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- [00:00]
Erica
Logging in. We're logging in.
- [00:02]
Bob Lawler
Welcome in, you guys up there.
- [00:04]
Erica
You guys all are.
- [00:05]
Bob Lawler
I see you.
- [00:06]
Erica
I have all four of you. You guys come on in. We see you. We See Locals and YouTube. The ex people come on X. Come on in. Rumble Studio. Maybe some people are on Spotify. I'm not sure. But the YouTubers come on in. And the beloveds. So, you guys, we're getting ready. Just letting you guys pile on in. We're going to talk about it later, but I'm feeling a little extra tingly today after hearing Donald Trump speaking in Davos this morning. That's all I'm going to say about that. But how are you guys doing? Marcelo. Sergio.
- [00:44]
Bob Lawler
Oh, you guys, wait.
- [00:46]
Erica
Hello. What kind of a hostess am I? We have a guest with us today from our local subscriber family at. It's Bob Lawler. There he is. He's going to talk to us after. Yep, he's going to talk to us after the simultaneous sip. Okay, guys, let's get ready. I hope we gave you guys enough time to pop in. We're going to play another clip from Scott and guess what? Tomorrow we're going to have his clip posted right on the screen like professionals. So this will be the last day with the iPad. I know you're sorry to hear that. Okay, let me just make this darker. All right, guys, I hope you can hear it. Just give me a thumbs up and let me know it's okay. Ready?
- [01:35]
Bob Lawler
Oh, the glare.
- [01:36]
Scott Adams
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the highland of human civilization. It's called Coffee with Scott Adams and it's the best thing that's ever happened. If you'd like to take it up to the levels that only the psychics could imagine, well, all you need is a cup of mug or a glass, a tank or Chelsea and a guillotine. Joker flask. Vessel of any kind. Fill it with your favorite liquid. I like coffee. And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure the dope media the day. The thing that makes everything better is called simultaneous sip. And it happens now. Double sip. Double sip. I'm calling double sip, everybody. Double zip. Go. Double up. Double. So good. I just thought you needed a little extra. Didn't you? Didn't you need a little extra? Yeah, I think you didn't. Yeah. This gives you a little extra. Well, I saw a tweet from a Twitter account called the Rabbit Hole. They showed that white liberals have the worst mental health, at least as judged by people who went to try to get help. Now, why do you suppose that would be. Well, what do you think would cause that? What would possibly cause the white liberals to have the worst mental health? What would be some possible hypotheses? I don't know. I can't think of anything. Can you? Can't think of a thing. Well, let's speculate though. Here are some differences. Liberal whites believe the news. Would you agree? Liberal whites are most likely to believe the news. Imagine how chilling that would be. You know, any of you, I assume my live stream, you know, not to believe the news. Who is willing to say they believe the news? Go. Anybody? Just one person. We got a yes. Somebody said yes. They believe the news over on YouTube. Well, I wouldn't admit it. I mean, it's fine to believe whatever you want, but just my advice, I wouldn't admit that you believe the news in 2023. That's not really a good look. So imagine if you believe the news, you think that the climate is going to fry you white supremacists are behind the furniture. There was a coup attempt recently, you would believe and that Trump is a Putin sluffer. Trump is Putin's lover. If you believe the news. But conservatives are less likely to believe news. They tend to believe in stuff like hard work and family and obeying laws. And if all of that goes wrong, if you're conservative and you do everything right, obey the laws, stay off drugs, stay in school, you get married to a good mate and have kids. If you do everything right and it still doesn't work out, you still got a backup heaven. Well, at least it'll be better later, right? It might be terrible now, but wait till later. Wow. Yeah, I did everything right. So I'm going to heaven. So you got one group of people who think they're gonna, you know, rot in the earth immediately after the climate fries them and white supremacists murder them and the coup takes over the United States and turns us into whatever. And one group thinks that they have a perfectly good plan for happiness in this world. But if that didn't work out, they've got a second perfectly good plan for an eternity of happiness. What would you expect? What would you expect would be the mental health outcome of those two systems? Design is destiny. You have two systems, and they're designed for exactly the outcome that they delivered. The conservatives designed a system that delivers happiness most of the time. And the left has designed a system that almost can't. Almost can't. I saw that.
- [06:14]
Bob Lawler
Okay.
- [06:16]
Erica
I felt like that was just a great one for today. And where we are And I just want to welcome everyone in again. I'm Erica. We have Marcella, beautiful Marcella. Our sexy Sergio in the house. Our special guest Bob Lawler today, and the voice of Owen Gregorian. So I'll let you guys say hi and take it away. You guys want to say hello to everybody?
- [06:46]
Marcella
Hey.
- [06:49]
Bob Lawler
Hi, everyone.
- [06:49]
Sergio
Hello, everybody. I just want to say something a little bit. Yesterday, I. I asked that. We are Internet orphans. And. And I just wanted to. To. To tell you that I love you all because we all lost our Internet dad. And. And just. That's it. So let's go with that news, I guess.
- [07:12]
Erica
I think we're a great community.
- [07:14]
Owen Gregorian
Mention that Shelly is going to have an announcement tomorrow, so make sure you tune in for that. That'll be coming tomorrow on the. On the live stream. So that'll be coming soon.
