22 Oct Saturday Broadcast 21
Key topics:
✔️ ICYMI news, 10/17 – 10/21.
✔️ 1 in 4 Americans say they will skip Thanksgiving this year due to the costs. But on the same day, CNBC is telling us how great the stonk market is. Uh, is that helping any of you in any real way?
✔️”Credit reporting agency Equifax has turned its own employment record tracking tool on its own employees.” IMAGINE THAT! Corpo America using a tool against you? Why, clutch my pearls, I can’t hardly imagine such a thing. 🙄
✔️ TRAPs to trap you into not quitting a job prematurely? The only thing that surprises me about that is how surprised the general public seems to be. I mean… did you really think Corpo America wouldn’t pull some 💩 like this?
Links I mention:
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/will-holidays-bring-big-spending-5009905/
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/goldman-sachs-in-huge-reshuffle-5007825/
https://www.tastingtable.com/1056373/why-walmart-is-laying-off-almost-1500-employees/
https://tech.co/news/equifax-fires-overemployed-second-job
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/workers-handed-big-bills-for-quitting-5005297/
https://theintercept.com/2022/07/29/bank-of-america-worker-conditions-worse/
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/workers-not-too-worried-about-layoffs-6044578/
https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2022/10/18/ding-ding-ding/
https://www.bankrate.com/banking/federal-reserve/whats-next-for-great-resignation-in-a-recession/
Need more? Email me: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/contact-causey/
Siren courtesy of Pixabay.
Transcription by Otter.ai. Please forgive any typos!
Hello, Hello and thanks for tuning in. Today it is Monday, October 17. It feels very strange to think that we are already more than halfway through the month of October. Kind of crazy to me. We did finally, drumroll please. received some rain late Friday night. And then again late Saturday night, we actually had some thunderstorms. It felt so foreign to hear thunder again. It’s been so long. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s a drought buster. Things are still dry because they’ve been so dry for so long. But some rain is better than no rain. And believe me, I am grateful. Also in the realm of what’s up with this insane Oh, weather, we probably will have a hard killing freeze later this week. It’s a bit early for us here in the Midwest. And you know, there are some places farther north where Oh, yes, there are anything snowfall, and it is decidedly winter time weather for them. But down here in the lower part of the Midwest, we typically see our first killing freeze in November. So it’s a bit early so I’m Halloween yet and we’re having to like okay, better turn on the furnace, make sure everything’s working because if it’s going to be 25 degrees, then we need to be prepared for that. So the almanac may turn out to be right in the wind up, we may wind up with a cold winter with random blizzards and snow squalls. I mean, who’s to say, I do know that my animals are continuing by the day to get furrier and Wilier. So cold, cold weather is coming, winter is coming and I’m trying to do everything that I can to just be prepared for it. I am fine with cooler temperatures. I am totally done with high humidity and 100 degrees and walking outside feeling like you’re gonna burst into flames. I’m done it over it. But of course you always want to make sure especially when you’re involved in agriculture, that you’ve made appropriate provisions and you’re ready for the changing of seasons. That’s not something that you want to be blindsided by. The story came out today on PR Newswire titled one in four Americans plan to skip Thanksgiving as inflation hits the holidays. According to Personal Capital Research. We read past the cash over half of Gen Z and millennials say they’re financially stressed by Thanksgiving nearly as many planned to ask guests to help cover the cost of this year’s feast. While the majority of Americans 68% said they still plan to celebrate the holiday. They are also experiencing anxiety over the soaring expenses associated with the occasion. More than half of Gen Z 54%. And Millennials 51% say they are financially stressed by Thanksgiving this year, slightly above the general population 45% who also feel the burn. Nearly all respondents said they will be keeping gathering small making fewer dishes or asking guests to bring something to the table to keep costs down and quote, that’s if you can find everything that you need. You may be in a situation where yes, you can find the turkey or the ham and whatever other accoutrement you want to have, but it’s going to cost you. There may be other parts of the country where you try to find the things that you need, and they’re just not on the shelf. This this may be a Thanksgiving where if you plan ahead, even if for no other reason than a hedge against inflation, you might be very glad that you did. So we see this article about one in four Americans are just going to have to skip Thanksgiving this year. Now we juxtapose that with CNBC giving us this hopium Dow closes up 550 points, NASDAQ pops more than 3% as strong bank earnings boost volatile market. Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson sees a bear market rally that can lead to an 11% gain from here. Does that matter to you? Is that impacting your bottom line at all? Do you feel like you are helped in any major way today by the Dow closing up 550 points. I mean, maybe some of you do feel that way. But I just think it’s an interesting juxtaposition to see one in four Americans saying we’re just gonna have to cancel Thanksgiving this year. Everyone else saying we’re gonna have to keep the gathering small and have everyone beat BYOB to the Thanksgiving table just to be able to afford it all but fear not because looking over here at the stock market. Goldman CEO David Solomon’s latest shuffle breaks up the bank struggling consumer finance business. UK Prime Minister Liz truss faces serious pressure to resign after failed budget. I’m not sure how many days or weeks that she’s technically been in that position, but it seems awfully early for people to already be saying, don’t you think you need the wave? Over on the side panel for LinkedIn we find men over or fails to spark interest. Kill super ease. shoppers want budget close? That one is not a surprise. Goldman Sachs and huge reshuffle New England to feel Europe fuel lows. This is another reason why I say be prepared for the winter. Long, Hot Summer, followed by a winter of discontent. Here we go. Do you have some kind of backup plan in the event that you dealt with a power outage in the event that maybe you have a fireplace or wood burning stove but you can’t find firewood or wood pellets to burn in said implement? Do you have a plan B? Important to think ahead? Will holidays bring big spending? More economists see recession risk prices up despite low freight rates? Oh, I shouldn’t wonder. So when we click on will holidays bring big spending. And let’s don’t forget we have shoppers want budget clothes and then a couple of headlines down we also have will holidays bring big spending. Small businesses are cautiously stocking up for the holidays. With high inflation leading analysts to forecast a slowdown in sales. consulting firm AlixPartners says sales are expected to grow four to 7% this holiday season, that’s far below the 16% growth seen in 2021. And when combined with 8% inflation. We know it’s more than that amounts to a decrease in real sales. In an attempt to attract early shoppers and to avoid supply chain snarls. Retailers are ordering early and hoping that the post pandemic return to in person shopping will boost trading. A new report by KPMG suggests shoppers will spend more but not enough to outpace inflation. i Not really sure who they’re talking about there. I’ve been pretty clear in saying it’s going to be a clearance or at Christmas probably going to be a clearance rack thanksgiving to not that I intend to buy you know food that’s past its prime and food poison everybody that just it’s going to be a very budget conscious holiday season. I don’t see any way around that. So who are these big spenders? Well, maybe they’re the affluent people that are still going to places like our mez and Louis Vuitton and Gucci. They may be completely fine with going in a department store and using whatever the same budget is they typically have a budget and by budget I kind of mean like how when we say diet, we don’t literally mean a diet diet. We just mean eating habits, whatever kind of spending habits they go in the store with typically, they may be completely fine with. But I think for you know literally everyone else it is going to have to be a budget holiday. So will the holidays bring big spending? I doubt it. When we click on Goldman Sachs in huge reshuffle, we