This is America's Trucking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Loco aboard.
Thanks for tuning in on this sixth Day of Christmas.
Yes, it is the sixth day of Christmas.
Period leading up to Christmas is not the twelve Days of Christmas. That is the advent season, which is about four weeks long. The twelve days of Christmas refers to Christmas being the first day of Christmas and then going for another twelve days up to January of the fifth and then the Epiphany when by the Bible and by tradition and history that the three Wise men came to
visit the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. So again we talk about the twelve days of Christmas, and we talk about that that in terms of the celebration of Christmas and following the traditions as far as the Christian calendar is concerned, and if you're familiar with the song, the sixth Day of Christmas is six geese of laying see six geese a laying which, unlike the spoon federal gurgitators in the main street mainstream media, we don't lay any goose eggs
around here. We have been asbout as accurate on the economy and predictions, and especially when you look at some of the predictions coming out of some of these economists. And let me remind you that the economists a definition is an economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today. And so here on America's Truck a Network, we take a
look at behind the numbers. Look, we dig into the numbers and come up with the facts, and we have been right a lot more than the spoon federal regurgitators in the mainstream media and some of these predictions that we've been seeing from these so called experts in the economy. We want to talk about last week right before actually the day before Christmas, because Christmas fell on a Thursday.
Usually that's when the initial job as claims are reported, and because obviously Christmas they were going to be closed, so they announced those the day before Christmas on that Wednesday. But looking at the initial job as claims. Before we get to that, I want to mention that America's Truck and Network supports the mission of Reese across America. You can hear us every truck and Tuesday at five am and ten am Eastern on REES Across America Radio, available
on the iHeartRadio app. Search the word REEF now that's w r E A t HS for Rees across the Rees Across America Radio. And thank you to all our truckers who for supporting the mission of Rees across America. Initial jobless claims last week again the economists. See what the economists had to say looking at some of the headlines that there was a couple of headlines that popped out to me. US initial job as claims fall to two d and twelve two hundred and fourteen thousand, which
is pretty good. Then another one from Reuters US weekly jobless claims fall, but more people collecting unemployment checks.
So let's dig into this.
Number of Americans filing for new applications for jobless claims unexpectedly fell last week.
Unexpected.
How many times have we heard unexpectedly when it's basically good news having to do with the economy consistent with the low level of layoffs. But the unemployment rate likely remained high in December amid sluggish hiring. We'll get into that in a moment. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped to a second for second straight week, declining by ten thousand to a seasonally adjusted two hundred and fourteen thousand for the week end of December twentieth, the Labor
Department set on Wednesday. Economists polled by wool Reuters had forecasts two hundred and twenty four thousand, claims.
They were off by five percent.
Now, in accounting terminology, that is considered a material difference. Even though it's only a five percent difference, it's still material. The Labor Department published the report a day early because of the Christmas holiday. Part of the surprise decline in applications could reflect the challenges adjusting the data for seasonal fluctuations around the year and in the holidays season, of course,
you know, adjusting the numbers. Let's not forget that the unemployment number that they reported had jumped from four point four percent up to four point six percent. You think maybe some of the seasonal adjustment in there may be reflected in that.
I believe so.
Now, this fellow by the name of Christopher Rupke, chief economist at Forward Bonds. Usually he comes up with some knucklehead comments, and I don't agree with him, but this is kind of an interesting comment. From him. Unless companies actually fire workers, the economy will continue to move forward at a moderate pace. Now, if the economy is moving forward at a moderate pace, that would mean that the
unemployment level is not going up. So again a little bit of emphasis and proving my point that the unemployment rate that we're hearing isn't accurate. Labor department remains locked in what economists called the policymakers described as a no hire, no fire mode. We've talked about that on this program
program numerous times for several months. Though the economy remains resilient, with the gross domestic product increasing at its fastest paced in two years is reported, as we mentioned last week, at that four point three percent clip, the labor department.
Has almost almost stalled.
