Saturday Broadcast 45

Key topics:

✔️ ICYMI news, 4/17 - 4/21.
✔️Debt is not always about FOMO and frivolous spending. It's taking every dime most people make just to survive these days.
✔️The LARPers are the ones who will get steamrolled the worst in the coming crisis. It's sad but true, IMO.
✔️A fortune teller might be about as accurate as some of these so-called "economists."

Links:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/state-street-tumbles-as-it-loses-key-deposits-122940909.html

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/in-office-work-has-benefits-poll-6235258/

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/are-more-turning-blind-eye-to-debt-5240937/

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/economists-wary-on-inflation-6248530/

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/18/public-pessimism-on-the-economy-hits-a-new-high-cnbc-survey-shows.html

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/companies-are-paying-workers-to-relocate-to-discourage-remote-work-%E2%80%94-and-it-can-cost-them-up-to-dollar97000-per-employee/ar-AA19YydE?li=BBnb7Kz

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/19/meta-started-latest-round-of-layoffs-focusing-on-technical-employees.html

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/grocery-shoppers-buy-now-pay-later-6263922/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/ak3gy8/the-pity-city-ceo-is-sorry-now

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/20/buzzfeed-will-lay-off-15percent-of-staff-shutter-its-news-unit.html

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/where-are-the-rural-grocery-stores-6260450/

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/21/googles-80-acre-san-jose-mega-campus-on-hold-amid-economic-slowdown-.html

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/el-nino-to-bring-record-temperatures-5616596/

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/money-trickles-out-of-smaller-banks-5249369/

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/home-prices-fall-most-in-11-years-5249353/


Links where I can be found: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2023/01/30/updates-housekeeping/

Need more? Email me: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/contact-causey/

