Latest / Winning With Winans! / Nevada Lieutenant Governor Stavros Anthony is our guest on Winning with Winans
Transcript
- speaker-0: Well I guess it's another time for an episode of Winning with Winens. Let's go. And welcome to Winning with Wine is Las Vegas News and Coolest Financial Show. I'm your host, Ken Winens. And for those of you who still do not know me, besides about the cowboy hat, I've been a nationwide financial commentator on Radio Forbes magazine for over 25 years. Most important, I founded a very successful investment management firm in 1992. Today, Winas Investments is the only Morningstar top rank manager based in Las Vegas, or as they say in poker, read it and weep. So over the next hour, we're gonna be covering a lot of important current events. And have there's not been a lot of news coming up? My gosh, I'll talk a little bit about my trip to Chicago and what I saw back there. But I am a news junkie. I follow nine different publications every day. I'm an old guy, I still like newspapers. Don't ask me why, but I get a lot more out of it. But let's look at the big picture of what's happening in the financial market: stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities, even cryptocurrencies. And we're going to talk a little bit later with our guest about all these new betting markets that are happening. But winning with Winas is truly different than all the other mainstream media shows because they just cover the day-to-day dot-to-dot things. We try to look at the big picture. At the end of the day, you just want to make money. So hey, let's get started. Okay, the headlines as they were coming out. Well, we all heard about last week with SpaceX IPO highly successful. Everybody was talking about it. And we do have the world's first trillionaire. You know what? I've been asked by a lot of people, that seems like a lot of money. And it is. It's a thousand billions. But folks, you need to adjust it for inflation. We've had many other people in society who have been as successful as Elon Musk. He is the richest by far in the world by and large. But you know what? This talk about wealth versus poor redistribution, we've heard this all before. But as far as hot IPOs go, as you all know, I was a little suspicious about the idea of jumping in on it. You know, here's the thing you have to remember. If you decide to go into the IPO game, you're gonna have to take the good, the bad, and the ugly. I know that for years and years I worked at Merrill Lynch. I saw that if you wanted to get the hot ones, you had to take the dogs. I if you want SpaceX, why don't you give a little bit of time to get some trading history behind it, buy it at that point in time. Okay, the other big thing, hey, the war with Iran. We have a framework of a peace treaty being signed. What does this mean for investors? Let's look at history. When you have peace begin to sh show up in a war, first thing that's going to happen, of course, this is a midterm election year. We've got to be aware we might have some things pop up that maybe there might be a flare-up. Go back and look at, well, for those of us who are around, I was very, very young, but Vietnam. We went on and off the peace process seven different times. Even in Iraq and Afghanistan, those are very drawn-out conflicts. All I can tell you, however, we may feel about it morally, the market geta typically dismisses these things. It moves on, but it can reshift the economy, which is what we really do want to have happen. Okay, let's talk about corporate earnings. This is very important. I was just back in Chicago at the Morningstar conference for money managers. And there was a lot of interesting talk going on about obviously inflation. Almost everybody there. And by the way, these are the top money managers in the world. We're all there at the same time. I don't even want to guess how many trillions of dollars of assets under management were all being out of what we call the Navy pier in ⁓ Chicago. But here's the thing: ⁓ it was about inflation, it was about shifting money around in a lot of different areas. What I was very surprised to still keep hearing about are what people in money management call. The alts. The alts stand for alternative investments. And I know for me, and I'm a commodity guy. That's certainly an alt. Real estate can be considered an alt. But what was still being pushed was the idea of buying into private companies, whether it's equity or debt, before they go public. And there was a lot of talk about how companies are just staying private longer. SpaceX being a prime example of it. It was private for 15 to 17 years before it ever went public. Okay, the other thing that came up. Was about the fact for many of us who were stock investors, it is what I'm going to call the revolving door of companies going on and coming off of the SP 500 index. Folks, I really it I got a bone to pick with the SP about this. Choose what you are. You're either a stock market benchmark or you're an investment product. I do not think you can serve two masters. And SP right now has a revolving door of companies. Coming in and going out of that index. They're already, in my opinion, shifting around to let even younger companies come in. But yet again, two old line companies have been around for probably 40 years are getting the boot and they're bringing two young ones in. ⁓ why don't we just call it the SP 500 Young Company Index? That might be a better way of taking it. But I think that that was be one thing we have to be aware of. I mentioned in the intro about these betting markets. Charles Schwab is teamed up with the Chicago Board of Options. To look at having a binary option. Now we're gonna have a guest later on in the show talk about these things. But I what I would just tell you is this. it might sound odd. I live in Las Vegas, as you all know. Why don't we just stick brokerage house office offices in the casinos? If we're gonna allow betting of stock market movements or real estate movements each and every day, let's just make it easy for everybody. I have a concern about this. ⁓ it seems to me, and I'll look I I do a lot of work with Charles Schwab. It's a great company. They are under the same regulatory regimes as I'm under. But the reality of it is that ⁓ why do we have to have these things that are in the gray zone of regulatory issues? It's it's a bit like crypto, same deal with crypto. But what it does mean, and a concern that I think to anybody who's an investor, it it basically says that we're gonna have 247. Trading activity with your money. There's a problem with this. I was around in 1987 when we had the 1987 crash. The market in about 30 seconds lost 28% of its value, just like that. We're going back to that world. When you have exchanges, you can shut the market down. You can say, hey, we're gonna, I mean, we shut the market down during 9/11. We've shut the market down at other points in times. But the reality of it is with this 24/7 trading. ⁓ it's gonna get tough for people such as me and I think everyday investors who might hear about some wacky activity over the weekend. I'm just suggesting I think that we're still very early to the party. We'll be able to talk more about it later, but you're gonna want to keep an eye on this as if you're an investor. I just think that we can see a