Introduction to Episode 10

Welcome to another episode of “The Cents of Things”.  We cover the markets, the economy and some pop culture.  This episode we touch up a short-term market outlook and the impact of Artificial Intelligence in the work place.  Please subscribe to our channel.

Transcript:
Cents of Things Ep 10 ===
0:03
Jeff Kikel: [00:00:00] Hello. Cents of things. And it is Jeff here once again with another
0:07
episode of The Cents of Things, episode 10. Ron and I are gonna focus a little bit of
0:11
our time on what’s going on in the markets. We’re seeing a little bit of a move. To the
0:17
positive. We have some fun stuff to talk about today, about summer because we’re going into
0:22
the summer months, and in addition to that, we do have a good conversation about AI and
0:28
how its effects are starting to get out there into the investing community and why it may
0:34
be a bit of a bubbly type of a situation.
0:36
Jeff Kikel: So stay tuned for the show. We can’t wait to have you on here.
0:45
[00:01:00]
0:51
Jeff Kikel: Good morning. Cents of things. It’s Jeff and Ron here and we’re kicking off
1:06
another episode. We’re into the summer months now. How about
1:10
Ron Lang: that, Ron? Yep. It’s hot here. I’m sure it’s hot by
1:14
Jeff Kikel: you. Oof. I know we’re supposed to hit I think 105, 111 and 107. In the next
1:19
Ron Lang: three days, your temperatures are higher than ours, but it’s not getting steamy
1:24
here, but you feel it in the afternoon, no doubt
1:26
Jeff Kikel: about it.
1:27
Jeff Kikel: Yeah, it’s walked out this morning and I actually had to take my pocket knife
1:30
out and cut through the air to get to my vehicle. So yeah, I think we’re like a hundred percent
1:35
humidity and a hundred degrees, so it makes it miserable here.
1:39
Ron Lang: Better you than me, my
1:40
Jeff Kikel: man. I couldn’t do it. Humidity.
1:41
Jeff Kikel: Least you. Humidity, at least you have dry heat out there, right?
1:44
Ron Lang: The humidity does kick up a little bit, but for the most part you’re talking
1:48
under 20, under 10% most of the year. Last summer. I know it ticked up higher than that,
1:54
but under 20, under 10% is. Livable and palatable.
1:57
Jeff Kikel: I always remember the quote from [00:02:00] or the comedy routine from Gary
2:00
Shandling.
2:01
Jeff Kikel: He was talking about, cuz he grew up in Phoenix and yeah, he’s oh, people would
2:05
always say, yeah, it’s a dry heat. And he’s yeah, so’s an effing blowtorch too, but I
2:09
don’t want to put my face into that. So he was, I’d sit my car and my hands would melt
2:14
to the steering wheel, but.
2:16
Ron Lang: Yeah. Like I said, there was some days last year I remember being out at lake
2:21
Havasu.
2:22
Ron Lang: It was 119, God on that Friday, and they actually shut things down because
2:27
things wouldn’t operate at that level, so Oh great. Yeah, it was hot.
2:30
Jeff Kikel: It is hot, but yeah, that’s why they made air conditioning. So where do you
2:35
wanna start? Why don’t we start this week? I figured, with us kicking up the summer,
2:39
I actually found some interesting, fun facts.
2:42
Jeff Kikel: To talk about for the summer here. Okay. And thinking about the summer months.
2:47
Found a bunch of Guinness Book of World Records things, which I thought was pretty funny.
2:50
Love Guinness. So the largest ice cream scoop ever weighed 3010 pounds. It was to celebrate
2:58
the [00:03:00] hundredth anniversary of Kemp’s Dairy in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
3:02
Jeff Kikel: How big was the kid that ate it? I don’t know. There’s a pretty fat one on
3:06
the screen here, so it’s gotta be and he looks like he was salivating there, so yeah, you
3:10
and
3:11
Ron Lang: me could have had a few pieces of that.
3:12
Jeff Kikel: And they’re done that yeah. All so the first day of summer is called the summer
3:17
solstice, which will be around June 21st.