- [07:25]
Erica
And I know you're going to ask, too. Just real quick. That was from YouTube. That was Scott's show, number 2170. Okay, 2170. And we'll put it in the notes later, but in case you wanted to see that and make sure you have your books today. Okay. Did you want to say something, Owen? I'm sorry I cut you off.
- [07:45]
Owen Gregorian
No, that's fine. I think we can just transition over to Bob. I think he's gonna.
- [07:49]
Erica
Yeah.
- [07:50]
Owen Gregorian
Walk us through a reframe.
- [07:51]
Bob Lawler
Right? All right. You guys have your books.
- [07:53]
Erica
Bob's gonna do it.
- [07:54]
Marcella
All right. It's page 16 in the soft cover. I was informed it's page 14. If you have the hardcover. If you have the electronic edition, I can't help you. But it's the reframe right after the one from yesterday. This one's managing energy instead of time. And speaking as Scott here, I've written approximately 11,000 comic strips since the beginning of my cartooning career in 1989. Nearly every one of those comics was written before 9am If I wrote a joke at 5am, I usually like how it turns out. If I try writing a joke at 3pm, I'll probably end up losing whatever I produce. I think of this as managing energy, not time. I have exactly the right kind of energy for coffee fueled creative writing in the morning. But a caffeine buzz is exactly the wrong kind of energy for drawing comics, as that requires a more relaxed vibe. So I write in the morning when writing is easy, and I draw in the evening. You drawing as easy? That's managing energy, not time. So the usual frame, manage your time. The reframe, manage your energy. In my experience, the energy I have for a Task is more important to the outcome than the amount of time I have allocated to do it. I can produce more in 15 minutes with the right energy than in four hours with the wrong energy. Most creative people will tell you something similar. There's a time of day that works best for creative work and other times do not work at all. The same holds for exercise. I have the right energy for exercise about noon each day, so that's when I do it. And I assume I get better outcomes compared to the exercising when I'm at low energy. The secret to managing energy as opposed to time is to gain as much control as you can over your own schedule. If you have a boss, you might not have options about when you do what. If you have a spouse or family or pet or other obligation, Those two can force you out of the more productive and happy energy management mode into time management mode. That's why I say you should favor life choices that give you schedule flexibility. For example, if you get two job offers that seem equivalent, but one gives you more schedule freedom, take the freedom. Likewise with relationships, if you are equally attracted to two people and need to choose, consider picking the one who gives you the most schedule freedom. Freedom is a good tiebreaker for decisions with unpredictable outcomes. The other good tiebreaker is how much you will learn in one situation versus the other. When you manage energy instead of time, you might not get around to all the tasks you need to get done. The solution to that don't do those tasks. At least not today. If that sounds irresponsible, think of all the things that ever went wrong because you didn't get something done that was at the bottom 20% of your priorities. I'll do that exercise too, right now. And if either of us thinks of even one example, I'll be amazed. Okay, begin. I'm done. I got nothing. Neither did you. I'm guessing the least important 20% of your tasks are unlikely to have made a difference in your life. Let them go. It's hard at first, but you get used to it. There might be some blowback or when certain tasks get postponed that you can more than make up for that by being able to do your creative and important work when your energy is best. The time versus energy trade off is embedded in most of your decisions, but perhaps you never thought of it that way. For example, your diet and fitness systems might take extra time out of your day, but you get that back in healthy energy. Or perhaps you're lucky enough to have two potential romantic partners and there's a difference in how much energy you feel with each. Follow the energy. That's a good signal. If you're trying to decide between two career paths, you probably feel a distinct energy difference when you think of one versus the other. Don't ignore that. When you're buying a car, most of that decision is practical and focused on your needs. But some car models give you a feeling that boosts your energy, some don't. Sometimes that feeling hits you every time you get near the vehicle. That's energy. Take the car that provides it. And so it goes with most decisions in life. One path energizes you more than the other, no matter how they stack up in other dimensions. Energy isn't the only variable. I don't want to leave that impression. But after health and safety, it's near the top. Treat it that way and life will surprise you on the upside. Hmm.
- [13:07]
Erica
It's like the wanting and deciding, right?
- [13:10]
Marcella
Exactly. And I think that's why he organized it that way. I know I have struggled with that my whole life because I have automatically managed my energy instead of my time and always felt guilty for doing that. And when my time wasn't always my own, I got blowback. Whether it was parents or a boss or or someone else in my life. But becoming self employed and arguably an adult, I find I can manage to my energy. And hearing that Reframe, finally. Thank you, Scott. Finally I got the permission I needed to do it. And I have been far more productive and far more happy about what I've achieved ever since. How about you?
- [14:12]
Sergio
What a great testimonial bar. That's my favorite reframe. Maybe because time is very hard to focus on. Right. It's so destructive. But energy, if you keep yourself pain free, right. You keep yourself strong, you can achieve anything all day. There's no limit to how much it can be done. So that's one of my favorite reframes. And one thing I want to add is also, I don't think he put in the book, but he talked about it later, is get rid of any energy vampires in your life.
- [14:53]
Marcella
Yes, that's important. And we've all had to do that at times. I think I certainly have.
- [15:00]
Sergio
And it's not just people. It can be an activity too, or something, you know.
- [15:05]
Marcella
Sure, absolutely.
- [15:09]
Sergio
So, yeah, that's all I got on that one. Maricela.
