The Chris Cuomo Project - Dave Ramsey

Episode Date: January 5, 2023

In a bonus episode of The Chris Cuomo Project, personal finance expert Dave Ramsey speaks to Chris about the reasons for high inflation, who controls the price of gas, how a sense of hopelessness is impacting the economy, and more. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, I'm Chris Cuomo. Thank you very much for joining the project. Subscribe, follow, spread the word. I need it. I thank you for it. You're an independent, right? You're a critical thinker. Own it.

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stresses in the economy right now? Dave Ramsey knows, and he knows it from the perspective of the person who's living it, not some fat cat who's just talking about it. Dave Ramsey. Support for The Chris Cuomo Project comes from PrizePix. I got to tell you, there's a reason PrizePix is America's number one fantasy sports app. Three million members. Why?

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You'll get details and important safety information. You're going to need a subscription. It's required. Plus, price is going to vary based on product and subscription plan. Hey, Dave Rams, big fan, friend, appreciate you being on the show. Honor to be with you, sir. Let's deal with the two big ticket items that people were getting hit over the head with during the midterms to get the realities in this country. Inflation. Why is inflation high right now?

Well, there's several components to inflation. Inflation, for purposes of this discussion, simply means increases in prices. Prices are going up. Prices are going up. And it pretty much was caused not like it was in the 70s by an overheated economy. This was caused by the disruption of the economy brought on by the quarantine. And that is, the quarantine was uniquely caused by neither Democrats nor Republicans, but by Fauci and his ilk. And so we shut down the most productive economy in the history of the world, completely shut it down. And so you created shortages. Anytime there's shortages, prices go up. And that's where this inflation has come from. The Biden administration with their domestic oil policy turned off the faucet. They've caused

prices on energy to go up. They seem to be reopening that right now, which is good news. Gas prices seem to be stabilized coming back down. But those are the components of everything that you and I buy and our viewers and our listeners buy. And those things have all gone up. But it was this disruption. And the more the government tinkers in it, the longer it's going to take for it to smooth out. You hear a lot of talk about corporate profits and that, especially on the left, they say something should be done about that. The corporations are taking profits.

That's why you have inflation. What can you do to limit corporate profits? You know what I'm saying? Forget about whether or not we should even think about doing it, but what could you do? Well, I'm more of a free market guy and I own a business. And so what I have is a constant conversation with the marketplace. And the marketplace says, Dave, I'm not going to buy one of your books at $62, but I'll buy your book at $26. And so they're telling me, no, you suck. You're not that good. And so corporate profits are limited by the customer's interaction with the company. They're going to quit buying if they keep driving it up.

So the marketplace has this natural governor on itself without having to inject ourselves in with some kind of a policy wonk decision. The customer is going to tell you, no, I'm not going to overpay for this. That's silly. Here's the thing, though. What we're really seeing is corporate profits aren't up that much. A few of them in some sectors are. But if corporate profits were going up,

the stock prices would be going up to reflect the increased profits. And we're not seeing stock prices go up. We're not seeing the stock market booming off the back of the consumer. It's just not happening. Now, there are, again, there's pockets and some of this gyration in the marketplace with these shortages and then oversupply and then undersupply, all this kind of junk. That's causing some excess profits here or there, but it's not a philosophical problem. The market will correct it if you give it time. But when you see diesel prices go up to deliver the goods and services to go on the shelf, you see the cost of labor go up. I mean, you used to get somebody for $10 to put something on the shelf. Now they're $20, $25 to

get somebody to put something on the shelf. That's okay, but that all goes into the price of the item on the shelf then. And of course, the stock market is also organized gambling, right? So they're going off the book value of companies and the balance sheets of companies, but they're also betting and they're making bets that sometimes go with the information, sometimes go against it. Gas prices, who controls gas prices? Does America control the price of gas in America? Well, I'm not sure if anyone controls anything out there single-handedly anymore in any situation.

But what we do know from basic economics is this. Anytime there's a shortage created in any good or service, you're going to see the price go up. Anytime there's an oversupply in that area, called the glut in the market, you're going to see the price go down. And so what we do know is partially because of supply chain disruptions, partially because of the Biden administration when he moved towards electric and non-fossil fuel type things, then you're going to see that shortage be created and those prices go up in that particular sector. But for the Republicans to blame Biden for the entire

economic debacle that we're sitting in, that's just not true. He did not do that. You might do the little sticker on the gas pump. That one might be true. But the rest of it is simply the reaction of the quarantine and the supply chain disruptions. And then the Fed gets involved, jacks interest rates, and that's affecting the real estate market. The Chris Cuomo Project is supported by Cozy Earth. Why? Because I like their sheets. That's why. A lot of people don't get a good night's sleep for a lot of reasons. One of the ones that you can control is bedding.