Transcript

Unknown: 0:15

Welcome to the Causey Consulting Podcast. You can find us online anytime at Causey consulting llc.com. And now, here's your host Sara Causey. Hello Hello and thanks for tuning in. Today it is Monday, April 17. on Yahoo Finance we find State Street tumbles as it loses key deposits. The byline reads the giant Boston bank became the latest to show first quarter outflows as turmoil raged. The stock of State Street dropped more than 17% Monday morning as the giant Boston custody bank said net interest income deposits and fee revenue dropped during the first three months of the year. The market reaction was the latest sign of unease among investors as they examine how banks performed during one of the most tumultuous periods for the industry since the 2008. Financial crisis. Banks of all sizes will be scrambling over the coming weeks to show they survived the chaos of the first quarter and are better positioned than rivals to weather any future turmoil. State Street was not the only large bank in focus Monday, the stock of Charles Schwab initially fell 3% after it said it lost $41 billion in deposits in the first three months of 2023 in quote, wow. So we kind of get a twofer there, we get a reference to the 2008 financial crisis, as well as this, quote, have to weather any future turmoil. Now even though we're being told the banking system is sound, there's nothing to worry about nothing to see here. People move along, move along. I'm not completely convinced that's the case. Over on the side panel for LinkedIn news, we find I can hardly say it with a straight face. In office work has benefits. Here we go. New Evidence shows that workers who come into the office spend 25% more time on activities that promote their careers than those who are remote work from home research. A group that includes Stanford University economist Nicholas bloom, we've heard that name before, has been serving us adults who can work from home since the pandemic began. It found that those in the office increased mentoring of others getting formal training and doing professional development and learning activities. The research lends credibility to arguments by managers that younger workers in particular benefit from working around others in quote, why oh, why won't someone think of the children? We have got to do this. For the youngsters? Gen Zers are clamoring in the streets they are begging for in office work. Now everything I just said is a load of bunk but you're supposed to believe it anyway. So ridiculous. So ridiculous. And then I also read this and I think well, yeah, that's why introverts left. That's why introverted people don't enjoy being in the office because of collaboration. And let's have a pickleball League and let's have 5000 meetings every single week. How about let's don't. But this is the wave of the future. Even though I'm supposed to get on here and tell you that people will have a full on rebellion against Artio. And it's going to be cross generational. It's going to be the baby boomers who are early retiring. People quitting six figure jobs because one person did it in the news media and we get to hear about it. There will be a huge rebellion against Artio. I saw somebody else from the hot air and hopium crowd this morning on LinkedIn posting something about Amazon and there are to policies and people will just boycott Amazon and they will punish Amazon and I'm sitting here with my arms crossed and my eyebrow up skeptically going. No they won't. This goes back to what Whitney Webb talks about with Americans are slaves to convenience. They don't care if they're being spied on. They don't care if they're being relentlessly watched and their data is being sold to the highest bidder. As long as they get to use social media and the smartphone and shop on Amazon and have everything at a finger snap. That's so true. Are people going to universally stick it to Amazon over their RTO policies? I highly doubt it. Be strategic about who you're listening to and for what reason and what are they telling you. Also on LinkedIn we find are more turning a blind eye to debt. The issue of people ignoring financial stress has grown in the face of challenges. wrought by the pandemic including high inflation. While fairly typical among young adults, the behavior is rising faster, experts say leading to damaged credit and debt which in turn could affect milestones such as buying a home all button and say well, yeah, so can hyperinflation. Millennials in their 30s have racked up debt faster than any age group since 2019. With a 27% increase, but could be overtaken by Gen Z according to Credit Karma. The younger generation piled on 40% more debt in March from a year earlier and quote, well, that's also probably because of the cost of living. Could some of it be FOMO and Yolo? And keeping up with the Joneses? Yes, that's possible, too. It's also possible that people are just trying to pay their bills. Keep the lights on, keep the heat on in the winter. Keep the AC going in the summer, put groceries in the house. I mean, it's not always about frivolity and fun and spending on silly nonsense. It's taking everything that people have just to live right now. If you're a hyper elite, it isn't the for the rest of us down here on planet earth it is. We also find economist's, wary on inflation. Inflation will drop steadily this year, but not at a fast enough pace for the Federal Reserve to begin cutting interest rates, according to a Wall Street Journal survey of economists all but in