- [15:12]
Owen Gregorian
Yeah, I think it's brilliant. I think they, you know, there's a lot of things that come out of that that, you know, you can build on that with or other things that Scott has Said along these lines, like he, you know, he does have his own routines, which is, you know, you might think, well, wait a second, doesn't he do everything at the same time? So isn't he managing his time? But I think it's all based on his energy, right? It's based on when he knows himself well enough to know, okay, in the mornings, I feel this way. In the afternoons, I feel that way. And it's a pattern. And I'm sure if there are exceptions to that, where he's like, you know what? Today I feel different. Like, I don't feel energetic in the morning or I do feel energetic in the afternoon, then you can easily adapt and adjust and get different things done. And he's talked also about how sometimes it's just a crappy day and then he might actually tackle the tasks that are really crappy because he's like, well, let's just bunch them all up and get them all done today, because it's not going to get better today. So if I need to fire somebody or if I need to have a difficult conversation, conversation, then when he's in a bad mood, he kind of takes advantage of that. And that's another example of taking advantage of his energy. And I think I've certainly noticed that there's certain times a day where I have a lot more energy to do certain things. And it helps if I can structure my day around those types of things and those activities and do the things that I have energy for. It is a challenge sometimes. I mean, I work for a company, I have a boss a lot of the time, and they might tell me to do a certain thing at a certain time. But I have found that I do have a lot of control over that as well. Where I can schedule meetings at a certain time or even block out my calendar at a certain time if I want to make sure I'm not going to have a meeting at that time because it's just not going to work out well. And being able to set aside time for certain creative activities or doing deep work, and that seems to work really well. And I think most people are happier when you can deliver better results to them. And so I think for the most part, it works out better for everybody when people do manage to their energy. So I'd certainly encourage you to try it if you're not already doing it and just kind of watch yourself. Have that sense of how is my energy today? And also part of this, I think indirectly he talks about it as managing your environment too, that if you Have a bunch of clutter around, it might drain energy from you, or. Whereas if you had a neat environment, you clean your room like Jordan Peterson says, you might just feel better and feel more energetic. And sometimes you just might need to get out of your room that you're typically in working and go somewhere else. And that may give you a different kind of energy. And so I think there's a lot of different tips and techniques that Scott has given us over the years on how to manage energy, and I think they're all very useful.
- [18:02]
Erica
I agree. And I like the flow of that, too. The. The. I was gonna say the flow of, like, the one par. The one reframe into the next. Because I think that if you. If you do the wanting and deciding first and going into, like, what's the most important thing. Yeah. You can eliminate so much stuff to save your energy for the important stuff. All right, sorry, I'm just thinking out loud. Go ahead, Marcella.
- [18:27]
Marcella
No, that's fine.
- [18:29]
Bob Lawler
For me, this. This reframe made me feel no longer guilty for, you know, some of, you know, I'm an attorney, so I do a lot of writing and I do a lot of, like, you know, depots arguments and all that. And that's throughout the day. I don't have a choice when the court has a hearing. But what I. What I. What this. This reframe gave me is the idea that I should not feel guilty for a two o', clock, three o' clock feel, feeling like I don't have that energy to write a brief or something huge. So I do most my work in the very early morning or very late at night. And I know my job gives me that flexibility to be able to do it, but it. It took away the guilt, and I think Bob talked about that. But it just definitely helps me realize that I was, you know, like, I had the idea that energy was he. But Scott saying it confirmed it.
- [19:40]
Marcella
Yeah.
- [19:41]
Erica
I also just want to say I saw Lyric Flower over here on Locals Said. I also like Scott's suggestion of writing in a busy environment where that is not typically how we would approach that sort of task. And I love that because sometimes it's true, like, do the thing you have to do, but do it somewhere different. And maybe it gives you, like, a different energy or burst or. Or creativity or whatever it is. So I. Thanks for adding that lyric. That's a great idea.
- [20:10]
Marcella
Yeah. I dabble in film from time to time, including screenwriting. And what I know from other screenwriters is a lot of time they'll Go to a coffee shop to write, and it's to get out of their regular routine and change the scenery. Exactly like that. But it's also to draw energy from the energy around you. And the friends of mine who do it swear by it. So that's another way to manage your energy, is go get some. It's like Scott talked about your luck. Move to a place where there's a lot going on because that'll improve your luck. The energy is there. Get in amongst the energy and draw on it.
- [20:58]
Erica
That's great advice. I'm gonna toss it over now because there's a lot going on in the news today. And as I was saying before, I'm feeling tingly because I was listening to President Trump speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and he's saying a lot of stuff I like today. So how about an interstitial sip? And then I'm going to turn it over to Owen and Marcella and they will kick us off on the news and you guys chime in in the comments. We're reading what you're saying. Okay, go on.
- [21:36]
Owen Gregorian
All right. Well, I posted a number of stories. I don't think I did get the latest of what Trump is saying in Davos. Maybe I just didn't quite get the latest updates on that. But, Erica, if you want to let me know what he said or Marcella, I don't know if you're up to date on that. Could start there.
- [21:53]
Bob Lawler
I can have. So I, I, I, I have some of the stuff that he said. He said a lot of things that I love. I mean, I voted for this. But anyways, he, he eviscerated the globalists in their face in Davos World Economic Forum. Even Gavin Newsom was in the crowd. But the best thing about it is that there was a standing ovation for him when he came in. And that's, you know, it talks volumes about how the leaders of Europe are against him in a way, but at the same time, the people there are not. The citizens of Europe understand what he's saying and it's working. So I'm going to cover a few things that he said. Do not get mad at me for not covering everything, because he talked for quite a while and I think he may be still talking. I don't know.
