Latest / Winning With Winans! / Mark Shaffer is our guest this week on Winning With Winans

Transcript

Mark Shaffer is our guest this week on Winning With Winans · Winning With Winans!

• speaker-0: Well I guess it's another time for an episode of Winning with Winens. Let's go. And welcome to morning with Wine is Las Vegas newest and coolest financial show. I'm your host, Ken Winens. And for those of you who still do not know me, I have been a nationwide financial commentator on radio and Forbes for the last 25 years. And most important, hey, I actually walk the talk. I do this for a living. I founded an investment management firm in 1992. Today, Winus Investments is the only Morningstar top ranked money manager based in Las Vegas. And last time I checked, we're top in Nevada. So look, for the next hour, we're going to be covering a lot of basically current events that you might not even know about that are gonna affect your money. And we're also gonna have a special guest come on in the la in the mid part of the show. Now, I am a news junkie and I go through nine different financial sources every week just to get the information that I need to be a successful investor. So we are trying to focus on the big picture of stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities, and even cryptocurrencies. So winning with widenes is different. It really is. Mainstream media covers day to day, try doesn't really connect all the dots. We actually do connect those dots so you can try to make money in this market. Okay, let's talk about this week's headlines. Okay, all over the news. The US debt reaches forty trillion. You know, that's a big number. It is a big number. the the part that's interesting about it is that you have to look at it in percentage terms. It is high. And if you want to look at this entire century, we have been on a spending bench between Iraq and Afghanistan, the two thousand eight, two thousand nine bailout of the banks, we had COVID, that cost another sixteen trillion. So there's not a big surprise that it's come back. But what we care the most about is can we have the economy grow fast enough to service that debt? That is what matters. Now, hop somewhere down the road, the hoop the it's gonna come home to roost with us, okay? When you look at Social Security, you look at Medicare, and you better think about all the other debt that's out there. The I talk all the time about municipal municipal debt, and that's talk about state debt. That talks about school bond debt, water debt, all these debts that are out there. But what we wanna watch very closely is that with interest rates climbing. Although by itself is it, I mean, look, we nobody likes to see rates go up because that means we spend more on interest. But I want you to think about this. Credit card debt, that's one thing. But mortgage interest, I mean everybody talks about it, it's still a tax write-off. loans, like businesses, are still a tax write-off. So as long as we have that, we're in pretty good shape. But I'd also bring up, too, what we want to pay attention to is what's happening internationally, because what really triggered a lot of this being even talked about is Was this Japanese currency crisis we call the yen crisis? It's very complicated. I'm not going to try to get into it today, but it changed the relationship of interest rates between the US and Japan. What I care about is that Japan is a very, very big buyer of U.S. treasury debt. I mean other words, they they like it. They like to keep it. We don't want to have them stop buying our debt. That's going to cause rates to go higher. The other thing that I think that we do have to pay attention to especially this time of year, there's a lot of things that we call refunding going on all over the place. We're talking about it at the federal government level. We're talking about at the state level, the local level, certainly in Nevada, we have these same things happen. But it's gonna affect us least because we don't have nearly as much debt as places like California or Illinois or New York. their borrowing costs are gonna go up a lot, which is gonna cause them big problems. anyway, we'll just have to see what's gonna happen. I did talk on the last episode of Winning with Wynens that there was a report out that LA Unified School District was warning about insolvency by next November. Again, we're gonna hear a lot of these headlines coming from a lot of these states that are overly indebted. It can cause problems that might spill over on our great state, but let's see what happens. Okay, other things that were coming out this week that I thought were kind of interesting. There's been a lot of talk about. Capital gains taxes. And what they're mainly talking about is that there's actions in Washington right now that this tax, and let and real quick, let's talk about this tax. This is tax that's charged when you make money on an investment. Now that might not be a surprise to many of you here. Thank goodness for those of us who live in Nevada, we don't have a state income tax on capital gains. But the problem is when you take capital gains increases, in other words, Let's say you make money on a stock, if you don't ingest it for inflation, that runs even at let's just say the average has been about two and a half percent a year, that means you're paying on gains that are really not real. So right now they're trying to get this done before we get out of the this cycle of the Congress this year of trying to index capital gains. You know what? I hope they do something about it because it it has always rubbed me really raw. That when it comes to capital gains for investors, hey, it's one thing. You took money that you probably already paid tax on and you invested it at your own risk. Now, this is the problem that I have with this. The government wants to be your partner in the gains, but if you lose and you don't have any gains to offset, you get to write off $3,000 a year forever until your your loss is made up. This does not sound like a good deal to me. There's all these other things in the tax code. I mean, real estate people get to do in you know, they be they get to roll properties. Even annuities get to roll, insurance policies get to roll into annuities. But for some reason, when it comes to people making money on stocks, you end up getting this very weird rule. So it's time that we make it basically fair for a stock investor. Okay. I I mean, I just again it really assists to me it's the worst injustice in the tax code. Okay, other things that came out this week. There's a lot of talk about people turning to AI and social media for investment advice. There's a lot of talk about people who are going to TikTok videos and watching these so called gurus. Hey, you know what? Look, I'll just tell you right now as a person who does this for a living and has been doing it for a long time for a living. I have always been concerned of people taking advice from anybody who's actually doesn't have a proven track record. I don't care whether it's in a university or it's on social media. You need to ask the question, what is your background? Why am I listening to you? If you're not doing that, you're d I think you're doing a fool's errand. And look, I think AI is amazing. I use it all the time for a lot of things that I do. But here's the reality of it. it's not perfect either. It's only as good as the data that feeds it. So I would not take any advice from either social media or AI without running it by your advisor. I'm not saying don't use it, but you need to get confirmation that what you're hearing is in fact accurate. At some point in time, this might get better. But hey, look, you're watching a YouTube video right now. You can make that case about me. But again, I have a track record. You can look me up and see that I am very real. Okay, other things that were in the paper or in the in the media. Hey, you know, we're always hearing about the Colorado River and the fact that Lake Mead is at a in a low point. I guess it's even though it still has over a thousand feet of water in it, it's down pretty low. But you know what? This drought thing, it's global. Now I'm not going to get into a debate about climate change on this, but I just want you understand that we are not the only people on planet Earth that have these water problems. Europe right now, a lot of the big rivers in Europe. They're at record low levels. They're saying they're finding ancient ships and, you know, stones from the 1500s at mark levels then. I'm just saying that there's a lot going on here. And I think that Nevada has got a leg up on everybody because we already assume water is a precious resource and we make, you know, we make the most out of it. Okay, let's have some fun here. You know, I like to get off these serious topics and have a little fun. What would you believe if I told you? There is now a $100 hot dog. Yep. You heard it right, folks. They they sprung this thing on everybody at F1 Grand Prix Race in Miami and also at the tennis open in Miami. I guess this thing has caviar all over it and all kinds of special toppings. I I mean, I I mean I look, I love a good hot dog. I mean, it's the it's my one weakness. But I think we all if for those of us who think that F1s are already expensive in Las Vegas, you better breeze for impact. So we're gonna get that hot dog. I guess they're having it at ski resorts now. Anyway, all this other crazy stuff. Hey, one other quick thing I want to bring up back to the markets. I know that hot dog story. I can't believe it. All right. summertime, August through September. Markets can get very volatile. I would look at get your list together of what you want to buy, whether it's stocks. Or it's crypto or it's commodities, whatever. You should have your list ready to go because typically in the fall is when you have some pretty big rallies that happen. So don't don't play defense right now. I mean, get rid of things that are not working for sure. But by all means, get that list together. It's it, you know, there's no such thing as a sure bet, even in Las Vegas. But the August to May timeframe is usually a good time to be in stocks. Okay, look, we're gonna take a very quick break. We have a really great guest coming on in the next segment of Winning with Winens. I'm your host, Ken Winins, and we'll be right back. And welcome back to Winning with Wine's Las Vegas' newest and coolest financial show. I am your host, Ken Wynans, and we have a special guest. Now, many of you out there, I'm sure you see it everywhere. The My Vegas magazine. Well, we have the head honcho right here, Mr. Mark Schaefer. He is the boss, the publisher. Hey, and I think in you don't want speaker-1: Okay. speaker-0: to give you a new title. Okay. Yeah, you have the you have this town peg, buddy. speaker-1: Well, perhaps so. I've been I've been labeled that a few times. Mute a few times, but Mr. Vegas is away Newton. speaker-0: okay, all right, there we go. Yeah, we don't wanna we don't wanna bless Wayne. He's been longer. speaker-1: I don't want to take his title. speaker-0: Well as we say Wayne knows where all the skeletons are, so we don't we don't want to But Mark, how you doing, my friend? I'm doing speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. Doing great. I'm doing great. It's we're halfway through twenty twenty six and what a what a rootin' tootin' year it's been. Well speaker-0: We got a lot to cover here. But I let's