Economists said President Donald Trump's import tariffs and immigration crackdown have impacted labor demand and supply. Yeah, of course they got to throw that in there, even though it's not true. The data had a little effect on the US financial
markets et cetera, et cetera. Number of people receiving unemployment benefits after an initial week of aid, a proxy for hiring, increased thirty eight thousand to a seasonally adjusted one point nine two three million people during the week and in December thirteenth, so called continued claims covered the period during which the government surveyed households to calculate December's unemployment rate.
Continued claims fell marginally between the November and December survey weeks, again because of the government shutdown, the longest shutdown, actually we just call it what it is, the Schumer shut down forty three days, the longest shut down in the
history of this country. A lot of the numbers are skewed, and of course if it's going to be skewed, then some of these pinheads are going to do it to the negative of our economy, as opposed to maybe saying that, well, maybe we should lower that based on some of the estimates.
I love this.
The elevated continued claims aligned with the survey from the Conference Board on Tuesday showing consumers perception perceptions perceptions of the labor market deteriorated this month to levels last scene in early twenty twenty one. The unemployment rate increased to four year high of four point six percent in November. Now again I question that I don't think that number is accurate, though part of the rise was because of technical factors related to the forty three day government shutdown.
Humhm, So rather than.
Maybe going on the low side, they take it to the high side. I can't wait till the next unemployment numbers come out and then we will see probably unexpectedly fell from the last time they took this analysis. Nancy Vanden Houghton, lead US economists Oxford Economics, said, continued claims remain at a level consistent with a slow pace of hiring, but aren't sending a signal that hiring can.
Do have gotten worse.
So if hiring conditions haven't gotten worse, and people that are unemployed are kind of rolling off, and you know those numbers fluctuate from week to week, the moving average hasn't gone up tremendously, how in the hell do they come up with a high unemployment rate of four point six It's just unbelievable. Let's see again another story, the
initial jobs claims fall. Two hundred and fourteen thousand US initial job as claims fell last week, way below expectations, suggesting that the labor market may not be as weak as feared.
So is it weak?
And the unemployment rate is up four point six percent or is it not as weak as feared? So you know, a little food for thought there and interesting how that is going to shake out. Let's talk about oil and gas prices before the next segment, which Sam Collier will be talking about the CDL program at Gateway Community College, because obviously CDL licenses and these CDL mills have been in the news over the last several weeks. But let's
get to oil and gas prices real quick here. West Tex center media crud currently is at fifty eight dollars and two cents a barrel. That is up a dollar twenty eight or two point twenty six percent. Brent krude currently is a sixty one dollars eighty four cents a barrel, or up a dollar twenty or one point nine eight percent.
Now just since the first since January of the twentieth, when Trump took office, the West Tex c intermedia crude is now twenty five percent eighteen dollars and eighty seven cents below what it was in January, the twentieth twenty five percent drop, and we're starting to see that reflected
in gasoline prices. Brent crude currently has is down eighteen dollars and six cents or twenty three percent since January the twentieth and looking at you know, when we talk about gas prices, I always refer back to when we were energy independent for the first time since nineteen forty nine during twenty twenty. Current average gasoline price across the board is two dollars and eighty three cents a gallon this time this year in twenty twenty was at two
dollars and sixty seven cents a gallon. We are within sixteen cents of that number back then. Diesel, on the other hand, unfortunately, is at three dollars and fifty five cents compared to three dollars and eight cents or forty seven cents different. Coming up, we've got Sam Collier again talking about the CDL program at Gateway Community College. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck In Network seven hundred WLW.
I need.
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I'm Kevin Gordon, America Destructive Network seven hundred WLW.
I want to welcome back to the program.
We've talked to him before, speaking with Sam Collier, dean of Manufacturing and Transportation Technology Gateway Community and Technical College. Now with every program that they have there, that is that probably a subject for another show, but one of the things I want to talk about, and it's been in the news a lot as far as the CDL
licensing program. And when we spoke a couple of years ago, this was getting bigger, and if I'm not mistaken, you've has even grown even bigger now and you've had to expand correct.
That is correct.
Yeah, So you know when we started this program, it was again having conversations with employers because years and years and years ago, a lot of big employers.
Just hired a trainer and the trainer worked.
With employees until they thought they were good enough, got them and then they went and took their CDL driver test training.
Then the government came in and said.
