Oh, we ready?

I'm about as ready as I'm gonna be.4k ready.

Welcome back to the number one financial literacy podcast in the world.

This is the higher standard podcast.

Sitting in front of me is my partner in crime, Christopher Nahibi.

And sitting across from me is my very well lit, super attractive, just unbelievably dressed.

Oh, wow.

Partner in time.

The one and only side Omer.

Thank you, my man.

And sitting behind the desk in the production suite, if you will, the Fijian himself, Mr.

Rejeel.

Take that mic live.

Let's see you know how to use it.

Come on.

It's me.

Today in the studio, we also have a guest.

My son is also sitting in the green room.

He's witnessing the podcast recording for the first time.

So thank you, Adam, for joining us today.

We love you, buddy.

And I'm gonna apologize out the gate.

Your boy's been dealing with a cough, and I'm gonna try my best.

You have been hacking up kind of like a home long.

You want to go do it now?

I can see.

No, you see, you have been.

No, no, look, I get it.

I have a throat clearing issue.

I get it.

I know that it's not the.

The best thing in the world, but.

You know, at some point, it does feel like it's a mental issue.

Yeah.

I've been to hypnotist dude a whole problem.

When the guy hypnotized me, he's like.

And how do you feel?

I'm like, I feel stupid.

And I have a cough problem now.

Because you tried everything else, and then.

You thought 38 doctors now.

38.

And multiple surgeries.

I've had endoscopies, colonoscopies, all that stuff.

Yeah, Okay.

I.

I've looked everywhere, high and low.

Well, today's episode's a good one.

We got.

We're going over everything.

Everything from Jerome Powell meeting with DJT to Uncle Jamie inflation numbers, more home sellers than buyers.

Where do you want to start?

So I should probably start with a little bit of backstory.

Let's go.

And I will tell you, it is eerily quiet in here tonight.

It is good, right?

It's good.

Yeah.

I feel sexy.

The.

I find the show getting more and more, like, politically driven because of some of the stuff that's happening.

It's all interrelated, though.

It is interrelated, but.

But then I see stuff like, let's call what it is a pissing match between Jerome Powell and DT djt.

Djt.

And we're doing that for the algorithm kids because Every time we say the name, we can't advertise a show.

I thought we were calling him DJT because that's how Elon signed off on him today.

Oh, is that what he did?

Yeah.

And that whole thing was.

Yeah, I don't even know if we could touch that.

I don't know.

We can't.

We're going to touch it.

Yeah.

But so the crazy part about this stuff is, you know, I see all these headlines and I'm like, dude, I just want to talk about, like basic economic concepts and help people make money.

Yeah, we've had some great guests in the show and they've all talked about, like, their rise in success and everybody's kind of, I guess, agnostic to the political climate.

But it's really hard to ignore things, particularly when you're seeing headlines of Donald Trump in Elon Musk literally arguing over social media.

Yeah, man.

I mean, what am I supposed to do with that?

What kind of promises his.

There it is.

Apologies.

What kind of promises were made and then subsequently not kept to where Elon had to act that way?

I have a theory, hence the reason why I wanted to go down this path first, because my theory may be backed up by the stuff you got going on here.

Okay, okay, here we go.

So we know that Elon Musk was being criticized by his board and institutional investors for possibly not being focused on running Tesla, his largest company.

And Tesla was suffering from some reputational damage because everybody and their mother was like, oh my God, did I hit record in your camera, Jill?

I think I did, didn't I?

I'm just trying to think if I did or not.

On the top.

Yeah, that ever gets recorded, that one.

See a red light?

I don't know.

That's okay.

Nobody wants to see your face anyway.

Okay, I'm kidding.

But, but.

So he's been falling under criticism for.

For not being 100% around because obviously he's everywhere else doing everything else.

Right.

He's got other companies, so.

And then the Tesla situation was people were, you know, kind of boycotting Tesla or got like a really negative vibe.

Like all the people in California who were big believers now kind of backed off.

And it was politically motivated.

We're like, we're Democrats, we believe in evs and the Republicans don't.

That kind of concept.

Right.

I'm not saying it's that black and.

White people went as far as to change their Teslas to say that they're Hondas.

Exactly.

So what if.

Ok, big what?

But what if this was Strategically designed so that Donald Trump gets news coverage and media coverage because he likes that.

Right.

They get to have a front and center news page in the media kind of argument.

Elon gets to distance himself a little bit from this.

Make his institutional investors happy, his brand gets back on track and they can continue to do what they're doing.

Plausible.

Definitely.

You don't buy it?

100 I don't buy it.

I do feel like Elon is suffering some reputational damage 100 because of all this.

And I don't know if he'd be willing to really go that far into.

Because, I mean, that's.

That's a big part of his branding.

Right.

Is his reputation.

His companies do well because he is in place.

Yeah.

It's kind of the dual edged sword of notoriety of your executives.

Right.

Like on one hand, people want to do business with a company where they realize the executives and people that run it are real people and authentic.

But at the same time giving too much authenticity may in fact actually do your company in because you get a lot of bad press related to their outside activities and in this case, political allegiances, which really, you know, kind of impacted sales.

Yeah.

At that point, you're really just now sensitive to whatever the media wants.

Ah, there it is.

Shout out to Arun.

We miss you, brother.

Yeah, we do miss you.

Who just had his third baby.

That's right.

Uncle for the third time might add.

I'm doing a very good job of being an uncle.

I'm kind of incredible.

Yeah.

But you're now sensitive to being control of the media.

Who's controlling the narrative on however you are running your company.

So it's.

Yeah, I.

I don't know the answer.

What do we got here?

Ooh.

You got past five days.

They're down 20%.

That's not good.

Yeah.

Not very good.

Did I make the screen too dim?

I think I did, didn't I?

It's okay.

It's okay.

We're trying to make it better for we're.

So I should let the audience know.

We're actually testing a lot of things tonight.

So not only recording in 4K in the cameras, we're also testing this and we're testing some lights behind us that are a little bit different.

This is actually called Candlelight.

Those of you who are not watching the video podcast, don't worry.

You can support us by actually watching the video podcast too.

There he goes.

Right?

Exactly.

Bookmark that.

Do that later.

Yeah, exactly.

So then now.

So.

So DJT has problems with Elon and he's clearly he's been showcasing for a long time.

He has problems with JP from the hood.

Yeah.

He's been beefing.

Well, this.

According to Yahoo.

Finance, the Federal Reserve said that Jerome Powell met with Donald Trump Thursday at the President's invitation.

That's a really important point.

This article that Rajeel was kind enough to pull up is where I got it from.

But what's really interesting to note is prior to this, there's a bit of a standoff where Jerome Powell had said it would be customary for a President to summon me or call me to the White House.

It would not be normal for me to request a meeting with the President.

President.

These two are supposed to be politically independent of one another.

So this commentary from one to the other about, you know, their political allegiances or what they should and should not be doing from an economics perspective is really kind of weird.

Yes, it is.

I mean, I could see a world, I could see why the President would want to invite Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

To have a thoughtful discourse.

Possibly.

Yeah, let's not.

To influence financial governance.

I'm not saying you're wrong, Jerome.

I am saying you have been wrong before.

So let's not act like you have a perfect track record.

You did call it transitory and it was not transitory.

Yes.

It comes and it goes.

Yeah.

So far I've seen it come.

Yeah.

It has not gone.

I'm just saying.

Right.

Yeah.

So as long as you can be open minded to that.

I don't see a world where the Fed Chair would want to go see the President himself.

Why?

No, why?

Well, I mean it, you also don't want the image of impropriety.

Right.

Like give you a great example.

Right.

Let's just say my coworker is a female.

Okay.

And I met my co workers cubicle quite, quite a great deal.

There's an image of impropriety there.

Chris, why are you over at her, at her desk so much?

Well, I, you know, I, I, I.

And for some reason that stands out more than for you to go stand at, let's say somebody else's cubicle, let's say a male.

Yeah.

Right.

So.

Well, in some cases, you know, you never know.

But I'm just saying it stands out visually.

It stands out more.

Right.

There's an image of impropriety there.

And unfortunately that is why you don't want somebody who's supposed to be politically independent like Jerome Powell having a buddy, buddy relationship with the President that's visible to everybody else.

Because the last thing you want is the image of the President influencing monetary policy.

Exactly.

So in this case at the President's invitation was important.

And the White House said that President told the central bank boss that he's making a mistake by not lowering rates.

The Fed said in a statement that Powell met with the President to discuss, and I'm quoting here, economic developments including for growth, employment and inflation.

So pretty much all of the Fed's main focus.

But they met on.

Exactly, yeah.

So this is here.

Oh, this is a statement with the meeting.

So this is actually worthwhile to point out.

So the Federal Reserve issue statements on their website that you can go see which Rejo's kind of to pull up here.

Instead of, instead of going to Twitter, just come check out our page.

You see their official statement here, which, you know, it doesn't say a whole lot.

It's three paragraphs which is clearly meant to put out like hey, we're not being influenced by the President kind of, kind of statement.

Yeah, exactly how according to the Fed did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming economic information and what that means for the outlook.

