At A Turning Point?

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (00:00.706)
Welcome to the closing bell everyone. We’re back at it. Mark, are we at a turning point? That’s the topic for today.

Hahaha!

Mark Boyer (00:10.928)
Turning point. You know, after the DNC this week, I’m like, I’m not sure we’re going to turn the point we’re at if Kamala gets her way, It will be lights out. we’ll yeah. So we could be at a turning point coming up, but we’ll see how that plays out.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (00:28.706)
That’s a good point. And that’s actually a turning point that we’re talking about. Or one of the turning points is turning point of policy, turning point of drastic changes that have been brought forth by the Harris campaign. are all of them going to be implemented if she were to become president? Probably not. You get split government, which we’ll get into, but it’s very, it’s a very big contrast to Trump policy.

even like traditional, like Clinton Democrat policy, right? I mean, he actually lowered capital gains tax rates when he was president. So it’s quite interesting the switch there, which we’ll dive into. But anyway, that’s the topic for today, ladies and gentlemen, it’s going to be a good one. It’s going to be spicy. You got salt and pepper here, we’re adding a little spice to it as well.

Mark Boyer (01:17.013)
Hahaha

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (01:19.374)
So let’s dive into the market. So we had a little bit of a down draft, a little meltdown here, right? S &P was over 8 % down from its highs. We’re actually kind of rallied back quite nicely, right? Right, Mark? For the week Dow is up almost 1 .3%, S &P up over 1 .4, NASDAQ 1 .3, and the small caps leading the way at over 3 .5 % for the week.

Any thoughts on the movement in the markets or kind of transition there?

Mark Boyer (01:49.597)
It’s been amazing. I will say that, you we had that down draft to your point, you know, back in early August. I mean, just this month. I mean, what? A couple of weeks ago. I mean, we were getting slammed. Back in Iraq. I mean, it was like, blows, man. It was like, where are we headed here? And then, boom, just turned around, caught a bottom, hit some key, you know, kind of support indicators, you know, moving averages and…

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (02:00.024)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Mark Boyer (02:17.025)
and really bounced. And now you got the S &P 500. I mean, we’re in like, you know, points of, you new highs. So yeah, it’s been quite a ride here. You know, a lot to do with, I mean, obviously interest rates, you know, I mean, even today, big move today, you know, Powell talking about, you know, they’re going to start cutting rates in September. So, you know, lot of that’s baked into the cake, I think, but at the same time,

you know, that’s kind of what they’re saying now. So it’ll depend on what kind of numbers we get here in the near future job numbers, CPI, PPI numbers to see where, you know, do we go 25 basis points cut or is it 50? So markets like lower interest rates. It helps companies make money. It helps investors save money, you know, as far as on credit card debt or whatever. it’s lower rates are always good for the economy.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (02:58.925)
Hmm.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (03:09.422)
Mm -hmm.

Mark Boyer (03:13.025)
The question is, you know, I there’s a lot of, you know, I could argue that it’s a little bit early to be cutting rates even in September because, you know, inflation is still at 3%. I mean, every time I go to the store, I’m like, holy smokes, how do people, I mean, it’s crazy how expensive things are. you know, I mean, one, a lot of people think it’s political, you know, anymore. Is you’re not sure if you can trust the government agencies? They all seem tainted, you know, in how they, you know, even

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (03:26.573)
Yeah.

Mark Boyer (03:42.217)
even the Fed, you know, I mean, they, you know, interesting time to be cutting rates right during an election, you know, coming up in here in November. So anyway, yeah, so markets look positive though. mean, you know, you can’t fight the Fed. Here’s the deal, like, we’ve in this, and you really can’t fight the Fed when they’re, when they’re lowering rates, it’s positive for stocks and bonds, obviously. interesting times.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (03:55.554)
There you go.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (04:05.998)
Interesting times and then I like your point to the Fed. You can’t fight the Fed, but the Fed’s taking a lot of credit here for moderating inflation. mean, we’ve had extreme inflation over the last four years. Now the problem with moderating inflation is that inflation is still here. You’re still paying those same high prices at the grocery store. It’s not like we have deflation where, your $12 bananas are now going down to $4. We have extra money in our pockets. That’s still not the case and Americans are hurting on a daily basis.

