at this chart, if you look at every  time in history where this chart’s been down,  

that typically means we’re in a recession  and this time, [00:15:00] Oh, we’re not in   a recession, but I just have a sense that  we actually are already in a recession.

Jeff Kikel: Now, the only thing that’s holding  it off and it’s not fully indicating it is   that GDP has been popping up. But once  again, I’m not convinced that. The GDP  

number is a solid number at this point  because they keep revising it every time,   they’ll come up with the final number and  then they revise back where you said, what,  

last week they were revising  back to 2008 at this point. Jeff Kikel: Yeah. Yeah. 15 years later. Yeah.  Amazing. What’s affecting it’s, LA, I changed  

down 0. 38 again, it was down like 0.  25 last month, so it’s continuing to get  

uglier. There’s only a couple  of categories that actually are   positive. Most of them are negative. The  non financial components are, I think the  

biggest ones are the consumer expectations  of business conditions are way down. Jeff Kikel: The index of new orders continues to  be down. And some of these [00:16:00] other ones  

that have been positive are starting to peel into  the negative. And, as Ron’s talked about before  

that 10 year spread. Less fed funds, boom, it  continues to get worse and worse. As we go.

Ron Lang: Yeah. Look, it’s a, we’re an  echo chamber here almost every week,  

but yeah, seeing these things, how do you ignore Jeff Kikel: facts? It is, and you look at,  

this is the final chart really off  the LEI page. The recession signal,   it’s signaling that we’re in a recession. It’s, it  is, can’t be flashing it much more at this point.

Jeff Kikel: And it’s intriguing to  me that. Typically we see at that   spike down and then the spike back up, we  see the recession actually indicated and  

we’ve turned up a little bit. Although  this 1 is a little deceiving because  

if you look at the other chart, it’s not  nearly as positive as this would appear.

Jeff Kikel: That it is, or the upward moving is  this 1 would appear, [00:17:00] but once again,   I think it’s telling us. I just have that  feeling that we’re going to start seeing  

more and more of this going forward. Where we  start to roll into the back half of the year,  

we’re going to see the consumer  really stretched at this point. Jeff Kikel: With all the stuff that’s out  there, going into this holiday season, and  

it’s going to be interesting. And I think it could  really put us. At that point of true recession,  

especially from the, the consumer, if they’re  not powering the economy, like we’ve been saying, Ron Lang: Let me segue on that.

Ron Lang: 2 things. Yeah, so number 1, I  don’t know how I don’t know who’s doing   these surveys or whatever, but they already  did a survey about. The Christmas and holiday  

shopping season that people are expected to  spend less. They’ve already got a survey out.  

There are people already expecting to spend  less. And this just came out this past week. Ron Lang: Second, after the Fed announced.  Multiple things yesterday, one, obviously rates  

didn’t change, but they’re probably going to raise  in November, which we thought it was either going   to be September, November, even after [00:18:00]  that higher rates for longer, which I’ll start  

showing in a second, Bank of America came out  and raised their price target on the S and P for  

the end of the year to 4, 600, but I think for 44  and they said, and when they started to bring up.

Ron Lang: A lot of the factors we talked  about and other things, price of oil,   all that’s baked into the market. Oh my God.  You got kidding me. It just brought all right  

here. Let’s move it along here. Let me know  when you see my screen. It looks like it’s Jeff Kikel: coming. There we go.

Ron Lang: All right. So I’m  not crazy about this chart. Ron Lang: Jerome Powell’s even come out and said,  he’s not crazy about it, but basically folks,  

what this is saying without doing analysis  by paralysis by analysis is that basically  

what they’re saying is they’re looking at  one more rate hike. And then by the second   half of next year, they reduced their forecast  of potentially four or five rate reductions to  

the second half of [00:19:00] next year. Ron Lang: And then if you look then it  really goes down in 2025 and in 2026. But  

they announced higher for longer and it’s going  to take a long time Of course no timeline error,  

but a long time to get down to the two  percent I’m figuring three to four years  

Yeah We’ve been talking about this for a  while But the reason why I have something  

in the upper left hand corner of the screen and  I yank This is just a headline on an article.

Ron Lang: We’ve been talking about this on  and off for many months all these Frickin  

idiot pundits keep coming out. They got a lower  rates what the fed is really saying is shut up.

Jeff Kikel: The fed is saying  listen to what he’s very Ron Lang: clear about it over the last 20 years,   right? We’ve had greenspan We had Bernanke,  we had Yellen, and we now have Powell.

Ron Lang: Now, there’s always that infamous new  [00:20:00] language everybody needs to learn   called FedSpeak. Like they’re speaking  in tongues. Like you gotta digest it,  

you gotta read into it. If  you think about it, right?   Stop. Sift through all the cloud, right? Get to  the fire. This is what he’s saying folks, right?

Ron Lang: He’s been saying this in almost  every meeting for the last year And if you  

take when they interview the other fed committee  members, they’re all saying hire for longer  

Why are you saying no, don’t listen to that  what the real stop it stop Guys people live  

with it adjust your portfolios  accordingly If you’re a business   owner, you better get prepared if  you’re not already just Stop it!