situation develop that we might you know, the law of unintended consequences. Be careful. You might not like what you end up with. I mentioned early about the private equity, private debt. BlackRock, one of the biggest money managers on planet Earth, ⁓ they have a private debt fund. It was came out in the paper. Thirteen 13% redemptions. That means 13% of the money is getting yanked out of this pool. I don't know about you folks, but whether I mean I've been taught where there's smoke, there's fire. There's been a lot of talk about putting this into 401k plans. I am not in favor of that until we figure out what's going on. Hey, I'm not against new, by the way. ⁓ yes, I'm experienced as an investor. I don't think there's necessarily anything that's all that new, but hey, let's be serious. We need to be aware things can shift around. And these basically private debt means that you don't have financials published every quarter. You don't know what's going on. There's a reason there's a premium attached to it in the risk markets. So we have to be careful. Okay, economic news. Hey, guess what? The dollar's strong. What a surprise. Doll ⁓ I've talked about this many times on the show. The dollar is now at an 18-month high. I kept saying all along this was very different than the 1970s when the dollar went into a tailspin. There's no surprise that interest rates are probably going to be staying level. I know a lot of people in real estate want to see rates come down. But again, we have the inflation issue. The dollar's strong, you know what, you're gonna leave things alone. The new Fed chairman, Kevin Walsh, has got a big job on his hands. He has got to shrink. A $7 trillion balance sheet from our bailouts during 2007, 2008, the COVID mess, all of it. It takes time to pay all that off, but we need to get back on that and give and basically get ready for what I think are going to be some of the new big hiccups coming up. Sadly, Alan Greenspan, longtime chairman of the Federal Reserve, passed away this week. ⁓ he was a very instrumental figure through a big part of my career. ⁓ and you know what? He was always accused of not being clear. ⁓ I know that we some of us used to call him mumbles because he always used to come up with these words that none of us had ever heard of before. But anyway, we'll see what happens there. Hey, talk about I mean, we haven't talked about Doge in a while, but President Trump has promised shrinking government. Well, Department of Education is gonna be officially closing down in the very near future with a lot of the leftover duties being moved to other things. Hey, other big thing in the news. ⁓ we've talked a lot about Venezuela lately, but we haven't talked about Cuba. Cuba just had a huge shakeup in their economy, putting in free market repor ⁓ reforms. This is a bit like Vietnam. In a very strange way, folks, we've we're winning the war on communism. I know we don't think about it much, but Cuba changing means that there's some huge opportunities for us that we will come up with down the road. Okay, while I was in Chicago, I'm probably gonna get really in trouble on this, but I did go by and look at the brand new Obama Presidential Center. Folks, I'm a vet, I'm a proud American. I believe in honoring the office of the presidency. But this thing, I want you to all go take a look at it. I think it's ugly. I'm sorry. I'm just gonna say it. They spent $850 million on a building that looks like it's part of a military installation. And that includes another 123 million they spent on surrounding public infrastructure. I did a little math on this. $30 admission fees. If they have 33 million viewers, they break even. The state of Illinois only has a population of 13 million people. So do the math. You're going to have to have the entire population of Illinois go to this thing over two times. You know, if I was a taxpayer. In Illinois, ⁓ knowing that I had municipal bond money that went to this thing. I mean, think of the people in California with the train to nowhere. You know, I don't know what it is about blue states where there's no accountability, but I'm just here to tell you, I think that I feel bad for the citizens of these states. I I mean it's just it's sad what's happened. I'm too bad that things are going on the way they are there. But ⁓ I I've been to a lot of the other presidential libraries. They're beautiful. ⁓ but and again, I I don't know I don't even know what to say, except you should all just go take a picture of it and tell me what you think. If you don't agree with me, please tell me why. I'm not I don't have obnopuly on taste. But listen, we're gonna take a quick break. We have a very special guest coming on our show during the next two segments. This is Ken Winins with Winning with Winins, and we'll be right back. And welcome back to Winning with One is Las Vegas' newest and coolest financial show. I am your host, Ken Winens, and we have a very special guest, our lieutenant governor. He's a great guy. Stavros, Anthony, good afternoon, sir. How are you today? speaker-1: Great to be with you, Ken. You're a great American. ⁓ speaker-0: Did well, Ditto, sir, I I can say the same about you. So listen, we you know, it's funny how we cross paths so many times. Very first time was at the DC flying for the Las Vegas Chamber. And I'll never forget, you and I both like good drinks. And there was a one bar there that was making good drinks, and ⁓ you and I just started talking right away. And I was so taken back about how approachable you are. Have you always been that way in politics? I mean, just be yourself and speaker-1: You know, ⁓ I I was a ⁓ police officer for twenty nine years. My last ten years I was a captain and when you're a police officer all you do is talk with people and you have to be genuine and ⁓ you just learn to to talk to folks and ⁓ you get used to it and I think that's part of the ⁓ the background of being a police officer. speaker-0: Well, and I think too that just in the in our state, I mean like because as you know, I I'm a I'm a refugee from California. You know, to talk to any state political official there, you y good luck. They'll say, Hey, ⁓ send me an email, I'll I'll get back to you in a month. Here people are approachable. I mean just everybody. speaker-1: Yeah, you know, my cell phone is well known to people in Nevada. My early yeah my email is well known to people in Nevada. I get ⁓ calls from folks that I met ⁓ you know a week ago that say, Hey, I I met you at this event, just have a question for you and and ⁓ I I think that's good. I mean elected officials should be approachable and It should be accessible to the general public. I mean, I I think that's important. And you're right. I bet you in California, ⁓ people have a heck of a time even get getting to an elected official's office, let alone the actual elected official. So ⁓ Nevada is still it's growing, but it's kind of a still has that small town feel. Even in Las Vegas, we have almost two and a half million people here, but it's still kind of a small town feeling. I run into people at Costco all the time. Hey Lieutenant Governor, how you doing? And hey, I got a quick question for you. I think that's great. speaker-0: Now, do you ever feel like you get ambushed? I mean, does somebody on the other side know you're gonna be at