- [22:55]
Owen Gregorian
He, I'll let, I'll let you cover it. But did Gavin Newsom really say I should have brought knee pads?
- [23:06]
Bob Lawler
He was thinking that.
- [23:07]
Owen Gregorian
No, I think he actually said that he did. I didn't story like that. I think he was complaining about how everyone was deferring to Trump.
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Bob Lawler
Oh, my gosh.
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Erica
Maybe the locals can find out.
- [23:18]
Bob Lawler
They're.
- [23:19]
Erica
They're saying yes, I think. Yeah, I think. I think they're saying yes to this. There is a delay. Oh, he did. He did.
- [23:25]
Bob Lawler
I think he posts that on X.
- [23:30]
Owen Gregorian
I. I don't remember if I posted the story about it, but I'm sure we could find it. I'll look for it. Go ahead. Let's go through what Trump said, so.
- [23:38]
Bob Lawler
I'll cover some of the things he said. He said, frankly, many part of our world are being destroyed and the leaders don't even understand what's happening. And the ones that do understand won't do anything to stop it. There's runaway inflation. We have proven them wrong. Many Western governments foolishly turn their backs on everything that makes a nation rich, powerful and strong. He actually made me laugh because he talked about windmills. And whenever I hear windmills, I think Don Quixote and like this, this ideal of green energy being the key to everything. And it's basically a hoax in a way, as. As I would think of it. But the beauty of it is that he uses visual language, as Scott would say, to bring you your mind to the windmills. And he says, you don't see China having windmills, you see Europe having windmills, and that has not gotten them anywhere. Nuclear is the answer he talks about. And he talks about the oil production in America being historic high. Of course, I would have to say that all, all numbers, you know, you can't really. What would Scott say? If you want to put it in the, in the, in your chat, But I would think, like, not all numbers are fake. What was it that he would say about numbers and figures that government would come up with?
- [25:25]
Owen Gregorian
Usually it was about, you need to have both the absolute numbers and the percentages, otherwise it's meaningless or it's deceptive.
- [25:33]
Bob Lawler
Yeah. So, I mean, Trump is trying to sell the idea that oil, natural gas and nuclear are the key to energy. He talks about oil production being historic high in America, 730,000 barrels a day. And last week they picked up 50 million, he said, of barrels from Venezuela alone. So he uses this to basically set up the difference between the winners and the losers. What made me laugh is Macron yesterday, I think he spoke. I think it was at the World Economic Forum. He comes in with sunglasses, and some people say, Trump talked about it today. And he was something. He said something about, like, I don't know what's going on with him. But what's happening? Like, some people were claiming that his, you know, allegedly his wife may have hit him or something else he was covering up. But it was hilarious to see him. I think he also talked about McCron, about Macron being weak. And this was at his speech today. One of the things he said, oh, my God. President Trump just talked about the line that embarrassed French President Emmanuel Macron while he's in the room. And it's pure gold. This is from Eric Dorothy on X. And then he quotes Trump saying, I said, here's the story manual. You're gonna do it. You're gonna do it fast. If you don't, I put 25 tariff on you and 100% on your wines and champagnes. No, no, no, Donald, I will do it. Took me three minutes. No, no, no, Donald, I will not do it. You're asking me to double. I said, emmanuel, you took advantage of the US for 30 years. You will do it. In fact, I'm 100% sure that you will do it. No, no, no, no, no. He is the. He is the best. So that's one of the things he talked about. He talked about Canada and he talked about Carney. For all the Canadians watching me, Mike Burke, one of them, Canada lives because of us. He said, mark, remember that before you make those speeches. So he's, he's notifying them that he's strong, he takes the strong position and that he obliterates them with the tariff, which goes to the point that the United States Supreme Court was supposed to come out with the opinion. Opinion on the tariffs. I, I don't know if you recall, but they, it's been litigated into going up to the Supreme Court, where they needed to decide whether Trump is constitutionally allowed to set these tariffs or whether he needs congressional, you know, approval. And basically the US Supreme Court, not sure exactly why yesterday did not release that opinion. Meaning that they didn't possibly. They didn't either they're not having a full decision yet realized, or they didn't want to be political in them releasing the opinion. So they made that move yesterday. I'm not sure what that says. They will eventually come come out with the decision which will, in fact, either confirm Trump's power or not. So that's one of the things that happened. Trump went on to talk about the credit card issue in America. In the Davos speech, he talked about passing an executive order of having credit cards only charged 10%. Part of this is the idea that people, the general public, they, they need the middle Class, the lower class, everybody and everything needs money in order to buy property, in order to buy a house. And he was talking about the idea that most credit card companies will charge 28% or more to their customers. And but by passing this executive order, he's asking the credit card companies to only charge 10% now for one year.
- [30:27]
Erica
For one year.
- [30:28]
Bob Lawler
For one year. Now, legally, I can't go into it, but I'm sure there's going to be lawsuits to not, you know, to not enforce this executive order. And I don't know your thoughts on that.