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Okay? That's what happens with your first purchase. So make it. Go to drinkag1.com slash ccp. Drinkag1.com slash ccp. Check it out. What is your biggest concern about how people are doing in America right now? You know, economics is, it really, we all think of it as somehow an academic exercise. The economics is about math or supply and demand like I was just talking about. But it really is, it's affected by psychology. How hopeful are we? And if we're hopeful, we're bullish as a consumer. If I feel like everything's going to be

okay and I'm going to make more money, then I go spend more. And that drives the economy in a positive way. When I'm scared, like a lot of folks are right now, and I don't disagree. I mean, they're scared out there. We're talking to them every day. Then they pull back. And the more they pull back, then it kind of becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because that makes the economy worse. What would make things better? What could be done for people that would make it easier on households across this country? Yeah. Oh, if they see a way forward, if they see that these things are going to stabilize, then they're going to continue in their normal saving, their normal investing, their normal purchasing patterns, and it smooths

these things out. But the disruptions, these huge disruptions in the marketplace, the economic, the psychology of economics, people don't like the unpredictable. If we can see a way forward to the predictable, that's hope. And when we have hope, then we get to moving again. And so that's the dangerous part about where we're sitting right now is there's so much hopelessness out there. Yeah. I mean, look, the only person pushing hope right now is a commodities Jesus. You know, I mean, in terms of our politics, everybody's trying to scare you to death. You know, if you vote for the Republicans, oh my God, bad things are going to happen. So you better stick with the Democrats.

Oh, the Democrats, you vote for them. Things are going to get even worse. I mean, that's the commodity on both sides. Where do people turn to have any kind of suggestion that things will get better? Well, one of the things I had to learn to do when I went broke several years is I had to kind of pan back and say, if I'll take a longer view of life, I'm more hopeful. But when I'm right now, you know, standing up to my neck and manure, if you take a snapshot of that and you say that is my whole life, well, that's hopelessness. But life is not a snapshot. It's a film strip. And in the next frame, it's either going to get

better or it's going to get worse. And then the next frame, it's either going to get better or it's going to get worse. And I'm old. So I've seen it come and I've seen it go. And I've seen it come and go in my own personal life, you know? And so five years from today, are we okay? Sure. Three years from today, are we okay? Absolutely. Regardless of the Democrats and Republicans, if you'll take care of what happens in your house and have a little bit longer perspective than just panicking based on the headlines right now about the economy, then you're going to do better with your finances. Because when we're scared, we don't make good decisions. You say you have a good expression that it's a

roller coaster. And anybody who tries to get off the roller coaster in the middle of the ride is going to go in one direction and straight down. When someone says to you, look, I can't save. I can't. I don't make enough money to save. I can't do it. What's the suggestion? You know, that might be possible today. I mean, when you fill up your grocery cart and fill up your car, you have a dadgum heart attack. For a moment in this snapshot today, you might not be able to. But I think we can all agree that we can't live our whole lives and save nothing. That's not a sustainable life plan. What that tells me is that something has to change in this snapshot that I can control. I can't control the cost of gas. I can't control the cost of meat going or eggs going in my basket.

What I can control is how much if I take an extra basket. What I can control is how much if I take an extra job. What I can control is if I cut the budget on a bunch of subscriptions and stuff I don't have to have. What I can control is maybe we don't go on that vacation we were planning right now. What I can control is the controllables involved. Control those, I create margin, then create a sustainable situation. And then as I get more prosperous again, I can add some of those more luxury items that aren't necessities back into my basket. And Sharon, my wife and I have had to do that over the years. And most people have that don't serve in Congress. Dave Ramsey, you're a busy man. I appreciate your time and your perspective. You're always welcome anywhere I am.

God bless and thank you. You're always welcome anywhere I am. God bless and thank you. You too. Thanks for having me. Our thanks to Dave Ramsey for his very good advice. No wonder he's so successful. Subscribe, follow. Please watch me on News Nation, 8 and 11 P Eastern, every weekday night. I appreciate you, and you're an independent. You are a critical thinker, so own it, literally and figuratively. Get that free agent merch.

Get that shirt, get those sweats, and the money's going to go to something that we can give to others together. Sounds good, right? I'll see you next time. Music