a certain place and decide to try to go into something or speaker-1: You know what? that very, very seldom ever happens. The people that approach me are are very ⁓ personal, very professional. ⁓ they just wanna know what's going on in a particular area. But no, I've really never been ambushed. Nobody's ever done that to me. And I I think it's because ⁓ I'm not a jerk. I mean, I I I actually talk to folks, I'm nice to ⁓ and they understand that. speaker-0: I think at the end of the day, I mean it it what choice do you have? I mean it I mean I love the fact you have the right attitude about it. You're not anointed as you've always been honored by public service. All right, let's do a little bit. Stavros, people here, I still am amazed, don't really understand Nevada's political structure. ⁓ so walk through it. You literally don't have that many full time elected officials, correct? speaker-1: Yeah, so ⁓ when ⁓ when it comes to the actual state government, the way it's set up is ⁓ the ⁓ the Nevada Constitution says there's six constitutional officers. There's the governor, the lieutenant governor, the attorney general, the secretary of state, the treasurer, and the controller. And ⁓ Nevadas get to vote for all six of those ⁓ individuals every four years. ⁓ so those are ⁓ those are kind of full-time jobs. ⁓ the legislature, however, is definitely part-time. Our legislature meets every two years for 120 days. So ⁓ our our ⁓ assembly is made up of assembly members, our senate is made up of senators, and Nevadans get to vote for their assembly, ⁓ man or woman and their senator. And ⁓ they only ⁓ really get together. For 120 days up in Carson City. And I'm part of that. I'm as Lieutenant Governor, I'm the president of the Senate. So every two years we go up to Carson City, we ⁓ we ⁓ have hearings, pass laws, and so on and so forth. The governor obviously gets the veto bills if he wants to or sign them. And that's ⁓ the rest of the time, it's the state government, the executive branch that kind of run runs the state. But we're not like California. Where California is constantly in session. Their legislators make ⁓ six figure salaries. Our legislature ⁓ really makes nothing. They don't really get a salary, they get a per diem ⁓ for being up in Carson City. But that's why California is so regulated. That's why they have s they have so many laws because they're constantly in session and these legislators are trying to make a kind of a ⁓ I don't know, they're ⁓ They have bones to pick, you know, they want to go after people. Here you can't do that. And I I think that's why Nevada's in such better shape. That's why we have less laws, less regulations, less licensing requirements, because we don't have a l a full time legislature here. speaker-0: Yeah, we just care about people living their lives. And we are a free state. Yes. We're proud of that. Yeah. Now curious, do you like let's say somebody wanted to run for your position and they have a business or they have several businesses, would they have to give up those businesses to run for your job? speaker-1: ⁓ technically no. They they do not. it would it would be they they could run a business and ⁓ be an elected official ex especially as a ⁓ a member of the ⁓ legislature. I mean you have to you know, the you you have to have a job somewhere or a a business somewhere, but you have to be able to give that up for 120 days to go up to Carson City. In my position, ⁓ as speaker-0: Yeah, they have to. speaker-1: W when it comes to being governor, the other five constitutional officers, they could not have ⁓ business on the side. The lieutenant governor is technically a part time position. ⁓ the because the the ⁓ constitution doesn't give a lot of responsibility to the Lieutenant governor, except being president of the Senate. And if something happens to the governor, obviously you become the governor. Yeah. So it's kind of technically a part time position, but I make it a full time position because I think it's important to be a full time lieutenant governor. speaker-0: Well, you're you're at everything. I mean, ⁓ I think of the charity events I've seen you at, ⁓ you know, obviously very involved with the on the political side of things. I mean, and ⁓ obviously we live in a state with so many things going on. Now, do you have to travel a lot around the state? Do you find yourself having to get in a car and go to the four corners, so to speak, or speaker-1: Well, some of my other responsibilities as Lieutenant Governor is I'm chair of the tourism commission. ⁓ yeah. I'm the chair of the outdoor recreation advisory board. I'm on the ⁓ governor's office of economic development. So it it is my responsibility, and I believe it's a lieutenant governor's responsibility to travel the state to find out what's going on with tourism, what's going on with outdoor recreation. I'm the vice chair of the ⁓ department of transportation, so what's going on with our roads and bridges? So ⁓ I've ⁓ a lot of people have speaker-0: That's right. speaker-1: ⁓ believe that I am the most traveled lieutenant governor in the state of Nevada in the history of lieutenant governors. And that's why I have my travel Nevada. Sure. That's our marketing arm for ⁓ for ⁓ tourism in Nevada. So I'm proud to to ⁓ promote tourism not just in Las Vegas and Reno but in Winnamucca and Elko and Ely and Lovelock and speaker-0: ⁓ there you go. I love it. That's what I speaker-1: Battle Mountain and so on and so forth. Those those communities ⁓ rely on tourism as part of their economy. So I have traveled to every section of the state. There are very few places I have not been to, and I think that's important. A lot of these places have never seen a lieutenant governor show up. So ⁓ I I think it's important that I do that. So I travel the state quite a bit. speaker-0: No, especially now it's an election year. So and I'm assuming that probably you and the governor maybe say, Hey, ⁓ I'll take that in this week, you take the other in this week. Let's just make sure one of the two of us probably cover the the the swath. speaker-1: We we do a lot of that. If he can't make an event, ⁓ he calls me. If I can make an event I let him know I can't be there. So we we try to ⁓ spread our ourselves around the state and ⁓ I think that's why we've been pretty successful is ⁓ we travel the state quite a bit and we meet with folks and people appreciate that. They actually get access to the governor and the lieutenant governor to talk about some of the issues in their community and how the state can support them. speaker-0: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Well, you know, the other problem too, that we're, you know, of course we talked of this before many times, is that the massive expansion, the diversification of our state's economy, it's gonna be huge. I think we're all gonna be shocked, look out ten years from now, how Vegas itself is gonna be such ⁓ not only is an important hub now, but I think it's gonna be a hub for a lot of industries as we move on. speaker-1: Yeah, you know, w when you think of Nevada, you think of ⁓ tourism. I mean, that's just that's just who we are, and that's the biggest part of our economy. ⁓ but we've been talking about diversifying the c economy for years and years. That is happening today. We are ⁓ and a a big part of that is