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How Biden and Democrats blew it on inflation · The Financial Exchange Show

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  by Veterans Development Corporation. This is the Financial Exchange with
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  Chuck Zada and Mike Armstrong.
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  Speaker 2: Kicking off hour two of the Financial Exchange. Here, Chuck,
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  Mike and Tucker with you. In markets, not thing a
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  little bit of a rebound after a selloff to and
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  the week last week. Actually not just to sell off
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  to end the week. It was three out of four
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  days that the mark was down to finish the week.
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  And so today you've got the Dow back up twelve points,
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  not a huge gain there. SP's back up twenty six
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  about half a percent, and the Nasdaq up one fifty
• 1:37
  two or eight tenths of a percent. Tenure US Treasury
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  still selling off just a touch here, up two point
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  seven basis points to four point four or five three percent.
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  And we've got oil up a dollar seventy nine a
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  barrel to sixty eight eighty one today, triple a national average.
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  Four Gas prices back on the decline, though down about
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  one point two cents over the last week, and another
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  tenth of a cent over night to three oh seven
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  and one tenth of a cent. And we've got gold
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  rallying today up forty six dollars and twenty cents announce
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  to twenty six, sixteen and thirty cents. Mike, there's a
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  piece here from the Wall Street Journal and from Nick Timerrouse,
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  who typically covers the FED, but in this case kind
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  of a FED adjacent topic. It's titled how Democrats blew
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  it on Inflation, and it gets the idea that, look,
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  Joe Biden was in office coming out of the financial crisis.
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  The Obama administration inherited that as part of their transition,
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  and he presided over what was arguably one of the
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  most sluggish economic recoveries that the US has seen. So
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  in an effort to not miss make the same mistakes
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  that they did in that administration, they passed an additional
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  stimulus package in early twenty twenty one. It was one
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  point nine trillion dollars was the third one. Remember there
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  were two different stimulus packages passed by the Trumpetman during
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  his last year in office during his first term, and
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  this piece basically gets at look, the Biden administration passed
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  this additional stimulus and then on top of that, kept
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  passing additional legislation without concerns for the annual deficit in
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  the potential impact that those measures might have on inflation,
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  and I think it's an interesting topic to discuss here
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  just because we've covered this from a couple different angles.
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  But ultimately, the piece that I keep coming back to
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  is we're now going to have fresh evidence in mind
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  for anyone who's you know, responsible for governance in the
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  United States. Hey, you can do a lot of different things,
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  but you probably can't let inflation become a major problem
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  because incumbents everywhere are being punished for the levels of
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  inflation that we have seen in the last couple of years.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, the title of next article here is Democrats blew
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  it on inflation. I think you can replace inflation with
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  the economy. The lesson here is if you blow it
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  on inflation, then nothing else that you do economically really matters.
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  We can talk about wage growth, we can talk about
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  the stock market. All of those things have been swept
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  to the side when it came to how people viewed
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  Joe Biden's performance on the economy. And obviously everything's easier
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  with hindsight, but taking a look at things, you know,
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  over the course of twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two,
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  when the core of those stimulus measures and relief measures
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  were going into place under the Biden administration. I think
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  there's a fair bit of argument that it did look
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  different than the Obama era policies coming out of the
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  Great Recession, that the economy had recovered to a point
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  by twenty twenty one. I mean, you know, let's name
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  a few of them, right, Like, unemployment was way back down,
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  the stock market had more than recovered all of its
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  losses from the early stages of COVID, And so I
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  think it's reasonable to point the fingers here and say, look,
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  the same set of policies that you used, or the
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  policies that you proposed using in twenty twenty one and
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  then passed was not the correct subscription or prescription for
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  the economy in twenty twenty as the way it might
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  have been coming out of the Great Recession of O. Wait,
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  the other questions that I have are what lessons that
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  you pointed out? What lessons do future governments learn from this?
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  And does it does it swing the pendulum in the
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  other direction? Are lawmaker is now quite concerned about using
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  stimulus measures to fix the economy should they result in inflation?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: And I think this is going to be something that
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  matters not right now necessarily. But the next time that
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  you have a major downturn in the US economy, how
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  are we going to approach it right? Because, like clearly,
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  we're always in a position where we don't want to
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  make the same mistakes that we made previously. And this
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  is why when when you look at how the FED
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  behaved kind of from you know, nineteen eighty through I
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  mean even through like twenty nineteen, it was, hey, we
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  don't want to even get a whiff of inflation because
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  if it shows up, it's going to be a problem.