I think the

Mark Boyer (04:35.807)
Yeah, man, there’s a great Bible verse says pride comes before a fall typically, right? So when you start talking trash and getting cocky, watch out, it could be ugly. know, read this cool book about World War Two and it was amazing to see this whole side note, but it just, you know, it was interesting to see at Pearl Harbor, how after Japan, you know, wrecked Pearl Harbor and surprise attack, right? How, how

almost arrogant Japan got and how powerful they were. And then started to get kind of, you know, made some mistakes along the way and got, you know, beat up. I mean, just, you know, we all know how that turned out. So anyway, it’s interesting books, really very informative. And you see that in lots of, you know, sports, you see it everywhere, man, whenever you start getting cocky. And frankly, with the Fed, you know, if they hit a soft landing, we said this before, it’s a

It’s a lot to do with luck, mean, because that’s really hard to do with all the things. And we don’t even know if it’s a soft landing. I mean, there’s some numbers out there that could be, you know, we’re headed for a recession. Some people think a deep one. So again, we’ll see how it plays out. It’s too early to tell, that’s what I’m saying. You know, can’t be talking trash about, you know, soft landing. think it’s a little premature. We’ll see.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (05:55.444)
Interesting you brought that up in terms of data, which we’ll cover here is some, alarming and interesting data. We’ve talked about a few different things. And again, I don’t want to be prideful either, cause I don’t want to have a fall. So I think it’s good just to be, to call it out and say it is what it is. But it’s interesting. Powell comes out and says, we don’t want the labor Margaret to soften anymore. We don’t want the economy to weaken anymore. So they’re seeing some alarming signs, I think behind the scenes as well.

Mark Boyer (06:10.171)
So,

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (06:23.768)
that are prompting them to say, now’s the time to cut rates. and some of those numbers, which we’ll dive into here is the labor market. We talk about labor market quite often and you brought up a point months ago and we just talked about it prior to recording here on a Friday afternoon. said, what did you tell me about the jobs revisions?

Mark Boyer (06:44.415)
my gosh. mean, so you look at revisions, right? They come out with these numbers and they’re always, these jobs. then literally, every time, I mean, every time, you know, when everybody’s moved on and, basically forgotten about the last, you know, report, there they go, revise it. You know, they revise those old numbers and check up unemployment. You know what I mean? Like, you know,

Completely, I mean, fairly significantly. And then this week, all right, then, you know, like you’re going to talk about here, I mean, we get a major number of where that’s happened, like 800 plus thousand revision. That’s huge. That’s not, and frankly, I don’t know how you make that mistake. Like that just doesn’t even feel like, I’m not sure that I just don’t think that’s, I’m not sure it’s legit, or I mean, some have said it’s even maybe over a million.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (07:34.35)
That’s a big rabbit hole, yeah.

Mark Boyer (07:39.359)
You can’t make, and that’s a bit, I like, what are you doing? mean, somebody’s not doing their job or whatever to have that type of revised number. So it’s pretty, it’s been pretty consistent. And again, sorry, I’m going to go there. I mean, it’s just like, to me, it’s just, it’s like, how do we trust? I I’m not sure, it’s hard to trust, right? So.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (07:57.294)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It’s into your point. 818 ,000 less jobs, 818 ,000 less jobs added than what they previously told us in the previous 12 months through March of 2024. So just break down on a monthly average, 170.

Mark Boyer (08:18.049)
I don’t know if they ever spent that high. I don’t know that it’s been that high since I think what maybe 08 or 09, the financial crisis where they actually missed it that bad. I mean, we haven’t been in any kind of crisis like that. mean, how’s that? I know some get out that happens. So, and again, it just reeks more of intentionality in some ways. I know, just saying. I mean, I don’t know for sure. It’s just I’m speculating, but that’s what it feels like.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (08:23.458)
Probably, yeah.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (08:34.454)
Yeah.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (08:45.23)
Yeah. And, and so you bring up, know, if you average it out on a monthly level to even it out, 178 ,000 is the actual monthly jobs added, which is quite a bit lower than what they’ve been quoting. Even the latest job numbers this past week here or this week. and then at 246 ,000, was the previous average, monthly jobs added. So quite a stark difference over, you know, almost 70 ,000 jobs that were less that were added.

so that’s, that’s alarming. And I think maybe the Fed, that’s part of the reason what they’re seeing now, all of a sudden, cause last month his thing was, we don’t know if it’s time to lower interest rates. We’re going to proceed with caution. And then now all of a sudden it’s like, it’s time. It’s Yeah, here we go.