California. Companies in California are fleeing. They're high-regulated industry over there and they're coming to Nevada. So you go up to northern Nevada and we have technology companies all over the place. Down here in southern Nevada, we have logistics, light manufacturing, ⁓ technology also. So ⁓ you're absolutely right. ⁓ 10 years from now, our state is gonna be is gonna be thought of as a technology state, as a logistics state. And on and on and on. I'm very proud of that. speaker-0: Well, and you and I are gonna work together on making this a financial service state too. That's a big deal. Stavros, we need to take a quick break to hear from our sponsors, and then we'll be right back with our great lieutenant governor of the great state of Nevada, Stavros. It's gonna be fantastic. Be right back, guys. And welcome back to Winning with Wine is Las Vegas News and Coolest Financial Show. I'm your host, Ken Wines. But far more important than that, we have our Lieutenant Governor Stavros Anthony, or excuse me. Sir, how do you want to be in addressed? Mr. Lieutenant Governor Stavros, what should we call you? Stavros is great. I love it. Absolutely. So not doctor. A little, another little known fact. This man's a PhD. speaker-1: Davros is great. speaker-0: So you know you learn something else new about him. But it's, you know, I always enjoy our time together. And we we talked a lot about how things are expanding in Nevada. And yeah, and then and yet our politics is still part-time, except for a few of the people that are full-time. But I went back last year as a non-paid lobbyist, because I I felt as somebody who came from California, I wanted to make sure that what happened there doesn't happen here. And if I can play a role with that. But I found it very interesting. First off, you know, we have these out, you know, at one of the great historic capitals of the old, you know, silver and gold rush, we still have hitching posts out in front for horses. We have these great cigar bars all around all the you know what I'm talking about. That's where a lot of deals get cut. But what I found interesting was there was a rumor at the last legislative session that you had an important vote coming up and that some people locked you out of the chamber. Is that true? speaker-1: Yeah. So ⁓ l let me Yes, it did actually happen. So I'll I'll give you a little background on the ⁓ the way the legislature's setup 'cause I've been through two legislative sessions. As mentioned before, I'm president of the Senate, so I run the floor session every single day. So the legislature is made up of the assembly and the senate. The ⁓ both sessions, the s the Democrats had the majority in the Senate and the majority in the assembly, ⁓ which means they could ⁓ pass whatever they wanted. They could hold hearings w on whatever they wanted. ⁓ they didn't have to listen to any Republicans. They didn't have to listen to ⁓ any Republican ⁓ bills. A lot of the bills that the governor introduced didn't get a hearing. A lot of the bills that I introduced did not get a hearing because they control everything and they want to pass their very progressive socialist agenda. And they did. In fact the governor ⁓ in the first session vetoed almost 70 bills, which was twice as many in the history of Nevada. The second session he ⁓ vetoed almost ⁓ 90 bills which exceeded the previous session which was twice as many as any governor that's how bad their policies are they ba basically mimic ⁓ California and they they're power hungry they want to take over the state so to get to your lockout thing what happened was on the ⁓ 120th day at midnight is when the session's over with. The Constitution says you can't pass any, do any business at midnight on 120th day. ⁓ the Democrats in the Senate wanted to pass a resolution that would give them more power on certain committees in the legislature. And they knew if I was running the meeting, they would not have time to do it because I run the meeting very methodical. I pay attention to the ⁓ agenda and we would run out of time. So they decided to rush in there at the last minute before I could get in there, lock the door, started running the meeting without me. And ⁓ it was a complete ⁓ takeover of the ⁓ Nevada Constitution. It was complete ⁓ what they did was diabolical. And luckily I got there in time and I was able to get in there ⁓ before ⁓ they were able to pass the resolution, and then midnight came. And it was signed to die, and that was the end of it. But that that's what the Democrats will do to gain power in this state to pass their agenda. speaker-0: I mean, it it it sounds like something you it it almost like a fantasy show to think they would act like that. Now, something I saw, and I think I mentioned it to you when we had lunch, ⁓ going into the lobbyist room, as they call it. I know when there's closed session, you have the media room, you have the lobbyist room. But I walked in that lobbying room and almost everybody there was a Californian. It was very clear to me, and I loved it, Stavros. They said it was under regional issues. BS. I'm gonna call it exactly what it is, guys. It was we're a swing state. You don't like we're a swing state. You wanna infiltrate our politics. And I brought that up to several people. I say, I could not go to Sacramento as a lobbyist and and conduct that myself that way. What can we do to prevent these ⁓ influences from hitting our state? Well speaker-1: that that's ⁓ the one thing about Nevada is we're open, we're transparent. ⁓ we want people to get involved in ⁓ in and passing legislation. We want people to get in have a voice. And unfortunately you'll get people coming here from California. In fact when ⁓ prior to the governor and I being elected the the Democrats controlled not only the legislature but the governor's office. Everything they passed during that four year period mimicked what was g going on in California. Election laws, ⁓ soft on crime, on and on and on. They mimic exactly what California did. And ⁓ if ⁓ the governor I ⁓ got got elected ⁓ three and a half years ago and stopped all that. So ⁓ that's part of the ⁓ what you call the sausage making of leg of legislation and we know Califor California wants to make Nevada an appendage of their state. And as long as the governor and I are in office, we're gonna s try to stop that. speaker-0: Well, and the rest of us want our own independence as well. I mean, we I didn't leave California to come here and and and have that craziness follow me. And you know, we've talked about it from a business perspective. ⁓ I mean, however people may feel politically, but there's certain common sense things about running a business. And one, it's difficult. I mean, you have to compete. But I know that in the case of California, they have these employee mandated, employer mandated exams we had to take. And you would think they they called it under sexual harassment. It was all DEI. It was crazy stuff. And actually, one of them is something that we can talk about on this podcast because we are an open podcast. It's what you and the governor are trying to do as far as men in women's sports. And I was astounded in California that the the test that I had to take, there were at least twelve questions about bathroom issues that an employer had to worry about. It's crazy. I mean, it's