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Musk to refocus on Tesla after its worst quarter in years · The Financial Exchange Show

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  Speaker 1: and Mark Vandebti.
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  Speaker 2: Chuck, Mark and Tucker with you here as we kick
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  Speaker 2: off the second hour of the show today and taking
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  Speaker 2: a look at markets. We got another big move up
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  Speaker 2: happening on the back of comments from both Treasury Secretary
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  Speaker 2: Bessent and President Trump that are being interpreted as a
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  Speaker 2: little bit more dubvish and lenient towards China in terms
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  Speaker 2: of some potential terror for reductions that are coming. Also,
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  Speaker 2: President Trump yesterday afternoon indicating that he had no intention,
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  Speaker 2: as the quote from him, of firing the head of
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  Speaker 2: the Fed FED Chair Jay Powell. So as a result,
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  Speaker 2: you currently have the Dow Jones Industrial Average up nine
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  Speaker 2: hundred and sixty four points, about two and a half percent,
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  Speaker 2: the S and P five hundred is up one hundred
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  Speaker 2: and fifty nine points about three percent, and the nasdak
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  Speaker 2: can positive six hundred and fifty four points, or about
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  Speaker 2: four percent. Tenure US Treasury is down five point three
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  Speaker 2: basis points to four point three three six percent, so
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  Speaker 2: interest rates coming down a little bit as well. I
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  Speaker 2: will note, though we did see earlier today that tenure
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  Speaker 2: touch four point two five nine percent right around nine
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  Speaker 2: thirty this morning, so it has bounced about eight basis
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  Speaker 2: points uh since that point, so clearly not wanting at
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  Speaker 2: least at this point to get, you know, any further
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  Speaker 2: down right now, we've also got oil down a dollar
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  Speaker 2: twenty eight per barrel to sixty two to thirty nine
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  Speaker 2: on West Texas intermediate triple A national average for gas
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  Speaker 2: prices up half a cent overall for the last day
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  Speaker 2: to three seventeen and one tenths one tenth of a cent.
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  Speaker 2: No real movement there. We've basically been treading water between
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  Speaker 2: three ten and three twenty for the last couple of
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  Speaker 2: months now, so there hasn't been any real trend that
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  Speaker 2: has developed there. Gold today selling off an additional one
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  Speaker 2: hundred and twenty one dollars an ounce down to thirty
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  Speaker 2: two to ninety seven, about a three and a half
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  Speaker 2: percent dip, and so reversing some new all time highs
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  Speaker 2: that it hit a couple days ago where it touched
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  Speaker 2: thirty five hundred for the first time, now right around
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  Speaker 2: thirty three hundred, and that is what we have moving
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  Speaker 2: in markets at the moment. Mark, I want to talk
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  Speaker 2: a little bit about this piece from the Wall Street Journal.
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  Speaker 2: It's a Wall Street Journal exclusive published at ten oh
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  Speaker 2: six this Morning Triple Byline Brian Schwartz, Josh Dawsey, and
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  Speaker 2: Nick Timmeros of The Wall Street Journal all contributing on this.
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  Speaker 2: It's titled why Trump decided not to try to fire
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  Speaker 2: J Powell or Jerome Powell's what it says and the
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  Speaker 2: long and short of it. I'll read the key paragraph
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  Speaker 2: in here. His decision came out after interventions from Treasury
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  Speaker 2: Secretary Scott Bessen and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who warned
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  Speaker 2: Trump that such a move could trigger far reaching market
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  Speaker 2: chaos and a messi legal fight, the people said. Lutnick
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  Speaker 2: also told the President that efforts to fire the FED
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  Speaker 2: chair likely wouldn't lead to any practical change on interest
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  Speaker 2: rates because other members of the Fed's board would likely
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  Speaker 2: approach monetary policy similarly to Powell. One of the people said,
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  Speaker 2: your thoughts, Mark.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think the damage is probably done. The President
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  Speaker 3: thinks he can, and so will future presidents, and maybe
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  Speaker 3: they should be able to. I've always been skeptical of
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  Speaker 3: complete Fed autonomy. They are creature of Congress. Congress is
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  Speaker 3: charged constitutionally with controlling the supply of money. They've farmed
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  Speaker 3: that out to the FED. Maybe there should be a
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  Speaker 3: little more oversight, but that's really up to Congress. If
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  Speaker 3: Congress thinks inflation is too high, they should they should
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  Speaker 3: codify a penalty. Other central banks do New Zealand other
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  Speaker 3: countries as New Zealand, they penalize their central banker by
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  Speaker 3: shortening their term if they fail. I don't know the
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  Speaker 3: forgive me, I don't know the specifics. I'm pulling this
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  Speaker 3: out of my long term memory bank, which is not
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  Speaker 3: as great as it used to be. But there are
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  Speaker 3: central banks. New Zealanders comes to mind, and there are
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  Speaker 3: a bunch of others that were way ahead of US.
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  Speaker 3: Canada's won in panalizing their Here's the thing with central banking,
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  Speaker 3: like the central banking is just the generic way of
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  Speaker 3: talking about the FED or any like institution ECB Bank
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  Speaker 3: of Japan, there's policymakers have a tendency to once consumers
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  Speaker 3: and firms set their demands at the big say at
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  Speaker 3: the beginning of the year, they have a tendency to
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  Speaker 3: generate surprise inflation to goose output. Not because they're sinister,
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  Speaker 3: but because pushing output above potential actually makes people better
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  Speaker 3: off and gets unemployment down. So there's this bias toward inflation.
