Latest / The Financial Exchange Show / Google and Meta had a very bad week

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Google and Meta had a very bad week · The Financial Exchange Show

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  Speaker 1: and Mark Fandetti.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Hour two here on the Financial Exchange and taking a
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: look at markets. They're not moving today because they're closed
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: in observance of Good Friday. Chuck, Mark and Tucker with you.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: And we still even though markets are closed, we still
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  Speaker 2: got plenty to actually get through this hour. We're gonna
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  Speaker 2: have a couple of guests coming on later. Greg McBride
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: from bank Rate is gonna be joining us, and the
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: one and only Paul Amonica from Baron's is going to
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: join us as well. But we kick things off this
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  Speaker 2: hour with a discussion of Google and Meta. Google lost
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  Speaker 2: its second antitrust case in eight months this week, and
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  Speaker 2: Meta is in a trial with the FTC right now,
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  Speaker 2: which is trying to force it to divest Instagram and
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  Speaker 2: or WhatsApp. Who do you want to talk about? First,
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  Speaker 2: Alphabets or Meta?
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  Speaker 3: Let's go in alphabetical order.
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  Speaker 2: I like what you did there, Mark, I do so.
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  Speaker 2: Alphabet had its second case that it lost in eight months,
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  Speaker 2: this one basically saying that it operates monopolistically in you know,
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  Speaker 2: a couple different areas of the online ad market. And
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  Speaker 2: this is not surprising, at least it's not surprising to me.
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  Speaker 2: I get Well, here's it's surprising that the judges in
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  Speaker 2: both cases actually ruled this way just because it seems
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  Speaker 2: like we haven't had any meaningful anti trust movement for decades.
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  Speaker 2: But the crux of this all comes back to an
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  Speaker 2: acquisition that Google made back in when was it It was
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  Speaker 2: back in twenty twelve. I'm just looking to make sure
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  Speaker 2: I get the dates or in two thousand and eight,
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  Speaker 2: I'm sorry. Google bought a company called double Click in
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  Speaker 2: March of two thousand and eight, and double click is
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  Speaker 2: basically a ad tech company that they provided pretty much
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  Speaker 2: like a marketplace or a platform for ad buyers to
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  Speaker 2: go into and then ad sellers to sell space across
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  Speaker 2: multiple different networks and all kinds of targeting. Google bought them,
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  Speaker 2: and at the time, back in two thousand and eight,
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  Speaker 2: the FTC asked them, hey, do you plan on integrating
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  Speaker 2: this with you know, the rest of your ad suite,
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  Speaker 2: because we would find that to be problematic. Google at
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  Speaker 2: the time said no, we don't plan on doing so,
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  Speaker 2: and in fact, we don't think that we can. We
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  Speaker 2: don't think it's possible for us to do so.
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  Speaker 1: Well.
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  Speaker 2: Four years later, in twenty twelve, they did. They did exactly.
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  Speaker 2: That just what the FTC was nervous about. So for me,
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  Speaker 2: this is kind of a long time coming because I
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  Speaker 2: think Google's been playing in the monopolistic sandbox for quite
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  Speaker 2: some time here, So it's nice to see, you know,
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  Speaker 2: some action happening against this. What's the actual remedy that
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  Speaker 2: ends up, you know happening? Here are parts of Google
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  Speaker 2: split out, like do they have to divest YouTube? Do
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  Speaker 2: they have to divest their ad network from their search operations.
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  Speaker 2: They're different frameworks that you can look at. But this
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  Speaker 2: is now again two cases where they've lost in eight months,
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  Speaker 2: and so the government in the first one did say yes,
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  Speaker 2: we want to try to split the company up. In
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  Speaker 2: the second one, they haven't gotten to the point where
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  Speaker 2: the government is proposing remedies yet. But this is where
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  Speaker 2: we stand right now.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so too soon to say what the long term
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  Speaker 3: impact will be on earnings and thus share price.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, no idea.
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  Speaker 3: How you've pointed out in the past that this could have.
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  Speaker 3: It may seem grim in the very short term, but
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  Speaker 3: in the long term it could have positive positive effects
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  Speaker 3: on company bottom line it forces them to innovate elsewhere,
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  Speaker 3: or positive effects certainly for the industry and even the
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  Speaker 3: economy just hard to say right now.