just it you know, that does there's a place to have these discussions, but I don't think it's there. So now this the the you know, and I know that you you're both probably getting some heat for it. Do you feel any of that heat is coming from California since they are so wetted to this issue? Or do you speaker-1: As far as men and women's sports. ⁓ absolutely. I mean, they're they're ⁓ definitely trying to get it done here. So I mean, ⁓ you just look at the last session, there were two bills introduced to ban men and women's sports. ⁓ I wanted to try to move those along. So I started the Lieutenant Governor's task force to protect female athletes. ⁓ we tried to get those bills hearings in committee, and we could not get a hearing in committee on any one of those bills because the Democrats wouldn't allow it. Wow. And in fact, what was boggled my mind. Mind is, you know, how many Democrat legislators ⁓ supported ⁓ one of those bills? Not one. Not one Democrat legislator would come out and say, I want to ban men and women's sports. And it just I was shocked by that. So they didn't even get a hearing, those bills. And but what we did do was we were able to persuade the ⁓ the Nevada Intercollegiate Athletic Association to To pass policy to ban w men and women's sports on a high school level. So my task force had an influence on getting that done. ⁓ right now we're trying to gather signatures to put it on the ballot and for the next election. I don't know if that's gonna happen or not. ⁓ but ⁓ yeah, the the absolutely w the the Democrats want men and women's sports here in Nevada, which can you imagine if you're a female athlete and you worked ⁓ hard. to become a champion in your particular sport and some boy or man takes it away from you, that is just that's terrible. But they don't care in California. That's fine in California. We're not gonna tolerate that here. We're gonna work hard to make sure that doesn't happen. Do you speaker-0: feel it the how about other states like n Utah I'm sure probably agrees with us a hundred percent. What about Arizona? Do you feel it's a issue there? speaker-1: No, I d I don't really see it coming up much in Arizona or Utah. California is all on board with having men and women's sports. The other states I haven't heard much ⁓ about them, but they're trying. Like I said, California wants Nevada to be appendage of that state. So they are constantly trying to change the rules here. And one of them is they want men and women's sports, which just boggles my mind. speaker-0: Did you ever imagine we even had be having this conversation? I mean, this is I mean, ⁓ you you think about military issues, I mean, ⁓ sports. I and I'll just bring up anybody because I ran track and field ⁓ ash as a junior Olympian and also my freshman year in college. They just had the state championships in California and there was a a transgender athlete who won seven or eight of the women events. Which means that those other women are not going to get scholarships. They're not going to be have an ability to possibly do other things. That's how we feel. It's not meant to be anything more than a fairness issue. Starvos, we're gonna take a quick break to hear from our sponsors and then we'll be right back for the bonus session on the podcast of winning with wine-ins. We'll be right back. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: And welcome back to Winning with Winess Las Vegas News and Coolest Podcast, Financial Show, Political Show, all of it. We cover it all for the great state of Nevada. We are so lucky to have our lieutenant governor joining us. Stavros, Anthony, what can I say? Again, it's such an honor to have you here. And this is our bonus section on the podcast. And you know what's really fun? I know you watch it as well. Almost everybody on Fox has gone to podcasts, Sean Hennedy and all these. So we're gonna have a conversation. So when we first met, you know, and I I know I sent you a copy of my Forbes article, and thank you for your kind compliments on it, because I think people were taken back of wait, Las Vegas is a Wall Street? Really? And I think most people thought I was absolutely insane when I wrote this. But as you think about what's happening with this, I mean, I don't think you ever imagine this migration leaving California, especially the number of companies. But why is it not possible to have Las Vegas become a financial center? Do you see any reason at all why we could not pull that off? speaker-1: I don't see why not. And and let me give you an an example here. when I was on the Las Vegas City Council ⁓ about ten years ago, maybe twelve years ago, we were trying trying to get a professional sports team here to Las Vegas. And every one of them said, We'll never come to Las Vegas. We will never have sports in Las Vegas because you can't mix gambling and players and teams and and sports together. There'll be corruption, you know, all this talk and the never we are the sports capital of the world today. We have ⁓ hockey, football, ⁓ baseball's coming and basketball's coming. UFC, we have ⁓ women's basketball, we have we're we're this we have F1, we have NASCAR, we're the sports capital of the world today. Fifteen years ago, nobody ever thought that was going to happen. Why can't that happen in the financial services here speaker-0: UFC. speaker-1: In Las Vegas and Nevada. And you would know better than than me. I mean, you've written books on finances, articles. ⁓ but ⁓ w we are the the interesting thing about Nevada is we are always trying to be cutting edge, trying to do the next thing. And ⁓ if we can become a financial hub here in Nevada, why not? There's no reason why we shouldn't be. And obviously we need to rely on your expertise to make that happen. But if there's anything I can do, ⁓ as lieutenant governor, as ⁓ member of the governor's office of economic development to attract financial companies here. ⁓ who knows what we're gonna look like fifteen years from now. So I'd love to have that conversation with with ⁓ the financial industry that is thinking about making their headquarters in Nevada. speaker-0: Well, remember we had lunch. I think I handed you a list. I think I I think there I said there's 3,200 companies that run or, you know, investment management type companies in in California. Here's the thing. I mean, I left. I mean, and I'm I'm I'm just knock on wood, a top ranked and morningstar manager, all that stuff. But imagine if we were to go to some of these big guys like Pimco or Franklin Templeton or iShares and say, hey, look, all you have to do is go three hours east, guys. Three hours and suddenly your tax problems disappear, your regulatory problems disappear. You get to go to a great community who loves capitalism. You will never be dealt, you know, you no one's gonna harass you. And but here's the thing, Stavros, nobody thought Texas would become a financial center. Certainly not in where we are today or Florida. So I got I guess I go, why not? Let's give it a try. speaker-1: Yeah, in fact, ⁓ I think I'm gonna make you the spokesperson for the state of Nevada when it comes to the financial what you just said is perfect. That's what we need to let these financial companies know. That ⁓ if they come here, there's no ⁓ state income tax, property taxes are lower, regulations are lower, licensing