Capitalist Investor

Natural Disasters, Union Politics, and Lottery Tickets, Ep. 294

• Strategic Wealth Partners

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In the latest episode of the Capitalist Investor podcast, Diamond Hands D, Tony, and Luke delved into a series of compelling discussions that are making waves in the financial and political arenas. Here’s a recap of the five hot topics they covered:
1. Union Endorsements and the Changing Political Landscape
One of the prominent themes discussed was the surprising shift in union endorsements ahead of the upcoming election. Traditionally strong supporters of the Democratic Party, unions like the Teamsters and the firefighters union are withholding their endorsement. This hesitation aligns with the emerging narrative that today's Democratic Party no longer represents the working-class interests as it did decades ago. Luke highlighted how tech giants, mostly liberal, have now become the elites, signaling a significant shift in the party’s core supporters.
2. Impact of Natural Disasters on the Economy
The hosts addressed the economic implications of recent natural disasters, particularly the devastating hurricanes that hit parts of the U.S. Emphasizing the immediate and long-term economic fallout, they touched upon how such events affect voting turnout, recovery costs, and insurance claims. Tony shared personal anecdotes from friends and clients affected by flooding, illustrating the real-world consequences of these disasters on property and livelihoods.
 3. Rising Interest Rates Amid Economic Strength
Interest rates remain a crucial point of discussion. Despite the Federal Reserve's recent rate cuts, the market has seen rising interest rates, particularly in the ten-year yield. Luke provided insights into why the market reacts more quickly than the Fed, suggesting that strong economic data and potential political shifts, such as a Trump presidency, could influence these rates. The conversation also touched upon how government debt management plays a role in the Fed’s decision-making, reflecting broader economic policies.
4. Rising Costs of Lottery Tickets
In a lighter yet intriguing topic, the hosts talked about the recent increase in the price of Mega Millions lottery tickets, now costing $5 each. While a 150% price hike might deter some, the conversation pivoted to the deeper implications of the lottery, such as its role in fueling dreams and providing temporary hope. The adoption of technology by platforms like DraftKings to facilitate lottery purchases was also discussed, raising concerns about potential fraud and data security.
5. The Broader Impact of Global Warming
Global warming and its effect on weather patterns featured prominently, with Luke highlighting how even areas like Cleveland are experiencing unusual weather events like tornado warnings. The discussion then veered into the investment implications, particularly regarding insurance companies. Luke advocated for caution in investing in property and casualty insurance without accounting for changing weather risks. However, he noted the potential in companies like CCC Intelligent Solutions, which help insurers adapt to new technologies and data.
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These discussions on the Capitalist Investor podcast underscore the interconnectedness of political decisions, economic policies, natural events, and market reactions. As always, the hosts provide a balanced mix of serious analysis and lighthearted commentary, making complex topics accessible and engaging for their audience.
For more in-depth discussions and to stay updated on financial and political trends, be sure to tune in to the "Capitalist Investor" podcast.

