good morning folks welcome to the sense

of things once again with Ron and Jeff

welcome to the show we’re glad to have

you here we’ve got lots of good stuff

going on today Ron’s going to have some

fun facts to kick us off we’re going to

talk a little bit about Apple and of the

things that you could have bought with

some some apple cash and I’ll go into a

little bit of the CPI I did a little dig

through and I just had a horrendously

long trip to New Mexico and back from

Austin Texas and some observations I had

in these small communities so join us

here on the show Ron welcome my friend

how are you good morning good good good

I got a Ty I think we said this last

podcast it it’s just amazing we’re

already halfway through this year and

it’s going to get very interesting

because I think the market will remain

up through the end of this month just to

prop up some fun numbers end of month

end of quarter end of half year but uh

we got a Fed meeting in

July and I think that’s when the

political temperatur is going to go up

and I guess get your popcorn out folks

maybe we should have a popcorn little

Emoji throw pop it up on the screen

every time we come up with this stuff I

don’t know but it’s got we got the first

presidential debate the the most

inconsequential presidential debate in

the middle of June nobody gives a crap

about it but everybody’s talking about

it on the the news pundit world but I I

we’re not gonna learn anything nope not

they’re gonna put an octagon between the

two of them you’re not gonna learn

anything yeah we’re off Off to the Races

when it comes to that certainly

political Seasons going but I guess

you’ve got some fun stuff for us to get

started with right oh yep I’m going to

bring that up right

now all right so couple fun facts so

Jaws one of the greatest movies of all

time and I gotta tell you it was

probably 2025 years since I watched the

entire thing from beginning to end about

a year ago yep loved it that’s awesome

you know what you get into the

characters more even though you know

what’s going to happen you got into it

more and it was so much parallel to

Mooby deck I don’t know it was just it

was just incredible but here’s

interesting that John Williams did the

the theme from Jaws and it was just two

notes and everybody that those two notes

are ubiquitous whenever it comes to

something suspense suspenseful in a

movie and everybody knows exactly what

movie it was from we are coming up next

year will be 50 years since the wow that

1975 was when that movie came out wow

you think the funny part about that

movie too is we have the because we’ve

got the DVD and it’s got like all the

extra stuff and all that and he was

talking about when he was making the

movie he goes it was so suspenseful

because you really never for a lot of

the movie you don’t really see the shark

and he’s the reason was he goes the damn

Shark was it never worked and he goes so

we could only use like parts of it and

that made the movie because it was like

so it was a lot like I think the first

Jurassic Park was another example of

that for a very large chunk of the

beginning of the movie you don’t even

see any dinosaurs but there’s that

suspense which you know hitch cocky and

and very and in the very beginning of

the movie when the girl goes skinny

dipping into the ocean and you just see

her there was a whole scene plan where

that’s when you first were supposed to

see the shark yep but it made it more

suspenseful like what happened to her

something got her it was going to be a

shark but you’re right it made it that

much better that the damn Shark was

broken so horrible that they couldn’t

actually because you when you finally

see him he’s okay you look he looks like

a fake shark but yeah it was the whole

point of the movie it’s a movie we watch

every single year right around July 4th

because it’s just it’s fun I I love the

movie yep so my next one again Indiana

Jones and most people know that Tom

celic was the original person cast for

the Indiana Jones character but he was

offered the job and I knew this years

ago and I I wanted to bring it up again

and because he had gotten Magnum PI okay

and wouldn’t redo the Magnum PI schedule

they gave the part to Harrison Ford and

then rather ironically Magnum PI was

delayed I think six months to a year so

he could have done the movie yeah how

much all this would have changed his

career he still had a great career but

how much would it have changed Harrison

Ford yeah Harrison for had Star Wars

yeah that was pretty much it he had not

done really har that that was the one

that made Harrison Ford I think the

biggest star or the bigger star at that

point and I just don’t know if anybody

else could have pulled it off I saw

something a couple weeks ago where they

said that they were looking at who

Sinatra to play in Die Hard and I’m like

okay that wouldn’t have worked at all

mainly because he’s wearing a tuxedo the

whole time also he was in his early 70s

I know that’s Die Hard came out in ‘ 88

he was born in

1915 crazy all right and then my last

fun one oh sorry that hold on let me

just go back here go back one there we

go they’re DeLorean the DeLorean yeah

there we go it was supposed to

almost I didn’t know this and that’s one

of my all-time favorite movies um the

time machine was originally supposed to

be a refrigerator how much different how