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  Speaker 3: That's widely written about in the literature on this, and
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  Speaker 3: there's a whole subfield that for decades has been exploring
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  Speaker 3: this painstakingly. So how do you combat this inflationary bias
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  Speaker 3: and monetary policy? You constrain central bankers. You could do
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  Speaker 3: it by the way some others have done it, which
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  Speaker 3: is making the FED independent, hiring someone who credibly is
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  Speaker 3: against inflation. We did that with Vulgar, even though Congress
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  Speaker 3: didn't make the president do it at the time. Carter
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  Speaker 3: appointed Vulgar, Reagan reappointed him. Others do it by codifying
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  Speaker 3: penalties in law if the central bank fails to meet
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  Speaker 3: it's targets. But the key thread in all of this
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  Speaker 3: is FED independence to acquire the credibility to keep inflation low,
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  Speaker 3: because just about everybody agrees that too much inflation. There's
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  Speaker 3: disagreements as to how much is enough to just kind
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  Speaker 3: of grease the wheels of the labor market, but anything
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  Speaker 3: above four percent is probably so.
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  Speaker 2: The range that's generally thought to be okay ish is
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  Speaker 2: probably like one to three.
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  Speaker 3: Is that I've not heard, as there are some serious
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  Speaker 3: monetary policy focused economists who would argue four or five
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  Speaker 3: is just fine. There are others, Milton Friedman most famously
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  Speaker 3: among them, no longer with this obviously.
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  Speaker 4: Argued for zero.
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  Speaker 3: There are good, I guess, intellectual and theoretical arguments on
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  Speaker 3: both ends of that, both ends of that, But either way,
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  Speaker 3: I think everybody agrees that some sort of target coupled
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  Speaker 3: within and you don't have to articulate the target like
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  Speaker 3: we have done, and like other banks central banks have
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  Speaker 3: been doing for much longer than we have. But some
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  Speaker 3: degree of independence, coupled with agreement that inflation should at
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  Speaker 3: least be equally weighted without put in the central banks
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  Speaker 3: thought process are widely viewed as best practices. And I
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  Speaker 3: worry that political even though Trump wisely backed off on this, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: and so he ultimately he made.
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  Speaker 4: The right decision.
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  Speaker 3: I fear that in the future, either he or someone
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  Speaker 3: else and we share this concern, may be tempted to
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  Speaker 3: step over that line. And once you cross that rubicon,
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  Speaker 3: it could take decades for our central bank that FED,
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  Speaker 3: to get credibility back and to, if it has to
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  Speaker 3: God forbid again, get inflation under control. So I fear
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  Speaker 3: some damage has been done here already.
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  Speaker 2: What about a dunk tank? You know you mentioned punishment.
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  Speaker 2: Shettle bankers. What if you hey, you know, getwell, you know.
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  Speaker 4: You don't even have to try to dunk him.
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  Speaker 3: If CPI comes in above, say automatically, automatically gets done.
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  Speaker 2: So you have him just hit it's a trigger. His
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  Speaker 2: seat is above a water tank.
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  Speaker 4: Or electro shock.
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  Speaker 2: No, no, no, I don't want to do anything that hurts
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  Speaker 2: the poor guy. Mild a lot of responsibility, you know,
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  Speaker 2: you just want something a dunk tank. Inflation gets above six,
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  Speaker 2: you get dunked.
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  Speaker 3: No, but the central banker, the head of the central
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  Speaker 3: bank again, the Fed Central Bank just generic should feel
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  Speaker 3: humiliated if they don't, like any of us would if
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  Speaker 3: we didn't meet our performance goals.
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  Speaker 4: There should be like yeah, yeah, yeah, So you can.
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  Speaker 3: Codify that or society can just develop it as kind
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  Speaker 3: of a norm. And I think that's where we are.
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  Speaker 3: We heaped a lot of shame, at least I did.
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  Speaker 4: I was.
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  Speaker 3: I was very severely critical, probably too much of because
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  Speaker 3: I didn't appreciate the supply shock element of.
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  Speaker 2: You were critical of J Powell? Tucker was was was
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  Speaker 2: Mark critical of J Powell?
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  Speaker 3: I don't I don't recall how I evaluated his job performance.
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  Speaker 2: I think there was one key word that you used.
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  Speaker 2: It was it was one word that you used to
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  Speaker 2: describe it.
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  Speaker 3: There is an argument that, as the President said, he
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  Speaker 3: was too late.
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  Speaker 4: Sorry, I don't have my head sat on.
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  Speaker 5: You guys have putting way too much emphasis on is
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  Speaker 5: drop pull on failing?
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  Speaker 4: It moves so fast. Uh So.
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  Speaker 3: The argument was he was too late at the time,
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  Speaker 3: but in retrospect there may have been nothing that he
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  Speaker 3: could have done without inducing a very severe recession. To
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  Speaker 3: start back on inflation, one thing I'd love to hear
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  Speaker 3: people ask the president who's calling him too late Powell,
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  Speaker 3: which I think is funny and I wish i'd thought of.