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Capitalist Investor. As always, you have me, diamond hands D. We got the whole crew here. Tony the tiger, cool hand Luke. What's going on, guys? What's going on, man? Living the dream. So we'll go, we'll stick with the current format. So we'll do like, three or four mini topics per week in one episode. So obviously a lot to cover this week. So we'll talk about some endorsements or non endorsements coming out this week. Obviously, we'll talk about all the natural disasters going on this last two weeks, obviously. Scary situation there. So we'll talk about the kind of the economic fallout from them. We'll talk about interest rates because they've kind of had an interesting couple weeks as well. And then we'll hit a quick, fun topic at the end. So, you know, the election obviously is on everyone's mind since it's right around the corner. I found it kind of interesting. They were talking about it quite a bit yesterday on Fox Business, but the Teamsters union has basically decided not to endorse anyone for president. This came after, I believe, it was like the firefighters union, which, again, is usually just an automatic democratic candidate, you know, endorsement. So. And that, that all comes on the heels of the odds shooting way up in President Trump's favor. Is that why his stock is, is booming? Yeah, probably. Dude, that stock's gonna become a meme. Like a meme stock. It already has. Is it? I mean, it just is in general. I mean, I remember it went from like $10 to 120, like, a few years ago when it first came out. Yeah, but when it was a SPAC, when it didn't even have a purpose yet. Yeah, it's interesting I always say this, you know, my grandma always said she can never vote for a Republican because they don't stand for the people that are working in the working class, the middle class. That game's changed. Like, the new democratic party is not my grandma's democratic party. If anything, it's probably closer to what she perceived to be the republican party back in the day. There's been no party out there that's made the rich richer than in the past couple decades than the democratic party. The democratic party has made the rich extremely rich. And it's probably a culprit of the fact that unions, people in unions, workers in unions, have declined significantly over the years. Unions don't have as much pool as they used to because you have this new generation of working classes, class essentially, in Silicon Valley, you have these very left wing, liberal California liberals in Silicon Valley tech, not in the technology world that has taken over the Democratic Party. And who are the elites in today's world? It's not the manufacturing giants. It's not the even gas and oil giants. It's the tech giants. And the tech giants are all liberal. So liberals are now the party of the rich party of the elites, and they do not stand for the working class. And I think these unions are finally waking up to that. Yeah, I I mean, the teamsters, you know, cars and things like that. Like, they got up there and talked at the Republican National Convention. Yes. First time. I don't know. Long time, if ever. And that was, that should have been the writing on the wall right there, who they were not, or who they were endorsing or not endorsing. But it's okay, though, because we just have a bunch of, you know, fast tracked illegal aliens getting ready to vote. So what does it matter? I mean, Elon's out there saying, like, hey, this could be our last real. Election, and he's not kidding about that. No, I've said this before. Well, I thought it before. I might not have said it, but, like, when they're, when they're planting illegal immigrants and then trying to have them vote without showing ids or whatever, like, how, how's this? This is not good. Yeah, this is, this is not how it used to be. And it's amazing. And I said this to somebody yesterday. I'm like, the, the democratic party plays politics exceptionally well. Like, so good. And Mark. Mark said it a few weeks ago, but, like, I know it's so true. I think I have. They say things, they do things, and. And then. And it's a smokescreen. So the founding fathers of America created the electoral college because they basically were saying that the average person's too dumb to vote and that the actual, like, majority vote should not determine the winner. That's exactly. That's why the electoral college was created. Okay, so fast forward to today. Democrats are exceptionally well of trying to portray themselves in a way that is basically taking advantage of the fact they think you're dumb. They think the voter is dumb. They will spill on facts, not facts that aren't true. Like, there's not. They're not real facts. Kamala said that, you know, if you're under 23 years old, you're an idiot. They'll spread fake news. They'll spread fake news because they think that you will just interpret it as truth, even though it's not. And they're taking advantage of the fact that they think that the average voter is dumb, and if you vote Democrat, you basically are buying into that mentality of that. They are calling you dumb, and you're just, you're listening to whatever thing they spew. That's essentially what's happening. Yeah. What do you got, d? It's. Yeah, I saw, I saw the head of the Teamsters union, on a couple different podcasts, basically said the, the union gave the Democratic Party almost $14 million this last cycle, and republican candidates, like,$100,000 or something like that. But their internal polling