3:20
Jeff Kikel: Yep. And that, that leads us into the summer. And then of course, the au autonomal
3:26
up equinox is around September 22nd. Just a little bit about that. The longest barbecue
3:33
ever in history. By the Guinness Book of Oral Records was in Columbus, Georgia, and it set
3:38
the record on April 27th, 2014.
3:41
Jeff Kikel: They grilled a thousand hot dogs, 558 burgers, 526 sausages, 104 chicken pieces
3:49
se, or 200 years of corn, and it lasted for four days.
3:52
Ron Lang: How big was that kid that ate that? No,
3:55
Jeff Kikel: And here’s the funny part about
3:57
Ron Lang: that. Did he chase it with the ice cream?
3:58
Jeff Kikel: They did [00:04:00] chase it with the ice cream and the event benefited the
4:01
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which I think is really funny.
4:05
Jeff Kikel: It reminds me I did a, an event in in Irving when I was still with with Fidelity
4:12
and we were supporting a local Indian community there. And they were they have a lot of diabetes
4:18
in the Indian community. Yeah. Because they eat like tons of sugar. And the event was
4:23
sponsored by Krispy Kreme donuts, which I thought was just, guys, you’re killing me
4:27
here.
4:28
You
4:29
Ron Lang: can’t get more sugar content in a food than Krispy Kreme
4:31
Jeff Kikel: donuts. No. All right. So where did the dog days of summer come from? So I
4:39
found this out, I don’t know, that’s a
4:40
Ron Lang: good question. I’m interested. The dog
4:42
Jeff Kikel: days of summer got their name from Sirius, the dog star in the Canis major
4:47
constellation. You can view the star in July to August the hottest days of the year.
4:53
Jeff Kikel: But what they said in here was, but beware the ancient Greeks and Romans believe
4:58
this [00:05:00] period brought fevers and catastrophic happenings. So hopefully that
5:03
does not roll over to the markets.
5:05
Ron Lang: Gotcha.
5:06
Jeff Kikel: Okay. Last but not least here, Americans eat 15 pounds of watermelon per
5:13
year. Now I’m not a watermelon fan, so somebody else haven’t had else.
5:16
Jeff Kikel: I had years
5:17
Ron Lang: I used to love
5:18
Jeff Kikel: watermelon. Yeah. Ugh. I just I’m not a fan. And so somebody else can take
5:21
my 15 pounds more than
5:23
Ron Lang: welcome to That’s a lot, that’s a lot for watermelon. I haven’t heard that
5:26
before.
5:27
Jeff Kikel: Yeah. I’m thinking of myself, 15 pounds. That’s a lot of water too, but
5:31
it’s not, it’s not whatever.
5:32
Jeff Kikel: But Good God, that’s a ton. Yeah. That’s like several watermelons each that,
5:37
that, that’s
5:38
Ron Lang: Yeah I just, okay. Hey, look, I don’t know where they, what was the, that
5:41
as an as of date? That,
5:43
Jeff Kikel: where they got that number of as of 2023. It was a current article. All
5:49
right. On this. So I guess
5:51
Ron Lang: they, I don’t know what their sampling size was, but, all right.
5:54
Jeff Kikel: It was, their sampling size was about 15 pounds each.[00:06:00]
5:58
Ron Lang: That’s
5:59
Jeff Kikel: insane. How are you feeling about the markets right
6:03
Ron Lang: now? I gotta tell you, it it’s been pleasantly surprising. But the, it’s interesting
6:10
looking at the economic numbers which is not the market. We’ve gone over that several times.
6:16
The economic numbers are. Getting worse and degrading.
6:21
Ron Lang: And meanwhile, the market is going up. Yeah. I saw a stat last week that just
6:27
the AI craze and hype, which that’s really what it is at this point is responsible for
6:33
somewhere between. Seven to 9% of the overall move in the last four to five months. Yeah.
6:39
Which is very interesting because we’ve talked about this dad nauseum, that the top eight
6:43
stocks is what’s really pulling the market.
6:45
Ron Lang: The other 492 are now up for the year on average, but significantly less than
6:51
the top eight stocks certainly. So something’s gotta give debt ceilings resolved. The Fed
6:56
paused this month, but did indicate that [00:07:00] possibly one to two more hikes before the
7:01
end of the year. And Powell was, quite adamant about we, we don’t see raising rates until
7:10
maybe next year.
