Again, like I said, people one way or another, your taxes are going up and you need to understand something that inflation is a tax. Milton Friedman explained it really, really well. You're either paying for all of this spending with taxes or you're paying it with your currency as devalued. That's the reality. You're listening to Carrie Lutz's Financial Survival Network, where you get valuable information you just can't find anywhere else. To thrive in today's trying times, you need the Financial Survival Network now more than ever. Go to financialsurvivalnetwork.com and get your free newsletter and gift, Financial Survival Network now more than ever. And welcome. You are listening to and watching the Financial Survival Network. I'm your host and, well, got a special treat for you. Today, Wall Street's watchdog, Chris Martowski, is with us and it's been a while, Chris. What's happening in the world here? Pretty dull time of world history, isn't it? A lot's going on with politics. You can't turn your head without seeing something going on or somebody getting a full offended by some comment somewhere that, oh, my God, I've got the vapors. A comedian made a joke and then it's getting to be atly absurd and nonsensical, but it always has been. It's really a talk to take that. You put the politics aside. I'm laughing my head off because it's how the Bond vigilantes are here and they told the Fed and Powell that they could take a hike with their rate cuts. And it's not just here though, which is the amazing thing, is you're taking a look at yields rise all across the globe. And again, we've got to be politically correct nowadays, seems to be able to say something. The United States of America is the tallest short person in the world. It's right now because it's happening everywhere. It's hilarious. You know, we say on FSN, we say that the US is the best-looking house in Baltimore. There you go. Even around the Johns Hopkins, Loyola area there that I know that. Yeah. So things aren't what they used to be, but in the meantime, you got like China appears to be in a financial implosion of which they have no ability to deal with. We got half the world trying to blow up the other half of the world, it seems, right? China, it's like saying, okay, I'm going to throw a ball up in the air. And what's going to happen? It's going to come down and central planning happens every single time it's tried. And you do to try to control the mother nature, which is akin to what economics really is, these trillions of interactions that happen every single day. And you think you've got some handle on it, you're going to fail and try them. They'll miserably, I mean, they were, they were going in the right direction for a period of time, and they decided to go all in Mal with Z. And again, no shock here. I mean, anybody ever believed that the numbers that the Chinese government puts out, their growth numbers, anything at all, it's all up for Gazi. Everything that they put out there, they've got major, major issues take in place. The real estate issues are beyond the pain. Honorable. Yeah, I don't know how they're going to go about resetting it. What was the announcement today? It was like 1.4 or 1.5 trillion dollar stimulus. Oh, Zuka. Yeah. Yeah, they did the Zuka and the market went down. It's interesting. It's always a question of life imitating South Park. There was that one where everything in the world was securitized, and he wanted to, the son wants to get a refund on the margarita maker, but he can't. The store won't take it back because it's been securitized. So he goes to the hedge fund on Wall Street that owns it, and he goes into their offices. And the way the system they're using to place their bets is they're cutting off the head of a chicken. And after they cut the head off, the chicken walks around this wheel, sprouting blood. And then no, no, that was after the hedge fund carry. That was when they went to the Fed and the government. And remember that the chicken landed on bailout. If you remember, I mean, you can't make this stuff up, Chris. I mean, this is like, I maybe they're not cutting the heads of chickens off, but maybe they're just looking at entrails instead. Right now, I mean, everybody's just like, okay, you lowered rates by 50 basis points. For whatever reason it may be. And if you took a look at the numbers that were coming out, there was no real justification for it. And the market said, now, we're not going along with this. This is not going to happen. And right now, the entire world is a wash and debt. And they're printing more. It was funny today. It was like you had the usual cheerleader for the Fed and big government Steve Leesman on CNBC. He's like, I don't like to give the treasury pass fail when it comes to bond auctions. I want to give them an A because the least they sold everything. My buddy, the higher the rates are, that's the more that we the taxpayers are paying on all of this debt. Not to mention the fact that's the largest line item on the budget at this point in time is interest on the national debt. I mean, it's it is a big deal, but it's a big deal everywhere. And it was interesting. Somebody sent me a clip. And I'm usually kind of remember these things. I don't remember it was Alan Greenspan saying, Hey, listen, you know, one way to get out of the debt situation is to force everyone else's hand. Everybody else goes bankrupt. I don't know. Maybe that's the case. I was trying to pull right now. Or maybe it was the other one I heard is maybe maybe the CIA is behind Bitcoin and they're going to run the price up to a couple million and we'll bail our way. Oh, no. But right now, you know, that's, you know, debt as far as the eye can see and nobody's taken it seriously. Yeah. So they don't take it seriously until they'd have to take it seriously, right? I think we have to now. I mean, you're taking away. You've got mortgage rates back up above 7%. We have our issues with commercial real estate here in this country. The the underwater portfolio was worse than it was stir for the housing crisis during the Great Recession. You know, I don't know how they're going to weasel their way out of that. They're like playing extend and pretend right now and hiding assets on balance sheets. But, you know, it's it's a it's an ugly situation right now. And again, we all know our government finance is most of our debt short term instruments that they can't