much different would the movie have been

because how would they’ve gotten up to

88 miles an hour at the end that’s what

I was thinking how do you get a

refrigerator up to 88 miles an hour and

don’t die in the process come on the

funnier part of the whole thing is I

don’t know how the hell they got a

DeLorean up to 88 miles an hour besides

rolling going downhill yeah but I I’d

like to know a little bit more about

this backstory that with this was in the

original script when did it change yeah

because I because actually be I don’t

want to get too far off track here but I

saw some behind the scenes listening to

the people that wrote the script and how

they pitched it and the original script

was very different than the end result

and all the additional pieces they put

in made it an incredible movie remember

Eric staltz who was a terrific actor was

the one that originally was cast for

Marty McFly before they brought in

Michael J fox yeah now he how much

different it would have been yeah he

couldn’t pull it it’s amazing how those

little tweaks like that of somebody that

oh this one has scheduling conflict I

love Tom cich honestly but he would have

been a terrible Indiana Jones it just

doesn’t work I think he definitely had

the look and everything but would he’ve

had the Charisma that Harrison Ford did

I never really thought Harrison Ford was

a great actor if youve seen him in

anything other than three movies he has

zero range right I am very critical but

Tom cich it would have brought a

different flavor to it who knows but we

wouldn’t have had quickly down under if

he had done that so

I agree and I never watched his he in

what Blue Bloods is that what it is Blue

Blood I’ve never watched it I had no

interest doesn’t really I I’ve watched

little bits and pieces and nothing’s

really C captured my attention with it

so I would I was always a Magnum PI guy

and the funny thing is I went back and

watched the old Magnum PI we were gonna

binge watch them and I was like God

these are terrible

but some of them were the early ones

were okay then it got a little phony

baloney but yeah what are you going to

do all right so just a couple of other

quick slides here this was as of last

week that the top seven stocks I refused

to call it the Magnificent 7 even though

I just did the top seven stocks now make

up 30% wow of the move of the market cap

of the S&P 500 basically almost making

the

493 stocks almost irrelevant yeah so

this will you know look the echo chamber

continues but I this is definitely going

to have a drastic effect on the elevator

down even in the short term those

companies aren’t going anywhere but when

the air pocket comes out it’ll be

significant when somebody yeah when one

of them stumbles and and stubs a toe or

something like that it’s going to cause

havoc in the markets when it happens but

I I just don’t know when it’s going to

happen that’s the challenge of it all

we’ll see what happens next month I

think we got to get through June but

apple is a very interesting component of

this because it it had done it pulled

back it was out of favor all the

financial media BS about they haven’t

done their AI story which is why it’s

languishing there be the reset upgrade

cycle of the iPhone is it really all

this BS and then all of a sudden June

11th and 12th it had an unbelievable day

so back on May 9th when after the

earnings they announced the $110 $ 110

billion buyback we have this slide we

talked about

what companies could you have bought

with $110 billion buyback yeah so June

11th and 12th Apple was had a

$400

million market cap

bump and with that $400 billion market

cap bump you could have bought Kimberly

Clark Ford GM FedEx PayPal Marriott and

Northrup Grumman wow all one time put it

on under one

umbrella this is the sickness of what’s

going on and again we’re not bashing

apple as a company just trying to figure

out the insanity behind the market cap

and the market moves and it’s overall

waiting to the markets and and two days

worth that’s the thing it’s it’s a

trillion dollar company so for them 400

billion is not that big of a move but

it’s insane move when you think about it

in the entire Market that is insane

you’re literally buying two of the

largest car companies in the world and

still have money left over to buy a few

other things some money yeah a lot of

money you haven’t even spent you haven’t

even spent 75% of that move yet yeah by

buying G GM and Ford yeah I it almost bu

you can’t even almost fathom this we

could spend an hour just talking about

how ridiculous this is but it’s going to

continue because just the law of bigger

numbers and the move of that is just

going to grow I mean going from 90 to

100 is one thing right but then going

from or even going to’s say 90 billion

to 100 billion now we’re in the three

trillion dollar range it’s crazy just

absolutely nuts absolutely nuts let me

share a little bit I’ve got some stuff

on CPI to talk a little bit about CPI

came out about a week ago was a little

bit of one of those kind of shockers in

the market where it was like okay it was

down a little bit in comparison to where

everybody thought it was going to be and

initially the market took off like a

rocket ship and then of course the

proac uh the the wall Wall Street Prozac

all of a sudden the next day was like oh

my God is the world coming apart and all