start with your background because you've been in Vegas how many years now? speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Wait, you're a native Vegan. Yes. In Vegas, not just Nevada, but in Vegas. speaker-1: In Vegas. I say I escaped twice though. Because I escaped because it's like the the mountains running, it's like a prison. You gotta get up over the mountains to get out of here, right over the wall. So I climbed the wall twice. I went to Tahoe for two years and loved the lake Tahoe right out of high school at eighteen. So we grew up in in North Las Vegas and my mom was a single mom with four kids. So there wasn't any college money. the army, the the service looked scary. Just saw a bunch of guys getting, you know, hurting in Vietnam and so that scared the daylights out of me. I didn't wanna go lose an arm or a leg and and that stuff. And so I didn't know where to go. So I just went to Tahoe and went skiing for two years. speaker-0: All right, what was your favorite resort in tow? speaker-1: Heavenly, yeah, right there. Really? Base of Heavenly. well, Mount Rose. I skied there a few times. Squaw Valley went up there too, Kirkw Kirkwood. speaker-0: It's a good skin. speaker-1: Yeah, I mean at at eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old, I mean it was just a the time of my life. I was gonna be on the ski patrol and I was gonna do this and do that, but Vegas has a funny way of bringing you back. speaker-0: I hear that. There's a lot of people who say or they or they say, I was only going to be here for like two years and now it's twenty. Yes. You know. So why does that happen? What what keeps people here? What brings you back? speaker-1: Well, I'm gonna say what keeps people here probably is the the boom town it is. It's been booming for over a hundred years. Yeah. It's just nonstop boom town. It it's phenomenal. And with that it it's it's it's pretty easy to to to find success here. It's a test market town in America, but at the same time it's still like the the the Wild West. It's free and it's welcome and we have we have no state tax. it's business friendly. You know, here in Maryland are the Two places that people get corporations filed for all the tax savings and all the benefits that we offer. And it's a great business town to start a business. it's boom, we're getting thirty to forty thousand people moving in every year here now. A lot of them California, not a problem. they're coming in like crazy and this town is just phenomenal. I remember my mom when I was a little kid, she I asked her, What's population? She said, that's how many people live here. And I said, Well, how how how many in Las Vegas? And she said, fifty thousand. I said, Wow, that's a lot of people. Yeah. Fifty thousand. Yeah. And I left again in when I was twenty eight years old. I went to Florida to live with my dad for a while and hang out with him. And I was gone actually for about ten years. Okay. And I spent five years out on the Carnival cruise lines and then I spent five years in Florida and but again, Vegas, I got an offer to come back to Vegas and with a magazine business, which was what it was back in nineteen ninety four, ninety five, and that's when I moved back. Okay. And I said, Well I'll go back for five years, because I was in love with Florida at that point. I said I told my partner I had a partner back then. I said, I'll go back for five years, but I love Florida now. Well that was ninety five, so I don't know, that was like thirty years ago. So here I am. speaker-0: Sure. So you actually do know the difference between dry heat and and wet heat. You know the difference speaker-1: Yes, yes, yes. And I love both. A lot of people don't like the humidity in Florida and speaker-0: Yeah, you get used to it. You just have to adapt. Well you know, but you brought up something I because I like Florida too. I have a lot of family down there. Family they were in the Sarasota area. Okay. So you know, I've spent a lot of time there. It's a nice area. I but you know the thing is, and you and you know this, you you have to deal with disasters. You've got hurricanes, you got tornadoes, you know, you have just crazy weather there. Yeah. And you and you warn people, I say, look, if you're gonna go there, because I've had people who've left New York or they and they go to Florida for retirement and they go, w what is my homeowner's occupancy rates, as far as you know, HOA fees, what's my insurance fee? Yeah. They go, What? They can't believe it. And they say, Well, again, you move to a place where you unfortunately have these things hit. But Vegas, go back to it. 'Cause I mean I speaker-1: We don't have earthquakes, we don't have tornadoes. It's a pretty unique place. speaker-0: Yeah, I mean it really is. I mean that's why we did atomic testing here. That's why the Air Force is here. I mean it's why they put the drones here. Mark but looking at it, and I'm gonna get just tell me if you think I'm right or wrong on this. So here I am, somebody who moved here three years ago. Okay. But I'd been coming here on bag or you know for business for a long time, and I just kept having more clients moving here, more clients, more clients. I said, wait a minute, we gotta grow our office here because we're getting so many people moving here. speaker-1: Yes. speaker-0: And then COVID. Uh-huh. And I think that the at least my opinion. The way that Vegas handled the COVID situation was so much better than pretty much anywhere else in the country. Would you agree with me on that? I mean we came off the mask pretty quick. The casinos went back to business pretty quick. How did that play out in your mind? Was that did that was a was that just a businesses just said to heck with us, we're gonna have to reopen? Well how did that play out? speaker-1: Well, I'm reminded too back in two thousand and seven, two thousand eight when the Great Recession hit and a buddy of mine he was a manager of one of the station casinos. We were out at breakfast one day and what a great guy. he's up in Reno now. And we were talking about that whole recession thing too. It's the talk of the town. And he b he he coined it really well when he said he said, Mark, let me tell you about Vegas and I agree with him now. He said you know, and we're kinda like an island. Okay, we can't just go over, you know, drive over a half hour down to fifteen and and and get help. It's a long way to LA and to get help or a long way to Salt Lake or Phoenix and so we're kind of on our own. And he said, Vegas has been very independent and it breeds that independent vibe in that independent feeling, which is more entrepreneurial, which is again leads back to business, but but he said Vegas is such a standalone city. We're the last one to go into a recession and we're the first one to come out of it. speaker-0: I agree with that. speaker-1: And he said and the same thing on and now with Corona, we talked again and and he said the same thing. He said, you know, we'll we' we we'll handle it. We'll get we're the last one to have to take it in and then w whatever has going on in the whole country, but we c we c get out of it pretty quick too because we're we're independent. speaker-0: Yeah, I think you'll find this funny. I distinctly remember I came here, I was at an event, it was a veterans event, it was a cigar night, middle of COVID, okay, reverend cigars. And I had to catch a flight that evening to get back to the Bay Area, and I was reminded on the plane, p put your mask back on. It's like, that's right, I'm going back to California. I gotta put I gotta hurry up and and worry about this again. But you know, Mark, what I noticed is that number one, there's a hu first off nobody outside of you, there are very few people who actually from here. yeah. But there's a lot of veterans who live here. And there's a lot of people who go to some form of church or temple. You and I happen to both be Christians. Uh-huh. But people here it it still has that community feel. People are respectful of each other. Yes. It's a r it's a d you know, very diverse racial mix. You just don't have a lot of the same issues you have in other places in the country. At least that's my opinion. You don't have it. speaker-1: No w no we don't. You're right. We're right. And it it's just such a unique town. It's I just I I can't say enough about Vegas, how much I love it and and where's it gonna be in in in twenty more years. speaker-0: Well you know what you know where I want it to go. Where? I want to be in the Wall Street of the West. No, speaker-1: Yes, yes, I remember. speaker-0: you and I are gonna work together on this. Thank you. Yeah, the word I I was shocked that the Review Journal called me one day and said, Hey, we we read the white paper at UNLV and the professors just said, Hey, you gotta talk to Ken Wynnes. He's the one who gave us the idea. But that's part of what I I mean, I think you and I both are very positive, optimistic people about Vegas and its future. And you know, we're gonna take a very quick break to h talk to our sponsors and we'll be back with Winning with Wynans with Mark Schaefer as we talk about this wonderful city we call home Las Vegas. And welcome back to Winning with Wine is Las Vegas news and coolest financial show, media show, entertainment show. I guess we're we're spreading it. Hey, we have a great guest that we we're gonna go to round two with. That's Mr. Mark Schaefer, Mr. My Vegas magazine. And Mark, I can tell you I love your magazine. I I mean, you know, it's perfect. It always has a great cover. It's inviting. That's what it is, it's very inviting. That's great. And you're v and you're always you get to know the people in the magazine very well. You don't let you don't let a bunch of flakes in it. speaker-1: met some amazing people through the my Vegas journey and it's just been phenomenal from the mayors to the sheriffs to the district attorneys to to everybody that the Who's Who in Vegas. In fact coming up in twenty twenty seven our one of our first issues we're launching is the new Who's Who. the Who's Who and it's gonna include big names that that of people that have you know helped sculpt and shape the the Vegas that we live in today. That's And speaking of which you mentioned earlier on your story the Wall Street over the West. I really feel that this town, we need a second a second brand to be known for. Right now we're known for the casinos. That's our number one employer. In Disney, in Orlando is Disney World. They're the number one employer. And you know, and so tourism isn't our number one in Vegas and tourism obviously in Orlando as well, but do we need to diversify? and we need to have so if it's gonna be the the the Wall Street of the West, we need something else here to rely on because if the tourism is down, what else do we have? and we've got all of our eggs in one basket. And and if I was in charge of the city, I would welcome another major industry to come in here. So we've got two things going on. And we I guess with sports we are, but again, then that's entertainment too. Entertainment capital of the world is known as. And sports is coming and That kind of diversifies a little bit, but that's entertainment as well. So yeah, I love the idea that we've got the Knights and the Raiders and we've got NBA come baseball and NBA, the A's are coming and but it's still in the entertainment realm. Yeah. What do we have that's not in the entertainment realm? You know, without