7:11
Ron Lang: I don’t know what all these fed futures are talking about. A possible rate
7:15
decline or by the end of this year, early next year. I don’t get it. Powell was very
7:21
adamant about saying rates will stay higher for longer and may creep up a little bit.
7:26
But meanwhile, the market is up again today.
7:28
Ron Lang: Yeah.
7:29
Jeff Kikel: I think, I think for a year we’ve just seen this nonstop onslaught of interest
7:34
rate raise, and I think I personally think, people, this last month or so, the markets
7:40
were starting to say, We think that they’re gonna stop. And I think just that stoppage
7:44
alone will do that.
7:46
Jeff Kikel: But I think we continue to see degrades in, and we are seeing it. We can
7:51
see that the interest rates are now having an effect. On the market or on the economy
7:56
prototyping and the economic numbers pretty significantly.[00:08:00] You’re seeing, higher
8:00
unemployment happening.
8:02
Jeff Kikel: You’re, we’ve definitely been watching that, the manufacturing indices,
8:07
and they’ve all been slowing down significantly. I even I guess my own little personal, I always
8:12
say it’s Jeff’s look at the market from a personal level. The guy that was A meta recruiter
8:17
that worked outta my office here actually got laid off.
8:20
Jeff Kikel: And so he was like one of their senior recruiters that they have. And ran
8:24
the recruiting department. Yeah. And he got laid off. Now he’s since gotten another job
8:28
with another tech company. That tells me when you start cutting your recruiters out, that
8:34
tells me that, all right, they’re hunkering down for a little bit longer term.
8:37
Jeff Kikel: At this point, at least on the tech side. Now, I don’t know if we’ve started
8:41
to see that on the broader
8:43
Ron Lang: market here. I will tell you this, one of my litmus tests and indicators is I
8:47
talked to a lot of HR people. Yeah. Not necessarily recruiters, but HR directors CHROs chief hr.
8:54
Officers and also people that are in the capital expenditure space [00:09:00] where they’re
8:59
selling large pieces of equipment and they have all seen a significant slowdown in the
9:04
last three months.
9:05
Ron Lang: Yeah. And a lot of times those CapEx expenditures are six, nine, and 12 months
9:11
the future. And they’ve seen many of those budgets either subside or go into what they
9:16
like to call a cost containment mode where they know they need to do it, and unless an
9:21
emergency pops up. It’s on hold. Yeah. So that to me is telling me a few things too,
9:28
about the second half of the year, or at least the last third of this year, once we get through
9:33
the summer months.
9:34
Ron Lang: So we shall see.
9:35
Jeff Kikel: Yeah. But I look at the market right now and one of the things that we’ve
9:39
been talking about is the breadth of the market. Yes. And this is not stinky breath, this is
9:44
actually breath. Of the market could be stinky breath. It could be and sometimes it is. We
9:49
are seeing more breadth across the market.
9:52
Jeff Kikel: So it’s, you’ve got more stocks that are at 52 week highs than have been in
9:57
the s and p 500, which is a [00:10:00] good sign. Yes. That, that tells me that things
10:02
are starting to get away from that, top companies, I worry about the AI craze. Very much like
10:09
the.com craze that you and I remember from the early two thousands, basically 98 to 2000
10:15
if you had.com behind your name of your company, right?
10:18
Jeff Kikel: People would just invest in it, whether it made money or not. And I think
10:21
that same craze is happening right now with ai. There’s a lot of AI companies out there.
10:27
There’s not a lot of AI companies that are making a lot of money off of their business
10:31
yet. No,
10:32
Ron Lang: but they’ve been around for a long time. AI has been around for decades.
10:36
Ron Lang: Yeah. The fact that this is going on right now, there is so much air underneath
10:41
many of these stock prices that it’s gonna come down to earth. Google, you’ve seen Google
10:46
level off. Some of the other stocks have still creeped up a little bit. There’s still a tremendous
10:51
amount of air in the Nvidia price.