and say they cannot wait to get back to that quantitative easing. They cannot wait to restart the age of easy money. That is just so absurd to me. It's also absurd this idea of inflation will drop steadily this year. Oh really? Based on what a survey of economists well, that in a nickel. On average, those polled expect inflation now at 5% to in 2023, at 3.53%. Up from the 3.1% they had forecast in January, with high inflation and rates sticking around economist put the probability of a recession in the next 12 months at 61%. That right there tells me in my opinion, these people don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. Oh, the likelihood the probability of a recession in the next 12 months is 61%. We're in a freaking recession right now. Most expect the downturn to be relatively shallow and short lived. We've heard that crap before too. Don't panic, nothing to see here move along move along. Meanwhile, only 39% See the Fed cutting rates this year, while 55% expect the next rate cut to happen in the first half of 2024 and quote. So apparently that's your timetable, according to mainstream media on when you can see a recession hit if it hits. And when we'll get back to quantitative easing and the age of easy money. Wow, just wow. Today it is Tuesday, April 18. Over on Yahoo Finance we find Goldman Sachs stumbles while Bank of America surges in q1, two financial giants posted diverging results in the first quarter as turmoil royal banking and markets, stocks mixed after Bank of America Goldman earnings. are investors behaving irrationally. Do they behave rationally? At some point? That would be the bigger story. More US consumers are falling behind on payments? Hmm. Yeah, yet you're still expected to believe that somehow. People are doing great 3.5% unemployment rate. If you're feeling dour about the economy. Well, you're just a Debbie Downer and something's wrong with you. Hmm, sure. Black Rock ditches 6040 portfolio in new regime of high inflation. What's going to happen there? I don't know. Are we going to have deflation at some point and the air is going to come out of the tire? Are we going to have hyperinflation? To me it feels like the Fed wants to get back to quantitative easing as quickly as they can and start giving away that free money in the low interest rates. In which case God help us what is that going to do to inflation? They go back to the money printing machine and print up more fiat currency like it's candy that they're handing out on Halloween. Nothing good is going to come of that. Inflation won't come close to the Feds target and investors buying the dip in stocks should not hope for policymakers to save them says BlackRock. Well, I definitely don't hope that the policymakers are going to save me. I'm not out here buying any dips but as far as expecting the Fed to come in to ride in on a majestic white steed and save the day. No Prepare for oil to rally as the Fed gets set to pause its rate hikes. JP Morgan says in the byline we see since 1988. The final rate hike and a tightening cycle has been followed by increases in the price of Brent crude three months later, JP Morgan said. So their cronies in the oil industry will get very rich indeed. Like they're not already. You know, we just talked in one of the Saturday broadcasts about these record performances of the oil companies. I don't see a big recession, Black Rock balls, Larry Fink dismisses concerns of an economic downturn this year. In the byline we see everyone is talking about the prospect of a recession. Well, actually, not everyone, it seems in contrast to the widely held view that a recession is now all been inevitable. BlackRock CEO, Larry Fink believes otherwise. Hmm. Does he know a recession is now all but inevitable. Meanwhile, we've been in one for how long now? What a joke this is Bank of America profits grow 15% avoids industry crisis. Depositors pull nearly $60 billion from three US banks as Apple raises pressure. But people are doing great, everything's fine. Everything is fine. We have to get back into that NLP language mode put on a pastel sweater. Everything's fine little baby. Go back to your sleep because the overlords are in charge and everything's fine. Over on CNBC, we find public pessimism on the economy hits a new high CNBC survey shows in the TLDR key points we read a record 69% of the public holds a negative view about the economy, both now and in the future. According to the latest CNBC all America economic survey. Well, you don't say President Joe Biden's approval rating fell by two percentage points to 39%. And his disapproval rating rose by a point to 55% compared with the November survey, just 24% say now is a good time to invest in stocks. Also the lowest reading in the survey 17 year history and quote, If you're not feeling pessimistic, if you're like, hey, people are doing great 3.5% unemployment rate. We're just churning and burning and rockin and rollin. And you're an average working class person. You're not one of the hyper elites that is in fact in gorging themselves. Man, I'm not sure what to tell you. I'm really not. I read recently, Karen Petros book engines of inequality. I was inspired to read that after seeing her interview and hearing about that book in that age of easy money documentary that I talked about. There were components of it that I liked, and I respected. And there were ponent components of it that I absolutely did not because essentially what she's saying is the Fed can come in and save the day. Here are my plans and involved