No, anybody that gets a license must go to a certified school and you must do forty hours in class and one hundred and twenty hours in truck between parking and driving and that, you know, so our again, our employers like, hey, we need help with this. So that's when we stepped in started our program. Amazing program took off one month. Know, somebody can come in and spend forty one hundred and sixty hours with us.
I can't count all of a sudden walk out with the driver's license.
You're an academic, exactly, that's what you're for.
You can do that part. You're an academ exactly. Yeah, definitely not the math side. So but yeah, so you know, then they can literally one month they're employed and driving or at least training to drive. So that we this year, yeah, earlier this year we actually our day program got so big that we actually started started a night program. And they also to the added benefit that not everybody could take a month off of work or have their employer pay for them to take a month off of work.
So the evening program runs for a month and a half.
The class work is in a in.
An online format, and then they come spend their time with us and doing in truck training. And that's taken off and continuing to expand. It's great and you know the students that are coming through it. We were glad to see them, you know, and again it's great success rate. We have a very high success rates on students passing their test on the first or second pass through and all that's great. Again, the employers are more than willing to work with them. But yeah, then the government changed
again and said no mandated hours. So if you look now, it doesn't say you have to take one hundred and sixty hours. It says you have to take ELTL Educational Art. I don't remember what it says for, but you have to take a course, but there's no hours tied to it. And so yes to your point that you made. Now we're seeing these pop ups. A lot of them are online, and I'm still not sure how totally online CDL driver
training works. That scares me Alan nearly more so actually than an online welding course.
Right online bomb Meg making that well, yeah, exactly, you.
Know, and so why you're going wrong exactly?
You know, we're taking somebody out of a Honda Civic and putting them in a semi with a fifty three foot trailer fully loaded and saying it's the same take off.
Yeah, and then.
Companies are also doing you know, obviously automatic trucks are becoming more and more of the standards, so that's fine. I don't really have a major issue with that. We used to mandate everybody testing a manual, but now we've got automatics and manuals.
It's up to you. But then you know use there a.
Lot of companies are using only empty flatbed truck. Well, the box being in the way when you're trying to maneuver is one of the obstacles. If you've got an empty flatbed, you can see.
All your mirrors work.
So and now all of a sudden, you know you're really not giving them the basic skills. I'm not saying we don't have flatbeds, because we do. You know that sometimes you got that students that's struggling, Well, let's get the eye hand coordination going, then we'll stick you back on a box truck.
But yeah, so it is very scary that, you know, a student can take an.
Online class somehow past their their driving tests and now they're driving.
And I know, I'm.
Not a trucking company, so I cannot speak directly this, but when we started this program, we worked directly with our employers and we borrowed a lot of what they were already doing because a lot of these trucking companies then had training after the fact. Okay, you got a driver's license, but you've got one hundred and sixty hours of training. So your next month or two depending is going to be training. So first week all you do
is ride with somebody. Maybe the next week you get to do highway, or maybe two weeks after then you actually get to drive a little city, and then then you start maneuvering in.
The tight places.
But all of those times there's two of you in the truck, so your mentor or your trainer is watching over. If something goes batting, say stop get out now.
I hear companies are saying, well. Literally had a student graduated.
The day he graduated, he said, man, I got to get out of here early. And I'm like, okay, what's up? He said, I got to drive to Chicago tonight. I'm oh, you're starting your training? He said, no, I'm going alone. I'm like, Chicago is your first trip. He's like, yeah, I got to get out of here and get on my truck. And I'm like, okay, I'm not getting on any of those highways. Yeah, and that's not that's.
Not a dig on the student.
At all, but there's a dig on the company.
And then again get that bottom line, which is again, putting somebody in an eighty thousand pound vehicle with little to no training is not a prescription for success now, right, And you know, I guess the question is too of is there a any kind of a national certification process that we are, you know, a national accreditation service for CDL training schools or should there what it was?
Oh?
There was again when they had one hundred and sixty hours. If you were now community and technical colleges, all we had to do was prove that we were meeting the standards. But you could set up and there are other schools around, and there are some very good schools around that did everything right, but you had to meet these standards. Those standards got lifted when they lifted well, a lot.