find Goldman Sachs is planning a significant reshuffle that would move its largest businesses into three divisions. The Wall Street Journal reports citing unnamed sources. The changes which could be announced this week would see the firm’s structure resemble its peers merging the company’s investment banking and trading arms into one asset and wealth management into another including markets, its consumer banking, art, and the financial unit would include Transaction Banking, investors have long been skeptical about the bank’s consumer arm, Bloomberg writes, and the move appears to be an attempt by chief executive David Solomon to move the business on to safer ground and, quote, watch what they do. Don’t worry so much about what they say, especially to the general public. I think it’s important to pay attention to what they say behind the scenes. What did they tear tell the shareholders, the stakeholders, the investors, the Board of Directors, the people to whom they really feel like they answer not to you and me pay attention to what they say behind closed doors to the people they don’t perceive as the commoners and peons and watch what they do. Clearly, if Goldman Sachs is reshuffling because they want to put the business on the safer ground, that tells me they know that a rough road is ahead of us and they want to be positioned as well as they can be to weather the storm. Today is Tuesday, October 18. Before I get into headlines specific for the day, I want to talk about a few important job market related headlines. In the San Diego Union Tribune we read it’s time to say so long to inflated wages. Bom bom bom BA, we read. Aren’t we happy about the fact that 263,000 More Americans got new jobs in August, or that national unemployment dropped to 3.5%. That’s why it concerns me that the goal of the Federal Reserve a respected institution seems to prefer A rising unemployment rate. Instead, shouldn’t we encourage going back to work and encourage more saving not spending as a way to tame inflation. A recent survey by Forbes and PwC showed major employers that earlier work desperate to hire and retain talent are now considering layoffs and hiring freezes. At the same time, businesses are dealing with labor shortages, labor shortage, shortages that have been causing increased pay and benefits wage inflation to attract more candidates. Now, some are taking steps to reduce their headcount. All right, cue up the hype man. Sara was right yet again. If you read my blog with any frequency, or you tune into this podcast with any frequency, none of that should really be a surprise to you. I have warned you ahead of time, that things like pay cuts, layoffs, and hiring freezes were happening. These fluff and puff pieces that want to tell you layoffs are not going to happen in q4 People are still doing great. All of these people are still flushed with cash and they’re still spending and everything’s sunshine and roses. I would be very careful believing that. As I’ve used the analogy before, they may not be trotting this information out on Front Street, but they’re not exactly hiding it either. We also learn that Walmart is laying off almost 1500 employees. I’ll read from this article for you now. Nobody expects neighborhood Walmart stores to suddenly disappear. But the Walmart global tech department has big projects in mind. ones that have now entered the Fast Track including a major shift in the Atlanta workforce. According to Reuters and confirmed by Walmart 1458 people employed at the company’s Fulton Parkway, ecommerce Fulfillment Center in Atlanta will lose their jobs in the coming weeks and months. workers received notification at the end of August and retail dive notes that the layoffs will be completed by December 2 2022. And quote so much for that economist that said she just didn’t think that we would have layoffs in q4, everything was just going to be okay. Like Larry David birthday birthday party together. Okay, sure. Also worth noting, because we have these, in my opinion, inflated, manipulated numbers about the job market, all of these supposedly freshly added new jobs, low unemployment rate, blah, blah, blah, who believes that crap anymore. It’s worth noting, Equifax fires 24 employees for working a second job. Now I am not an attorney. So I cannot speak to the legality of this. Does it vary by state? Is this something that would be a federal violation to fire someone for having a second job? I don’t know. I would love to see somebody like attorney Ryan, who’s gotten very vocal in the quiet quitting movement, I would love to see him step up and weigh in on this issue, because I’m just not sure how you could tell someone what to do when they’re off the clock. There just seems like that that is overstepping the bounds in so many ways. But I want to bring this to your attention because there are so many people right now who are working second, third, fourth jobs. So part of what’s happening in my opinion with these inflated bogus BS numbers that we’re getting about this supposedly still red hot labor market all there are all these jobs and look at how many new jobs people got. Some of those jobs are going to literally the same people. Meaning Sally Sue may have a full time job that she started in March of this year. And then she may have a second full time job that she picked up in September to try to make ends meet. But it’s still Sally. It’s not like somebody else other than Sally took that job. And all of these people are just flush with cash. People are having to do what they have to do to weather the storm. So in this article about Equifax, we read, the company surveilled workers with its own service, a database of millions of us worker employment records and paychecks, so that’s effing terrifying. credit reporting agency, Equifax has turned its own employment record tracking tool on its own employees will kill Sopris. Imagine that. Imagine that. Imagine that these beneficent, huge companies might surveil you and then use that information against you. Clutch my pearls. Have you ever heard of something so crazy? Why it’s just unbelievable, except it’s not. The result. 24 remote workers have been fired. For secretly holding down a second job in addition to their work for Equifax, the phenomenon of workers who hold two jobs at the same time, the quote over employed has recently shot into the public eye. One worker claimed on Reddit that he held five jobs simultaneously and was set to make $1.2 million for the year. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But while we will, we will. To stop workers from bucking the system Equifax relied on employment records collected from around 2.5 million companies in a move that opens up a conversation about workplace surveillance in addition to the question of secret second jobs, and quote, yeah, this just gives me such a headache. It really does. I mean, I understand why people want to buck the system, because the system has been so brutal to the little guy. You know, those of us who are not Wall Street fat cats and corporate bankers, we’re not hedge fund managers, for billionaires, we don’t sit on the web. Just your average working class person is at such a disadvantage against these huge behemoths. I get it. At the same time, I will tell you as an old, crusty old introvert slash Gen X or who grew up thank God before social media, I just do not get the absolute fascination that the young pups seem to have with putting every blessing detail of their lives, on the social media, websites. Everything does not need to be a tick tock. All you’re doing is giving people more information to punish you with you’re essentially cobbling together the club that they’re going to use to beat you over the head. I don’t I don’t understand that at all. If someone were an over employee, let’s use their term over employed w two employee that said, Alright, from eight to five, I’ll work this job. And then from five until midnight, I’ll work another job. And then I’ll sleep and I’ll get up and do it again. I don’t feel like that’s anybody’s business. First of all, that’s your business, not anybody else’s business. But second of all, why do you feel the need to make a tick tock about it? Or if you’re really going to try to game the system, and you’re going to sit there and work two jobs simultaneously from eight to five, where you’ve got one laptop over here and one laptop over there, and you’re trying to just make sure that you juggle all the plates appropriately for your shift. Why would you make a tick tock about that? I saw some kid not long ago, I mean, I say kid, I don’t know the older you get people from about 35 and younger might as well be high school kids to you, it happens to the best of us. So just get ready. This kid whoever, however old he was sitting and doing exactly that, here’s laptop for company A here’s laptop for Company B and I’ll just sit here and do what I have to do until