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  And on the other hand, it was, yeah, we can
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  we can probably I'm just talking about the FED here.
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  The FED was, yeah, we can probably throw more juice
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  at the economy because okay, you know, from a monetary
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  policy standpoint, Hey, you know, things are pretty slow, so
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  we can do a little bit there. When you talk
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  about Congress, the lessons they learned coming out of the
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  Great Recession were, hey, we didn't do enough. You know,
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  we passed a I think it was like an eight
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  hundred billion dollar infrastructure plan, you remember that coming out
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  of the Did that include cash for clunk or is
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  that separate? I don't know if that was separate or not.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, but you had a number of these bills that
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  were designed to try and promote growth. Hey turn in
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  your old car and get as for councers.
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  Speaker 2: I still think is one of the greatest programs, both
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  in terms of the slogan and the actual program that
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  we've had in American economic history. I think it was
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  a fantastic program, and I wish that we would do
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  stuff like that more often. But that's neither here nor there.
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  The big thing, though, was, Look, we had a really
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  slow economic recovery coming out of two thousand and eight,
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  and so the lesson here was, hey, we don't want
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  to do the same thing and went too far in
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  the other direction instead.
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  Speaker 4: So the question that I think.
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  Speaker 2: Really matters is, look, the next time you do have
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  a big economic calamity, which it will happen at some point, Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: We'll have another bubble that leads to another period of
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  high unemployment, low growth, and many will be looking to
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  Congress to come up with a remedy for it, like
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  they did over the last couple of recessions. And my
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  guess would be that Congress is going to be more
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  hesitant to pass stimulus than they otherwise would be in
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  the absence of what we saw over the last four years.
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  Speaker 2: So I think that that's gonna be something that we
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  have to watch for on this in terms of anything
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  else specifically related to inflation. The other thing is, look,
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  remember what we saw in the United States was not
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  a US only phenomenon. This was everywhere in the world
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  that you saw an increase. So it's not just US
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  policies that created this or that made this. But ultimately
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  you're still tasked with dealing with the problem, which is, hey,
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  stuff costs too much, the prices are going up too quickly.
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  Speaker 4: How are we going to deal with this?
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  Speaker 2: The Biden administration responded with a bill that they passed
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  by the way, called the Inflation Reduction Act that largely
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  was a lot of green energy subsidies.
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  Speaker 4: Nothing of the sort.
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  Speaker 2: And so this is the piece that I think is
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  is kind of damning. There is Look, it's twenty twenty
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  two and the Biden administration has the votes through reconciliation
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  to do something when it comes to improving the economy
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  for the average person. And the stuff that they did there,
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  and again we've talked about some of it is Look,
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  when you talk about you know, subsidizing evs, is that
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  really what we want to be doing in terms of
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  trying to build more clean energy. I'm not so sure
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  that's the way that you go. But there was nothing
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  in there in terms of, hey, here's how we're going
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  to try to reduce you know, the deficit each year
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  in order to reduce inflation from a demand side that way.
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  Speaker 4: Is there a.
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  Speaker 2: Way that we can play with the tax code so
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  that hey, you know what, for those of you making
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  under one hundred thousand dollars a year, we're gonna cut taxes,
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  but we're gonna, you know, reduce spending in places X, Y,
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  and z, and so we're gonna get keep more money
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  in your pocket while still reducing annual deficits. Those were
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  not things passed in a Congress that could have passed
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  those things, and that I think is the point that
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  I really get to on this, which is, Hey, the
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  Biden administration had the opportunity and they did pass a
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  bill that altered the tax code through reconciliation. They didn't
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  do it in a way that helped the average person,
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  and Democrats got punished for it as a result.
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  Speaker 2: Mike, We've got some news that came out. I think
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  it's probably late yesterday. That and I'll quote here from Bloomberg.
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  Members of President elect Donald Trump's transition team have told
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  advisors they plan to make a federal framework for fully
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  self driving vehicles one of the Transportation Department's priorities, according
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  to people familiar with the matter. Now, when we say
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  members of President elect Donald Trump's transition team, it's hard
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  for me to read that as anything other than Elon
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  Musk may have said this, or someone closely affiliated with
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  him may have said this, no kidding, just because it's
• 11:27
  obviously a huge potential market for Tesla.