Of those standards got lifted when.
They lifted the hours, because it's how do you judge somebody now?
And as far as that, how far back was that when they lifted the hours.
Oh just recently in the last year.
Yeah, that kind of seems contrary to some of the stuff that they've been talking about in terms of some of the more requirements and making sure that people are fully trained. That seems to be counterintuitive to some of the stuff they've been talking about. So this is something that maybe they need to adjust and adjust back in a hurry.
Right, And I agree with you one understent.
And like I said, I was very impressed when they you know, even though there was already a trucking shortage, they said, yes, we understand there's a trucking shortage, but we need save truckers. And here's how we're going to try and make sure that happens with the one hundred and sixty hours. And then you know, any school that signs up has to show us how.
They're meeting those hours.
But then, like I said, now if you you google, it says no, you got to just take a training program.
And I think I saw one.
That said it was as short as sixteen hours. Yeah, okay, And again, you know, well.
That creates a problem for you all in terms of trying to do a quality program when you're up against some of these fly by night places. And then probably a good place for us to break and then come back and talk a little bit more about this and then the job placement program as far as this is concerned, speaking with Sam Collier, Diana Manufacturing and Transportation Technology Gateway
Community and Technical College. Actually in the form I guess I should have mentioned in the Florence, Kentucky area, which is one of the premier schools around. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network. Seven hundred WLW seven hundred w l W. I'm Kevin Gordon. This is America's Trucking Network. We're speaking with Sam Collier. He is the dean of Manufacturing and
Transportation Technology Gateway Community and Technical College. And before the break we talked about how these fly by night organizations are out there and how tough that would be to compete with offering a quality program to people that can actually complete the course, be trained and be able to get on the road or be with a company and have the job training in terms of the ride along with some of these companies that as you mentioned, are
doing classes online classes and that's got to hurt in terms of obviously as a cost comparison, but you get what you pay for, and with these fly by nights out there, that's tough to compete against.
It is and we're seeing it.
You know, where are our enrollments down slightly?
Fortunately, the one thing we did have was a good reputation with our CDL training with companies and honestly with the trucking industry and you know, the testing stations and things like that. If you stop by there and said, who do I go see? But waits right down the street. So that our reputation fortunately is still holding strong. And we as a school for the most part, have said we're still going to stick with what are proven. You know, yes, I can put the clib the first week of class online.
That's fine.
That's what we did with the night program to allow them some flexibility.
But when it comes to actually in cab time, maneuvering time, driving time, you've got there's only one way to do that.
That's to actually sit in the driver's seat.
So exactly eliminated or reduced considerably.
Correct reduced, Yeah, yeah, correct, And so you know, we're still sticking to our guns on that for the most part. Now, if you know, you get that trucker dad owns a trucking company, been driving a semi for he was thirteen years old.
In parking lots and things.
Comes in all he needs is our our sign off, and they can truly drive a truck and they they can pass all of our processes with no problem. Well short the time for them, it's just fantastical.
And then people need to be aware of because again this isn't You're not an organization that says, you know what, we're going to nail these people for four weeks of tuition or whatever the thing is, and we're making no exceptions whatsoever. But what you are and the ability of a school like yours is to tailor something to somebody's
already acquired skills. That's almost like you hear some of these colleges in university saying, well, we'll give you credit for your life skills, and that is along the lines here, correct, And you know we do that as well. Obviously with cd OUT, it's you got to prove it. I'm not going to just take your word that you've been driving since you were twelve, don't. I can't come in there and say, oh, yeah, I know all this stuff and you just give me a certificate.
Huh.
You can say all that and then we'll put you in a truck and thenfore we're done laughing at you.
Then we'll say, no, you need.
To spend a little more time with us, because again, we're not going to take it.
You know.
It's just like even with life skills, credit for prior learning, all those type of things, which are very big buzzwords, you know, and Gateway does that as well, because yes, why should I make you If you've been doing something for ten years in the industry, why should I make you do it again?
Just prove it to me.
However, we're going to set up to prove it and we'll move on.
With the trucking industry. It's the same thing, you know.