five o’clock when I slammed both of the laptop shut. And I’m like, Why? Why would you put that on a tick tock or on Instagram? Why would you do that? What part of that in your mind seems like a good idea. I think some of these people, here’s another prediction alert. Some of these people are going to cloud Chase themselves right into the poor house. I hate to sound like such a pessimist. I do. But it’s like the old expression in Vegas, the house always wins. You may be up for a few hands, you may hit the jackpot every now and then. But at the end of the day, the house always wins. And I feel like that’s how it is with corporate America. They have so much more power they have so much more money that if you are going to try to game the system and do what you feel that you need to do to survive. I don’t know for me personally, that I wouldn’t want to advertise my sneaky maneuvers on social media for all the world to see. Just my opinion and I could be wrong but I kind of feel like that’s probably the last freaking thing that you would want to do. Over on CNBC, we have headlines today such as dow closes up more than 300 points as strong earnings boost stocks in choppy market rarely humbled Goldman concedes, missteps and plan to take on mega banks in retail finance. Rolls Royce says it already has hundreds of us orders for its $413,000 specter EV who that is a lot to even contemplate. Meanwhile over on MSN if you click on markets insider you’ll see a headline Jeremy Siegel warns home prices are about to suffer their second worst crash since World War Two amid Fed rate hikes. The little TLDR bullet points tell us Jeremy Siegel warned home prices will post the second worst crash since World War Two in the next 12 months. He told CNBC that the Federal Reserve’s aggressive tightening is hitting rate sensitive sectors of the economy. Diggle said fears that the central bank will keep rates higher for longer are spooking the markets. There may be some deals out there to be had if you’re patient if you’re able to wait. Now, as I’ve said before, I think sometimes these commentators are not factoring in situations of true urgency. You may have a sick parent that you need to relocate to take care of you may be in a high crime area, you may be afraid for your life in some place that you’re living. So I mean, sometimes trying to sit on the sidelines and wait for ideal economic circumstances just may not be an option. But if you are in a position where you can wait and just be primed and ready to get a good deal, those good deals may be coming. Because contrary to what some of these Sharky brokers and realtors are trying to convince people of I don’t believe it’s just totally impossible that we could have another 2008 We’re just seeing too much evidence to the contrary. Over on Yahoo Finance, we find stocks gain for a second straight session as earnings roll in housing. How much higher can mortgage REITs go? I don’t think I want to really know the question to the answer to that question. Honestly. There’s also the possibility that oil will go back up to more than $120 per barrel. Interesting. Another headline we find on Yahoo Finance Gary Cohn on inflation relief, we’re going to have to see job destruction. Gary Cohn, IBM vice chairman and former chief economic adviser to President Donald Trump warned that significant job losses are necessary to get inflation under control. Sounds like the narrative the Feds pushing, doesn’t it? We’re going to have to see job destruction, if we’re really going to see inflation be curtailed. Cohn said during an interview with Yahoo finances all markets summit on Monday, wow, then we have this little graphic that tells us that annual inflation rate has decelerated to 8.2%. Sure it has, then we get more of the same hopium that unemployment is at 3.5%. And there’s still more open jobs and workers available to fill with a little. We see this chart with the sprite colors on it. yellow represents job openings. Green represents hires, as you can probably imagine, the job openings are way up, the number of people getting hired is way down. So we’re just continuing to push this narrative. They again go back to the Feds projections of a 4.4 to 5% unemployment rate and 2023. And to that, I say, Okay, if they’re willing to admit to that, How bad will it really be? Because I don’t personally think unemployment is at 3.5 or 3.7%. Right now. So if we’re being told 4.4 to 5% unemployment rate next year, as you know, a million or two people lose their jobs and everyone else who’s working, sees their wages go stagnant. How bad will it really be? Too today, it is Wednesday, October 19. on CNBC, we have headlines such as NASDAQ falls 1%, as rising yields put pressure on stocks, treasury yields could be peaking soon and that could ease some pressure on stocks. sphc liquidations top $12 billion this year as sponsors grapple with tough market and new buyback tax. Here’s what the Wells Fargo cross selling scandal means for the bank’s growth. If we click on that, we find the US government has determined that Wells Fargo executives created conditions that produced mass scale fraudulent activity in the 2010s. The bank’s growth is capped just under $2 trillion on orders from the Federal Reserve. The cross selling scandal at Wells Fargo is a notorious example of the power of American banks. According to legal scholars, Wells Fargo is one of the oldest and most powerful banks in the United States. Its reputation today is in tatters, following a notorious scandal that is still unfolding. Reports of fraudulent activity in Wells Fargo’s sales department first surfaced in 2013, the bank opened at least 3.5 million fraudulent accounts for unwitting customers, according to researchers at the Harvard Business School, this and other issues have led the government to find the bank repeatedly. Regulators for banking, consumer protection trading and workplace safety continue to keep a close watch on Wells Fargo. The bank says it’s working to comply with a barrage of consent orders issued by the government dating back to 2016. In addition to fines, Wells Fargo has faced a cap on its assets issued by the Federal Reserve in 2018. And quote, what’s really going to happen there? Is anybody going to see any jail time there’s anything significant really going to happen? I will doubt it. If this has been playing out since 2013, and now it’s 2022 to use the phrase du jour Come on man. We also see stocks snap two day winning streak as 10 year yield hits highest level since 2008. Whoo. There’s that magical year again got to be so careful about comparing anything to 2008. The Bots, the trolls and the mansplain errs will come out and tell us that we could just never have another 2008 Meanwhile, looks around at everything on fire right now. It’s like, I’m pretty sure we could. Over on Yahoo Finance we find Bank of America CEO says the American Zoomer is resilient. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan is bullish on the American consumer. hmm. Mm hmm. Rob, right. So this is the same Bank of America that had a leaked memo that said we want power to go away from the worker and the job seeker and go run on back to corporate America, saying Bank of America that also predicts we’re gonna see, like 175,000 jobs lost per month throughout 2023. But somehow, also, the hot air hopium that we’re getting in a more public fashion is the American consumer is resilient. We’re not having to dig for that information. It’s right up here front and center. A picture of a woman walking with some packages on her arm in front of a department store with some nice dresses in the window. The Bank of America CEO says the American consumer is resilient. Right, right, right, of course. Sure. Right. Okay. Stock slide yields rise as investors pour over corporate earnings. Tesla earnings preview is all about demand. Generac stocks sink after slashing its full year outlook. Housing starts slide has much further to run. Yeah, I don’t doubt that. I’m trying to do as best I can. What Orlando suggests about sitting out with purpose. You don’t have to be passive. You don’t have to just stare at the wall and watch paint dry. You can keep an eye on the markets, clean up your financial side of the street and be ready to roll when the time comes. Because I’m ready. It sucks to have to defer your dreams. But at the same time, it sucks to be house poor. It sucks to have to eat ramen noodles and work 90 hours a week. That’s if you can find 90 hours a week to work. If we’re going to be shedding all these jobs come 2023 I would not want to be in a place that I couldn’t afford. That’s just that is too big a price to pay. That’s too scary. I can’t tell anybody else what to do. Just speaking solely for myself and my family. I wouldn’t want to be left holding the bag on some overpriced poopoo house. No, thank you. We also see from the Bank of America CEO Fed rate hikes could boost bank