10:53
Ron Lang: So we’ll have to see. We’ll have to see where it goes. Overall I’m moving forward.
10:58
I think that there were some other [00:11:00] interesting factors here. Let me just share
11:01
my screen, go through a couple of quick slides. I thought this was interesting. Me, I like
11:05
to see the credit card balances because, are people using real money or are they using
11:10
other people’s money to spend?
11:12
Ron Lang: And I thought this was just a very quick, interesting chart. Got it. Off the
11:16
cnbc. I like to credit the sources. Yeah. The balances are not only back, but have exceeded
11:22
the pre pan, the pre pandemic highs. And wow, what is this really telling us? That means,
11:28
yeah, all the free money that was out there.
11:30
Ron Lang: Yeah, people have jobs, but they’re spending beyond their means.
11:34
Jeff Kikel: They’re spending beyond their means and they’re, now they’ve gotten hit
11:36
by inflation and they want to keep their existing lifestyle the way it’s been, and the costs
11:41
are 30 or 40% more. And, it’s gonna come back to bite people.
11:47
Ron Lang: It’s gonna, keep it up with the Joneses. So if people are spending, what are
11:51
they saving for retirement? Here’s another one. This is sad. Now I know these numbers
11:56
have been up over the last five years. But [00:12:00] even you and I talked to a lot
12:01
of people in their fifties, maybe even early sixties, that are now can see the light of
12:06
potential retirement.
12:07
Ron Lang: And they have less than a hundred thousand dollars saved. Yeah. And they’re
12:11
making over a hundred thousand dollars a year, and they wanna maintain their standard of
12:15
living. Not gonna happen. It’s, not unless they put away a crap load of money every single
12:20
year. And we get some serious movement over the next 10 to 15 years in the markets to
12:25
possibly even get to that.
12:27
Ron Lang: Obviously we’d all know that, the earlier you can save your money’s gonna compound
12:31
and work for you over time, but just these 401k balances are. Disturbing for the under
12:37
55 crowd that’s out there. And then I thought this was interesting kind of riding the wave
12:42
of ai, where can AI really do most of the heavy lifting?
12:46
Ron Lang: We all agree right? You AI is not going to drive trucks around the country,
12:51
although they are working on autonomous trucks. Absolutely. I don’t think they’re gonna have
12:55
the ai, but. I think
12:57
Jeff Kikel: these are. Absolutely. And how is that gonna [00:13:00] affect the truck
12:59
stops if you’ve got AI trucks going around?
13:02
Ron Lang: Absolutely. But not only that, I thought it was interesting on the very, the
13:06
one on the very bottom is health. Now I didn’t see in here biotech or pharmaceutical, so
13:12
maybe that’s all wrapped into health. I figured that’d be the number one industry based on
13:17
all the data. Based on everything that we’ve had for years and everything that all the
13:22
computers have been accumulating on health.
13:24
Ron Lang: You figure you plug in the symptoms or hook somebody up to a machine to draw their
13:30
blood pressure, you name it. Look at that person’s history, the AI should be able to
13:36
kinda, yeah. Come up with it should be
13:38
Jeff Kikel: a no-brainer
13:39
Ron Lang: in that area, good hypotheticals on either your condition, what could happen
13:43
to you and all that other stuff.
13:44
Ron Lang: So I figured that would be number one. But absolutely, I think we both agree
13:48
that banking, i insurance and software, are right up there too.
13:52
Jeff Kikel: And it’s interesting that I think from the banking perspective and the insurance
13:56
perspective, I think a lot of that high potential [00:14:00] for automation is in the, okay,
14:01
how do we market to people and get them to do things, from an AI perspective, and it’s
14:07
interesting to me that the thing that probably could benefit from it the most health. Is
14:12
the most resistant to using ai, and it would be very simple to say, okay, let me, let me
14:17
take all this data and then pull that data off and give me more information, or give
14:23
me information that I could use.
14:25
Jeff Kikel: Cuz I use AI every day. I use Chatt p t I’ve even begun to start using the
14:30
the Google version of it. And the Google versions, I would say pretty damn close.
14:36
Ron Lang: To be, I think they’ll end up ex, I think they’ll end up exceeding Microsoft
14:41
on the AI side. They’ve been working on it longer.