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  Speaker 3: And if he fails, how would you have handled one
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  Speaker 3: of the big inflation? Would you have sacrificed employment?
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  Speaker 4: Are we there?
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  Speaker 3: And if he fails one of the biggest monetary whimps
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  Speaker 3: in history?
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  Speaker 2: Why you need to wear headphones?
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  Speaker 4: Mark?
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  Speaker 2: Sorry, talking over yourself. Nobody knows what's going on. It's
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  Speaker 2: Mark talking over going.
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  Speaker 4: Hey, big mouth, shut up? No, you shut up? Okay,
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  Speaker 4: So you know, Chuck.
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  Speaker 3: I'd love to hear what the president or the next
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  Speaker 3: president's thoughts are on how monetary policy should be conducted.
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  Speaker 3: I wish one of these so called financial journalists. And
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  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound like I know
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  Speaker 3: more than them, but I think that's where we are.
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  Speaker 3: I wish they knew enough to ask that question, and
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  Speaker 3: that would make for an interesting back and forth with
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  Speaker 3: the President instead of trying to entrap him with troy
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  Speaker 3: silly question.
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  Speaker 2: Sure, let's take a quick break here. When we come back,
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  Speaker 2: we did get some earnings both yesterday and this morning,
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  Speaker 2: we'll start talking about a couple of the big ones
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  Speaker 2: that we're following. We've also got some trivia that we're
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  Speaker 2: gonna do right after this failure.
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  Speaker 1: Tara Fever's in high gear. We've got the latest on
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  Speaker 1: what might be next and how long it might last.
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  Speaker 5: k dot Boston. Time for trivia here on the Financial
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  Speaker 5: Exchange and today's William Shakespeare's birthday. At the age of eighteen,
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  Speaker 5: Shakespeare married his wife in a rush ceremony because his
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: wife was already pregnant. So trivia question today, what was
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  Speaker 5: the name of William Shakespeare's wife? Once again, what was
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: the name of William Shakespeare's wife? Be the fifth person
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  Speaker 5: today to text us at six one seven three six
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  Speaker 5: two thirteen eighty five with the correct answer, and you'll
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  Speaker 5: win a brand new Financial Exchange Show T shirt.
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  Speaker 2: Once again.
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  Speaker 5: The fifth correct response to text us at six one
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  Speaker 2: I have no idea, mark to you, no no clue.
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  Speaker 2: Can we just make guesses just like completely?
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  Speaker 4: I have no idea?
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  Speaker 2: What's your uninformed guess is to William Shakespeare's wife, name wife.
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  Speaker 3: Let's see what were the top girl names in when
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  Speaker 3: she went around fifteen fifty or something like that. Some
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  Speaker 3: would you say, I don't know.
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  Speaker 4: I know he was roughly final late tutor.
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  Speaker 2: What do you think if you just had to venture
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  Speaker 2: a guess.
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  Speaker 4: Eleanor or something like that.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, that's a good one, right, that's a good one. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know what name Mary?
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  Speaker 3: Popular marriage obviously Mary, I should have guessed Mary first.
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  Speaker 3: A religious name that was common at the time would
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  Speaker 3: be Mary Elizabeth. And then I'm just naming like queens
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  Speaker 3: that come to mind.
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  Speaker 2: I know, I feel like you're just going through like
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  Speaker 2: British royalty at this point.
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  Speaker 4: It's what I'm doing. Yeah, but they named kids.
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  Speaker 3: Would wouldn't that have been a common practice though, to
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  Speaker 3: name your son or daughter after the reigning.
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  Speaker 4: King or queen. Probably yeah, or totally stupid.
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  Speaker 2: I could also see that maybe it was frowned upon.
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  Speaker 5: I'll give you a hint.
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  Speaker 2: Do we want that? Sure?
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  Speaker 4: I don't know we got those In this she shares.
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  Speaker 5: A name of one of the most famous actresses now.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: With one of the most famous actresses now.
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  Speaker 5: And I would encourage you not to guess you guys,
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  Speaker 5: don't guess in case you give it.
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  Speaker 2: That's why I wanted to guess before I did that.
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  Speaker 5: It's a hint, you know, for those out there maybe struggling.
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  Speaker 4: I assume most people just google this. They know they
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  Speaker 4: can do that.
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  Speaker 2: There's probably one or two people that know.
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  Speaker 4: They rack their brains.
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  Speaker 2: They're a handful of people. If people know that, there's.
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  Speaker 4: Always I'm not doubting that.
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  Speaker 2: I guarantee there are at least a couple of our
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  Speaker 2: listeners that are shakespeare nuts that know this just off
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: the top.
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  Speaker 3: Be disappointed if we didn't get lots of responses from
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: people who.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Knew enough to I have a buddy of mine who's
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: a big shakespeare nut, like really big leg goes to
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: conventions and stuff. Now obviously Shakespeare has been dead for
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: quite a while, but you know, goes to different conventions
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  Speaker 2: and things like that. He's also one of the people
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  Speaker 2: that believes that Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare.
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  Speaker 4: I was gonna say, where does he come down on that?