perpetually roll over again and again. And now they're rolling it over at higher rates, which is just going to cost a taxpayer more money. Well, eventually they're just going to monetize it, right? Again, you know, like I said, you know, people one way or another, your your taxes are going up and you need to understand something that inflation is a tax. Milton Friedman explained it really, really well. You're either paying for all of this spending with taxes or you're paying it with the, you know, how your currency is devalued. That's the reality. So over the weekend, former president proposed elimination of the income tax, just putting in tariffs, I guess, as a substitute, which in theory sounds wonderful, but how's that really going to work out? Yeah, in theory, it sounds wonderful that everybody gets free beer. But it's just, you know, it's just it's theory. It's great. It's not going to happen. Nor are many of these policies. We all know this that a lot of these things are just used for public consumption. You can, you know, listen to things that are, you know, promised in the run-up to election day or state of the union addresses. No, that's that's not going to happen. No, it's not feasible. I am all for the elimination of the income tax. I big believer rather go through a national sales tax. I think it'd be a hell of a lot better than an income tax got to do something. But again, I wouldn't instill anything like that until they actually, you know, repealed, you know, the legality of the income tax across government, because then they'll do both at the same time. We'll have a VAT tax and we'll have it, you know, that's no, I don't want that. But I much rather see, you know, a national sales tax than what we have right now. Yeah, well, for one thing, it'd be a lot easier to calculate because you wouldn't have to calculate it. You know, I mean, what? Hey, at the point of sale, how about that consumption tax, you're paying at the point of sale, works every single time. What would it be? Well, like 10%, 20%, 30%. You know, there will be a John Linder that actually had a book, have a call, they actually call it the fair tax and how it would be set up. And again, it had to figure how that would would go about working. But again, it would also, you would be getting rid of FICA as well with that also. And let's just understand something that your, your, your FICA tax is just a tax, you know, again, you wouldn't Medicare would have sites South Park. I remember the old, in Simpsons, that the Duff beer factory where they had like Duff, Ice, Doug, dry, all this, it was all the same beer just going into the same spouts. All the money that you're paying is all going to the treasury. It's all the same thing. Oh, it's yeah, it's going to some lockbox somewhere. No, no, no, it's not going to Green God's bank with the dragons from Harry Potter, daring, you know, guarding your social security money. It goes to the treasury and it gets sent out the damn door. So, so it all goes, all comes down to South Park. Maybe we should put that in charge of, of what's happening here, huh? Those guys are geniuses. I have to hand it to them. And they call a lot of stuff over the years. That's for sure. Yeah. The, you know, Kevin Spacey's dungeon, you know, all of this stuff. And they called Donald Trump being elected president many, many years ago, right? Yeah, I think it was a Simpsons did that. Yeah, the Simpsons did that way, way back in the day. Yeah, it was one of the calls that they made. But again, they've had so many calls. They've been on since what like 1987 or something. Yeah, long, long time. Yeah. Yeah. So the big question always is, is you just buy gold and silver, you buy cryptos, real estate, stocks, I mean, all assets. I mean, my clients, you know, they, you know, they, well, you know, tell me, oh, you're wonderful. It's just fantastic. It's like, I'm like, you know, I appreciate the kudos and all that. But you got to understand that some of this performance has been duped inflation. I mean, it's not just, you know, the, you know, the fact that, you know, it's great that the companies, we got great companies in your portfolio and they're doing well, but you need to also understand that these things are up along with, you know, inflation, that that plays a part in this also. And, you know, your portfolios, you know, whatever it may be, you know, it looks great and also, but if not worth as much as it was, she saw some members the other day, I said, you know, going back to 1996. And, you know, if you had, you know, a million, if you were a millionaire, then let's see, equivalent to about a half a million today. It's a big difference. Big difference, big difference. But it's so hard to compare prior price levels to current. Yeah, for food, you know, cost of an omelet or cup of coffee, you know, I go to this place called the inflation cafe in the mornings, and they just raise the price on my particular drink. And my drink's a little funky, but basically everyone has their drink there. And it went from 562, 567 to 632 overnight. And, you know, it's no better. And, you know, when I go back and I look at theirs and did an analysis, it's in my, I have to send you a link to the article. But basically they've got up 44% since 2014. And they've cut back on their rewards program by about 80%. And they're making more money than ever. But yet they can't keep their heads above water. Well, I mean, that's, that's the inflation that matters. Yeah, I am talking to bear necessities inflation. It's the stuff that you have to buy on every day basis. I mean, again, the wizards are smart, the economists are all inflation is at this percent. Listen, okay. Yeah, every, every 10 years or so, I need to buy a new TV. And that's great that the price is a lot less. You know, but the fact is the stuff that we have to spend money on every single day continues to go up. That's what's most important, whether it be, you know, your heating costs, your electricity costs, your car costs, gasoline costs, your food costs, your haircut, whatever, all of the things that you have to spend money on on a regular basis continues to go up. And that's why people are so frustrated. Yeah, like I said, it's great, you know, efficiencies and productivity driving down the cost of electronics and certain things and durable goods. But the reality is how often you have to buy those things. You can't eat an iPad. Yeah, it's