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  Speaker 2: So that's what's going on with the googs and Meta
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  Speaker 2: is in a step you know, anti trust case that's
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  Speaker 2: been brought by the FTC right now. And the fascinating
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  Speaker 2: thing here is that the FTC literally, and I say
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  Speaker 2: that literally as well, because I know sometimes people use
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  Speaker 2: literally when they want to say figuratively, the FTC literally
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  Speaker 2: has emails from Mark Zuckerberg two other Facebook executives saying, hey,
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  Speaker 2: we want to buy these companies referring to Instagram and
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  Speaker 2: WhatsApp because otherwise they could compete with us in the
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  Speaker 2: social media space and we don't want them to. We
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: don't want to have to deal with that. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: what do you even need a trial for? I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I guess it's obviously because they don't want to give,
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  Speaker 2: Like they couldn't reach a settlement and say, yeah, we're gonna,
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  Speaker 2: you know, divest ourselves of Instagram or WhatsApp. But wouldn't
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  Speaker 2: it be freaking wild if out of this, somehow Instagram
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  Speaker 2: gets spun out as a separate company. Seriously, it would
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  Speaker 2: be potentially oh okay, Like, wouldn't it be wild if
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  Speaker 2: that's what actually happens to any of it. I'm well, okay,
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  Speaker 2: here's the thing. I'm not really much of a social
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  Speaker 2: media person. I have a Facebook account. I was looking
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  Speaker 2: the other day. The last time that I logged in
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  Speaker 2: was August of twenty twenty one, so it's been a
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  Speaker 2: while since I've been in there. To be honest, don't
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  Speaker 2: know the password. And every time that I accidentally like
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  Speaker 2: wind up like with some website trying to auto log
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  Speaker 2: me into Facebook, I'm like, no, like, I don't even
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  Speaker 2: want to do a forget password because my life's been
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: kind of better since I've stopped looking at Facebook. Quite honestly,
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  Speaker 2: it's it's it's sa it really is. Like social media
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  Speaker 2: really sucks. It's all me, you know, like aside from
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  Speaker 2: the breaking news aspect of it, which is not really
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  Speaker 2: what Facebook platforms are used for. It kind of sucks. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: And so there's that. But I think, you know, Gollagy Wilkers,
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  Speaker 2: if you ended up with Facebook having to part ways
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  Speaker 2: with either Instagram or WhatsApp, it's a seismic shakeup in
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  Speaker 2: what is very big ad business.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously.
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  Speaker 3: Oh sorry, I didn't realize not being on it. I
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  Speaker 3: didn't realize how crucial it was to the overall experience.
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  Speaker 2: Listen, you're better off not being on it, you know.
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  Speaker 2: It's I just I couldn't even tell you.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, the only thing I'm on is Instagram because it's
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  Speaker 4: innocent enough, like you see like funny reels. Your algorithm
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: is you know, you know, accustomed to cooking or golf
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  Speaker 4: or whatever I'm interested in or anything like that, and
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  Speaker 4: then I can see like pictures of my friend's kids
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  Speaker 4: or whatever they're doing, whereas Facebook has just become a
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  Speaker 4: political dumpster fire.
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  Speaker 1: You know, where I go.
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  Speaker 2: Once a month now just for a good laugh is LinkedIn. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I I go there just to see all of like
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: this self important you know posts about well I was
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: making breakfast today and it made me think about building
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: a business and how you don't just need eggs in
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  Speaker 2: your business, you also need toast.
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  Speaker 4: Buckle up for another two thousand words.
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  Speaker 2: Like I just I freaking love those things just because
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  Speaker 2: there's so I don't know if they're toned off for
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  Speaker 2: if people actually know what they're doing, but it's just
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: like I was at my son's cricket game and I realized,
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: no one likes cricket in America. Why are we here
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: this is a thought about building a market for your business.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: And here's what I'm going to tell you. So I
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: enjoy LinkedIn just because of the unintentional comedy, but other
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: than that, it's kind of like, Okay, I float around
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: on x for some breaking news and stuff, and other
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  Speaker 2: than that, man, it's just it's not worth it.
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  Speaker 1: It just.