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  Speaker 2: Had I knew about He thinks that Shakespeare didn't not
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  Speaker 2: write Shakespeare because the quality of the writing suggests someone
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  Speaker 2: from a social stratus above where Shakespeare actually was in life. Wow,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: he's into this stuff. I hear about it occasionally and
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  Speaker 2: I try to maybe talk to him like twice a year,
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  Speaker 2: because after that, you're kind of like.
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  Speaker 4: Do you take that?
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  Speaker 2: Okay?
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  Speaker 3: You know, you have a high powered circle. You're modest
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: about it, but you have a high powered circle of
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: friends and influencers.
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  Speaker 4: You influence them and maybe vice versa.
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  Speaker 3: Do you do you give that gredence seriously that Shakespeare
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: didn't I've heard that. I always thought it was a tinfoil.
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  Speaker 2: I haven't looked at any of the evidence, so I
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: have no idea. But he is resolute in his belief
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: that Shakespeare did not write Shakespeare.
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  Speaker 4: Well, doesn't change my life, but.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: No, like interesting either way, like won't affect me. But
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: you know, hey, if that's what he wants to do,
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: like that's totally fine.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: Oh if it's not the first time you're hearing this,
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: by the way, and it didn't just ruin your day?
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  Speaker 2: Who listeners their day? Shakespeare? He might not have written Shakespeare.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: He could have been full sound and fury signifying nothing.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about Tesla. They reported earnings
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: after the bell yesterday and the stock is up seven
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  Speaker 2: percent today. I think on a combination of a few things,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: you know, potential terror relief, just you know that the
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: market as a whole is up, so obviously picking some
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: up with that. But I think the thing with Tesla
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: is you look at the actual quarter and it's tough
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: to view it as anything positive. Here here's what we saw.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Earnings per share missed estimates by about a third, revenue
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: missed by about ten percent, and total revenue slid nine
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: percent from a year earlier. Automotive revenue dropped twenty percent
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  Speaker 2: from a year earlier, from seventeen point four billion down
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: to fourteen billion. And so you've got a case now
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: where if you look at the actual profit numbers for
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  Speaker 2: the company for the quarter, and this is not something
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: that like I came up with on my own. If
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: you strip out the money that they receive for renewable
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: energy credits basically not renewable energy, but like for EV
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: credits that they get from selling to other automakers and
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: stuff like that who need them in order to hit
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: emissions targets, the company was not profitable for the quarter,
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  Speaker 2: which is not good. And again, when does this dissipate.
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  Speaker 2: Is it something that you simply goes away unclear, But
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: what I can tell you is based on what we're
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: seeing in pricing in the used car market, where used
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: car prices have started to tick up a little bit
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: in the last couple of weeks, but Tesla used car
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: prices are still sliding down. It does seem to me
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: there's a continued demand problem that they are facing here
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: domestically in the United States. And this is before you
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: get to the challenges in China, where there's a ton
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: of Chinese upstarts that are trying to lap Tesla from
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: a technology perspective, and so it's a company that is
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: very much under threat from a number of different areas
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: and has continued questions about what their business looks like
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: into the future. You know that their margins continue to
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: decline as they're having to resort to more discounts in
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: order to move product. So I think there are very
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: real questions about, you know, how successful the company can
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: be in the next several years. Here, it's one where
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: they have, you know, a number of promises they're trying
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: to fulfill. They've got the Robotaxi that they're trying to
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: roll out. They say that they're targeting June for an Austin,
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: Texas rollout. They have a robot that they are trying
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: to start producing later this year, So there's a lot
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: out there. And remember this is not a company that
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: has a history of hitting those targets. From a timeline perspective,
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: they're typically usually anywhere from like one to three years
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: late to deliver products that they said they were going
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: to deliver. And during the conference call yesterday, Elon Musk
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: also noted that because of China's export restrictions that they've
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: put in place since the US raised tariffs on them
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago, it's become increasingly difficult for
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Tesla to be able to sort source some of these
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: rare earth materials that are used both in their vehicles,
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: but also they're saying, hey, in our robots, we would
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: use these, and we can't source enough. Is that accurate
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: or just an excuse for missing delivery times on these robots.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Don't know, but it's a company with a number of questions.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Even though the stock is up eight percent after the earnings.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: Report, cybertruck kind of a flop model. Why delayed? Small
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: car more economical option delayed? Or perhaps that's going to
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: be the model. Why, as I understand it, autonomous vehicles
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: at some point that's like the cold fusion of vps,
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: like maybe in the next three to five years, but
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: they've been saying that every three to five years or so.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: It seems like not a lot going right.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Taking a look at markets as we head towards the
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: bottom of the hour, stocks still up, but about a
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: percentage point off their highs now. The Dow is up
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: six hundred and fifty three points, about one point six percent,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: the S and PP one oh nine about two percent,
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: and the Nasdaq up four hundred and ninety points or
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: about three percent. Quick break here. When we come back,
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: we are joined by Joe Bishalti, the Commissioner of the
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: US Virgin Islands Department of Tourism.
• 19:34
  Speaker 7: Right after this, bringing the latest financial news straight to
• 19:44
  Speaker 7: your radio. Every day, It's the Financial Exchange on the
• 19:47
  Speaker 7: Financial Exchange Radio Network. The Financial Exchange Show podcast drops
• 19:54
  Speaker 7: every day on Apple, Spotify, and iHeartRadio. Hit that subscribe
• 19:58
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• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Listening to the Financial Exchange Radio Network.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: All right. As promised, we are now joined by Joe Bishalti,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: the Commissioner for the US Virgin Islands Department of Tourism, Joe.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Great to have you in studio today. Always nice to
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: talk with you.