Mark Boyer (09:25.909)
Yeah. yeah, I see that. Here we go. Yeah. And again, again, got an election coming up here soon. So very interesting. And the other thing is a part -time work. I mean, we’ve got part -time workers. Those numbers are full -time down. So, you know, what does that say? Is companies, you know, is that company related where they’re making decision going more part -time or people working more than one job? You know, I just think that the average

You know, the middle class out there, man, it’s rough. I mean, it’s not, it’s a challenging time. It’s a challenging time. I mean, go to Costco. I mean, just do your normal. I compare what you spend now in a basket at Costco to what you spend. You you got a family, know, two, a year ago, two years ago. I mean, it’s like unbelievable.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (10:14.35)
It’s crazy. It’s, it’s, it’s unacceptable. but, to speak into those facts, let’s talk about, let’s talk about spending habits. So some interesting credit card debt statistics that I came across here that I want to share with, with our listeners and viewers. So credit card crisis has been going on here. We’ve talked a little bit about it, probably months ago now, but the credit card debt in the United States is $1 .3 trillion and growing.

The average amount of credit card debt per person, $6 ,500. The average balance increase since 2022. So that’s basically, know, of inflation, 2022. Only two years ago, average balance has gone up by 30 % or more. Delinquency rates. So those are people that can’t pay their bills. Highest since when? The Great Recession since 2011.

Mark Boyer (10:55.219)
Two years ago, it’s only two years.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (11:12.27)
which is interesting in its own right. Now, this is more about the mindset and the health of the borrower. So the percent of borrowers who claim they’ll never be debt free, one in three, 34%, which is, that’s crazy. And it’s sad. It’s very sad. And then the likelihood of those with debt to be depressed greater than 300 % increase likelihood to be depressed than somebody that’s not.

Mark Boyer (11:25.041)
Mm. That’s a lot.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (11:39.918)
And then percent of people that lose sleep over debt, 48%. So these are just some alarming numbers. obviously we’re in the business of financial health. Health is wealth. So it’s scary, it’s sad, and we need to get this figured out. And there’s a lot of reasons behind it. But again, just in terms of the underlying strength of the economy, it might not be on as solid footing as we think.

in some ways, especially for the consumer.

Mark Boyer (12:10.923)
Yeah, it’s a challenge, man. I mean, it’s just tough. It’s just tough. I watch so many examples. It’s a tough time. And so, you know, yeah, we want interest rates lower, but we need spending under control. We need leadership that actually cares about the middle class and actually, you know, doesn’t just talk it, actually do the things that are necessary to help them.

And so, you know, yeah, it’s a major election this year and some major discussions and decisions have to be made. To be in that kind of debt, I’m not so worried. I mean, yeah, it’s a lot of money and there is, you know, it’s just if it keeps piling on at some point, there’s going to be a breaking point. I mean, you can’t, you just can’t continue. So, man, yeah, it’s concerning.

But I’m hopeful, I think we’ll get into the right place here, hopefully soon.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (13:14.808)
Yeah. And then this is kind of piggybacking into our next conversation here, is, is policy. We’re going to talk about policy here. You know, we have one, former president that had the world’s greatest economy that we’d ever seen. And that’s just a fact. That’s not a political statement. That’s just, you know, that’s the way it was right prior to COVID. we had, had the world’s greatest economy that the world has ever seen. And I’ve heard people that were moderates that

are way smarter than I am talk about that. And again, I think sometimes. Yeah, go ahead.