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  Speaker 3: There's almost certainly no company in the country that would
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  stand to benefit more from a less heavily regulated self
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  driving framework than Elon Musk and Tesla.
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  Speaker 2: So Tesla's stock is up seven and a half percent
• 11:44
  on this news because apparently this means that you know,
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  the cyber cab is going to be closer to being
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  able to.
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  Speaker 4: Operate, which is potentially true.
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  Speaker 2: It leaves out the piece that I think is most important,
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  which is, hey, can these vehicles actually operate the wa
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  that they need to safely?
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  Speaker 4: Well, if we do, you regulate, We'll find out pretty quickly.
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  This is the thing you're gonna know.
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  Speaker 2: If if you say, yep, we're just gonna allow these
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  on the roads, and here are the rules, and Elon's
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  involved in making them, you're going to know. And this
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  is the inherent danger that you have in having people
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  with significant business interests that are also advising on federal
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  policy or in a position of power with the federal government.
• 12:31
  And people might say, well, look, Elon's you know, a
• 12:34
  unique businessman, and he can you know, do this. And
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  look if Kamala Harrison Won and Mark Huban or Jeff
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  Bezos were you know, deciding, hey, here are the rules
• 12:44
  that I want for If Jeff Bezos is like, here
• 12:47
  are the rules that I want for trade because Amazon
• 12:49
  imports a ton from China, people.
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: Would be pretty upset.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: I think we'd all be kind of like, hey, what
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  gives you generally don't want the agencies and the groups
• 13:00
  that are tasked with regulating an industry being staffed by
• 13:03
  someone who currently makes their livelihood in that industry. So
• 13:07
  unless they divest of their holdings, which Musk has not
• 13:11
  done and can't practically do well, I mean, I guess
• 13:14
  anyone can sell all these companies sue theory. This presents
• 13:18
  a great opportunity for Elon Musk to be able to
• 13:23
  reduce his tax burden exponentially because there are provisions in
• 13:29
  the US tax code that if you are being appointed
• 13:31
  to a position and you have to divest, you get
• 13:33
  huge tax benefits for doing so.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think he wants to be an actual
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  part of the administration. That's why he's taken some advisory rules.
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  But here we are, so I agree. I'm not happy
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  with the apparent conflict and apparent results here. Should they
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  come through, let's talk about what they actually look like,
• 13:52
  what the appropriate framework might be here.
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  Speaker 4: Because for self driving vehicles, yeah, I mean that I'm
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  not expert.
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  Speaker 3: I guess one thing that I would be, you know,
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  obviously really want that I think Elon Musk would definitely
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  not want is a very very clear, strict and clear
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  path about liability when the accidents happen. And that's the
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  piece that I think is going to be a huge
• 14:18
  hunt to get over. Who's going to ensure it? And
• 14:22
  not if but when one of these vehicles again kills somebody,
• 14:27
  how do you hold the company designing the software liable
• 14:31
  compared to the person who was behind the wheel?
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  Speaker 1: Uh?
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  Speaker 2: And the cyber won't even have wheels or petals, right,
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  so that one's pretty to have wheels on the car
• 14:41
  won't have a steer.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: Steering wheel wheel. Yeah, that that to me is the
• 14:44
  big piece.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I mean there's gonna be massive questions just
• 14:47
  in even if it's a deregulated market, who's going to
• 14:51
  ensure that because it's a very big unknown at the moment.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Beyond that who you know, how who gets access to
• 14:57
  the data and who owns the data surrounding this so
• 14:59
  that you can actually determine who's at fault?
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  Speaker 4: Right?
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  Speaker 3: You know, how do you you know two self driving
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  cars get in an accident, who's at fault?
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: Beyond that?
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  Speaker 2: Like, here's an example of something that we have to
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  deal with with self driving vehicles that we don't today. Mike,
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  If I get into an accident.
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  Speaker 4: With you today.
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  Speaker 2: Do we have to look at the software and be like,
• 15:20
  what caused this and how do we improve it? No,
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  we're like Chuck was an idiot. He didn't look left
• 15:25
  when he was turning and he got t boned by Mike.
• 15:28
  That's Chuck's fault. Yes, if there is a vehicle that's
• 15:32
  being mass manufactured and you find hey, it had this
• 15:38
  crash happened because of x A propensity to rear end,
• 15:42
  how do you make sure that you are fixing that
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  problem going forward because it is embedded in the vehicle
• 15:49
  rather than a function of who's driving it, right, And Like,
• 15:52
  these are just things that we need to work on,
• 15:55
  and I'm not saying.