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  Speaker 2: It really has gotten bad. I do hear that people
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: spend a lot of time on Facebook market. I hear
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: you can get some good deals there, sure, But other
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: than that, whof it's just it's something that I would
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: just rather not spend my time on. But they might
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: be getting broken up a little bit, so who knows,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: maybe the experience gets better if they do take a
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: quick break. When we come back, we'll do a little
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: bit of trivia and then we got to talk meat
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: after this. Let's talk about meat after trivia.
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  Speaker 1: When we return, Tara Fever is in high gear. We've
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: got the latest on what might be next and how
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: long it might last. Only here on the Financial Exchange
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• 10:00
  Speaker 4: All right, sign for trivia here on this on the
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: Financial Exchange on this day, back in seventeen seventy five,
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: Paul Revere rides from Charlestown to Lexington morning. The regulars
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: are coming. The famous insided are. The famous inside was
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: memorialized in the famous eighteen sixty poem Paul Revere's Ride.
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: Trivia question today, who wrote the famous poem Paul Revere's Ride?
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: Once again? Who wrote the famous poem Paul Revere's Ride?
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: Be the second person today to text us at six
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: one seven three six two thirteen eighty five with the
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• 10:48
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• 10:52
  Speaker 4: contest rules at Financial Exchange Show dot com.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Looks like meat is back on the menu. We got
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: some st statistics from I got to figure out how
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: to work here the meat Institute.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: I gotta look into this for silly.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: I don't think I actually want to work there. It's
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: a meatpacking in processing trade organizations, so I don't need
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: to see how the sausage is made because I know
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: and I don't honestly respect the people that have to
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: work in that job because it's not easy and does
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: not look pleasant. So I respect immensely the amount of
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: stuff they have to go through in order for me
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: to get the meats. But on average, according to the
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Meat Institute, Americans eight two percent more meat last year
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: than the year before, and the number of consumers said
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: they were trying to eat less meat fell to twenty
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: two percent, which is the lowest level in the last
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: five years. So, you know, I remember back whenever it
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: was when you guys remember when Beyond Meat was a thing.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Oh sure, it was like this hyped ipo and we
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: were sitting here like it's a food company. It's not
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: gonna be something that is like crazily profitable because it's
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: gonna get commoditized and other people will come in and
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: YadA YadA. And by the way, it's exactly what has happened.
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  Speaker 2: They're operating margins for the last twelve months are negative
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: forty seven point eight percent.
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: In twenty nineteen, the stock hit two hundred and thirty
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: five dollars a year.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: It's worth two seventy six right now. That's two dollars
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: in seventy six right now, not two hundred and seventy six.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: So I think a couple things have happened here. The
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: first is, look, I tried a few of these different
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: beyond and impossible things and they're fine.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: Tried them once, that was it.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: They're not worth the premium price that you pay. The
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: second thing, I remain unconvinced that the health benefits are anything.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: And the reason why is twofold well really onefold, but
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: with two examples, just because something is plant based doesn't
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: mean it's good for you. Mark, do you ever sit
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: down and you're like, man, a real healthy meal tonight
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: would be a whole bag of ruffles. No. Having said that,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: occasionally I might eat like a quarterbag of ruffles just
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: because it gets away from you and you're like, okay,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: when I'm dipping it in the hell of a good dip,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: it's kind of hard to put down, Like, I get it.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: But potato chips plant based, not great for you. So
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: just because something is plant based doesn't mean it's good.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: More examples of this. I've said it before, I'll say
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: it again. Cocaine not good for you, but plant based.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: So just because something is plant based doesn't inherently mean
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: that it's good for your health. In fact, it can
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: actually mean that it's terrible for your health in some cases.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: My argument is more, look, we just don't know on
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: this stuff because it's all brand new. Like it was
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: like reformulated pea protein that they put into these burgers.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: I have no idea if that's good for you or not.
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  Speaker 4: Loaded with sodium.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: It seemed like, well, look, eating potatoes is just fine
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: for you. When you put them in a deep fryer,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: it no longer is. So I have no idea if
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: the way that they make these you know impossible or
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: beyond meat things, is any good for you. And the
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: other piece is, look, ultimately, when it comes to food,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: who is the person that's buying these meat substitutes? Because
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: I know a number of vegetarians. I have a couple
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: of vegetarians in my family, and I've asked them about this,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: because you know, they'll come over and I say, hey,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: like we're doing burgers. I what can I get for you?