profits. Well, how do you do? Isn’t that something? I imagined that gosh, wow. I mean, I’m sure we don’t have crony capitalism in this country. I mean, you know, surely we don’t. But gosh, you know, it’s almost like the government really looks out for these Wall Street fat cats and these corporate raiders. I mean, but surely that couldn’t be the case, right. Over on the side panel for LinkedIn, we find companies look to the future of work. Amazon’s astonishing worker churn, Amazon aims to disrupt insurance. Biden set to tap oil reserves. Oh, I’m sure. You know, I’ve said before that I feel like the little downturn that we had in gas prices was because we were rating the strategic petroleum reserves. Yes, I’m sure there was also some decreased demand for fuel. People may have said, we’re not going to take a road trip this summer. We’re just going to kind of chill out here at the house. I get that. But I really think it was less about decreased demand and more about us rating the reserves. Hello. You know, I reported many times that I wasn’t seeing like tumbleweeds and crickets. It wasn’t like the times that I would go out to go to the feed store or go to the grocery store by necessity items. It wasn’t like, Ah, where is everybody? Did the apocalypse happen? There’s no cars on the road. No, there were people out and about there were people driving. There were people putting expensive gasoline and their lawn mowers and cutting the grass. So I find it really hard to believe that the prices went down solely due to a decrease in demand. Sorry, don’t buy it. I just don’t think that that’s the case. So is it surprising to me that he’s going to tap the oil reserves? No. We’re going to keep this economic jalopy going to the midterms and in my opinion You know, I’m politically agnostic. On this podcast, the most that I will say is I don’t think there’s a dimes worth a difference between the two major parties, we have to try to hold our nose and choose between when it’s time, regardless of who wins and who loses. I don’t think there’s going to be that much difference. I think at some point, the wheels are going to come flying off of this economic jalopy that we’re driving and we’ll finally be allowed to know who were in bad shape. Twas ever thus. Work From Home saves 60 million commuting hours. Yet these idiot bosses can’t wait for you to be back button seat in the cube farm. Now there was another headline earlier today. Fortunately, I saved it because it suddenly disappeared. And it’s titled workers handed big bills for quitting. In the blurb we read. A growing number of companies are demanding that employees who quit paid back 1000s of dollars in training costs. Reuters reports nearly 10% of American workers were covered by training, repayment agreement provisions aka traps. God what’s in a name? Plus Try saying that five times fast training repayment agreement provisions traps in 2020. According to the Cornell Survey Research Institute, with firms and sectors such as trucking, beauty, retail and healthcare using the practice, advocates say traps may prevent skilled workers from seeking new and better paying jobs. And now federal and state level authorities are starting to review the agreements and quote, well, I’m sure it surprises me. How many like John and Jane Q Public individuals are surprised by this? I mean, how could you not see something like this coming? I’m gonna harp on that leaked memo as often as I can. They have already said they want the power to go away from the average employee, the average job seeker, they want that balance of power to go back to corporate America. Remember the Wayne pack rats email, with Applebee’s and all that we want to be the top of mind when these workers that are having to work more than one job when they’re looking at their schedules. We want them deprioritize us, we know that they’re going to have to come on back whenever gas prices, squeeze them. Hello. None of this is hidden. None of this is buried. I don’t know how somebody could be surprised by this. If you think for even one second, that Wall Street fat cats and corporate raiders and the billionaires and all these two dues give a damn about you. If you think that they won’t do whatever is necessary to maintain a balance of power on their side of the street. I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t personally find this surprising at all. Not at all. I feel like if you couldn’t see this coming from a mile down the road. Where have you been? Where have you been? When we click on the report that Reuters put out, we find more US companies charging employees for job training if they quit in the article when a Washington State beauty salon charged Simran ball $1,900 for training after she quit she was shocked. Not only it was Ball A licensed esthetician with no need for instruction. She argued that the trainings were specific to the shop and to low quality ball story mirrors that of dozens of people and advocates in healthcare, trucking, retail and other industries, who complained recently to US regulators that some companies charge employees who quit large sums of money for training. nearly 10% of American workers surveyed and 2020 were covered by a training repayment agreement, said the Cornell Survey Research Institute. The practice which critics call training repayment agreement provisions or traps, is drawing scrutiny from US regulators and lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Senator Sherrod Brown is studying legislative options with an eye toward introducing a bill next year to rein in the practice of Senate Democratic aide set at the state level Attorney General like Minnesota’s Keith Ellison are assessing how prevalent the practice is, and could update guidance and quote, we’ll see. Would I bet my life on it? No. Because again, I think that we have pretty open collusion between the state and corporate America. And I think ultimately, if corporate America wants to have these provisos in place, they’re gonna make the argument for it. mean hello again, if you can’t see this coming from a mile down the road, I don’t know what to tell you. Because they’re gonna say, look at the great resignation. Look at how many people hippity hopped all across the mark. Get look at all of the money that we spent. Look at the hours and the energy that we invested in somebody who worked for us for one week and then bailed. I can remember in my early days of staffing, obviously, I’m not gonna drop any names. But it’s like, I had to watch this series of videos. And they were appallingly bad. Honestly, I would say that in my early days, when I had no idea what the hell I was doing, my training was abhorrent. When it wasn’t non existent. When it wasn’t non existent, it was abhorrent and laughable. I really did not get some traction until I went to a more professional trainer who actually knew what he was doing, and knew how to explain it to me in very clear terms, so that I understood the why I’m the type of person and you know, I don’t know if it’s just my temperament if it’s an INFJ thing, but it’s like, you have to tell me the why. Like, don’t just say, like, You’re barking out an order at me ABCD EFG? Go do it. Like, okay, but why? Like, could we build a better mousetrap here? See, this is one of the reasons why I rag on standardized tests and how I called myself a Frasier Crane. Okay, and we can rule A out, B is very possible. C is very possible, I could make a case for D, I could just sit there for an hour and agonize over that stuff. Who Would that it were not so but that’s just how my brain is. And like, whenever somebody would just be like, well, you need to pick up the phone and do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, okay, but why? Like, what’s, what’s the reasoning behind it? So it drove me bonkers to have people just be like, well, you need to do this, or you need to do that or just walk away and like, not teach me anything at all. So it was nice when I got hooked up with somebody in the industry who could actually say, Okay, you should do it this way. And here’s why. That helped me tremendously. But so I had to go through this training. And I’m using air quotes here, because really, training is not the appropriate word for it. I shit you not sorry for the profanity. I couldn’t think of any nicer way to say it. I show you not that I had to sit at a console and watch DVDs from 90s. So they were already out of date. By the time that I sat down, and I was watching them like 11 or 12 years ago, they were already out of date then. And they were made somewhere in Britain, I guess. Because everybody had a British accent. And so it was like this, these garish videos of people being like, Hey, do you want a job today? Hello, I’m calling you from ABC recruiting firm. And I was just wondering, like, are you looking for work today? Maybe because I might have something for you. Just bad, and I learned nothing from