a cbdc and involves the Fed doing the right thing, and I just got I got such a headache. It's like they're not going to frickin do the right thing. That part of it was such a letdown. But in the book, one of the things that she talks about is we have these periods of an economic crisis. It's usually a boon for the Republican Party. And then whenever we start to have some stability coming back, then it becomes a boon for the Democratic Party, and so on and so forth, ad nauseam. This is just how the cycles play out. Now, I'm totally putting on a tinfoil hat here, and speculating out loud. But one has to wonder, given that precedent, okay, we're being told that senile old man's approval rating is down. People are not feeling confident most people have a negative view about the economy now and in the future, which makes perfect sense. If you asked me, Are we being set up for the GOP to come back into party? Is this the thing that's going to happen next? Hey, we tried it senile old man's way, even though that guy can barely eat an ice cream cone, and he doesn't even know where he's at half the time. We tried it his way. And it didn't go so well. So now we need to put someone from the elephant party in office to clean up the mess. I mean, it's totally possible that that can happen. I'm scared to death. If I'm being honest with you, you know, I told you 2023 was going to be the year of raw authenticity, just putting it all out there laying it on the line. I'm really scared that this is going to lead to some very scary practices. I hate to use the F word fascism. But you know, you have so much collusion between corporations and the government anyway. How difficult would it be to put a Caesar On the phone, probably not terribly difficult. You put people in a situation where they're hungry, they're scared. They're defaulting on all of these bills, they don't know where the next meal is coming from. It gets even less difficult. You get people scared enough and they're hungry, they'll go along with whatever you propose. That's terrifying to me. That's the kind of thing that keeps me up at night. Over on MSN by way of Business Insider, we find companies are paying workers to relocate to discourage remote work, and it can cost them up to $97,000 per employee. In the TLDR key points we find companies are bringing back relocation assistance to employees per the Wall Street Journal, moving workers can cost companies up to 97 grand per employee. The benefits are one way employers are hoping to bring workers back to the office and in remote work. Companies are desperate to get workers back into the office and some may be willing to spend 10s of 1000s on relocation benefits to do just that. The Wall Street Journal reported. Businesses like Chevron and Walmart now require some new hires to go into the office after the pandemic force many companies to adopt remote work policies, according to the journal, in turn, companies are willing to pay employees to relocate and quote but you LARP you go ahead and LARP you listen to the hot air hopium bullshit crowd out here telling you that remote work is the way of the future. All of Gen Z is going to rebel and say they won't go into an office. All baby boomers will retire early. people making six figure salaries will simply walk away. They'll go from making 100 grand to making 50 grand in order to stay home. Like that's viable. Like that's reasonable for every single person in America. You have so many people living paycheck to paycheck, drowning in debt. We're already getting these reports about how many people are behind on their payments. The auto loan industry is a mess. Real Estate's not looking so hot either. Right, but everybody's gonna have a big sit out. Of course. In my opinion, the people who LARP they live in a fantasy land. They are going to be so steamrolled by what's coming. I'll be talking in Thursday's episode this week about hacking yourself. Health, Wellness, vitality, what can you do to be in as good of shape as possible going into this downturn? Because when the poop hits the fan, and it sprays all over all of us, it's too late at that point. In my opinion, it is too late. If you haven't prepared in the before times in the crisis times. You're screwed. Are you looking for more? Don't forget you can find Sara on her blogs at CauseyconsultingLLC.com. And at Saracausey.com. You can also read her content on medium and substack. on with the show. Today it is Wednesday, April 19. The main headline over on CNBC is Mehta has started its latest round of layoffs, focusing on technical employees in the TLDR key points we find as part of metas layoffs announced last month the company has started saying goodbye to some people in technical roles. Over two rounds of layoffs in November in March Mehta said it will be cutting about 21,000 jobs after plummeting in 2022. Mehta stock price has bounced back this year on optimism that massive cost cuts will boost profitability. Well as long as the stockholders are feeling good, then who cares about all the people getting let go? Hmm. One point I want to make here is technical employees. So we're out of the realm now of HR staffing, talent acquisition, and we're getting into more of the meat and potatoes of the organization, technical employees. That cannot be a good sign. Over on fortune.com we find all signs are pointing to a credit crunch says a top Wall Street strategist. Yes, I think so too. If we don't see a situation of quantitative easing and age of free money and all of that nonsense coming