Okay, now that they've backed off and I don't have to justify and if I'm audited, I don't have to say, here's one hundred and sixty hours.
Yeah this, and it's not a lot.
It's not like, hey, I got a new class of ten students and seven of them tested out.
That's not the case. In most cases. It may be one per every two or three classes. But if that person comes in.
How large are your classes?
I mean, do you have capacity still or you pretty much full up? Because the last time I think we talked, you had pretty much full and then you had to go to maybe some extra classes through the year or something like that.
Yeah, right, so.
Yeah, I mean actually again to your point, we've got seats right now now we take you know, are we try and keep We try and start a new class every two weeks at six students. That way, you know, I've got we've got three or four trainers out on the range. We can put three students in a sleeper cab with a trainer. They can go out on the road and rotate time.
So they don't have to come all the way.
If you do one on one, then you got to come back to the school every time or a second yes, so yeah, now the nightcloud, yes we have two for the night class.
I believe you have six students during the day and how many at night or is that we.
Run six at night truck.
Yeah, and now now at night we run we only run one class about every month and.
A half because we don't want to back up. We just don't have the instructor manpower.
But during the during the day, we started a new club, We started a new class at the.
Beginning of the month.
In the middle of the month, so at any one time there could be up to twelve.
Students out on the range.
For several weeks, which is why we have to have the extra manpower by day and I don't have to have it by night, because it doesn't make sense for students to just be standing there in the middle of the range and there's no trucks to play in.
All the trucks are out on the road and you're standing in the middle of a parking lot, going, well, this is fun.
And obviously they're rotating because it depends on where your skill level is. Some people, you know, when you go test, you've got to do pre trip and in cab before you're allowed to maneuver, and then once you maneuver, before you can drive.
If you fail anywhere on the line, you're stopped. So we.
Everybody's out doing pre trip and then as people, some people get it real quick, you know, they're good book learners and they pick up the process real quick.
Then they're moving on to maneuvers while the.
Other people are still practicing pre trip, and then we start start rotating people around because even within that month, if you did pre trip three weeks ago before you test.
You remember it all.
So we want to make sure that you're keeping that fresh in your brain. So the structors do a great job of rotating around and also making.
Sure that they're staying interest because pre trips are boring. Let's be honest. I'm sitting and I'm sitting in a truck pointing.
Out that my mirrors are are directly uh you know, are in line, and that my there's not too much rust, that my springs are good, and my tire pressure is good.
And well, that's boring.
That's all boring, Sam, And of course we're speaking with Sam Collier and Dana Manufacturing Transportation Technology, Great Weight Community and Technical College.
That's all boring. But you know, if you don't and you get out on the road and.
That stuff fails, it's like, you know, you got to well, you almost got to be right every time because it only takes one screw up and you caused yourself a lot of headaches and a lot of potential accidents out on the highways. So it's boring, but it's necessary as part of the safety precautions.
So, oh, you're absolutely right.
But if I if I come in every day for a month and all I do is that I'm going to lose interest.
Yeah, you got to keep you going, So hey, you know what, do this a couple.
Of times today, and then jump in that truck over there and start trying to straight back up and parallel back up, you know, and then come back because you're still struggling with this and you need to come back after lunch, and let's go through this a few more times, you know, And because again, if you can't do the pre trip, you're never going to do anything else. You
will never get to test. It's an ongoing battle. And again it's interesting because you know, a semi is a beast that you don't think about until you sit in one. You know, it's a humongous vehicle with a as you mentioned, you know, eighty thousand pounds plus of weight in it. People don't respect that at all. I don't think people truly on the road truly understand.
You know.
Yeah, people need to take a physics class and understand that. You know, objects and motion tend to stay in motion. Well that weight and speed exponentially change.
All of that.
So you know, a semi semi going sixty stopping distance is much larger than your on to civic and I keep picking on Honda civics why you.
Know, but because the Honda Civic. It's just gone.
Yeah.
But you know, I and as I'm driving on the highway, I you know, I live in Ohio, I work in Kentucky, so I'm on Ohigoway every day. And I watched these people going down to the cut in the hill cutting.
Off SEMIS and I'm going, you have a death wish on Death Hill exactly.