Mark Boyer (13:49.742)
And it wasn’t just for the highest class people. It wasn’t just for the rich. was actually those numbers, they happened in the middle class and in the lower class and in all ethnic groups. That’s why it’s very interesting to see the Republican candidate getting much higher percentages, it sounds like, from African Americans, for Hispanic. These people are like…

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (14:01.037)
Yes.

Mark Boyer (14:16.415)
They made more money under Trump. so, you again, because, you know, there was less regulation, less taxes, Yeah, more. mean, open, know, oil fields, you know, where we’re drill, baby drill. Things were happening, you know, which I think had a lot to do with the inflation and still does as part of that inflation piece. But anyway, yeah, it’s it’s a.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (14:28.226)
More spending money, low inflation.

Mark Boyer (14:43.763)
It was significant. It was across the whole gam of all classes and ethnic groups.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (14:51.406)
Yep, absolutely. And that’s the thing we went and talk about. So then you have a presidential hopeful that, on the other side, they want to increase taxes to fund government spending in their, their agenda. So you’ve got corporate tax, increases that are on the table to 28%, which we’re now at 21%. You have, capital gains, the highest. So people that are making, in those top brackets, their capital gains would probably exceed 40%.

And again, none of this is set in stone because it’s not policy that’s implemented, but these were proposals set forward by the Harris campaign. So you’re having people pay even more capital gains on top of what they already pay. And then the big one. And again, you can argue on either side of the aisle. You could be for increased taxes on corporations and capital gains on the wealthy. You could be against it. You know, I’m against it. We know, you know, you’re against it.

And that’s okay. You can have differing opinions on those because those are already implemented. And again, that’s the beauty of America. We can have differing opinions, but this last one, which we’re going to talk about unrealized capital gains tax, that is just horrendous, outrageous. I don’t know how you implement that. That is, they say would generate, I believe $800 billion for the government. say something like that. if an unrealized capital gains tax,

was to be implemented. So let’s just say this is completely hypothetical and outrageous, we’re homeowners, right? And let’s say you made a million dollars on your home, right? And you’re still living in your house, right? You bought a 92 or whatever it was, right? And you’re up a million dollars. You made a good investment. You’ve added on, you know, great location, all that. So the government comes to you if this gets implemented and says, you know what, Mark, I’m going to, I want to,

take the taxes on your unrealized capital gains of a million dollars. You know, let’s say you do $250 ,000 at UOS, $250 ,000. So number one, if you’re a working class person or you’re a, you know, no matter what socioeconomic ladder part of the rung of the ladder that you’re on, where on earth are you going to get $250 ,000 of cash or where you don’t have to liquidate something else? And again, you might have it, but again,

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (17:13.742)
That’s a large chunk of cash for 99 .9 % of Americans. That’s a large chunk of cash. Where are you going to get that from? You don’t have to liquidate something else. You’re to have to sell your house to pay that. What happens to the house value goes down the next year and then you’re on the hook. You can’t get your money back. So it’s just in marketable assets, real estate, crypto, stocks, bonds, assets that have the ability to appreciate and

and grow and then to be taxed on that, that’s going to stifle, that is going to bring that type of investment opportunity to a standstill. That would happen overnight. Overnight, nobody would want to buy houses anymore. Nobody would want to invest in stocks, bonds, crypto, whatever your marketable assets are. Am I wrong on that?

Mark Boyer (18:04.897)
Yeah, yeah. How many clients do we have who have a house, they’re in retirement, they’ve owned a house for, I mean, 30, 40 years, paid it off, did what they were supposed to do, made their payments every month, paid off their house, retired. You know, now maybe spouse has passed, there’s a…

This is just an example. And they’re sitting on all, just to your point, all these unrealized gains. Again, definition of unrealized gain is that you haven’t sold. Now, realized gains is when you get taxed actually on the difference between the money in and what you get. It’s called a capital gain. That’s a realized gain when there’s a sell. Whether it be a house, whether it be a stock, a bond, whatever it is, there’s a gain.

