Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 5/20/24: American Net Worth Explains Trump 2024 Strong Polling, Diddy Drops Apology After Hotel Assault Video Leak

Episode Date: May 20, 2024

Krystal and Saagar discuss American net worth charts explain Trump's strong polling for the 2024 election, Diddy drops apology after hotel assault video leak.    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.supercast.com/   Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. But there were some dark truths behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. Enter Camp Shame, an eight-part series examining the rise and fall of Camp Shane and the culture that fueled its decades-long success. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus.

So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. You experienced dad guilt? I hate it. She understands, but she's still being pissed. She's like, Happy Father's Day.

The show may be called Good Moms, Bad Choices, but this show isn't just for moms. We keep it real about relationships and everything in between. And yes, men are more than welcome to listen in. I knew nothing about brunch.

She was a terrible girlfriend, but she put me on to brunch. To hear this and more, open your free iHeart app, search Good Moms, Bad Choices, and listen now. I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures and your guide on good company. The podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi.

We dive into the competitive world of streaming. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. There are so many stories out there. And if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. American consumer sentiment is now at a six-month low. People are pulling back, quote, on all kinds of purchases. This is the biggest drop since 2021, quote, reflecting the persistent tug of inflation on household budgets,

feeling fears of rising prices, unemployment, and interest rates that will all worsen in the coming months. Already, spending habits are rapidly altering. They say that McDonald's, Home Depot, Under Armour, and Starbucks are all reporting disappointing earnings. People are cutting back on fast food, kitchen renovations, sneakers, afternoon lattes, basically anything which is a sign that times are decent right now. Retail sales flat from April after there was limited amount of pickup in February and March. Walmart is reporting its strongest quarter this week, which is being nudged by high-income shoppers whose income is reducing. Walmart is recession-proof for a reason, and when they're

booming, it's not necessarily a good thing for all of us. Meanwhile, gas prices are back up. We were looking, remember, at Nevada and California. California still somehow is at $5.50 a gallon average in the entire state. It's insane. I don't even know how people live there. And then you continue to look through all of this and the consumer spending, which is two-thirds of our U.S. economy, reducing by even a single percentage point is millions and millions of jobs are affected, billions, hundreds of billions of dollars in commerce. And all of this is happening ahead of the U.S. election. Things are actually getting worse. We're also in a very interesting time, Crystal,

where we can compare directly the records of two successive presidents and actually vote based on those two. Now, look, I will be the first to say the economy is very complicated. The president doesn't necessarily run everything, but people in general tend to get credit for it. And they tend to get credit for what the message is about, what they seem to be aligned with in terms of what they may do for you or others. And I think with Biden right now, like any economic message has long been, you know, basically consumed by foreign affairs, neither of which are going very well abroad. Yeah. So put the next piece up on the screen. I want you to explain this, too, because you found this. And I mean, listen, here's the thing. We have been gaslit by the Biden people and many media figures into thinking that Americans just don't understand how good they got it under

Joe Biden. Look at the low unemployment rate. Look at the high stock market, blah, blah, blah. This chart right here really blows up all of those narratives about how great and amazing the economy is and how ungrateful we are to the Biden administration for creating this, you know, this incredible euphoric state. So let's keep this up, please, while I explain. So we have change in household net worth since the start of presidency. We have it in nominal and then adjusted for inflation. So nominally, 48 months into the Trump administration, Americans net worth was up by about 40 percent. Now, under the Biden administration, this would be consistent with Bidenomics. They would say

36 months into our presidency, American net worth is nominally up 20%. So you have more money, right? You should be happy. No, no, no, no, no. Look at the graph right next to it for those who are watching. When you adjust for inflation, 48 months into the Trump administration, American net worth adjusted for inflation was up by 20 or about 30%. If you adjust for inflation and you look at the Biden administration, American net worth is up by 0.7% from the baseline of when he took office in January of 2021. And in fact, a significant portion of the Biden presidency has seen a reduction in net