I'm like you, First of all, have you read the statistics out here? This is not a great place to be doing this.
And then you take into account, Okay, how long has this guy been driving?
You know, what are his reaction times?
You know, a thirty years, a guy with thirty years, his reaction time to that car getting in front of him is quick.
It's it's literally automatic. It's muscle memory.
That new driver that's going still thinking every step of the process. There may be a pause before he hits the brake. And now we've got automatic, so we don't have down shifting, so you don't have that control anymore. So you know, it's and we're seeing it. There are more wrecks, It's that simple. Statistically, we're seeing a lot more of them. And I mean you have to blame it on a lot of things, and then to your point, you know, pre trip safety.
Exactly well and the time that we've got left. One of the cool things about your Gateway is the fact that job placement and working with companies to get these people not only educated but get into a company is there as well.
Correct, That is correct?
So yes, we you know, obviously when we first started this program, we had we went to a group of trucker and companies.
And said, what does this look like?
I am you know again, I'm a mechanic teacher.
I was a mechanic teacher. I understand that. But what does a program like this look like?
And then you know, what is the process on the backside and what is the employment process? So you know, we companies from.
We can get you educated, hired all well within about a four or five week period of time. So if anybody's interested in these programs, Sam, how can they get in contact with you?
So reach out to our website Gateway dot A, C, T C, S, dot E, or just google Gateway Community and Texico College Northern Kentucky and just take a look on our website. If you're looking at CDL club, type in CDL in the top right corner or if you're just looking go around, Please feel free to look around.
You'll find my contact information in there if you want to.
Fantastic, Sam.
I appreciate all your time today, and I certainly appreciate all the best to you. Let's get together a little bit more than just once every couple of years. Let's do this on a fairly regular basis. And if you have some concerns and some things that you'd like to get out there, let me know and we'll talk about them.
Okay, sounds good, Sam, Thank you so much.
Sam Collier, Dean of Manufacturing and Transportation Technology, Gateway Community and Technical College. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network seven hundred WLW.
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I'm Kevin Gordon.
I want to thank Sam Callier for joining us again so we could talk about the CDL licensing program. And if you missed that segment, or if you missed our segment yesterday on Christmas Day when we talked about a lot of other things and talking about the twelve Days of Christmas and so on, just hit up that iHeartRadio app brought to you by our friends at Rush Truck Centers. Durable goods orders came in the other day and talk about a mixed back and conflicting stories, if you will,
Let's just go through it here. Durable goods orders swung to a decline in October. Demand for US durable goods fell in October, and the decrease was steeper than expected.
According to the delayed.
Data published by the Commerce Department on Tuesday, total orders for durable goods, which comprise goods meant to last three or more years, declined two point two percent in October, compared with a point seven percent climb in September and a three percent increase in August. The consensus had called for total orders to be one point two percent. Now, in another story they talk about that the consensus was that they expected a one point five percent lower. So
it kind of conflicting there. But it gets even worse than gets even more cloudier after that. Let's see, the transportation equipment drove the decline, falling six point five percent. Excluding transportation, new orders ticked up point two percent according to the Commerce Department.
Now, when they.
Talk in terms of transportation or goods, they are basically talking in terms of the transportation orders falling by six point five percent, pulled lower by a twenty point one percent drop in civilian aircraft orders. The largest American aircraft maker reported one hundred and sixty four new orders for planes in November, boosted by sixty five new orders major international customer at the Dubai Air Show.
So again that factors in there.
Orders for motor vehicles and parts posted a tepid point one percent increase after rising point six percent or more in the prior five months. The expiration of the federal tax credits for electric vehicles at the end of September sapped vehicle man as we entered into the third quarter one of Detroit. And it's interesting that they don't mention it in here. This is a story, by the way, by KPMG company. They are a one of the big four accounting firms international company, and.
So they put this story together.
But I found it interesting that they didn't mention this company, and I by name, one of Detroit's big three automakers recently pulled the plug on the electric version of its full sized pickup truck. And of course we all know that that was forward with their F one fifty. What do they call it lightning, I believe is what it was called. The gas version is the best selling vehicle, but the EV version consistently fell short of sales targets.