And those have been, those are tax, right? That’s the capital gains tax. And we know about that. you’re, what you’re again, what you’re talking about is not even moving. This is the fact that you have that you get assessed your house at some level and they say, we’re going to, you know, I mean, come on. That’s it’s like a joke. I mean, I can’t believe we talking about this stuff. It’s silly. It’s absolutely it’s idiotic. And so it’s, but yeah, to your point, those are things that have been talked about and they’re being said and,

Hey, vote for me. This is what we’re going to do. all right. Good luck with that. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have anything already. Who do you care? If you’re in a place right now where you’re already getting government help or whatever, it doesn’t matter. You don’t care about that decision. But if you’re not, it’s a pretty big deal. like I said, it’ll crush the economy. anyway, silly thing about this stuff.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (19:46.958)
So it’s good. Yeah. And it’s good just to talk about it again. It’s the likelihood of these outrageous policies implementing even with a Harris presidency, as long as there’s a split government, we’re going to continue on our merry way. know, gridlock markets like gridlock, nothing crazy will pass. but there will be some interesting, especially for estate tax purposes. We talk about the sun setting of the Trump tax cuts. we’ll have a big impact on, on some of our clients and, and

Mark Boyer (20:12.085)
Yeah.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (20:17.272)
quite a bit of America. If you’ve built, if you live in, you know, good places with, with great real estate or, know, retirement at great, you know, you’ve been saving all your life, retirement accounts and investing properly and being frugal, being good with your money. It’s, it’s, could be quite an interesting, quite an interesting time.

Mark Boyer (20:35.733)
Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, if you’re listening to this, my suggestion is you stay alert. don’t, you know, as you’re getting ready for elections, don’t listen to what people say. Look and learn of what they’ve done in the past, because that’s who they are, right? You could say, I’ve been here for three and a half years already and we haven’t done this, but boy, we’re sure going to do it the next four months. That’s a bunch of

garbage. you know, it is what it is and it’s in the extreme. And that’s why I was talking to a client today. was just actually, you know, we’re talking about elections and how we talked about this. Historically, elections have been, it doesn’t really matter who’s, like I heard Clinton the other day talking about, yeah, you know, when Democrats are in charge, the markets are, you know, you know, I don’t know, something like better, you know,

It’s like he gave a score 11 to one or something like that. was claiming, don’t know where he, I don’t, again, I don’t know where he got the numbers, but the reality is, that it hasn’t, that’s true over time, you know, it’s been pretty even. And I think what I’ve read is like slightly the democratic, you know, majority has had a slight better, you know, it’s like 11 .5 to 10. I don’t even, I don’t, it’s right, it’s close, but it’s pretty much the same. So it hasn’t really mattered.

But we’re getting to a point now with such an extreme, looks to be Marxist, mean, know, Marxist fashion. I mean, it’s very, it’s beyond left, it’s beyond left and right. It’s like extreme left to where it’s pretty scary. talking about, you’re talking about things that we’ve never really.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (22:02.68)
Very left,

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (22:09.432)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mark Boyer (22:18.909)
even thought about here in the country before. So I don’t know, man. I’m even like, wow, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know where it’s going to end up at the moment. So I’m hoping that we get some sanity here and do the right things here come November. But we’ll see what happens.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (22:36.719)
Yeah. And to your point, going back to, actually wrote a paper on the presidential economic cycle back when I was working for fortune 500 financial company years and years ago, over 10 years ago now, talking about like those numbers between Republicans, Democrats. And it really, like you said, it really doesn’t matter to the margins on Republican president, Democrat president are so slim. Democratic presidency has like, I think it’s 1 % or less difference Delta.

in S and P 500 performance. But again, then you got to look at, you know, is it unified government or is it split government? And you know, there’s, so many factors. Presidents get too much, sometimes get too much, plaudits for good markets when there’s so many underlying factors and you can implement good policy or have good ideas and that, that affects it. But overall, sometimes they do get a little bit too much credit. So my point being is on the flip side of that, Republicans could come back and say,

Well, when we had a unified Republican government, you know, house, Senate and presidency, that was the best markets that ever done. So utilizing that it’s like, okay, let’s, let’s not play those types of games. Let’s just look at the policy.