requirements are lower, la land prices, even though they're going up, they're lower. ⁓ the we are a business friendly state, especially compared to California. That is the worst state to open up a business. So ⁓ we're gonna make you the the the poster guy for attracting financial company. speaker-0: Get an honorary title. Yes, I'll be in on giving me my marching orders. Yes. Head west, my son. Head west. Absolutely. Well, you know, but now this brings up a point because I have this all the time. I and actually actually, I believe there's an effort made by the economic development of other states, whether it's I'm gonna go as far as Texas. I think Arizona does it. I know California does it. They like to basically spread rumors about us that are not true. I mean, I hear it all the time, and I'm sure you do too. The mob still runs Las Vegas. ⁓ we're out of water. According to these guys, we our our spigots are going to be dry here pretty quick. ⁓ I mean, it goes on and on and on about some of this stuff. And I say, wait a minute, hold it. First off, why don't you check? Though this is a vibrant economy. Yes, that is part of our past. But if you want to get into California's past, there were some pretty interesting characters a hundred years ago there. But this thing on the water, and and what I find funny. Was that the people spreading these rumors are Arizona? These are the same idiots that drain two trillion gallons of water out of the rock for to grow alfalfa. Now, are you kidding me? I mean, we we still are sitting on over 100 years of water under our feet. But the funny one was when I was in Texas. I mean, they were saying, well, you know, you know, Las Vegas doesn't have the infrastructure and all that. And I said, you know what we don't have? Tornadoes. We don't have hurricanes. We are disaster free guys. We have heat. So I think that if we show our fangs to Avros just a little bit, and you tell people there's a reason Vegas is where it is meant to be. So send me on, sir. I'll I'll b I'll battle these guys. I'll gladly take speaker-1: You you said it perfectly. And and you know, to be up front in the the ⁓ states are in competition with each other. They're we're all in competition to attract these companies to Nevada because we need them as our economic base. So ⁓ maybe there's some dirty tricks that are being thrown out there. ⁓ but we we are, I mean, ⁓ th this is this is a great state to ⁓ do business. We're not gonna run out of water. ⁓ as you mentioned, we don't have a lot of ⁓ very few environmental disasters here in Nevada. So so we just need to get that message out. We it's it's our job and it's my job as Lieutenant Governor. And I do this, I travel the state talking to companies about why they need to come to Nevada because they don't know. They don't know what's going on in Nevada. But it's up to us to educate them. Sounds like you're doing your part. And ⁓ if we all do our part, our economy's gonna grow Tourism's gonna grow, we're gonna diversify the economy and I think Nevada's in in a is gonna have a great future. speaker-0: When you take the mining and you take our our ranching and you take, I mean, just I mean, we forget rare earths. We're it. ⁓ this place is gonna the wealth is gonna be generated out of this state. I think we're all gonna be looking back in 20 years and we're gonna run the show. I think we're gonna run the West. I really do. speaker-1: I'm glad you mentioned mining. I mean, gold, gold mining is back, silver mining is back, lithium mining ⁓ is is the future of Nevada. And these precious metals, we have I I bel I believe there's something like 35 precious metals that the we need for homeland security in the military. I believe every single one of those is in Nevada. We just need companies to come here to extract it. And it's here. We just need people to come here and take, and that is gonna be great for our economy. So you obviously know about Nevada. need to get the rest of the world to know about Nevada and that's why this podcast is important so people can watch and say, Hey, let me take a look at moving my company to Nevada. Let me took take a look at doing some business in Nevada. Absolutely speaker-0: Well, and then we we even have our new motto. We'll steal it from our president. Instead of drill, baby, drill, we have dig, baby, dig. There you go. You know what's pretty funny? I was when I I had the privilege of just at a fundraiser with with ⁓ Governor Lombardo, and he was blown away that I I somehow came up in conversation. I bought a mining claim. Because mining claim said, yeah, this thing was originally speaker-1: ⁓ speaker-0: What it was like 1872, and I had an original language on it. He says, Where do you get that? I said, I'm out by a searchlight. There, yeah, I found a part of it in the States. So he goes, so you can actually go in, you get, I said, it's a deal with BLM. Whatever I find is mine. I said, but that's again, it and it's all around the Vegas area, Stavros. It's part of our hills. Supposedly there's $300 million worth of gold right on the all the mountains right around Vegas. Yep. It's pretty amazing what goes on. All right. Now let's talk. Now you probably have some questions or some things you want to discuss. What is the biggest concern you have right now, migration wise, from California? Do you worry that people come here and that they're bringing screwy ideas with them, or is it more that we're just going to get too crowded here? speaker-1: ⁓ well when it comes to ⁓ the the philosophy, political philosophy of people coming from California to Nevada, we w always been concerned about that. But what has happened is ⁓ when the governor and I ran for election three and a half years ago, there were more ⁓ Democrats registered than Republicans, and then a big chunk is still independents. Today, ⁓ that's reversed. There are more Republicans registered than Democrats. It's it's still like a third Republican, a third Democrat, a third ⁓ independent, but there are more Republicans registered than Democrat. So there is a big shift there. And it looks like people that are coming here from California are registering as Republican because they're fleeing the crazy ideas that are happening in California. So that I think that's good for us. That's good for our state, because I think we have the right ideas for this state. ⁓ ⁓ you know, overcrow crowding is always, you know, there's a lot of people talking about hey, you know, Las Vegas is getting overdeveloped and those sorts of things. But, you know, realistically, if you don't grow, I mean you don't prosper. And and there are obstacles to us growing. ⁓ eighty seven percent of the land is owned by the federal government. Yeah. So we need more land ⁓ released. ⁓ energy, keeping up with energy is always an issue. And as you mentioned, water. We treat water as a precious commodity. And that's why we're doing okay with water. But those those three areas really have an impact on our growth: land, energy, and water. And we're constantly taking a look at those three areas. So I think we're doing okay. We're growing. We have these communities, master plan communities. People are moving here. We're keeping up with the roads. ⁓ that's the one thing we ha w I I believe we have to continually deal with a road. So ⁓ I think we can manage this. It's our