• 20:27
  Speaker 6: Money, Thank you, thank you. I always enjoy coming in.
• 20:31
  Speaker 6: I picked a very beautiful day to come in. You know,
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: it kind of reminds me of Saint Thomas right now
• 20:36
  Speaker 6: when I look at the beautiful sun out to accept
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: it's probably twenty five degrees cooler. There you go.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Let's let's talk a little bit about how things are
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: going for you this year. I know that you had
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: just a huge year down in the Virgin Islands last year.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: When you talk about kind of looking backwards, what do
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: you attribute you know, all that growth to that you
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: saw in twenty twenty four.
• 20:55
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think I think one of the things that
• 20:57
  Speaker 6: happened out of COVID it is people, and I'm speaking generally,
• 21:02
  Speaker 6: appreciate the value of taking time off.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 21:06
  Speaker 6: I think before COVID, you know, everybody's grind, grind, grind, grind, grind,
• 21:09
  Speaker 6: And then we had you know, the compete opposite where
• 21:11
  Speaker 6: it was nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, And then I think
• 21:13
  Speaker 6: people started to recognize that, you know, it is okay
• 21:16
  Speaker 6: to have a balance. Sure, So what we found is
• 21:19
  Speaker 6: that you know, people continue to take two or three
• 21:23
  Speaker 6: trips a year one you know, works out a lot
• 21:26
  Speaker 6: of times for US, the people who travel in the Caribbean,
• 21:28
  Speaker 6: they still come to the Caribbean and for US in
• 21:30
  Speaker 6: the US regionals, like you mentioned, we have many of
• 21:32
  Speaker 6: our visitors come back. Sometimes they come back with friends,
• 21:36
  Speaker 6: sometimes they come back with their parents and kids. Sometimes
• 21:39
  Speaker 6: they come back solo. So that's been really helping us.
• 21:41
  Speaker 6: I think the other part that has been a blessing
• 21:45
  Speaker 6: for US has been the strength of the US economy. Sure,
• 21:49
  Speaker 6: last year was a strong year, and the last few
• 21:51
  Speaker 6: years a matter of fact, they've been strong. So our
• 21:53
  Speaker 6: traveler is predominantly from the US and that makes a difference.
• 21:58
  Speaker 6: So when the US is due and well, we do well.
• 22:02
  Speaker 6: Of course, as we look forward, you know, this season
• 22:05
  Speaker 6: was very strong for US twenty four into twenty five.
• 22:08
  Speaker 6: You know, we're sort of moving into the shoulder season.
• 22:11
  Speaker 6: But April was stronger than last April, and a lot
• 22:13
  Speaker 6: of that had to do with Easter was late. Passover
• 22:17
  Speaker 6: was the same week, so so that helped in terms
• 22:20
  Speaker 6: of when kids and families were traveling. Now as we
• 22:24
  Speaker 6: move into summer, you know, we continue to monitor closely
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: all of the travel news. You know, Fortunately for US,
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: we're not we don't have a big international base that
• 22:34
  Speaker 6: travels to US, So a lot of the noise and
• 22:36
  Speaker 6: dark clouds with travelers coming internationally into the United States
• 22:41
  Speaker 6: Continental United States is not as severe for US simply
• 22:45
  Speaker 6: because one we don't have a big international travel base. Two,
• 22:51
  Speaker 6: you know, our travelers are predominant leiser guests, so it's
• 22:54
  Speaker 6: not conference travelers that may come in bigco like Boston
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: is a big convention town. You know, people come from
• 22:59
  Speaker 6: all over. We don't have that dynamic.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: When you talk about that tourism travel that you get
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: coming in. I saw recently that a couple of your beaches,
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Trunk Bay in Saint John and Megan's Bay in Saint Thomas,
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: we're named among the ten best beaches in the Caribbean.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Does stuff like that help to get people come to
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: your islands?
• 23:20
  Speaker 6: Yeah, without question. I think we've done a couple brand
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: studies on the destination and USVII and a whole and
• 23:28
  Speaker 6: one thing that continues to hold strong is that people
• 23:31
  Speaker 6: come for the beaches. They go to the Caribbean for
• 23:33
  Speaker 6: the beaches, they go for the water, and anytime you
• 23:36
  Speaker 6: can have third party international recognition on your beaches. That
• 23:41
  Speaker 6: definitely helps. Trunk Way was number one last year and
• 23:43
  Speaker 6: a big publication this year. You know, it's in the
• 23:46
  Speaker 6: top ten. We had two beaches in the top ten.
• 23:48
  Speaker 6: That makes a difference, And I think it makes a
• 23:50
  Speaker 6: difference in the sense that what we like to tell
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: people at the beaches. Of course, when you have big
• 23:56
  Speaker 6: beaches that gained international prominence, of course they more crowded.
• 24:00
  Speaker 6: But we have I tell people that we have beaches
• 24:02
  Speaker 6: that are less crowded and almost more ancient in the
• 24:09
  Speaker 6: sense that there's you know, you may not have beach here,
• 24:12
  Speaker 6: so you may not have sure, you know, a concession,
• 24:15
  Speaker 6: but guess what you have, like purely back to nature.