worth when you have been adjusted for inflation. Now, tying it back to what I was talking about, what happened right there, 12 to 18 months when we began to see the dip crystal, that was the Afghanistan and the invasion of Ukraine. So the invasion of Ukraine some two so years ago is exactly what tanked the entire US economy and which all of us had to pay a higher tax and gas prices and reduction in net worth from in addition to the geopolitical instability that was unleashed. In addition, you've seen a slight dip there several months ago where what happened? Israel, the Red Sea, where we all again paid the Israel tax in the Red Sea with the Houthis. So we've had two successive foreign conflicts in addition to

massive inflation, which happened for a variety of reasons, and just a general drift of the Biden administration where 0.7% increase from where you were compared to a 30% increase adjusted for inflation. That is the first time, too, that you really have inflation hit you in the face where nominally you're up by almost 20%, but inflation adjusted, you basically made nothing. You're treading nothing. In three years, you have made no money. That is horrible. Now, look, I understand it's a short period of time, et cetera, but it's a four-year, you know, we vote in four-year incidents or four-year increments, and it is undeniable to compare those two records. I'd also be remiss if I didn't point out all those COVID gains that happened there and how people really benefited from a lot of it.

I want to dig in on that. Put it back up on the screen because that is actually probably the most consequential part of this graph is right when you see that huge spike in net worth, guess what? That was when you had checks going out. Child tax credit was maybe the most significant of the COVID era programs. You had the quote unquote super dole where people were getting extra cash on unemployment. You had the PPP loans going out. I mean, you had an extraordinary expansion of the social safety net to cope with COVID. And guess what? It worked. It worked. It really helped people a lot. And something I've been talking about this whole time is one of the economic stories of the Biden administration is the continued rolling back of those social safety net programs. So you had this expansion that really helped people

really increase their net worth. We saw it in terms of bank account sizes, you know, ballooning and the way that that got spent down the minute they start rolling back those programs, even something like the child tax credit, where the thought was that this was going to be a long-term program. Ultimately, Democrats didn't really expend a lot of political capital to try to keep that going, and Republicans weren't interested in trying to keep it going. So you have all of that rolled back at the same time that you have elevated inflation, significant inflation, which came from, I think, the foreign conflicts. That's part of it. We also have more and more indications that a significant, if not a majority chunk of it,

was also corporate greed and price gouging. And so from both a reality and from a political perspective, a much better approach from the Biden administration would be to talk about that. Talk about the fact that we just learned these oil companies were colluding in cartel-like fashion to price gouge American consumers and rip them off to the tune of thousands of dollars per family. That gas inflation, the increase in the gas cost, that trickles, as you guys know, that has an impact throughout the economy. It has a huge impact to the bottom line of American households. So tell that story and more

importantly, do something about it. Do something about the price gouging and the greedflation and obviously the ship sailed in terms of the expansion of the social safety net and trying to keep some of those gains and continue to build from there. But what this tells you is that people are not crazy. They are right to feel like things are not going as well for me as they once were. And so then when you see the approval ratings on the economy and all these Biden flags out there, like, I don't know what you're talking about. It's amazing. And you guys just don't understand. Or maybe the media is too negative about Joe Biden or whatever. No, people know what is happening in their own lives and could have told you previously without needing this chart, what that has looked like for them and their bank accounts specifically. Yeah, exactly. Gaslighting folks, trying to give

them fake statistics and all that. It's very clear. Look, in terms of inflation, the inevitable, well, they would say that the COVID programs are the what caused inflation. Now, did increased, you know, like you called it, the superdoll and all that. Did it increase inflation? It's possible. We actually still don't really know what exactly it is. I would be stupid, I think, to say that it had no role. But we can certainly say that supply side factors driven by COVID massively had an impact on the initial inflation that the economy experienced. And I would contend that the invasion of Ukraine and US policy vis-a-vis Russia massively accelerated

that inflation. And we see that in the reduction of net worth. Now, on top of that, we've had persistent inflation in our economy, even though consumer spending and overall debt has significantly increased. So that means that we've had corporate behavior that is very responsible for a lot of the things that we see. We also know that very unfortunately that in certain sectors that the inflation has been very supply-side driven. So, for example, in housing, what's one of the major drivers today of inflation is rent. Rental inflation is one of the major drivers today of inflation is rent. Is rental inflation is one of the biggest ones.