The Chair said he and his colleagues on the Fed's rate setting committee will make decisions about monetary policy, quote, based solely on careful objective and non political analysis shot across the bow.

Non political analysis, that's right.

So then here's a good question then.

I mean that is, that is not black and white.

That is actually more gray than it, than it comes off because technically speaking, like all the talks about tariffs bleed in and out of their decision.

That's right.

Right.

So that is political talk that he, that the FOMC does have to somewhat consider because I'm telling you right now, CPI came in below expectations at 2.3% headline figure.

Jerome Powell doesn't have a whole lot left to lean on to continue to hold rates higher for longer.

Now he can say, ah, you know, it's, he's leaning on tariffs saying we believe that inflation is going to spike back up because of tariffs.

So maybe under a different set of circumstances we would have already started cutting rates by now.

I don't know.

I don't, I don't know.

I think that, let's be clear about something and this is, I'm speaking to humans out there, not the economists.

The volatility in the markets has scared people.

Like it or not, there's something weird going on in the stock market right now.

And if you're buying or selling stock, I would caution you the stock market is signaling strength in what's happening in the numbers, in the market in general, while the currency, the US Currency, the dollar and the bond market is signaling fear and weakness.

So I, you know, and I've gotten questions about this from listeners before, and I think before we go too deep into this, I think people don't really understand the bond market.

When we say bond market, it's like this foreign concept, Right?

Sounds snazzy.

We all know the stock market, right?

Parties, kids.

But like.

And we're going to allude to what Uncle Jamie says later.

He's really fearful of the bond market right now.

I've been fearful of the bond market since.

For probably a little over a year.

So the muni bond market in particular scared me because Citibank was the largest financer of muni bonds.

Municipal bonds.

Yeah, municipal bonds.

Bonds for government municipalities.

And they pulled out of financing municipal bonds and they started kind of dumping from Citibank as part of Jane Fraser's restructure of that bank.

I remember.

Yep.

That concerned me a great deal.

I thought then that the bond market was going to have some type of collapse in.

They're a big player.

Yeah, big player.

Plus, you're flooding the market with bonds.

The bonds are the government debt.

And we talked about this on a previous show.

I want to say it was 283 that we talked about how the US has now been downgraded by Moody's from AAA rated down to the AAA minus or double A minus.

Double A plus.

Whatever it was.

I mean, it was just one incremental drop.

But they were the last rating agency to do that.

Basically saying that government debt is not as good as it once was.

The last thing you want to do is destabilize the United States all over the world as being the primary place that's safe to put your money.

Pausing for emphasis.

Yeah.

Boom.

Yeah.

You.

You are really having a coughing issue.

I am, yeah.

I'm sorry.

It's a.

It's the post nasal drip.

Just to be clear, I actually have in the studio, because I love you so much.

An air purifier.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So this is not an air purifier issue.

This studio is perfect.

Okay.

Yeah.

Just want to make sure I know how sensitive you were on every show.

Last studio, I was like, the one thing I cannot have again is this guy getting all up in my stuff on a show.

Right.

So I.

I want to read Jerome Powell's quote here because I think it kind of speaks to the natural tension in the relationship, the encounter Comes after Yahoo Finance asked Powell during a May 7 press release conference or press conference, I should say, why he hadn't asked for a meeting with the President amid great uncertainty about the path forward for the economy.

And, well, the quote here was pretty clear.

I've never asked for a meeting with any president and I never will, he said, adding that it is not up to the Fed chair to seek out an audience with the occupant of the Oval Office.

I mean, he's being a little stern.

You know, I mean, look, he's getting frustrated.

On one hand, last month, you're saying you're calling for me to get fired, that you're saying that you can fire me, even though you do that.

Even though you can't.

Yeah, you're acting like you can, but you can't.

Right.

And you're not going to destabilize everything.

And now you're going to say, I invite you to the Oval.

And then he goes on to say, it's always come the other way.

A president wants to meet with you.

But that hasn't happened.

And then, ironically, this meeting subsequently happens afterward also.

You think DJT is thinking, oh, I got to kiss the ring?

No, not at all.

I think the idea of summoning him to see him is a power play.

Yeah.

Side, I need you to come see me.

Come see this.

Yeah, exactly.

Let me give you two contexts.

Yeah, there's no.

He can't decline it.

What are you gonna say?

You're not gonna decline that.

I mean, the sitting president, love him or hate him, has.

Has requested your presence.

He also appointed him.

Yeah, he did.

Originally.

Yeah.

Prior to the last presidency.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But yeah, you're gonna go regardless whether he appointed you or not.

I mean, that's the President, United States.

That.

That's effectively your roundabout boss.

There's a very similar function with, like, companies.

If you're a large company, you typically have, like, risk or management level committees that report directly to the board and not to the CEO because the management has to have.

The board has to have oversight over certain management functions from a risk and audit perspective.

Interesting.

This can change depending on the corporate governance structure.

This is actually kind of an interesting point too.

I think a lot of people mess this up is we tend to sensationalize the government as, oh, my God, there's all these branches.

Yeah.

It's so complicated.

There's executive.

Okay.

That's the president.

There's a legislative.

That's the Congress, House Representatives and Senate.

And there's judicial.

That's all the court System like, oh my God, it's so technical.

Yeah, it's complicated.

Right.

It's really not.

The entire government runs like a business with committees, with oversight.

Checks and balances.

Checks and balances that are the same type of corporate governance that you essentially would have in a larger company.

Now, some companies have more committees and more bureaucracy and red tape, and some of them have less, but the larger you get, you tend to have more.

And if you're a publicly traded company, you have things like SOX controls, Sarbanes Oxley, which came about not too long ago, basically these controls, these checks and balances in place to ensure that your reporting is consistent with other publicly traded companies.

Because the last thing you want said as said co is to report your earnings differently than me as Kris Ko and get can't believe it's not butter.

But the last thing you want is different types of reporting.

So you have to have consistency.

So there's accounting rules, fasb, there's SOX controls to make sure that things aren't manipulated.

There's checks and balances on data along the way.

There's all these different rules and procedures in place to ensure consistency of information from one publicly traded company to another.

And especially on size.

Right, Right.

That's right.

As you scale in size, there's depending on what industry you're in.

So the SEC has kind of some governing requirements, but it certainly ramps up when you're publicly traded.

When you're private, there's not the same pressure because the, the public is not investing in you in the same way.

Right.

So, and I'm watering down a little bit of technical nuance here, but suffice it to say these things are put in place to be consistent and to have these protocols in place.

And what you often see with criticism of situations like Jerome Powell and the President is the President is supposed to be independent of monetary policy, which Jerome Powell is trying to say, hey, look, I'll have a meeting with you, we'll talk about it.

But you can't influence my decision because I'm neutral.

I'm supposed to look out for jobs and inflation effectively.

Right, right.

And for, for the President to do this Right.

This is actually, I don't know if he thinks that the cutting of rates is right around the corner.

And if I invite him now and then he ultimately does cut rates, it looks like I did it so he can pat himself on the back.

No, no, it's, it's, it's a 100% win, win situation for him.

Win, win.

Right.

Because he knows it's right.

It's close.

Even if it's not close, you need to cut rates at some point in time.

I'm gonna.

This Nostradam Chris is coming out, everybody.

Okay, I'm gonna predict the future for you.

Ready?

This is, this is what you call control in the narrative.

This is what you.

Ready?

They will cut rates at some point in the future.

I mean, yeah, it's a com.

It's a much better tactic than Dr.

Doom.

This is all gonna blow up soon.

All of it.

Nor beanie.

Yeah, yeah.

The broken clock is right twice a day.

On the other hand, Donald Trump took a different, different approach.

You need to cut rates.

No matter when he cuts rates, he's going to do it late according to Jerome Powell's narrative.

And he's going to say I was.

Right, which I can guarantee you that he will do it late because the data always lags.

It always lags.

That's the whole point.

And with the volatility that you're seeing now, when do you cut?

If you cut into a data pivot.

Right.

Because he says data dependent.

If data swings the other way and you cut because you didn't give it two successive quarters of data coming in to make that decision, that could be bad.

Right, Right.

But I will say when we get.

To the show, if you cut too much to make up for the, the lost time.

Yeah, that's a problem.

That could be.

That's inflationary.

Right.

So it's, it's a lose.

Lose for Jerome in a win.

Win for djt.

Yeah.

You have to understand, if he didn't think that he had control over the narrative, he wouldn't be playing into it.

Right.

The President.

Right.

So the consensus is right now, I think September backed up.

It was originally June, then it was July.

Now I think consensus is the first rate cut will happen in September if you get one this year at all.

That's a big if.

And I'm throw out the word if because I think there's some other things that are happening.

We're going to talk about some of them later on in the show, particularly the housing market, which we know are six month lagging indicators.

I'm already seeing cracks.

I know there's a lot of housing pundits that would argue the opposite, but I think some of this data is getting very close to undeniable.

Okay, but let's go on to the next article, shall we?

Let's do it.

Unfortunately, there's another J, first name Jamie Dimon, J.D.

not J.P.

who's getting very cynical of the economy.