entertainment, we're dead in the water. So if we have a slow summer, like this summer's been slow, the the casinos are are are you know just scraping for a bit. It's getting so hot here. People aren't coming personal. They're they're coming in the three months they're not coming is June, July and August. Well you it's funny the speaker-0: The young people come 'cause we have the deals. They they show up here, they have a little bit of heat, they go to where the misters are, they're fine. But you know, the the thing about it and and you know, the fact and we're gonna cover it in your magazine. I mean, I'm gonna I I bel I I think I've put it together enough of the pieces. We have the political backing and I thought the article was fantastic from the lay they 'cause they asked me point blank, what do we have to do? Said, look, we have all the pieces there, we just need to get them all coordinated. They need to be very much On the same page. And here's the thing: this migration, I mean, we talk about the migration out of California. You know, I I got I'm sure you get asked all the time, are we worried about it changing the flavor of Vegas or changing the flavor of Nevada in general? There's a concern that we're gonna end up getting California catered the way Phoenix did. speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: I don't think it's gonna happen the same way, Mark, personally. I think that one, well, you know, again, we are no taxes, that's never gonna change. We're open carry, that's never gonna change. And like I said, we go to churches and temples. So if you don't like those big three, you shouldn't come here. This is not the case. What do they need? They need a lot of land. Hey, stadiums take up a pretty big footprint. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: You know, everybody keeps talking about the water. I'm kind of funny about the water thing. I mean, I've talked to the water board people and I was, you know, the biggest or you know, their chamber of commerce had everybody from the state From Carson come down here. It we all know it's an issue. It's a precious resource. But we're not, you know, doing what Phoenix did, which they drain their aquifer. We're not watering freeways the way California reportedly does. Right. You know, so we and as you say, we're an island, we can't we can't do a lot of things. And also the simple fact is power. You know, all those casinos, the same, they take a lot of power. With financial services. These are companies that can plug and play into an existing office complex, have speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: the security, one of the most secure places on planet Earth. So if you're a big wealth manager or you're a a commodity firm, hey, guess what? You've got police are allowed to do their jobs. They're not going to be allowed to protest out your we this. I mean, this is a business town. We're not going to allow the golden goose to be monkeyed with. speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: And but I do think, and is what I've tried to make it very clear to a lot of the players. Look, we have a choice here. We can either see these firms out of Southern California fly right over our head as they go to Texas or Florida. speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: Or, you know, and and Phoenix is actually now pretty well maxed out, or say, Hey, have you guys really thought about us? But again, it goes back to what you said. We've got to get them stop thinking of us only as an entertainment town and say, hey. This has the potential to become that Wall Street of the West. So we'll see how it goes. speaker-1: Yes. And it could we could also take on the the the high tech. I mean speaker-0: yeah, big time. speaker-1: we could be a car manufacturer, they could like Detroit's known for making cars, you know San Jose, California's known for all their their IT and their tech. we need we need a second industry. speaker-0: And we're gonna work on it. speaker-1: To balance that. I think that's gonna be the next big thing that that we would see in the change of Vegas. You said you don't see a lot of born and raised here. You know what that means? Seven percent of speaker-0: That the that's the population. speaker-1: the people here you meet are are are from here and ninety three percent f flew in from somewhere else. Yeah. And so I'm gonna I'm gonna do an article pretty soon called the seven percenters. speaker-0: Okay, now what what is the official rule to actually call yourself a Nevada? Is it ten years here? speaker-1: No no no, it's about sixty days. speaker-0: Yeah, It used to be ten years, right? Yeah I speaker-1: I remember going to court once, when I was in my twenties against a a business guy that owed me some money or something and and I and I said, Your Honor, I've been here all my life, you know, and I was carrying you brought up for twenty five years and and he said, That doesn't mean hill of beans in this town, okay? And I went, okay, and you shut me right up. I thought I thought it meant something, but you know, I guess it's you know, someone ninety days your your your local your local in ninety days speaker-0: You know, and I I think it's like anything else. But you know, you bring a a good point. I I always say that there it's it's a place of saints and sinners. You know, b people come here a lot of times to you know, they maybe had some troubles in their past and they came here knowing that this is the kind of place that those things easily get overlooked. But you know what's funny? my pastor told me when I was told I was moving here, they said, Isn't it funny how God always sends people into the desert when they're trying to find themselves? I thought how apropos that is perfect to describe babies. speaker-1: Beautiful, yeah. speaker-0: That's true. Think about it. It's very, very true. speaker-1: The forty days for forty years for Moses and the Israel out in the desert. speaker-0: And Jesus went into the wilderness. So so there you go. So we are the wilderness. speaker-1: Where this is where they send Vegas also I'll tell you an interesting thing about Vegas is that when people do move here, these ninety three percent, if they go back, it's usually within the first year or the sec within the second year. They go back to their home. And I tell if you just stay here one year, t you know, t twelve or twenty four months, you you've made it. Okay. Your your cement will dry and and you'll be planted here. But I guess it takes a while to make friends and to get find your place in Vegas. So And that could be any town, but this is what I've I've seen over the last thirty years is people come here and they could they could be gone in a year, which is another part of MyVegas magazine where we like to make sure that people are solid here before we you know get involved with them and and put them in a magazine because we wanna make sure that they're they're still gonna be here for the next issue. You know? speaker-0: Well, I in a s of course it's always y you never know. You know, people do come and go, but I do think that you know it when you look at what's going on right now in certain states where you cannot afford a house, you cannot afford just to go anywhere, you can't do anything. You suddenly come to a place like this where there's no income tax. Right. That buys you a lot of extra cash flow to go enjoy yourself. yeah. And then and you know, and I get asked all the time, you know, as far as you know, if you do not really want to leave You on a vacation? Vegas is the perfect place for staycations. There's so much to do here. I mean, I always I it's so funny, I always I drive and said, I didn't know that was there. my gosh, I didn't know that was here. And I and there's always something new. I was telling somebody about the at the Fountain Blue they have that museum of excellence that Tom Brady set up. Most people don't even know about it. Well speaker-1: How about that? speaker-0: let's and also too, the reinventing of itself. Mm-hmm. I mean I love it when I heard I was at the one of the economic club lunches and I'm one of the commissioners from Clark County said, says, You know what I love about this place? In the middle of COVID, what did we do? We built the sphere. We fixed the roads for F one. We built the Raiders Stadium. We we talked to the you know, the baseball people. True. You know, we we you know, we fixed everything. We we made it w he said, Find me another city in this country that did one of those. speaker-1: Right, right. speaker-0: Middle of COVID. And then the other thing he said is that we don't keep historical landmarks, we blow. speaker-1: Them up. speaker-0: And so again, I think again, we're a commercial center. We'll evolve as we need to evolve. We'll bring the new things on. And when and yeah, the Tropicana, who I mean, probably when they first built it said, This'll be here forever. No, it's not. Right. There comes a point in time. And and but what I find funny is like with the Mirage, we didn't blow it up. Nope, we're putting the the hard rock on speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: which is pretty funny. So now as you look forward, okay, and you well, I'll tell you what, why don't we do this? Are you up for doing a bonus section on our podcast? Let's go. Okay, this is the anything goes. Right. speaker-1: Okay. speaker-0: Real quick, if somebody wants to get a hold of you or find out more about My Vegas magazine, where should they go? speaker-1: myvegasmag dot com okay is our website. we got contact pages all over that. Or you can call our office seven two seven nine two best B E S T. speaker-0: How'd you get and I want to know how you swung that buddy? All right. Listen, everybody, we'll be right back for the bonus segment on the podcast of Winning with Winens. And welcome back to Winning Will Runnings. Now we're in the podcast section, which by the way, it is one of those things, you know, they say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Well, let's talk about what's happening in Vegas that we want to tell the world about. Mark Schaefer of My Vegas magazine. All right, let's now you've been here forever. Okay. Let's talk about, as you see, the chapters of Vegas. Okay. Let's now look. And everybody, I swear to God, I can't believe it. Every sorry, Lord. I go everywhere. Whether it's Dallas, you know, b because Dallas is growing like a weed on their financial staff. Arizona, California. They keep bringing up the mob. It's like what century are you people in? I mean, come on now. I you I think they've seen too many movies. Yeah. Okay, so what was your experience with the earl you know, when you were a kid with the early casino days? Well speaker-1: When I hit this in the seventies is when I started getting worldly. Okay. Okay, when I started growing up and and starting to see things in the seventies it was all mob. And I remember I was down on Fremont Street when some car blew up in the parking garage and it was you know, the the time when Anthony Spilatro was here and and all those guys and all the big mobs were running all the casinos. They owned a half of them and or they had their hands in them. The stardust that that movie casino was Filmed about the stardust. And a friend of mine from high school, her her dad was DioGuardi, one of the pit bosses there, who was knew everything. And I wish I could talk to him today. I think he's in heaven now, but that was the mob days. You