so true. And you know, as nice as a Tesla is, you can't do much with it other than drive it and electricity prices up everything's up. So assets are the key to surviving here. And if you can get assets with cash flow, like commercial, not commercial real estate, but residential real estate, like leasing, different items that people have to have, then that's where you really clean up, right? Yeah, I mean, any, any, you have to have your money working for you. I mean, if you're not being again, you're falling behind. That's why everybody, they feel it, you know, you're taking, you know, you're working your butt off, you might get a raise, you're taking two steps forward, but you're taking three steps back. The only way you're going to avoid that is you got to be, you know, prudent with your money and you have to be invested, you have to be putting money away, you have to beat inflation. And because it's, it's there, it's a reality. And if you're not, you know, like I said, you're falling behind. We don't really know what the real inflation rate is, but it's certainly higher than 4%. And what are you getting at your bank? Or, you know, what is the short term treasure right now, right on 4%. It's certainly a hell of a lot higher than that. So if you buy a piece of rental real estate and you're paying 6.5%, 30 year fixed mortgage, I think the inflation rate is probably closer to 10%. Yeah. So you're basically getting free money, something else. Well, yeah, well, yeah, I mean, without a doubt, I think inflation is probably above 10. You would go back with the old way that they calculated back to the Volcker numbers. I think it's even higher than that. So you always have to find a way to try to, you know, get ahead of the game. And again, you do it in real estate, you do it through, you know, you look for great companies that you can see growth in that are paying you dividend as well. And you reinvest that you compound those safe yields over time, which is a, you know, the Royal Road to Riches is compounding. You debt, you're able to, you know, stay afloat and get ahead of this as best you possibly can. Because again, I don't, inflation is the way of the world now. You know, nobody, we have neither can today right now that is the slightest bit serious about cutting the government down to size. I mean, God willing, you know, Trump allows Musk to go in there and cut a couple trillion bucks. Because again, we do that. I mean, you're going to talk about, you know, an economy where we got an enormous amount of potential, we can do unbelievable things that we can get our fiscal house in order. That would be fantastic. But again, am I holding my breath? No, no, I've been alive for way too long. Well, one thing that Trump did last time that really was effective, but when he issued the executive order that for every new regulation you want to pass, you got to get rid of two. Yeah. And that two turned into 20. And imagine if he said you got to get rid of 100. All right. Or you got to get rid of it. Yeah, how about you get along with them, whatever you got to get rid of like five government workers. Right. That's top of that. And top of that, too. 100 over worker 100 regulations and 100 government employees. Yeah. So cut that down to size. Well, well, over two million some odd guy. I mean, it's it's insanity. You know, contractors, military, industrial complex. Everything. Yep. Cut it all out. Cut it down to size. Yeah. You know, it's it's disgusting what we're watching taking place in this country, how we spend money. Yeah, I'm here in Tampa, Florida, the devastation, some of these areas here at the Hurricane North Carolina. Here you go. Here's a $750 check. We were sitting billions of dollars all over the globe to all of these countries. It's patently absurd. It really is. You know, we could we have the capacity to deal and take care of our own people here in this country. And we don't, you know, I've explained this. You're not the priority people. You're not. If you were, they would be taking care of you with with stuff like this happened right now. They don't know. You're not the priority. The military industrial complexes, the defense contracts are. And obviously their friends overseas. Exactly. Yep. They managed to get taken care of, but the people who really needed these storms have just really exposed the scam of the federal government. So when we have this talk a year from now, Chris, where is the country going to be? Boy. Listen, you know, I don't, I'm be honest with you. I, the way the media works nowadays, especially with politics, I have no idea quite frankly, how, you know, this is going to turn out with this election. You're basically looking at Donald Trump and God willing, you know, I'm casting my vote for him. I've always been, I mean, in 2016, he wasn't my choice. Rand Paul was, I've always been, you know, the libertarian type, you know, a big rancher, old guy. But, you know, to me, he's the better choice, in my opinion, at this point in time, or you're getting, you know, get Kamala Harris, you're getting Obama's fourth term. It's Obama's fourth term. He's the cabal. Yeah, he's not running the country. We all, I mean, come on now. I mean, let's be serious. Yeah. She's not. It's, you know, the Obama crowd. Yeah, it's, it's the military, industrial complex and the intelligence community, the IC that are running the country because, yeah, it's obvious. So scary times, Chris, just tell us, where do we find you? How do we connect with you, your podcast, your website, all that good stuff? Easiest way to do that is to get to my website at watchdog on Wall Street.com. I can subscribe to my podcast there and all the other stuff that I have, get to my YouTube channel, all sorts of great stuff. It's watchdog on Wall Street.com. All right, excellent links in the show notes to this interview on financial survival network.com. When you're there, please sign up for your free newsletter. We got over 40,000 subscribers now and keep adding more thousands every month, appreciate you coming on, Chris. If you've got a question for Chris, myself, email kl@carrylutz.com. Chris, thanks so much. We'll talk to you again soon. Pleasure. Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening to Carrie Lutz's Financial Survival Network, your solution to today's trying times. For the latest, go to financialsurvivalnetwork.com. Financial survival network. Now, more than ever.