And you know, me and Uncle J.D.

go back.

Yeah.

You know, Unc and I have been, we've been doing some things.

We've been together for a long time.

Yeah.

And asked if he thought the so called bond vigilantes.

No one's ever called me a bond vigilante, by the way.

It feels pretty mad, Maxis.

I'm not gonna lie.

It's pretty cool.

Is right side.

You're a bond vigilante.

I am.

Thank you for noticing.

You're dangerous, man.

You're a wild boy.

He asked if the so called bond vigilantes that sell us Treasuries due to worries about growing deficits have returned.

Diamond replied, yeah, it's very articulate.

Yeah.

He keeps it very simple.

The bank executive pointed to trillions of dollars in borrowing and spending in the wake of COVID 19 pandemics.

Of the COVID 19 pandemic, which he described as huge sums of money.

And we don't really know the full effect of that.

He goes on to say, you are going to see a crack in the bond market.

Not.

You might not.

I think you are going to see a crack in the bond market.

This is the guy who runs the largest bank in the world, right?

Yeah, exactly.

He, he does have access to some data.

But just a quick refresher for everybody on, on the bond market, right?

There are ways that you.

It's not just Treasuries, right?

But there are ways you can invest in companies, right?

You can invest in them by buying stocks.

Corporate bonds.

Yeah.

Corporate bonds are an option.

Yes.

You, you can invest in buying stocks and in that you're hoping that the value of the stock goes up and you can get a profit down the road, but maybe you get some dividends along the way, right?

Or you can invest in corporate bonds, which is really debt to the company.

It's not just, I mean really sound practicing companies issue corporate bonds.

Think Apple, think Amazon, think McDonald's, I mean, you name it, right?

So but with that, all you're really looking to get is the interest income from that, from that bond, right?

Now the bonds that Uncle Jamie is talking about here, right, Are treasury bonds.

Those are bonds to the government, right?

Which do in impact a lot of things that are in our daily lives, I.

E.

Auto loan rates, I.

E.

Mortgage rates, right?

And they have a huge impact on how we live, right?

And when there's a huge sell off of bonds.

Now think of this.

If there's a huge sell off, think 2008 of homes, right?

What happens to Home values, they come down.

When there's a huge sell off at one time in the bond market, it's a little bit different.

When there's a huge sell off, the rates, the interest, the yields on those go are higher.

Right.

So it costs more.

What happens when Treasuries go up higher?

That's when you get higher mortgage rates.

That's when the government spending, their interest that they're paying on their debt continues to go up.

There's less spending into things like infrastructure and everything else that helps us grow as an economy.

So what you're saying is a trickle down effect.

Yeah, the trickle down effect that Jamie Dimon is effectively saying is going to happen unequivocally, it is going to happen, is going to impact everybody.

Everybody listening to the show, everybody's friends and family, they're all going to be impacted by this trickle down effect.

Yeah, that's paraphrasing, right?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

And to be clear, Jamie is even more certain.

He goes on to say it is going to happen.

And I tell this to my regulators, some of you who are in this room, I'm telling you it's going to happen and you're going to panic.

That's a pretty clear message.

Yeah, right.

He also weighed in on the Trump administration's bitcoin efforts to amass large quantities of the cryptocurrency and US Dollars, current status as the world's reserve currency.

I threw this in there because I don't like you said we shouldn't be stockpiling bitcoin.

Diamond said we should be stockpiling guns, bullets, tanks, planes, drones and, you know, rare earths.

That came off a little bit stigmatizing to think people because he said guns and stuff like that.

Like, oh my God.

What he's trying to say is, is buy commodities that we manufacture.

There you go.

Right.

He's trying to say that he went a little, little left with some of his commentary.

And think about it.

This is the guy.

There's a fly going around this room right now.

If you see me try to slap Saeed, I'm not slapping him.

Yeah.

I'm just trying to get the fly.

This is coming from the guy who's saying that, look, everyone's in trouble when his company is doing better than it has ever done before.

So, yeah, and this is, this is kind of the catch 22 with the banking space man.

And I say this fully as a guy who, you know, identifies as a banker.

There's a fly.

It's on my beverage.

I'm Gonna get you, sucker.

Oh, no.

I did.

Oh, I got him.

I got him.

No, you did not.

I did.

I got him.

I think I got him.

Oh, no.

He's on the table.

Yeah, baby.

Let's go.

Ah, yeah.

Fuzzy knuckle.

Call me the fly killer.

Fk, baby.

Yeah, you go.

That was impressive.

That was.

I mean, look at you.

I am the one.

Kids coming out.

Not only do I have monkeys in my rooms, but I.

I kill animals with my bare hands.

That's what we call foreshadowing.

Yeah.

Oh, that's right.

That episode isn't out yet, people.

You have a real treat next week's episode after this one drops.

Yeah, that's a good one.

I gotta be honest.

So I started watching it last night before YouTube flagged it.

And I gotta take some audio out.

I started watching it last night just to check the colors on it.

I knew we could dial stuff in, which we hopefully we've done on this episod episode.

But I got.

I got sucked in.

It was a good one.

Raju, what'd you think about it?

I loved it.

Yeah, really good.

Yeah, the chemistry was good.

You know what I'm starting to feel like here?

This is.

This is what I'm starting to feel like here.

I feel like we're in an open relationship.

Okay.

And I'm watching you speed date for my replacement.

This is what this feels like.

That.

That feels.

That's.

That's what this.

That's what this is beginning to feel like.

And I'm just.

I'm like, you know that guy.

That guy is much more handsome than me.

That's for sure.

Right?

He's taller than me.

I haven't seen him play basketball.

I think.

I still think I'm probably a better basketball player.

That's not a shot across the bow, Farshad.

But I'm just saying, you can invite me and I can show you some things and.

But outside of that, the chemistry was there with you guys.

Okay, I've got.

I've got some problems that I have to admit to you that are.

They're going to be very upsetting to you.

I need you to pace yourself.

Okay?

So just work through your breathing, exercise your kegels, whatever you need to do.

Okay.

A couple points.

I have anticipated this conversation and lovingly.

I would like to say dating the speed dating.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

And in doing so, I want everybody to know that there has been requests in my DMs to have you sit next to me in the show.

Oh, that's right.

So from now On.

We are going to interview guests from time to time together.

You and I on one side of the table.

I'm being taken off of timeout.

And now put in the game.

Yeah, put in the game.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

It's like bronnie.

So we're gonna have a mic come off that into the table, right?

So to come this way, that camera is gonna pull in on both of us, and you're gonna be looking the guests in the face.

I respect the listeners that still want me to be a part of those.

I felt really bad about it.

Why?

Huh?

No, it was my.

It was my suggestion.

One person being on the show does not make it our bond.

Mm, Yeah, I see.

The other part of the problem you're gonna be really upset about is.

So Sina and Weiss came in here from Fridays, who are hopefully gonna do another show with us sometime soon.

Give us an Update on the GLP1s and the couple company, their status, and.

They'Re crushing it, by the way.

They are crushing it.

And Cena came in wearing some Esquire merch.

Farad's alias name.

Not the higher, not higher standard merch.

E5 Choir, Esquire.

Right.

And while his merch is, you know, kind of tech merch, really nice high end jackets.

And Cena came in wearing his jacket.

And I'm like, cena, like, oh, I didn't realize you and Farad were close.

Like, oh, yeah.

We play basketball every Tuesday and Thursday.

That's because he's a lefty.

That doesn't matter.

Like, he's a lefty.

He's crafty.

I've seen Cena play.

He's good.

He's crafty.

He did say they take it very seriously.

Yeah, Yeah.

I don't.

I don't know that you can go.

You tend to get a little.

Little sassy on the court.

I do.

It's been a while, though.

It has been a while.

You think you contain it.

I feel like you're the kind of guy who makes a three point for the first time and then just runs out the rest.

No, no.

So if I were to play with a group like that, what I would do is come out in first game.

I'm just.

I'm swinging the ball, moving the ball around.

I'm not taking a shot.

I want to see everybody's weaknesses.

Game two is where it's like, okay, let's go.

I already know you can't go left.

You.

I just let you shoot wide open jump shots.

That's easy.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I'm Telling you right now, there's never going to be a day where I'm gonna play in that league.

Come on.

I will go with popcorn to watch.

Come on with me one time.

Not gonna do it.

You're gonna do it.

Not gonna do it one time.

You're gonna dope.

You know how guys like me get treated in leagues like that?

In leagues like that, everybody.

Yeah.

They try.

Yeah.

I'm not walking a limp the rest of my life just so these guys can say, oh, I put this big guy, he sucked.

Yeah.

Weekend warrior.

No, I don't think so, pal.

Yeah.

Not have this.

You'll never get this.

You never hate this.

Yeah.

So there's some headlines as it relates to home sellers.

Kids and they're not good.

Yeah.

This according to entrepreneur.com home sellers now outnumber buyers in record numbers.

Here's what it means for home prices.

According to a new analysis, there were nearly half a million more home sellers than buyers in April, the biggest gap recorded since 2013 and worthwhile to note.