back. I don't see how we can avoid a credit crunch. I've warned you about that before. Reddit will charge companies and organizations to access its data and the CEO is blaming ai $100,000 Isn't the dream salary it once was for millennials as they feel middle class squeeze. I would interject it doesn't really matter about the generations $100,000 is not going in As far as it once did for anybody, this idea that happiness is anything over 75k is grossly out of date. We also find young people are almost as likely to consult fortune tellers as financial experts, and are more familiar with Elon Musk's net worth than their family's new study shows the way that things are going, I would have to say that consulting a fortune teller would maybe give you the same or better odds as talking to a financial expert. Now, that's just my opinion, and I could be wrong. You know, I always tell you, I am not a professional financial advisor or planner. I'm not an economist. I don't sit on the web. I'm not a billionaire or a hedge fund manager for billionaires. I don't give you financial advice of any kind. In my opinion, some of these economists are nothing more than paid shills. They are paid corporate shills, in my opinion, pushing a very particular narrative period. I wouldn't trust their advice and their analysis as far as I could throw it. Now it's up to you again to decide what you want to listen to. I just, I feel like the proof is in the pudding. You'll know the tree by the fruit it bears on LinkedIn Today we find grocery shoppers Buy now pay later, Americans have found a new way to deal with soaring grocery prices they're buying now but paying later Bloomberg reports. By now pay later services offer quick credit and interest free payments making them an attractive alternative to credit cards, especially as shoppers lose access to pandemic aid including wider access to food stamps. Experts warn, however, that by now pay later can give shoppers a false sense of security, making it too easy to overspend on everyday staples on everyday staples to overspend on everyday staples. shoppers who don't budget in advance for payments can also still damage their credit when late fees kick in. They add this is not new information. Remember that sad story about it feels dystopian to do buy now pay later for carrot shouldn't have to finance my food. Strange and sad times indeed. Speaking of strange and sad things, the whole kerfuffle with the Miller Knoll CEO and the pity city video. Over on Vice Today we find the pity city CEO is sorry now, after initially saying she would not be dissuaded by 92nd clip taken out of context, the CEO of Miller Knoll, told staff Tuesday that she now understands that her wording seemed insensitive. The CEO and President of the office furniture giant Miller Noll apologized to her staff on Tuesday, after a video of her telling employees not to live in pity city went viral, saying that she understands her language seemed insensitive, but that she meant it as a rallying cry amid a difficult moment for the company in quote. It seemed insensitive, but that's what you call, in my opinion, a passive aggressive non apology. That's like when you tell somebody I'm sorry that you got offended. I'm not sorry for what I said. Or for what I did. I'm just sorry that you got offended by it. That's kind of like your problem, pal. Meanwhile, when you look at the information about her bonus, she's telling these other people Hey, now you're not gonna get your bonus. But you don't get to live in pity city about it. Now rules for the but not for me. There was an article about it on LinkedIn. And I wrote something like it's amazing to me the corporate villains that we never see. I'm sure that got suppressed because you know, you're not allowed to say that. Even more so I would say the onus is on you to call me out in tour to look out for yourself and your family. Because if you're counting on corporate America to do that, in my opinion. You're basically just singing in the wind. Today it is Thursday, April 20. Over on Yahoo Finance, we find stocks slip Tesla plummets after earnings. Tesla is backed into a corner. Mortgage rates increase after weeks of declines. Hmm. I wonder who couldn't see that one coming. Fed could sit and wait on future rate hikes following bank earnings season to be determined. I guess, you know, I've worried before that they are itching to get back to quantitative easing if they haven't already. Age of easy money. And what will that do to inflation? For all of the rest of us down here on planet Earth? How is that going to make? putting gasoline in the car and paying your utility bills and buying groceries? How's that going to impact all the rest of us? Metal lays off tech teams battering employee morale. Warren Buffett don't several banks after spotting red flags and their financials. Oh really? What a shocker. The western housing market recession hit so hard and fast that a fortune 500 firm that was riding high at $34 per share has crashed $1 in the byline we find open door are taking huge losses. And as buying agents, we are all testing their pain threshold, says Chris Davis, a real estate agent in Phoenix. But remember, the realtors and brokers who told me that we were not in a housing bubble in 2021 We would never see anything like 2008 2009 Ever, ever ever again. Everything was so solid wink. That ceiling drama is back and it's coming for markets. I imagine that it's coming for a lot more than the markets debt is everywhere. Over on CNBC, we find BuzzFeed will