it. So like if I had quit, which believe me in those early days, I was like, Oh, God, I think I made a terrible mistake. If I had quit, you know, after being forced to watch really awful videos from the 1990s, and someone had sent me a bill for it like, well, you owe us $500 For sitting there and watching these 1990s videos on a console. I would be pissed. Just being honest here because I’m going like, What the hell did I get out of that? Absolutely nothing. I mean, I get it, I can I can see where a company would say, hey, look, we invested this time and money in you, and then you bailed on us, I can see where the employee would be like, well, then that’s your problem. You’re the employer, not me, especially when we’re talking about at will state because at will employment has really taken away any kind of rights of the employee to say, you can’t just treat me this way or you can’t just fire me willy nilly mean at will employment, ipso facto refers to this idea that you can be fired for any reason or no reason at all. Likewise, you can quit for any reason or no reason at all. So I don’t I don’t know where the dice will fall in this situation. But I have to imagine that probably any kind of regulations they try to put on these so called traps will probably not have much teeth. Because again, I think corporate America will make the argument we spent all this time we spent all this money. These people job hopped relentlessly they bailed on us we have to do something to protect ourselves. I don’t see any way around them making that argument to try to keep these traps in place. Anyone out there who’s looking for work, you just have to caveat him tour. I myself would not sign anything that says especially in an at will employment situation. I myself personally would not sign anything that said I have to pay back money. If I decide this is not working out for me and I leave. I can’t tell you what to do. All I can do is speak for myself and say that’s really not something that I would feel comfortable putting my signature on. Today it is Thursday, October 20. interesting day interesting news cycle. on CNBC. We have headlines such as stocks closed lower for second day as Treasury yields continue to march to new highs. Feds Harker sees lack of progress on inflation expects aggressive rate hikes. I don’t think that should come as a surprise to anyone. I don’t think any of us are feeling a sense of progress on the issue of inflation. And I don’t think anybody should be surprised that more rate hikes are in the future. Unfortunately, I think this situation is going to get worse before it gets any better. David Einhorn says he’s bearish because the Feds policy is to make the stock market go down. Well, yeah, David, they’ve also said that they want to make the job market go down too. So buckle up and get ready. existing home sales fall to a 10 year low in September as mortgage rates soar. Yeah, so Orlando miner has a great video out warning about the perils of the arm mortgage, I put that really in the same category as the ninja loans, no income, no job or assets. But here it takes some of this money. And of course, anytime that you start talking about arms, they’re dangerous. Be really careful and make sure you know what you’re doing before you even think about getting one. You’re gonna have trolls, bots and mansplain errs as well as probably just freaking idiots who pop up and try to be a naysayer. I believe there are some people that would just argue with a fence post. I’m not a financial planner or advisor. I’m not a mortgage broker. I’m not a real estate agent, I cannot tell you what to do. I myself would be extremely careful about anything that seems to be too good to be true. And I would definitely not take advice from some kind of phantom on the internet. There’s one in particular that always seems to pop up like a bad penny. I really don’t know why this bot troll corporate shill? Is it even human? I don’t know. Is it just a moron? I don’t know. I’m not sure why this entity, whoever it is, has not been banned. Because all they do is put out bullcrap and misinformation. I mean, if these social media outlets and content creators were really serious about getting rid of misinformation, and bots, and trolls and scam artists, I would think this particular individual would be high on my list to get rid of. But be careful, Caveat emptor, I was there through this last rodeo the last time we had a housing bubble and it popped, I would not have wanted to be holding the bag on one of those adjustable rate mortgages or some kind of balloon payment or a jumbo mortgage. I cannot tell you what to do. All I can say is that for me personally, that would have been a freaking nightmare. You also want to make sure that you’re doing good research about what does a person have to qualify for? What’s the criteria involved to do a refi. I mean, again, just only speaking for myself, that’s all I can do. I cannot tell you what to do or give you advice. If I had to pick my poison, if I had to choose between grossly overpaying, but having like a two and a half percent interest rate, which let’s face it, that’s what a lot of people did last summer, versus having a higher interest rate. But getting a house or a property at a bargain basement price, I myself would rather get a bargain basement price and have less risk of being upside down. Yes, the possibility exists to do a refi later. But I do not claim to know the ins and outs of how to do that. What I have always been told is that a lot of people think if they buy at a high interest rate than doing a refi later is like a magic bullet. But there’s more to it than that. So make sure that you do your own due diligence, do your own research and use good Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. Because these real estate agents, these brokers, the people who are there to, you know more than happily help you with the deal while it’s in progress, and they have a commission on the line. They disappear after you’ve closed on it and the keys are yours and it’s your responsibility. They go now they might send you a fruit basket or a gift card to someplace like pottery barn or Pier One. And they’ll ask you for referrals but they’re not going to help you make that payment. And if they feel like you’re pestering them, they’ll just block you or they’ll change their phone number and that’s the end of it. So you have to look out for yourself. Again, just speaking solely for myself. I would rather get something at a bargain basement price, but the interest rate is maybe a little bit crappy because I did that before I myself Have Been there and done that I did that back in 2007. I got a house where the bones were good. Nothing else really was it was filthy dirty, it had been rode hard and put up wet. And as I’ve said before, I’m thinking back on it, I believe my interest rate was like seven or seven and a half percent. So this is not my first rodeo with a high interest rate. But the awesome thing about it was after I rehabilitated the house, I got everything cleaned up and looking nice. Several years later, when I was ready to move, I was in better shape because I wasn’t upside down. The house had appreciated enough in value, that I was not up poops creek without a paddle. So for me speaking solely for myself, I feel like if I have to pick my poison, that’s the way that I would rather go, I would not holy God and heaven, I would not want to be sitting here in the middle of whatever this economic crap storm is about to be. I wouldn’t want to be sitting there with a place I didn’t even like you look at all of these stories about buyer’s remorse, a place I didn’t even like that i grossly overpaid for Okay, I got it at a two and a half percent interest rate but I hate it and now nobody’s willing to take it off my hands. Use your own best judgment, do some good research. Don’t get caught up in the moment. Be able to figure out that right balance between your head and your heart. I can’t tell you what to do. I just think critical thinking and using good judgment won’t steer you in the wrong direction. We also find threat of rail strike has supply chain managers ramping up contingency plans. Tesla shares slide after q3 revenue Miss Bernstein says earnings call didn’t sit well with us. Over on Yahoo Finance it’s a very similar saying stocks fall yields moved toward multi year highs as economic jitters outweigh solid earnings results. So are they are their earnings results disappointing or in a solid? To me this kind of sounds like more of the typical blame game. Oh, this is just all your fault for having economic jitters. Meanwhile, how could you not what sane rational person couldn’t feel that way right now? I mean, let’s get real. existing home sales dropped for eight straight month. Mortgage rates inched closer to 7% remain at 20 year high. analyst says Musk’s lofty Tesla projection, quite a bit of a stretch. All right. Now