This is typically one of the hotter times of year, and this is what.

We'Ve been waiting for.

The year started off slow and we said, let's see where this goes in the springtime.

Yeah.

Because this is where people are really starting to look now.

If this continues going on for the rest of the summer, which I do anticipate.

I mean, it's unaffordable.

People can't buy the homes.

And the people that are in the homes, they got low rates.

There's the whole lock in effect that we've covered time and time again on.

The show stat about Southern California.

You have to make like 320 something.

Thousand dollars to afford a home.

And that's wild, my guy.

It's insane.

Oh, I see.

I saw.

I saw a meme the other day where it was like your buddy that bought a house was like the moment you realize the buddy that bought the house for a million dollars in 2020 has the same mortgage payment as you now buying a $550,000 house.

Yeah.

And I.

Look, I.

I'll be the first to say that I'm on the positive end of this meme.

I bought my 1180 square foot smaller than your home.

Right.

My house doesn't have a name like yours.

That name.

Yeah.

You live in a palazzo.

What?

Right?

I mean, what was the name, Shay?

What was it?

I'm under 2,000 square feet, bro.

It's not like I got a palazzo.

2000 square feet.

1900 square feet.

How big's your Yard?

I don't know.

Yeah, very big.

That's convenient.

I don't have a yard.

I do not recall, your honor.

It's a very small home.

Did you put a pool in the backyard?

A very small pool, it's called.

It's so small.

They call it a cocktail pool.

Did you put.

Oh, that's cute.

Did you put in, like a barbecue or something that.

No, I did not.

So you just hardscaped over that whole area?

Yeah.

Hardscaped?

Yep.

Do you put hardscape on the side?

Yards to the side of the house, the alleys?

Yeah.

Just so you could roll the trash can.

So you got sides to your house, too?

I didn't have that.

Yeah, I just got the garage.

So, I mean, this doesn't shock me.

I'm curious to see where it goes from here.

So my point being, I bought a house in 2012 for 350 with a 25,000 seller credit, a mortgage payment, 1700amonth.

Talked about on the show before.

You couldn't buy my home today for probably less than 800, maybe 900.

No way.

Yeah.

That's insanity.

Even I.

I will acknowledge that I bought my home in 2020 paying like.

Four or five grand for a place like mine.

That's nuts, dude.

Yeah.

And people are willing to do it.

Yeah, dude.

They're dying to get in.

They just want to get in, right?

No.

I bought my house in 2020, and what it could sell for now, I'm like, it's not worth that.

In no way, shape, or form should it be worth that.

I granted, it's a good community.

Granted, it's.

It's next to a really nice school, but I don't know, man.

I don't know where it.

Where it goes from here now.

I'm not praying for my own downfall, you know?

Of course not.

No.

But I do feel I have.

We have friends that are renting, that are looking.

They've been trying to find.

People aren't even listing their homes.

No.

And I think that this.

This stat from entrepreneur.com has really kind of given people.

When I saw this all over social media.

Right.

This number has been blasted everywhere.

And I know people like Logan from Housing Wire, these are chief economists, are trying to debunk this as myth.

But I'll tell you right now, I don't care what anybody says.

The housing market is feeling this.

The volatility, the uncertainty, the pricing, the treasuries, all these things that are.

If you're trying to buy a home right now, you're throwing your hands up going, man.

And there's that.

I do think that if you are trying to buy a home, I think the leverage is coming back to the, to the buyer now.

Because it is.

But the problem is the home prices are still elevated.

They are still elevated.

And rates are now higher.

Yeah, they're 7% range.

Right?

Yeah.

But I do know that.

Do me a favor, can you pull up what the 30 year average 30 year mortgage rate is today?

I were to guess it's got to be like high sixes, low sevens, right?

No, yeah, still.

No, it is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Average 30 year mortgage rate.

But.

Man, Cook, the average 30 year.

Fixed mortgage rate is currently 6.85%.

What's the second line there?

Compared to last week?

6.89% compared to last year.

This is lower than the long term average of 7.71.

So, so here's.

That's actually a valid point.

It's misleading though.

The long term average is 7.71.

But we're also dangerously close to that.

No, we are.

While also misleading or not.

While also wages have not kept up and home prices are at all time highs.

Right.

So that's why.

That's why that's misleading.

Um, so based on Redfin data, which we, we love on the show, right.

Homes are staying on, on the market for longer now.

It used to be 35 days, now it's 40 days.

During the height of the pandemic when they were selling like hotcakes, you were.

Really having a tough time.

17 days, bro.

Homes are staying on the market.

Oh, dude.

I would see homes get listed.

You couldn't wait to call them.

And you know, the crazy thing is too, and you and I have, you know who I'm talking about.

Let's not, let's not air the dirty laundry in the show.

I got pinged by a mutual friend, let's say, and saying, hey, this house is out there.

Yeah, I want to.

Can you call, can you inquire.

That was such a weird scenario.

Everything was weird about it.

Maybe we could talk about the scenario without name of the people.

Yeah, I think it's worthwhile.

Yeah, they don't care.

There was a house listed on, I think it was Zillow and Redfin, all the major sites for like 1.5 million.

But the house was purchased for 1.5 and there's clearly a renovation done.

Right.

Complete flip.

Yep, complete flip.

I helped him out.

I wasn't gonna do anything for him other than see if it was available, get some information, help them out.

And then pass it along.

But I don't charge people.

You know, we're friends, we're family.

Right.

And so I call the real estate agent.

No call back.

It's weird.

Yeah, right.

Call them again.

No call back.

It's not saying that it's contingent.

Send him a text.

Send him an email.

No, it looked like it was still active.

Send him an email.

Some attacks, no call back.

Finally, it goes under contract for like, 2.6 million.

Right.

But listed for 1.5, though.

Listed for 1.5.

The whole thing was strange.

And I don't.

I'll have to unpack it at some point in time, see if I can figure something out.

But there wasn't the notes.

There's nothing, like, unusual.

And I didn't get a chance to.

Talk to Tinfoil hat on, though.

Like, let's just.

Let's get.

Let's get crazy about this.

Why would that even happen?

Why would somebody even.

Listen, for one.

Do they have a buyer already that they were trying to, like, push away all potential other offers?

No, no, because you wouldn't lower it that low and get inundated with calls.

Right?

So that's true.

It's a very.

Look, I will say the real estate business has got a lot of people that are professionals.

There's a lot of people that have some pretty nefarious behavior.

You can't really justify the logic on a lot of this stuff.

There's all sorts of reasons why it could happen.

I'm not even gonna speculate.

What I'll tell you is 2.6 is probably what it should have sold for based on the renovations, which are done tastefully.

And based on.

Yeah, and based on the market that it's in.

The market that it's in.

And 1.5 they bought it for is probably bought in pretty bad disrepair.

And they probably put, you know, 600,000 into it.

You know, maybe 700,000.

Yeah, easy.

And I guess depending on the.

Either work themselves or not.

And then, you know, they sell it for 2.6.

That seems about right.

Plus, there's carrying costs, there's broker fees, agent fees, so it all makes sense.

But there was, like, this hysteria, like, Chris giving her back.

Giving her back.

Oh, my God.

Giving her back.

And I'm sitting thinking to myself, like, this is not normal.

Like, normally the way it used to work is, you talk to a real estate agent, they get back to you.

You have a couple days, you go see it, right?

Maybe see it over the weekend.

There wasn't like this.

Like, time is of the essence like flight or flight or fight kind of mode.

And that's what it is now.

Yeah.

Like, everybody's like, oh, my God, a deal.

I got to get it now.

I gotta get it now.

I gotta get it now.

You're like, bro, calm down.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know.

Because people are just need to.

They feel like they need to jump at the opportunity and look.

And that's still the advice that we have.

If you do see a home that does fit your utility and you can afford it, yeah.

I say make an offer.

I do think that you could even go right now.

You could even probably make an offer below list, right?

I'm not giving you any advice.

Not if I were trying to buy a house right now.

I would not make an offer at list, right.

Me, personally, I wouldn't do it.

I think.

I think the ball is definitely in your court, and you should use it to your advantage.

But I'm going to go ahead and say this now for the record.

You're trying to buy a house right now.

Don't.

Don't do it.

Why?

I think what if you need a home?

If you need a home, I get it.

But we're at this inflection point of volatility.

Okay.

I would say a lot of what we've seen really leading up to, but certainly from Liberation Day forward, has created volatility like I've never really professionally seen.

I was talking to my mom in Oklahoma.

Mom's retired, so she's not, like, tapped into the work environment.

So a lot of her observations are strictly just observations from her community.

I've always looked at the Midwest kind of like this insulated proxy for what's going on on the more populated, more economically diverse coasts.

Okay, Right.

And I'm.

Hey, Mom.

She's like, hey, how are you?

What are you doing?

Oh, I'm sitting on my catio with my cats.

My catio.

She got a catio.

Nice.

Yeah.

Love that.

You know, it's like an indoor outdoor kind of thing.

And I'm like, you know, how's the job market out there?

She's like, oh, my God, son, These nurses are just getting laid off left and right nurses.