- [30:42]
Erica
The other thing I just want to quickly say was when he was talking to Macron about the tariffs on their imports, and that was because he's working on the drug prices coming down because we're paying, you know, like 3,000% more than the other nations. So he's saying like you either raise your prices so ours come down. Like if all of all of your countries each take it a little bit, then it'll kind of balance out. And that's what he was saying. No, no, no, we're not going to do it. And then also so we can have favored nation status, he worked on that. So we would pay in America the lowest price of all the. So whatever the lowest price is for any country, that's what we would also pay. So that would be because we pay out the wazoo for drugs here. So. Yeah, go ahead.
- [31:33]
Bob Lawler
So he, I don't know, what if he talked about other points? The credit card point was excellent. The, the other thing that happened recently is that yesterday I believe he passed an executive order to put some kind of stop to companies purchasing homes. It's the first step laying out the Wall street home purchases. Now, I have to say, and I know I won't be popular out there, I'm not in agreement with that, given that that is basically corporations are people in my mind. And if I have a corporation and I want to buy a home, I should be allowed. So to me, I don't think the idea economically to just force corporations not allowed to purchase homes will not make the home cheaper. In my mind, I think that the government should stay away from economics and I'm a laser free capitalist. So as you can, as you, some of you would know. But, but I'm sure that there are people that want this relief fast. And I think Trump understands that. And I think what he's trying to do is, is bring relief as soon as possible. And I think Lacey, for capitalism would take a while to work. I am a millennial and I have lots of friends that are just renters. And today in Davos, he talked about, I don't want a nation of renters. I want a nation to own homes. Because part of owning a home is not really the ownership, but it brings you stability to have a family, to have kids, to be able to have stability in personal life versus, you know, less divorces, less issues. You. And it's affordable home. Because the issue is that you end up paying so much of your money to your house that there is not much money left. So I don't know if you have thoughts on that. I personally disagree with the executive order, but I can see why he's doing it.
- [34:00]
Owen Gregorian
Yeah, I feel similarly. I mean, I think I can understand why he's doing some of these things because he's trying to make things more affordable. And even if it's just a temporary thing, if it has a positive impact on affordability, then that has not just the economic benefit for people in the short term, but also it might have a significant impact on the midterms. And so politically, I think it's probably a very smart move to say, I'm doing everything I possibly can, pulling out all the stops, doing things I might not normally do to try and just make life more affordable for people. It's a real issue, and it's what people care about. So I think he's trying to read the room and say, I'm going to do everything I can to take away some of the cost of this. But at the same time, I do share a lot of your beliefs about government getting involved with the free market and having it maybe backfire. And I'm worried about that because, for example, with credit cards, if we go back to the financial crisis, what we saw was when they put in more controls around that, what happened was people just stopped lending. Banks stopped lending to people. And I agree that it was an abuse before that that led to the financial crisis. So I'm not saying we should have just let everybody do no document loans like they were doing and all these essentially fraudulent types of things. I don't think that's the right answer. But at the same time, what happened was banks just said, you know what, I don't want to do this anymore. Like, I'm just going to pull back. And even when the government encouraged them and tried to get them to say no, we really want you to issue loans to the people who are qualified for them, they still wouldn't do it. And for many years, it was like getting really hard for people to get a loan approved because the banks were so gun shy to take on any risk or to make those loans. And if you limit the credit card interest to 10%, what I would expect to happen from an economic standpoint is that you'd probably see a lot of credit lines getting cut where people won't be able to put anything more on their credit card. And you might even see some of their cards being canceled where they're going to say, we're not even going to allow you to have a credit card anymore because you're not worth the risk. If you're the type of person that was carrying a credit card balance and not really paying back or keeping up with your payments, that the credit card companies might say, it's not going to be profitable for me to do this, because that's, I think one of the reasons why you have these 20% interest rates is that they need to charge that much in order for the whole portfolio of customers to make sense. You have a whole bunch of people like me that pay off their bill every month and they never get any interest. They get a whole bunch of other stuff like the transaction fees and stuff from me, but they don't get interest. But then you have some people who carry a balance, but they make their minimum payments. And then you have other people who struggle to make their minimum payments and may never pay it back. And they have to look at that as a whole portfolio and say, okay, what do I need to charge for people who aren't paying their full balance every month so that even if some people never pay it back, I still get more than I loaned out to people. And so my concern would be that this would have a retraction sort of effect on the economy where credit card companies would say, well, if I can't charge any more than 10%, then I'm only going to charge. I'm only going to allow credit for the highest credit rating people that I know are going to pay me back and I'm going to cut it off for everybody else. And that may end up happening, hurting the very people that Trump is trying to help. And I think some of that might be true with some of this housing market stuff too, that if you restrict things and say you're not allowed to do certain things, then that may just have an effect of pulling back on the market. You won't have as many buyers, you won't have as many sellers, and there may just not be as many transactions. Now, I think on the housing front, in terms of not letting big corporations Buy houses. To me, that might be a little bit of a red herring sort of thing. I don't know that there really were that many big corporations that were snapping up houses. I know there was a lot of news about that and especially on the right, but I remember seeing that that was kind of debunked and that it really wasn't happening nearly at the scale that people were saying it was. Correct me if I'm wrong if you think there is a lot of that happening and it's a big problem. But I think to me, if you restrict the free market and you say we're not going to allow that anymore, that's just going to take certain buyers off the market, which means maybe there will be some price pressure downward, but it also might just mean that not as many houses get sold.