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: And they'll say, can you get me one of you know,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: these veggie burgers from this company? And I've asked them like,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: why don't you want you know what about like the
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: beyond meat or the impossible burger? What's the deal? And
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: part of their answer is I don't like meat or
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: I don't want to eat meat. I want something that
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: is different. So when the vegetarians are saying, hey, I
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: don't want to eat this, and the meat eaters are saying, well,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: this is fine, but I'd rather have the meat, the
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: question that I have on some of this is like
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: who's the market for? Like who's gonna buy this? If
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: the meat eaters and vegetarians don't want it?
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: So what did they request from you? If you were
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: hosting a barbecue and you they didn't want that stuff?
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Want? O?
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: What's what's the name of it? It's no, No, like
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: a veggie burger? Oh okay, like an actual veggie burger. Ye,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: like black bean vegieber. I forget the name of It's
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: something something farms like green Star Farms or golden Shire
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Farms or something like that.
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: You can probably uh Amy's Organic?
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Is it?
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: Morning Star? Morning Star Farm?
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: That's the one. That's the one. And it's just like
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: it's an actual veggie burger because that's what they want
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: to eat. And I'm not gonna be like no, Like
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: you're eating the wrong vegie, Like, how the heck do
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: I know? Like so the actual like plant based burger substitute.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: I just don't know who the market is for your thoughts, Mark.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: I'm not thinking about food right now, Chuck. Is I
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: had an adverse food experience in the past twelve or
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: so hours.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: That's fine, that's fine.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: No, I sympathize, though, I like innovation. Innovation is mostly failure,
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: So I know, I don't mean to take a serious
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: turn in a lighthearted on a lighthearted subject.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: No, it is, but it's it's true failure. It's true.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: They gave it a shot.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: The stuff I'm interested in, quite honestly, and you know,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: probably the anyone who's still listening is gonna be like, Chuck,
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: what the heck are you talking about? I'm very interested
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: in the prospects for a lab grown beat, just to
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: see what it's like, you know what, where you're actually
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: growing like muscle cells.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: How could it taste any different? It's it is the
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: tasting it can Okay, I don't know.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know the same thing.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: It doesn't have the same case.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: But do you have like the exact same texture and everything?
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Do you get like the streations in the muscle that
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: you get in the same way is the fat and
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: marble the same way that it isn't real. But I'm
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: curious about this just because, hey, sometimes there is a
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: way to build a better mouse trap, and that to
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: me is more interesting than plant based meat. Who is
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: it that came out with the meat based carrot? Was
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: that Arby's something? I'm pretty sure it was Arby's who
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: came out with the meat based carrot.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: It was Arby's. Yeah, yeah, yeah, twenty nineteen. Yeah, yeah,
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: that I would have tried.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: It was. I think it was a very limited time only,
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: but I would have given given that a run. Arby's,
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: by the way, criminally underrated as a I've never had, You've.
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: Never around here, and I've heard it is overrated. So
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: you've heard it's overrated. Oh no, I think it's Underratedky, Well,
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: meet in the middle.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: I guess the sauces are quite good. I think.
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: If you're basing your roast beef off of sauces, and
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: maybe it's not the best roast, well.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Just the thought it's fast food roast beef. I mean,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: it is what it is like. You've got to temper
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: your expectations. You don't go in there expect capital grill.
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: Somebody says doctor Prager, veggie burgers are good.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Sure I can buy that, Yeah, But I just think
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: that on the whole plant based meat thing, I've always
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: struggled to be like, who is the market for this?
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: And it seems like that's the case. I mean, now
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: that you know, beyond meat is is where it is
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: impossible foods? Did they?
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: I p O?
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: I know they didn't. Are they owned by someone? But
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: it just doesn't seem like there's a lot of meat
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: on that bone, if you will, so, I uh, I
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: don't know. Look, especially you get towards Easter weekend, you
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: can't do a plant based you know.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: Are you a brunch guy or a dinner guy?
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: Or dinner early dinner, four pm dinner on Easter? Same
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: as Thanksgiving.
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: I like the brunch, I like the lunch. Don't like
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: the ham with the pineapples.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Oh crap, No, I'm not a ham guy.