• 24:19
  Speaker 6: It's you the water and the sand and all of
• 24:21
  Speaker 6: the animal life that's around.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: One of the things that I see is we get,
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: you know, different quarterly earnings reports coming through the cruise
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: companies seemed like they are just booked left to right,
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: just they're absolutely jammed with people still trying to go
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: on cruises, Like I keep hearing like they're booked out
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: the next couple of years. What are you seeing in
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: terms of cruise visitors to your islands and is that
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: something that you're trying to encourage in terms of more
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: cruises coming through.
• 24:46
  Speaker 6: Yeah, definitely. For us in the US Virgion Islands, cruises
• 24:49
  Speaker 6: is the backbone of our tourism product, so we've been
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: as strong. Saint Thomas especially has been a very strong
• 24:55
  Speaker 6: anchor destination on Eastern Caribbean. Cruises continue to be very strong.
• 25:01
  Speaker 6: We were number two and spend on cruises last year
• 25:05
  Speaker 6: in the Caribbean behind Panama, which was kind of asterisk
• 25:07
  Speaker 6: because they kept their homeport, so they gave him a
• 25:09
  Speaker 6: little jump over us. But if you look at straight destination,
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: shopping and spend, we were at the top. Of course,
• 25:17
  Speaker 6: it does make a difference in terms of our economy,
• 25:20
  Speaker 6: right many of the grass working population service a cruise industry,
• 25:26
  Speaker 6: whether that's ground transportation, retail. Of course, the excursion community
• 25:31
  Speaker 6: all benefit from the traffic of the cruise passenger. And
• 25:37
  Speaker 6: then lastly for our destination, thirty to forty percent of
• 25:42
  Speaker 6: the people that come in a cruise actually come back,
• 25:45
  Speaker 6: so they come in interesting, they get to see the island,
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: they get a feel, you know, they're there for five
• 25:49
  Speaker 6: or six hours and they're like, oh, I got to
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: come back. I just enjoyed Saint John or Saint Thomas
• 25:54
  Speaker 6: or Saint Croix and they come up. So we value
• 25:56
  Speaker 6: that on a lot of different fronts. And like you mentioned,
• 26:00
  Speaker 6: and the cruise is very very strong. We were just
• 26:03
  Speaker 6: that the big international Global Sea Trade conference earlier this
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: month in Miami. I mean, they was just the amount
• 26:14
  Speaker 6: of people and boots and the amount of money people
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: are investing in showcasing the sastinations. Lets you know that
• 26:21
  Speaker 6: the SINC design is very very good for the cruise industry, sure, Joe.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: One of the big topics that we've been covering on
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: our show the last few weeks is obviously tariffs that
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: have been imposed. I know that the Virgin Islands are
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: exempt from any of the tariffs, being you know, US territory.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Can you talk to us a little bit about that
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: and are you seeing any impact on your business in
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: either direction as a result.
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: Well, what I could tell you is we are exempt,
• 26:46
  Speaker 6: and I think when you have disruption and uncertainty dependent
• 26:50
  Speaker 6: on your mindset, it creates potential opportunity. So sure, I
• 26:54
  Speaker 6: don't know the territory was necessarily leveraging that particular exemption,
• 26:59
  Speaker 6: but when you had this noise around tariff and Chinese
• 27:02
  Speaker 6: built cargo ships and a million dollar ship. Then all
• 27:05
  Speaker 6: of a sudden, now it becomes time to focus on
• 27:08
  Speaker 6: what you do have right, because you know, all of
• 27:11
  Speaker 6: a sudden, the playing field may have been unleveled, and
• 27:13
  Speaker 6: it kind of was leveled. Now it's unleveled in our
• 27:16
  Speaker 6: favor in terms of what can happen, not just in
• 27:18
  Speaker 6: the USVI, but Saint Thomas and Saint Croix can prove
• 27:21
  Speaker 6: to be a nice stopping zone for shipping companies to
• 27:25
  Speaker 6: the rest of the Caribbean, particularly with the tariff piece
• 27:28
  Speaker 6: that's in place. So that worked well. I know, our
• 27:30
  Speaker 6: delegate and our governor work closely with CARA COM and
• 27:34
  Speaker 6: CTO and some of the other organizations to meet with
• 27:37
  Speaker 6: the White House and the US Congress to ensure that
• 27:42
  Speaker 6: this exemption held, and it came out last week that
• 27:46
  Speaker 6: it does. I think at a minimum, it should prevent
• 27:51
  Speaker 6: from mass departures of these types of cargo ships coming in,
• 27:56
  Speaker 6: because at least now you don't have a million dollars
• 28:00
  Speaker 6: was thrown out on some of these trailers, these cargo
• 28:03
  Speaker 6: ships that were coming in with the trailers. It was
• 28:04
  Speaker 6: like three thousand or six thousand, but twenty and forty
• 28:07
  Speaker 6: foot each one coming in and now all of a
• 28:09
  Speaker 6: sudden that that is clearer now and you don't have that.
