The President's Daily Brief - October 7th, 2022. Electric Vehicles are Catching Fire in Florida, and it's Bad. Fentanyl is the Number One Cause of Death for Americans Aged 18-45

Episode Date: October 7, 2022

It’s October 7th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ First, Electric Vehicles are on fire in Florida this morning. And I mean literally on fire. We’ll talk about why.   Second, some tough news out of Congress on the cost we are all paying for the fentanyl crisis. Third, what do illegal migrants think about being bussed to sanctuary cities? I’ve got their fascinating answers. Fourth, we’re getting an indicator of America’s economic health and it’s actually coming from the ocean, of all places. Finally, two studies this morning showing that when grandparents are involved in caretaking of kids— even their neighbors — they live longer lives. Plus, one more thing before I let you go. A listener question about advertisements that you hear on the PDB. But I’m going to tell you something you might not know; a dirty secret about Big Tech. ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's October 7th. You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning Intel starts now. Welcome to a big five update this Friday morning. As always, I've got five critical updates on stories that we have covered previously that are shaping America and the world. First, electric vehicles are on fire in Florida this morning, and I mean literally on fire. We'll talk about why. Second, some very, very tough news out of Congress on the cost that we are all paying for the fentanyl crisis. Third, what do illegal migrants think about being bust to sanctuary cities? I've got their fascinating answers. Fourth, we're getting an indicator of America's economic health, and it's actually coming from the ocean of all places. Finally, two studies this morning showing that when grandparents are involved in caretaking of kids, even their neighbors, they live longer lives.

Plus, one more thing before I let you go, a listener question about advertisements that you hear on the PDB. But I'm going to tell you something, frankly, much more important that you probably don't know. It's a dirty secret about big tech. But first, let's get to our Big Five update. Electric vehicles are exploding in Florida, and I don't mean in popularity. I mean, they're actually exploding, all because of Hurricane Ian. The state of Florida's fire marshal. Jimmy Petronus is warning the people of the Sunshine State to be aware of whether their electric

vehicles have been exposed to too much water from the recent devastating hurricane. And you can probably guess why. It's all because their water-affected batteries appear to be causing a rash of fires all across the state. So yesterday, Mr. Petronus tweeted this out to his fellow Floridians. Quote, there are a ton of electric vehicles disabled from Hurricane Ian. And as a lot of electric vehicles disabled from Hurricane Ian. And as those batteries corrode, fires start. That is a new challenge that our firefighters haven't faced before, at least not on this kind of scale. It takes special training and understanding of electric vehicles to ensure that these fires are put out quickly and safely. Mr. Petronus later tweeted a video in Naples, Florida, of some very brave firefighters battling a Tesla

engulfed in flames. Now, that Tesla was actually on dry land at the time, but clearly its batteries had been exposed to too much water at some point, and the whole car went up in flames. The crew, by the way, had to use hundreds of gallons of water to try to put that one car fire out, plus apparently some special type of foam. Now, none of this will come as a surprise to PDB listeners. To refresh our memories, the insurance rates on electric vehicles are about 15% higher than gas-powered cars, in part because those batteries are both expensive and they are much more likely to start on fire. Plus, battery fires are very hard to put out.

You may remember the recent case in California, where a Tesla battery pack at a solar farm started on fire. Now, people there were ordered by the Monterey County Sheriff to lock themselves inside their homes and shut off their heating and AC units because of the toxic fumes being emitted by the smoke. The firefighters had to use hazmat suits, and after an extended period of time, they were eventually able to put it out.