shows that it was 60% for Donald Trump. So. Right there is. How does that even make any sense? If 60% of their workers want Trump, but 90% of their money is going to the democratic machine? I think he put it. People aren't even talking about being, people being dumb. Their wishes aren't even being represented by their own union. Yeah, I just, I think the silent voter is another real thing again this year, just like it was when Trump won the first time the silent voter came out and got involved. And I think that is gonna happen again this time. I love how the podcast you think you're referring to with Elon Musk there watched his. Tucker. Yeah, yeah. Watch all that with Tucker. It's very. They're just laid back, just like boys being boys, shooting the shit. Like, it's kind of a good kind of mentality. But he's, he's right on a lot of things. The problem is, and this is where I disagree with Elon Musk, it's not a red or blue, obviously, blue. Democrats probably contribute way more to the issue at play than Republicans. But this is a government issue. This is not a Republican Democrat issue. This is a government issue. And the problem with that is the government's too big. And will we ever pull back how big the government is? Probably not. The funny part was, is that, you know, Elon said, he goes, man, if Trump doesn't win, speaking on a personal side, is that they're probably going to strike vengeance against me because I'm so outspoken. You know, because he's so outspoken. I mean, just imagine if they attack that guy, like, what he has. He's, he owns Twitter, Rex and Tesla. Are they gonna. Are they going to attack the biggest and best ev maker when that's their agenda? Yeah. I mean, does that do just get up and leave? I mean, he's got to get up. And I think he's worried about something. Well, he said he needs. He probably needs a bodyguard. Like, like he needs. He needs the Secret Service. Yeah. I'm again, must for president. If Trump wins president, I mean, he's gonna have. Musk can't be president. He's not Trump. If Trump wins. I mean, he's gonna have, must be president. He's a natural, natural born citizen. I don't think so. I don't think he's natural. I think so. We gotta change topics. We gotta keep this ball rolling. All right, well, hurricanes coming. Yep. So it looks like sometime early

Thursday morning, around 02:

00 a.m. is when it's expected to hit landfall. This is obviously behind the, the last hurricane about a week ago, which has really caused a lot of damage. It's hard to watch some of that footage of, especially western North Carolina seems to have been hit exceptionally hard. So obviously going to be lots of recovery efforts that are going to be needed to get these people back on their feet. Obviously going to have some voting implications. I mean, we're not going to know. We're not going to know what happens until this thing. Until Thursday morning. Tomorrow morning. Yeah. Well, you know, just talking about like, you know, the first hurricane that came through. Yeah. Like, they're talking about like, how many missed votes there could be because there's just no power for people to actually go out and vote in a couple weeks. But we'll see about that. But I feel really bad for, for Milton coming through, man. I've never seen a hurricane again. I'm not a meteorologist and things like that, but I've never seen one get so big, so fast in, in a. Got started in the goal. Wanna talk some conspiracies? No, don't even. I mean, just by me, just saying that, like, makes me. We don't need to talk conspiracy. It is. All right. But I feel bad. Like, I talked to one of my clients. The first hurricane that came in a few weeks ago, he had 4ft of water. He lives in Tampa. 4ft of water, ripped. I mean, got all. Everything. He showed me his front yard. It's just littered with, you know, the first 4ft of his house and now it's coming again and it's gonna be 14ft. He's like, the dreams over, man. And then, and then he also, you know, he doesn't. It's uninsured. Yeah. And it's because he goes, why pay them when they're not gonna pay me? They're never gonna pay. So I don't know if that house will be standing. And then I went, I was doing a golf thing yesterday, and one of my friends that I golf with quite a bit. He's the same thing, man. He goes, my. He. You know, he. He's just sitting there. He's like, I don't even know what to think about. I don't know what my house is gonna look like down. Down there and buying by the end of this weekend. You know, that's all I'm. It's all I can think about is. And then he had a couple adult beverages, and then he scribbled his name. He goes, here, here's a quick deed. Why don't you just sign that, Tony? 450 grand. It's yours, man. I'm like, all right, Mandy, how about I sign it, and we'll see what happens? We'll post data for next Monday. Escrow. No, I mean, it's just sad. It's just really sad. It is. So, okay, not to get to conspiracy, but I do think weather patterns are shifting or changing. I mean, I don't know. I've been up here. Global warming, bro. Okay. No, I don't deny global warming, actually. I don't deny it. I don't know what's causing it, necessarily. I don't know what data. You know, I don't know if it's human beings. I don't know if it's natural, because natural, you know, you know, it's coming out of the ice age. I don't know exactly what's happening. But I do think, yeah, global warming is a true thing. If we look, though, at the patterns, and I'm just gonna use, like, up here in Cleveland as an example. You know, I've been