14:44
Jeff Kikel: Yeah they’ve been working on it longer. They’ve got more money at it, and
14:47
they’re more willing to make changes and adjust than Microsoft, which tends to, they tend
14:53
to be a day late and a dollar short to almost everything when it comes to new stuff. Yeah.
14:59
[00:15:00]
15:00
Ron Lang: Yeah. So it should be interesting to see where it goes.
15:02
Ron Lang: That’s
15:03
Jeff Kikel: for sure. On that same point I think my addition to this today is really
15:08
one of the things I look at, and this is something that we’ve looked at on the show before Yeah.
15:13
Is the fear and greed index. And basically what this, what emotions are driving the market.
15:18
Jeff Kikel: And right now we are in extreme greed mode. We’re at the highest we’ve been
15:23
in a year ago today. We were at a 29. Which was extreme or it was the fear level, so we
15:31
were at fear. We’ve gone through all that over this last year and we’re at extreme greed
15:37
that says, market momentum is moving in that positive direction.
15:40
Jeff Kikel: We’re above the 125 day moving average and accelerating. So I. Although I
15:47
feel a little bit better about the markets right now, and I feel that we’ve come through
15:52
some of the tougher parts. We’ve still got a lot of headwinds ahead of us. Stock price
15:57
strength has been really strong.
15:59
Jeff Kikel: It’s [00:16:00] starting to get there.
16:00
Ron Lang: Yeah, but you know what, with the stock price strength though, it’s basically
16:03
been level Yeah. Since November. Yeah. So that’s what’s trying to tell you. It’s the
16:07
top eight stocks that’s been moving the market. Yeah. The other stocks are catching up a little
16:12
bit, but if you notice, it hasn’t exceeded.
16:14
Ron Lang: Yeah.
16:15
Jeff Kikel: And yeah, it’s exactly it, but this is net new, 52 week highs and lows. Okay.
16:21
So we’re, yeah, we’re just hanging in there. Stock price breadth, I think is, that’s starting
16:25
to move in a positive direction. We’ve been really, since January of this year, declining
16:30
a little bit down and we’re starting to come up and we’re breaking through this point,
16:34
out here that was around 1300.
16:36
Jeff Kikel: Yeah. Or 1,136. We’re, we’re close to that number today. 1,128. I think we’re
16:43
starting to move, in a positive direction there. Put to put, to call options. The put
16:49
to call ratio is at the absolute bottom. You got way more people buying calls than puts
16:54
at this point, market
16:55
Ron Lang: volatility to be a contrarian, to be if a contrarian is really [00:17:00] looking
16:59
at this, they know the script is gonna flip.
17:07
Ron Lang: Ron, I lost you. Oh, I, I said if you’re a real contrarian Yeah. They’re looking
17:12
at this going, the script is going to flip. Yeah,
17:16
Jeff Kikel: absolutely. And that’s usually what happens when we’re in this extreme greed
17:20
level. We are, we’re at a point where, It tends to, something happens and it flips the
17:26
other direction and we head towards fear.
17:28
Jeff Kikel: So yeah, I am of that belief too. I think, right now we’re seeing a little bit
17:32
of a run in the markets. Anything can happen during the summer. Things can change. Remember
17:38
that, more people are out of the market during the summertime. Yeah. Although, used to be
17:44
That was true.
17:45
Jeff Kikel: I think when you and I were originally in the industry. Today, so much of this trading
17:50
is done by computers that they more than 70%, everybody else is in the Hamptons. Yeah, I
17:55
think the biggest difference is there’s a much more [00:18:00] chance for volatility
18:01
during the summers because a lot of these things work off of headlines.
18:04
Jeff Kikel: And, I think what ends up happening is there’s some, you’ve got the humans in
18:09
the room that are rational that will come in and take advantage of these extreme moves
18:13
and things like that. And you don’t see that in the summer. So there is a lot of possibility
18:18
for some significant volatility.
18:19
Jeff Kikel: Yeah. During the summertime as we get to, pass the Labor Day weekend Yeah.
18:24
Holiday where everybody comes back. Yeah.