Ron Lang: Stop! Looking at all the  fringe BS and listening to all the   people pitching their book. The Fed is saying  hire for longer. All right, let’s move on.  

All right. So just some other slides here.  I will get this off of CNN. I know you’ve   pulled this off a few times [00:21:00] on some  podcasts. Market momentum is at a greed level.

Ron Lang: I think we realize that because it’s not  jiving with everything else. So think about this,  

look at the divergence here. Market momentum  is at greed, but stock price strength is at  

fear. Stock price breath. Is that fear?  What is that telling us? It’s those  

top eight stocks folks. Yep That’s still an  agreed level as far as i’m concerned, right?

Ron Lang: We got some m& a going on  today with cisco buying splunk we’ve had  

some moderately successful ipos in the  last week, which is always encouraging  

But if you take a look at the ipos that have  come out in the last 18 months I think more   than 80%. I don’t know the exact number 80  to 90 percent Are all below their IPO price.

Jeff Kikel: And even the two that came  out that were moderately successful Are   starting to roll over a little  bit, arm and It’s hard, yeah,

Ron Lang: They’re pulled back. [00:22:00]  It’s pulling back with the market too,   right? Yeah. People are peeling off their profits  and saying, moving it into something else.

Ron Lang: So the next one I like, so you  got the safe haven trade is at a fear level,   but here’s my favorite one. The junk pond  demand is at an extreme greed. Why is that  

an extreme greed? Because they’re getting  yields at six to eight plus percent. Why  

wouldn’t they go in? Is there a risk? Of course,  but that’s why there’s junk bond funds, right?

Ron Lang: You spread out your risk. You’re still  getting a high yield, but that’s a great place  

to go for a portion of the portfolio because  why you’re going to get great yield. And when  

rates go back down, the asset values are  going to go up just like any other bond,  

just like preferred stocks. You got that  seesaw effect between yields and asset prices.

Ron Lang: So junk bond demand, is that an  extreme greed? Because money is flowing   out of equities and into junk bonds  for the yield and for future capital

Jeff Kikel: [00:23:00] appreciation. That’s the   highest performer in our momentum  trading portfolio that we run.

Ron Lang: And by the way, the junk bond funds will   probably a great place to  be for the next 24 months.

Ron Lang: Yeah, especially we just talked  about it. The Fed talked about two potential   rate cuts next year. If we get pauses for  several consecutive meetings and we know,  

and then of course it’s going to affect the  economy and the markets, and then we get a   rate decline, the first rate decline, you’re  going to see spikes in the junk bond funds.

Ron Lang: Yep. You’re gonna, you have to.  Yep. It’ll be interesting. All right. I   got one more slide. And I know we  talked about this in our pregame.  

I don’t, I’m going to bring it up and I’m going  to let you, I’m going to let you do the play by   play because me, it takes me 10 minutes to  say hello and 20 minutes to say goodbye.

Ron Lang: I’m speechless. Can you explain this,   Jeff, please go over it first and then I’ll add  some color because I don’t [00:24:00] get it.

Jeff Kikel: I think what all feds I’ve completely,   I’m completely convinced all feds are just  issued a dart board. And they just throw  

a dart at a dart board and come up with a  number because I have no answer for this. Jeff Kikel: Now, the 1 thing I will say, and we  talked about this before the Saint Louis fed,  

I think, has been the most accurate on their  forecast. I never listened to Atlanta because  

they’re just morons and New York’s not much  better. But Saint Louis feds actually been  

pretty damn accurate. When it comes to their  forecast, and I think, I personally think they’re.

Jeff Kikel: Pretty much right on the money at  this point. And you figure what’s not in there,   probably, I don’t know when these all came out,  what’s probably not in there is the impact of the  

UAW strike on all of that, the trickle down  effect of the UAW strike across the board,  

because it’s not just, oh, okay it’s GM, Ford,  and whatever the hell they call Chrysler today.

Jeff Kikel: It’s [00:25:00] affecting  all the manufacturers that make parts.   For them and all the company. Even the  companies that make the paint that they  

put on the vehicles and everything else,  it’s affecting that all the way across the   board. And I think it’s going to have  a pretty pronounced effect on Q3 GEP.

Ron Lang: This is what I don’t understand.   They all have access to the same information.  How does the Atlanta fed show strong economy,  

strong growth, and we’re trending upward.  And then you get another fed saying, Nope,  

this is the, this is probably the first of two  consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. Ron Lang: We have contract.  They’re showing contraction.  

How is the diversity here of over five basis point

Jeff Kikel: difference? And St. Louis Fed,  if you, if you believe what they’re saying,  

which I tend to follow along there and you  look at the leading economic indicators. It’s  

actually [00:26:00] probably pretty damn right  that we’re actually it, we see a negative and we  

start to see the beginnings of a recession at that  point, it’ll still be a look back no matter what.