Like, health care is really getting laid off.

She's like.

And she's like, all these businesses are laying off.

Really?

Wow.

And she's experiencing this.

And she's, you know, she's walking through it with me, and I'm sitting here going like, oh, my God.

Like, she's really seeing, like, a grim economic situation.

Like, mom, what do you think's gonna happen.

She's like, I don't know that people can't do this much longer.

My mom is not like a sophisticated economist.

Observations from a humble woman in the Midwest who's retired and just happens to go to the YMCA and talk to people from time to time.

Right.

If she feels that, I mean, how do we not all acknowledge there's a problem here?

Yeah, yeah.

And I'll be honest, even let's just say, okay, what's going to make this situation better?

I don't know.

I don't have a controversial response to this and it's going to make people feel like, frustrated.

Okay, tell me.

All right, so I'll use the housing market as a response, but I'm going to go ahead and say corporate America has not kept up their end of the bargain.

That's fair.

There were promises made to employees that came in the context of duration of employment and a lifestyle that the economy no longer affords for the wages that are currently in place.

And I'm not saying that companies should overpay.

I'm not saying that, no, I'm not saying that companies are evil.

I'm just saying that we got to a point where more and more has been stripped away from the employee.

And unfortunately, wages going up are the only near term solution to solving some of these problems.

And again, using the housing market as a proxy, there's only so many levers you can pull.

Okay.

Interest rates can come down, but that's going to drive home prices up, which doesn't solve the problem.

Home values can come down, but that's unlikely to happen to a big degree because historically speaking, over time, home values really only go up.

If you look at the course of like 20, 25 years, home values pretty much only go up over time.

So.

Right.

Like right now, if home values were to even come down, let's call it 5%.

Right.

It's not meaningful enough to move the needle.

No, it's not.

Because I mean, you're talking about it's up over 40% since 2020.

So coming down 5%.

What is it really?

Regill, do me a favor.

Pull up average home price in the United States and see whatever chart you can pull up for.

Yeah, I got that for you right now.

Do you really?

Yeah, I just want to see like.

A chart of the median home price in April was 438, 357, which is.

Wild because a couple years ago is 200, 000.

But I want to see it charted out.

Like if you can see It.

If you can find a chart over time or something like that.

Yeah, there you go.

Click that one.

That's perfect.

Average house price in the United States.

Can you make it bigger?

Yeah, let's go.

It's not the size of the chart or Jill.

It is the size.

It's always about the size, bro.

All right, there you go.

Look at that, that, that.

If you, if you look at it, this goes all the way back to what's.

What years.

On your side, there's 1965.

1965 to now.

Okay.

Average house price in the U.S.

it's.

Okay.

It says it's 510, which I don't.

Think it's true, but I don't think it's.

Well, this is average, and I was saying median.

So, okay, average is different.

Okay, so that could be true.

But look at.

Effectively speaking, it always goes up.

It depends.

And there's only, the only rare instances where if you could buy like in.

Call it 2005, you went down a little bit, but you.

Generally speaking, it's almost always going up.

But there's one point to note on this chart, which I think people will resonate with you.

Look at 2020 to 2024, that spike where we're.

Jill's pointing to now, straight up, almost.

We've never experienced a spike like that.

That is the fastest cadence of home price increases in history.

In history.

Not just recently, the last decade, 100 years.

We have just lived through the fastest increase in home prices in American history, in history, in general.

Period that has never been seen before.

And it's almost a complete vertical.

Right?

That is the cadence of home price increases, which I have always often argued, these housing pundits saying, well, this is the most unaffordable time period in economic history.

They go, no, no, no, because rates and housing were worse in the 1980s.

And I get the history, the context of the combination of those things, but you didn't see an increase in home values of this cadence.

And there's no data anywhere that's going to disprove that statement.

Right?

The cadence of value increases in the narrow scope of time left wages behind.

And because of that, the single largest expense for most Americans is their shelter cost, their housing, either rent or home, the cost of owning their home, their mortgage payment.

Okay?

If that number went up exponentially in the period of 2020 through 2024, call it 2022 ish, if you will, and continue to stay high through 2024, then here's the problem.

Rates aren't going to solve for that level of an increase, okay.

You could throw in some hybridized mortgage product like a 40 year mortgage.

But guess what?

A 40 year mortgage is going to make house prices go up again.

Yeah.

Further causing panic and problems.

And this is going to drive those home prices up even higher because of all this pent up demand.

So the only real variable that fixes this problem.

Well, there's actually two ways home values can come down meaningfully.

Okay.

You can live through recessionary economy again.

For a reminder, a correction, 20% or less of a correction, a crash, 20% or more of a value correction.

Yes.

Right.

So if the values go down 25%, crash values go down 15%.

Correction, correction.

Right.

Either way, I think that you're in a good situation.

I think it's bad, you know, near term, good long term.

But the other way to solve this rubric is if wages go up.

Yeah.

But at that same cadence, that's not happening.

I mean, why would a company do that?

Right.

Their earnings aren't going up at that cadence.

Housing went up at that cadence.

And if anything, right now, what everyone, what people are afraid of more so than ever, their jobs.

Right.

Because we know that layoffs and reductions in force are fast ways for companies to affect their bottom line.

Right.

Yeah.

And I would say that people, people tend to humanize company decisions.

Right.

What do you mean?

A company is not good or bad for layoffs.

Right.

A company has a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders that invest in it.

It's a different relationship.

They're not doing it because they like you, don't like you.

So that's not the reason why.

No, I do.

In my career, I've had to lay off people that I truly loved.

Yeah.

There are moments that I will never forget where I looked at somebody across the table for me and I got choked up because I didn't want to do it, but I knew I had to.

And it's a terrible situation to live through.

But that wasn't me being malicious.

That was me doing what I knew I had to do for the greater population of investors, which is my fiduciary responsibility.

And it sucks sometimes, of course, but that's what companies have to do.

Looking over at Rajeel nodding his head yes in the background.

Yes.

Yes, sir.

So I've been, I've been going down the rabbit hole with some of these financial gurus or these, these people online that are like to post these short.

Throw out a name, give me a name.

This guy's name.

He calls himself the financial Engineer.

I don't like him already, but I'll.

He'S actually, he makes good shorts and, and they, they drive the point home very quickly.

He makes good shorts.

That's the proxy now.

No, listen.

No, no, no.

I, I think it drives the point home very quick.

And I, I talked to you about it earlier today.

I know, I'm just playing devs out.

And he said, he showed, he showed a scenario where it, he showed the year.

Let's just say 1965 because we pulled it up earlier on the chart and it's like person comes in and on the shirt it said average income earner.

Right.

And says, I like to buy this the average home, please.

Right.

And bank employee acting like they're working on the computer.

Oh, you qualify.

Sure thing.

No problem.

Most people did back then.

Right.

It didn't take a lot to get there.

1965, the average household income was $7,000.

We just looked on there.

The average home price was $19,000.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, you can see how they, they could afford it.

Mind you, they're also coming out of college without the student loan debt that, that the kids are dealing with now.

Right.

Numbers that we've never even heard of or even thought were possible.

Right?

Yeah.

It's also worthwhile to point out that the cost of education has risen much faster than inflation.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, that's a number that we should probably look up too.

Look at it now.

The average household income is somewhere around 70,000, 75,000.

And you said the average home price is 510,000.

Right.

In 2010, California's median household income, that's 2010, 57,000.

Right.

20, 23, 95,000.

I think that's high.

You sound like you're really struggling to speak.

I am.

Is it that bad?

No, I'm just trying, I'm trying to manage it.

Are you?

Yeah.

It sounds like it's like painful.

Well, it's the, it's, it's not painful.

It's the post nasal drip.

So it's just like a tickle.

You just want to be quiet and I'll talk to you this whole time.

And just nod my head.

Yeah, you're good at that size.

Nodding his head.

Yes.

Right now.

Aggressively.

Something else.

But yeah.

So to your point.

Yeah.

I do think that corporate America hasn't kept up their end of the bargain.

And I think that in some way, shape or form, this is going to come back to bite the economy like we haven't seen before.

Because I think that putting people in these 30 year mortgages.

Putting people into these 30 year mortgages and selling them on the American dream, you know, and you know that this is true.

Makes them feel trapped and in the environment that they're going to have to work forever and make them feel like you need to continue to do this to maintain the lifestyle that you have.

This is Pandora's box, but I'm going to go ahead and open it.

There's a couple problems with this in general, that, that we, we as a society have to deal with.

Humans live longer, healthier lives.

You see me run the office moping around my head down low and sad because I found out that.

Severance was a terrible show.

No, I thought it was a good show.

I did go a little less in the last season and I don't want to ruin it for everybody but Father of the Bride.

Okay.

Yeah.

The main character is supposed to be 45 years old.

I turned 45 years old the end of this month.

I do not look like Steve Martin with gray hair.

You look great for 45, man.

Stop, but hear me out.

Thank you.

Okay.

I know I've never really felt, believe it or not, my, my sarcastic ego aside, I've always felt unattractive.

Always have.