- [38:49]
Erica
I think it's a big problem. Owen. I don't know. I mean, I know, you know, entire neighborhoods are being bought up by corporations forcing people to rent. That's a problem and it is definitely a problem. I don't know about other cities, but I can speak for Manhattan has a huge problem with this, with, you know, corporations and corporations from other countries buying up, you know, buildings and, you know, entire, entire buildings just buying it all. It's empty, no one's there. But now they own all that real estate and it's a write off for them. It's an investment for them, but at what cost to the cities in bad shape?
- [39:31]
Owen Gregorian
I would be much more supportive of saying we don't want China to buy a ball of real estate, especially if they're going to leave it idle and not even rent it to anybody. That's ridiculous and I think we shouldn't allow that. So I'd be much more supportive of that type of policy. But I don't think that's what Trump was doing in this case.
- [39:46]
Erica
He's talking about like your black rock stone black. Who is it? One of them.
- [39:53]
Owen Gregorian
Right, but that's the story. It might have been debunked, but go ahead, Bob.
- [39:58]
Marcella
I'm gonna come out in favor of this idea of preventing large corporations from buying up. I. In the last few years I've gotten more involved in my own neighborhood and I'm not going to get into details about that. But what I've discovered is we have one corporation alone that owns more than 5% of our neighborhood, one company alone. And if I were to tell you the name and you Google that, the most common thing you would see pop up in your search results is that name associated with the term slumlord. I've dealt individually with a bunch of the renters in our neighborhood who are renting from, by and large, large corporations that own thousands and thousands and thousands, tens hundreds of thousands of properties perhaps. And when they have a problem, they have to fix it themselves. They can't get the, the landlord company to do it. They're having to do things that, you know, in the neolithic area, when I was still a renter, things that were always the landlord's responsibility in terms of maintenance and lawn care and these kinds of things that if you did have somebody that owned a bunch of properties, they had a maintenance crew that would come around. And I've had to deal with these companies just shirking their responsibilities, leaving the properties literally creating hazards to other people in the neighborhood. And we've had to take all kinds of action to get that resolved. And my understanding is that, and Marcella, you may know more about this, Owen, you may not more may know more, but my understanding is this wasn't an issue before the big financial crisis of 2008 when all of the mortgage backed securities started getting bought up and companies decided, hey, I can go out and buy a lot of single. You had corporations that owned apartment buildings and whatnot, but you didn't have them owning single family homes. And at least from my anecdotal situation, I see it as a real issue. I'm more in favor of that than I am limiting the credit card interest because I figured, you know, there's state usury laws already that, that should protect that to some degree. And you know, the consumer, at some point the consumer has to be responsible for the contracts they sign. And if paying excessive interest is a hard, I mean I did it as a kid. I, I got into credit card debt and had to learn the hard way how to, how to deal with it and pay it off and get to the point like, oh, and you know, I, I pay it off every month and don't pay a penny in interest. But yeah, I'm as, as much as a free market, hands off, limited regulation guy as I am I with Trump on this one.
- [43:21]
Erica
Okay, that's good, that's interesting.
- [43:23]
Bob Lawler
Against it, to be honest. I, I lived in, in a country before here. I'm, I was born in El Salvador and I have to say when you restrict ownership on corporations, there's many other things that can lead to this idea that the government controls how the economy works and I'm against it. I understand the plight of everybody that's going through it. I mean I'm poor, so I would know, I mean, a middle class or whatever, but it's still, I understand the issue and why Trump is wanting to do it, but I don't think this is the way. I think that corporations are owned by other people that risk their time, their effort, and they are basically just trying to do it. In regards to slum owners, as you said, Bob, there is loss against it. So if there, if that comes up, this renters can sue the slum owners and it can be, there's other ways of, of approaching it. And that's my take. I understand, but how, how many, how.
- [44:37]
Marcella
Many people who are renters are going to have the funds to do that?
- [44:43]
Bob Lawler
How many renters do it? Now, there is many legal aids that do it. You can take them to court in small claims, you don't.
- [44:51]
Marcella
But even, even taking them into court, you know, most of these people that I see that are renters are living paycheck to paycheck and they can't afford to even take the time to research how do I do this, you know, the law, Someone has got to, to help them. And so anyway, that's my response to that.
- [45:12]
Owen Gregorian
I mean, I, I, I think that again, I, in the research I've done and the stories I've seen there, I think there is some, I guess what I would call misinformation about this. Let me, I, I, I just asked Brock about this and it was Blackstone, that was the name of the place that was buying up some. But they own a total of about 62,000 homes in the whole country. And that may sound like a lot, and it probably is a lot, but that's still a pretty small percentage.
- [45:39]
Erica
It's a lot though, if it's entire neighborhoods.
- [45:42]
Owen Gregorian
Well, and it may be a problem in certain neighborhoods. But here's what Grok tells me. Large institutional investors, and they define that as Those with over 100 homes, they own roughly 1 to 3% of the single family housing stock. So that's a total of 574,000 homes, which again is just 1 to 3% of the total market. And that was as of 2022. And it says it's gone down since then. So it says their share of purchase has declined since peaks around 2022 and they account for under 2% of home buys in many periods. All investors, including the small mom and pop ones, have bought higher shares, sometimes 25 to 34% in 2025 quarters due to high mortgage rates that are sidelining regular buyers. And it does say in some Specific metro areas, areas like Atlanta, Charlotte or Jacksonville. Institutional ownership overall reaches 15 to 25% of single family rentals, which makes it feel more like an issue. But nationally it's not really that big of an issue. And so, I mean, again, all real estate is local. And if you're in Atlanta and it's hard to find a home to buy and everybody, all the institutions are buying them, yeah, that's a big deal and maybe this will help with that. But I think as an overall national issue, I just don't know that it's really going to make much difference because it's not really happening as much as the media is saying it is.