lay off 15% of staff shutter its news unit in the TLDR key points we read. BuzzFeed will lay off 50% of staff and will shut down Buzzfeed News CEO Jonah Peretti wrote in an email to staff Thursday. The layoffs will affect BuzzFeed business content admin and tech teams. The BuzzFeed layoffs came the same day fellow digital media company insider announced job cuts in quote. Wow. But remember big tech Silicon Valley only. We were told by economists again wink wink economists, that we would not see mass layoffs. And then whenever we did see mass layoffs, we were told don't worry, big tech, only Silicon Valley only. It won't spread to any other sector. Right. Except it has. Do you not think that the same thing could happen with banks? We're being told that Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank are just anomalies just blips on the radar because players as Dave Ramsey said it's just a bunch of high rollers and VC capitalists out there in Silicon Valley. turnin and burnin. But it's not coming to a bank near you. Of course that couldn't happen. In more dystopian news over on LinkedIn, we find where are the rural grocery stores. While major change such as Walmart and Kroger still dominate the country's grocery seen. Their absence in rural communities is pushing locals to pick up the slack. At least 76 counties in the US have no grocery stores at all, according to the Department of Agriculture, and at least 105 groceries in Kansas closed in the last decade, with many towns receiving no replacement until residents step up through cooperatives, public private partnerships and even schoolwork and groceries. The lack of local grocery stores can lead to less access to healthy foods and more reliance on processed packaged products and PR rights, as well as a loss of community gathering spaces in quote. Wow. I don't know if this has anything to do with the ubiquity of things like the Dollar General the Family Dollar, the Dollar Tree, I know a lot of people are starting to push back against those chain stores coming in and just spreading like wildfire across small towns. Like hey, there's a vacant field, let's put a DG there. It's like seems to spring up overnight. In terms of lacking access to good, highly nutritious food. I want to be careful what I say here but in tackling my own health and wellness journey, thinking about the importance for me of getting away from the system as much as I possibly can. The amount of collusion that I've been reading about and studying about that happens between big food, big ag and Big Pharma is staggering. Just putting junk into the food supply. And then as people become unhealthier and obese, and they have a variety of what we would call standard American diet or Western world diseases, you pump them full of drugs. You don't tell them to make any modifications to their eating habits. You tell them you can pretty much continue to eat whatever you want. As long as you take these pills and potions every day. Mean is is part of a greater plan. I'll leave you to answer that question for yourself. Today it is Friday, April 21. Over on CNBC, the main headline is Google's 80 acre San Jose mega campus is on hold as company reckons with economic slowdown. When we click on that we find in June 2021, Google won approval to build an 80 acre campus spanning 7.3 million square feet of office space in San Jose, California, the third largest In the country's most populous state, the estimated economic impact $19 billion. The timing couldn't have been worse. A decade long bull market and technology had just about run its course. And the following year would mark the worst for tech stocks since the 2008 financial crisis, rising interest rates and recessionary concerns lead advertisers to reel in spending, shrinking Google's growth and for the first time in the company's history, forcing management to implement dramatic cost cuts in quote, as I've warned you before, there's an old saying things happen slowly until they happen very fast. That is one of the reasons why it is so important, in my opinion, to be prepared ahead of time. Do you have that RTO survival plan? Do you have a job loss survival plan, if you freelance or you own and operate your own company? Do you have a plan B, C, D, about how you could drum up revenue, if the main way of making your money dries up for a little while, a decade long bull market, all of a sudden, the brakes get slammed and no more. Now, I would not read this and automatically assume that every company on the planet is going to stop their RTO mandates, they're going to close down their corporate real estate. We're talking about Google saying we're not going to build this 80 acre mega campus after all, but I would not assume that that means every company near you will simply roll up the sidewalks on their corporate real estate. Someone is going to enrich themselves off of all of this corporate real estate that goes in the dumper. Decide for yourself who that will be and what they will intend to do with that real estate. Once they haven't. Elon Musk had a rough week across his empire. And then they're using that same photo they so often use where he's at a tuxedo and he's got a terrible scowl on his face. A recession is coming and stock markets won't come through it unscathed. strategist says, oh, you know, I think I would probably be more impressed with a strategist who's just came right out and said we're already in a recession. Quit Jabber-jawing about the recession is coming. It's out there somewhere. It's on the