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: Okay, good, not not ham free. So we're doing it
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: like a lamb tenderloiner. Okay, you know that's the way
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: to do it, and glazed ham and get that garbage, and.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: Quite honestly, we go out for it. Because we don't
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: want to mess at home. Look at you. Yeah, I
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: think that's the way to go. So anyways, let's take
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: a quick break and when we come back, no more
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: meat talk. Instead, we're joined by Greg McBride from bank
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Rate talking about their home affordability report.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: After this, bringing the latest financial news straight to your radio.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Every day, it's the Financial Exchange on the Financial Exchange
• 19:48
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• 20:05
  Speaker 4: The Financial Exchange is a proud partner of the Disabled
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• 20:38
  Speaker 4: Trivia question in the prior segment was who wrote the
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• 21:00
  Speaker 2: As promised, we're now joined by Greg McBride from Bank
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Right here to talk about their home affordability report that
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: they had just released. Greg, how are you today?
• 21:10
  Speaker 6: Fantastic, Happy Friday, Thanks for having me.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: Absolutely when looking at this do most Americans still want
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: to own a home?
• 21:19
  Speaker 6: Yes, it is overwhelmingly considered part of the American dream
• 21:23
  Speaker 6: and outranking anything else, and affordability challenge is notwithstanding that
• 21:29
  Speaker 6: desire has actually gone up. We found eighty two percent
• 21:33
  Speaker 6: of Americans this year say that they consider home ownership
• 21:36
  Speaker 6: to be part of the American dream. That's up from
• 21:38
  Speaker 6: seventy eight percent last year, and it out ranks things
• 21:42
  Speaker 6: like being able to retire, having a successful career, or
• 21:45
  Speaker 6: owning an automobile. So still very much central, if not
• 21:49
  Speaker 6: the cornerstone of the American dream.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: When it comes to that affordability, What are the big
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: issues that Americans report having in terms of being to
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: buy a home.
• 22:01
  Speaker 6: The three biggest that really bubbled at the top not
• 22:05
  Speaker 6: having enough income, home prices being too high, and the
• 22:09
  Speaker 6: inability to afford the down payment and closing costs. Now
• 22:13
  Speaker 6: honorable mention should also go to high mortgage rates. About
• 22:17
  Speaker 6: one in three aspiring homeowners pointed to high mortgage rates
• 22:21
  Speaker 6: as something that is keeping them from from buying a home.
• 22:26
  Speaker 6: One of the a little bit more surprising was only
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: about one in six pointed to the lack of inventory
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: of available homes. That situation has improved. Certainly, it's not
• 22:37
  Speaker 6: as tight as it was. You know, you think back,
• 22:39
  Speaker 6: you know, a year, two years, even three years ago.
• 22:41
  Speaker 6: It's that situation has improved. It's only about one and
• 22:44
  Speaker 6: six pointing to that as as being what they considered
• 22:47
  Speaker 6: an obstacle at this point in terms.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: Of, you know, how people are trying to manage their
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: housing situation and that affordability piece. What are people saying
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: that they may be changing in order to try to
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: make their housing situation more affordable.
• 23:05
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and most Americans are willing to do something. Sixty
• 23:08
  Speaker 6: four percent said they are willing to take some sort
• 23:10
  Speaker 6: of action to find more affordable housing, and most commonly,
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: downsizing living space, moving out of state, moving further from
• 23:19
  Speaker 6: family and friends, buying a fixer upper, taking on roommates
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: or additional family members. What's interesting is that some of
• 23:28
  Speaker 6: these come with additional costs of their own, right, I mean,
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: moving out of state or having a longer commute, buying
• 23:34
  Speaker 6: a fixer upper, those type of things come with their
• 23:37
  Speaker 6: costs of their own that I think you also have
• 23:39
  Speaker 6: to factor in, and so that I think kind of
• 23:41
  Speaker 6: comes into that search for affordable housing is what other
• 23:45
  Speaker 6: ancillary costs might you be picking up in your efforts
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: to reduce your monthly expenses.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: On the down payment side of things, when people report
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: being discouraged there, what are they saying in terms of
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: how long they think it's going to take them to
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: see for the down payment on a home?
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean the most common is people say it'll
• 24:05
  Speaker 6: take three to five years. And when we talk to
• 24:08
  Speaker 6: existing homeowners, how did you save for the down payment?
• 24:13
  Speaker 6: They overwhelmingly say that it was intentional. They specifically saved
• 24:17
  Speaker 6: for that purpose. You know, it just it doesn't happen
• 24:20
  Speaker 6: by accident. Forty four percent of current homeowners say that
• 24:24
  Speaker 6: they specifically saved for that down payment. Twenty percent of
• 24:29
  Speaker 6: aspiring homeowners feel like they're never going to get there.