Mark Boyer (23:47.105)
Yeah, the actual markets like they like they like a balanced government. like they like it when they’re you you may have a you know, Republican president and Democratic, you know, house or whatever. I mean, they like the balance of power. I think most of us do. And what we’re talking about now is that we’re going so far. And, you know, some people say so far or so left. The left has gotten so extreme left.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (23:57.944)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mark Boyer (24:12.851)
and even a lot of people who are moderate Democrats. I’m a Republican, right? So I’m pretty conservative. But my family, I grew up in a family where my dad was a truck driver and my mom was a stay -at -home mom. We were born in the 60s. I we were Democrats. I wasn’t voting, but I know my dad, my father, being a truck driver and part of a union, in those days, it was like…

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (24:39.341)
Yep.

Mark Boyer (24:41.713)
workers versus management, right? That was the deal. That’s way before Europe. That was the reality of the Democratic and Republican Party. And he was a worker. He was a truck driver. we were Democrats. until, you know, again, until something, you know, things started to happen in that party with, you know, just abortion and different things that they started doing. I my parents, you know, being very

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (24:43.65)
Yeah.

Mark Boyer (25:09.785)
churchgoers and Christians, they were like, I can’t do that anymore. But at the same time, over the years here, the Democratic Party has really moved even further left to the the point where now we have a, you know, I a candidate who’s actually the daughter of a Marxist who’s now running for president. And it’s kind of so it’s crazy, right? I mean, you know, again,

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (25:18.668)
Yeah.

Mark Boyer (25:30.421)
So that’s where we are. And so you see a lot of, it’s not really, it’s just like that middle ground. So many people I’ve talked to, they’ve been lifelong Democrats who, you know, and that’s fantastic, but they don’t have like, Hey, I didn’t leave the party. They’re switching because I didn’t leave the party. The party left me. I mean, it’s going, it’s going extreme. you know, that’s what this country is kind of fighting for the moments. And, and so, you know, that said, you know, a lot of times I think for some,

some in the far left like that, they don’t really care if people are in poverty. They don’t care if it’s hard for people to get jobs. They don’t care if the, you know, that just feeds the fact that, you know, these people, you know, they don’t care if the, you know, if the border is just like wide open, because the more people that come here, the more people need government handouts, more we, you know, they depend on the government.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (26:09.88)
big government.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (26:24.792)
more needed.

Mark Boyer (26:25.845)
the more they’re gonna vote for those people who are gonna give them handouts, right? And it’s just like, that’s where you end up in Argentina or, know, or those ways. Yeah, it’s crazy. So anyway, it’s not even.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (26:27.736)
Yep.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (26:34.606)
Venezuela, Zimbabwe, yeah.

Yep, it is. And then the last thing you want to touch on, which is coinciding with all this was the price controls have been mentioned and they’ve kind of backtracked from that right now, the Harris campaign, but a lot of people don’t understand the theory behind price controls and what that actually means. I just want to educate the listeners and viewers on it and talk about historically what that’s been, how it’s done and how it’s actually been very detrimental to the economy of that given country or society.

If you look back to the late 1960s and 70s, the Federal Reserve printed too much money relative to real GDP growth. And that resulted in repeated bouts of spikes of high inflation. I you were really young. I’m sure your parents would tell you they remember that very well. Yeah. So President Nixon, having been burned by a mild recession in 1960,

Mark Boyer (27:26.955)
I remember it, yeah.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (27:34.894)
The first time he pursued the presidency, he didn’t want that to happen again when he was running for reelection, in 1972. So in 1971, he closed the gold window, which I’m, learned all about, about this. It’s kind kind of fascinating. So no longer was money backed by gold. Some people still think it is like, you know, we’re backed by gold and, or, or they just found out that we’re not. it’s like, no, she hasn’t been since the seventies. We haven’t had gold backing our currency.