horizon. It's already here. Anybody with common sense can see that utterly irresponsible. Silicon Valley Bank failure was caused by a banking not tech crisis. Top VC says lifts new CEO begins tenure with layoffs reportedly cutting 1200 jobs. Wow, definitely not good news. Over on Yahoo Finance, we find Wall Street obsession with weight loss drugs keeps growing. Hmm. You know, I'm planning when I have some time to record an episode for next Thursday's broadcast about big food, big ag. The sicknesses that we see in the Western world, the time when the government paid farmers not to farm during the Great Depression, which when you think about it logically, what in the hell kind of sense does that make? Yeah, I'm sure they have an obsession with weight loss drugs, because we're living in an age where you have so called medical professionals talking about putting young children and teenagers on these weight loss drugs that cost 1000s of dollars a month and saying in order for them to use these drugs appropriately, they will have to keep ingesting them for the rest of their lives. Can you imagine the amount of money that they're looking at per person 1000s of dollars per month, with all of these people that are considered to be either overweight or obese in our society right now? Yeah, I'm sure Wall Street has an obsession with weight loss drugs, they want to cash in on it. It's not about the actual health and well being of the people. It's about making that money. Will the government default on debt ceiling? Silicon Valley Bank CEO CFO resigned company appoints turnaround expert. Let's just see how that's going to go. Biden administration paying Americans 1000s of dollars to upgrade their homes. I'm sure that's gonna go spectacularly. I'm sure there's no hidden strings on that one. As I roll my eyes. Markets are facing a black swan event with nowhere to hide as the latest rally has fueled a bubble that could burst at any time. Over on the side panel for LinkedIn, we find El Nino to bring record temperatures Great. Great. So as we've already been struggling with our utility bills, now we have this crap El Nino to bring record to temperatures, the planet could see record breaking temperatures in the coming year as scientists predict strong El Nino weather to return. Reuters reports. After the world experience three years of La Nino weather, which generally lowers global temperatures, well wait a minute, because it was like Death Valley here in the freaking Midwest last summer was horrible, horrible. And we had a drought. There are places on my property where the ground cracked, and it never has healed, even though we've had rain since then. It never has healed and so now we're being told it's going to get even worse. As a result, experts more in 2023 or 2024 could surpass 2016 for the hottest year on record. Great. Right. Right. But hey, allegedly supposedly inflation is abating. There's no evidence of it anywhere, especially in your heating and cooling bills. But sure, right. Money trickles out of smaller banks. The nation's biggest banks have shrugged off tumult in the finance industry with bumper earnings, but their smaller counterparts are still seeing depositors take their money elsewhere. The outflow has slowed in the wake of Silicon Valley Banks failure showing customers aren't necessarily afraid anymore xe owes notes. Instead, they've been reminded that they can move deposits around and now that rates are higher. There are big incentives to do so. Apple served up one such reminder earlier this week as it unveiled a high yield savings account in quote. Definite tinfoil hat here, but is this being done on purpose? Is this being done to consolidate banking to five or six different mega banks and to usher in a cbdc. Judge for yourself on that? We also find home prices fall most in 11 years. All but in before I ever even read from this and say they're still too damn high where I am. It hasn't trickled inward enough to the Midwest yet for me to be impressed. The cost of an existing home in the US fell deferred the furthest in March on an annual basis point 9%. Oh, that's very impressive. To$375,700. Since January 2012, as a slowdown in the market began to break sales. The number of homes sold declined 2.4% From February to 4.4 4 million. The National Association of REALTORS set from a year earlier sales dropped 22%. Faster inflation, higher interest rates and low inventory have been putting buyers off over the past year with an uptick in mortgage rates last month, giving them another reason to stay on the sidelines. According to the NAR in quote, nice use of Orlando minors term there. That's what I've been doing. I have been following what Orlando miner talked about, sit it out with purpose, get your mind right, get your finances right. And has really also given me an opportunity to go back to the drawing board, so to speak, and think about our priorities. Think about in order to do this, even if you get a bargain price, you still have to factor in what is your place going to sell for in a downturn? And then also what is the interest rate on the mortgage that you're going to be dealing with? Now all of these things are doable if the money is right. If it's a good enough bargain, then there are ways around the other things that can cause hiccups. There's an old saying you can sell anything if the price is right. But it has given me the opportunity to think and rethink and retool some things and honestly, I'm pickier. There was a point in time and 2021 where I was like, Man, I