we also have a headline, X Walmart Executive Mark lor, we’re Laurie, I’m not sure explains why now is the time to disrupt the food industry. Now. I have reported before that I’m hearing whispers on the wind. I can’t verify it independently. So I’m not going to sit out here and say like, here are some links, you can go to research this for yourself. I’m just gonna say, excuse me. My voice is trying to crack. I’m just going to say whispers on the wind. Maybe this is accurate. Maybe it’s not I’m not sure. But I have heard that. We will have less in person shopping and more delivery. Is that the wave of the future? I’m not sure. Let’s get into this. When you want to disrupt an industry and I hate that term disrupt disrupter, hasn’t that been used to death. When you want to disrupt an industry timing matters, serial entrepreneur, Marc lore, or Laurie would know in 2016. Laura’s jet was famously acquired by Walmart for three point 3,000,000,006 years prior his diapers.com sold to Amazon for $545 million. When he began his career as an E commerce innovator. His latest venture wonder is all about rethinking a very different industry food. If you think about the last innovation and food you have to go back to the fast food franchises in the 1950s. He told Yahoo Finance after his talk this week at Tech Crunch Disrupt McDonald’s Burger King Kentucky Fried Chicken and Wendy’s all of these fast food chains boomed at the same time. I think the country was ready for it the timing has to be right. Wonder is a food delivery startup co founded by ex Walmart exec Scott Hilton and Lor who serves as chairman and CEO of Wonder group, the company which came out of stealth mode in 2021, close to $350 million funding round earlier this year. That brought wonders total amount of debt and equity raise to $900 million. The company’s valuation in June accordingly shook out to $3.5 billion. According to The Wall Street Journal, wonder has often been described as a cross between ghost kitchen and food truck. Why does Laura say he’s confident that model can work? In part it’s because our relationship to food and time has evolved since the Fit The days when fast food became popular and quote, does this point to the whispers on the wind perhaps being accurate? If we are getting ready to move to this idea of like ghost kitchen and food truck where everything is delivery, everything’s on demand. You don’t go and shop you don’t go in. It’s just brought to you. This could be further evidence of that. I’m not sure I’ll let you decide for yourself. If we go over to the side panel for LinkedIn news, we just see a treasure trove of insanity. UK Prime Minister trust resigns after six weeks. So I think back to some of the earlier broadcasts where it seemed like one world leader after another after another was just resigning. So many shakeups. I don’t know what to make of this, but six weeks on the job is not very much. So far as I know this is the shortest tenure that a prime minister in the UK has ever had. Something is definitely up with that. skirt is two way student loan relief workers not too worried about layoffs. Wow. Big if true. Mortgage Debt fears amid finance woes. JP Morgan offers early payday deposits I reconcile because you’re probably gonna need it. Home demand is high, even after N What didn’t we just read another headline that said that home sales have dipped for their eighth straight months and then here we are being told on freaking LinkedIn of all places that home demand is high even after an WTF mate. luxury goods appear recession proof we have because people that are out there buying that have money to spend they’re not worried. If we click on workers not too worried about layoffs we read when it comes to current economic conditions, unease about inflation is everywhere. 85% of US workers are anxious about fast rising consumer prices, while only 31% report feeling concerned that their company might be planning budget cuts or layoffs. According to LinkedIn workforce Confidence Survey, inflation is at a 41 year high. And while many economists expect it to moderate next year, that’s scant consolation to people coping with rising costs right now. Individuals who can hold on to their jobs in a recession, as most do may feel insulated. From the economic troubles affecting others reports LinkedIn editor at large George Anders in quote. Yeah. Well, I’ve said before the old yarn that when the guy down the road loses his job, it’s a recession when you lose yours. It’s a depression. I get that. This idea that, you know, most people are going to hold on to their jobs in a recession. Oh, sure. Sure, sure. When I was still doing my Patreon channel, I told the story over there about Professor cows grandpa. So I went to master cattlemen school and master grazer school. I affectionately call the cow college, and I affectionately called the instructor Professor cow wasn’t his real name, obviously. But he told us a story that I have never forgotten. And I will never forget it. And I will relay it to you now. His grandfather was a farmer and rancher during the Great Depression. And he had a farmhand, who worked with him and was like the full time farm and ranch help. That was more common back in that time than it is now. Unfortunately, trying to find good competent farm and ranch help is very difficult. Indeed. Another topic for another time. The Depression hit, it was really difficult to make ends meet, a lot of people were out of work. A lot of people had scarcity, you really did have to make do or do without. And so Professor cows, Grandpa got to a point where he could not afford to pay the farm hand. He essentially said, you can live here, and I’ll take care of you, I will feed you, but I cannot pay you a salary things are just too tight and there’s no money. So the guy said, Well, I think I’m going to ride the rails and test fate. There has to be somebody somewhere with money. He sort of had this same cavalier attitude, if you will, that I see in this article of well, most people are not worried most people are going to keep their jobs. They’re going to be insulated from economic troubles. With all due respect editor at large. I call BS on that. I already think that we’re in a recession right now. So if we are all these these economists and CEOs, they’re saying there’s a 100% chance of a recession next year, how the F bad isn’t going to be if it’s a recession with terrible inflation right now. What are we in for next year a depression That’s entirely possible Please do not get normalcy bias or this idea of American exceptionalism that it could just never happen to us. Yeah, it could. Yes, it could. So this guy gets on the rails and he’s gone for like a year, Professor cows, Grandpa keeps on keeping on doing the best that he can. A year later, this guy shows up again, almost unrecognizable. Professor cows Grandpa said that he was wearing the same clothes that he left in, but they were caked in dirt and everything was threadbare. He was lean and gaunt, and filthy dirty. So he comes back after riding the rails, and he tells Professor cows, Grandpa, I have been all over this country, north, south, east, west, back around again multiple times, I have looked and I have looked and I have looked. And unfortunately, no, there is no one with money. I couldn’t get hired to do much of anything. So I’m coming back to you. Now, with my hat in my hand, I wish that I had stayed, but I had to go out there and just see what it was like. And I’m willing to stick with you. If you’ll stick with me, then I’ll stick with you through this hard time. The only thing I want his food, and a new pair of blue jeans, all sleep out in the barn. You don’t have to pay me or provide me with anything else. But if you’ll feed me, and you’ll buy me a new pair of blue jeans, since the ones I have are falling apart. I’m your man. I’m here with you. And I’ll do whatever I have to do to survive and to stick with you. Professor Powell said it’s a deal. So he gave him room and board and he was able to go and buy him a new shirt and a new pair of blue jeans so that he had clothes that weren’t falling apart and caked in dirt anymore. And he stayed with him throughout the depression and then some. So we have to be very careful of this idea that well, I mean, if you have a job, you’re probably going to be just fine. There’s no reason to worry about it. Most people are going to be doing great. They’re going to be insulated from economic troubles affecting others know, if you’re sitting there thinking that I would be extremely careful with that level of normalcy, bias and naivete. I really would. And if it’s true if their survey is a good indicator of the rest of the country, which who knows if it is or it’s not. If it’s true that only 31% of people report feeling concerned that their company might be planning budget cuts or layoffs. What in the hell? What What would you be doing? What are you smoking? What