Let's say, good morning too. Someone who knows how a lot about money and how those tariffs might affect this. It's the host of how to Money on KFI, Joel Larsguard Morning, Joel Morning Amy. So one in five Americans are giving into doom spending. What is it?
Oh? Well, I think in large part because of the threats of tariffs and now the actual implementation of tariffs. A lot of American people have said I should probably spend more because I think prices are going up, and I get that impulse, but they're essentially saying things are going to spiral out of control and because of that, I should probably stockpile things now, maybe take the costco mentality, but amp it up on steroids or something like that.
And I guess I'm just worried. I don't think that's really actually a good path forward for people. The tariff question, certainly, it's been kind of a yo yo thing, and now they're actually being implemented. And like you said, the countries that were implementing tariffs against are implementing tariffs of their own. And the truest reality in economics is that tariffs do
lead to higher costs. I will say this though the first time around, companies had ways of kind of getting around those tariffs, whether it was going through a third party country or sourcing some materials elsewhere. That I think these tariffs are going to be more impactful. But I don't want people to go out there and buy stuff that maybe they don't actually have the money for, putting it on credit cards and stuff like that. I don't want people to let fear change their money habits.
Yeah. In fact, you bring that up, and I was going to ask you. I was driving around the other day and I was like, Oh, I need to ask Joel if he thinks a lot of people are going to go and buy cars because of the tariffs.
I mean, I do think that is one of the places, especially as much ink has been spilled about rising car prices, and that's we've already experienced that with just inflation in general, right, but tariffs could impact car prices even more. And part of the reason that tariffs are being implemented it's a protectionary instinct to protect I think the American car manufacturers.
But because cars are essentially built in multiple countries and the parts are flying back and forth across borders, the tariffs could increase the price of car parts, increase the price of cars altogether. And so someone saying, you know what, I guess I should buy a car before prices go up. It depends on when were you playing on buying a
car anyway. If you're like I was thinking about buying one in like twenty twenty six or twenty seven, I should go ahead and front load that purchase even though I don't have the cash on hand to buy it, I would say, no, that's not why. It's like, pay a little more for car parts to repair your car now, and don't go ahead and buy a new car. But if you're like, no, I was already gonna buy one in like May or June, I don't see the harm in making that purchase a little bit sooner, although I
don't know how much you're gonna save. I mean, some of the estimates about how much more cars will cost because of tariffs are really a few percentage points higher. When you talk about the price of a car that could be on thy fifteen hundred dollars, that's a lot of money. So I don't I'm not against the idea of frontloading that purchase a little but just don't look so far out and let that doom and gloom color your purchases too much.
Okay, I saw that Starbucks said it's not going to raise its prices because of the tariffs. They said, we'll eat it.
Well, that's interesting too, because when you look at what's happened with coffee prices, coffee prices have are like a fifty year high. So yeah, maybe Starbucks doesn't have to raise prices right now. But at some point tariffs become a reality that every company has to deal with and they either have to find ways to cut back on their costs or they have to pass on some of
the increased pricing onto consumers. And I do think there's probably going to be a little bit of both, right because companies don't want to shock all of US Americans, but tariffs are going to be shocking if they stay around for any in a meaningful way, for any meaningful length time.
Okay, and then Joe, one last quick question because we're almost out of time. I hate that this is the quickest hour in radio. Doge dividends. They've been talking about it, but you're saying they're not going to materialize.
Don't hold your breath.
What are you talking about specifically.
So there were headlines last week talking about how, oh the Department of Government efficiency. It's look at all the money it's going to save us Americans. And I do think most Americans can agree that, you know, at least cutting a little bit of government waste, fraud, and abuse, if that's actually what's happening, is a good thing. And the way Doge is going about it that's more debatable.
But this sort of massive Doge refund to Americans, like five thousand dollars per household is kind of what's been touted. There's no way that's going to happen. That's essentially saying if Doge cuts two trillion dollars in federal spending, that's how much households would receive if they got a portion of those savings send out and rebate checks to Americans. There's just no way Doge is going to be able to claw back anything close to that amount of money.
So if you're saying, oh, another stimmy check, I'm going to get a massive government rebate check in the mail because Doge is doing such a great job, I would just say I don't think that's going to happen. In fact, I would. I would bet a lot of money that
it's not gonna happen. Even a five hundred dollars check is just pie in the sky because like, really, when it comes down to it, it's entitlements that need to be cut to realize significant savings, and the Trump administration has said, no way, we're going to cut anything in regards to you know, the biggest line items that the government has.
Okay, and guess who's going to talk more about money this weekend noon to two on Sunday. Yeah, it's Joel Larsgard. The show is How to Money. It's right here on KFI Sundays noon to two. You can also follow Joel at How to Money. Joel, Thank you, Joel.
Thanks Amy