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  Speaker 4: That they can't be solved now.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: Like there's never been a point where insurance and regulation
• 16:02
  have completely stopped the development of a new and emerging technology, right, Like,
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  we've never had morals think that for a second, Like
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  you know, insurance costs being like, oh, well, we're not
• 16:14
  going to invent the car because there's going to be
• 16:17
  more accidents. And I suspect that the same will be
• 16:20
  said for the eventual technology of self driving vehicles. But
• 16:24
  there is a lot to be worked out and if
• 16:27
  Elon Musk had it his way, you know, Tesla would
• 16:29
  be held liable for almost nothing in the event of crashes.
• 16:32
  And so you have to be careful how this framework
• 16:36
  is defen and.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Ultimately, look, if that's where it ends up, the risk
• 16:39
  doesn't leave the system. And so if you end up
• 16:41
  with crashes that are happening, eventually a couple things happen
• 16:45
  either a people are like, no, we just aren't going
• 16:47
  to allow these like that. That's where you end up, is, Hey,
• 16:51
  if there are problems that keep happening, then you're going
• 16:54
  to end up with people making the decision no, we
• 16:56
  don't want to have these anymore. So I don't know
• 17:00
  where this goes or doesn't, but I do know just
• 17:04
  from the companies that are actually involved in testing, you know,
• 17:08
  true self driving with no driver behind the wheel not
• 17:12
  And I say this is someone whose family owns a
• 17:15
  Tesla and is used, you know, the full self driving option.
• 17:19
  There have been times where I've had to step in
• 17:21
  and override it.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: Of course.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and so if you are saying, hey, there's going
• 17:25
  to be a vehicle with no steering and no pedals,
• 17:31
  you got to get past the point where I'm interfering
• 17:34
  twice on a sixty mile drive.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're pretty far away from this being usable to
• 17:39
  the degree that they want to talk about.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: So this is one thing that we are expected to see,
• 17:45
  you know, as a potential either you know, whether it's
• 17:49
  executive order or something done through the legislature, you know,
• 17:51
  something that potentially takes shape during Trump's term. Another one
• 17:55
  that I think is important to watch, and this one
• 17:58
  I think has more meat on the bone, is what
• 18:01
  happens with evs, both domestic ones in terms of the
• 18:06
  tax incentives to produce them here, but also the coming
• 18:10
  wave of Chinese evs that is, you know, kind of
• 18:13
  overwhelming Europe and how does the US try to deal
• 18:17
  with that. I think this is something that we should
• 18:19
  talk about when we return.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Bringing the latest financial news straight to your radio every day,
• 18:38
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• 18:51
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• 18:56
  Speaker 2: In the Wall Street Journal, auto industry braces for whiplash
• 18:59
  as Trump takes power. Couple key areas. The first is
• 19:01
  what happens to the EV subsidies from the Inflation Reduction Act.
• 19:05
  The second is what happens with tariffs on vehicles imported
• 19:10
  into the US.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: So the EV tax credit.
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: It seems like it's definitely going to be front and
• 19:15
  center under the Trump administration, but you definitely have some
• 19:19
  interested parties like Ford and General Motors who are going
• 19:21
  to fight to keep it along. I'll be interested to
• 19:24
  hear where Elon Musk lands on that one, because surprisingly
• 19:29
  I think he could actually benefit.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: He said that he doesn't think that Tesla needs it.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like, you know, they've already got such a dominant
• 19:34
  position that this was kind of a catch up for
• 19:37
  the other automakers to get there, and without it, I
• 19:40
  think that Tesla might be okay.