it's our job to manage this and ⁓ we're gonna grow as a state and we wanna accommodate the right peop the people coming here with the philosophy that we want freedom, we want individualism, we want limited government, and I think we're getting that. speaker-0: I'll add to what you just said. I was always blown away with how many veterans live in our valley. I'm always blown away with how many people go to some form of church or temple who live in our valley. And there's just a, you know, and racially it's evenly mixed. And people get along here. People actually are very respectful to each other. And credit to you and the governor, strong on law enforcement. Stuff's not going to be allowed. And I do think, ⁓ you know, ⁓ although we're very sad that our knights didn't quite finish it off, but hey, you know what? ⁓ my best of that team. And then you know it was pretty funny that night we had UFC being fought at on on the White House run a a Vegas company, our Golden Knights, a Vegas company, and the same all the same night. But we we forged coming off the tragedy of Mandalay Bay and we've grown from that. And I think that we we found our place. But I also still find myself so much of the time, ⁓ people come here and they say, they think of that we all live on the strip. They they don't realize that there are these wonderful communities in Summerlin and Henderson and Lake Las Vegas and Centennial Hills. And I people come here and they go, ⁓ my gosh, th this is Vegas? ⁓ really? This is yes. You know, it's like saying California's Disneyland, even though that that's questionable. ⁓ Stavros, we're almost out of time. What else would you like to cover in the podcast? What are we, I mean, what's it like for you running again for a second term? Is it harder this time around? Or speaker-1: Yeah, ⁓ well I think we had a great discussion here. We talked a lot about the issues that are important to Nevada, that are important ⁓ to me, that are important to to everyone that lives in the state. So thank you for allowing me to do this. This has been ⁓ this has been fun and ⁓ getting the word about what's going on in Nevada is great. ⁓ I am up for reelection. ⁓ the governor and I are both up for reelection. the ⁓ the Democrats are not happy about all the bills that were vetoed. They're not happy that their agenda is not advancing here. In Nevada, that we oppose. So they're going to be coming after both of us pretty heavily. Probably a lot of out-of-state money coming in to try to defeat us. But I believe that ⁓ we as Republicans are on the right side of these issues, that we're here to focus on limited government, individualism, ⁓ not having men and women's sports, changing, having voter ID. I mean a b a basic thing like showing your ID when you vote. Those are the issues and and having ⁓ you know, tough on crime policies. We want law and order in the state. We want people to feel safe. And the Democrat Party's gonna fight us on that. And ⁓ they're gonna come after us. And all I can say is that ⁓ the governor and I and the other constitutional offices are gonna go out there and and ask for Nevadans to vote for us to keep us, I believe, moving in the right direction in the state. speaker-0: Well, you have my support and my endorsement. Thank I I I truly Well, I mean it it's and you've a and you and the governor have asked everybody, look, we need to stand up. I mean, you've you've ⁓ one of the other things about this state is that people are encouraged to run for public office. It's not stay away. We don't want you here. No, the everybody's been asked. Look, it we we're a small state in population. You can't expect the same people to run over and over again. But Stavros, I think one other quick thing too that's important, and everybody here should know that look, this midterm matters. Don't not vote. Don't I mean the primary, I was kind of surprised to see how few people voted in the primary. This is important. If you want our state to continue to progress and move forward in a free state environment, you need to vote. However, you may vote, that is your right. So, Lieutenant Governor Stavros Anthony, sir. Thank you for your I know you're busy as heck. Hey, I want one last thing before I let you go. I like to collect weird things. You know, I thought you would like this. This is an original stock certificate of the Trump Enterprises when they first set up in Las Vegas. And that is a card signed by our president. And I know you know him personally. Yes. And but you know what? I just, it's fun how we have so. President Trump, we're talking about you on the air, sir. That's great. You know, I thought you'd love this. speaker-1: And his his birthday was yesterday. speaker-0: That's right. Yeah. So happy birthday. But we're not sending this to him because he'll probably say, Hey, where where'd you get that? We know he is. Sarros, thanks again, sir. Appreciate your time. All right, everybody, that's gonna be it for this podcast I've been of Winning with Wineins. We'll catch you on the next one. And welcome back to Winning with Wine is the Las Vegas' newest and coolest financial show. I'm your host, Ken Winens, the finance guy with the cowboy hat. And yes, I do have my summer cowboy hat on. You do not wear a felt studson in Las Vegas in the summertime unless you want to bake your brain. So anyway, we just let that go with that. But listen, I hope you enjoyed our interview with our great lieutenant governor. You know, folks, I we're going to talk a moment about regional issues. ⁓ obviously, I'm a fan. I'm a Republican. I'm the first to admit it. And I'm very, very proud of how our government operates in our great state. We are becoming a powerhouse, as ⁓ Stavros had pointed out to us. There's so many positive things happening here. We do it better and cheaper than almost any surrounding state. And we're we're tackling our issues. So ⁓ just remember we have a midterm election coming up here. I'm gonna give one pitch for that. You need to get out and vote. It is very tempting to get into the fall when we get F1 and the rodeo and all the holidays. I don't have time to vote. Folks, we need to get our votes in because you and I both know where our state is in transition in a lot of ways. So anyway, please ⁓ you know email me if you have any questions or you wanna actually reach out to the lieutenant governor and we can certainly take care of that. Okay, we let's talk about regional issues. one of the great things about our show. Is that it does have reach into Southern California, Arizona, Utah, throughout our great state of Nevada. And we do, but we we do have to stay in touch with our neighbor to the West for a lot of different reasons. Number one, our migration is the migration out of California is going to continue. The number of businesses that are moving here, I'm a veteran. I hear all the time for veterans groups. Hey, people have had enough. They're tired of having ⁓ you know, the overly regulated ⁓ I would say very narrow-minded view of society to a more open capitalistic state like Nevada. But what is driving this? ⁓ a lot of talk in the paper about this California wealth tax. ⁓ I mean, they're actually having a battle right now. I was shocked to find out from what I read, you know who's pushing this crazy thing? The unions. Now I don't know why the unions care about why