that but I really wanted to go into

regardless of where CPI is going down it

is still at an elevated level from where

it had been prior to this and it’s still

above where the FED wants it to be it’s

it’s just really fighting and so I

wanted to dig into it a little bit more

part of this is Commodities have come

down quite a bit they’ve really come off

the shelf off this super high that they

were at but it’s the services outside of

energy that are just persistently not

going down and I think a big part of

that is the cost of employees and

everything else you’re seeing it out in

California and I think you’re seeing

some major effects out in California

right now witha the the restaurants out

there the most iconic Arby’s in the

entire nation been there for 55 years

saw that I saw closed this week it was I

I don’t think it was completely that was

just the final death nail for them was

the $20 an hour they’re still trying to

sell it but I gotta tell you I’m a big

Arby’s guy oh I am too I love it I I

wish they would stick to what they do

best and stop doing all this other weird

stuff that they do but I think the lady

that was in charge of it or that owned

it she is 91 years old and she’s just

I’m not going to make major investments

into all this technology that Arby’s

wants me to do but to basically

eliminate employees and so she just

closed the place down what’s driving

this well as I started to go through the

components there’s I think 40 or there’s

35 components total but the standouts as

far as the components that were there

electricity up 5.9% over the last 12

months and it’s Exel accelerating it’s

getting more and more every month

transportation services I think is the

one that you’ve got to look into the

most it’s not buying the cars and

selling actually the the cost of cars

both new and old have gone down although

it spiked up a little bit on the used

cars transportation services here one of

the biggest drivers is insurance and it

is getting off the charts if you haven’t

gotten your renewal for this next year

you are going to have a shocker when you

have your renewal because rates have

gone through the roof especially in the

auto side what’s driving

that quite frankly the biggest thing

that’s driving that is the cost of

getting the parts to fix things and the

more electric cars we have the more the

price is going to go up because fixing

an electric car is massively expensive

and it is just going to increase as we

have more more electric cars on the road

also

shelter the other part of auto insurance

is and a lot of people aren’t talking

about this accidents are up

precipitously yeah not necessarily major

but also minor fender benders and that

all leads into fixing in the cars

getting parts separate conversation of

why I think accidents are up so much but

that’s a big part of it too yeah but I

think it’s a lot of distracted driving

and everything else people driving

around on their cell phones trying to do

business or trying to check their

Facebook or watch cat videos or whatever

and slam it into people shelter is still

persistently up there as well so those

are the three major areas that are just

driving this and you still get inflation

across the board up but these are the

ones that are really pushing things and

quite frankly yes you can control

electricity by saying okay I’m going to

raise my in the summer I’m going to

raise up my thermostat in the winter I’m

going to lower my thermostat but there’s

only so much control you have

transportation services you have zero

control over that they’re going to tell

you what your rates are and quite

frankly shelter you’re stuck you don’t

really have a choice there so it’s it’s

leaving people struggling in those cases

hourly earnings are also down

year-over-year too which is interesting

that’s a driver but you’re starting to

see those hourly earnings go down which

is not a good sign when you have

inflation up there question hourly

earnings go back so hourly earnings

meaning the number of hours they’re

working or what they’re earning per hour

because W went up yeah what they’re

earning per hour and so here’s the issue

though hourly got over 40 hour work week

yeah that the hours are being cut back

so they might be at the same rate but

they’re making less money because their

hours are being cut back so you’re

seeing hours work kind of pulling back

each month it seems like right so the

hourly rate went up the hours went down

so they’re netting the same yeah so last

thing I wanted to talk about today is

what I’m calling the Dollar General

effect yeah I just was with my wife my

my mother-in-law died and we we had to

go up to New Mexico so we from Austin

Texas to Albuquerque New Mexico there is

no easy way to get there besides driving

through the smallest towns in West Texas

and New Mexico that you’re ever going to

see and it was just interesting to me to

see the makeup of these small towns as

far as their what we take for granted I

think living in big cities and living in

a big city I’ve got four different

grocery stores I can go to I’ve got

dollar stores I’ve got all I’ve got

Walmarts and everything else and targets

these folks don’t have that in these

small rural communities but what they do

have is the dollar store and in many of

these small communities this is is the

place that they go this is the place