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: The trade piece is far more complex.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: I mean, we don't obviously consume, you know, import any
• 19:49
  Chinese made vehicles into the United States here, but globally,
• 19:55
  I don't know what the priority of the Trump administration
• 19:58
  is going to be when it comes to blocking those
• 20:01
  from some of our allies. And then obviously there's the
• 20:05
  added complexity of Elon Musk having a massive business interest
• 20:10
  in China.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, if you look at where the US
• 20:14
  currently you know imports vehicles from the single biggest country
• 20:19
  in terms of the dollar value of the vehicles is Mexico,
• 20:23
  and it's largely US manufacturers that have set up shops
• 20:27
  in Mexico. Beyond there, you've got Japan, Canada, Germany, and
• 20:30
  South Korea. Those are the other places that you have
• 20:33
  you know, large imports from in terms of vehicles. So
• 20:38
  I think that in terms of where this has the
• 20:41
  potential to go, it's one where Again I'm just listening
• 20:45
  to what the Trump campaign has said, and it sounds
• 20:48
  like they're going to be pretty aggressive in going after
• 20:51
  those from a tariff perspective. So I wouldn't be surprised
• 20:54
  if you see some kind of you know, imposition pretty
• 20:57
  early on there on import. It's at the very least
• 21:01
  of vehicles from you know, other countries, not just China. Again,
• 21:06
  we don't really as you noted, we don't really import
• 21:08
  many vehicles from China today. It's more the concern about
• 21:11
  these evs coming in at you know, very low cost
• 21:14
  subsidized by the Chinese government. That would be the other
• 21:18
  thing I think, you know, worth potentially watching. But we
• 21:20
  still don't have any clarity on this. We're just going
• 21:22
  to need to take a little bit of time.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, to see you can't try and read the tea
• 21:26
  leaves on this, it's way too early. And having the
• 21:30
  single largest US producer of electric vehicles as a close
• 21:33
  advisor to the administration, muddy's the water in terms of
• 21:36
  what it's all gonna look like.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: It's Tuck a little bit about retirees and wroth Ira conversions.
• 21:43
  There's there's a piece over the weekend in the Wall
• 21:45
  Street Journal specifically talking about roth Ira conversions and their
• 21:49
  potential value for retirees. I think this is one where,
• 21:55
  in particular, that sweet spot before you hit required minimum
• 21:59
  district abus age, which currently is seventy three and scheduled
• 22:02
  to move up as you know the next few years
• 22:04
  go through, there, there's a window where roth Ira conversions
• 22:08
  have the potential to generate some you know, long term
• 22:11
  tax benefits for retirees.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess first, defining them, as the name implies,
• 22:15
  a conversion is taking money from your traditional IRA or
• 22:18
  for a one K bucket and moving it into that
• 22:20
  rough bucket. And as Chuck mentioned, there can be some
• 22:23
  key advantages to doing so. I think the biggest one
• 22:26
  is very simply, after a Trump win, the presumption would
• 22:32
  be lower taxes for the next four years, and so
• 22:36
  if your plans haven't adapted to that, then they probably
• 22:40
  need to start to. Obviously, we don't know what exactly
• 22:42
  taxes are going to look like, but especially if you
• 22:45
  are in those higher brackets, it's going to be a
• 22:49
  pretty big priority to get this stuff done because otherwise,
• 22:52
  you know, I would say there's a very strong likelihood
• 22:55
  of taxes going up for a lot of Americans in
• 22:57
  twenty twenty six had there been a Harris administration, and
• 23:00
  that is very unlikely to happen under a Trump administration.
• 23:02
  And so that can make wroth conversions a much more
• 23:05
  attractive policy, especially if you're looking out of the next
• 23:09
  few decades and saying, well, after this, it seems quite
• 23:13
  possible the tax rates end up going in the other direction,
• 23:17
  higher in order to pay things for funding Social Security,
• 23:21
  like dealing with deficits. No guarantee, but you know, that's
• 23:24
  certainly a prediction that many have made before. If you
• 23:27
  don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to
• 23:29
  Roth conversions, if if you're not sure what any of
• 23:31
  this stuff means, it is important to understand. I know
• 23:35
  they've become much more popularly, been talked about a lot more,
• 23:38
  but I still see mistakes around it. I still see
• 23:41
  a lack of understanding from people about how it actually
• 23:43
  works and operates. And again, now's kind of the time
• 23:48
  to tackle this sort of thing if you fall into
• 23:51
  the right age bucket and tax bracket to make it
• 23:54
  all happen. If you have questions along those lines of
• 23:57
  how you allocate your portfolio most appropriately for today's and
• 24:02
  tomorrow's tax rates, please give the Armstrong Advisory Group a call.