So he did that, closed the gold window and gave the Fed the chance to print money more freely. And then what he did on the back end, he imposed wage and price controls to try to hide the inflation that would follow those price controls. And after the election, inflation averaged more than 9 % per year from 73 through 75. So that’s why people say he wasn’t very popular after the election because prices were just so

Now that wasn’t the first time this has happened. wasn’t Nixon’s idea. If you go back to ancient Egypt, you go back to Babylon, you go back to ancient Rome, which was the most dominant, you know, society known to man at the time. and then going forward to modern day times is in Bob way, Zimbabwe and Venezuela, you know, you know, this price control idea has actually caused mass shortages.

for product, for goods and services. So what does that do? Spikes inflation exponentially. mean, it skyrockets it. mean, Argentina has had skyrocketing inflation, which they’re still reeling back from. So why do governments do that? Because, well, know, inflation is political kryptonite. So they try to hide it. They try to manipulate it. They try to get it down, which, you you kind of mentioned maybe that’s why we’re seeing interest rate cuts now. Again, all thoughts.

on that are valid. We just don’t know. But prior to COVID, the US had inflation under control for how long? 40 years. We’ve talked about that inflationary cycle, 40 years or so, right?

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (29:45.39)
Now, inflation has been high for the last few years and politicians have said what? it’s the private sector. They’re gouging, the price gouging. They’re taking the money from the hard earned dollars of the American worker. But the question you have to ask as a citizen is what? If price gouging is the reason for recent inflation, then where were these gougers for the past 40 years? What changed?

And why has inflation been such a global phenomenon? Have all, as every single private sector company been in cahoots and he was set three damn phone call like, Hey, we’re all going to just, we’re just going to take the money from the hardworking citizens of our country.

Mark Boyer (30:31.974)
I guess you haven’t been invited on

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (30:33.102)
I guess not. not cool enough. I had to get in the club. So that’s just an interesting question you got to ask. And again, we all can lie on different areas of the spectrum, you got to ask the, it’s a very simple question to ask. So the cost of government is sore though, right? And so those accusing the private sector of price gouging are ignoring that since 2012, Chicago school spending per student is up 97%.

even though test scores have gone down. And you can’t just look at Chicago schools either. You can look at a recent study. And again, this is a great piece I read on Monday. That’s why I’m looking off screen here, because these are very important. Some good education here. The AI looked at SAT scores since 2008, including the effect of the test getting easier. Average math scores are down more than 100 points in the past 15 years, with the most drops since 2019 right before COVID.

Those who want to impose price controls in the private sector want to punish shrink inflationists, but schools have been charging more and shrinking the education they’re giving our kids. Where’s the plan to fix that? Our kids are on the ballot, right? Our kids are on the ballot. So ultimately the best way to fight inflation is to have the Fed focus on price stability while the government minimizes taxes and regulation to encourage competition and risk taking. That’s what we’ve always talked about. It’s the American dream, the American way.

Mark Boyer (31:42.367)
Our kids are on about it.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (31:58.37)
Make your own way, make your own way. So, you know, the good news is we don’t think price controls will take effect, but it’s good to talk about what that would bring about.

Mark Boyer (32:00.553)
Amen. Amen.

Mark Boyer (32:09.726)
I don’t know a certain, I don’t know any place where government, where they’ve had more control, that things have gotten better. I mean, it’s hard. mean, tell me a place where that’s ever happened. It just doesn’t. Because you gotta, you know, again, I just heard the Democratic candidate just say that she’s going to eliminate failure. And I was like, well, that’s interesting.

I mean, so you said something really different. That’s what’s great about capitalism is that, you know,

Taking away competition, know, there’s just going to be, you know, just, it doesn’t work. You have to have company. That’s why when there’s price controls and whatever, when you’re competing with companies for people’s money, it forces you to get more efficient and sell things at the lowest price possible while still making a profit. If you take away competition, that’s true, like in schools, right? So if the government schools don’t have any competition, and in fact, you actually even

eliminate the ability for students and parents to look for other schools where there might be competition, we never get better. You never get better. And so that’s what’s happening incredibly in these urban areas. I mean, it’s like these kids are stuck and it’s supposed to be like, hey, we’re taking care of you guys. No, no, you’re not. You haven’t taken care of us for 50 years. I mean, there’s nothing in it that you’re taking care of us because we eliminate all the competition. And the fact is, is that

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (33:22.85)
Yeah. Yep.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (33:29.698)
Yeah.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (33:40.013)
Yeah.