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: They say they'll never be able to save enough for
• 24:35
  Speaker 6: a down payment, and it is no doubt challenging. We've
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: seen this in separate savings surveys that we've done inflation.
• 24:44
  Speaker 6: Sixty eight percent of consumers point to inflation as what's
• 24:48
  Speaker 6: keeping them from being able to save more. So, you
• 24:51
  Speaker 6: know it is it's a tough hurdle to clear in
• 24:55
  Speaker 6: terms of accumulating savings and saving for a specific purpose
• 24:59
  Speaker 6: like that. It's going to require a good chunk of change,
• 25:02
  Speaker 6: and I think, you know, the responses certainly reflect that.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: Any other key takeaways from the survey that you want
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: to make sure our listeners hear and understand.
• 25:12
  Speaker 6: Yeah, there was one thing it was interesting is that
• 25:15
  Speaker 6: younger generations Gen Z and millennials, they were slightly less
• 25:21
  Speaker 6: likely than Gen xers or boomers to consider home ownership
• 25:24
  Speaker 6: part of the American dream. But that's not to say
• 25:28
  Speaker 6: that they have any less desire to own a home.
• 25:31
  Speaker 6: Their desire to own a home is actually higher. When
• 25:33
  Speaker 6: we surveyed non homeowners of the different generations, only four
• 25:38
  Speaker 6: percent of Gen zs and eight percent of millennials say
• 25:41
  Speaker 6: that they never want to own a home under any circumstances,
• 25:43
  Speaker 6: and that's lower than what we find among non homeowners
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: in Gen X and Baby Boomers, so they don't necessarily
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: view it as a part of the American dream did
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: the same extent, But the desire to own a home
• 25:57
  Speaker 6: is it is very much there, and it's actually higher
• 26:00
  Speaker 6: than their their order counterparts.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Very good, Greg, We appreciate you joining us today. Thank
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: you so much for the time, and we will catch
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: up with you soon.
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: Always a pleasure, Thanks for having me.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: That is Greg McBride from bank Rate talking about the
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: latest data out of their home affordability survey that they conducted. Tucker,
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: I can't remember, DoD we do trivia? We did, Yeah,
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: already did, Okay, so we did some trivia. We gave
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: the trivia answer already. Sticking with a little bit of
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: housing information, some signs in March that you had a
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: little bit of a slowdown in construction. Housing starts dipped
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: to a one point three to two million annualized pace
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: from one point four to nine million previous. This despite
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: look March obviously not obviously March had you know better
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: weather and things like that than February nationwide, and so
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: you would have expected a little bit of an optic.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: But what we've been hearing from publicly traded homebuilders, they're
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: starting to curtail their activity a little bit, maybe a
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: five to ten percent reduction in the amount of construction
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: that they're doing. They don't represent, you know, the biggest
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: chunk of the home construction that happens in the US,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: just because even the big ones, it's still a very
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: diverse market in terms of there's not too much concentration there.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: But when you see the big ones pulling back, they
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: generally have more levers to pull than the smaller home builders.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: You know, the individuals that are going and building you know,
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: one or two homes a year, five to ten homes
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: a year. The ones that are building, you know, forty
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: thousand homes a year, they've got more levers they can pull.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: So if they're starting to pull back, what does it
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: tell you about what the small builders may be doing.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: And we're starting to see some signs that you may
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: be having a bit of a slowdown on that side
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: of things. It's just one month, but it bears watching
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: going forward to see if it continues. The counter to it,
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: building permits rose by about one point six percent from
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: the previous month. So even though fewer you know, new
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: starts builders still pulling permits at a pretty good clip.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: And that's something that you know, you can view as Okay,
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: maybe it's a little bit encouraging. So kind of some
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: divergent data that we're getting there from housing at the moment,
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: and we'll just have to see how it evolves over
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: the next quarter or two. Let's take a quick break.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: When we return, we're joined by paul A Monica from Baron's.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: Right after this, the global trade warrior is in full swing.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: How long will it last? Is anyone's gas? Keep it
• 28:28
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• 28:31
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• 28:36
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• 28:39
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• 28:46
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• 28:49
  Speaker 5: Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: Alright, alright, all right, we are now joined by the
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: one and only paul A Monica from Barons. We're gonna
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: be talking a little bit about Disney. Mister Lamonica, how
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: are you today?