- [47:08]
Erica
But can't those same people just make another corporation and just keep buying and buying and buying just under a different core?
- [47:17]
Owen Gregorian
I would be worried about that too, because I haven't done any real estate investing, but I have researched doing it. And typically what I hear recommended is that for every property you buy, you make another LLC for that property because it helps you to separate it legally so that if you get sued because let's say something bad happens, like somebody slips and falls on one of your properties, you don't want it to mean that you could be sued for all your properties. Right? So typically I always hear if you're a real estate owner and you're doing rentals, you want to have a separate company for every single property. And I would imagine that if these large corporations are somehow barred from buying properties, that's probably what they would do, right? They would just make a whole bunch of separate companies. Companies. And I don't know, maybe there will be something that prevents that too that says you can't all be owned by the same owner. And maybe that'll still work. But still, I would expect that if a big company doesn't buy it, then maybe a small company will buy it. And I don't know how much difference it'll make to the average person who's trying to buy a house. Because I think to me that's more having to do with the mortgage rates and the value of the house. And I think right now we're still in a mode where real estate prices are probably inflated. You know, it's probably just too high because I think a lot of the prices have been up since the real estate mortgage rates were very low, which tends to drive up the price because again, it comes down to what can I actually afford? And so when the, when the real, when the mortgage rates go up, the value of the house typically would go down. But it really hasn't. And I think that's because that real estate market tends to be kind of inelastic. Sellers don't like to drop their prices. Right. So they might just hold on to the property or keep living there until they can get the price that they want. And so right now, I think we're in this kind of mode where values of properties probably should come down to make them attractive to people to buy, but the sellers don't want to do that. And so a lot of people feel like they're just stuck in their home until they can find a buyer at the price that they think they want to get. But I think mortgage rates going down as they have gone down significantly under Trump, I think that will help and probably more than this other rule, because if you can make it more affordable where people really can afford the mortgage and can afford to buy the house, that might really make a difference for a lot of people.
- [49:33]
Erica
Well, Trump did. Oh, sorry, go ahead.
- [49:35]
Bob Lawler
Wasn't there a story that somebody pointed out right now that Scott would say don't trust data. Don't trust the data. The other thing is that there was immigration. People being deported is causing lower rents in certain cities and allowing, I don't know if there, there were a lot of homeowners that were legal here, but I'm assuming it, it's causing the market to stabilize and lower price, it's probably.
- [50:09]
Erica
Freeing up real estate and rentals.
- [50:12]
Owen Gregorian
It has to be right. I mean, we have millions of people that have left the country and all of them lived somewhere. So I think that is a huge factor. And I think it probably is going to have an impact, especially on rental prices, because that's, I think, more elastic, where if you can't find someone that's willing to pay the higher price, you're going to lower your price until you get that apartment rented or that house rented. And so it is going to cause prices to come down on the, the rental market much more quickly, I think, than on the buying market.
- [50:39]
Erica
Right. You guys, we have about nine minutes left. Why don't we switch to a different topic? And you and Marcella and Owen, you know what, what else do we want to know about?
- [50:50]
Bob Lawler
We wanted to talk about energy because as you know, the key today is energy. Bob talked about managing energy. What the reframe was. Somebody mentioned that Scott would be in the same side and Trump would be at the same side. One of the things that our friend Mark would love is that Japan restarted a nuclear plant today. It's been 30 years since they have done that and 15 years since Fukushima, and they started that. And one of the things that Trump talked about today is that China, he, he basically gave them, he told them that China is doing really great on energy that he read in the Wall Street Journal. They're doing so great, and I like them, you know, and so the key to China is that they are building nuclear faster than anyone right now. And what Trump talked about is letting companies here in America be able to build their own nuclear and be able to not have the red tape of government to allow them to build. Germany killed nuclear. And I think they're trying to bring it back, which is one of the reasons why in Germany, the elections are causing the. The populace to go to wor the right because their prices are increasingly unaffordable. We think today, like our energy prices are affordable, are unaffordable here in America. And Germany is way worse. In other countries, it's way worse. So that's one of the things that came up. The other thing that's coming up today is that the Supreme Court today is hearing arguments in regards to President Trump's authority to remove members of the Federal Reserve to go back to the economy. He wanted, as you recall, he fired Lisa Cook, which was part of the Reserve Board of Governors. And basically when he fired Lisa Cook, Lisa Cook said, no, I'm not fired. You don't have constitutional right to fire me. So I'm staying here. And, and then the Supreme Court is today hearing that. The opinion will come out later. But that, that would be interesting. I don't know. And if you wanted to add to that.