• 28:12
  Speaker 6: I think that should help us avoid seeing a major
• 28:16
  Speaker 6: change in our in our cargo business coming.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: In and out the same time as Carnival is next week,
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: I believe it starts, and I know that there's obviously
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: a ton that goes into that and a ton of
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: entertainment that's there. If someone out there is, hey, I
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: you know, someone wants to get away for you know,
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: a last minute trip.
• 28:34
  Speaker 6: You guys still got space, you can still got availability.
• 28:36
  Speaker 6: We still have space and ability. But it's pretty pretty
• 28:39
  Speaker 6: crowded and getting full. But you know, I was debating,
• 28:43
  Speaker 6: you know, I fly home on Friday from JFK, and
• 28:48
  Speaker 6: I get some meetings in New York tomorrow, and I
• 28:49
  Speaker 6: was debating when I was gonna just fly from here
• 28:51
  Speaker 6: on Jet Blue down NonStop, And there were a couple
• 28:54
  Speaker 6: of seats left on the flight. So so there is
• 28:56
  Speaker 6: ways to get in next week. I'm sure it's going
• 28:58
  Speaker 6: to be pretty crowded, you know. But we we are
• 29:02
  Speaker 6: doing really really well. We have a lot lots of
• 29:04
  Speaker 6: NonStop lifting to the territory. The New England area has
• 29:08
  Speaker 6: been very very good to us. As a matter of fact,
• 29:10
  Speaker 6: Delta Airlines we'll start flying NonStop from Logan, Logan to
• 29:15
  Speaker 6: Saint Thomas in December, which was a big, big win
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: for us and a big win for people in the
• 29:21
  Speaker 6: area to have a second option flying out of Logan
• 29:23
  Speaker 6: to the Virgin Islands. And you know, we continue to push,
• 29:28
  Speaker 6: you know, our relationships in the Boston area continue to
• 29:32
  Speaker 6: strengthen ours with with the Financial Exchange. You know, we
• 29:34
  Speaker 6: have a relationship with the Red Sox and we also
• 29:37
  Speaker 6: do a strategic partner with the FM Championship, the golf
• 29:41
  Speaker 6: tournament that happened in August at TBC Boston. So so
• 29:46
  Speaker 6: we we are invested in the area. We we enjoy
• 29:51
  Speaker 6: when the Boston and the New England people come into
• 29:54
  Speaker 6: the territory. We want to make sure we treat you
• 29:56
  Speaker 6: like family. And we had a special highlight last week
• 30:00
  Speaker 6: the Jet Blue Red Sox jet was in town and
• 30:04
  Speaker 6: of course that's nice people. Yeah, chomping at the bit
• 30:07
  Speaker 6: talking about you know, the Red Sox definitely was in town.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: Definitely, Joe appreciate you coming into chat with us. Always
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: good to see you and hope that you have a
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: great rest of the spring and a good start to
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: the summer.
• 30:19
  Speaker 6: Thank you, I appreciate you and to be back soon.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: That is Joe Bishualti, the Commissioner of the US Virgin
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Islands Department of Tourism. Let's take a quick break here
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: when we come back. We got the trivia answer and
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: stack Roulette after this.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: The global trade Warrior is in full swing.
• 30:35
  Speaker 6: How long will it last?
• 30:36
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• 30:39
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• 30:43
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• 30:47
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• 30:50
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• 30:53
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• 30:56
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• 31:00
  Speaker 5: Trivia question today was what was the name of William
• 31:04
  Speaker 5: Shakespeare's wife? That would be Anne Halfway. A winner today
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: of the Financial Exchange Show T shirt was Chris from Enfield, Connecticut.
• 31:14
  Speaker 5: Congrats to Chris and we play trivia every day here
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: on the Financial Exchange c Complete contest rules at Financial
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: Exchange Show dot com.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Mark what do you have for me? For stack Roulette today?
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: There's an article in the Wall Street Journal five minute
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: ev charging us here, but not for US made cars,
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: which means.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: That it's not here, that it's here, it's there.
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: We're never gonna and it'll never come here probably Why never?
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: Well, I assume that this protectionist strain will persist whether
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: it's a Republican president next time or a Democrat president.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: Well, doesn't it just mean that you won't you like
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: the Chinese companies that are developing this, they won't necessarily
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: be allowed.
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: Okay, And I guess I'm assuming that we're years and
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: years behind the Chinese.
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: Why this one? Are we?
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: Because the are article doesn't mention that that we are.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: I was hoping there'd be no follow up questions in
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: this segment to be perfectly can't.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: I don't think we're supposed to be a breezing I
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: don't know that we're neither far behind nor.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: I want it now, Chuck, I want five minute charging?
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: Now?
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: What about four minute charging?
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: No?
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: That would be like four minute apps, But I might
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: I was getting that, Yeah, I why no, it's seven
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: minute apps? Why not six?
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: I was going to turn this into uh to a
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: regret about protectionism. We could have access to this technology
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: now if we just get over this fetish with making
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: everything here. Of course, at first it would make American
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: made evs. It would put them at a serious competitive disadvantage,
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: but would also speed up the innovative process, force them
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: to get leaner and develop a competing technology quicker if
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: we would allow some of these goods in everybody.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand, I
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: don't want Chinese made evs anywhere near the United States
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: because of the national security concerns that they present as
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: far as location tracking, mobility, YadA, YadA. On the other hand, sure,
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: I always want increased competition, but you want it from
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: companies and countries that are not adopting such an adversarial posture.