know, Oscar Goodman was representing the mob. And he was a a lawyer back in the day, and and he he his he made his fame from from those years and and that experience. what happened though is when we got to the eighties. They started wanting to change that. And they started going after this and and that's when the first you started seeing corporate come in. And and corporate was coming in and a little mix of corporate and and and successful individuals like Steve Wynn with the golden nugget downtown, one of his first projects. And the eighties brought on a new era where they wanted to get shunned the old mob reputation and they started going after families. And the MGM, for example, was one of the biggest ones. They made a big family friendly paradise in the in behind their hotel. Okay. Well, it didn't work. It was ten years and everybody was trying the family thing and bring the kids and that didn't work 'cause Vegas was focused on the nightlife. And and the kids pretty much just went in the hotel rooms at nighttime. So the eighties didn't work the family reinvention. the nineties is when the corporate really came in. And that's when Steve Wynne started booming also with his little ho hotels and projects he was doing And and then by the two thousands it was it was all corporate. And speaker-0: Okay. speaker-1: and and now it's even more I think there's only two corporations now that one owns one side of the strip, Caesars and owns one side and Harrows owns the other. And then speaker-0: Caesar just was recently sold to a private group. speaker-1: That's exciting. And so here we go reinventing today. speaker-0: All right, so let me ask you this. So if we were just to back into Lehman's terms, the mob guys were bought out, I guess, corporations said, Hey, we're buying that casino, here's your money, bye bye. Would that be a safe kind of yeah, guys? speaker-1: The the the the gambling officials, you know, the the watch all the the the the board the board of speaker-0: Gaming commission. speaker-1: they I'm sure they had they pushed legislation to clean up the the old old reputation too. And and they made it harder to to own a hotel unless you're a big corporation, you've got all millions of dollars behind you, so that led to it as well. speaker-0: You know, it it's funny, I I sometimes run into some as you say, the the seven percenters. And they'll they'll say, Look, one thing I can tell you back then, stuff did not go down. you were not gonna do anything to disrupt business in this town. You were dealt with however we might wanna take that, but that was handled. But so as you see it now, and you say the evolution of Vegas becoming a a a business town, so it moving forward then. So here we are two thousands, two thousand ten, two thousand twenties. In my opinion, would you agree with me to say that the Mandalay Bay shooting was one of those points in time? I would say the MGM fire was another point in time when the community learned and moved on from there. I mean, since then, hey, our hotels are some of the safest in the world. I I dare say security in this town is is taken very seriously. Would you agree with me that we seem to learn from when things happen here? speaker-1: yeah, and a hundred percent. Yeah. And that ho the MGM fire when that happened, which is now Bally's hotel on strip, I was coming right up Flamingo and I said, What's all this fire trucks and cops doing? And I turned my head and I looked up and there it was, billowing black smoke out the top. I was right on Flamingo when that happened. Wow across the strip heading out west to to come home that morning and I was like, Wow So I and they had to get me out of the way because I was my car was I was driving right through it right when it all happened. It like nine in the morning and pretty phenomenal. But but yeah, to your point, w I think that we n it the time now is that what we're gonna see in the next ten years is diversification and industry. We we need a second industry. Whether it's Tesla cars or we Ford and Shelby, we just started making electric cars here, that's fine. What wh where did he move his plant to? He was coming here or decided to move to Texas. speaker-0: Pardon me? speaker-1: Didn't Elon Musk take his plant to Texas out of California? speaker-0: Well yeah, he did that. Well he took SpaceX because of what just with what happened with all the crazy stuff in California and he went to Texas. But you know, they they all have business here, but I'll tell you that when I've talked to some of the bigger financial firms, I think part of it is messaging, Mark. We we are here's the thing. There's different types of problems. There's problems where you you're having erosion and decay, which is what we're seeing in you know, what I will call the blue states. I mean like I in the article they talked about and I I know I've gotten a lot of flack for this. you know, when I say there's a ghost town in old San Francisco, old speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: LA or old Chicago, I'm talking about look, I was there in the eighties when we had stock exchanges and clearing firms and the big investment firms were all in San Francisco. San Francisco was the Wall Street of the West or downtown Los Angeles when you had first interstate bank base there and all the big banks are. They're gone now. Are they they're gone? Yeah. I mean, if you when you go to downtown San Francisco to the financial district now, yeah, you know, there's still there's free lease signs everywhere. A lot of the old restaurants are gone. I mean, and but I've got a lot of crap saying that excuse my French there, that that it was, you know, you're making it sound like there's nobody there. Well, no, I'm just saying what was there before, which was an energy. There was a that that just and you know, I dare say I think New York's probably going the same way. I felt it in Chicago a couple of weeks ago when I was there. That energy, that financial I'm there to make money, whether it's trading stocks, trading commodities, whatever, it it's gone. It's all gone. Well and and we can get it here. I'm tell I'm telling you we're gonna get it. speaker-1: Came the Wall Street of the West, that would be fantastic because you think about it, I mean we're or it's then you'd have two kinds of money here. You have the fun money and the serious money. speaker-0: And the series money will go play. Yeah. Well, because I told the casino guys, and I've actually the article brought it up. You know, it's not a threat to you guys. Hey, if you were able to get Pimco, let's just take Pemco. Okay, they're based in Newport Beach. Okay. One of the biggest fixed income mutual funds in the world. Let's say they move a chunk of their headquarters here. Okay. Pimco does a conference every year. Pimco's big clients fly in to see them. What do you think they're going to do in the evening? They're going to go play on the strip. Come on, guys, you're gonna make a bunch of money. This is not a this is not a pissing match. That's a it's perfect. speaker-1: Perfect match for Vegas. And then so you let's all work hard and make our money during the day and then go out and have fun at night and speaker-0: Exactly. Well, you know, here's the other thing too, it's pretty funny. While we're on it, because I my family, well, my dad's family all came from the New York area, old family. And Old Wall Street, you know, when you're talking about, you know, the eighteen hundred, early nineteen, or you know, certainly eighteen hundreds going into nineteen hundreds. You know, the wealthy guys, you think they spent their summer in New York City? No. They went out to Newport, Rhode Island. They got the heck out of Dodge, they escaped the heat and the humidity, yeah, and they left. I I'm trying to tell these guys, you guys are thinking now, look, you're very wealthy individuals, you've done very well. We got a world class airport, fly anywhere in the world nonstop. And you know, you and if you want to just get on a cheap flight, you can head back to the beaches in California in an hour. speaker-1: Yeah. Come on. I know. speaker-0: This is crazy. I mean, I'm I'm having to explain this to you guys. I mean, really? So it's just funny how if we look at it, but I'm gonna work very, very hard. I mean, the lieutenant governors asked me to work with him on this. Okay. I've you know, all the people running for our big seats. It's a bipartisan issue. That's the other thing. It's a no brainer. But I was talking about problems. Our problems are growth related. Well, if you you know, we start talking about my schools and our healthcare, guys. If you bring in these new industries that you're talking about, Mark, they're gonna bring their money. You bring their money suddenly, we have solved all these things because we've diversified and we've moved on. But here's the other thing, too. I'll throw this, because I went to the legislative session last year. The the pissing match that used to go on between northern Nevada and Southern Nevada, uh-huh, that's coming to an end. It is now a state. speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: We've realized we're a state and now the wealth that's gonna be from all the new mining up in the north, all that's happening up there. You talk about the manufacturing, the high tech, up in the Reno area. Yeah, we're hey, we're one state. and everybody gets that. I I don't know. I I'm I am just so excited. It's fun to watch history in action. I'm speaker-1: Love it, yeah. speaker-0: place is gonna just boom decade. speaker-1: And it'll be a no there'll be boom after boom. Every ten years it booms, it it just nonstop boom. I love this. I call it boom town, you know, it's just the way it is. speaker-0: I love that. I love and you know the thing is like you said, when there's a bust, we learn from it. We always learn from our bus. All right, so let's talk about as as you you know, certainly the your magazine talks to a lot of different people. It interviews about you know, but pretty much everybody that matters in this town in this valley. what are what do you what is everybody worried about as you talk to them? Is there any chief concern? speaker-1: what I'm hearing out there is they're worried is about this California California turning Vegas LA two point start to make jokes about Vegas is LA two point worried about turning into too much Cal to be too much like California. Okay. another one is the water. I hear a lot of people talking about the water and they're nervous about the water running dry one day and what what we're gonna do with all that water like mead and and who's who's how can we reclaim our share? Lot a lot of stuff, th those are the two biggest things I hear about. Okay. Is that are we turning into California and what are we gonna do if the water runs out? speaker-0: which is so interesting because if if anybody would bother to read anything, I mean, even on the go to hey, go to the Nevada Department of Water website and read our aquifers. I mean, we have according I mean, I literally just met with one of the leading candidates speaker-1: Did you ever say that speaker-0: and they said there's eighty seven years of water under our feet here. Right. We haven't drained our aquifer. We haven't even touched it. So the Lake Mead thing, I yes, we've all gone out to Lake Mead. It's it's quite low. We all know that. But here's the thing, Mark. I again if you have any confidence in new technologies for water re