• 24:05
  Let us sit down with you to evaluate your scenario
• 24:08
  and provide you with the advice that you may need
• 24:11
  in order to allocate things properly. The phone numbers eight
• 24:13
  hundred three nine three four zero zero one. Again, that's
• 24:17
  the number four the Armstrong Advisory Group. You can call
• 24:20
  us at eight hundred three to nine three four zero
• 24:23
  zero one.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: The proceeding was paid for by Armstrong Advisory Group, a
• 24:26
  registered investment advisor. Nothing in the ad or in any
• 24:29
  Armstrong guide a specific financial, legal or tax advice. Consult
• 24:32
  your own financial tax into state planning advisors before making
• 24:35
  any investment decisions. Armstrong make contact you to offer investment
• 24:38
  advisory services.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Mike, did you stay up to watch the Jake Paul
• 24:42
  Mike Tyson fight on Friday?
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: No, Tucker, did you noles toes up at nine thirty?
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: You and me both.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: So they drew sixty million households. It's unclear how long
• 24:53
  any of those households actually watched for. This was not
• 24:56
  you know how ratings are typically reported. This is just
• 25:00
  Netflix saying yeah, sixty million people tuned in at some
• 25:03
  point to this. So I think that when hearing about
• 25:08
  how this went, because I didn't watch it either, I
• 25:11
  talked to a couple of people who did. The first
• 25:13
  is they did have some glitches initially where it appeared
• 25:17
  that the stream just wouldn't stream it.
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: Was there are too many people watching? Was it just
• 25:23
  initially or was it throughout?
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: The sense I got from talking to people was it
• 25:28
  was mostly in the first half of it.
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: It was enough for several major publications to publish that
• 25:33
  there were glitches.
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: The other thing is, by the accounts that I heard from, again,
• 25:39
  I have three buddies who ended up watching it, they
• 25:42
  immediately regretted that decision. They said it was absolutely terrible.
• 25:45
  Was a hugfest. Look, there's a reason why you generally
• 25:49
  don't have fifty eight year old's licensed for you know,
• 25:53
  large scale boxing is because they can't.
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: Do it well at that point. And Paul, for you know.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: What he has done, he could kick my ass, I'm sure,
• 26:03
  but he's not you know, up to the snuff of
• 26:06
  like world heavyweight contender.
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: So was he twenty seventy twenty seven? Yes, he's right
• 26:11
  in his prime and everything. Like for that alone, I'll
• 26:15
  give my hats off, Like, you know, a fifty something
• 26:17
  year old battling a twenty seven year old and going
• 26:20
  for eight rounds Like, okay, I know it's a bad
• 26:23
  fight and not entertaining to watch, but dude walked away
• 26:25
  with twenty million dollars in box in his fifties.
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: But fifty eight, I said, fifties. Yeah, he's pushing sixty though,
• 26:32
  oh can you say fifties? It sounds like he's eight fifties.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: But yeah, that's a I don't think really the entertainment
• 26:40
  that people are looking for out of boxing, And well,
• 26:44
  maybe it is because sixty million people tuned in, but
• 26:46
  b Netflix and others continue to try and push live
• 26:51
  events as part of their features. And if you cannot
• 26:54
  figure out the very basic here's how we do it
• 26:57
  without it glitching. I don't know why I'm going to
• 27:01
  pay her tune in for this.
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: Can I give you my theory?
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Then?
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: Okay?
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: This was a dry run for what they're really interested
• 27:07
  in this year, yep, which is the fact that they
• 27:09
  have two NFL games on Christmas and they wanted to
• 27:12
  find out where the problems are so that they can
• 27:15
  get those things squared away in the next month's that's
• 27:18
  my guests.
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: Do you think they will? Will those Christmas games go
• 27:22
  off of that hedge? I don't think it. I mean, honestly,
• 27:25
  I bet it will. I think back to Tuck.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Do you remember it was last year I think when
• 27:31
  Amazon launched their first Thursday night football game.
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: Yea, and it was kind of a mess. It was.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: It was kind of a mess, both in terms of
• 27:38
  I think the same thing happened.
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: The stream went down a little.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Bit, the production was the great, the audio was kind
• 27:44
  of a mess. This had the sense of, Okay, we're
• 27:48
  gonna try this and see how it goes. I suspect
• 27:51
  that these Netflix Christmas games they'll probably have a few
• 27:53
  problems around the edges as well. Is it going to
• 27:56
  be as bad as if they were just trying for
• 27:57
  the first time ever. No, but here's the thing. If
• 28:01
  you're only broadcasting two games a year, the other problem
• 28:04
  that you run into is everything that you learn about, Hey,
• 28:07
  what do we need to do in order to pull
• 28:08
  this off effectively? You forget it by next year. Well
• 28:11
  there's no institutional knowledge, or you have to build all
• 28:14
  this capacity for a once a year event. That's not
• 28:17
  an efficient use of resource. That's how Amazon Web Services started.