that they go in those areas and it was

interesting to see because mainly we

were really bored so we started counting

Dollar Generals and Dollar Trees and and

Family Dollars and it was hilarious to

see it it was almost like if you went

into one town if it was a really small

town there might be a Dollar General

there and then as I put it as you were

coming up in the world you might also

have a Family Dollar or Dollar Tree

there and so there was some competition

but in many of these towns there was

just one or maybe two of these stores

with no grocery stores or anything like

that now Dollar General is closing 800

stores and I think part of that is they

have stuck to their guns when it comes

to Everything’s a Dollar in those cases

they’ve really stuck to their

guns and the other ones have it and

Dollar Tree and Family Dollar are owned

Dollar Tree a decade ago took over

Family Dollar I think half the stuff in

the store is more than a dollar yeah and

it and they’ve done that and they’ve

said it’s a125 is their base price now

and they have a lot of $ five items and

things along those lines it was

interesting to see though that there’s

some dual branded stores so you would go

by and you’d see Dollar Tree Family

Dollar they’re literally in the same

building two separate signs and it’s the

same store basically I which I don’t

understand that branding Dollar Tree is

closing a bunch of Family Dollars but it

just I think more than anything they’re

probably just rebranding them or they’re

closing them but it’s these dual branded

stores which make absolutely zero sense

to me but that says at least Dollar Tree

has thought through this a little bit

and said okay we’re g to be smart about

what we’re doing they’re not abandoning

the communities they’re just saying why

do we have a Dollar Tree and a Family

Dollar when we’re the same store at that

point in a lot of these communi but I I

for me I looked at this and said it’s

amazing the investment that they’ve made

in these communities these small

communities they’re a small player in my

town people go there but it’s not the

biggest deal here this is this is where

people go to shop for clothing this is

where they go to shop for their Sundries

and everything else it’s that is the

option or you drive 40 or 50 miles to

get to a bigger city to go to your

grocery store and a lot of you would ate

up in gas and and a lot of these are

Farm communities so I think the farmer

and ranching community so they grow

their own food but this is the place

they go for sundies and everything yeah

so it was just interesting to me and I’m

going to do a little bit of research

next week for the next week’s show so a

little little thing to to talk about

about one of the other things I

recognized which is interesting was the

Yum

brands P um in these small towns they

have made a massive investment in these

small towns of going back to the old

school like when you and I grew up Pizza

Hut was the Pizza Hut you went to Pizza

Hut that was like a major thing on a

Friday night or something like that you

went to Pizza HUD dad got the dad and

mom got the the big old picture beer and

you sat there and you ate a Pizza Hut

you didn’t order out these it’s

interesting in these small rural

communities Pizza Hut has made a massive

investment and there were some of the

nicest Newest Pizza Huts that I’ve ever

seen coming through all these towns so

it’s interesting I want to see what what

they’re doing from a yum brand

standpoint as a result of that yum also

owns uh uh Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried

Chicken too so yep yeah so like I said

it it was an interesting for me I want

to see how much they’re investing into

that and we’ll see if that is a smart

idea I personally think it is because in

a lot of these towns you might have one

or two mom and pop restaurants and then

you have this nice new shiny Pizza Hut

that is taking over the dinner shift

because a lot of but when we were kids

to wrap it up when we were kids you

could take a family four to Pizza Hut

for 12 to 15 bucks yep I know we sound

like old coders at this point but today

you take a family afford of pizza you’re

spending 40 50 bucks blink of an eye no

easy yeah but still in comparison good

Lord you go to if you’re out in

California go to a a McDonald

you’re going to spend 40 or 50 bucks to

go to a McDonald’s and I I think you’ve

got a little bit healthier food at a

Pizza Hut you’re to get through

McDonald’s at that point no I I agree

it’s just I look I still make my lunch

and dinners and breakfast 70% of the

time and it’s because I enjoy cooking

but also you just go out and you’re like

how much was that I just got a bagel

and I think that was the Shocker for us

because I’m used to dropping 40 or 50

bucks for for two of us to go to

breakfast and New Mexico typically

prices are a little bit lower we’re I

don’t think I’ve spent more than 30

bucks on breakfast for some really good

breakfast way better than I get here so

it’s just eggs toast potatoes no yeah

that’s the components of it but green

chili that’s the key man breakfast

burritos we were shoveling those down

every day folks thank you for joining us

this is why we do this stuff we want you

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maybe make you think a little bit and

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