They get into this all right. Affordability continues to be the major concern for shoppers, as the average transaction price of a new vehicle recently crossed the fifty thousand dollars mark. According to the Federal Reserve enacted its third interest rate cut since September. We belie leave now this again their opinion. We believe the Fed will more be more reluctant to cut interest rates in the first half of twenty twenty
six due to elevated inflation. Now elevated inflation we covered the other day that slipped into one of the stories was actually some journalistic integrity or somebody actually committed journalism where they talked about that the two point seven percent elevated interest or inflation rate has been with us for
half a decade, half a decade, five years. So again I have to ask the question if we are talking about or if the Democrats now are talking about affordability, and the big push is well, we need to get
more affordable stuff, and the Trump administration isn't moving fast enough. Well, they had four years during the Biden administration, where the inflation rate that they took over was around one point four percent quickly rose up above two percent on its way to three percent, to where it hit a high of nine and a half percent in one month in
June of twenty twenty two, and so so much. You know, again the liberal mentality that you know, we want to avoid the pass know, move on dot org type of thing, So they want us to forget about what happened then, But they will tell you they have the solutions now to correct the inflation problem you had four years, folks.
As a matter of fact, you had very little.
Inflation in the first year or going into the first year, and you let it get out of control. So I don't think I'm going to be one that's going to jump on the bandwagon and say that you have any of the solutions. As a matter of fact, I just say, you know, sit this one out, folks. But again, I how this is thrown in there where you know, inflation is elevated, elevated compared to what and where is it heading.
It's heading in the right direction, closer to two percent, certainly, not any closer to that nine percent that we saw back in June.
Of twenty twenty two. So again they talk.
About affordability, well, affordability also with rising wages and so on. And as we talked about, I believe it was yesterday, talked a little bit about how and when we were talking about the consumer or that Christmas Price index, how a lot of the factors in that are service related and because of the elevated amounts of service income or service wages, why that survey was actually running above what
the consumer price index. As we mentioned yesterday, the consumer price index, and the cool little thing that PNC Bank puts out the Christmas Price Index of the twelve days of Christmas and only gifts, and we described that yesterday. That usually mirrors the economy and mirrors what the inflation rate is, but is actually higher due to the higher cost of services, which again is not ter.
Driven.
So it's interesting to take a look at it from that perspective. But nobody's talking about and again I'm not talking I'm not begrudging people getting pay increases, but if that's what's adding to the inflation, then be honest about it. Don't try to change the subject, don't try to downplay the economy.
Be truthful about it.
Speak the truth about what's going on in the economy. If the prices are if most consumer prices are going down, talk about that. But if the wages are going up and adding to the inflation, talk about that as well. Again, when you have rising in when you have rising prices or rising wages, that's going to drive inflation. But people are going to be able to afford things a little bit more if they're getting their pay increase. October report
showed mixed results in among industries. Then they go in to details about computers and electrical equipment and so on, various and sundry other things. But it's kind of interesting digging through the numbers. Now way at the bottom. Now, this is probably close to a five hundred word story that stretches over two pages.
Going all the way down to the bottom.
Here says the October durable goods orders was stronger than it appeared at first. Blush core orders suggest that the investment may be picking up after a slowdown during the summer. Private sector sources in November and December suggests that manufacturing activity firmed.
In the final quarter of the year.
Preliminary December manufacturing PMI that' said Purchasing Managers Index from S and P Global was reported at fifty one point eight percent, down slightly from fifty two point two in November. Recent rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and resumption of one hundred percent bonus depreciation with offsets. Now that's at Section one seventy nine, which allows companies to deduct up to one point two five million dollars of investments in
new equipment. You can expense that. You don't have to write that off over a five year period of time. You can actually expense that all in one year, which makes kind of offset what the interest rate you're going to have to pay if you're investing in that or you're having to borrow money on that. If you can write that all off in one year, that's pretty good. So again, what they're talking about year in activity, it'll be interesting to see how that pans out. Well, folks,
that does it for us. We're getting up close to the top of the hour. Stay tuned for Red Eye Radio at the top of the hour. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network seven hundred WLW