reclamation, if there's any truth that you know they're gonna start looking at desalinization in California, which means the pressure leaves. speaker-1: Yes. speaker-0: Is on the land issue. We are landlocked. I mean, we you know, BLM ties us up pretty darn good on land. So what I think it'll be fun to see, and and we're already seeing to you can you can look at the migrations out toward Prim, you know, that whole fifteen corridor. You speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: go on our our new freeway, the eleven, out toward, you know, Boulder, you know, go past Henderson, and you see these big wide freeways out in the middle of nowhere. Right. I I think that the powers to be are already figuring out, look, we need to have a place to t put all these people. Right. So we're not on top of each other. speaker-1: yeah. speaker-0: And I think that if we have that, that takes care of some of the californication issue. speaker-1: A hundred percent. And you agree? I do agree. And I also you know what I see coming is a second airport. speaker-0: more of a freight airport though, right? Or is actually a speaker-1: More of a just a second airport for people, you know, like Houston's got those two. you know, there's there's there's airports in a lot of the big towns now. And we're we're we're reaching that point where McCarran is not big enough anyway, and they're landlocked. They can't get in. So speaker-0: Yeah, you're right. speaker-1: you know, I see out towards Prem or or or heading up heading out northwest off the ninety five. I just see a I see it coming. A second airport in the next ten years. You're gonna hear that's gonna be hitting the news and just like they they they started the chatter. The chatter starts like NBA. You know, it was just chatter. Now it's now they're looking for land, you know. I can't wait. Of all the sports, I love basketball. speaker-0: Well yeah, well, here's the thing, you it's really funny because I I have to go out to the barrier because I still have an office out there. They're still really be f blunt, pissed about the Raiders leaving and you know the A's leaving. And of course the the Warriors left Oakland went to separate and I say hey guys, look, it's these these are businesses. Mm-hmm. You know, this has nothing to do with trying to make a claim. Yeah, it all comes back to economics. Yeah. The invisible hand as they used to say. Now let me ask you this Bright Line train. what are you hearing about it? Do you think it's a folly or do you think it's actually gonna work? speaker-1: I I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. It's it's been for thirty years I've heard that train's coming. speaker-0: Well they are building the terminal. It's right speaker-1: There we speaker-0: south. You go to South Vegas Boulevard, they're building that thing. speaker-1: Okay. Yeah. Who's behind it? speaker-0: Well, that's the thing that's funny. So now I'm going to paraphrase what I heard because every year I go back to DC with the Vegas Chamber of Governments, which by the way, let me tell you this real quick. Okay. So we go back every year. And it's fun being a swing state because everybody and their mother shows up to talk to you. speaker-1: Okay. speaker-0: You know, and actually I take my take my Stetson. I'm I always tell people, I say, we should all be wearing them. We are from the West. We're a tough bunch. I mean, we and Vegas, hey, people here, they're hardy people. They're tough. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Heat doesn't bug them. We go out and do our thing. But here's the thing, that when I was back there, it was so funny because every this is what, two years ago when I went back, and then this last year. So of course everybody's just giddy with excitement about this new train. And and of course and then and then California Caltrans was there. I'm going, what are you guys doing here? Caltrans. Okay. I get a little nervous because their record of building trains in California, as you and I know, is not particularly speaker-1: No. speaker-0: It's not good. Not shiny. At least let me put it this way. In the last hundred and fifty years, it hasn't been good. Right. Back in the old days, right when the the big four the four H's were running the show, yeah, their trains were fine. But here here's where it gets funny. So they from what I heard, they California was begging Nevada to get involved in this train project. And then Brightline has a good track record in, you know, because it's one of those public-private deals in Florida. And I've talked to people in Florida They they love it. They say yes, we'd much rather take the train than drive and they have good roads back there. speaker-1: Absolutely. speaker-0: Well, so here's what I'm what I'm saying. We are in fact building our end of the track. I I'm not worried about us. We're speaker-1: Alright. speaker-0: on the other side of that state border and dealing with the massive levels of bureaucracy that we're gonna have. These people are worried about the desert tortoise. They worry about everything but f getting this thing done cost speaker-1: Okay. speaker-0: you know, cost efficient. And then also too, as we know, we've had these battles about the fifteen forever, about widening the California side. Uhhuh. And now they're finally gonna do it, but they want an HOV lane. And you're going, You want an H O V lane in the middle of the desert? I mean, really? No, they they these they come up with some crazy stuff. rumor has it on the on the California side they're gonna have tortoise tunnels. I'm not kidding you. Okay. Little tortoise tunnels under the track for the desert. Well speaker-1: D tortoise. That's good. speaker-0: that except they didn't bother to tell about rattlesnakes, they're also gonna live in those tunnels. It's gonna be a little bit of a problem. But anyway, I'm worried about the cost overruns on the other side and are we gonna be expected as the state to say, Look, we wanna get this thing done. We're gonna have to lend them some money or buy the debt or whatever. That's speaker-1: The tab. speaker-0: Yeah, I'm afraid that's what's gonna happen. I honestly believe that, 'cause that's state is in bad financial shape. Yeah. You know. speaker-1: That that could happen and then there we go. And but we depend on them and we need them. And so it's it's all about win win at the end of the ga at the end of the day, but our relationship with California, but I think they would have to work that out and see if we have the the money to help them, if if they need the help. speaker-0: All right, now let's I'd I'd be curious on that. U you've been here again a long time. Relationships with our neighbor states. how would you describe it if from your take on it? Is it is it do we get along with everybody or have there been times of really contentious interstate fighting? Well speaker-1: I think you if you start at the top down, you know, the governor, our governor is not friends with California's governor. No. I don't know where he's at with Arizona or Utah, but but that's kind of a kind of an unknown in my world, you know, like how what our relationship is with them. I I hear the from the street level, well, you know, we're we don't like to see the California plates all over Las Vegas, but But we definitely know they're coming and and we and as soon as they change their place in Nevada, you can't tell if it's a California guy or not. And except the way speaker-0: They drive. speaker-1: Except the way they drive, yeah, yeah, the way they drive. Like they own the road. Like they own the road. speaker-0: Because I ride motorcycles, you'll still see the weaving all over the road. You can spot it a mile. speaker-1: Vegas has a funny way of no matter where you're from, has a funny way of of clipping your wings. You know, and and and and turning you into a a Las Vegan. You know, I've I've seen big shots coming from back east, from New York and Philly and Jersey and and they're like, I'm gonna take over this town. You know, they're all trying to be Frank Sinatra, you and not gonna happen. I'm doing my way, I'm gonna come, I'm gonna take over Vegas and and but and I've seen I've seen some tough guys come to this town and within five to seven years they're they're not as tough as they used to be. And they're kind of they kind of mellowed out, you know, th their their ego and and whatever and all that power trip they're on when come here, you know. And but I I just have to look at my watch and just wait, you must be in this first couple of years here 'cause he's gonna take over about Las Vegas. Nobody takes over Las Vegas. Las Vegas owns Las Vegas. speaker-0: know what? I'm gonna just say this. I I agree a hundred percent 'cause when I go to like in Wall Street style conferences, you know, whether it's the big companies like Schwab or I was back in Chicago at Morningstar. Okay. And and I am the first, you know, ranked manager at Vegas, my headquarters. And speaker-1: Okay. Okay. speaker-0: I'm and they're they're looking at me kinda like, speaker-1: Why? speaker-0: hmm, well, but here's the thing. When I tell them, because they all complain about how, you know, in in the financial service industry, costs have come down, fees have come down. They call it the fee compression problem. And I'm saying, well, you guys have chosen to live in states that have some of the highest taxes in the land. You're a business person. Why don't you do the math? I'm gonna be in a much better pos position to battle you guys on just a cost of figure. I mean, performance I've already got you beat, but I'm gonna be able to battle you not only on performance, but on cost. speaker-1: Mm-hmm. speaker-0: Because Nevada is about business. We don't get into it. So and also regulations. I mean, look, we we certainly want law enforcement, but Mark, in my opinion, that where we have regulations, it it has relevance. There's common sense to it. Like I love the fact that the last legisl legislative session passed having a business court. And by the way, it was passed by Democrats, wanted a business court. speaker-1: Wow. speaker-0: Smart. Why? Why do we want to gum up the Nevada court system with cases that are dealing with with tort law in business? Why? Let's have a business judge deal with business issues. This is a no-brainer. speaker-1: Wow. speaker-0: So again, I see that, and it's not a partisan issue. It's common sense. I speaker-1: Yeah. I love that. speaker-0: do think too Western states now I'm gonna talk about the basin states. Okay. you know, state lines do matter. Uhhuh. I think there's a distinctly different flavor in Arizona than Nevada. Utah certainly is very different than Nevada. Sure, sure. But even in California, I mean, yeah, we have that state line, but you know, it's still very much a western state, right up to the edge of the Sierra Nevadas. I mean, you still have enough so it when you say Californians, which Californians are we talking about? You know, there's according to them, there's thirty plus million of them. But half that state is red. You know, the Central Valley, you look right there, those are farmers, those are people who would share the same Western values that we do. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: So again, I I understand the concern, but I don't see necessarily people who are from the beach areas of California necessarily moving out here. speaker-1: Right. Yeah. I mean California beach, hard to beat that. speaker-0: Well I went to I went to school out there, I was raised out there, I know, but speaker-1: Still waiting for the big earthquake to they they talked about in the seventies is gonna come and we're gonna have our our own coast. less we have a speaker-0: Well, yeah, the the tectonic place don't quite work that way. We'll see what happens. but i you know, I so w let's talk a couple more minutes about just you're in the publication business. Now do you see more publications and social media stuff happening in Vegas? I mean, is it becoming more sophisticated? speaker-1: yeah, social media is like you know, taking over for in certain industries and for certain industries not. You know, I've I've noticed that a huge difference in there. Not every industry is is reliant on social media while some are a hundred percent reliant on social media. Some are a hundred percent, some are fifty, and some are not at all. Okay so it just depends on the industry you're in and the health the health industry, for example, they don't they don't need a lot of social media. There's a lot of HIPAA going on anyway. They can't really talk too much about patients and whatnot, but But for entertainment and for special events and for even for our the Great American Foodie Fest, which we I took over this year, that is a hundred percent social media driven. And it's like I I it's phenomenal. I'm like, wow. I mean my Vegas, we're not we're we're like thirty percent social media, but we're it we're not it doesn't run our whole show, you know, it doesn't run everything, it doesn't produce everything we need it to produce. speaker-0: Well the magazines weren't part of it. You've you've got a whole apparatus in place that covers a lot of different angles. speaker-1: Yeah. And you know, but but yeah, it's definitely a a a necessary evil social media, or a necessary beauty if you look at it depending on how you look at it, but it's necessary for all businesses. In fact I've meet somebody and they don't have they might have Instagram but they don't have s Facebook. I say, Why not? They say, Well, we just think Instagram's enough and I I say to myself, Well, you know, in social media every every opportunity is a is a window in your house or a doorway to your business. So why would you shut seven doors and just leave one open for your business when customers come come walking through all seven doors? So I t I call it house of windows. I have an image on my computer. I call it house of windows. 'cause every window of opportunity that a customer can reach you is is important. So if you don't have a TikTok, you probably should get one. You might pick up some customers there. If you don't have a Facebook or Instagram, you should get one of those. You don't have a YouTube account. So I think social media is a powerful force to be reckoned with. But it's an animal. We could talk on a half hour on social media and who's controlling all that. speaker-0: this podcast. Yeah. I mean, like we have how many podcasts are happening speaker-1: Social media. speaker-0: and and yet it's funny because I mean we're the one of the major financial podcasts in Las Vegas. So it's a growing market. I speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: have to tell you that the thing I do hear all the time from people are billboards. And speaker-1: Yes. speaker-0: that they're there are all these attorney billboards. And I and I and that does make some business people a little nervous. They say, wait a minute here, is this place just a sue happy I mean if I'm gonna bring my business, I'm gonna get sued by 10 different people. Yeah I say, you know, look Again, you're gonna go to court. You're gonna I think you'll have a b a better shake it than if you try to do it in California. That's that's my take. Although I'm not an attorney. But I do have a lot of jokes about the attorney. And by the way, I think it'd be funny if I ever do a billboard. I'm gonna have a big with my cowboy hat. I'm not a lawyer. Well that's a good one, yeah. Because our lawyer say, wait, who is this guy? He's not a lawyer with a when you win your award, come and talk to me, I'll tell you what to do with the money. speaker-1: that is a brilliant. Yeah, I'm not a lawyer. The billboards are phenomenal in this town. you know, we were talking last week a little bit about different forms of media, you know, between the differences between billboards and TV and radio magazines and all the different mediums that are out there. I I can give you a little encapsulated version of that if you like. Sure. Please do. the billboards in Las Vegas and we sell all. We sell TV, billboards, radio. I own my Vegas magazine, but I can get you on anything you want. Okay, I've all my all my constituents, all my peers are involved in some sort of media around the town. And I've got ten friends in billboards, I've got five or ten in radio, I got ten in in T V so and most of them have been on the cover of our magazine, that the news anchors and the the radio DJs and the famous people at the radio and and whatnot. But billboards are phenomenal in this town because there's a moratorium on billboards. They can Yeah, if you'll go if you're heading out if you go to the air you land at the airport and you come out the the two fifteen and you head west or towards Durango Station, that's the last billboard. There's no billboards on two fifteen in Summerlin. You're right. And you know why? It's Howard Hughes doesn't want any billboards. The Howard Hughes Corporation has a moratorium, no billboards on the two fifteen, on their two fifteen that runs right through the Howard Hughes property. speaker-0: Rango, it stops. speaker-1: Yeah, right at the Durango stops, that's it. And then from there on out you won't see billboards until you get back out of the ninety-five. So that's a huge that's half of Vegas. That's the other half of Vegas that duh now Green Valley has billboards all the way out. But and of course the fifteen does too. So when you have a limited quantity, you've got you can keep raising your price every year and people keep paying it because they're they're not making anymore. And so We see that in on billboards right now are are are really getting more expensive because and the attorneys are buying up. Now the attorney factor, that I don't know if that's gonna go on for fifty years or a hundred years, because I feel like, you know, when they took down all those guys in nineteen twenties with their all those millionaires and that were starting to to train and we're talking about Del Carnegie and JP Morgan and all those guys. When they took all them down because they were they were monopolizing. It's something going on right now with attorneys making a killing off this personal injury cases. And I don't know if it's gonna go on forever or not. It's it's it's a f a joyful ride now. Makes me wish I was an attorney. These guys are cleaning up, making making doing really well. But speaker-0: There's a lot of them though. Mark I'm going speaker-1: Forever? Can it go on? Or can w you know if it was capped, you know, if they make a million dollars on a case or two million dollars on a case, or five million or ten million. I mean some of them are bang banging down thirty million for a case, you know, and and then they split it with the with the patient. And I don't know if the if the legislation will let that go on. I I see legislation coming down the road in the next five or ten years on that that might put a cap on what the attorneys can make. I mean, I don't want to push it. I'm not behind it, but I just see that how can any industry have that much power to accumulate that much money off of in in in these things. And I think it's beautiful for the guys that are doing it now. I love them and and they advertise in my magazine. But I just don't know if that's gonna go on forever. speaker-0: Well, it's funny, I talked to a legislator because I I brought it up at the legislative session and and I was telling him, I said, Look, it's gonna be a hard sell for me if I'm gonna go back if if I'm gonna be tasked, you know, being the point person on this financial service migration, and I'm gonna be and I have to look him straight in the face and say, How are we gonna just be sued to death by every person who loses money in the stock market? And I asked somebody there and they said, Well, no, they're not going after those guys. They're going after somebody who slips and falls at a casino floor. speaker-1: Right, right. speaker-0: Well, I mean o okay, but I mean do you I mean at some point as you say Mark there's a tipping point to this stuff. Yeah. I I I would also say too that I'm I'm I had a serious leg injury last year. Okay. I was skiing. I was up at Lee Canyon and I I was in the hospital for a couple of days and literally I had attorneys come by dropping off their cards. Wow. You know, as I was getting ready to check out and they looked at me a little worried 'cause said, Look, I made a decision to go. I know that ski resorts, you know, especially Lee Canyon, it's not I mean, you know, if everybody who ever hurt themselves sued them, they would not we would not have it anymore. Right. I my I I'm not gonna do it. And they looked at me crazy like, we can get you some money. He said, You're missing the point. Okay. My ethics, my values are I made a choice, I made a bad decision, I hurt myself. I'm not gonna just go sue happy and try to get money. But that's me. That's just that's how I that's the value system I operate. Yeah. But I but I do think that the as you say, look, the law of economics, you you can't have everybody in one area of law. speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: Now on the other side, and what I'm excited about is if we do become that financial service center, you're gonna bring all these securities attorneys to town. These are guys who work in financial services. These are very high paying jobs. These are guys that deal with the regulators, they deal with the SEC and the and the commodities people, and they deal with all that. See, we haven't even talked about that. The other thing that makes us special in financial services, we're a mining state. So you talk about anything in commodities. Hey, what do we have north of here? We have cattle. Growth speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: things here. We have mines. We're we're the we know we're now we're becoming the rare earth capital of America. I mean, I just see the possibility that we could become what Chicago was at one time, a commodity hub. I mean, yeah, imagine that. And you know, also the I'm sorry to jump around here, but the other thing I noticed. Reno is more than happy to have us become as they're actually I heard this phrase used. We become the cultural center of Nevada. Not Reno, we are. But speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: that also means that we also remember our roots. That's what I love about this place. speaker-1: That's right. speaker-0: You know, and you guys like you, cowboy hats, cowboy sh you know, boots. If we're gonna hey, and the fact we have rodeo every year, we don't forget it very quick. You speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: know. speaker-1: And I love that. speaker-0: Listen, we're about ready. We're just about out of time and you and I can talk forever. You and I are just you and I we bullshit better than sorry. a phrase we used. Yes, but it's a podcast. I can use it. What else would