• 28:20
  So maybe this is where Netflix is going. These are
• 28:22
  things that I wonder about. Hey, Netflix has to build
• 28:25
  all this excess capacity. Do they build a second business
• 28:29
  selling that off for the rest.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: Of the year.
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: I don't know, but I'm just just spitballing on it. Yeah,
• 28:34
  did you they're not dumb people? Did you see what
• 28:36
  the NFL tweeted out last night?
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: Chuck? No, what did they tweet?
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: Netflix will stream the Ravens Texans and Kansas City Chiefs
• 28:45
  and Pittsburgh Steelers games on Christmas. The Texans will host
• 28:48
  the Ravens in Houston, where Beyonce will be performing the
• 28:53
  halftime show. That's a huge, huge announcement and absolute like
• 29:02
  instant highlight for Netflix. Like in terms of like they're
• 29:06
  making this a huge deal.
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: So Christmas Day games are gonna get a halftime.
• 29:10
  Speaker 5: Show on Netflix apparently. Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry, that's
• 29:15
  a massive announcement.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying it isn't, But how many games need
• 29:22
  a halftime show?
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: If you're the NFL? Why not? I guess again, this
• 29:29
  organization walks on water. Why not?
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: The interesting thing is, look, the NBA hasn't had to
• 29:35
  compete on Christmas Day ever, Yeah, they now do. I'm
• 29:39
  very interested as to what this does to the NBA ratings,
• 29:42
  Like these are like throwaway games, like you know, the
• 29:45
  Browns and Saints or something yesterday, Like this is the
• 29:48
  Ravens and Texans and the Chiefs and the Steelers.
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: How much do you wage your team? How much do
• 29:51
  you wish they had Chiefs bills from yesterday? Though?
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean like, that's a game that should
• 29:56
  have been the Chris Christmas Day game.
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: You should have figured out a way to ma that happen.
• 30:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I guess, ESPN, try not. ESPN, NBC last night
• 30:06
  tried to flex that game, but CBS shut it down.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: I can understand why CBS would like to keep that one. Now,
• 30:14
  which I watched three minutes of it, including you know
• 30:16
  Josh Allen's TD run and I'm like, wow, this is
• 30:19
  this is good, Like we need more games like this.
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: This is good, this is great. Let's take a quick
• 30:23
  break here. When we come back, we got stack Roulette.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Find daily interviews and full shows of the Financial Exchange
• 30:30
  on how Are YouTube page. Get cut up on anything
• 30:33
  and everything you might have missed. This is the Financial
• 30:36
  Exchange Radio Network. Text does six one seven three six
• 30:41
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• 30:43
  about today's show. This is the Financial Exchange Radio Network.
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: This segment of The Financial Exchange is brought to you
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• 31:25
  Speaker 4: Mike, what do you got for stack Roulette?
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: I have got the new AI that I actually love,
• 31:32
  called Daisy Chuck.
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: I know you read this one as well.
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: One of the best usages of artificial intelligence that I've
• 31:40
  seen so far. It's called the AI Granny and her
• 31:43
  sole purpose is to outwit scammers. So here's what this
• 31:47
  thing is is. It is a artificial intelligence that was
• 31:50
  created modeled after an older British woman. I think they
• 31:55
  actually use one of the designer's grandmother as the voice
• 31:57
  behind the artificial intelligful.
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: Love it already they parted, I'm sorry, who was that Daisy?
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: None?
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: No, the voice, I think you say's one of.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: The designer's grandmothers bottled after her go ahead. And so
• 32:10
  here's how it works. As they created this artificial intelligence.
• 32:13
  The entire goal of the AI is to try and
• 32:15
  skip keep scammers that call the number on the phone
• 32:19
  for as long as possible without giving out any information
• 32:21
  that would be useful. And they do so as posing
• 32:24
  for a as a vulnerable older woman who loves to
• 32:28
  tell stories, love to tell stories, and so they posted
• 32:30
  the phone number on a bunch of you know common,
• 32:33
  you know dark websites where people scrape phone numbers and
• 32:37
  have had some really fun results so far. But again
• 32:41
  she picks up the phone leads the person on as
• 32:44
  though they are going to get data. There's been a
• 32:48
  few of them that they quoted here, but one of
• 32:50
  them was from a scammer who quote said, it's nearly
• 32:54
  been an hour for the love of an inaudible expletive
• 32:58
  in an exasperated scammer groaned, and they replied from friendly
• 33:02
  Daisy said, gosh, how time flies. There have been others
• 33:04
  where she just wanted to talk about her cat, fluffy
• 33:08
  long tangents about her passion for knitting.