Mark Boyer (33:44.895)
In competition, are, your point, American dream is there’s opportunities to be successful. And then yet there’s times when I’ve had to compete and I’ve lost and I’ve been beat and I have to go back and say, I got to re -gather myself and let’s go. We got to go back in. so, you can argue with certain areas, people don’t have that same. I get that. mean, there might be some others where they’ve started below the deck. They don’t have a chance at that.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (33:56.067)
Yeah.

Mark Boyer (34:13.377)
But again, I’d say look at who’s been in control of those places and you’ll see that they’re, you know, they eliminated that a long time ago, didn’t give those people a chance themselves, and yet they say the biggest problem and it’s somebody else’s fault. It’s like, boy, you know, come on. These people aren’t stupid and they’re starting to finally wake up. It’s really, it’s great. And I think it’s great for America that they are, especially in the inner cities. They’re really starting to, getting tired of it. And it’s about time. It’s a little late.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (34:23.618)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (34:36.054)
I agree.

Mark Boyer (34:43.029)
But they do that, man. It’s a new ball game. It’s a new ball, and it’s very exciting.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (34:46.58)
Yup. Amen. It is really exciting. I like that preach it. That’s a good optimistic, you know, tone to leave it. You know, we had a lot of doom and gloom talk, but again, just a lot of education and, then we’ll get, we’re here today. We’re not here to, to, to crucify or to, condemn. We’re just here to educate, put our two cents in and how we believe if you don’t like it, you can turn it off. But again,

That’s what makes America beautiful and great is we can have different opinions and we have freedom of speech, or we should. And we got to fight for that.

Mark Boyer (35:21.195)
Well, our job at Jay’s, you know, we’re just trying, we want our clients and our people to be all that they can be. Our job is to try to, especially on their finances or in other places. That’s why I love what I do. Into areas where we’re talking way more about, you know, then finances, there’s lots of things, marriages, there’s all kinds of, mean, you know, it’s just, it’s a people business and I love helping people.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (35:27.724)
Yep.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (35:33.326)
Mm

Mark Boyer (35:44.959)
become all they can be and maximize their opportunity. And so on all of these things, we’re always got kind of this bent towards like what the markets are gonna do. you know, and because that’s, you know, ultimately we’re helping manage their funds and then, you know, they’re going into retirement, they don’t want to run out of it. I mean, these are very important topics. And so you’ve got all these ancillary things out there that are very like, it doesn’t matter, but they do matter. I mean, these things do matter and ultimately they affect.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (36:08.482)
Yeah.

Mark Boyer (36:11.637)
all of what we’re doing, you know, as a society and as a country. Again, I started this thing, I brought up an American, you know, World War II book that I’m reading. It’s been really interesting to read it from a perspective of the other side and to hear what they were doing. But I’m just amazed when you go to war and I think about all the veterans of our country here and what has been sacrificed for our freedoms.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (36:13.624)
Yeah.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (36:29.23)
I’m going to…

Mark Boyer (36:41.817)
it’s astounding to think that we would walk right, kind of like walk right back into not being free. And that’s it feels like. We’re sort of at that turning point as a country. So it’s kind of amazing. It’s just, yeah, it’s an important time. Stay on our knees, be praying, and seeking the Lord, have mercy on us. But it’s an important time for our country and for, yeah. So we do get excited, and we’re passionate about what we do, right? So that’s very good.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (36:48.194)
Yeah.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (37:09.75)
Amen. Yeah, we are. We are. We love our people. We love our clients. Such an honor to serve. you know, so we are at a pivotal point in conclusion. We are at a pivotal point of our country, of an election, of markets. But we’ll keep you informed. We’ll hold your hand along the way. That’s what we’re here for. But until next time.

Mark Boyer (37:34.805)
And it’s exciting too. It’s a fun time. It’s going to be good. Compensation. Let’s go, baby.

Jason Jacobi, CFP® (37:37.0)
It is. It is. is. Let’s go. Let’s go. We’ll see you guys next week. Thanks for listening and tuning in