just I really want us to be able to unload our current property at an insane inflated value. Just tell people take it or leave it. We're going to have like one open house over a weekend. And if you see it and you want it, then make an offer. But no, we're not going to drag the process out for weeks. It's just too difficult. When you live on a working farm and ranch to keep everything spotless and Spartan and depersonalized. It's extremely difficult to do that. On a working farm and ranch when you have pets and livestock. It's very difficult to accomplish that on a long term basis. I really wanted to be able as a seller to take advantage of that. But I could not find anything. And we looked and we looked and we looked it wasn't like I didn't try or I just half assed the process. The inventory to choose from sucked and it was grossly overpriced. And it's like well, I want to get what I want and want what I get. I don't want to make a move somewhere and I hate it. I feel like this was a giant mistake, because you quite literally have to live with it. You have to live with it and you have to live in it. No thanks. I don't know what the future holds. But I definitely think for us sitting it out with purpose, staying on the sidelines, continuing to just wait for that correct opportunity, the right place at the right time. I can't see any other way. I really can't. And the thought of not only overpaying for that the house itself, but being trapped in a high interest rate, then you look at the job market. That's one of the things that I have tried and tried and tried to do on this podcast. And in my writings. When I talk to journalists, I try to help connect the dots between what's going on in the broader economy and what's going on in the job market. And vice versa. The thing of it is, if you get obligated for a house, regardless of if you've overpaid regardless of if you have a high interest rate. If you go and you get yourself obligated for a house, and then you get laid off. Or if it's a two person household, let's say where both individuals, both adults in the household are working. And you both get pink slips at about the same time. How are you going to handle that? That is a scary situation to be in. And I have to believe, even though I had plenty of bullshit artists in the form of realtors and brokers who assured me that we would never see another 2008 There were all these new laws and regulations, they're no more chicanery and nonsense happening the loans are so it's all up. They're not giving out those ninja loans anymore. Sarah, everything's great now, but then behind the scenes, in reality, there were plenty of shenanigans going on with debt to income ratios and people getting approved for things that deep down they really couldn't afford. I mean, it's sort of like 2008 all over again, just with a different set of clothing on. You think about all of these things and people getting laid off. The job market is not robust right now. I'm so sorry. But we do not have in my opinion, a 3.5% unemployment rate. With all these legit open jobs for every unemployed person. We just freakin don't. We don't remote work opportunities are dwindling. There was an article that popped up on my newsfeed. Today, I think from Forbes where somebody was talking about how the statistics are showing that hybrid work is winning out if you really want people to come back to come on back to the office just dangle the carrot of hybrid work. And that will help make the transition from being fully remote to being fully buttoned seen in the office. And I'm sitting there reading that going I freaking told people that I warned them about that time and time again months ago. As I always say if you wait to be officially told something in mainstream media, you are waiting way too late, in my opinion, way too late. And so it is with this housing market job market debacle. You get people obligated for a house, they lose their job, they're going to lose the house as well. This is going to be a mess. It just it is it is I know I sound Debbie Downer. I know that I sound pessimistic. I'm just trying to be real with you because it's my sincere hope. You're clearly above and beyond somebody that is mindlessly listening to celebrity gossip, they're watching videos, constantly on Tik Tok. They're not absorbing anything intellectual that might help them you're already above that. You wouldn't be tuning in on a regular basis to the Saturday broadcast. If you were worried about Harry and Megan or who some actor is sleeping with or this actress is going to get divorced from that guy and shack up with somebody else. Whatever, whatever whatever cares. You clearly have your mind in a good place if you're here. My goal is that nobody listening, get steamrolled by what's coming, that you're prepared, not scared, so that when the crap storm gets so bad that the mainstream media is not ignoring it anymore, or when they're actively trying to foment panic. You can sit back and say I don't have to panic because I took the time to prepare. We prepped for this we trained for this. I already know how we're planning to handle it and I can rest assured whether you are in faith you believe in a higher power us believe in yourself. You can rest assured that you and your family will make it through stay safe, stay sane, and I will see you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning If you enjoyed this episode, please take a quick second to subscribe to this podcast and share it with your friends. We'll see you next time.