I've never looked in a mirror and been like, oh, my God, I look attractive.

It is really difficult for me to be on a video.

Unattractive or attractive has nothing to do with whether you look like you're 45 or not.

So I am ugly.

Thank you.

Yeah.

I'm sorry.

As your friend.

Yeah, he's supposed to be 45.

He couldn't have been.

Please Google, please Google, how old was Steve Martin when he films, when he filmed?

Yeah.

I have to know.

This ought to be interesting.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

But continue.

So we are living longer, healthier lives, right?

We are.

We generally look younger today than people did back then because you live longer, healthier lives, which means people are working longer.

Oh, yeah, Right.

So because people are working well into their 60s, some in their early 70s, and you.

Good for you.

Right.

I know people that retire too early and they really battle depression.

Right.

Yeah.

Well, I think working or having purpose in your life and work is generally a proxy for purpose as you get older.

Guys, this is the trip.

He's 46.

See, he was 46 when he was playing.

45.

That's what he looked like.

I am his age.

I'm effectively his age right now.

You look younger.

No, he has great skin.

No, I'm saying he doesn't have great.

Skin because he went gray early.

Is that what.

He's also wildly photoshopped for a movie.

I mean, come on.

But he was still gray.

Yeah.

You know, he's a stud, by the way.

Steve Martin.

Steve Martin, right, yeah.

Sorry.

Obviously him and the other guy.

Who?

Martin Sheen.

Martin Sheen, yeah.

Confused, but no, but here's the thing.

He's supposed to be 46, 45 in the movie.

And what is it he had?

His daughter's getting married.

He had a massive house.

Massive house.

He's paying for a huge wedding.

I mean, it's just to that.

It's a fairy tale, brother.

It is a fairy tale.

To that point I came across a.

Golden girls were in their 50s.

Dude.

I came across a post on LinkedIn.

50S, 50s.

Crazy.

Yeah, crazy.

Golden girls came across a post the other day on LinkedIn.

And this is true.

This a lot of the stuff that I'm about to read off.

You would think that is just the American dream ideal.

Like this is what you would think about how my life should be as an adult if I do everything that I'm supposed to do, right?

Oh, this is gonna be depressing.

I'm almost afraid and, and traditional household like back in the day.

I'm not saying that you would want this, but this is how it used to be, okay?

Spouse doesn't work, right?

Mom stayed at home and took care of the kids, helped raise the family and things like that, or vice versa.

It doesn't have to be the, the wife, it could be the husband.

Okay?

Two kids, two cars, one's paid off, one is leased, got two dogs.

You maxed out your 401k.

Health care premiums out the wazoo.

One big vacation a year, one mini vacation a year.

Save $10,000 into 529 plans, okay?

You have a $750,000 mortgage, real estate taxes, $8,000.

I mean, where with a $750,000 mortgage, your real estate tax is only $8,000?

Your kids are in sports, they got tutors, activities.

You shop and you eat healthier foods.

You eat out one to two times a week and you celebrate birthdays and Christmas.

This individual makes $300,000.

That's what they can afford.

What year was that?

This is now.

This person is a certified financial planner.

That's not, that's not accurate now.

Not here.

Crazy, right?

That's not.

And that's, and that's, and that's stretching it.

That's probably stretching it so thin just.

To afford a home, you need over 300,000 California.

That's what I'm saying.

And you're like, man, like, it makes people feel.

And this is the problem.

If you, if you, where are you paying that kind of real estate tax?

Right, exactly.

And the state tax in California is pretty.

That's that that person certainly doesn't live here.

Not here, not in Southern California.

But if you strip away the idea of the American dream for people and, and they give up on this idea, that's what I'm, that's what I'm worried about.

I'm worried about what could happen if people say, you already see it.

Look how many influencers you see on social media that are living like the vagabond life, talking about getting a van and rolling out what we got here?

State income taxes.

There are nine tax brackets ranging from 1 to 12 to 13%.

Yeah, yeah.

So suffice it to say, I pay an extra 12, 13% on top of my federal taxes.

Yeah, man.

Dude, my tax bracket is crazy, man.

And I'm not complaining, but I think, what, 50%?

I think, oh, I easily.

Dude, my bonus situation, it's usually 58% taxed.

Think that through.

And I'm, I'm gonna use big numbers.

These are not my numbers, certainly not anymore.

But if I got a million dollar bonus, 580,000 of that goes to the government off the top, off top, bang.

420,000 is what I actually see.

People never, they look up public filings, they look up statements like, oh, Christian, we got all this money.

They don't realize like, bro, I didn't.

That's not what it took home.

I didn't take that home.

And it's not like it's, it's.

It's a self employed situation.

They go, well, Chris, you own other companies.

I can't take my company income and offset my W2 income.

You still pay normalized W2 wages there.

It's tax before I get it.

Yes, that's the whole point.

Right.

So people like, oh my God.

And that's crazy.

You can't possibly hit, dude, 58.

That's my tax rate on that stuff.

So the big fallout between Elon and djt, right, is over this beautiful tax bill, which.

And I haven't looked it up yet, but something tells me Elon Musk, his characterization of it being inflationary is probably not inaccurate.

He said that the spending was kind of wild in it.

It is, it is.

I mean, it's really, it's really stemming from the tax and job bill that DJT passed the first go around.

And he's trying to extend it now.

Further and sprinkle in a little bit more.

But a lot of it is to keep, you know, taxes lower, especially for corporate taxes.

Right.

Keep it at 21% versus increasing it to 35%.

And I think, I think that's honestly one of the last frontiers of opportunities for the government to get some money back is the tax corporations.

Well, that's the only way the government makes money.

And if, and if Elon was heading Doge, right, and he sees like to be more efficient and we need to get more revenue.

That's the only way the government makes revenue.

Yeah, I mean, I get it.

And, and it's not like the.

When corporations are making more money, they're not kicking it back down to the employees.

I mean, what did Elon Musk really expect?

Did he really think that he could make a change?

None of that he could make it.

Did he really think that, that his constituents in the White House didn't have a vested interest in preserving their financial future too?

Yeah, I know.

Did he really think that we were gonna, we were gonna cause near term pain for long term gain and risk the reputational status of an entire political party?

Is that what he thought was going to happen?

Did he think that there was really that much of a divorcing from the current political climate that got that, that man elected, or anybody elected for that matter?

This is not endorsing or not endorsing anybody else.

It's just.

What did you think was going to happen, bro?

Did you think, did you really think you were going to come in and make sweeping change and change everything that's happened in history over the last 2000.

Years, be the de facto president?

I mean, it's just, it's a weird situation.

Now what I'll tell you, he is doing, and this is interesting, and if you want to go down this, this.

You got some tinfoil out there, Origil?

Yeah, put it on.

Put the hat on.

If he ever wanted to preserve his ability, I don't know.

Was he born in this country?

I think he was.

Right.

Can you look up.

If Elon Musk was born here, he'd be a great Democratic president candidate at this particular juncture in time.

He may be able to flop sides a little weird, but, you know.

Oh, no.

Pretoria, South Africa.

Oh, there goes that idea.

Sorry.

You are not the President of the United States.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, man.

I don't know.

I don't know where.

I don't know what he thought he could accomplish.

But he's clearly seeing now that it's not Possible.

Well, and, and then now he's going back and forth, the media saying that he only got elected because of my endorsement, which may be partially accurate.

I mean, 100.

I don't know, but it's a bizarre time, dude.

I mean, there were some states that he did sway.

Yeah, that, that's fact.

All right, so I got some here to pull up that I wanted to bring up on the show.

I've been waiting for you to pull those up.

You put those in there.

And I'm like, this guy ever gonna talk about him or not?

Well, one of them was.

Was Jamie Dimon.

Right.

Which.

So I was gonna bring this up when you brought it up earlier.

It goes on.

It says, this is from cnbc.

This is why Jamie Dimon is always so gloomy on the economy.

I disagree with that, by the way.

I followed J.P.

morgan Chase's.

And maybe it's not Jamie Dimon per se, but I follow their, their economic commentary pretty closely.

I would say they, they've been really rosy in some circumstances.

So I don't, I don't know if it's just him they're alluding to or what the deal is, but he's generally been pretty optimistic in my experience.

Optimistic and probably a better term is realistic.

Very realistic.

Just because, just because he says there's.

It's a coin flip on whether we hit a recession or not.

Yeah.

I mean, look, he can't call it out exactly because he doesn't know what, what narratives are going to be spun.

But he's being pretty clear.

He thinks there's paint ahead.

Yeah.

He's not hiding.

But it says here a review of 20 years of Diamond's annual investor letters and his public statements show a distinct evolution.

His warnings about economic calamities became more frequent even as his bank's performance began lapping rivals.

Right.

So maybe the best explanation of Diamond's outlook is that no matter how big and powerful JP Morgan is, financial companies can be fragile.

The history of finance is one of the rise and fall of institutions.

Sounds like a smart man, a pragmatic guy.

Yeah.

So plus.

Minus here, he.

This doesn't impact him.

He is the world's largest bank.

There's our statements out that he's made where he's been like, yeah, we'll be.