are you taking? What are you imbibing? What are you doing? Are you that far in denial? I mean, what’s going on? I think it’s so important right now to have a job loss survival plan. As I’ve said before, even Suze Orman has said, why don’t you go ahead and assume that you’re laid off and then start to wargame out your strategy. I would absolutely not want to assume there’s just no way I would be working for a company that’s planning a budget cut or a layoff. I mean, to me, that’s insane. Now it’s about time to cue up the hype man again, because over on bankrate.com We have the article on not so great resignation. Workers who found a better paying role feel less job security as recession fears rise all the time. In the article we read, The US job market felt like a party coming out of the pandemic for workers at least. Record quits and job openings coupled with the biggest labor shortage in almost a century gave employees the bargaining power to Job hop and advocate for higher pay and remote work. But volatile markets, souring sentiment, the highest borrowing costs in more than a decade and a slowing economy all risks coming to a crash it the question now whether the workers who took advantage of the hot job market could head into a possible recession better off. A recent bank rate survey suggests the ones who partook in the so called Great resignation of workers might be the ones feeling the most anxiety about their future employment status. More than half or 56% of those who found a new better paying job say they’re worried about their job security with 19% saying they’re very worried. fears about facing a future bout of unemployment are twice as high as those who stayed put at their company and got a pay raise 28% About two and five working Americans or 39% are worried about their job security, regardless of whether they switched companies according to bank rate survey. Well, here we go time time to dust him off and bring him out. Sarah was right yet again. As I’ve said on my blog and on this podcast, I feel like for white collar knowledge workers for office workers the great resignation is toast. It is done. Hospitality fast Food and labor retail, is it still going on? Probably. So those are typically churn and burn high turnover rate industries anyway, so that really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. But I’m in the trenches everyday folks. And whenever I’m running a staffing or recruiting project, this time of the year tends to be tricky anyway, because a lot of people have already requested their PTO. They’re thinking about the holidays. They don’t want to rock the boat too much in q4. But it’s especially difficult right now to get someone on the telephone to get someone to answer an email, not only because of q4, and finally getting to travel, see grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, and all that after the restrictions have been lifted. But also there’s so much economic uncertainty. Now we’re getting differing numbers, we’ve got LinkedIn telling us only 31% of people are nervous bank rate is, I guess, slightly more optimistic, saying 39% of people are worried. I don’t know. What’s the actual true number? I don’t know. I hope that more people wake up. And as they do, there’s this sense of like, wait a minute, let’s don’t be hasty. Let’s don’t go from the frying pan into the furnace. A lot of people are familiar with the phrase the last one hired as the first one fired. That’s not always true in every circumstance. But I think more people are saying, wait a minute, wait just a minute, I don’t want to leave something that’s really not too bad, to try to chase money or chase another opportunity. And then what happens if I’m in the first round of layoffs, what happens if I leave and then I get pink slipped? And I find out that had I stayed at least I’d still have a job. I think these are important things to consider. As always, I cannot give you advice and I cannot tell you what to do. You’re in the belly of the beast, you understand what your situation is? Like? Are you happy? Are you miserable? Do you feel safe? Do you not feel safe? Those are only questions that you can answer for yourself. I’m just kind of standing back as a spectator, saying, I know what it’s like trying to contact candidates to try to get them interested or find out if they’re interested. They’re like, No, not right now. No, thank you. So in my mind, this idea of Oh, the great resignation is gonna last forever. No, of course it’s not. It’s already done and over with for white collar knowledge work. And I think some of the people who may have hippity hop a little too much are starting to get worried now. That’s not a judgment. I understand. The point I really want to make here is what I’ve said before the house always wins. If you thought that corporate America was just going to sit back and take their medicine forever. I’m not really sure what to tell you. Today, it is Friday, October 21. And it is a TGIF kind of Friday. It is so dry here in the Midwest. Like even though we had some rains. It was not a drought buster. I wish it had been but Holy smokes. It is 88 degrees. It is 88 degrees. With a hot wind, it feels like you’re in a closed dryer. Meanwhile, earlier this week, we had a hard killing freeze. It was like 22 or 23 degrees overnight. And then the next night I think it was around 30 We had to turn the furnace on for the first time in quite a while. It’s crazy to think about it being that cold and then now it’s 88 degrees and it feels like you’re in the middle of a closed dryer. Also, I’d started having nosebleeds and I discovered that the humidifier had finally just given up. So to go to Walgreens get another humidifier, and to put down more money for it than I was expecting to thanks inflation. But it has been a godsend, truly. So even though I spent a little bit more money on it than I really wanted to, and started to improve the nosebleeds. And I’m really grateful for that. My sinuses and allergies have just been something of a nightmare. But who can be surprised like we still have a bunch of ragweed, it’s incredibly dry. A lot of things have started to die off after that killing freeze. But then now it’s 88 degrees and it feels like hell. This is crazy. So also in the category of Midwestern craziness. I’m starting to see more and more McMansions coming on the market. These like three, four or 5000 square foot houses. And I find that really interesting. So I had a broker tell me that he expects to see more Lake houses, vacation homes and second homes come on the market. And that may be true, but the places that I’m seeing as I’m checking the listings, I’m looking for bargains I’m trying to see like okay, is is the right place for me and mine listed yet. Let’s see what’s going on in the market. I’m seeing McMansions coming on the market every single day. And I’m wondering I mean, I don’t claim to have all the answers. See, I’m just wondering if maybe some of these people like upper middle class yuppies, people who maybe they’re not nouveau riche, let’s say but they like to pretend they are people that make 250 350 400k a year, but they still live paycheck to paycheck. I mean, how staggering must your expenses be? If you can pull in that kind of money and essentially still be broke? I mean, wow, that’s a lot. But you think about it. Let’s say you have a couple and collectively they make 400k And they’re in some yuppie McMansion. Well, if something happens, and they have to whittle their expenditure back, maybe they were at 400k, another 300k. That would impact their ability to make some huge honking mortgage on a McMansion. So I think we’re in interesting times, I would be amazed if we don’t really start to see a wave of foreclosures soon. I don’t know about prognosticating a date on that. You know, I’ve heard some commentators that I think are pretty savvy, say that by summertime, is really going to look bad. And that could be true. Because again, whenever I was out running some errands earlier today, more and more signs of economic distress. It’s, it’s very sad. I mean, it will depress you. It’s one of those things, if you think about it too much, you will find yourself going into a depressive episode. That just reminds me a lot of the way that properties looked like 2007 2008 really like leading up to the big crash leading up to the wave of foreclosures, where people you could tell they were just in over their heads, they didn’t give a damn, and they had allowed this property to go straight to hell. It’s very sad. I mean, I think some of it too, is just sort of a commentary on American society. One of these days, I’ll get around to recording an episode about the, you know, so called slob culture in America, I feel like that’s really an interesting topic, because I can see both sides of it. I don’t miss wearing business suits every day and driving to an office and doing the play pretend pageantry