Interest rates, too. We cannot underestimate in terms of how it has failed completely to achieve its overall goal. The initial Fed and all that believed that they would be able to crush inflation with high interest rates. But that's only done if it is purely a demand side. That's just not the case. So we don't have the tools really that are at our disposal to deal with inflation the way that it's actually happening right now today in the economy. But that does not erase the fact that it's just miserable. It's miserable out there.

We've had, I think you said something about second mortgages are making a huge comeback. Oh yeah, that's a story to cover. All these people who thought they had these loan modifications and second mortgages that were canceled in 2008, well, they weren't actually canceled. These other like unscrupulous, basically, companies bought them up. And now that housing prices are so high, it finally makes sense for them from a profitability standpoint to be like, oh, guess, by the way, you owe me 200 grand if you can't pay on foreclosing on your house. So this is happening to thousands of people. It's like an overhang from 2008. It's

totally insane, predatory behavior. Yeah, it's horrible. And, you know, what can we take away from that is that in general, you know, from the economy right now, it's not in a healthy place. Now, I would say again, for Biden, he could survive it. He survived a bad economy in 2022. It's not like this is completely the end all be all given what's happened with abortion and with Trump chaos and all that. But if I had to hazard a guess, if Donald Trump wins the presidency, again, it will largely be because of that graph. His ratings on the economy are just sky high compared to Biden. In fact, an outright majority of people say that they were better off under Trump than they were Biden. And in general,

old political rules would say that person is going to win the election. That's generally what we know. Like you said, who knows? Right now, it looks like Donald Trump is winning, though. I mean, I think that's where the polls certainly suggest the races at this point. And just to tie it back to what we were saying before, you know, when you couple the fact that people are feeling a lot of pain in their own lives and their accurate perception that the political class is completely dismissive and contemptful of their concerns. And laser focus to the exclusion of almost everything else on shipping billions of dollars to, you know, continue to bomb the Gaza Strip and continue an indefinite war in Ukraine with no end in sight. I mean, they're correct in perceiving that reality and they're right to be outraged about it. They are right to be outraged about it.

Yeah, I totally agree. Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution.

But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating

stories of mistreatment and reexamining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait.

Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her, and it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister.

There's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think everything that might have dropped in 95 has been labeled the golden years of hip hop. It's Black Music Month and We Need to Talk is tapping in.

I'm Nyla Simone, breaking down lyrics, amplifying voices, and digging into the culture that shaped the soundtrack of our lives. My favorite line on there was, my son and my daughter gonna be proud when they hear my old tapes. Now I'm curious, do they like rap along now? Yeah, because I bring him on tour with me and he's getting older now too. So his friends are starting to understand what that type of music is. And they're starting to be like, yo, your dad's like really the GOAT. Like he's a legend. So he gets it.

What does it mean to leave behind a music legacy for your family it means a lot to me just having a good catalog and just being able to make people feel good like that's what's really important and that's what stands out is that our music changes people's lives for the better so the fact that my kids get to benefit off of that i'm really happy or my family in general let's talk about the music that moves us. To hear this and more on how music and culture collide, listen to We Need to Talk from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get to the next part.

This was a horrible story that Emily did a great job of breaking down for everybody. There was some video that leaked of a 2016 incident where Diddy was literally caught on camera, absolutely wailing and beating on his girlfriend at the time, Cassie. Well, he has now released a response, an apology, I guess, if you will. Let's take a listen. It's so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life. Sometimes you got to do that. I was fucked up. I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses.

My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I'm disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did video. I'm disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it, I'm disgusted now. I went and I sought out professional help. I had to go into therapy, I had to go into rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I'm so sorry.

But I'm committed to be a better man each and every day. I'm not asking for forgiveness. I'm truly sorry. So he said he's not offering excuses, but he's also saying that he was, what did he say? He said, I was messed up. I was on a lot of stuff since he's gone to therapy. Obviously, also, he only apologized after the video came out publicly. Right.