here, what, six years now. I don't remember tornado warnings happening, like, at all. We've had, like, four or five this year, I think. Tornado warnings in Westlake, at least. Like. And one of them, like, right when I was selling my home, like, almost ripped through my entire home, thankfully, got waves fine, but houses down the street got completely torn apart. But my point is with that is it seems like all around weather pattern patterns are getting worse. And I would be concerned, from an investment standpoint, about insurance companies. I don't know if insurance companies factored into the tables. And I know actually reals like human beings, but, like, the tables and the risk tables for property and casualty, I don't know if they factored in, like, what could be coming from increased bad weather events from a property casualty side. So I don't know if I would want to own too much within the insurance space. Now, that being said, there is a stock that we added in our portfolio that actually helps insurance companies become more efficient in an ever changing technological world. And with solar panels and electric vehicles for car insurance, because you can't just use the old tables, because new technology adds different things. We added a stock called CCC Intelligent Solutions ticker CCCs in our portfolios. Basically, they help these insurance companies become more efficient and factor in these new data, new technology, whether maybe it's future weather patterns into their actuarial stuff or their risk tables to make sure that they aren't over or under compensating in any kind of way. So I think it's a very interesting stock for the future, if we are correct and that changing. If I'm correct, that weather patterns are changing and getting worse just for property and casualty, for states like Florida. That's why we live in Ohio. There's no earthquakes. There's no natural disasters. It's cheap to live here. There's tornadoes now. Tornadoes. I mean, you talk about shifting weather patterns. It's what, October 9? And it's been beautiful for the whole fall, basically. So Cleveland is really one of the biggest beneficiaries of the weather pattern changing because it's been so nice here, the summer, for sure. It doesn't start getting bad until after January. All right, well, we, we wish everybody, you know, safe. Yes, safe. Don't be stubborn. Like, I'm a stubborn person. I'd be one of those guys. It'd be outside and shirtless with a surfboard, trying to ride. Like, I'd be that person. I'd end up dying. So, like, I'm just saying, don't, don't be stubborn. I know I can be stubborn sometimes, but listen to the officials. They probably know best. I mean, even, even on the local officials, east side, on the east coast of Florida, like, how bad are they gonna get it? Right? You know? And I don't know. One thing I will mention is, where did I. Fox has been talking about a lot, but the money that, you know, $750 is insulting the government. You know, they're spending billions and billions of dollars over Ukraine. Yeah. And they're given 700. $750. What are you gonna. Your house just got destroyed. Yeah, but what do you, what are. You gonna do for $750? Well, they did. That's like a nice weekend. That's a nice going out on a weekend for a couple dinners and drinks, like nowadays. Like, what are you gonna do for$750? Yeah. I mean, they did that in Hawaii. Hawaii was the same way when it burned down. Like, they didn't really do anything. Like, I mean, they haven't done anything with that area still. It's crazy, but, yeah, it's a slap in the face. Interest rates. They cut rates, yet interest rates are going up. The ten year yield is moving higher. What does this mean? Well, so, all right. I mean, they, the, we talked about this in a podcast or two, but why cut interest rates? Why should the fed cut interest rates? Jobs are plentiful. Jobs number last week was a banger. It was probably almost 100% better than they thought. It was going to be like$100,000 or 100,000 jobs more than expected. That's okay. They'll be revised down exactly. You got to make sure there's no bumps before the election. And earnings growth is supposed to be still double digits between now and next year, like, into next year. I. So is the. Well, you just. Is the market hit the nail on the head? Why? That's. That's exactly why rates are rising. Yeah, exactly. I know. Well, why, why? Caught them. But it's still like, the rates are still rising and. Because the market's smarter than the Fed. Yep. It always has been. I mean, the market, when we saw the ten year treasury go from 2% to 5%, they were ahead of the game on a hiking cycle. Then we saw the ten year go from 5% to 3.7% before the Fed cut rates, they were ahead of the market when they cut their cutting cycle, the 50 basis point cut, essentially. And now they're going back up basically saying that the Fed made a mistake. 