you like to cover today? speaker-1: golly, we covered a lot of great stuff. radio, TV, you know, in the media world that I'm in. I speaker-0: What's a what is radio still working here? speaker-1: can tell you about radio and TV right now are are having struggles. Okay. Because of the diversification of TV. and radio. So today you c you listen to what you want to listen to and you watch what you want to watch. And you you're not forced to watch what's on there. If you don't like what's on regular TV, could just flip over to a stream a streaming T V station, Netflix or or or Prime and watch what you want to watch. When you want to watch it. So I I I I get the feeling that radio and and and radio you with all the options on radio now there's just like Yeah speaker-0: And Cirrus and all these guys. speaker-1: and just Spotify and everything you can Build your own radio station in your phone now and just you all your hits. You can build your own playlist. They ask you what's on your playlist. Because people use playlists now more than listening to standard radio. So my friends in the radio business have been telling me, yeah, it's it's getting a little strange and on on how they can keep going and get in business, you know. Now T V is another one and and and because of the Netflix and the and the other streaming streaming video streaming T V stations, the only th really reason if you don't It the the one thing i if they went away at the local T V stations, the one thing we would probably miss is is the six o'clock news or the five o'clock news. speaker-0: Even those you can go watch online now. I mean if if if you say, Hey, I want to watch the five o'clock news here, I'm pushing speaker-1: And I think the the four majors, you know, C B S, ABC, C N B C and Fox, I think they need to they need to get their local news on streaming before it's too late. And because th that's about a friend of mine who does a lot of T V said the only thing he watches on T V regular T V on is of that that fiver that evening news for the local news. So other than that, he just go watches what he wants to watch when he wants to watch it and and and and And I hear that a lot from a lot of people. So I'm I'm I'm concerned that T V and radio are are are have a uncertain future. but I think billboards are killing it. Our magazines killing it. the And then of course, you know, the digital world, you know, social media is doing fine as well. speaker-0: It's a generational thing. I think again, you and I are around that age group that you know, we can go either way, but the young folks going forward, you know, they're they're pretty much on their phones. I mean everything is either on their phone or on their laptop and that's what they're operating off of. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: I real quick, just two other quick things I want to ask you. so the the development, it's looks to me like we we have the money to do it. It looks like we're gonna finally deal with all the development north. Go on, you know, certainly on the five fifteen north. Am I right to say that that you would you s agree me that's the next area that we're really gonna clean up and make it part of of the Vegas? speaker-1: You mean on the way to Mount Charleston? speaker-0: No, no, I'm talking about going that way. In other words, past Fremont Street. North past Fremont Street. here. Yeah, in Vegas, yeah. speaker-1: and the question is speaker-0: I mean you do you would you agree with me that that's all gonna be cleaned up? I mean they're really gonna deal with the crime issues there and the and the building issues there. Is that w would you would you guess that would be where a lot of the future growth's gonna go? speaker-1: I would guess that the future growth is going to go over the hill towards Pry Prim. Okay. speaker-0: Really? Okay. speaker-1: And my next guess would be towards out ninety five, towards the the the the Indian reservations and out there and on on on out past Charleston. Okay. I mean right now. It was it used to be an hour drive when we left Vegas and go w it was an hour drive before the turn to go up to Mount Charleston. Now the hounds are built right up to the the road there and it's just phenomenal. Yeah. It's just Mount Charleston's becoming part of Vegas overnight. Absolutely. I think that's where the boom is going that way and south, more than northwest or or or or or southeast, or northeast or southeast. I think the west, northwest is booming and the southwest is gonna continue. Over the hill, we're going over the hill. Vegas has to go over the hills now. And speaker-0: Yeah, no, it's very true. speaker-1: there's not a single acre in Las Vegas that's safe in town. If you see a five acre parcel next to an Albertson's just just look at your watch, it'll be a shopping center in a f in a few months. They are turn this b place is booming again. Real estate is just phenomenal in Vegas. yeah. speaker-0: Well no, and all the commercial. I mean that's the that's the beauty about it is that you're I mean, even even down on the strip, I mean like the Howard Hughes Center that's that's over you know, by where the Westgate is, you know, they're they're they're filling up. I mean, they're people are looking for office space. I mean, again, we all know traffic's problematic, a is in any major city. Do you see public transportation outside of buses ever coming here? Would you ever see a light rail in Vegas? What would you guess? speaker-1: Well my dream if if I ever went r got to h if I could say anything do anything about it, if I was mayor, I would be pushing for a a double stack freeway, for the the Summerlin branch to because all of our workers go down the strip to go home and then they go back home. So we need some sort of like I would love to see a a huge tram that take you from the strip all the way home to Summerlin or the strip all the way home to Green Valley. Hm. And a d and or or make a double tier freeway where you see in the major cities where you have the upper ramp and there's there's no exit till you get to Summerlin. And if you wanna or maybe there's just one or two, you know, between there, where the lower ramp, the lower the lower level could have exits on every every mile. But w we need it. We need we need to get back home quick. And and we and then if it's a rail system, fine. So either a double freeway, double stack freeway, or a rail system just for the locals to go get back it 'cause what do we got? sixty percent, maybe seventy percent of our locals go to the strip every day to w we speaker-0: Work. speaker-1: had to work at these hotels and and and I th that's what I think we need is a a high a a solution to getting back home and getting to work getting back home without driving ten thousand cars every five minutes. speaker-0: Well, yeah, I mean we're fortunate that we're in a big bowl and the roads do I mean, you don't have a a barrier. I mean you can get I mean you can go down any major road. It runs the length of the whole valley. You know, I I would just say that I keep hearing, at least it's being noodled on, the idea that at some point in time the strip might become much more of a pedestrian walk area. I mean that the streets there that we're gonna route the traffic around. speaker-1: Life free months. speaker-0: Yeah, I like Fremont Street. speaker-1: Yeah. I drove on one of the two lane street back when I was a kid, yeah. speaker-0: Yeah, so I mean it's some I mean it wouldn't be surprising to see something like that. But again, I'm gonna be careful. I'm probably gonna get in trouble with somebody for making such a comment. But Mark Schaefer, sir, thank you very much. I love your friendship. I you know, and that's the thing is you make friends here very quickly, but you know, hey, keep doing what you're doing, buddy. I mean, we need people like you. You know, and you and you did stick your head out of the foxhole to tr try running for public office one time. We need to do more we need more people involved. This is a town of involvement. You gotta be involved. speaker-1: Yeah, there's th th they the th I've been asked by four or five times to run for mayor, but that's it's a full time job. speaker-0: Well, there's the problem. If you know, there's certain there's certain part time political jobs you can do here and certain full time and you and I are business people. I mean, we're just not gonna suddenly give up our day jobs to speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: take care of this other stuff. But there's a you as and this is a town to be involved in. By the way, I tell everybody real quick if you're new to Las Vegas and you you get involved, whether it's with your churches, schools, there's plenty of of communities. or you know, organizations get involved in I highly recommend that. If you want to meet people, get involved here. I really believe that. speaker-1: Yeah. A hundred percent, yeah. And get involved in the local chamber. yeah. Local networking. speaker-0: We have one of the best chamber systems here of anyone. Chamber, speaker-1: I love yeah. speaker-0: the Las Vegas chamber, the v the the veterans have a chamber. I mean it's really no, we it we're a bunch of doers. And Mr. Mark Schaefer, thank you for your time. So listen, speaker-1: Welcome, thank you. speaker-0: we're gonna have listen, we'll have him back. Okay. I think we have to have this guy back. All right, so listen everybody, we're gonna take a quick break for the final segment of winning with wine ins. We'll talk to you soon. And welcome back to Winningwood Run-ins. I hope you enjoyed our previous guest. You know, he is one of the more interesting people you'll ever run into in Las Vegas. I can't say enough about him. And I'll tell you what, you need to read his paper. Everything that goes on is going on here. You just can't beat it at all. But hey, let me, you know, we always like to talk about Las Vegas for a moment. Let me also tell you one of the things I absolutely about this state. You're gonna believe what I'm have to say here. I actually like its politicians. Why? Because they represent us. They never lose sight of that. I don't care whether they are at the federal level, state level, or the local level. And let me just say this. I really like Mayor Shelley Berkeley. she just sent something to us by the way. A very thank again, Mayor Berkeley. She gave my company an order of commendation for our performance in the markets. So you know what? Thanks again, Mayor. I appreciate it. It's an honor to represent Las Vegas as you know, one of the top money managers in our state. And I hope we're gonna have more to follow. If I keep working on what I'm hoping to do with those people migrating out of California, we don't want them going to Texas. We'd like to have them come right here, bring their tax dollars, come here, put their kids in our schools and have a good thing. Okay, while we're on the topic about money managers, I want to talk about something that's been all over the paper. And you have to realize there's two competing thoughts in our industry. We have those people, they used to be called Bogleheads, after John Bogle, who invented the idea of just buy and hold your stocks, never sell, don't worry about it, just keep buying. Okay, that, and look, I was around during those years in the 80s and the 90s when it literally worked straight up. Barely any corrections. We did have the 87 crash. We did have the Gulf War One. we had all that. And