Right.

But our, our competition won't.

Yes.

He says stuff like that pretty, pretty regularly.

So, I mean, grain of salt.

Oh.

Because he knows the competition is operating on much smaller net interest margin.

Plus, I mean, when you're, when you're that Size banking institution.

Yeah, everybody goes, oh, I'll bank at the largest bank in the world.

They're safe.

You know, if you're Wells Fargo who just got out of trouble, I mean you may not have felt that way about them recently.

So what was that?

I saw that in headlines that they had some cap removed off of them.

What?

Yeah, whenever.

So without getting too much into the minutia here from a regulatory perspective, so you have several different regulators that are out there and this is where banking gets kind of weird.

So you have like the fdic, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is an insurer.

Right.

They maintain the insurance fund, but the FDIC is actually also a regulator for safety and soundness purposes.

There's also other people who regulate banks.

There's also the Federal Reserve bank which usually regulates holding companies but can regulate the bank.

There are state chartered non member banks.

There's also each like California Agency, for example, Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, dfpi.

So there's it depend on size.

There's the occ.

Yes, it depends on size.

It depends on your bank charter type.

There's all sorts of weird kind of things that happen which make this all sorts of different regulators.

So suffice it to say that regardless of what regulator they regulate you, if you have regulatory challenges, they can and will come in and say, you are not allowed to grow.

You should be not use, you should not be using your extra capital and your earnings to build new business.

You should be cleaning up your house.

Think of it that way, right?

You're not going to go in and buy a bunch of new stuff to put in your house that's already filled with a bunch of dirty old stuff.

You're going to clean your dirty old stuff out and then you're going to buy new stuff to put in it.

There you go.

So the regulators come down and say, hey, your house is dirty, clean it up and then we'll let you bring in some new stuff in here.

Wells Fargo was under that from that whole account opening debacle that happened several years ago.

And they just got out from that regulatory issue there.

And I'm not, okay, I'm not getting into whose fault it was or why or any of that kind of stuff.

But them getting this lifted allows them to get back in the business of growing their bank again, which is a really, really good thing for them.

Who does that spell trouble for?

I don't think it really spell trouble for anybody.

It remains to be seen how aggressive they'll be on growth.

I mean, keep in Mind if you've been limited on growth for a long period of time, I don't know.

They have plans that are easily identifiable as to what the next several chapters will be, but for them, you know, it just means that that particular chapter of regulatory scrutiny has come to an end and maybe, maybe their business will start to thrive and prosper again.

I still have bank accounts.

Wells Fargo.

To commemorate the event, Wells Fargo announced a $2,000 bonus for a full time employees.

That's good.

I mean, look, see?

Shout out to the homies.

Dude, I'm waiting for you to announce a $2,000 bonus for Rajille and I.

Brazil.

Yes, please.

You don't get a bonus.

I get it, I get it.

I know what you're saying.

And then I put this other article in here that I thought was really interesting and I actually brought it up on the next episode.

So this is also from cnbc.

What do you think the number one skill to teach your kid as early as possible from a psychologist?

Accounting.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

That'd be great, right?

Actually to be artistic.

Yeah.

So I read this article and I found it to be interesting and then I started thinking more about it and then, then last night, all the articles of Magnus Carlson losing the chess.

I watched, I even showed my son because he's super into chess.

Yeah.

And he though he slammed the table and.

But he did shake the guy's hand.

He was mad at himself.

He wasn't mad at the dude.

Patted the guy on the back.

On the back.

And he was just, I think what really bothered him.

And so I, I've followed.

I used to play chess when I was a kid.

I was in chess programs and all that stuff.

It's part of being a gay Adam.

You'll learn all about that.

I think his frustration was with himself because he was ill prepared.

He knew he made mistakes.

He is notorious for showing up late.

Yeah.

And just strolling in thinking he's just going to wipe the floor.

Have you ever seen him on podcasts like he's done?

No, I never listened to him speak.

So he does, he does some podcasts in the past.

Somebody asked, asked him like, do you think you're at your peak?

And he's like, no, I've already passed it.

He knew like he felt like nobody could beat him and you could see that he'd come off his peak.

He's like an athlete who got fat, but it's still playing and still very naturally athletic and gifted.

And I think that was the moment that he realized that he was off.

His peak like all the time caught up to him.

That father time caught out to him and he hasn't been trying.

And this 19 year old kid was such amazing poise and grace.

Handled that, that whole situation.

Class, class act.

Went outside, hugged his father, did all the right things.

But it's weird to me, art has a way for most people of engaging the other side of their brain.

Yeah.

Right.

You know, unless you're weird left you like cena.

Unless you like cena.

Yeah.

Because you can, you can find your niche.

You could find out whatever it is you want to like, study.

Right.

But having an artistic side to you too could be the very thing that pushes the boundaries a little bit to get you.

Like Farsha, that's coming on next week.

Right.

He's not your prototypical lawyer.

Right.

Like he know.

And it really bothers me how this is a personal pet peeve.

I hate the fact that there are certain trades in professions where people think you have to fit the mold.

Why?

Yeah.

Why do you get to say what the mold is?

Why is your image of success what means to.

I can tell you right now as a lawyer, there are tons of people who do not fit the mold, who do not fit in traditional big law firms who make a great deal of money because they don't fit that mold.

Yeah.

You know, and the part that bothers me about it is, okay, I get the idea behind.

We have reputation and we're all going to be this way and we don't want anyone to stray from this reputation.

Go away and do your own thing.

You know, one person is bigger than the company.

We should all.

Yeah, I get that too.

Right.

But until it has been proven that I have caused, you know, some type of damage to the company or the company's reputation, then that, then the conversation should be had.

There's a girl that, that you and I both grew up around.

I don't think we was a friend of mine or yours per se.

We knew her.

Okay.

She became a lawyer.

Right.

And I don't want to give out her name on the show because I'm pretty sure she'll be associated with us.

But she also has like a newsletter and a book about redlining legal stuff.

Right.

Okay.

It's got a whole LinkedIn following that's based around this like contracts and law and everything else.

Right.

And I'm sitting here thinking to myself, like, that's so not inflammatory.

It's clearly in line with what she does for a profession.

And she seems to have a big audience, so it seems like, her law firm's okay with it.

Right?

Where's the inflection point of being too standout?

Ish.

Like, not all law firms would be okay with that.

No, they would be like, okay, hey, we see you're doing this, and while it might not be a conflict of interest per se, we don't like that you're not available to us 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and you're spending personal time doing this, and that bothers us.

And I've always hated that side of the equation.

Like, if you want to say, hey, you can't do X, Y and Z because they're conflicts, I get it.

But if you want to say we own you after hours and you have to be able to work all the time because you want to get ahead, like, what are we really saying now?

You know what I mean?

Like, what are you saying?

Like, I can't have, like this because here's where the system has failed and we're still expecting outdated ideals to hold true.

People's 401ks aren't as valuable as they once were to them, or they're not as stable as they once were.

We saw that during the great financial crisis where some of those disappeared overnight.

So you can't blame people for having a lack of confidence in that.

People want to live a better lifestyle sooner because they see it all over social media.

Pensions for most people are gone by the wayside.

Wages, as we covered earlier in the show, haven't kept up with some of the basic core concepts.

That is the number one thing.

We spend money on homes, yet we expect people not to have second jobs.

I get it.

I get the stigma.

Here's what happened during COVID People had two jobs working nine to five, two times.

That's wrong.

That's bad.

No justifying that.

But if somebody has a side hustle and they work at night or they work after hours, or they take a lunch break and work a little bit on their lunch break, that's none of your business.

Good.

Dude, that's none of you.

That's not you at all.

I think here's.

Here's also another wrinkle to this that I don't know how to answer.

Okay, I got a little high horsey there.

Sorry.

No, no, no, it's.

I think that corporations and companies out there want to do what's best for the corporation and the companies and this and the shareholders.

Yeah.

I mean, it's your responsibility.

It's a real legal responsibility.

It's a real responsibility.

Right.

They have they have, like you said, financial responsibility to it.

Right.

If the people that are working on their own and society didn't judge the companies for.

Let's just say I'm doing something on my own and somebody accuses the company as it being their thought.

Right.

Their opinion.

Intellectual property.

Intellectual.

Right.

Me saying what I say on my own time should not reflect.

And I think society as a whole has a lot to be blamed for this to.

Because they'll go after the deeper pocket they want.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I'll give you an example of where.

Where good and bad.

Right?

Yeah.

There was a case I saw on social media that went, that went viral where a guy who's an executive at, I want to say like a major Ria.

Like an investment, a wealth advisor walked into like a juice place, threw a juice at.

At an employee and then said like a.

Something inflammatory, I think maybe even racial.

Right.

He lost his job.

He should.

He should.

Terrible human being.

Yeah, like you should lose your job.

Yeah, exactly.

But let's say.

Let's say he.

Let's say he had a side business of.

Let's say he's a wealth advisor.

Right.

Let's say his side business was refurbishing vintage jewelry and selling it on ebay.

Okay.

Okay.

That shouldn't be a problem.

Right.