bullcrap of corporate America. But then on the other side of the spectrum, like when I went to Walgreens to get a humidifier, I didn’t go in my pajamas. You know, I saw a picture I’ve talked about before of the man in the grocery store wearing an undershirt and boxer shorts. You know, like, I mean, one wardrobe malfunction, one wrong move, and he could be a registered sex offender for exposing himself. I mean, who does that? I just I don’t I don’t understand that. So you see these properties that just have that look of economic distress. And if you’ve lived through it before, then you know what’s coming. You know, there’s going to be a sign in the yard at some point that, that it’s a foreclosure home. I mean, you can just see the writing on the wall. What will become of these McMansions? I don’t know. I don’t know. But this may actually be a tidal wave that not only impacts people who are working poor, but it may also knock out some of the upper middle class yuppies that are living paycheck to paycheck. Time will tell. It is a depressing topic. I don’t want to get all gloom and doom. I really just want those of you listening to be prepared prepared, not scared not paranoid, but just thinking ahead of what can I do to weather the storm as best as possible? Okay, so meanwhile, over on Yahoo Finance, we have stocks power toward big winning week. Dow up 750 points. s&p 500 climbs 2.4%. US stocks soared on Friday as investors parse through a medley of corporate financial results and pondered the possibility that Federal Reserve officials may ease aggressive rate increases sooner than expected. Hmm. I wouldn’t bet my life on that I surely would not. Annex see oh says we’re not seeing any changes in consumer spending. Hmm. People are having to do buy now. Pay Later for their groceries. You know, there’s that dystopian quote about I don’t want to be in debt over carrot. People are relying on credit cards for the basic so if you’re not seeing any changes in consumer spending, it may be that the people carrying a balance on their credit cards are not buying frivolous things. It may be that they’re having to finance out necessity items. Okay, fortunately, I was able to hit the pause button on the recorder before I had a violent round of sneezes. So you guys got to miss out on that. Now, if we scroll down on Yahoo Finance, so we have this headline about there’s a possibility that Federal Reserve officials may ease their aggressive rate increases sooner than expected. We scroll down not even that far and we find the headline another big right height rate hike is coming. Why the stock market rallied the little byline says actually the Wall Street Journal’s NIC team Mario’s did the Fed may be trying to figure out whether to slow the pace of rate increases. So are they not going to are they going to I mean, why did the stock market rally? Hmm I don’t know strokes along devil beard thoughtfully. It’s probably because in my opinion these markets are manipulated as hell. Just freaking insane. On the side panel for LinkedIn, we find Musk may cut 75% of Twitter jobs according to The Washington Post. Wow. Remember that commentator who said that she did not think we would have q4 layoffs. Right Of course 401 Ks to get inflation dividend. SCOTUS lets student debt plan stand. Facebook bus drivers face cuts, middle managers lead in stress poll says well I shouldn’t wonder having been in that layer of hell. That is like one of Dante’s Inferno layers of Hell being a middle manager. For me. It always felt like my real raison d’etre in that role was to be the designated butcher. I wanted to coach to mentor to train to develop that’s where I really shine. I love it when somebody is like I have this problem helped me solve it. But when it’s like you need to be the disciplinarian you need to treat grown ass adults like their kids. I’m gonna write you up and put a note in your permanent file. Gross, just no. So I shouldn’t wonder that middle managers feel like they’re leading in the midst of stress. How could they not? ISP story slashes workforce by 50% Hmm, yeah, no layoffs in q4 Hmm. Of course. Now, if we go to Google News, if you just today you put in layoffs and look at the news, you’re gonna see things that completely fly in the face of anyone who’s saying there won’t be layoffs in q4. According to market watch, we find Intel reportedly to start targeted layoffs in November. on CNBC, Facebook shuttle bus drivers are losing their jobs as Mehta slashes costs and employees stay home. Wow. On indie wire criterion lays off 20% of staff in reorganization move. Fierce telecom Zeo story and Cox cut jobs as layoff wave hits telecom. Wow. Also we find on San Francisco gate loom the video messaging unicorn based in San Francisco conducts layoffs once more. Yikes. Oh, but remember that commenter that told us when the CNA layoffs in q4. This is why I say I feel like it is such an auspicious time to really be judicious about who you’re listening to. Where are you taking your cues? Where are you absorbing information? Not that I think you need to be in an echo chamber. I think it’s so important, especially now, when we get weird, contradictory mixed messages. We have in my opinion, crony capitalism. We have corporate owned and sponsored media. You don’t want to get an echo chamber and you don’t want this situation of Well, I only listened to the left or I only listened to the right. I feel like if you do that you’re just going to be consuming a lot of straight up BS. Be judicious. If somebody makes predictions? Do they come true? Even if they’re bold and wild and they sound outlandish? Do they come true? Do they come to fruition? You need to be able to tell do these predictions carry water? Does their analysis make sense? That’s like I was talking about a couple of meteorologists on YouTube saying that they thought a big swath of the country would have a warmer and drier winter. And at the time the almanac had come out saying it was really going to be quite cold and quite wet. We would have Blizzard, we would have snow squalls, the other day on weather nation, the part of the Midwest that I’m in and they had labeled us like the winter Battlezone or winter battleground, and essentially said, hey, look, we don’t really know. You may have some days where it’s like sunny and 65 degrees and then later that night it might be 30 with driving snow, you’re gonna really be like in the battle zone between it being unseasonably hot, versus it being unseasonably cold, and that can create storms. You have told the story on the air before about I think it was 1998 or 1999 There was a horrible storm that dropped thunder snow, and that was like nothing I had ever experienced before. I remember that lyric, one of my favorite YouTube songs is the song is sort of Homecoming. I love that song. And there’s that lyric about the bomb blast like In waltz, the wind will crack in wintertime that bomb blast lightning waltz. And I remember looking outside and thinking of that lyric like, because the wind was it was just like the lightning crackled and the thunder in the wind itself, it was just like a storm I’d never experienced before and it dropped so much snow in a short amount of time, we could very well have a winter like that, or it could be the way it is. Okay, it goes from being 22. And the ground is frozen to being 88. And it feels like you’re in a closed dryer, who even knows, but I pay attention to those things. If the Almanac was correct, I will give them props for that if these meteorologists on YouTube who are saying it will be hot and dry, if they turn out to be correct, I will give them props for that. I cannot give you advice, and I cannot tell you what to do. But I feel like in my opinion, this is a very auspicious time to get clear about what you want and to decide who you want to take information from. Because to me, if some economist commentator talking head whomever gets on TV or they’re in a journalistic article, and they say I just don’t think we’re going to see layoffs in q4. And then we see a mountain of layoffs in q4. You should factor that in to your decision making, in my opinion, would you want to listen to that news outlet? Would you want to listen to that commentator? If they made an epically bad call. Some people will. Some people will think back to Oh god, what’s his name? Jim Cramer. And Bear Stearns is doing fine. Yeah, of course it is. Of course. But yeah, he’s he’s still on TV. He’s still doing his thing. So I don’t know. I think it was PT Barnum. That said, You shouldn’t ever underestimate the bad taste of the public. Maybe that’s true. I don’t know. I don’t know. I do know that everything is a drying out again. I need to go run the humidifier and get my box of Kleenex with lotion in it so I’m going to visit you do have a wonderful weekend. Stay safe, stay sane, and I will see you in the next episode.
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