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: Well, if it's a national security threat, yeah, clearly that
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: would be sit isn't Is there not a way to
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: debug these things? And debugs not the right word, but
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: you know what I mean.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: I don't think they.
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: Can embed it so deeply that we just can't detect it.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: I have no idea, But I don't even think it's
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: so much about like active bugging, but just more, Hey,
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: do you have back doors where the information is being
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: you know?
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a better way to put it.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: It's not hidden. It's just okay. The information is being
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: sent back to the company in China, and there's nothing
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: that you can do about that.
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: That's true, and that'd be true of any car that
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: you drive made by a foreign entity. My little Volkswagen
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: has an app. It knows where I am, presumably if
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: anybody had any interest as to my whereabouts, which I
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: don't think anybody does, but if they.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Did, someone's interested in where you are.
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: Maybe maybe maybe United Health still with an economic interest
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: in you taking care of myself.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: Your car insurance company wants to know how fast you're driving,
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: what G force you're encountering. You know those kinds of things.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: Do they still do the thing where you can put
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: the little bug in your car from the insurance company
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: on the app. Now, oh it's it is.
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: A little gyroscope, and then they know what direction you're turning, how.
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: Fast your velocity?
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: Oh interesting, Well, no, I turned it off because I'm
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: always looking at my phone and you get dinged for that.
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: Usage based insurance. Is that what it's called?
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was either Geico or State Farm UTAFF.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: But I.
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: Turned it on for about a week. I got a
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: score of like negative twenty turned it right off a
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: scale of zero to one hundred.
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I said, let's shut this sucker off.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: What's your biggest problem? Is it accelerating too fast? Is
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: it breaking too hard? Propres a little fast.
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: Calumn B A B through through C. Yeah, but no,
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: what really bugged me is that they penalize you for
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: looking at your phone. So if you're listening to the podcast,
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: I should Yeah, I know, Chuck.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: But what really bugged me is they didn't.
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: No, I'm not doing that.
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: You podcasts on the way in occasionally, you've got to
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: make an adjustment, not even at a red lights.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: I'm on the car play, not even you know, I
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: hit it on the touch screen.
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: Again, I expected, probably prepare for this segment or the interrogation.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: To be honest, I kind of resent it. I came
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: to this with a nice, breezy topic, and I expected
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: you to fill We'll see if you.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: Do that again. I don't even have a topic. So
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: you at least beat what I can't talk to you?
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: Do you do you turn a little progressive Geico thing on.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I haven't checked you would know.
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: I get I'll report.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: I don't get a report from my insurance that that
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: tells me how fast I'm dry.
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: But what's many things?
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: Like you said, it's breaking and cornering, and speed is
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: one of them, distractedness is another. It all makes perfect sense.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: It just seemed a little too intrusive to me. I'm
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: just not there yet.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: If I had to rate, you know, the things that
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: I do badly as a driver. The number one thing
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: I first of all, I drive en courteous. No I'm not.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: I'm courteous enough. I'm not like I'm probably like right
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: in the middle of the spectrum there self interest. I
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: drive very nicely on the highway.
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: The one thing that I like to do is when
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: I'm on a nice curvy road, I do like to
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: really try to hit the apex of that turn, you know,
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: like I just like to be like, ooh, like this
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: is how I would do it if I were an
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: F one driver, not in terms of the speed, but
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: just the the arc that I take the off ramp
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: on to get to hear I do it there all
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: the time. It's amazing. One of the top off, I'm like, okay,
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: I'm all the way over to the right side of
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: the lane. Bang cut it over, and then you got
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: that cut back.
• 37:02
  Speaker 5: To the left inside corner.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: Oh, it feels so good.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: I should do a coffee table book off Ramps of America.
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: Coffee table.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: That's a good, solid off ramp, Tucker, we could do that,
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: just call it off ramp apex. I like that because
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: here's the thing about doing it on an all tramp.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: There's also no traffic coming in the other direction, so
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: it's entirely safe.
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: How about the one and going to the ninety five
• 37:25
  Speaker 5: towards Gilette.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: I haven't been down cut off ramp? Yep, that one
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: is good cut off ramp.
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: Right, That's that's my everyday off ramp.
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: You're talking about that merge, double.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: Lanes, good ramp, whatever, good ramp.
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: A lot of potential accident, not just when I'm merging,
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: but a lot of potential. Makes it interesting because no
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: one really knows how to negotiate the I come you know,
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: you come in at sixty. I'm not slowing down.
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: It makes no sense.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: No, you accelerate off going right on. I do as well.
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: Right, it's inefficient.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: Tell me to go twenty five? You want me to
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: do right now? No, I'm gonna think I'm gonna let
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: then engine slow me down.
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: I hope no STADI or d T person listening, but
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: I think it's posted at forty there on that mone.
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: To be fair nuts again. I'm the guy who typically
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: drives in like the rightmost lane because I'm like, oh,
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: let me see how much fuel economy I can get
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: on the highway. That's what happens when you get older,
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: you do that.
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: I know.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: Let's take a quick break for the entire rest of
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: the day. TJ Fridays has just eighty five restaurants left
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: in the United States. I guess no one is looking
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: forward to Friday anymore. But we got more financial exchange
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: tomorrow on Thursday right here,