Like, and I understand those are two very different things, but one is a reflection of the employee of the company.

The other one is not.

Now here's where it gets interesting.

Let's say he sells a piece of jewelry and he inadvertently sold somebody a piece of jewelry that was described as something different.

And that person feels ripped off.

Yes.

That person goes to the company and says, hey, your employee ripped me off.

He sold me this piece of jewelry.

Right.

Okay, that's not fair.

That's not fair to him.

You would hope that the company would stand up and be like that.

That has nothing to do with us.

Right, Right.

But the company is naturally going to say, why is this coming to our doorstep?

Why are you doing this stuff?

That's bringing my doors.

I get those.

That's a paradigm dilemma.

It's a dilemma and you've got to figure out when and if.

And that's the risk of some.

And this is, and this is why I blame society for allowing stories like this to get so far out of hand.

It's no different than the one bad comment under a video being the.

The sole reason for the video having to come down where 99 other comments are supportive of the video.

But let me ask you a question.

Theoretical Question, but let's just go with it, right?

Let's say you're out drinking and you get a dui.

Should you lose your job?

Should I lose my job?

Yeah, it's.

It's a moral gambit.

I'm not.

Don't ask the question.

I'm just saying these are, these are more rhetorical.

Yeah, but these are moral gambits.

Right.

I get it.

Yeah.

In some, some jobs, like if you're a police officer, that's a problem.

Right?

It does definitely depend on the job.

Right.

I don't know that I have a clear answer to that.

I'm just saying, like.

But can I continue to make it to my.

To my job?

So you've never had a performance issue whatsoever in your duties?

Let's say you performed your duties at all times.

This does not impact your job.

Matter of fact, you got arrested on a Saturday.

You were back at work on Monday.

Nobody at work would have known.

Yeah, I don't know.

It's a tough question.

You know, these are.

These are the questions.

Like, so it's one of those things where I'm like, okay, like there, there is no black and white, right or wrong.

But we need to find some level playing field where companies don't own employees.

Always.

I.

I have very mixed emotions about.

David Solomon, CEO, Goldman.

Goldman Sachs.

There it is.

Very nice.

Regil.

Did you know I was going here?

Oh, yeah.

I was gonna bring it up.

You did?

Okay.

Good man.

Jeez, we're like one human being.

Yeah.

We're connected emotionally.

I am your conscience.

I am your conscious.

So Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon was known as DJ D.

What?

Diesel.

Okay.

Yeah.

I mean, I didn't know that.

Minus one for the name.

But he had to give up his DJ gigs due to unwanted media attention.

Now this man has paid tens of millions of dollars to be the CEO of Goldman Sachs.

He would do these DJ gigs at night, but he still made it to his jobs.

You know what's funny about this?

They made him stop doing this when the company was at a point where it began to be a little shaky.

But all those years when everything was on the up and up, no problems.

And he donated his earnings from DJing?

Yes.

To Pro, to charities, to charities, non profits.

He wasn't doing it for money.

He's doing it for the love of the sport.

Yeah.

He liked.

He liked the environment, he liked the music.

You took something that he liked to do and enjoyed doing because of unwanted.

Me.

Now he has a decision to make.

You're making $30 million right.

Or whatever it was he's making.

He's making some crazy salary.

Yeah.

But my point being is, is like, at what point in time is that wrong?

Like, where's the inflection point of right and wrong?

Like, does he really need to give up his passion?

Well, this is where.

This is where I feel like, for instance, the New York Knicks just lost in the playoffs, okay.

And their coach, man, like, exactly the point.

Exactly the point that I was going to bring up.

Okay.

Made it to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time.

And I don't even know how long.

13 years.

Okay, 13 years maybe.

Maybe even more, I think.

Really?

Okay.

Eastern Conference finals, I said, oh, okay.

Right.

In the post game press conference after they got eliminated, they asked their star player, do you think, do you think he should be let go?

Is this the right time to ask that question?

Is it the right person to ask?

And this is where I feel like that person who asked that question, his name should be put on blast for putting me on the spot like that.

Then you just get to walk and have a normal everyday life.

Like you know what you were trying to do when you asked that question.

So the same, the same people that write the articles about this guy negatively being a dj, what their name should be talked about more like, why are you writing?

Why?

Why is this a problem for you?

But this is the problem with visibility.

And this problem only gets worse.

Sensationalism, dude.

It's not even sensational.

I want to write.

I want to write an article that's going to get clicks.

Yeah.

Multimillionaire, you know, eight figure earning CEO has a dual life at nighttime.

How much do you make here?

Base salary, 2 million.

Cash bonus is how much?

8.3 performance stock, 25 mil.

Yeah, he's doing okay.

Was that a choke coffee or a choke from Price?

I was like, man, he's earning more than you.

Got a 24% pay bump to 31 million.

Look, he's not hurting.

I mean, I get it.

But what I'm saying is, is like, at what point in time and if you're the CEO, there's an argument that you're always on call.

I get that you're paid for it.

In his case, I would say you're paid for it.

And maybe that's part of his contract.

I don't know what his employment agreement says.

Take a poll of the employees.

Does it bother you that I dj?

Well, again, anonymous.

Well, better question.

Did somebody that owns enough stock say that he.

His performance had gotten weak because of it?

Unwanted media attention.

I mean, I guarantee that conversation was not an easy one.

This man, look at him.

Suit, tie, professional as hell.

Yeah.

And, yeah, he's out DJing.

I honestly, I got to tell you, I have a huge problem with this.

I have a huge, huge problem with this because.

Not because of him.

I personally think it makes him a better CEO.

I do, too.

I think it resonates, not just because he's DJing, not just because he's more relatable.

I think the ability to set your mind free of the stresses of the job makes you come back that much more refreshed.

It's like going on vacation.

Yeah, that's right.

And then coming back and being able to do your job more effectively.

How many CEOs are doing drugs or drinking alcohol a lot.

Oh, yeah.

How many CEOs can't disconnect from who they are because they're a sociopath?

Yeah.

I mean, this man was living what I thought to be a healthy life.

What.

What if.

Hypothetical.

What if he was really into Iron Mans?

Yeah.

That's okay.

That takes way more time.

Way more time takes way more prep.

Okay.

Way more stress on the body.

You have to go do it other places.

You got to leave to go do it for a long period of time.

You're out of commission for, like, a day or two after.

Yeah.

It's incredibly taxing.

Is that not okay?

Is that okay?

That's.

That's deemed acceptable.

Why is that deemed acceptable?

I knew.

I used to know a guy.

One of the guys who was originally one of the Mind Pump co hosts, was in finance and a bodybuilder, and they treated him like he was the devil.

Who's they?

The company that he worked for in finance.

Oh.

Oh, my God.

You're a bodybuilder.

How much time are you spending in the gym?

Oh, my God.

You're not willing to go out and network because you're eating these meal preps.

You don't drink alcohol.

Right.

What are you doing?

And what are you doing in finance, man?

Are you serious?

That's the world that we live in, where you can't.

You can't choose a different lifestyle and still be in this business.

Or.

The worst part is, is I've got to keep that lifestyle a secret so that you can feel like I'm one of you.

And this is.

This is a true story.

The only thing I'll say about myself is this.

I stopped drinking alcohol, like, two years ago.

I don't even know how long it's been.

It's it been two years?

About that.

Yeah.

Maybe a year and a half, whatever it's been.

And when I go out, people, it weirds them out.

Yeah.

That I'm not.

They're like, oh, you.

You don't.

You don't drink.

Yeah.

You stop being cool.

What happened?

Yeah.

Is everything okay?

Yeah, exactly.

Did you.

Something happen?

Yeah.

How many.

How many days sober are you.

God forbid somebody see me riding a bicycle.

Oh, he got DUI, bro.

100.

Remember we used to ride the bike to the office.

People thought I got a dui.

Yeah.

People literally said so.

I used to.

For the people listening, I used to ride a bike to the office because my house is only a couple miles from the office.

And I would wear, you know, the outfit.

I come.

I had a gym membership next door to the office.

I'd shower and, you know, come upstairs.

People literally were asking me like, hey, man, you get a dui?

And I'm like, no, I just want to be healthy.

And they're like, no, come on, stop, stop.

Can we do one thing before we call it rap tonight?

Okay.

One more cough.

No, no.

I want to have Adam come in and say goodbye for us.

Oh, you would?

That would be cool.

Hey, Adam.

Adam, come on in here, man.

Come here.

No, no, we're not done.

Come on.

This is going to be on the show.

Come on.

Slide the door.

Be very careful when you open the door.

Open the door, please.

Go in there, sit next to your dad.

Come right here, bud.

I want to get you on camera.

Rajeel, tell me.

Tell me that my boy's never even been on social media.

So this is the first.

Come on, sit right here, bud.

There you go.

Sit down.

I want you to hear yourself, too.

So what I want you to do now, okay, is I want you to tell everybody, thank you for listening.

Good night, everybody.

Okay, you think you could do that into the microphone?

All right, hold on.

I want you to hear yourself say it too.

All right.

Thank you for listening.

Good night, everyone.

Bye bye.

Nicely done.