150, they should have probably only gone 25. If not, maybe not at all. And now we're going to go ride the wave back to 4% because you have strong economic data, and then you possibly have a Trump presidency coming in here where people are concerned about tariffs. And if tariffs do happen, that could cause a rise in interest rates in some sort of way because it could cause inflation. So, like, there's all this different things going on in the market that the market's trying to weigh, but in general, you have to take a step back. The Federal Reserve is politicized. This is my whole take. I think I talked about last week, my whole take, and the hot take is the debt wall. Come in and do like $5 trillion debt. Government debt comes due next year. Now that 4 trillion comes due in 2026. The Federal Reserve dual mandate of inflation or controlling prices and stable job market and making sure that the job market doesn't implode. The dual mandate of both of those is gone. Now you have a third mandate of, we need to allow the government to continue to spend more money. So we're in a lower rates because we need to refinance debt at lower rates to get the debt financing costs lower. So I think that's why the Fed's cutting rates. It's not because of even the economic data at this point. Yeah, and I know one of our research firms told us that next year should be lining up to be another great year because of what you just said. The government needs to spend more money, and more money just means money's in the system. And this is how countries end up failing in the end. But, yes, in the meantime, we'll ride the wave and the rich will get richer until things implode, and the rich will get even more richer. So those owner assets win. It's the same game of the game. It's super excited about this. Yeah, it sounds awesome. Yeah. If you own stocks, you're great. Yeah. All right. Well, speaking of more inflation, the lottery tickets are going up in price. Looks like mega millions tickets are now going to cost$5 a pop, up 150%. Well, I can't play it anymore then. Too expensive. You've given up on the dream. Okay. So honestly, though, there's this new app, you know how like, they're just trying to get everyone addicted to everything nowadays? So, like, now Draftkings bought this app to where you can buy lottery tickets on your phone? Yep. Yeah. So essentially they basically hire these gas stations to print off tickets for you, and then they scan the tickets to you. So we only go to the gas. Station to buy it anymore. I go right on your phone by a $1,000 worth. I mean, I don't know. Like, do you still have to get a physical ticket to play the lottery? Like, you have to walk in and have it printed out? Yes. Or either they will do it for you and send you a picture. That's okay. But they're not gonna do like, a digital. Here's your lottery number. Like, that. Net sounds just rigged. No, they'll send you a picture. Now, the problem, though, with that is if you end up winning millions of dollars, why wouldn't the person in physical possession try to cash at. Yeah, you know what I mean? Speaking of, like the, you know, the digital tickets and stuff like that, I'm one of, one of my vendors yesterday, had a conversation with them. This a little bit off topic, but it had me thinking about digital tickets and stuff like that. She goes that there's a nice. There's a scam going on right now where you get a package delivered to your house, and then in the package says, find out who sent you this. And you have a QR code, and you click on that QR code, and it sucks all your data out of your phone. I'm like, really? Like, how is that not broadcasted, like, everywhere? That's a good scam. Why can't we come up? I mean, you. You download a QR code, and now it's just a virus. Yeah, sounds that way. I mean, it sounds that way, but I've never heard that. I heard all your passwords and app data and everything off your phone. That's not good. I mean, can it do that? I don't know. I just find this extremely alarming, yet. I don't believe it. Yeah, but, so, yeah, the lottery tickets. I'm sorry. You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning three times in your life winning the lottery. I think it is the mega millions. Or$5 honestly, tickets. And if you're responsible and you buy one or two tickets, I think it's a phenomenal thing because it gives you something to look forward to. And a lot of people in life, you know, dream. You know, they don't dream, actually, a lot of people in life, they don't dream about, you know, what could be. And I think you buy a lottery ticket, you have the dream in the back of your head for one night, and it's a good investment for $5. Yeah. And, I mean, I know they. They play the game pretty well because, you know, like, let's just say it's like a hundred million dollar lottery, or, you know, grand prize, or that's the. That's the jackpot. Um, that is typically a future number because they want you to annuitize that, and nobody wants to do that. So now it's immediately cut to, like, 60 million. And then the taxes on 60 million, I'll just call 50%. So you get 30. The headline. The headline says a hundred million and you get 30, man. Sucks. That sucks. You only get 30 million? That sucks. Wow. But where did all take 30 million? But where did all that money go? Like, I mean, it's just gone. I mean, I understand the annuitization part of it, but, I mean, the state gets some, and the government. Oh, man. Dude, it's. It's. And it's gone. And it's gone. Well, no, the best. The biggest winner in lotteries is the government. Oh, yeah. Where's that money go? How's that money allocated Ukraine not to lean or milton. Supposed to go to the schools. Yeah, supposed to. Supposed to. Supposed to. Right. All right, well, good stuff this week, guys. Thanks for listening. If you guys have any questions, comments, ideas for shows, hit us up at info connect.com and we'll talk to you next time. The opinions expressed in the podcast are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any investment, legal, financial or tax strategy. It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. Please consult a qualified professional about your individual needs.