But I think the key takeaway here is that perhaps we should keep this in mind as states and car manufacturers ban gas power to cars and forced consumers to purchase these things. We should be absolutely planning for the fire risk. And I mean from the poor consumers to the poor men and women who have to wear the hazmat suits to put them out. For our second update this morning, we've got some sobering, news from a congressional report on the cost of fentanyl in this country. To refresh our memories on this issue, fentanyl is a drug that originates mostly in China, some in India, but mostly in China as a raw chemical. And then it's sold to Mexican cartels. And they in turn cook it and ship it into the United

States. That has led to a record number of people dying. And I want you to listen to this to really understand the numbers. Imagine a 737 jet crashing every day. single day with no survivors. That is the number of people who die every day from a fentanyl overdose in this country. But beyond the human toll, there is a financial cost too. The Joint Economic Committee in Congress, who wrote the aforementioned report, said that the cost to the U.S. economy of this crisis back in the year of 2020 was $1.47 trillion. The committee came up with that number while working with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. And they considered things like loss personnel and the workforce, loss of productivity,

emergency medical care, rehabilitation costs, law enforcement resources, and so on. And this $1.47 trillion cost, by the way, is set to go way up. In the past two years since that estimate, we've seen deaths from fentanyl skyrocket. In fact, overdoses from that drug are now the lead. cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45. You know what, let me repeat that. If you are aged 18 to 45 an American and you die, the most likely cause is from a fentanyl overdose, not a car accident or a heart attack, it's drugs, born in China and cooked by Mexican

cartels. That's a very heartbreaking reality and outrageous, frankly. It's worthy of asking why it's happening and trying to. stop it. For our third story this morning, some unlikely good news, I think. Well, I don't know if it's good or not. I'll let you be the judge. The Wall Street Journal interviewed dozens of illegal migrants, plus humanitarian organizations trying to help these folks, and ask them a simple question. What do you think about the governors of Texas and Florida shipping you to Democrat states with sanctuary city policies? Well, the answer by the illegals was, we're quite happy by it.

Thank you. We appreciate the free bus ride. To understand their answers, a woman by the name of Tiffany Burrow, who runs the Valverde Border Humanitarian Coalition Center, well, she explained and echoed their sentiment made by the illegals, saying that most of them are quite thrilled to get a free ride because normally, most of them have to be responsible for providing their own bus or plane tickets. But now they don't have to.

So as an example, one of the illegals named Oscar José Daffarias, from Venezuela, said, quote, they treated us better on the bus than in the border shelter, end quote. So he is now in New York City. This might come as a surprise to Democrats and progressive migrant groups

who have called the shipping of illegals by Texas and Florida as nothing more than a political stunt, and that using these illegals was in fact a crime. Now, whether or not that's true, you can be the judge, but the illegals themselves appear to be quite grateful. By the way, of the record 2 million illegals who have been apprehended at the border, about half have been sent back to Mexico.

And the other half, 1 million, have been released into this country and will wait several years for their asylum claims to be adjudicated. So that's 1 million people looking for bus rides to mostly Democrat states. We'll see how many of them get there, all thanks to the governors of Texas and Florida. With that, we are going to take a quick break. and when we come back, I've got two more updates for you on the economy, and our grandparents. We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to the PDB and our Big Five update. I've got two more critical pieces of news for you this morning. First, I mentioned a study on yesterday's podcast from the consultancy KPMG talking about a recession in America. So to refresh our memories, KPMG surveyed 400 CEOs and asked them whether we are in a recession or will be in one soon. And if so, how bad will it get? Well, 90%, that's 90, said that yes, we will be or already are in a recession. and about 65% think that the recession will be deep and long-lasting. Now, it is also true that virtually all of them said that their companies will weather the storm,

but half said that they'd need to lay people off to do it. Well, this morning we have an interesting indicator of the economy's overall health, and it's coming from the ocean of sorts. Forecasters are looking at the number of ships being booked to travel from Asia to the United States. that are full of consumer goods. Asia, of course, has become the world's factory, while the economy of the United States has become increasingly about consumption.

That means that the number of boats sailing across the Pacific Ocean with goods, of course, well, that should tell us something about consumer demand and overall the health of consumer spending, which is a critical barometer for how healthy our overall economy might be. And that shipping data, unfortunately, does not look good. Logistics managers told CNBC a couple days back that they have seen a 20% drop in ocean freight orders for the months of September and October.