• 29:23
  Speaker 5: I'm good. Thanks. How are you guys doing?
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: We're doing well. What's what's going on at the House
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: of Mouse? Their stock is not doing well this year?
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: What's what's wrong?
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it has been a very difficult year for Disney stock,
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: down nearly twenty five percent, one of the worst performers
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: in the DOW. I think there are growing concerns that,
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: you know, the trade war that we have and a
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: possible economic slowdown is going to weigh on Disney going forward.
• 29:54
  Speaker 5: That's why he had a UBS analyst recently cut his
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: price target, you know, pretty sharply, from one thirty to
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: one oh five, you.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Know, due to you know, the.
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: Expectation that Disney should trade it a discount to the broader
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: market because of the worries about recession risk and what
• 30:14
  Speaker 5: it did during the pandemic, and you know, I think
• 30:17
  Speaker 5: we're hoping that things are going to be that dire
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: for Disney, but you could see a slowdown in travel
• 30:26
  Speaker 5: to the US because of what's going on with all
• 30:28
  Speaker 5: these global trade tensions, and you know, the ad market
• 30:32
  Speaker 5: obviously could get hit in a recession as well. So
• 30:35
  Speaker 5: you look at ABC ESPN and then the theme park business.
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: Those are very economically sensitive businesses.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: You mentioned those areas, but I know that from a
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: film studio perspective, overseas markets, in particular the China market,
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: are a huge factor when it comes to the box office.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Now a ton of money is made from those overseas markets.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: How much of this is potentially reflecting concerned about you know,
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: Disney movies that might not be able to be shown
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: in China, things along those lines.
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think there is some worry about that with
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: regards to international markets, but I think a bigger concern
• 31:15
  Speaker 5: right now is you know, Captain America, Brave New World.
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: The box office was a little bit disappointing. There was
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: a lot of controversy about the live action Snow White
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: and whether or not it was too woke at a
• 31:30
  Speaker 5: time where there's a backlash to things considered two woke. So,
• 31:36
  Speaker 5: you know, I think it remains to be seen whether
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: or not, you know, Disney's box office can help even
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: in the US. I mean, I think the slate of
• 31:44
  Speaker 5: films going forward, more Marvel films, you know, the usual
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: Pixar slate. You know that that should help, and you know,
• 31:52
  Speaker 5: next year looks pretty promising when you consider Avengers movies
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: coming back, as well as you know, the Mandalorian and
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: Grogu movie that's going to becoming, you know, an extension
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: and the popular Disney plus Star Wars show. You know,
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: that could be good as well, but investors might have
• 32:08
  Speaker 5: to wait a while to see, you know, the benefits
• 32:12
  Speaker 5: of a potentially better twenty twenty six film slate.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: What's their streaming business look like these days? Have they
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: been able to kind of get that in line and
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: get that moving a little bit or is that still messy?
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: It's a little messy, but analysts are pretty optimistic that
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: you're getting some promising results there from the bundle of
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: Disney plus Hulu and ESPN plus. Espn has actually been
• 32:38
  Speaker 5: a bright spot lately with sports advertising for Disney, so
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: you know, there are hopes that streaming is going to
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: be more of a positive for Disney. But you know,
• 32:51
  Speaker 5: make no mistake, they face intense competition in streaming. Just
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: look at Netflix's results and guidance last night. That stock
• 33:00
  Speaker 5: you know up, you know after hours. We have to
• 33:02
  Speaker 5: wait until Monday when when regular trading beings again and
• 33:05
  Speaker 5: see what happens with Netflix stock but you know, that
• 33:08
  Speaker 5: is obviously a concern for Disney investors as well, and
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: you know, not just Netflix, but many other media companies
• 33:14
  Speaker 5: and Amazon of course too are big rivals within streaming.
• 33:18
  Speaker 5: But I think streaming is becoming more of a bright
• 33:21
  Speaker 5: spot because of the bundle for Disney than it had
• 33:24
  Speaker 5: been maybe in the past.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Paul, anything else with Disney that you think is relevant
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: to the business right now, anything they can do to
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: stem the tide at this point, you know, I think.