so it worked great. You know what? Every strategy has its day. But here's the problem, folks. those buy and hold folks, they've had some pretty tough holds all through the dot-com bubble. Who w that was a two and a half year correction that went down 50%. Two thousand eight two thousand nine, another fifty percent correction. Then you had the flash crash from COVID, and I know a lot of people who bought into the idea that there were going to be billions of people dead all over the world and they hurry up and sold their stocks and had money in their matches. I'm not kidding you. I know people who did that. And then of course we had the correction. That was a twenty-seven percent correction in twenty twenty two. Okay, so why am I bringing this up? Because right now there's all the headlines about how Actively managed funds, meaning people who buy and sell, and mainly talk about mutual funds, are doing terrible. That they're they're much worse than an index fund that just buys. Let me say this. Okay, now look, I there's a lot of managers out there that are not any good. I wouldn't give them a penny. But let me also say this: it's the structure of those funds. So, rule number one, if you're gonna be in mutual funds, you might have a great money manager or management team that runs those funds. But guess what? Federal law prevents them, even if they see a big financial hurricane coming their way, they cannot raise more than twelve percent cash in that mutual fund. So let me repeat what I just said. You have a manager who might say, you know what, if I could do it, I would raise 50% cash. That can't. So law ties them up. So first off, I I if you're gonna play this game of comparing actively managed strategies and To passive strategies, buying and holding, then fine. Then let's someone compete against me where I don't have those kind of restrictions. I can actually raise up to 50% cash in my portfolio if I so do it. But we're missing the point here. The point is this there's two questions you have to ask yourself. And I think it's a good time to have that talk right now while we have the markets pretty much near all time highs. When do you buy and sell? And what are you going to buy and sell? Two questions. It's very simple. And I think that you need to ask yourself those questions because anybody you hire is works for you. They are supposed to be fiduciaries. They put your interests ahead of anybody else's. But if you don't convey to them how and what you feel about things, they're going to react not understanding everything. So what I mean by when should you buy and sell? Well, a tool that I use all the time. I've talked about on this show before. I've written about it in Forbes. It is called using a trend indicator. The simple thing, is the market in an uptrend? Is it sideways or is is it in a downtrend? I recommend something very simple to use. Look at the 200 day moving average of this S P five hundred and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, even though I have concerns about those indices as far as representing the market. But what you're doing is you're comparing the average price of those two indices to today over the well, you're comparing the last 200 days of trading to today. If the price of the index today is below that, it means you've got market weakness. And it means, and so this begs the question: what are you going to do? Are you going to sell stocks? Are you going to try to raise cash? It's not about calling the top, folks. It's about a defensive strategy when the market is weak. So simply put, Should you consider maybe hedging your portfolio? If you don't know what I'm talking about when I say the term a hedge, you need to talk to your advisor. One of the great things about stock investing is you actually have the ability where you can put a counterbalance to your stock portfolio that will basically allow you to have to be invested, but at the same time reduce the volatility of your portfolio by a vehicle that basically goes up when the market goes down. So anyway, these are just basic questions you should ask. So again, if your decision is to buy and hold, then you don't even care if the market's below something like the 200 day moving average. You are just going to say, nope, I'm going to write through the bad times. Only thing I would bring up on that is you if you were somebody who's over 45 years old, go back and talk to people who thought they were going to retire shortly before the 2008, 2009 debacle. I know a lot of people that had to put retirement off years. Because they took such a body blow in their stock portfolios. Okay, so you have to say, does when does the when matter to you? If it does, then you need to look at an active strategy. Okay, what to buy and sell? So let's say, for instance, that we do have that happen. Some point in time, market's going to enter another bear market. what are you gonna buy? And when are you gonna buy it? Of course, you ask that question, but also what are you gonna sell? If you have individual stocks that are doing worse. Than your portfolio, they are below their own individual 200-day moving averages. You I don't care. And by the way, I don't care what the company is. If it's not doing well, I don't care who the CEO is, I don't care what they make. I don't, I do not have pet stocks. They start acting badly, they're gone. Period. That's my discipline. But here's my point: you you should be asking these questions. What is your strategy? How do you defend yourself in a bad market condition? And also What are your rules to buy? Hey, I know for a fact, I'm I mentioned this a moment ago or on the first part of the show about hey, get your list together. I mean, one of the best times of year to buy is from October to the next May. Historically, that's a great time to be owning stocks. And so I'm gonna have my list ready to go. The companies that are doing well after all the tariffs, the Iran war, everything going on. Hey, I know what I want to buy. But here's my point. If you want to go back, I'm gonna go back to the original thing I said earlier. If you want to have an honest discussion about buy and hold strategies, better known as passive investing and active strategies, where there is some strategy to make money and there's some strategy to be defensive, that fine, let's have that discussion. But to to have the constantly be beating up on a pa actively managed mutual fund that can't by its structure do anything about taking advantage of things. I would argue that it's nothing more than being fully invested all the time, which as an active manager, you don't necessarily believe in that. One other quick thing on that note. This happens to me all the time. I'll raise cash. Like right now, this time of year, I'll let cash in my portfolio build up, maybe get it as high as 15, 20 percent. I'll have clients say, What are you doing? Why why are you in cash right now? what am I paying you for? I I am not kidding. I have people ask me that. I'm raising cash because I think I'll be able to buy stocks. At a better price toward the end of September. I'm putting history in the driver's seat. I'm willing to take that chance. Being fully invested all the time is, in my opinion, a fool's errand. You are going to get yourself in trouble if that's the way you're going to mandate yourself. So again, let your advisor execute the game plan they believe in. Okay. I'm going to just give a free plug-out here to Investors Business Daily's Founders Club event that's going to be happening in Las Vegas. On September 26th. Investors Business Daily that I've been using is one of my nine periodicals that I follow every week for this show. I'm a big believer in them. I think they're as important to me as the Wall Street Journal in basically my reads. But they have a basically have a strategy that they bring in their paper all the time. It's a trend following strategy. I don't necessarily use all parts to it, but they're having an event in Vegas on September 26th. They are going to be talking about ways to make money using active management. So you know what? If you want to learn more about that, I give an idiot a full plug. I don't get anything by them for introducing it. But again, if you want to learn about active management, go to that conference. I think you'll find it be worthwhile. Okay, we're just about out of time. I want to thank our sponsors that are listed on our website. And if you are interested in being a sponsor and or a guest on future Winnie with Wine and Show, send me an email. We're always looking for interesting guests. You know, something I and by the way, it doesn't have to be about finance. We've had people on here about healthcare. We've had politicians. We've had everybody come on this show. I even if you don't like what I have to say, hey, come on. You know, let's have a talk about it. if you would like to share this episode with friends and family, guess what? We're on most social media outlets. You can also follow us on our website, winningwithwin's dot com. I just recently wrote a Forbes article, and just you might find that of interest. I got another one coming out here pretty soon. Also, I talk a lot about history. let me also bring that up real quick. The Wynans Investment website. There is a an interview I did with Stephanie Larsa, my co-portfolio manager. We talk about history. I talk a lot about my book, Investment Atlas Three. I you know, use it we use it to create wealth using historical trends. Gee, what a surprise. So do yourself a favor, go watch that episode, learn a lot about history. You need to be on top of historical trends. I do not think we're smarter than our ancestors. In fact, we in some ways were dumber. And so anyway, do read, you know, I'd recommend buying the book and reading it. Okay, I mentioned in episode one that we're Las Vegas' only top ranked Morningstar manager. Morningstar ranks all All the managers around the world, I think there's 12,000 of us that actually get that they do monitor. We're top ranked in Las Vegas and in most of Nevada. So do me a favor, listen after this podcast. Please listen to the important message on about what I talk about our company and what we do. We might be able to help you out. And or if we can't, I can at least tell you where to go with people who I know and trust. So anyway, folks, thanks for your time. Enjoy this next week. This is Ken Winens. Take care. Hi everybody, this is Ken Winens, host of Winning with Winance. And in 1992, I did the unbelievable thing of leaving a wonderful job in Merrill Lynch and started my own company. Everybody thought I was crazy, including my own father, but today Wine is Investments is the only Morningstar top rank investment manager based in Las Vegas. So if you are a CFP professional working for a big firm and you haven't looked at sub advisory, you might want to give it a try. It can be a better choice than ETFs. And believe me, we're not all the same, and you've been in the business a long time. you probably know that. But consider us we're on all the major platforms, Schwab, SmartX. just give us a try. See how it goes. If you want more information, go to our website and look into it. So give winning with winance a try. Talk to you later. Boy, that time went fast. I hope you had as much fun as I did during this segment of Winning with Winens. 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, winning with winens dot 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.