Let's just play the video again. Now, look, let me give a warning for everybody who hasn't seen this, especially if you're a victim of domestic violence. I mean, this is like the most insane thing that I've seen. And it's shocking that it took so long for this to actually come out. This is March of 2016. I mean, it's more seven years ago or so. Here you see him literally, you know, in a towel, just absolutely, I mean, he's hitting her. badly, dragging her down the hallway. This was in a public area. It was caught completely on camera. Obviously, the hotel had possession of it. Why didn't the police do anything about it?

And by the way, oh, just conveniently, let's put this up there, please. We are now past the statute of limitations, and he can't be charged for it. So they had this on camera at the time. There was longtime allegations here of this man's behavior. Video doesn't come out. How come the police never investigated it? Did he report it to somebody? Did he pay somebody off, you know, inside of there?

And it only validates, too, a lot of what Cassie has been saying in her allegations. That's right. In fact, in her filing, which he settled with her the day after she filed her allegations against him, and a, throwing glass faces at her, dragging her back into the room. But it's really important to keep in mind, this is far from all she said that he did to her over years, years, including blowing up the car of Kid Cudi, who she was involved with at the time. And we've done prior segments. There's actually a lot that is on the record about violence with regards to Diddy, things that were public at the

time that everyone just sort of ignored and moved past. But she's also not the only one who's making these sorts of allegations against Diddy. And again, we're not talking about one, oh, my bad, I was going through a bad stretch one day. Not that that would be excusable anyway. We're talking about years of sociopathic violence, sexual abuse, manipulation, control, horrifying allegations over years. And so when you see this video come out, and like I said, it matches detail for detail exactly what Cassie said happened, gives a lot of credence to everything else that everyone's been saying has been going on with him. This also, as you know, federal agents raided two of his properties. I also would be

remiss if I didn't note the tropical appearing background in his video. Many people wondering if he has already fled to some non-extraditable location. Big question marks there. For her part, Cassie has issued a statement, can put this up on the screen, from Rolling Stone. Lawyer for Cassie said in a statement following this quote-unquote apology video that he was only compelled to apologize once his repeated denials were proven false, shows his pathetic desperation, and no one will be swayed by his disingenuous words. And I think that's very well said because up until this point, up until it was totally undeniable, he was denying it. He was claiming none of this happened. But, you know, the fact that you – Cassie was the first one to make these allegations, really open the floodgates.

And now you clearly have federal scrutiny. So we'll see where it goes. Yeah, exactly. I mean, the big question is, why did it take so long? And this gets back to the cover-up of what happened inside of LAPD, what strings were pulled, were the feds involved? I mean, that's some of the bigger allegations here is that basically there was some, like, deal or something going on where he was effectively protected from something like— Imagine if any normal person did that in a public hotel room. We see this with, I mean, how many, Harvey Weinstein, all these people that,

you know, because they're wealthy and famous and powerful, they got away, Bill Cosby got away with it for years and years and years. And then you also ask yourself, like, there were rumors of this sort of thing with Diddy going around for a while. 20 years, yeah. How many people knew, how many were in his circle

and saw this behavior and did nothing and said nothing and directly enabled it? How many people knew, how many were in his circle and saw this behavior and did nothing and said nothing and directly enabled it? How many people? We'll see. Hopefully that we will actually find out. Okay, thank you guys so much for watching. We're going to have a great show for everybody tomorrow. As a reminder to all of our premium subscribers and our move over to Locals, if you have any issues with your subscription or any questions about features, etc., support at locals.com. They will get it to you. Overall, though, we're really excited by the response. We appreciate and we love

you and big things that are coming in the future still. We'll see you later. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight-loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. But there were some dark truths behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. Enter Camp Shame, an eight-part series examining the rise and fall of Camp Shane and the culture that fueled its decades-long success. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today.

You experienced dad guilt? I hate it. She understands, but she's still prepared. and subscribe today. men are more than welcome to listen in. I knew nothing about brunch. She was a terrible girlfriend, but she put me on to brunch. To hear this and more, open your free iHeart app, search Good Moms, Bad Choices, and listen now. I'm Michael Kasson, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures and your guide on good company. The podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi.

We dive into the competitive world of streaming. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. There are so many stories out there. And if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.