18:26
Ron Lang: A August is the big wall Street vacation month. Yeah. And that’s typically
18:29
where the most amount of volatility is.
18:31
Jeff Kikel: Absolutely. I think from my perspective, I’m a little bit more hopeful on the markets
18:37
right now.
18:38
Jeff Kikel: I still am very cautious about the economy, but I think we’re in an interesting
18:43
trend where the markets are making a bigger move and it’s more stocks that are that’re
18:48
taking charge. Yeah. Less of the, and the more of them that we have that are up above
18:53
that 52 week level. That means that the impact from those bigger ones, the seven or eight
18:59
real big [00:19:00] ones, is a little bit less on the downside if people start to really
19:03
shift gears away.
19:04
Jeff Kikel: Yeah.
19:05
Ron Lang: Look, I wish I was a better market timer, but let’s just say, we could get. Range
19:11
is correct. I really thought we’d be pulling back now. I’m on record several times with
19:16
that. But that doesn’t mean I think I’m gonna be wrong at the second half of this year.
19:21
Yeah.
19:22
Ron Lang: Where I truly believe we will be in a recession. The credit is tightening too
19:25
much. At some point there’s gonna be a breaking inflection point with the banks to say, we,
19:32
we can’t lend out, or if we can’t lend out. It’s very interesting with mortgages. Arm
19:37
rates are higher than the fixed rates right now.
19:41
Ron Lang: Yeah. The banks aren’t stupid. They’ve been losing money for years on a lot of this
19:45
stuff with the low interest rates, but they don’t wanna lock. They don’t wanna really
19:50
offer a good arm rate. To people because they know they’re gonna, everybody’s gonna refinance
19:56
in three or four years. Absolutely.
19:57
Ron Lang: Yeah. I think that’s a [00:20:00] crazy way of doing business. But the banks
20:02
right now are trying to make up for lost
20:04
Jeff Kikel: time. And I will tell you, it was interesting, this is from a personal perspective.
20:08
So one of my businesses you, we we have a small outstanding loan with with the bank.
20:15
Jeff Kikel: It was a, a. Working capital loan when we first got started, and it resets every
20:21
five years. And the original rate was five and three quarters percent. I just got the
20:27
news from them yesterday that it’s going to 9%. I wish I could raise my prices a hundred
20:33
percent, in
20:34
Ron Lang: a matter of a month.
20:35
Ron Lang: How is that even legal? You gotta check that. You gotta check your contract.
20:37
Jeff Kikel: Yeah, no kidding. Like I said, it’s just it’s based on, whatever the prime
20:41
rate is and I’m like you people suck. Plus four, please. Yeah, plus four. It’s, that’s
20:47
insane. And I’m to the point now, I’m like, you know what?
20:50
Jeff Kikel: I hate banks. I don’t wanna deal with them at point, I
20:54
Ron Lang: won’t go off on my bank grant.
20:55
Jeff Kikel: Yeah. It’s just it’s it’s, you borrow the money so we can charge [00:21:00]
20:59
whatever we want. Okay. That’s not reality. Yeah. And that, that this isn’t a Banana Republic.
21:04
Yeah, and I also, I’m in the position where if I wanted to pay it off, which I probably
21:08
will at this point, instead of keeping it out there.
21:11
Jeff Kikel: But not every business owner is, and I’m thinking to myself, if I was a struggling
21:17
business owner coming out of out of the pandemic and just now getting back on my feet, and
21:22
then my banker comes to me and says that they’re basically gonna double my interest rate. What
21:27
would you do?
21:28
Jeff Kikel: If I had a much larger loan, I don’t know where I would come up with the
21:31
money extra out of the business cuz I can’t raise my prices for, for clients that high.
21:36
I will
21:37
Ron Lang: tell you one quick story to wrap this up. So I know someone very close to me.
21:41
Her credit is horrible. She needed a car.