Jeff Kikel: The LEI is what’s telling us  ahead of time. But it doesn’t get filled   in as a true recession until you have those  two negative quarters. Although, last time  

we had two negative quarters, the, the federal  government went that’s not necessarily true. I,

Ron Lang: I, like I said, I’m speechless. Ron Lang: I don’t get this. Yeah. Here’s  the fun thing. Here’s the fun thing  

when the GDP, number does come out next month  for Q3. I can’t wait to see what the excuses are  

going to be on one side or the other, because  forget about the New York feds in the middle.   Let’s just say they’re in the middle. Yeah. But  let’s just say it comes in at 3%. Okay. What is  

St. Louis’s feds excuse? And what is the Atlanta  feds excuse for being so far under or so far over?  

And let’s say it’s a 1 percent  right [00:27:00] closer what who,   the Atlanta fed, how should any  of those people keep their job

Jeff Kikel: or why should we even  listen to them at that point? Jeff Kikel: What’s the point of you putting  out such horrendous research? And predictions  

what’s the point, I just don’t get  it, once again, as we’ve said before,   the things we I would love to come back  as an economist or a stock analyst,  

because I can be wrong 50 percent of  the time or more and still keep my job. Ron Lang: It’s awesome. I know I said that  last week. Don’t forget about a meteorologist.

Jeff Kikel: Oh, that’s true. Yeah. Meteor. I don’t  look so good on TV. So I couldn’t do that. And but

Ron Lang: most of you and I got  faces for podcasts. That’s why we’re Jeff Kikel: here. I know. Yeah. Cause we’re a  little small things on the podcast or whatever,  

but yeah, I just, it flabbergast me to see some of  these and, we see it on the economic data as well,  

where they’ll have these consensus  ranges that are, four or five points. Jeff Kikel: Either way, and it’s and they still  miss it. That’s what I just think is hilarious.

Ron Lang: Like I said we’ll have to see  [00:28:00] where it is next month. We’ll have   a fun podcast with that. We’ll, reshow Oh yeah.  The forecast versus the actual Yeah. We’ll have to

Jeff Kikel: the single back. Yeah. When they show  G d p shave this and go back and say okay guys,

Ron Lang: I I think there  may be a report behind this,   but how do you throw out a number without  any substantiation of how you got there?

Ron Lang: I don’t know. Maybe you gotta  look. It’s probably an exercise in futility,   but I’m curious to see how both ends here  came up with their numbers. I don’t know  

if we’re going to have a contraction, but I  can’t see a 4. 9 percent growth rate. Yeah,  

maybe it’s more towards the New  York fed number, but I can’t see 4. Ron Lang: 9. Jeff Kikel: And the other part is GDP and Q3  is typically like the worst one of the year.  

So you’re not going to tell me that.  We’re going to completely dispense   with all history and say that, Oh, this  quarter was just amazing this well, we’ll

Ron Lang: see. We’ll have some  more fun next month. I guess Jeff Kikel: with it, hilarious,  [00:29:00] unbelievable to me. Jeff Kikel: What Ron Lang: else you got?  

Nope, that’s it. That was the last one I  had to end on a high note here. Of course.

Jeff Kikel: Yes. You had to end on a,  God only knows where they were trying   to go with this thing. So folks as per usual,  there’s some head scratchers in this. I think,  

more and more things that I’m seeing are  pointing to, all right we’re, things are slowing.

Jeff Kikel: And especially on the, like I said,  what I’ve been watching really carefully is that   manufacturing index. Across the board, and every  1 of them Richmond Empire State Philly has been  

negative most of the year. Even though the  predictions have been that they were going   to be positive. That tells me that those guys are  pulling back and that may be what’s affecting the.

Jeff Kikel: Inside the leading economic  indicators, because if those manufacturers   are going. Yeah, I don’t know what’s going  to hit me coming up to the end of the year.  

I’m not really going to be putting out  a lot of orders. For for raw materials Ron Lang: or parts. [00:30:00]  Yep. And the manufacturing is  

definitely a canary in the coal mine  for economic expansion or contraction. Ron Lang: That’s for sure.

Jeff Kikel: Absolutely. Cool. Folks, as always,  we do these for you. Make sure that you hit that  

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us an up up thumb to say, hey, we’re out here. If  you’re, if you have enough guts give us a comment,  

let us know what you think of some of this  and let us know if you have any questions. Jeff Kikel: So as always, we do  these every week on Thursdays,  

so make sure that you are subscribed so that  you’ll get every single one that we put out.   And a special announcement to those of us, or  those of you that are watching and follow us,  

I have a special episode that I Recorded earlier  this week that I’m going to drop as well.

Jeff Kikel: This week that is with a  friend of mine, who’s an expert in the  

college loan [00:31:00] reduction programs  that are out there. We went through that.  

We talked a little bit about the challenges  of the the student loan debt issues and some  

ways that you could potentially solve those.  So I encourage you to make sure you subscribe. Jeff Kikel: When that one hits, so that’s. Said  we’ll see you guys back here the very next time.

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