The decline in demand cuts across all sorts of products, including machinery, housing, industrial, and some apparel. Now, this comes on top of a report by the Commerce Department last Friday that while consumers are spending more, it's because prices are so darn high due to inflation. plus wage growth is slowing and Americans are tapping their savings to offset the high prices. So folks, all and all, not great economic news to report. But if you can prepare now, tighten those belts, it'll be much easier to write out what appears to be a pretty nasty economic storm. Finally, this morning, some important news for those of you who are grandparents or who have grandparents. Actually, you know what, this is really important for all of us to help strengthen the American

family. And you know what, I promise you, it ends with some pretty powerful good news, but just a touch of bad news first. A study published in the British Journal's of Gerontology looked at how grandparents fared during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the researchers looked at their mental health, comparing those grandparents who spent time caring for their grandkids, to those who were instead locked away. without contact. About 35% of grandparents who stopped looking after their grandchildren reported higher levels of depressive symptoms, such as feeling sad or having restless sleep. The remaining grandparents showed more modest impacts. Now this fits with what we know about

the importance of having grandma or grandpa involved in our lives and those of our children. It has to do with this study. In 2016, a study out of Germany found that for grandparents who have a caretaker role for their children, their grandchildren, or even their neighbors, well, they actually lived many years longer than those grandparents who had no caretaker role at all. Specifically, the researchers at the Department of Psychology at the University of Basel and Switzerland said that the risk of dying over a 20-year period was one-third lower for grandparents involved in caretaking as compared to those who did not. Now, one thing to note, the intensity of that caretaking turned out to be pretty important.

Occasional help gave the greatest benefit to the elderly folks, while full-time help actually degraded a grandparent's well-being. So the good news, folks, is that having grandma or grandpa in our lives is pretty darn important, for us, for our kids, and for them too. And to emphasize here, if an elderly person was caring for a neighbor or a child that wasn't their own biologically, they still got that benefit of living longer. Now, researchers speculate that caregiving is ultimately about giving someone purpose and value. And without those things, we just sort of give up.

So if you have grandparents who are still alive, give them a call this weekend. Have them over. Or if you are a grandparent or elderly person yourself, you now have a little bit more motivation to love on those kiddos and give them some help with their homework. because it seems like it might just help you too. And that, folks, is your big five update for this Friday morning. But I've got one more thing before I let you go. A listener question.

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lesson for all of us about big tech. First, if you hear me, my voice speak to you about a product or a service, that means I support it. I investigated it. I use it. And I'm proud to say to my friends and my family that they should support it too. But if you hear an ad and you don't hear my voice, well, that is different. That is an ad chosen by your podcast platform like Apple or Iheart and Spotify. So why do they choose that ad for you? Well, either a politician or a party gave them a bunch of money to do it or here's the part that I really want you to understand. They have collected information on you that makes them think that you want that product or service or politician. So here's why.

When you use your credit card, when you surf the internet, or you use your phone, you are creating something called digital exhaust. It's a collection of data that you leave behind like a car does by just living, going through and about your day. Now, companies collect, buy, and sell that information. It's an industry worth billions of dollars, hundreds of billion, of dollars. Forbes magazine calls it the most valuable asset that a company can own. The reason is that advertisers can do what's called micro-targeting. They can give an ad to a person, not just everybody

listening to a podcast or watching the TV. Plus, and I want you to listen to this, they can predict with shocking accuracy, who you will be in the future, where you will be in the future, and what you will buy. That's not science fiction. It's happening right now. Do a little internet research this weekend about digital exhaust and it'll probably scare the living daylights out of you. And if it does, if those privacy concerns leave you a little bit creeped out, well, here are a couple tricks. For instance, leave behind your phone or tablet when you go driving or use what's called a VPN when you go online. Meanwhile, use cash instead of credit or debit cards. Because as bad as government surveillance might be to some of us, corporate surveillance is far more intrusive and frightening. That's why

you often get the ads you do, not just here on the PDB, but wherever you go. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes your morning brief. As always, we close out the show, reminding each other of why we are here talking about our country and our world. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American. It's from John chapter 8 verse 32. And you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free. Good day. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money because behind every headline is a bottom line. Whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion dollar swings, there's money side to every story. And when you see the money side, you understand what others miss. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com.