- [53:22]
Owen Gregorian
Well, I would just throw in another story I posted today. It's a study they did in New England, and they said that New England ratepayers could save up to $700 billion by swapping renewables for gas. And it's sort of a combination of nuclear and natural gas that they were looking at, but they're basically saying there might be a lot of blackouts if they don't do this and that. Again, if you just run the numbers, if you use natural gas and nuclear or some mix of the two, it could save people who pay for electricity there in New England up to $700 billion. So that's a big number. And I think it certainly makes a strong argument that you don't want to put all your money into wind and solar and batteries and all these other things, because it's going to be tremendously more expensive to try and do this net zero stuff and that we are going to need a lot more electricity with or without AI and we need to find a way to provide all this energy. And the cheaper it is, the cheaper everything is because everything depends on transportation and other has to have heating and cooling and all sorts of things. So it really drives the economy when you have cheaper energy. So I think this is something that hopefully New England will pay attention to and will try and drive their nuclear and natural gas infrastructure to try and get that cost down. Because I think New England probably is one of the worst areas in terms of electricity costs. I don't know if you can comment on that, Erica.
- [54:55]
Erica
Yeah, New Jersey's brutal. Yeah. No, it's got to come. We have a new governor now as of yesterday, so we'll see how that goes. Do you mind? Me? Go ahead.
- [55:10]
Bob Lawler
So the somebody mentioned on here, I forget their name here, but it talked about nuclear. People are scared because of Three Mile island and Fukushima and other other situations. And Trump talked about today that he was actually scared of. Oh, there you are, Eric. Yeah, like I'm scared.
- [55:35]
Erica
We like to shuffle.
- [55:39]
Bob Lawler
So Trump was saying that he himself as a person was scared of nuclear at first, but now he sees it. So one of the things that, that Scott always talked about is having the flexibility, ability of, of pivoting and being able to say, hey, I was wrong once, now I'm correct again. You know, I was wrong and I changed my mind. And being able to change your mind is like a superpower. And he did it in front of everybody. He admitted it and that was great. And I don't know, in regards to the, the affordability in new. I wouldn't know, but I live in California. It's quite unaffordable for everybody here.
- [56:23]
Erica
Yeah.
- [56:23]
Bob Lawler
Live.
- [56:24]
Owen Gregorian
So, yeah, I mean, I do think that it's hopefully going to turn a corner with nuclear. I think we are making a lot of strides, but I do think it's a longer term solution no matter how you cut it. Because, you know, I think we made it so hard to build a nuclear plant that it was basically impossible and it was just so costly and it would take, take 30 years, literally 30 years to build a nuclear plant. And I think we're, we're definitely getting that down, but I think, you know, what does that mean? Does that mean five years, 10 years, 15 years? You know, it's not going to be next year that all of a sudden we're going to have a bunch of nuclear plants. So I think in the meantime we need to look at things like natural gas and Other things that are a lot easier to roll out, maybe even coal, too, which is what, you know, Trump's trying to do is to keep the coal plants going. But it sounds like that has its own issues in terms of keeping it going. And natural gas is a lot cleaner and a lot cheaper than these renewables, for sure. And I think it is probably the best solution in the short term is to ramp up on the natural gas. And that probably also ties into just the increased drilling and drill, baby drill and all the rest, because I think Trump has made a lot of strides in terms of that, getting people to produce more oil, more natural gas. But we need to use it. You know, we can't just let it pile up. We need to actually put it to work. So to me, that that's probably the best short term solution.
- [57:46]
Erica
Yeah, I agree. All right, you guys, you know me, the timer Nazi. Oh, am I allowed to say that? Anyway, wrapping up.
- [57:55]
Marcella
I want to just real quickly. I haven't heard anybody talk about the winter weather that's coming through parts of the country and how bad it's predicted to be. I. I did like Scott did a couple years ago, and I ordered extra batteries and solar generator and things. And if you're in the path of this thing, do the same. Follow Scott's lead on that.
- [58:18]
Erica
Just, I'm in the path. I'm miserable about it. Oh. I mean, I said I wanted snow, but not like Snowmagga.
- [58:28]
Marcella
Not all of it snow, but not at all.
- [58:31]
Bob Lawler
What happened to Erica?
- [58:33]
Owen Gregorian
I don't know. I think we might have lost her. But, yeah, I started seeing stories about that, how it's, like, dangerous to be outside and it's going to be really, really cold. So definitely bundle up, do whatever you need to to prepare for that.
- [58:47]
Erica
Can you guys hear me, by the way?
- [58:49]
Owen Gregorian
Yeah, we can hear you. Yeah.
- [58:50]
Erica
Okay. All right. I don't know where I went. I just also wanted to say congratulations to J.D. vance and his wife Usha. They're expecting a baby boy. Boy, which is so nice, you guys. Tomorrow, Shelly's gonna have an announcement for us in the morning, and we have a special guest tomorrow. We'll keep it a secret. I just think it'll be a fun guest for us. And I think tomorrow we're doing news stories, so that's gonna be fun. You guys, we so appreciate you. I go back and read the comments on Locals later and you guys are so sweet. Like, we're, we're trying our best and we'll be back again tomorrow. Any closing words from you Sergio. Bless your soul. We just had you all quiet over there today, didn't we? We love you. Okay. All right, you guys. So we'll see you tomorrow. It's 11 o'. Clock. Go be useful. Touch some grass, make some plans. Do some wanting and deciding, eliminating things. Manage your energy. All the good stuff. And a final sip. To Scott, as always. We love you, Scott. To Scott. We love you guys. See you tomorrow.