the techs of Silicon Valley. Who probably have a fair number of employees that work for them personally and professionally. But according to what I'm hearing, Gavin Newsom, the governor, is fighting a almost like a ⁓ union civil war right now, trying to deal with these people on all sides. I guess they're trying to negotiate the tax down to instead of a 5% tax to a 2% tax. Let me tell you something. There should be zero tax for this reason alone. Folks, Let's be smart here. Look, I'm a business owner. I get reports every year about what my net worth is. You know what? It doesn't matter. My stock is my stock and my company. I don't plan to sell it. Same with a lot of those folks in Silicon Valley. What are they supposed to do? Borrow the money to go pay this tax? Does that make any sense at all? But California hasn't thought this one through. We're gonna get more wealthy people leaving California. They've already left the state of Washington for the same thing. But I do think it's pretty funny that the and most people haven't even thought about this. Would you like to know how many pe taxpayers have left California since COVID? One million taxpayers have left California. Think about that. And they don't seem to care. It doesn't matter to them. Now there was a little pe a little bit of good news of all places, San Francisco, which, as you all know, I came from the Bay Area before I wised up and moved to the Great city of Las Vegas. The city actually rejected a tax that was endorsed by Nancy Pelosi called the Overpaid CEO Act, which by the way, Nancy Pelosi, I guess, wanted to put a tax on her husband's income because he's one of those overpaid CEOs. But anyway, ⁓ the mayor, who they're finally getting some smart people in their city hall, said, We're gonna have businesses leave here if we continue to push this stuff. But you know what I love the most? Right after those articles came out, big article in the Wall Street Journal talking about Las Vegas and how it's becoming a new hub to the successful and the affluent. Folks, we're gonna get hearing more and more of this. Now, look, what we do not want to have happen is have a society that is rich and poor. We want to encourage the middle class. The middle class is what drives healthy economic growth. But it's gonna continue to have a lot of very wealthy people come here. As you all know, I want to see financial services move here. Go back and read my Forbes article I wrote late last year about Las Vegas, the new Western Wall Street. What I saw in Chicago when I talked to people in Chicago, big money management firms, they all said the same thing. Vegas is the perfect place to move a business to in the Western United States. Think of all the advantages we have: great infrastructure, great f airports, ⁓ conveniences. We have the people coming from out of town. I see my clients more now than I did when I lived in the wine country in Northern California. But anyway, the other big thing, just real go back. I want to go back to California real quick because we have to be aware of these issues. ⁓ the fraud stories, the corruption stories continue to come out of that state. It looks like the Medicaid fraud news is getting even bigger. it's gonna probably pass up a lot of the other states in fraud. Again, where is the accountability? I don't know why the taxpayers in California Are not completely upset about it. Folks, this goes beyond party loyalty. These are your tax money. It's our tax money too. These are federal dollars going to California. You need to police your own community. You need to hold your politicians accountable. This is crazy. Then, of course, there's a new article that came out. ⁓ I guess now basically ⁓ the newsoms are under some type of a federal probe. I'm I don't know the whole story. I'm not gonna pretend to know it all. But it involves taxes, it involves influence peddling. We'll see how that all plays out. I do find it interesting that Newsome's wife was named. you know what? I'm always a concern when spouses get dragged into what could be, especially in a political year. But anyway, we have these kind of things going on right now that ⁓ again, we just need to pay attention to it. Hey, I I talked about it last week. I I still think let's let's try to end on a humorous note. Governor Newsom, Is gonna have a thirty th ⁓ thirty-three thousand dollar portrait of him hanging in the state capitol. You know, Governor Newsom, your state is really short of money right now. You've got budgetary shortfalls. My understanding is you're making the state pay for this. This is in the budget. You know what? You are a very wealthy individual. That state, my birth state, has treated you and your family very well. Why don't you pay for it or have your wealthy aunt, Nancy Pelosi, pay for it? But again, these abuses where your taxpayers are having to pay for this stuff is to me absolutely crazy. Anyway, those are that's how I feel about it. You take it for what it's worth. And Gavin and ⁓ Governor Newsome, if you'd like to come on this podcast, buddy, I'd love to have you on this show because I would love to tell you why I left California. Okay, we're just about out of time. I do want to thank our sponsors who you can see on our website. And if you are interested in being a sponsor or a guest. On future Winning with Wine and show, please send me an email on winningwithwine's dot com. Please share with your friends and family any of the show that you missed. Hey, we all get busy. We're on all the major social media platforms. You can find, believe me, it's not hard to find us. ⁓ also, as you all know, I write for Forbes. I do try to write an article monthly. Admittedly, I'm a little behind this year, but I'm gonna get some new articles out here very shortly. You can see that on Forbes.com. Hey, if you're interested in my financial history books, we live in historical times. You might want to ⁓ get a history lesson on what and how to make money. You can find those either in book or ebook form on Amazon.com. It's called Investment Atlas Three: Creating Wealth Using Historical Trends. And I have to look. Shameless self-promotion, but I got to do a plug. Win is investments, my firm. I'm the founder, I'm the president and chief investment officer. Folks. When we talk about big firms, well-known firms moving here, I stuck my head through the wall first. More of us are coming, but we are right now the only five-star ranked Morningstar manager based in Las Vegas. If you are looking for an investment advisor who is independent, who is a veteran, who has been in this game a very long time, and I have a good track record, hey, give me a call. Let me at least show you what we do different from our competitors. Anyway, listen, good luck this next week with your investments. I what can I tell you? There's always something happening. But this is Ken Winins. I hope you enjoy your week. Take care. Boy, that time went fast. I hope you had as much fun as I did during this segment of Winning with Wineins. Make sure and tune in next week for another round of guest and interesting topics. And if you missed this, make sure and check us out on Spotify, YouTube, or go to our website, winningwithwinins.com, where there's a lot more information for you to follow. So good luck this next week. Look forward to seeing you then. Take care.