• 33:34
  Speaker 5: A lot of it is is macro. They're they're not
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: going to change what's what's going on in Washington, so
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: that is something that's kind of out of their control.
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: But that's the rest. You know, that's the same thing
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: for the rest of corporate America. I think the hope
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: is that if the movies start to pick up some
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: steam and do better, you've got easy comps as well,
• 33:57
  Speaker 5: because of the strikes you in Hollywood the past couple
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: of years, leading to a you know, less than desirable
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: film slate in twenty twenty four. You know, that's something
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: that that could benefit Disney. But you know, again, obviously
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: if we wind up having a recession, the ad business
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: is going to get hit that hurts ABC, that hurts ESPN.
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: You know, so a lot of it is out of
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: their control right now.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: Very good, Paul. We appreciate you joining us today. I
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: hope you have a great weekend and we will catch.
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: Up with you soon.
• 34:30
  Speaker 5: Great. Thanks a lot, guys.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: That is paul A Monica from Barons talking about Disney Tucker.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: Should we talk toll scams, TVs that read your mind,
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: or helicopters that are being rebranded as air taxis.
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: I think we should do the public service here and
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: talk about this toll scam thing because it's getting back.
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: It's one of the biggest scams I've seen in my lifetime.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you, I get probably two or three of
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: these texts a week if I just got on the
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: other day, I get two or three of them a week.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: And they claim to be you know, various different toll departments,
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: whether it's you know, New York or Massachusetts or Florida,
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: whoever you know it might be, and they say you've
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: got an unpaid toll balance you got to pay here.
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: And it's like a small amount too, which makes it
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: seem like it's real. It's like, but the weird thing
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: is like six ninety nine, It's like, well, why would
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: it told be six ninety nine?
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: Right, So yeah, here's the big thing that I tell
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: people when whenever anyone requests money from you, whether it's
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: over the phone, a text message and email, whatever it
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: might be, close whatever it is that you're doing. If
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: it's on the computer, hang up the phone, you know,
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: put the text message down, and go and find an
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: actual contact number for the organization that is requesting money.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: If it's not an organization, if it's like a family
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: member who you think is on the phone requesting money,
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: immediately hang up and call them back, okay, on their
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: actual number or something like that. Like don't cause you
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: can get all kinds of spoofing and there's all kinds
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: of AI voice things that you can do now. But
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: no one ever needs money that minute. They just don't.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: No one ever needs money that minute. They they can
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: wait five at the very least, they can probably wait
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: an hour or even a day in most cases. So
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: never ever, ever, ever go and say, oh, gee, like
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: I'm getting a text message, I got a phone call
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: that I got to deliver this money right now. Just
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: just take a step back. I know it can be
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: scary when it's happening, but take a step back. But
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: this toll one, it's again you get these like unpaid
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: toll texts and they have a scam link in it
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: that you click, and then your credit card information and
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: anything else that you put in there is now in
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: the hands of you know, the scammers, and that's where
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: things get you know, ugly for you especially. It might be, hey,
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: you're not you know, paying via credit card. Maybe you
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: had to, you know, put your bank information in there.
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: That's a pretty significant risk that you have. So I
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: think the big thing, take a step back, take some time, call,
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: you know, find an outside number that you you know,
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: can find from you know, a manual that you have
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: in your house, a check book, whatever it is. Talk
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: to someone there and see if things are legit. Beyond that, again,
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: this this toll scam is just everywhere. This this piece
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: from CNN Business says that you know, they found one
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: person who actually had like an unpaid toll and it
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: turned out that like they had an issue. But guys
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: like call easy pass or you know, call the mass
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: toll whoever they are. I don't even know what it
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: wasasy called easy drive, you know, like go online, call
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: them don't just accept that, oh, like they texted me like,
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: this must be wrong. If you're wondering if it's right
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: or not, call them, like, don't just ignore it completely.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: Find the number online if whoever you know is supposed
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: to be like bringing this to you, and and actually
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: like take some time to sort through it, because these
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: texting scams are just getting more sophisticated and more prolific.
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: It's just real quick. Some of these emails are actually
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: including tips about fraud prevention to make it look legitimate.
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's scary. It's getting to the point where I
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: don't want to have a phone or email address anymore.
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: I don't blame you.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: We're done for the day, done for the week. Hope
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: everyone has a great Easter weekend. We'll see you back
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: here on Monday. On the Financial Exchange