21:43
Ron Lang: She went out. I won’t say where she went, but that’s okay. She went out and
21:48
she was looking at a $20,000 used car. Okay, good car, great condition, but because her
21:53
credit was horrible. You’re gonna love this. It’s a seven year car loan. [00:22:00] Oh
22:00
Jesus. 27% interest. Good Lord. If she holds it, if she holds it all the way to the end,
22:05
she’s gonna pay $42,000 for the car for
22:08
Jeff Kikel: a $20,000
22:09
Ron Lang: depreciating as, which obviously in seven years that car will be worth less
22:13
than eight or 10,000.
22:14
Ron Lang: Yeah,
22:15
Jeff Kikel: exactly. So she’s not gonna even be able to she’ll be underwater trying to
22:18
sell it. He already is underwater.
22:19
Ron Lang: Yeah.
22:20
Jeff Kikel: Yeah. And it’ll just get worse over the next seven years.
22:24
Ron Lang: How this is legal, Jeff. I have.
22:26
Jeff Kikel: No idea. I thought there were user laws, but apparently not. Apparently
22:31
that only applies to individuals that are loading money.
22:35
Jeff Kikel: It does not apply to registered banks. It’s loan
22:37
Ron Lang: shark rates. Yeah, put it this way. The credit card companies have so many lobbyists
22:42
in, in Washington that you would think that. They for consumer protection. Okay, oh, you
22:49
wanna make more than regular bank? I get it. But don’t forget too, the other protection
22:53
that the credit card companies have, that the banks don’t, you accumulate 20 or 30,000
22:58
in credit card [00:23:00] debt and you go bankrupt, you still have to pay it.
23:02
Ron Lang: You accumulate 20 or $30,000 in a credit line or a loan from the bank. Yeah.
23:06
You claim bankruptcy, you’re discharged. Yeah. Why is that? Why is that and where are the
23:13
politicians looking out for the consumers at this point? They’re not. And so another
23:18
reason why credit card balances are at the $1 billion excuse me, at the at the $1 billion
23:25
level.
23:26
Jeff Kikel: And what I don’t think people realize is exactly what you said. I’ll just
23:29
keep charging up and then if I’ll else fails, I’ll just file for bankruptcy. Yeah, that’s
23:33
gonna follow you around forever. And then they’re gonna sell your, they’ll, if the bank
23:39
defaults are you default to the credit card company, then they’re just gonna sell your
23:43
information or sell your, your account to somebody else, and then they’ll hound you
23:48
for the rest of your life.
23:49
Jeff Kikel: Right now you’re gonna get, you’re gonna get collector calls for the rest of
23:54
your life and it will never end. Hey,
23:56
Ron Lang: look, by our next podcast. We’re gonna [00:24:00] resolve this issue and solve
24:01
world hunger. How’s that? We’re almost done. And I want
24:03
Jeff Kikel: world peace. Dammit. I want world peace on top. Alright, wor world
24:07
Ron Lang: peace after we solve world hunger.
24:09
Ron Lang: All right, we’ll people, but people aren’t hungry anymore. They’ll be more peaceful.
24:13
Jeff Kikel: That’s exactly right. So that may, maybe it’s just everybody’s hangry and
24:17
that’s what the problem is. But yeah. So we shall solve that in the next week. They
24:21
Ron Lang: can’t be hangry with that barbecue and all that ice cream, but you never
24:25
Jeff Kikel: know.
24:26
Jeff Kikel: Exactly. Yeah. You got the 2000 hotdog barbecue there for the Juvenile Diabetes
24:30
Association. They’re gonna be
24:31
Ron Lang: in a food and sugar coma. But that’s okay. Between
24:34
Jeff Kikel: they’ll be peaceful ice cream. We’re good.
24:36
Ron Lang: They’ll be peaceful. It’s all right.
24:38
Jeff Kikel: All right, my friend. Folks, thank you for for spending time with us today.
24:42
Jeff Kikel: We appreciate it and we do these for you, so make sure that you take the opportunity
24:48
to comment, share share your ideas what you like, and also if you can share this with
24:54
somebody else. Somebody else that would love to hear this type of stuff, share it [00:25:00]
24:59
with them. Yes, we’re goofy. Yes, we talk about ice cream, but we also talk seriously
25:04
about the markets as well.
25:05
Jeff Kikel: So we’ll see you back here on the next sense of things.
25:09
Ron Lang: Stay hydrated.