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: And again, the whole goal here is, Hey, if.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: You keep the scammer on the phone with this artificial intelligence,
• 33:15
  then they can't be out there scamming other people. I mean,
• 33:19
  I love this. This in and of itself isn't going
• 33:21
  to change anything. But I do have a way that
• 33:24
  this could actually be really successful. Have I told to
• 33:27
  you guys about the screen call feature available on Google
• 33:31
  phones through the Google Assistant. Yeah, So, basics of how
• 33:34
  it works. If you haven't used it before. You get
• 33:36
  a call from an unknown number, you tap the screen
• 33:39
  call button, the Google assistant comes on, asks who's calling
• 33:42
  and why, You get a transcript, and then you can
• 33:44
  choose to.
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: Pick it up.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: If it's actually somebody you know, you can report the
• 33:49
  call as spam. But what I would love would be
• 33:52
  anytime an unknown number calls, I just queue up Miss
• 33:55
  Daisy here and she just keeps the scammer on the
• 33:58
  phone for as long as possible. I think this could
• 34:01
  really actually change the economics of scamming if everybody had
• 34:05
  access to a tool like this.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: The question again just I'm just poking holes in this.
• 34:10
  Eventually scammers are going to.
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: Get their own AI bods they are, yeah, and then
• 34:13
  they're going to start scamming us with a Well.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: So this is the part that is is where we
• 34:18
  get just a little dystopian on this. We're going to
• 34:22
  get to a point where all of our data is
• 34:24
  just being used by AI bots making calls to other
• 34:27
  AI bots and humans not actually talking to each other.
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: And those AI bots occasionally getting hacked and giving away
• 34:34
  our personal li right.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: Like it's there's there's something really kind of dystopian.
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, how do we protect our AI bot though? That's
• 34:45
  what I want to know.
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: That to protect them, for that, you need another AI body.
• 34:49
  We're commonly at the schwarzeneggerbot and its job is to
• 34:53
  protect Miss Dacis He's going.
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: To look out for my AI bot. That's what I
• 34:57
  want to know.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: I want to talk about this piece from the Wall
• 35:01
  Street Journal. A twelve thousand dollars surgery to change eye
• 35:03
  color is surging in popularity. Oh yes, I saw this,
• 35:06
  And basically it's a Corrado pigmentation surgery. And this doctor
• 35:16
  in Jersey, No New York is on track to treat
• 35:20
  four hundred people this year.
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: Can we not call it treat I mean, what else
• 35:25
  treating them?
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Like?
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: Again, it basically uses lasers and this and that and
• 35:35
  again it's something that historically has been used for people
• 35:39
  with diseased or injured eyes, where you're trying to, I guess,
• 35:44
  just tweak things around the edges in order to improve,
• 35:48
  you know, eyesight that might be struggling.
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: One young man change one of his brown eyes blue
• 35:53
  to copy the mismatched eyes of his beloved Siberian husky.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: So listen it. Ultimately, if you've got enough money to
• 36:02
  pay for this. It's not like you can cover this
• 36:05
  with insurance. If you've got enough money to pay for this,
• 36:07
  and you've done your research about you know this and
• 36:10
  that and whatever, and you say, yeah, this would be cool. Okay, fine,
• 36:14
  But look, as a five foot seven, balding guy, like
• 36:19
  they get stuff out there to like give me hair,
• 36:22
  make my legs longer.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: In this, I see less of an issue with this
• 36:25
  than the stuff around like choosing.
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: Why are we so unhappy with how we look? Man like?
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: What gives what makes a I understand that we all
• 36:36
  get a little insecure sometimes, but we got to toughen
• 36:41
  up a little bit. I'm kind of sorry about that.
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: The crazy stuff to me is the stuff where you
• 36:46
  can choose those same features for your unborn children.
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: That stuff's pretty freaking to me. Yeah.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: Anyways, we're done for the day. We'll see you back
• 36:54
  here tomorrow. On the financial exchange